If any one ever needed any justification for FBI spying on the official Israeli governmental presence in this country (diplomats and covert agents included) they need look no farther than today’s news that a former senior White House scientist, spied on behalf of Israel’s major aerospace defense contractor (the Israeli equivalent of Boeing or Martin Marietta), earning several hundred thousand dollars in the process:
A former senior government scientist who held the highest security clearances pleaded guilty to espionage on Wednesday and agreed to a 13-year prison term for selling top-secret information on military satellites and other technology to an F.B.I. agent posing as an Israeli spy.
The scientist, Stewart D. Nozette, 54, who worked at the White House in 1989-90 and helped lead the search for water on the moon, was not charged with spying for Israel.
But Dr. Nozette consulted for a state-owned Israeli company, identified in the Israeli news media as Israel Aerospace Industries, from 1998 to 2008. The company paid him a total of $225,000 for answering technical questions it posed monthly, according to court documents.
The report calls Nozette one of the highest ranking U.S. scientists ever to be caught trying to spy for a foreign power. And it certainly is no accident that the foreign power in this case is Israel, since an internal CIA survey found Israel’s intelligence operations in this country to be third most intrusive behind Russia’s and China’s. That’s some pretty august company if you ask me.
Let those Israelis beating their breast asking “is this the way allies treat each other” stop the wailing and gnashing of teeth. The type of surveillance operation in which Shamai Leibowitz worked in the FBI is critical in order to stop precisely this sort of betrayal of U.S. interests. And lest anyone argue there is a qualitative difference between the military secrets stolen by the Israelis and the activities uncovered by Leibowitz’ leaked material–there is. But the difference is a matter of degrees and not of magnitude.
Giving Israel our secret satellite technology is certainly a severe breach, but an attack on Iran, facilitated to some degree by Israel’s diplomatic community is equally serious if not more so.
Another nugget Scott Shane included in his report is this information which leads one to believe that there is almost no difference between Israeli defense companies and Israeli intelligence:
In September 2009, the undercover F.B.I. agent called Dr. Nozette and arranged to meet him at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where the agent said he worked for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. Dr. Nozette replied, “Good. Happy to be of assistance,” according to the statement of facts. The scientist told the agent, “I thought I was working for you already.”
UPDATE: A reader, Shmuel pointed out a nuance I missed in my original post. Nozette was trying to spy for Israel, but actually he was caught by a counter-intelligence sting before he did so. However, it is also noted in the Times report that Nozette already served as a paid consultant to Israeli Aerospace Industries. Apparently the work he did for them was, in his mind, little different that what he expected to do for the “Mossad” agent who approached. So one has to ask whether Nozette was already betraying U.S. secrets even before he was caught.
The article you quote clearly states that the scientist was willing and ready to sell classified documents to an Israeli company and/or government; it does not state anything about the Israeli government spying on the US.
So how does this translate to a “justification for FBI spying on the official Israeli governmental presence”?
It actually says he was willing to, and believed he was selling U.S. military secrets to the Mossad. He already was doing something similar for IAI as far as he thought. The reason the FBI has to try to interdict people like this, hell bent on giving away the store to the Mossad, is because there are Mossad agents who are trolling for such people who, in the cases of Jonathan Pollard, Ben Menashe & scores of others before them, they did exploit.
If there was no Mossad threat, the FBI would not have to be as vigilant regarding such cases.
RE: “Former White House Scientist Sentenced for Spying for Israel” ~ R.S.
SOMEWHAT RELATED – Special treatment gives Israeli mobsters free access to US soil: WikiLeaks, by Ali Abunimah, 8/28/11
ENTIRE POST – http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/special-treatment-gives-israeli-mobsters-free-access-us-soil-wikileaks
P.S. ALSO SEE: US Drug War Turns to International Combat ~ by Tom Barry, Counterpunch, 9/07/11
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/07/us-drug-war-turns-to-international-combat/
Very important post, thanks
Not at all surprising given the nature of the gangster state, Israel.
Richard,
You bring the report and quote: “The scientist, Stewart D. Nozette, 54, who worked at the White House in 1989-90 and helped lead the search for water on the moon, WAS NOT CHARGED WITH SPYING FOR ISRAEL” (my caps)
He worked for an Israeli company as a consultant, and was WILLING to help the mossad were they to approach him, but they didn’t! It was the FBI and not mossad who tricked him.
This means we have an American citizen who was willing to betray his country and pass on secrets to which he was privvy to a foreign power, but nothing to prove that he actually managed to do so, nor that the foreign power was interested in what he had to offer (nothing here that shows he revealed to Israel anything secret)
The FBI tested the loyalty of an American citizen, and he failed terribly. He should have stuck to looking for water on the moon rather than playing exciting “I’m helping the mossad” games.
And I agree that there should be jobs like Shamai’s monitoring foreign embassies, the problem was what he did with the info not the actual work he did.
So it’s yr contention that the FBI is in the business of setting up an otherwise innocent scientists for persecution?
If this scientist was giving material to IAI and believed there was no difference bet what he provided the Israeli defense contractor and what he would do for Mossad, how do you know what he did for IAI wasn’t already compromising U.S. Defense secrets?
I of course have no idea what he did for IAI, and neither do you, all I know is what you quoted that he was not accused of spying for Israel.
I also don’t know the MO of the FBI, but do know a little about the legal concept of entrappment, and many a page has been filled with legal arguments about whether entrappment has to be proceded by firm evidence, or suspicion of illegal activity, or whether “just checking out” is good enough. In Israel “just checking out” is good enough, but of course the punishment will be in accordance to the reason for the entrappment. I don’t know the US law, but I don’t think it is beyond belief that any businessman who has security related dealings with a foreign country would be a legitimate target for FBI entrappment.
I wonder how much other classified material he has managed to pass off that we don’t know about…a big possibility…
Was Nozette, a dual Israeli/American citizen?
What do we have here ?
An American who is being framed by an American agency.
And this is a legitimate reason to spy on another country ?
This kind of ‘logic’ worked well in Soviet Russia, but I guess it works on some American bloggers as well.
The claim is that a corrupt individual can be used by another party, is true for each and every corrupted person and for all possible other parties.
In fact, they even failed to show he was corrupt to begin with. They only showed he was corruptible. I wonder how many individuals in the FBI (or CIA) itself are corruptible in the same way.
I wonder how many Zionist jews working in the FBI or CIA or in the government in general are corruptible when it comes to Israel?
I wonder how many Muslims working in the FBI or CIA or in the government in general are corruptible when it comes to Muslim or Arab countries?
I bet that sounds racist to you, stevieb, as much as your comment sounded racist to me.
I find this comment objectionable. You read the comment rules here & read them carefully. If not, you will be moderated the next time you publish anything like this.
Richard
I hope yr moderation threat was to stevieb and not to me. Pls qualify.
Of course to him & not you. I thought my comment would indicate more clearly the name of the commenter to whom I was replying. Sorry if it wasn’t clear.
I agree but it is a little different: Zionism makes a point of refocusing loyalties. To wonder about the Zionists in the CIA is a valid question about ideologically tainted loyalties. Neither Islam nor Communism, for that matter, are ideologically identical with this or that state. So, mnusing about the number of communists in the CIA or the number of Muslims does not have that direct connection to a foreign state, as such. I am interested in your response.
Of course, those Zionists who interpret their allegiances to Israel as superceding their allegiance to the U.S. are disloyal and if they disobey the law they should be prosecuted. No Zionist should help Israel in such a way that it harms the U.S. I am an American, not an Israeli. Most (almost all I hope) American Zionists adhere to this principle as well.
One of the reason I object to Aipac so thoroughly is that it’s allegiance is to Israel and only secondarily to the U.S. Of course they view their allegiances as co equal & say by allying with Israel they also help the U.S. I see this as nonsense.
All that being said, I am a Zionist and love Israel. But that does not mean I put Israel above America.
Would you agree that Shamai Leibowitz’ actions, which were motivated by a desire to help Israel, should also be similarly censured?
If Stewart Nozette’s activities justifies FBI spying “on the official Israeli governmental presence in this country”, does Shamai Leibowitz’s activities justify the FBI or other agencies avoiding hiring or cooperating with individuals with similar political views as Leibowitz?