FBI Says Top Scientist Sold Secrets

Last month, inside one of the many hotels lining Connecticut Avenue in downtown Washington, one of the country's top defense scientists allegedly offered to sell his nation's secrets to an Israeli spy. At least Stewart Nozette thought the man was a Mossad agent. In reality, according to court papers, he was an undercover agent with the FBI's counterintelligence squad.

Nozette, a 52-year-old former NASA scientist credited with helping to discover evidence of water on the moon and one of the brains behind the Star Wars missile defense scheme, was arrested last week and charged with attempted espionage. Described as a "walking safe deposit box" of government secrets by prosecutors in court this week, Nozette is being held without bond. A conviction in the case could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. "Those who put our nation's defense secrets up for sale can expect to be vigorously prosecuted," said Channing Phillips, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Less than two weeks after the hotel meeting and having been paid $2,000 in cash, Nozette went to a prearranged post office box and dropped off an encrypted thumb drive and a sealed manila envelope containing a document with secret information about a prototype satellite, according to the Justice Department. A few days later, the FBI allegedly gave him $9,000 and asked for more. This time, according to the FBI, Nozette left top-secret information about U.S. satellites, early warning systems, and communications intelligence. "You want me to be a regular, continuing asset?" Nozette allegedly asked the undercover agent. "Which I'm willing to do."

Because of the nature of his government work over the years, Nozette had acquired a wide range of security clearances, including those for so-called special access programs. He also had at one time a "Q" clearance from the Department of Energy, which "involved insight into all aspects of nuclear weapons programs," according to investigators. Information about satellites and methods of intercepting communications are among the most closely guarded secrets, and those who threaten to compromise them are aggressively prosecuted, says Jonathan Turley, a lawyer who has defended clients against espionage charges.

The scientist appears to have known that his knowledge was valuable. When the undercover agent posing as an Israeli spy first approached Nozette with the offer of cash for secrets, the scientist didn't appear surprised, the FBI says. "I knew this day would come," he told the agent, according to court documents. The scientist allegedly asked for an Israeli passport in exchange for his cooperation. And then he asked for money. "They don't expect me to do this for free," he allegedly told the undercover agent. "Cash is good for anything," he said. "You can eat it, drink it, or screw it."

The sting appears to have been anything but a random dragnet for the loose-lipped and greedy. "There has to be a reason to initiate these type of complicated [sting] operations, as there was in this case," says a senior government official familiar with the details of the case. Indeed, Nozette had attracted attention from the feds several years ago, after an internal investigation by NASA revealed alleged financial irregularities at a nonprofit organization he ran, the Alliance for Competitive Technology. In 2006, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office subpoenaed bank records from the group, which had several government contracts.