"Prosecutors said he was contacted Sept. 3 by an undercover FBI agent pretending to be an Israeli intelligence officer. That day, Nozette met the agent and discussed his willingness to give Israel classified material. He said he would turn over such information in exchange for money, prosecutors said.
At another meeting, Nozette told the agent he no longer had legal access to classified material but could recall such information. They agreed to communicate through a drop site — a post office box in the District, prosecutors said.
The FBI twice left envelopes in the post office box filled with a total of $11,000 in cash and a list of questions for Nozette to answer. He picked up the envelopes and returned with other envelopes that contained classified information about the country's satellites, early warning systems and its ability to retaliate against a large-scale attack, prosecutors said. " Washpost
—————————————————————
He should be hanged for espionage. "pendu dans ses propres tripes" "pour encourager les autres" pl
I support your stated solution, even though I don’t care for capital punishment in most cases. I can get over my squeamishness when it involves spies for that country.
Oh, come now, Colonel. After all, we didn’t hang ol’ Jon Pollard did we? Wonder if any in the command chain that opted to attack the USS Liberty were ever denied visas to the US? Of course, I’d issue to them all & then see what happened when they were Dakared while over here.
PL
Pollard should have been hanged. I was on the DoD damage assesment committee for the case. He and his traitor colleagues in the US Government badly damaged us by stealing documents that were then traded to the USSR for the release of Jews from that country.
In re the Dakar, I have checked on that. We did not sink the Dakar. we had sunk other vessels belonging to other countries in retaliation for various things, but not the Dakar. Lyndon Johnson’s peculiar affinity for Israel prevented that.
pl
Hang him and send his entrails to Jerusalem. At least our politicians and intelligence bureaucrats will be spared the incessant nagging from AIPAC and and various Israeli governments to free him.
Colonel,
One more example of Israeli ‘friendship’ at work. With ‘friends’ like Israel, who needs enemies?
Our public needs to wake to the very ‘hostile’ ongoing espionage against our U.S. by Israel that is taking place.
I personally prefer using a bullet as it is cheaper than a rope. It costs to make a gallows, and a single shot to the back of the head and business is concluded in quick fashion.
Wow, hang him already? What’s really going on? From the above story, we have one perp and one FBI Agent. Was the FBI Agent walking around DC till he found some fool willing to sell something “valuable” for some certain amount of money? The perp admits he has (no longer?) no sort of security clearance, what on earth could he be selling? It might be good that this guy was caught but is our national security the better for it? AYE CARAMBA
The Washington Times is reporting the following:
Mr. Nozette was so proud of his access to state secrets that he recited from memory information that the complaint said was highly classified. Indeed, Mr. Nozette bragged he had a “Q clearance” between 1990 and 2000, “which involved all aspects of nuclear weapons programs,” court papers said.
If he indeed informed others (even FBI agents) of SRD or TSRD information (i.e., secret or top secret restricted data), then he has committed a serious violation of the Atomic Energy Act, and he can be punished accordingly, up to and including the death penalty.
The Israeli-firsters will likely try to cast this as some frame-up, but that’s not the point: the issue is whether he knowingly disclosed such information with intent to secure an advantage for a foreign nation. Everyone who is ever awarded a Q clearance is responsible for knowing this fact, and the non-disclosure aspects of this clearance extend for the rest of one’s life.
In fact, if he served at LLNL for a decade, then it’s virtually certain that he took and passed periodic security refresher tests that could provide a clear evidence trail to demonstrate that he knew what he was doing was illegal. There’s really no place for him to hide on this front.
From the early news reports, the passing of SRD/TSRD data is exactly what he did. If this goes to trial, it appears that the jury can award the death penalty if they believe that the evidence supports that outcome. That may make some folks think a bit more clearly about where their national affiliations lie.
As to Bill Wade’s point, all that is material is whether (a) he communicated such information to someone not possessing the appropriate clearances and due “need to know”, and (b) intended that this information be provided to a foreign nation. Point (a) is trivially satisfied, and from what we’ve learned so far, (b) is as well. The fact that someone no longer possesses the appropriate clearances is absolutely not a mitigating circumstance in this case.
The early reporting on this emerging story is proving to be quite interesting. I believe that this case will be a much more difficult one to hide under the rug than some of the others we’ve seen disappear of late.
The Atomic Energy Act is not a piece of legislation to be trifled with…
Agreed.
The Punishment should be severe for betrayal of Country.
Man, he is cheap – only $11K changed hands. So he must be a real “nationalist” 🙁
And the four GOP lawmakers going after Muslim Intern spies in the House of Representatives – he he he – wonder if any of them got a free trip to TLV this summer.
Colonel,
He’ll probably become a lobbyist for AIPAC.
You know I’m agin the death penalty. A suitably powerful example might serve but even the death penalty has remarkably little deterrent effect.
But if I was you, well yeah, shoot him if his action put his peers or country in peril. I mean he’s one of yours, its treason. After due process, please. Which might preclude the dp depending on the magnitude of his crimes.
BIll Wade, your national security would be improved by radically changing your relationship with Israel. A spy scandal’s a good start.
But never mind. The Dakar?! Just the bit of arcana for the perfect plot twist in my Armageddon thriller.
Here’s a story about the “discovery” of the sub and the spin o’ the day. Malfunction.
“The Lost Sub Is Found, and Israelis Can Grieve”
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/3132/features/f62Lost_Sub_Dakar_Found.htm
But here’s an Egyptian Admiral says he saw the sub sink after a chase:
“Admiral says he saw Dakar sink
“Egyptian sources tell ‘Al-Sharq al-Awsat’ that naval school cadets on exercise spotted Israeli submarine; Egyptian vessel gave chase but ‘Dakar’ submerged and disappeared”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3107066,00.html
yet this article too concludes
“An investigation of the wreckage by the Nauticus company and by naval experts determined that the ship sank due to technical problems and not because of a crash or an attack.”
I do love this site.
Hell yeah: Hang him.
In Chinese, it’s called “Killing a chicken to scare the monkey.”
INTEL seems to me to be about capabilities not motivations or intentions. What I worry most about is those “imbedded’ indivduals at high levels with dual loyalties and reveal not just capabilities but motives and intentions. The US is deeply penetrated in both the Executive Branch, and the Congress and believe now that seeds of US decline are in the growth of that industry by various other nation-states and individuals. Who actually is the Counter-espionage CZAR now and does he/she understand the danger and have power to do anything about it, even disclose the problem?
From what I’ve read, it sounds like a good sting operation. Which leads me to ask, what relationship does Nozette have to Israel? Was it simply the money?
Thanks to Col. Lang for the information on the Dakar. Apparently the story was another bit of dis-information, and it’s not difficult to guess who would have found such confusion useful. Thanks also for
your discretion regarding the Guantanamo torture cases: it’s
clearly better that you act concretely rather than merely titilate your readers. (By the way, site from which this is sent differs from my usual location, for work-related reasons.)
capital punishment is never justified….and what about the various US “politicians” that do far more damage in the service of foreign interests?
Here’s hoping the DOJ does not let down the FBI yet again in the prosecution of an espionage case. And here’s hoping the case is not assigned to Judge Ellis III. Just check out his evidentiary rulings in the Rosen-Weismann case– rulings that the circuit court most certainly questioned but did not have the jurisdiction to overrule.
And if anyone reads the transcript of the sentencing hearing of Larry Franklin, you will see that Judge Ellis III all but carved out an exception, giving those who spy for Israel special treatment. Any prosecutor should have recognized the implications of Ellis’ statement during the sentencing hearing and, imo, the DOJ was obligated to seek a clarification, considering no legal basis existed for the judge’s point of view. But, alas, nada.
If nada else, Judge Ellis III, by his actions, confirmed something I have long felt. I just have a difficult time trusting anyone whose name ends with the suffix III.
Sidney O. Smith III
Per Pollard case:
“Pollard case shows insider betrayal is biggest spy threat
Jonathan Pollard
“Nobody is going to believe this story. It’s too crazy.”
That’s what Ron Olive told audiences at Sandia, earlier this month about his experience investigating an espionage case in which a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst literally walked out the door with more than a million classified documents.
Olive said the volume of sensitive, classified information Jonathan Pollard walked away with, literally under the noses of superiors, coworkers and security personnel, would fill a six-foot square room 10 feet high.
Security personnel even wedged open the door of the highly classified facility at the Naval Intelligence Support Center (NISC) in Suitland, Md., where Pollard worked, while he removed boxes upon boxes of documents. Pollard went unchallenged as he had been granted authorization to remove such documents, presumably to move them to other locations within the center.
Olive, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) agent (retired) who investigated the case, got to know Pollard extremely well.
He said that despite psychological evaluations that indicated Pollard was an untrustworthy “kook” who had professed a strong interest in being a spy, lied to his supervisors, and failed polygraph tests, Pollard was granted a security clearance and access to sensitive information.
When he was denied a top-level security clearance, Pollard threatened to sue his superiors. The result was that he was granted the clearance, promoted and given access to more highly sensitive information.
Olive said that Pollard provided the information he stole to Israel, although some of the information went to a list of other nations as well.
“This was the most devastating breakdown of national security in my 22 years with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service,” Olive said.
The Pollard case is a prime example of insider betrayal which, Olive said, is “the most dangerous threat to our national security and national economy.”
Pollard’s superiors and coworkers seemed oblivious to his espionage activities, even though many of the classic indicators of espionage were present.
Olive showed portions of an investigative videotape recording in which a coworker repeatedly walks past Pollard’s office, unaware, as Pollard transfers files from a file drawer into a briefcase provided by his handler.
Other indicators were: working late at night and on weekends; working alone in a highly classified area despite the facility’s two-man rule; financial problems, followed by unexplained affluence.
Pollard was caught when a coworker observed him as he carried clearly marked classified documents from the Anti Terrorist Alert Center, stepped into a waiting car driven by his wife, and the two drove away from the facility.
The coworker’s tip prompted the NCIS to begin an investigation. That role was assigned to Olive. The FBI arrested Pollard in November 1985.
On June 4, 1986, Pollard pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government. He was sentenced to life in prison.
The presentation was hosted by Sandia’s Counterintelligence”
https://newsline.llnl.gov/
articles/2008/jun/06.13.08_pollard.php
AYE CARAMBA, indeed.
Thank you, Wade of NH.
Colonel Lang,
It will be interesting to see if there are a few more publicized incidents of this type in the near future. One of the traditional services a CI organization performs for the national leadership is to have under observation a few situations that when convenient can be neutralized with much [operationally unnecessary] hoopla. This is frequently in connection with adding emphasis to some message that the intended recipient is having trouble understanding.
Nightsticker
USMC 1965-1972
FBI 1972-1996
I’m personally opposed to the death penalty and this case is no different. He should, of course, be jailed for life, assuming, as seems likely, what we know so far is true.
Well, I know more now. Hang him. But, since the media is saying Israel was not involved, why did the FBI agent pretend to be Mossad?
OK, OK, we probably didn’t have a hand in bringing down the INS Dakar. Still, we can dream, can’t we — and how often do servants actually spit in the soup of their masters, anyway?
BW
Because they believed he would respond to that clarion call. This man had collected 225 k from an Israeli aerospace company while being employed at Livermore. I think you can connect the dots. pl
Nightsticker
As you suggest, this is carefully put together as a warning to the many other assets possessed by the Mossad.
The beauty of it is that it is not necessary to accuse AIPAC or the embassy of anything. It would be perfect if this shmuck is not Jewish.
The outcry will begin today or tomorrow on the theme that this is entrapment, anti-semitic, etc. pl
Long time reader, 1st time commenter. I’m a bit shocked at the calls for hanging. In the first place, the man in question is *accused* of espionage; he hasn’t been convicted of anything yet. As such, he is legally innocent. That’s the American way.
In the second place, the founding fathers well knew how easily treason charges could be used against political enemies. As a result, they set the bar extraordinarily high. Article 3, section III of the Constitution:
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
I’m as dismayed as anyone by the Likudniks’ influence, but let’s not forget ourselves.
Colonel,
As has been stated in a question above, ‘will DOJ let the FBI down’? If DOJ lawyers didn’t have the gonads enough to prosecute the AIPAC Mossad assets, what will give U.S. hope that this one will not be let go as well?
Cases involving Israeli espionage have shown that DOJ lawyering is a political animal that frequently sways towards the politics/job security, and away from the U.S. National Security aspect.
Will DOJ let the FBI down ‘again’?
JE
Don’t get your shorts in a twist.
Last time I checked nobody here has the power to judge him legally.
I promise to recuse myself if asked to serve on a jury for him.
He’s a spy. pl
Col. Patrick – It seems to me that this is yet another vindication of the dimunitive but morally brave Sibel Edmonds. Many of the neo-crazies have tried to either muzzle her or attack her character. What with John Cole (veteran former FBI Counterterrorism Manager) supporting Sibel’s assertions) and now THIS, it certainly appears that Sibel’s observations were anything but confabulation!
This lady appears to me to be an exemplar of moral courage! John
He certainly thought he was spying for Israel all those years.
From the affadavit:
Nozette – “I don’t get recruited by the Mossad every day. I knew this day would come by the way.”
UCE — “how’s that?”
Nozette — “I just had a feeling one of these days.”
UCE — “How, you, uhm…”
Nozette — “And I was amazed it didn’t happen longer…”
UCE — (not very intelligible)
Nozette — “I thought I was working for your already I mean that’s what I always thought. The (foreign company) was just a front.”
Mr. Nozette was working form them all along. I’m always amazed at the idiocy of smart people. He really didn’t think it strange that someone approached him and said “Hi, i’m from the mossad and we’d like you to spy for us.” I’m kinda surprised the fbi didn’t take a less direct approach too.
Bill Wade:
But, since the media is saying Israel was not involved, why did the FBI agent pretend to be Mossad?
To follow up on Colonel Lang’s comment, I would suggest that if one is involved in a sting operation with an MIT Ph.D., one better have a believable story to tell, e.g., a tale that can stand up to some serious Ph.D.-savvy research.
A quick web search would demonstrate that cases of U.S. citizens accused of espionage involving Israel seldom even make it to trial. So the downside risk could be sold as negligible, which makes for a lot more effective sting.
One important point not yet found in the press: the act of meeting anyone who was soliciting SRD information from Dr. Nozette should have resulted in him immediately notifying the LLNL security office to report the contact. Even if his clearance had lapsed, the terms of his non-disclosure agreement had not, and all such incidents of someone seeking SRD information should be promptly reported to the agency that issued the Q clearance. Hence it would be interesting to know whether LLNL or NNSA was involved in this sting operation.
Finally, there is an emerging notion (including some comments on this site) that since Dr. Nozette’s clearance had lapsed, and a decade had passed, that these secrets are not so secret anymore. That’s a bad attitude to take towards classified material, and when that classified material is in the form of nuclear weapons designs, that attitude is patently insane.
Nuclear secrets are secrets of physics, not of state. While state secrets have a shelf life, physics secrets last forever, because the laws of physics are immutable. So while troop movements or CIA activities in the 1950’s may eventually be rendered meaningless by the passage of time, the design of a nuclear weapon will not. If a design worked in 1960, it’ll work in 2010, and in 2110, and so on.
So comparisons to traditional forms of espionage understate the gravity of this case. That’s why the Atomic Energy Act is so much more serious than other laws involving illegal disclosures of information. We need to adjust our thinking accordingly.
The guy seems to have been a real spy: Haaretz
Sources: Would-be U.S. spy worked for Israeli arms firm
/quote/
Israeli and American sources said on Tuesday that Stewart David Nozette, the former NASA scientist who was arrested for offering to pass along classified information to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer, had business dealings with Israel Aerospace Industries.
IAI is Israel’s largest exporter of defense and aerospace technology.
The sources said Nozette was hired as an outside consultant to the company. An IAI spokesperson refused to comment on the matter, only to say that it was checking the reports.
…
/endquote/
b
“A real spy” as opposed to a figment of the FBI’s imagination? There are real spies, “b,” just as there are things that go bump in the night. pl
Anyone remember this case:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8075029.stm
“I thought I was helping the state of Israel without harming the United States.”
Nozette knew what he was doing since he said the following:
Sometime before Nozette took a foreign trip in January, he told a colleague that he would flee the United States if charged with a crime, the agent wrote. Nozette added that he would tell officials from an unidentified country and Israel “everything” he knew, the court papers allege.
My Name is James Jesus Angleton. I am from the government and I am here to help you.
All
To further embellish what Cieran said, there is nobody more vulnerable to recruitment or deception than a polymath genius. Their egos are so big that all that is required is to find the particular element of vanity to which the indivudual responds.
In this case, the “hook” was the notion, well planted I would wager, that the Mossad or DMI just could not continue without direct contact with this superior being.
He actually told them that he had waited for a long time for this recognition of his great value. He said something about the aerospace company (IAI?) being “just a front.”
Geniuses are easy. Ask Claude. pl
“This man had collected 225 k from an Israeli aerospace company while being employed at Livermore.”
Right, now I’ve learned too that this company is owned by the Israeli government.
“Nozette picked up the envelopes and returned with envelopes containing classified information about the country’s satellites, early-warning systems and its ability to retaliate against a large-scale attack, prosecutors and FBI officials said. ”
No need to attack spy ships anymore. What’s the possibility of the IDF jamming our spy satelites or feeding them mis-information? Hanging is too good for him, after he’s found guilty at a fair trial, of course.
All
The machine is now spinning this story as 1-unimportnt and 2-insignificant.
David Shuster, the MSNBC talking mouth, dismissed the case today saying that “Israel has its own satellitie technology, why would they want US technology?” This clearly a “talking point” that he has been given.
Where does he think Israel got its satellite technology over the last 20 years. Oddly enough, that is roughly the same period in which Nozette was working for IAI as a consultant and for the USG on US satellite technology.
I can easily remember the way the Israelis begged for our satellite photographs before that, and they often got them. pl
Perhaps the real aim of the FBI sting was to plant the hook so hard that the threat of the imposition of the death penalty would be completely believable. And then, they use that credible possibility to get him to open up about his interactions as a “consultant” with IAI. If he were to reveal that he had passed secret information to the Israelis at that time, then the reality of an ongoing, extremely serious Israeli intelligence operation against the United States would be undeniable. That could be the real prize.
(Sending this from my work computer, Colonel.)
Col,
One source has speculated that the country in question may be India and not Israel. See: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/the_nozette_espionage_case_what_is_country_a.php?ref=fpb
Colonel,
And sadly, thanks to the Israelis, both the Russians and Chinese have obtained U.S. high tech that their espionage operatives working stateside were unable to ferret out.
With friends like Israel, who needs enemies?
Jim Price
I was somewhat distracted, but it did not seem to me that the “Newshour” mentioned this tonight? pl
Reading first about this case, I had a bad feeling because it was a sting operation, and might indeed be entrapment.
Well, given his history of working for an Israeli defence firm, it is quite implausible that the FBI not just picked some high profile scientist that they happened to dislike and set him up, wasting his undeniable talent for a high profile score.
I think, hopefully rightly, that the FBI had sufficient reason to be certain he engaged in espionage, for Israel, and against the US, but couldn’t prove it. So they ‘stung’ him and made sure they could prove his treason.
Strike that not.
From TPM Could the Israel Spy case Really be an Indian spy case
Or more likely both countries were recipients of Nozette stealing US proprietary information??
Clearly the technology sector has many South Asians working in sensitive positions just as we have Israeli dual citizens in many high ranking governmental and financial institution positions. When push comes to shove where would their loyalties lean?
CP
The FBI only dislikes you if they think you are a Mafioso, some other organized crime dirt bag or an enemy of the US.
They selected this guy’s file out of all the other Israeli spy cases that they have because he looked easy to entrap, he had access to very secret US technology, they knew he had been a consultant for IAI for a long time, he had made incriminating statements, they did not have to go up against the entrenched zionist interests here in the early stages of this matter.
His “brothers” and sisters will “put in the boot” to get him off so as not to “spook” all their other agents. That has already begun. pl
Remember the mission that India sent to the moon last year and India was whining that it was delayed because of NASA- it was MiniSar or the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar being flown atop Chandrayaan-1 will be the most extensive search for water ever on the lunar poles which, if found, will make it easier for humans to colonize the moon
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/moonmission/Story.aspx?ID=NEWEN20080068852&type=SpecialReport
Two thoughts, if I may, Pat:
– Won’t this be the first such case for this administration’s DOJ? It will be interesting to see how AG Holder handles it.
– Talking to my good Army (Ret) friend about this today and he raised the question, “This one was found out; how many more are out there?”
My friend is a very astute man.
Folks — for a pretty comprehensive take on the latest attempt to pass US intell to our masters in the Middle East, see: http://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen/1009/Maryland_scientist_indicted_for_attempted_espionage_for_Israel. Traces the (presumed) traitor’s roots back to the GHWB White House!!
Colonel,
Do you think this will help to ‘slow down’ the Israeli incessant push to have more American military personnel die for Israeli security with their unnecessary war on Iran? An Iran which is no threat to our U.S..
NASA investigation opened doors to espionage probe
Let the spin begin:
“Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the Nozette case is part of a “troubling” pattern of targeting Israel and Jews as potential spies against the United States.
“I am not naïve enough to believe that there aren’t efforts to obtain information in all kinds of ways,” Foxman said.
But, he asked, “Why is it that we don’t hear of any other country, except for Israel?
I find that troubling.” ”
I wonder why Mr Foxman can’t answer his own question.
source:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256037270857&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Some history for context:
http://www.counterpunch.org/husseini08302004.html
http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0496/9604014.htm
http://www.cnionline.org/issues/israeli-espionage-in-the-us/
Asking forgiveness in advance for a few elementary questions: Why is Israel spying on the U.S.? In my lifetime, Israel has been treated as our 51st state. What do they need to know that we wouldn’t tell them anyway? Is it a pure profit motive? Do they sell these secrets to third party buyers?
Lina
Israel is a foreign country run on the basis of ethnic nationalism. Israel has different interests than the US. Why would we give them everything we know? pl
$10,000 will barely buy you a car, much less a down payment on a house. So from this, I can only conclude that Nozette was motivated by love of Israel, not love of money.
Which leads me to say that maybe I’m just too old-fashioned, but I’ve always thought that espionage is supposed to take place between enemies, not between friends. So it puzzles me why American spies have switched from selling state secrets to enemy regimes like the Soviet Union to friendly ones like Israel.
And it seems to me that the FBI must know that Israel is involved in quite a bit of espionage here in the US, otherwise it wouldn’t have so many of its agents posing as Israeli operatives. Plus it doesn’t make much sense to me that if the FBI is going to put a whole lot of effort into hunting down spies for Israel, as it is now doing, the Justice Department shouldn’t be so damn quick to come out and say that Israel has nothing to do with this spy case involving Nozette. This says to me that the FBI and the DOJ are working against each other, instead of what they should be doing, which is to work together to root out espionage!
Bill Wade,
Per the ADL, well these people have been at this a while in our country. It is useful to consider current activity from a historical point of view to get a sense of the depth of the problem.
ADL was created by the Bnai Brith org for which see:
http://www.bnaibrith.org/about_us/bbi_roots.cfm
Pat, your “Why would we give them everything we know?” is indeed the proverbial $64 question. Yet it seems we hold back very little.
Missile defense related. I wonder if this has any connection to that killed scientist few month back. (Wasn’t the guy work in this area too?)
At least we know Israel couldnt make their missile defense working. (Not gonna be able to hold Iran missile retaliation when starting a war.)
http://news.aol.com/article/fbi-arrests-scientist-stewart-david/723533
“This was leading edge, Department of Defense national security work,” said Hubbard, a professor of aerospace at Stanford University who worked for 20 years at NASA. Hubbard said Nozette worked on the Star Wars project at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
At Energy, Nozette held a special security clearance equivalent to the Defense Department’s top secret and “critical nuclear weapon design information” clearances. DOE clearances apply to access information specifically relating to atomic or nuclear-related materials.
Nozette, of Chevy Chase, Md., more recently developed the Clementine bi-static radar experiment that is credited with discovering water on the south pole of the moon.
Cynthia
DoJ is much more of a political beast than the FBI. The politician Attorney General is always under the thumb of the pols at the WH. Democrats or Republicans, they are ALL tied up in pretty bows by the lobby operation. The FBI is a professional police force. They are unhappy that for many years they have been assembling cases against illegal Israel connected activity that they cannot get the politicians to prosecute sucessfully. The FBI is particularly annoyed at present because the AIPAC espionage case was torpedoed by someone in the Obama administration and a pet judge. pl
Cynthia,
“But I’ve always thought that espionage is supposed to take place between enemies, not between friends.”
Espionage takes place when one country doesn’t share information to protect its own interests, and another country wants that information to serve it’s own interests (and in obtaining it, undermines the interests of the other, “friend” or not.)
“It puzzles me why American spies have switched from selling state secrets to enemy regimes like the Soviet Union to friendly ones like Israel.”
I didn’t find the Franklin case particularly “friendly.” But as they say “follow the money.”
I’m sure plenty of traitors sleep a little better at night by telling themselves “our friends won’t do anything bad with this” (though agents possibly killed in the Soviet Union with information stolen from us by Pollard and passed to the Soviets would disagree).
I don’t know what circles you move in, but $10,000 is quite a lot of money to receive for answering a few questions (and our hapless scientist clearly expected an ongoing relationship like his old one with IAI).
I thought we sanctioned and supported their “ethnic nationalism.”
Lina
Not enough for the FBI to accept their espionage against us and their illegal interference in our government. pl
Thanks Mr Kiracofe.
“$10,000 will barely buy you a car, much less a down payment on a house. So from this, I can only conclude that Nozette was motivated by love of Israel, not love of money.”
Cynthia, If he did it out of love for Israel, why even take one penny? This guy’s not only a traitor, he’s a greedy traitor.
Russian proverb: When three sit down to talk politics, two are govt spies and one is a fool. He was a very smart man, but a fool (and assuming the DOJ case is solid, a traitor).
Imagine my surprise when my tevee beamed in, not the FBI spy sting story, but live coverage of an FBI press conference announcing the arrest and charging of a Boston-area man with conspiracy to provide material support (internet/blog chatter?) to terrorists overseas and in the United States.
This guy was arrested LAST November but was announced yesterday.
Interesting choice of “national security” news coverage by networks and newspapers .
Not long after 9/11 Fox news broadcast this four part series (about 5 minutes each) on Israeli spying in U.S. It was on their website for a short time before it was taken down and the story effectively disappeared from the MSM. The video was captured and can be seen on this website:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7545.htm
Let’s not be naive. Do the Israelis spy on us? Of course. Do the French? The British, and on and on? Do we spy on them all? I certainly hope so– and not just by satellites and electronic intercepts.
Audie
This game is not about justice. It is about who wins. pl