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back to article Top NASA scientist busted for leaking satellite intel

A former NASA scientist who helped discover evidence of water on the moon has been arrested on charges he tried to sell Israel classified information about US military satellite systems. Stewart Nozette, 52, of Maryland, was arrested in a sting in which an FBI agent posed as an Israeli intelligence officer. According to …

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  1. cirby

    Imprecise

    Something that's hard to find in most of the coverage of this: the operation was implemented completely by the FBI, and there's no indication at all that Israeli intelligence had anything to do with the breach.

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  2. Nick 6
    WTF?

    No Israeli interest? Riiiiight.....

    So the fact he had been working as a "consultant" to an Israeli defense company for 7 years, and reacted to the offer of a load of cash and an Israeli passport by stealing secrets and passing them to an agent doesn't suggest he was already doing it?

    Oh of course, the FBI picked Mr Randomer and acted like a Mossad agent towards him, and it was the first time he had ever thought about helping Israel? Maybe he hadn't had a Mossad handler looking after him before, he was somehow freelance at giving away US secrets to Israel....

    (assuming it was him, he was guilty of all of this etc etc)

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  3. PT

    Spy vs. Spy

    @cirby 18:18: "the operation was implemented completely by the FBI, and there's no indication at all that Israeli intelligence had anything to do with the breach."

    Ah, but why did the FBI decide to run the operation, that's the question.

    "He must have made some kind of attempt, which triggered the FBI's interest in him," Mr. Piernick said. "They cut in between him and whoever he was trying to work with and posed as an intelligence officer, agent or courier to handle the issue..." (Washington Times)

    And the answer comes out of the man's own mouth - "I thought I was working for you already."

    "I don’t get recruited by the Mossad every day. By the way, I knew this day would come." Questioned further by the undercover agent, Nozette said, "I thought I was working for you already. I mean, that’s what I always thought [the foreign company] was – just a front."

    For a comprehensive background putting this particular incident in perspective:

    http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/10/20/the-dark-side-of-the-special-relationship/

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    First the French dude, now this...

    First they came for the carders, and I did not speak out—because I was not a carder;

    Then they came for the DMCA violaters, and I did not speak out—because I was not a DMCA violater.

    Then they came for the crackers, and I did not speak out—because I was not a cracker;

    Then they came for the Pirates, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Pirate;

    Then they came for the Scientists....


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