Nozette will have a hearing in federal court soon on the issue of bail. He should not be given bail. He stated to a colleague" that he would flee if faced with imprisonment over his earlier coviction for false billing of the US government in contracts that his "not for profit" business had obtained. He also had cached $50,000 worth of gold coins in a California safe deposit bank against an "emergency." He will run if given a chance.
It is clear that the FBI and the Justice Department are serious about this case. Nozette had been feeding the "Israel Aerospace Industries" company information for many years. He was a consultant for them. They paid him about a quarter million dollars for his "advice." This was at the same time that he held very high US security clearances for the US defense work that he was doing. There has been an obvious effort to portray this man as a harmless "Mr. Wizard" or "Bill Nye, the Science Guy" type who mumbled on about water ice on the moon. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He knows a lot about US Defense technology.
From the Israeli point of view (or for that matter the Indian point of view) the chief concern has to be what will come out in court...
The FBI has built many, many "shovel ready" cases that are ready or almost ready for prosecution in similar matters. In this instance the administration "green lighted" this case for action. Why is that?
Think it over. pl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/28/AR2009102805055.html
As regards your query at the end of the post, my conjecture is that sending a signal to supposed allies about administration displeasure with their intelligence gathering activities would be one possible reason.
Posted by: Cato the Censor | 29 October 2009 at 09:45 AM
Maybe they will use this as
a leverage point to bring the current Israeli administration around on all the issues concerning settlements and real bargaining in the so called peace process.
Posted by: steven gandy | 29 October 2009 at 10:17 AM
To tell the Israelis that the benign neglect for their crimes against the interests of the United States ended with the last administration.
Posted by: Bill Wade, NH | 29 October 2009 at 10:33 AM
Colonel,
Could one of the main things that the Israelis are afraid of is -- the more constant U.S. public exposure spark a U.S. public outcry for 'action' against the hostile Israeli espionage against the U.S. taking place on U.S. soil? Could the Israelis be afraid of our American public outcry to send Israeli espionage agents on U.S. soil back to Israel in body bags?
If the use of deadly force is authorized to protect sensitive U.S. government buildings and installations, is it not 'practical' to apply the same to 'hostile' Israeli espionage taking place on U.S. soil? Especially since such Israeli espionage is causing grave harm to our U.S.?
Posted by: J | 29 October 2009 at 10:50 AM
Colonel,
What about those members of our U.S. Congress who may have/are compromising U.S. classified info to the Israeli government and its espionage apparatuses? Imagine cleaning house in the U.S. Congress to include all their staffers as well as those elected officos who could be/are in league with hostile Israeli espionage actions.
Posted by: J | 29 October 2009 at 10:59 AM
My guess is this is not a real signal at all but just the process of Justice (far different than "Truth") just grinding along. My guess is no full scale policy review of implications outside of DOJ! What is interesting is the the Classified Information Procedures Act of 1978 has needed revision so long with no effort being made anywhere to do so. What does this Public Law do--sets up a procedure for traitors to be tried while continuing to protect national security secrets. It was designed to foil the defense strategy of "Declassify" this or that or no fair trial and due process right to confront witnesses against You (US)! Too bad so many are paid so much but few want to do the heavy lifting anymore! Hey maybe its WALL STREET in DC and we (US) just does not yet get it--it being that culture pervaded by waste, fraud, abuse and plain old laziness.
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 29 October 2009 at 12:15 PM
When Mustapha Barghouti can appear on the Daily Show and Israeli spies get the book thrown at them, it means that the times are a'changin'.
Posted by: JohnH | 29 October 2009 at 01:45 PM
If most folks get 15 minutes, I think Nozette will get a peak hour. In fact, I expect him to be Picower'ed pretty soon. There may not be a G*d, but we know there's a Mossad.
Posted by: PirateLaddie | 29 October 2009 at 01:48 PM
One can always try to guess what exact technical information was being transferred to Israel-India-Russia. Then work from there figuring out how dangerous his leak was. (This will definitely make a fun addition to wiki article)
my rule of thumb
- any country achieve sudden technological leap on difficult system which that they couldn't solved for years... is a suspect.
- nozette dad works in manhattan project, so I bet how the structure of top secret guard actually function is family dinner talk.
- Was there any similar case that trigger massive investigation.
- As a method to control israel is pretty obvious. The other one is corruption investigation, visa control, UN reports. Regime change trick is gone. US has lost control of state dept. so, all US secret operation in Israel is compromised and penetrated by Israel. The reverse is true, israel has control of all aspect of US international diplomacy (specially tech transfer and trade to israel, all middle east diplomacy related is run out of tel aviv) That part is fairly obvious and has been the party joke in cocktail circle.
-----------
1. Israel.
# Ofeq Satellite series
# Arrow anti-ballistic missile defence system
# Shavit space launcher
# CubeSats by the end of 2008.
# TecSAR reconnaissance satellite
All of those are related to nozette expertise. (sensor, compact spacecraft, how to put them in space) Synthetic aperture radar is beyond Isreal research capability to manufacture without US help. It's pure technological transfer. They also have problem with their rocket reliability and accuracy (not to mention the can't afford it) So they decide to pull JINSA and transfer tech to India and use their PSLV instead. (israel is under EU embargo, and they can't use russian rocket without us slicing them to pieces. Can't use chinese rocket under US embargo. So India is the last choice.)
All those projects won't go anywhere without massive US tech transfer.
- India also experienced sudden technological leap (Their moon program was in trouble for long time. suddenly they can do it in one shot?) Ability to do orbital insertion alone means they can do dispenser, mirv, bla bla... (This part was got china in trade embargo in the 90's. Because they would be able to out compete lucrative US satellite launch business.)
- Israel missile defense radar. (They sold the tech to India, china. That part is obvious. India is building their own patriot class missile defense based on this.)
- Big question, what exactly the russian learns from all this? Any sudden change in weapon design and program? Russia definitely wants to know policy and trend ( eg. microsat tech, to protect their space assets. This part has been a long UN quarrel. I don't think The russian particularly care about small stuff like satellite orbit or sensor capability, they have their own guy that can measure those.) China wants to know everything, I don't think they care what.
Posted by: curious | 29 October 2009 at 01:54 PM
Explain please for a layman. Why would this have to be greenlighted by POTUS?
Obviously some form of coordination would have been done between DOJ and DOS. But at what levels?
Posted by: mike | 29 October 2009 at 02:14 PM
mike
I said the Obama ADMINISTRATION, but, given the domestic political hostility in certain places, among them Chicago, Obama himself may well have been asked for aproval. pl
Posted by: Patrick Lang | 29 October 2009 at 02:32 PM
curious
"1. Israel. # Ofeq Satellite series # Arrow anti-ballistic missile defence system # Shavit space launcher # CubeSats by the end of 2008. # TecSAR reconnaissance satellite All of those are related to nozette expertise. (sensor, compact spacecraft, how to put them in space) Synthetic aperture radar is beyond Isreal research capability to manufacture without US help. It's pure technological transfer. They also have problem with their rocket reliability and accuracy (not to mention the can't afford it) So they decide to pull JINSA and transfer tech to India and use their PSLV instead. (israel is under EU embargo, and they can't use russian rocket without us slicing them to pieces. Can't use chinese rocket under US embargo. So India is the last choice.) All those projects won't go anywhere without massive US tech transfer. - India also experienced sudden technological leap (Their moon program was in trouble for long time. suddenly they can do it in one shot?) Ability to do orbital insertion alone means they can do dispenser, mirv, bla bla... (This part was got china in trade embargo in the 90's. Because they would be able to out compete lucrative US satellite launch business.) - Israel missile defense radar. (They sold the tech to India, china. That part is obvious."
Very interesting. Comments anyone? pl
Posted by: Patrick Lang | 29 October 2009 at 02:40 PM
Revealed now to tarnish the neo-con narrative of Israeli heroism at a time when they may be warming up for a strike on Iran's nuclear facility? i.e., Obama asserting that he's the dog, not the tail?
Posted by: Cato | 29 October 2009 at 02:48 PM
When I see something incredible, fascinating and with really humungous mammaries right in front of my eyes, I wonder whose hand is reaching silently into my back pocket.
Posted by: CK | 29 October 2009 at 06:01 PM
A reminice! As young butter bar Lt. ran a warhead unit on Pershing 1 missle system [missile and mobile launcher]! The missile was manufactured by Martin-Marietta that had tech reps throughout its deployment before being decommissioned under the INF Treaty in 80s! I was there in Army from 67-70! Because Pershing 1-A was being deployed all Pershing 1 equipment was being returned stateside over time. My point is twofold. First, a German Oberst (Colonel) told me the Pershing was very close to size of NAZI V-2. Major difference solid fuel. He said that the NAZI were getting ready to convert the V-2 to sold fuel when WWII ended. German deployments were very similar how V-2 deployed against England. Unclassified Pershing 1 range was 600 miles [making it a Luftwaffe rather than Bundeswehr weapon for deployment]! Second point of interest--A Martin Tech Rep who actually tried to hire me stated in passing one day that Israel had offered to by the entirety of the Pershing 1 system including missiles and launchers from the USA. That did not happen. But looking back wonder how that info was circulated and how accurate. Pershing system was highly reliable based on actual launch data unlike some other USA missile systems and later copied almost exactly by the Soviet Union. Clearly almost everyone else besides USA had Pershing pland and doctrinal employment info. So it seems that nothing is new just recycled over and over. This does make more difficult however in fact impossible for an internal reform effort to protect USA secrets from being revealed without redoing our entire weapons safeguards and surety system. Witness recent AF problems I would argue that the military is not up to such a reform. Question is who is? By the way the FRG units had complete plans and access to the Pershing except for warheads. These were under US control procedures. It is my opinion that NATO weaponary is essentially open source but could be wrong. Another reason I would pull out of NATO.
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 29 October 2009 at 08:54 PM
Cato's guess is congruent with mine.
Posted by: Nicollo | 29 October 2009 at 09:38 PM
"They sold the tech to India, china...."
Time for some MSM attention. Perhaps those folks in high tech whose career futures just took a turn for the worse (look at all the auto industry outsourcing) can start asking why we support foreign governments that betray our people.
Posted by: Fred | 29 October 2009 at 10:19 PM
P Lang wrote as a response to curious:
'Very interesting. Comments anyone? pl
Previous to this comment Mr. Lang had written to another poster:
'I said the Obama ADMINISTRATION, but, given the domestic political hostility in certain places, among them Chicago, Obama himself may well have been asked for aproval. pl'
My first comment is - who in the world is running the show around here? Obama has to sign off on prosecuting lawbreakers (more like traitors) because certain parties in Chicago (or elsewhere) may be displeased? How did we allow it to come to this?
My second comment is if we're this compromised then it's silly debating whether we should expend more blood and treasure in places like Iraq, Iran, Pakistan or Afghanistan. We've already lost because we've lost our pride in ourselves as a self governing entity. We should just admit it and pack up our crap and come home, assuming the real bosses that Obama must answer to will allow us to do so.
Unbelievable.
Posted by: GulfCoastPirate | 30 October 2009 at 02:03 AM
"They sold the tech to India, china...."
Fred: Time for some MSM attention...
Thanks for that, Fred. It's been a long day, and I needed a bit of light humor.
Posted by: JM | 30 October 2009 at 03:11 AM
In an earlier comment in this thread, WRC, imo, makes an excellent insight re: Classified Information Procedures Act of 1978 (CIPA).
The 4th Cir. delved into certain aspects of the CIPA in the Rosen-Weissman case and one can see the problems to which WRC alludes. CIPA may be well intended but it gives a USDC judge tremendous leeway to destroy an espionage prosecution if he or she rules that certain classified information is needed for the accused’s defense -- information that the USG deems too sensitive to disclose.
But here is an interesting aspect of CIPA, at least to me. One of the unintended consequences of CIPA is that it may allow the DOJ to dump cases it does not want to try due to political pressure.
I mention that solely because of the two documents reviewed in the Rosen appeal, particularly the Israeli Briefing document. The title itself seems to suggest that information was funneled through AIPAC to Israel, thus establishing that AIPAC falls under FARA. And if you read the DOJ motion to dismiss (Nol. Pros.) you will see that very general language is used to justify the dismissal; such nonspecific wording sometimes (not always) is a telltale sign that the case is getting deep sixed.
And in the Rosen case, a question arises that, in turn, makes WRC’s point. Who determined that the information that would have been introduced at trial through the heavily redacted and summarized Israeli Briefing document was adverse to US national security interests? Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. But if the DOJ is looking for a way out, then it can hang its hat on the notion, whether substantiated or not, that the national security threat revealed by admitting the document into evidence outweighs the value of the prosecution of an alleged traitor.
Keeping the idea of the Israeli Briefing document in mind, here is another twist. Just for the relevant fun of it, the DOJ in the Rosen case, it seems to me, could have raised the tension a bit and requested in good faith during the proceedings that the judge rule, in effect, that AIPAC falls under FARA as a matter of law. If it did so, then potentially the Israeli Briefing document is no longer relevant.
Ah, what could have been…but looking ahead, the Nozette case looks much cleaner and much more streamlined. The USG is proceeding under a different code subsection (794) than the one used in Rosen case (793). And the evidence appears overwhelming. So perhaps Nozette is a better lead case to start a series of espionage prosecutions, if the DOJ honestly intends to do so. We’ll see.
Posted by: Sidney O. Smith III | 30 October 2009 at 04:42 AM
The latest from the Prosecutor: "Nozette told the agent he had passed classified information to Israel in the past." The sky is also blue. Just passing on. http://tinyurl.com/ygldvzw
Posted by: Dan | 30 October 2009 at 11:08 AM