Israel

Saudi Prince Clears Israeli Vulture Of Spying Allegations

Jillian Rayfield | January 11, 2011, 1:37PM

A Saudi Arabian prince has announced that a tagged Israeli vulture captured last week and accused of being a Mossad agent will be released, according to ABC News.

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Israel

Israeli Scientist To Saudi Arabia: Can We Have Our Vulture Back?

Jillian Rayfield | January 7, 2011, 1:21PM

"Cap de Bonne-Espérance" (Cape of Good Hope) by Roland Topor.

An Israeli scientist is calling for Saudi Arabia to return a tagged vulture that Saudi officials reportedly arrested this week on suspicion of being a Mossad spy.

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Israel

Report: Saudi Arabia Captures Israeli Vulture For Being Mossad Spy

Jillian Rayfield | January 4, 2011, 12:04PM

"Cap de Bonne-Espérance" (Cape of Good Hope) by Roland Topor.

Saudi Arabian officials have reportedly arrested a vulture suspected of being a Mossad spy, after the bird, tagged by Israeli scientists, flew into Saudi territory today.

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Stewart Nozette

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

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

Stewart Nozette

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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Stewart Nozette

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

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

Stewart Nozette

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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Stewart Nozette

AP: Investigators Thought Scientist Was Working For A Foreign Government

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

Stewart Nozette

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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Stewart Nozette

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

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

Stewart David Nozette

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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