Stewart Nozette

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Stewart David Nozette
File:Stewart Nozette.jpg
Born May 20, 1957 (1957-05-20) (age 66)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Residence Chevy Chase, Maryland, United States
Nationality American
Fields Geosciences and Planetary Sciences
Institutions Scripps Institute of Oceanography
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization
United States Department of Energy Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (1990–1999)
United States Department of Defense
National Space Council (1989–1990)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Alliance for Competitive Technology (1990–present)
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
DARPA
Alma mater University of Arizona
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Known for Attempting to transfer American nuclear and space technology to Israel
Notable awards *NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal 1994 for his conception and execution of the Clementine mission
*National Space Society’s 25 Young Space Pioneers for 1994
*National Space Society 1994 Award for Achievement in Science and Engineering
*Rotary National Award for Space Achievement
*National Space Club Nelson P Jackson Award
*Aviation Week and Space Technology 1994 Aerospace Laurel Award for outstanding achievement in the field of Space
*1995 Space Frontier Foundation Vision to Reality Award
*X-Prize Foundation New Spirit of St. Louis Award
Notes
[1]

Stewart David Nozette (born May 20, 1957)[2] is an American-born Jewish scientist and an admitted spy for Israel.[3] In September 2011 he pleaded guilty to one count of attempted espionage and in March 2012 was sentenced to 13 years in prison.[4] News of his plea and sentence was largely suppressed by America’s Jewish controlled media.[5]

2009 FBI arrest

On October 19, 2009, Nozette was arrested in a FBI sting operation on espionage charges: attempting to sell classified information to an individual he believed to be an Israeli Mossad operative. According to court papers Nozette wanted to be an ongoing spy, providing Israel with American’s most sensitive information for $2 million. He was described in court as a "walking safe deposit box" of government secrets.[6] Prosecuting attorney Anthony Asuncion said Nozette admitted to passing classified information to the Israelis in the past when he did consulting work for the state-run company Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.[7] [8]

NASA investigation

Nozette came to the attention of the FBI after a 2006 investigation by NASA's inspector general into his company Alliance for Competitive Technology founded in March 2000 and located at his previous residence on Grafton Street in Chevy Chase, Maryland.[9] At the company Nozette held the offices of President and Treasurer, his wife Wendy McColough Vice President and Secretary and Dr. Klaus Heiss as Director[10] The Maryland-based company had contracts with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Arlington, Virginia.[11]

The inspector general had reason to believe Nozette falsely reported his $141,718 NASA salary[12] to the Internal Revenue Service. The investigation also discovered Nozette was using monies for business expenses for payments on three separate mortgages, nine credit cards, a tennis club membership, Mercedes-Benz payments, pool cleaning and his wife’s limousine rides to work.[13] [14] While looking into his finances investigators suspected Nozette may have been working for a foreign government.[15] In February 2007 federal authorities searched his house and seized computer equipment and a bong.[16]

Tax evasion

In January 2009 Nozette pleaded guilty to tax evasion and over billing NASA and the Defense department for $265,205 in consulting services.[17] He admitted he used the money to pay his personal expenses. His wife Wendy McColough was not charged in the case but instead was named as a co-conspirator.[18] The two apparently have an affluent lifestyle. The Nozettes own several properties across the country including a $2 million home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and a $550,000 vacation home in Merritt Island, Florida.[19]

He was scheduled to be sentenced for the tax evasion crimes on November 18, 2009 in a plea deal where he would serve 24 to 37 months in prison and pay a $265,000 fine. In the espionage plea agreement Nozette would not have to serve any additional time for the guilty plea on two counts of tax evasion since any prison term in that case will be considered concurrent with the espionage sentence.[20]

FBI sting operation

On September 3, 2009 Nozette received a phone call from a FBI agent who would later identify himself as an Israeli intelligence operative.[21] Later that day they agreed to meet and have lunch at a restaurant located in the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington DC. During the meeting Nozette quickly showed a willingness to work for Israeli intelligence with the following conversation.

FBI: "…I’ll just say it real quick and then we’ll just move on. Quick, I wanna clarify something from the start. And I don’t say it very often, but umm, I work for Israeli Intelligence…"
Nozette: "…Mm-hmm"
FBI: "…Agency known here as Mossad."
Nozette: "…Mm-hmm"
FBI: "So from now on I’m not gonna to say this. But if I say service…"
Nozette: "…Mm-hmm"
FBI: "…so you know what that, what it is. But I just wanna be sure, I’ll let it out so we don’t have any ambiguity later on. But…"
Nozette: "…Mm-hmm"
FBI: "How you doin‘?"
Nozette: "Good. Happy to be of assistance."

Post office box “dead drop”

The sting operation first involved Nozette answering questions on US satellite technology. In response he allegedly provided a document and an encrypted computer thumb drive via a US post office box in the District and received $2,000. One of his answers pertained to experimental surveillance technology classified as "Secret" and "Top Secret".[22] According to court papers Nozette received another $9,000 in cash for additional information.[23] The currency had the serial numbers recorded and the access to the post office box was videotaped by the FBI.

According to the grand jury indictment which followed days after Nozette’s arrest, the information he wanted to provide to Israel dealt with "satellites, early warning systems, means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack, communications intelligence information and major elements of defense strategy."[24] American defense systems would have been compromised if Israel obtained this information and launched a nuclear attack.[25]

Nozette told his espionage contact his parents were Jewish and that he wanted an Israeli passport to have a new "base of operations."[26] [27] In addition to the passport Nozette was expecting from the arrangement $2 million for selling America’s secrets.

Arrest

On October 19, 2009 Stewart Nozette was arrested just after 4:00 pm at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington by FBI counterespionage agents.[28] [29] He was charged with "attempted espionage for knowingly and willfully attempting to communicate, deliver and transmit classified information relating to the national defense of the US to an individual that Nozette believed to be an Israeli intelligence officer."[30] On October 21, he was indicted on two counts of attempted espionage. If convicted, Nozette could have been sentenced to death.[31]

Admission of espionage

At his bond hearing on October 29, 2009 it was reported that Nozette told the undercover FBI contact he had passed classified information to the Israelis in the past.[32] In court prosecuting attorney Anthony Asuncion said of Nozette: "He told the agent that he had indeed communicated classified information. He had admitted to the agent actual espionage."[33]

Personal life and education

Stewart Nozette was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 20, 1957 and grew up in the predominantly Jewish West Rogers Park neighborhood. His parents, Morris and Helen Nozette now deceased, attended a local Reform temple. His father had worked on the Manhattan Project developing the atomic bomb during World War II. After the war Morris Nozette started a plastics company.[34]

Stewart Nozette has a B.S. in geosciences from the University of Arizona which he received in 1979. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Planetary sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1983.[35] He is married to U.S. Department of Labor attorney Wendy McColough (Nozette), formerly of Manhattan Beach, CA and New York, NY.[36]

Career

File:Nozette.jpeg
Stewart Nozette early in his career

From 1983 to 1984 Nozette was co-director of the California Space Institute, affiliated with the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego. From 1984 to 1989 he taught at the University of Texas at Austin.[37] From 1989 to 1990 he worked in the Bush Administration for the White House's National Space Council[38] and wrote speeches for Vice President Dan Quayle[39] From 1990 to 1999 he worked at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.[40]

With NASA, Nozette's experiments led to the discovery of water on the south pole of the moon.[41] He left the employ of the U.S. government in 2006 when his security clearances were revoked.

After he left the government job, Nozette was heavily involved in India's extraterrestrial Moon probe, Chandrayaan-1. He was a principal investigator on the Mini-RF Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and a co-investigator on Chandrayaan-1.

In the past Nozette worked for the United States Department of Energy, United States Department of Defense and NASA.

Highest access and clearances

From 1989 to 2006, Nozette held security clearances related to United States satellite programs as high as "Top Secret" and nuclear programs with "Q" clearance.[42] One of these was the "hyper-classified" nuclear-fueled rocket engine program called Timber Wind.[43] In addition he has access to more than twenty “special access programs” limited to only a handful of people.[44]

In 2006 Nozette was suspected by NASA of working for a foreign government and on March 17, 2006 his clearances were revoked.[45]

Ties to Israel and India

From November 1998 to January 2008 Nozette worked in the United States as a technical consultant[46] for Israel Aerospace Industries[47] a wholly owned Israeli company and was paid approximately $225,000 according to court papers.[48] He earned the money from the Israelis by answering questions presented to him once a month and performing assigned tasks.[49] During the sting operation Nozette admitted to the undercover FBI agent he provided classified information to the Israelis in the past and assumed Israel Aerospace Industries was a front organization to gather intelligence.[50] According to a source at The Washington Post, Nozette would later acknowledge to an associate that his ties to the Israeli firm involved spying.[51] Nozette has yet to be charged for these security violations. In the course of his work, he held top security clearances and access to data pertaining to satellite and nuclear technology.

On or about January 6, 2009 he traveled to India, a strategic ally of Israel, delivering two small external computer hard drives.[52] Pakistani officials have expressed concern over Nozette’s trip to India.[53]

Prior to his trip to India, Nozette told a colleague that if the United Sates government ever tried to “put him in jail” he would flee to Israel or India and “tell them everything” he knows.[54] The colleague took this information to federal investigators.[55] Nozette repeatedly made several trips to Israel in the past but failed to report these visits as required by his security clearances.[56]

Remarks by Nozette

According to court papers Nozette made these remarks to the FBI during the sting operation:

  • "I thought I was working for you already. I mean, that's what I always thought, Israel Aerospace Industries was just a front." [57]
  • "I don't get recruited by Mossad every day. I knew this day would come."[58]
  • "Well, I should tell you my first need is that they should figure out how to pay me ... they don't expect me to do this for free." [59]
  • "Cash is good for anything ... you eat it, drink it or screw it." [60]
  • "So any [sensitive work] that the US has done in space, I've seen," [61]
  • "I haven't been…involved in a classified work for the last couple of years…but I had everything…all the way to Top Secret SCI [sensitive compartmentalized information], I had nuclear." "I had all the nuclear clearances." [62] "I had a whole raft of ... special access."[63]
  • "These are among the most sensitive subjects and it will have to be recreated from memory over some time." [64]

Notes

  1. National Space Society (2008).
  2. Accused Spy Stewart Nozette
  3. Prosecutor: Top Scientist Nozette Admitted Actual Spying For Israel
  4. Space scientist, sentenced to 13 years, expresses regret over espionage attempt
  5. Stewart Nozette admits spy-for-Israel charge
  6. FBI Says Top Scientist Sold Secrets
  7. Prosecutor: Top Scientist Nozette Admitted Actual Spying For Israel
  8. US scientist pleads guilty in Israel spying case
  9. Maryland scientist arrested for attempted espionage for Israel
  10. .....Spy story. Yes Its Real.
  11. Counterintelligence - Espionage - Spy Case - Stewart David Nozette
  12. Records sought from nonprofit for NASA work
  13. NASA investigation opened doors to espionage probe
  14. Records sought from nonprofit for NASA work
  15. Justice says scientist tried to share US secrets
  16. Md. scientist tried to spy, indictment says
  17. Scientist pleaded guilty to overbilling NASA, DOD
  18. Espionage suspect has friends puzzled
  19. Scientist spy case flushes out hiding place for cash
  20. US scientist pleads guilty in Israel spying case
  21. Maryland Scientist Charged With Attempted Espionage
  22. US scientist charged with attempted spying for Israel
  23. Scientist Faces Espionage Charge
  24. Scientist worked on early warning defense systems
  25. Israel get two German submarines
  26. Chevy Chase man charged in attempted espionage
  27. Maryland Scientist Charged With Attempted Espionage
  28. U.S. Scientist Arrested for Allegedly Attempting to Pass Secrets to Israel
  29. Scientist charged with improperly passing on classified information
  30. NASA boffin spied for Israel
  31. Espionage suspect has friends puzzled
  32. U.S. court: Would-be Israel spy to remain in jail before trial
  33. Prosecutor: Top Scientist Nozette Admitted Actual Spying For Israel
  34. An Israel Espionage Drama, Sans Israel
  35. Accused Spy Stewart Nozette
  36. USA v. Stewart Nozette
  37. Counterintelligence - Espionage - Spy Case - Stewart David Nozette
  38. American Moon scientist Stewart Nozette 'tried to spy for Israel'
  39. Maryland scientist arrested for attempted espionage for Israel
  40. American Moon scientist Stewart Nozette 'tried to spy for Israel'
  41. Justice says scientist tried to share US secrets
  42. What Did The Moon Scientist Want To Tell The Israelis? Some Clues
  43. Did Alleged Spy's Moonlighting For Israel Raise Red Flag For Counterintel Officials?
  44. U.S. scientist charged with spying
  45. Did Alleged Spy's Moonlighting For Israel Raise Red Flag For Counterintel Officials?
  46. Stewart Nozette: The American who wanted to spy for Israel
  47. Moon scientist Stewart Nozette held as Israeli spy in FBI sting
  48. Justice says scientist tried to share US secrets
  49. US scientist Stewart Nozette charged with trying to sell secrets to Israel
  50. US scientist Stewart Nozette charged with trying to sell secrets to Israel
  51. An Israel Espionage Drama, Sans Israel
  52. The spy who lost his thumb drives
  53. Pakistani Embassy: We're Keeping Close Eye On India-Linked Nozette Spy Case
  54. Criminal Complaint Against Stewart Nozette
  55. Officials: Mysterious 'Country A' In Nozette Spy Case Is India
  56. U.S. Jew indicted as possible Israel spy
  57. Stewart Nozette: The American who wanted to spy for Israel
  58. Stewart Nozette: The American who wanted to spy for Israel
  59. Justice says scientist tried to share US secrets
  60. Chevy Chase man charged in attempted espionage
  61. Stewart Nozette: The American who wanted to spy for Israel
  62. U.S. Scientist Arrested for Allegedly Attempting to Pass Secrets to Israel
  63. Espionage suspect has friends puzzled
  64. Space Scientist Is Held as Spy

See also

External links

Part of this article consists of modified text from Wikipedia, and the article is therefore licensed under GFDL.