Another American Traitor for Israel

'Nozette passed information to Israel'

[Comment: this is another step in the process of bringing him to trial. What is perhaps new is the charge that he actually bragged to the sting operators that he believed he was giving secrets to Israel before the sting.]

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER AND AP

WASHINGTON

US prosecutors accused an alleged American spy of having passed on secrets to Israel during a hearing Thursday which saw the defendant held without bond over concerns he would flee.

The former US scientist, 52-year-old Stewart Nozette, was arraigned last week in a sting operation in which Nozette allegedly sold classified information to an undercover FBI agent posing as a Mossad contact.

In the hearing in US District Court Thursday, the prosecution went further in alleging that before the FBI set-up, Nozette had claimed to have already actually transmitted information to Israel.

"He told the agent that he had indeed communicated classified information," prosecutor Anthony Asuncion said. "He had admitted to the agent actual espionage."

During the hearing, Asuncion played video excerpts of an undercover sting operation against Nozette in which the scientist lounges on a hotel room couch, discussing the possibility of having to flee the country if he came under scrutiny from US officials.

Nozette looked starkly different as he sat in court Thursday. Wearing baggy, black-and-white striped jail clothes, he stared passively as the screen showed him eating and laughing with the undercover agent.

Nozette's lawyer, John Kiyonaga, said there was no basis for that accusation, and noted the government's charges don't contain any such allegations.

He also argued the video recordings shown in court were misleading because they left out significant parts of a longer conversation.

Israeli officials have repeatedly pointed out that the case involves no accusations of Israeli wrongdoing, and at the time of Nozette's arrest 10 days ago several stressed they had found out about the situation through the media.

At Thursday's hearing, the prosecution succeeded in convincing Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson that Nozette was a sufficient flight risk, and had enough important information, to be held without bond.

Nozette, a Maryland resident, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted espionage, following his arrest last week. He is accused of seeking $2 million for selling secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer. The Justice Department could seek the death penalty.

Nozette had high-level security clearances during decades of government work on science and space projects. He was known primarily as a defense technologist who had worked on the Reagan-era Star Wars missile shield effort formally named the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Because he knows so many secrets, including about the nation's nuclear missile program, Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered special communications restrictions placed on him while he is in jail, authorities said.

"The defendant is himself a walking safe deposit box of classified information," said prosecutor Anthony Asuncion. "He is now a treasure trove of some of our most sensitive matters."

According to prosecutors, Nozette was paid more than $225,000 by a company that was wholly owned by the Israeli government and spoke to them regularly. In court Thursday, Kiyonaga identified the company as Israel Aircraft Industries. IAI officials in Israel had already acknowledged they were the company connected to Nozette.

During one of his secretly recorded conversations with the undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer, 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."

Prosecutors also say Nozette kept a stash of gold Krugerrand coins worth tens of thousands of dollars in a safe deposit box in California - more evidence, they say, of his risk of flight.

Oct 31, 2009 21:55 | Updated Nov 1, 2009 7:50

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256799054271&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

UN report: Israeli company dealing in 'blood diamonds' from Ivory Coast

By Yossi Melman and Ora Coren

A United Nations report on trade in "blood diamonds" - rough stones whose sale is used to fund conflicts - raises the possibility that an Israeli company active in Liberia and Ramat Gan is dealing in diamonds whose proceeds are used to support rebels in the Ivory Coast.

According to the report, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz, the company involved is apparently Perry Diamonds of Ghana, which is linked to the late Israeli diamond merchant Israel Freund, a former member of the Ramat Gan diamond exchange who died four months ago. Perry is considered a small company.

The report says the UN panel visited Liberia to examine the possibility that rough diamond suppliers from Ivory Coast, including those who provided rough stones to Perry, had moved their operations there. Liberia serves as a transit point for diamond merchants in adjacent countries, and that is where they receive official certification that their sources are not African rebel groups, but legal mines - a process known as the Kimberly Process.

The panel found that one diamond supplier, identified as "A." in the report, established a company in the Liberian capital of Monrovia in partnership with Yuri Freund. During a visit to Monrovia this past June, the panel examined suspicious aspects of the company's activities - namely, the fact that the diamonds the company advertised for sale were similar in make-up to Ivory Coast diamonds, but the document attesting to their origin said they came from a western Liberian mine, far from the Ivory Coast border.

Moreover, the date on the document was also the date on which the diamonds arrived in Monrovia, though under Liberian law, the date must be the one on which the diamonds left the mine. The panel did not think one day was enough time for the diamonds to make their way from the mine to the capital and concluded that the documents were probably false.

The UN report also noted that the company's two partners are known to have been connected to the illegal diamond trade in the past. Partner A. was one of Frey's main suppliers of Ivory Coast diamonds, and his family remains active in the diamond business in that country. And Freund was investigated in Mali in 2004 on suspicion of smuggling rough diamonds through the airport in Bamako.

The panel concluded that the partners, A. and Freund, apparently established a company to create an additional illegal channel for rough diamonds from Ivory Coast. It therefore submitted its findings to Israel's diamond controller, Shmuel Mordechai, who heads the Diamonds, Precious Stones and Jewelry Administration in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. Mordechai responded that the relevant Israeli authorities have not identified any suspicious imports by the Freund family's operations.

The UN report on the situation in Ivory Coast, where civil war continues to rage, said that Israel, like the United Arab Emirates, Guinea and Mali, had not provided the panel with satisfactory answers to its questions. Israel, it noted, is of utmost importance to this issue, because the country is a key player in the global trade in rough stones.

Blood diamonds are stones whose trade supports rebels in civil wars against legal governments, wars whose victims are hapless civilians. Israel is a senior member of the Kimberly Process, meant to eliminate the trade in blood diamonds, which flourished in Africa in the 1990s. Since the Kimberly Process was instituted, each diamond now receives a document attesting to its legitimate origin. Nonetheless, the process has not completely eliminated trade in blood diamonds, which account for about four percent of world diamond sales.

Mordechai, the Industry Ministry's diamond controller, said "we completely reject the reports about Israeli trade in blood diamonds. The State of Israel has never dealt in rough diamonds from Ivory Coast. In recent years, we have cooperated fully with the UN panel and proved beyond doubt that diamonds without Kimberly certification do not enter Israel ... Israel has been part of the Kimberly Process from the beginning and operates a strict system of supervision and enforcement."

The Freund family said that "all the family's activities in Liberia are legal; everything is registered and documented as required. The family is not connected in any way to the blood diamond trade. Shimon Freund was interrogated in 2008 by the relevant UN unit, whose allegations were never substantiated. Yuri Freund established the company in Liberia without partners. Yuri has absolutely no connection to the matter and has never been investigated. The suspicions that have been made public are nothing but nonsense and lies."

Fri., October 30, 2009 Cheshvan 12, 5770

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124668.html

Israel Accused of Hanky Pank in Lebanon

[See another story below on Israel’s machinations in Lebanon. It’s not surprising that Israel works hand-in-glove with the stud who rules Italy. That sexually over-active clown (he was to prove to a courtroom that he was capable of getting an erection) has done far more outrageous things than comment on President Obama’s "suntan," and Israel likes working with officials it can corrupt. As for the President of Lebanon, he was a general, respected by all sides in the complex politics of that country, and was elected President because all believed him to be thoroughly honest, trustworthy, and neutral.]

Lebanon: Israel arranged Katyusha fire to keep tensions high

By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Thursday suggested that Israel had arranged for collaborators in his country to fire Katyusha rockets at the Galilee earlier this week, in a bid to keep tensions high in the area.

According to the Lebanese newspaper A-Sapir, Israel's declarations that it would not cease its intelligence activities on Lebanese territories validate Suleiman's accusations.

A panel of inquiry established by the Lebanese Army found that the rockets, fired from Houla in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, were launched from the home of the village's mayor.

The mayor was not present in his home, according to the panel, and has no connection to the rocket fire.

Lebanese troops found and dismantled four rockets ready for launching in a building under construction near the border with Israel on Wednesday, said a senior Lebanese army official.

Three of the four Katyusha rockets found were ready to be fired, said the official.

The discovery came one day after the Katyusha fired, the first such incident since last month.

The attack on Tuesday drew a rapid response from Israeli artillery in a brief flare-up across the border that caused no casualties.

Last update - 10:34 29/10/2009

Spain fuming after Netanyahu asks Italy to retain control of UNIFIL

By Barak Ravid

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has secretly asked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to keep his country in charge of the United Nations force in Lebanon rather than handing control to Spain as planned, causing chagrin in Madrid.

The issue, which has turned into a serious diplomatic incident, was expected to feature prominently in talks between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Spanish officials this week. It appears that Barak, who left for Spain on Sunday to discuss bilateral diplomatic and security-related ties, needs to provide a solid explanation for Israel's request if he is to avert a full-blown crisis.

In making the request of Italy earlier this month, Netanyahu sided with the Israel Defense Forces' argument that Israel should make an effort to keep Italy's Major General Claudio Graziano in charge of the UN Interim Force in Lebonon for at least another six months beyond the scheduled end of his term in a few weeks. The IDF said that though there was no problem with Spanish command of UNIFIL in general, the situation in Lebanon is very sensitive at this time and replacing the UNIFIL commander now is liable to cause difficulties in coordination and destabilize the situation.

The Foreign Ministry, however, said Israel should not get involved in the planned change in command, so as not to insult the major European countries that take part in UNIFIL - Italy, France and Spain, which are due to decide shortly who will be the next commander - and to avoid unnecessary friction. The ministry also said the issue involved a political struggle among the European countries that revolves around their international reputations and their roles in the Afghanistan war.

A Spanish diplomat questioned Israel's argument, asking in a conversation with Haaretz: "What does a 'sensitive period in Lebanon' mean? When isn't there tension in Lebanon? What kind of argument is this?"

Spanish officials were also angered by the initial concealment of the conversation between Netanyahu and Berlusconi, a lack of coordination between the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry and the wrong messages the Spanish government received.

Netanyahu adopted the IDF perspective, but kept his request discreet. However, it was so discreet that the Foreign Ministry didn't know what was going on. Italy told Spain that the Israelis, along with the Lebanese and the Americans, wanted to extend the Italian command of UNIFIL by six months. But when Spanish officials asked the Foreign Ministry for clarification, they got the wrong information because of the lack of internal Israeli coordination.

When the Spanish ambassador to Israel, Alvaro Iranzo, asked Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon to clarify the Israeli request, Ayalon - who had never been informed of Netanyahu's conversation with Berlusconi - denied that Israel was getting involved in the UNIFIL transfer of power. Israeli representatives in Madrid and the United Nations were instructed to make similar statements.

Last update - 09:04 29/10/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124442.html

Rabbi Maces Israel's Rosa Parks

'Woman refusing to walk on other street side attacked'

[You may recall Rosa Parks as the black woman who, tired after a long day of hard work, refused to get out of a "whites only" seat on a bus and move to stand in the black section at the rear.]

By ABE SELIG

Yoel "Yoelish" Kraus, the kambatz, or "operations director" for the Eda Haharedit organization, was released to house arrest on Monday after being arrested the previous evening for assaulting a haredi woman who refused to move to the other side of the street in the capital's Mea She'arim neighborhood, police said.

Kraus, a high-profile member of the fiercely anti-Zionist organization, was ordered to serve 30 days of house arrest outside of Jerusalem.

On Sunday, Jerusalem Police announced that Kraus had been arrested after allegedly spraying the woman with a mace-like substance and attacking her.

Some streets in the capital's ultra-Orthodox enclave are unofficially segregated between men and women. Kraus allegedly spotted the woman walking on one of the neighborhood's streets and told her to cross to the other side.

When she refused, Kraus attacked her, police said. The woman, who did not require medical attention, called the police, who on Monday said that Kraus had initially admitted his role in the incident.

The Eda Haharedit, however, has asserted Kraus's innocence, saying that "Rabbi Kraus never laid a hand on anyone."

Kraus is known to police most recently for his organizational role in the haredi riots that rocked the capital over the summer after the municipality decided to open a public parking lot near the Jaffa Gate on Shabbat.

Scores of police and rioters were injured during the months of unrest, which saw weekly confrontations between the two sides in front of the Karta parking lot, opposite the Old City.

While those disturbances have died down, Kraus's arrest, and subsequent claims by the Eda Haharedit of his innocence, may threaten the delicate relationship that exists between the capital's police and its haredi population.

Kraus is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing after his house arrest is completed.

Oct 27, 2009 2:50 | Updated Oct 27, 2009 9:50

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Israeli Illegal Arms Dealer Sentenced

It will be interesting to see if Israel turns him over to France to serve his sentence.

France: Gaydamak gets 6 years in jail

Israeli-Russian businessman and his partner, French businessman Pierre Falcone, sentenced in Paris to six years in prison for their involvement in arms sales worth $790 million to Angola in 1990s

AFP

Israeli-Russian businessman Arcadi Gaydamak and his partner, French businessman Pierre Falcone, were sentenced Tuesday in Paris to six years in prison for their role in Angolagate, a case of arms sales worth $790 million to Angola in the 1990s.

The huge arsenal - 420 tanks, 150,000 shells, 170,000 anti-personnel mines, 12 helicopters, six warships - shored up President Eduardo Dos Santos's regime during its vicious bush war against the UNITA rebels.

Gaydamak's lawyer said he would appeal his conviction in the affair and the six-year sentence handed down to him by the French court.

"Gaydamak was acquitted of half of the charges against him, and, despite this, was still sentenced to six years in prison. This is unfortunate. Of course, we intend to submit an appeal," said the lawyer.

Gaydamak's other lawyer, Attorney William Goldnagel, said that his client was "a victim of political and legal games." In statements made to Russian news agency Novosti, Goldnagel said that he intends to submit an appeal, but that he must consult first with Gaydamak.

Angola pushed to have the trial abandoned, while President Nicolas Sarkozy flew to Luanda in May 2008 to mend ties strained by the case.

Observers believed a harsh verdict could poison France's relations with Angola, where it hopes to develop massive oil contracts.

The arms sales began when Socialist president Francois Mitterrand was president in 1993 but continued until 1998, three years after conservative Jacques Chirac's election.

Mitterrand's son and former Africa advisor, Jean-Christophe, was sentenced to two years probation on charges of accepting millions of euros in "consultant fees" on the arms deals between 1993 and 1998.

Former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua was sentenced to one year in prison.

From October 2008 to March this year, judges struggled to make sense of a labyrinth of murky deals linking French politicians, businessmen and public figures and a massive arms shipment to a war-torn African country.

Prosecutors claim the shipment was in itself illegal, although the main defendants dispute this, and allege many millions of dollars were skimmed off the contract to pay bribes to senior French and Angolan figures.

But despite a promise to come and explain his role, Gaydamak has remained in Israel. He is said to have used his contacts in Eastern Europe to get his hands on the Soviet-designed weapons that were shipped to Luanda.

Falcone, who holds French, Canadian and Angolan citizenship, was named Angola's ambassador to the United Nations Paris-based cultural organisation UNESCO in 2003 and has claimed diplomatic immunity in the case.

Several defendants have insisted the trade was carried out in full view of French authorities but that Paris kept quiet to shore up a regional ally and protect an important source of oil.

Latest Update: 10.27.09, 20:10 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3796350,00.html

Israel Using Passive Germ Warfare on Palestinians

European countries have donated millions of dollars to repair the Gaza sewer and water systems, but Israel refuses to allow needed building materials into the territory and Egypt is collaborating with it.

QUOTE: During Israel's offensive in Gaza last year, water and sewage pipes suffered severe damage. Rovera said the water situation in Gaza had reached a "crisis point," with 90 percent to 95 percent of the water supply contaminated and unfit for human consumption.

Amnesty: Israel withholds water from Palestinians

Rights group accuses Israel of consuming more than its fair share of water in West Bank

Associated Press

Amnesty International is accusing Israel of pumping disproportionate amounts of drinking water from an aquifer it controls in the West Bank, depriving local Palestinians of their fair share.

The London-based human rights group also said in a report released Tuesday, that Israel has blocked infrastructure projects that would improve existing water supplies to Palestinians, both in the West Bank and those living in the Gaza Strip.

"This scarcity has affected every walk of life for Palestinians," Amnesty's researcher on Israel, Donatella Rovera, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday, ahead of the report's release. "A greater amount of water has to be granted to them."

The report especially focuses on the so-called Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank. It says that Israel uses more than 80 percent of water drawn from the aquifer and while the Jewish state has other water sources, the aquifer is the West Bank's sole supply of water.

Government spokesman Mark Regev called Amnesty's claims "completely ludicrous". He said Israel holds the legal right to the aquifer since it was the first to discover, develop and pump from it.

Regev said Israel pumps less water from the Mountain Aquifer today than it did in 1967, and Palestinian consumption of fresh water has actually tripled in that time.

He blamed the Palestinians for not investing in development in the West Bank and said they have failed even to drill wells that have already been approved.

But Amnesty charged that Israel routinely denies Palestinians permits to launch desperately needed water sanitation and infrastructure projects in the West Bank.

90-95% of Gaza's water contaminated

Israelis use more than four times the amount of water per person on average than do Palestinians, whose consumption falls far below the minimum amount recommended by the World Health Organization, the report said.

The 450,000 Israelis who live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinian residents, Amnesty said.

Shaul Arlosoroff, a leading authority on water acquisition and use, said Israeli restrictions in the West Bank are meant to protect an already taxed aquifer from overpumping.

In the report, Amnesty also cited serious problems with water supply to the Gaza Strip.

Since Hamas seized control of the coastal territory in 2007, Gaza's long-standing problems with sewage and water sanitation facilities have deteriorated, Rovera said. During Israel's offensive in Gaza last year, water and sewage pipes suffered severe damage.

Rovera said the water situation in Gaza had reached a "crisis point," with 90 percent to 95 percent of the water supply contaminated and unfit for human consumption.

An Israeli blockade of Gaza has halted any repairs to the strip's overburdened sewage and water networks, preventing materials and equipment to repair the infrastructure from getting in, Rovera said.

"This is a false, manipulative report whose results were predetermined," Tsviki Bar Hai, head of Har Hevron Regional Council, said in response.

"This is demonstrated by the report saying there are 450,000 settlers, when the actual number is 300,000. in the past few years, he added, "There has been an increase in water theft by Palestinians. Over three million cubic meters of water were stolen in the Hebron area alone in the past year."

Published: 10.27.09, 11:51 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3796085,00.html

Anti-Israel Effort in Bahrain Will Doubtless Fail

The pattern in the Middle East is that the people are against Israel, but the dictators or kings who rule almost everywhere show a degree of favor to Israel, depending on what rewards and pressure they receive from the US and Europe (Egypt and Jordan get billions of dollars a year since they signed peace treaties with Israel, and they regularly use police to jail people who protest against Israel.)

QUOTE: Diplomats and analysts say Arab governments have been pressured by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to make steps towards normalizing ties in order to help encourage Israel to enter peace talks with Palestinians. But popular sentiment has been opposed to such moves.

Bahrain parliament votes to penalize contacts with Israel

By Reuters

Bahrain's parliament on Tuesday approved legislation penalizing contacts with Israel, a move which could complicate Gulf Arab leaders' efforts to promote peace talks with Israel.

"Whoever holds any communication or official talks with Israeli officials or travels to Israel will face a fine...and/or a jail sentence of three to five years," member of parliament Jalal Fairooz from the Shi'ite Al-Wefaq bloc, an opposition group that was the driving force behind the move.

"The motivation is that steps are being taken by certain countries to allow certain talks to be held with Israeli officials. Israeli delegates have managed to participate in events in Arab countries with no treaties with Israel."

Diplomats and analysts say Arab governments have been pressured by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to make steps towards normalizing ties in order to help encourage Israel to enter peace talks with Palestinians.

But popular sentiment has been opposed to such moves. An Egyptian writer is facing disciplinary action by the journalists union for meeting the Israeli ambassador in Cairo.

Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa wrote in the Washington Post in July that Arabs had not done enough to communicate directly with Israelis.

Bahraini officials visited Israel in July in an official capacity for the first time to collect five of their nationals Israel was deporting after seizing them on a ship bound for the Palestinian territory of Gaza, blockaded by Israel.

Bahrain's parliament has limited powers and bills must pass through an upper house whose members are chosen by the king. Ultimate power lies with the ruling family.

Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania are the only Arab League states with formal ties with Israel.

Last update - 18:37 27/10/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1123980.html

Israel ranks low for freedom of press, after Gaza war media ban

COMMENT: Whenever Israel is challenged, its defenders tout it as the "only democracy" in the Middle East (conveniently forgetting Turkey and Lebanon). Well the "only democracy" is and always has been low on the list of press freedom, and somebody once said a free press is essential to a workable democracy.

By Gili Eizkovitch Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

Israel placed 93 out of 175 on an international list ranking freedom of press released on Tuesday, dropping 47 spots since last year.

The list was compiled by 'Reporters without Borders', an international organization funded by private firms and donations, which monitors press freedom violations around the world.

Of the 175 countries on the list, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates received higher ranking than Israel for their countries' freedom of press.

Israel's dramatic drop since last came as a result of its press regulations dictated to international media during the Gaza offensive earlier this year.

"During its military offensive Cast Lead from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, Israel banned foreign media from the Gaza Strip for 'security reasons,'" said the report.

"This sealing of the territory constituted a serious press freedom violation. Six journalists were killed, two of them while working, and around 15 were wounded in the conflict," said the report.

Israel placed 44 on the list in 2007, and in 2008 it was ranked 46.

Nevetheless, said the report, Israel's freedom of press is quite high compared to others in the region. "Despite military censorship [Israel's] press still enjoys total freedom that is unequaled in the region," said the report.

Last update - 21:43 20/10/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1122370.html

U.S. extends remand of would-be Israel spy

QUOTE: One of Nozette's Jewish neighbors in Chevy Chase told Haaretz on Tuesday that he was surprised to learn both of the allegations and also of the suspect's Jewish identity.

[NOTE: the only reason for noting that he's Jewish is that in the past Jewish organizations have accused the government of anti-Semitism and singling out Jews for special surveillance. Don't be surprised if we hear those charges here too.]

By Yossi Melman and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies

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, appeared in court on Tuesday for the first time since arrest.

Nozette waived his right to detention hearings at the U.S. district court in Washington DC until October 29. His remand has been extended until then.

Israeli and American sources said on Tuesday that Nozette had business dealings with Israel Aerospace Industries. Nozette, who is credited with helping discover evidence of water on the moon, was arrested by federal authorities on Monday.

According to the Israeli and American sources, 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. IAI is Israel's largest exporter of defense and aerospace technology.

During the hearing on Tuesday, a State Prosecutor said the allegations would be viewed with utmost severity.

"Nozette planned to betray the U.S. and was captured on surveillance trying to convey top secret information to the foreign governments. Due to the potential of causing grave damage to U.S. security he most likely faces incarceration for the rest of his life."

The Justice Department said Nozette, 52, of suburban Chevy Chase, Maryland, was charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to communicate, deliver and transmit classified information to an individual he believed to be an Israeli intelligence officer.

The complaint does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf violated U.S. law.

One of Nozette's Jewish neighbors in Chevy Chase told Haaretz on Tuesday that he was surprised to learn both of the allegations and also of the suspect's Jewish identity.

"He was not really neighborly. He kept to himself. He was a smart but weird guy and we didn't even know he was Jewish," said the neighbor.

In Jerusalem, where the story broke late at night, Israeli government officials had no immediate comment.

Nozette was arrested Monday by FBI agents. He is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Tuesday.

Last update - 21:08 20/10/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1122349.html

Sources: Would-be U.S. spy worked for Israeli arms firm

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service, and The Associated Press

[NOTE: it’s interesting that Israel has no official comment on the case. Usually they are quick to deny things.]

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.

Nozette, who is credited with helping discover evidence of water on the moon, was arrested by federal authorities on Monday.

The Justice Department said Nozette, 52, of suburban Chevy Chase, Maryland, was charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to communicate, deliver and transmit classified information to an individual he believed to be an Israeli intelligence officer.

The complaint does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf violated U.S. law.

In Jerusalem, where the story broke late at night, Israeli government officials had no immediate comment.

Nozette was arrested Monday by FBI agents. He is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Tuesday.

Last update - 15:24 20/10/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1122349.html