Stewart Nozette

Prosecutor: Top Scientist Nozette Admitted Actual Spying For Israel

Justin Elliott | October 30, 2009, 11:32AM

Did a federal prosecutor just make the inflammatory accusation that top government scientist Stewart Nozette has admitted to giving classified information to the Israeli government?

By our reading of this AP story, that's exactly what happened at a hearing in U.S. district court in Washington yesterday.

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Topics: Anthony Asuncion , Eric Holder, Espionage, India, Israel Aerospace Industries, Justice Department, NASA, Stewart David Nozette, Stewart Nozette

Stewart Nozette

Nozette Intrigue Grows: Spy Suspect Recently Cooperated With Feds In Separate Criminal Probe

Justin Elliott | October 28, 2009, 12:59PM

As part of a plea deal in a fraud case last year, espionage suspect Stewart Nozette agreed to cooperate with authorities in a separate criminal probe and was specifically allowed to keep his passport because international travel was essential to his work as an informant, according to newly unsealed court documents.

The revelations raise a number of difficult-to-answer questions, including why a man with access to Top Secret weapons information and a fraud conviction -- about whom authorities already had national security concerns -- was permitted to retain his passport. And they add yet another layer of intrigue to the case of a top government scientist who allegedly sold classified info to an FBI employee posing as an Israeli agent in September.

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Topics: Chandrayaan-1, Espionage, India, NASA, Stewart David Nozette, Stewart Nozette

Stewart Nozette

Officials: Mysterious 'Country A' In Nozette Spy Case Is India

Justin Elliott | October 27, 2009, 11:17AM

Confirming a theory first reported by TPMmuckraker last week, quotes from law enforcement officials in the Washington Post reveal that the country to which espionage suspect Stewart Nozette allegedly traveled with two computer thumb drives in January was India.

Contacted by TPMmuckraker last week, the spokesman for the Indian Embassy in Washington said the embassy had no comment on the Nozette case, though he was familiar with the matter. Nikhilesh Dhirar did not immediately respond to a request for comment today. No wrongdoing by India is alleged, and it's not known what was on those thumb drives Nozette allegedly brought to India, where he was working on a space project.

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Topics: Chandrayaan-1, Department of Energy, Espionage, India, Indian Space Research Organization, Mossad, NASA, Nikhilesh Dhirar, Stewart David Nozette, Stewart Nozette

Stewart Nozette

Did Alleged Spy's Moonlighting For Israel Raise Red Flag For Counterintel Officials?

Justin Elliott | October 22, 2009, 5:36PM

How could a top government scientist with clearance to view a dizzying range of Top Secret weapons and technology information simultaneously work for an aerospace firm owned by a foreign government?

The question is prompted by one of the more curious sections of the criminal complaint against Stewart Nozette, who is accused of passing classified information to a person he believed was an Israeli agent.

"It's hard to imagine that there are many individuals who had a broader cross section of classified access -- overhead reconnaissance, signals intelligence, space technology, and nuclear weapons," secrecy expert Steven Aftergood told TPMmuckraker. "He was all over the place, probably because he was an exceptionally skilled and competent technologist," says Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy of the Federation of American Scientists.

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Topics: Department of Energy, Espionage, IAI, Israel Aerospace Industries, Mossad, NASA, Stewart David Nozette, Stewart Nozette

Stewart Nozette

AP: Investigators Thought Scientist Was Working For A Foreign Government

Justin Elliott | October 21, 2009, 11:50AM

Investigators began looking at a possible espionage case against Stewart Nozette after they "found indications" in a separate case that he was working for a foreign government, an anonymous law enforcement official told the AP yesterday.

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Topics: Espionage, Indian Space Research Organization, Mossad, NASA, Stewart David Nozette, Stewart Nozette

Stewart Nozette

Could The Israeli Spy Case Really Be An Indian Spy Case?

Justin Elliott | October 20, 2009, 5:15PM

Since the Feds unsealed a criminal complaint against a former high level NASA scientist yesterday, charging him with attempted espionage, media interest has focused on the Israel angle: an FBI employee posed as a Mossad agent and gave Stewart Nozette money for classified satellite information.

Even the Justice Department's press release on the arrest played up the Mossad ploy, while noting that Israel is not accused of breaking any laws.

But a curious section in the criminal complaint suggests that there was a foreign country -- identified only as "Country A" -- to which Nozette may have passed information.

And there's circumstantial evidence suggesting one "Country A" candidate is India.

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Topics: Chandrayaan-1, Espionage, India, Indian Space Research Organization, Mossad, NASA, Star Wars, Stewart David Nozette, Stewart Nozette