New FBI surveillance video release reopens IAI Nozette espionage question--IRmep

New FBI counterespionage surveillance video release reopens concerns about Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. On March 21, 2012 U.S. prosecutors played FBI surveillance video in court of former NASA employee Stewart Nozette agreeing to sell U.S. government secrets to Israel. Nozette was then sentenced to thirteen years in prison. The FBI surveillance video, obtained by IRmep under the Freedom of Information Act, is now available on YouTube and Vimeo. An imperfect redaction reveals Nozette appearing to say he sold classified U.S. government information to "Israeli Aircraft," also known as Israel Aerospace Industries and IAI.

YouTube: http://youtu.be/UKaL-adh1T4

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/61086025

In 2007 the FBI obtained a sealed warrant to search Nozette's home. They discovered a huge cache of classified U.S. government files unlawfully stored on Nozette's computer. One document named "Proposed Activities for 2005-6" ominously contained a section titled "Penetration of NASA" on behalf of a foreign client. The FBI soon discovered that between 1998 and 2008 a nonprofit run by Nozette received $225,000 in "consulting fees" from Israel Aerospace Industries. IAI tasked Nozette to obtain "technical data" beginning in November of 1998. Nozette complied with IAI's requests in exchange for "regular payments" according to criminal complaints filed in court. In the 1950s the state-owned IAI was established and led by Adolph "Al" Schwimmer, an American felon convicted for serially violating U.S. arms export controls. Schwimmer fraudulently obtained heavily discounted surplus U.S. aircraft from the War Assets Administration. In the 1960s IAI obtained stolen French Mirage 5 jet fighter plans in order to build its own copycat Kfir jet fighter. In the 1980s IAI relied on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to win U.S. funding for the development of the troubled Lavi jet fighter. The Lavi program was terminated in 1987 after questionable Israeli technology transfers to China. The U.S. has paid for half of the jointly developed IAI/Boeing Arrow Anti-Missile system since 1988. Since 2007 the AIPAC has lobbied for hundreds of millions in additional U.S. taxpayer funding for the new Arrow III, beyond the $3 billion in military aid already provided to Israel annually. Today AIPAC DC convention attendees will lobby Congress against cutting under sequestration any funding to IAI or other aid to Israel. On May 4, 2012 US Attorney Ron Machen was confronted on WAMU radio (YouTube) for officially stating no classified information was passed by Nozette to Israel.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RK-acJmFPg

This was contradicted by court filings and now surveillance video. Machen could not credibly explain why the Justice Department limited its criminal investigation to only Nozette.  IRMEP

Comments

[Jake]

Oh yeah major ally status! Uh boy....

[Alba Etie]

And this is just the latest affront to our interest .Hope Pollard rots in jail ..

[William R. Cumming]

Was there not an Israeli astronaut on one shuttle mission?

[confusedponderer]

For impunity, successful espionage needs political patronage. The Israelis have that aplenty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02E7JWqAFhw

If Israel's apologists had their way, the Israelis should have gotten all that for free anyway, so what's the big deal if they go and take it? They just make things right. That's probably the only way one can come to the mistaken notion that Pollard or Nozette are heroes and have folks utter official requests for clemency.

I mean, Nozette got something like a quarter million dollars, and yet, he told the justice department that he only spied for Israel because his parents were Jewish? I'd expect an idealist to spy for free. The same for Pollard, who claimed to have been "motivated by altruism rather than greed", yet received a second salary from the Israeli. One should not let oneself be blinded by BS after-the-fact rationalisations like that.

[MRW]

The Colonel will probably issue me another spanky-spanky for this: I hope someone takes Pollard out the instant he's released. I make no apologies for this. Shoot the bastard.

[oofda]

Yes, there was Col Ilan Ramon, an Israeli AF pilot who was killed during the Challenger explosion. He was an F-16 pilot who took part in the raid on Osirak, the Syrian nuclear reactor. He was a Payload Specialist on Challenger, not a pilot.

[turcopolier]

MRW

I haven't heard that the traitor Pollard is to be released. Is he? pl

[Charles]

Actually, it was the Iraqi reactor in 1981. The Syrian raid came in 2011 and there is an interesting side note related to enabled embedded technology:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/design/the-hunt-for-the-kill-switch/0
I apologize for the IEEE nerd speak.

Regards,

[MRW]

He gets released in 2015 or 2016 when he's eligible for parole. He was sentenced before a law was passed that would have denied him parole for his treachery. That's why Hansen can't ever get out. And that's why it's goddam unforgivable to me that Israel is asking before that date.

I don't care when he walks out the door, or for what reason, my previous statement applies. Only person I've said it about in my life.

Now my blood pressure is up again.

[MRW]

More...

That's what The Dersh did for him. Got his charge changed to a type that included parole.