Stewart Nozette

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Stewart Nozette
Stewart Nozette.jpg
Born
Stewart David Nozette

(1957-05-20) May 20, 1957 (age 67)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Arizona
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Known forAttempting to transfer American nuclear and space technology to Israel
Awards NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
Scientific career
Fields Geoscience
Planetary Science
Institutions Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of Texas
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization
United States Department of Energy Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (1990–1999)
United States Department of Defense
National Space Council (1989–1990)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Alliance for Competitive Technology (1990–present)
DARPA
Thesis The Physical and Chemical Properties of the Surface of Venus  (1983)
Doctoral advisor John S. Lewis
Gordon Pettengill

Stewart David Nozette (born May 20, 1957) is an American planetary scientist, technologist, and consultant who worked for the United States Department of Energy, the United States Department of Defense, DARPA, the United States Naval Research Laboratory, and NASA. [1] He is also a convicted felon for attempted espionage and fraud against the United States. The FBI arrested him on October 19, 2009, [2] charging him with attempted espionage after a sting operation [3] which Nozette's lawyer claims amounted to entrapment. [4] At trial, Nozette admitted attempting to sell U.S. classified information to someone he believed was an Israeli Mossad operative, but was in reality an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation employee. He pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted espionage and was sentenced, under the terms of a plea bargain, to thirteen years in prison. After serving time [5] at the Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute, Nozette was released on November 13, 2020.

Contents

Personal life and education

Nozette was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 20, 1957, [3] to Helen and Morris Nozette. [6] He grew up in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood and earned a B.S. in geosciences with honors and distinction (University of Arizona, 1979), and a Ph.D. in Planetary sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1983). [3] [7] He worked a couple of summers in the 1970's as a guide-lecturer at the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) while he was home from the University of Arizona.

Career

In 1983-1984 Nozette was co-director of the California Space Institute, affiliated with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. From there he went to the University of Texas as an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering Austin, Texas.

In the early 1990s, Nozette, as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative's 'Brilliant Pebbles', conceived the idea (and then led the mission) of the Clementine spacecraft as a means to both provide a test bed for the development of lighter, more cost effective advanced space technology, as well as to obtain data for the Moon. [8]

Nozette and colleagues' bistatic radar results from Clementine claimed to support the discovery of water on the south pole of the Moon. Although the significance of the result was questioned, [9] [10] measurements made by subsequent Lunar missions have supported the hypothesis that the Moon holds substantially greater reserves of water than had been thought based on Apollo program results and confirmed Nozette's original findings. [11] [12] [13] The engineering model of the Clementine spacecraft, which Nozette worked on, hangs in the Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. [14]

Over the course of his career, Nozette held high level security clearances and worked on sensitive United States nuclear and satellite programs. [15] He held a Q clearance, top secret clearance, and was read into multiple special access programs. [3] He held Top Secret security clearances to study nuclear material with the United States Department of Energy, and was on the National Space Council under President George H. W. Bush. [1] From 1989 to 2006, Nozette held a security clearance as high as top secret and handled documents relating to national security. [1] He left the employ of the U.S. government in 2006. [16]

Nozette worked as a technical consultant for Israel Aerospace Industries between 1998 and 2008. After he left the government job, Nozette was heavily involved in India's extraterrestrial Moon probe, Chandrayaan-1. He was a principal investigator of the Mini-RF instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and a co-investigator on Chandrayaan-1. [7] Nozette was also the president, treasurer and director of the Alliance for Competitive Technology (ACT), a non-profit organization that he organized in March 1990. In 2006 ACT acted for Mississippi State University in bringing together MSU and British microsatellite manufacturer SSTL to form Infinisat as part of a $20m earmark in the FY05 and 06 NASA budget for NASA Stennis Space Centre courtesy of Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran. ACT was also involved with the $40m earmark in the same budget, courtesy of Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, for MSFC’s lander programme. [17] [18]

Espionage and arrest

Nozette was under investigation by the Justice Department for possible fraudulent billing on a NASA contract by a nonprofit corporation he ran, "Alliance for Competitive Technology". An agent for the NASA inspector general had found billing to NASA for expenses including, among other things, three mortgages, nine credit cards, a tennis club, pool cleaning, and the Mercedes-Benz Credit Corporation. [19] Documents found by the Justice Department while investigating these irregularities included classified documents and an e-mail in which Nozette "threatened to take a classified program on which he worked to an unnamed foreign country or Israel." This information was passed along to the FBI.

In September 2009, Nozette began receiving phone calls from a person claiming to be an agent of Mossad. In reality this was an undercover FBI agent. Nozette expressed a willingness to exchange American intelligence for financial rewards. His first payment was received upon his answers to a list of questions regarding American satellite technology for public access GPS. [16] The information he claimed he would hand over included classified information. A folder left for this contact in a post office box contained "information classified as both top secret and secret that concerned US satellites, early warning systems, means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack, communications intelligence information, and major elements of defense strategy." [1] The United States Department of Justice criminal complaint, however, does not charge that "the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf committed any offense under U.S. laws." [3] [20] Nozette's contention is that this was a sting set up as the result of being forced to co-operate in a planned sting of senior political leadership responsible for NASA funding in Mississippi and Alabama. This is documented in his pardon plea. [21]

According to the criminal complaint, Nozette told his espionage contact that his parents were Jewish, [6] and therefore claimed a right to return under Israel's Law of Return. He also asked allegedly for two million dollars and a passport. [3] [22]

Nozette reached a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a single count of espionage, as well as pleading guilty earlier to the charges of fraud and tax evasion. [19] [22] The prosecution of the fraud and tax evasion case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael K. Atkinson from the Fraud and Public Corruption Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Kenneth C. Vert from the Department of Justice’s Tax Division. [23] He was sentenced to thirteen years of prison. Held in custody since his arrest in 2009, Nozette received credit for the time he had already served. Nozette was released on November 13, 2020. [24]

Honors

Selected publications

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Agence France-Presse (2009).
  2. ↑ New York Times, The Scientist Who Mistook Himself for a Spy Archived 2012-05-10 at the Wayback Machine , Oct 21 2009; also New York Times, Spying Charges Against Scientist Archived 2018-07-02 at the Wayback Machine , October 20, 2009, page A19
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Martell (2009).
  4. ↑ Washington Post, Maryland scientist Stewart Nozette sentenced for passing secrets to supposed Mossad agent, expresses regret, Mar 12 2012
  5. ↑ US scientist Stewart Nozette admits Israel spy charge Archived 2018-07-18 at the Wayback Machine BBC News. 7 September 2011
  6. 1 2 J.J. Goldberg. "An Israel Espionage Drama, Sans Israel Archived 2011-10-19 at the Wayback Machine ," Jewish Forward.
  7. 1 2 Nozette (2008).
  8. ↑ Stewart Nozette, "The Clementine Mission" Abstracts of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Vol 26, 1995, p. 1061, doi:1995LPI....26.1061N (web version Archived 2012-10-25 at the Wayback Machine )
  9. ↑ Simpson, R. A.; Tyler, G. L. (1999). "Reanalysis of Clementine bistatic radar data from the lunar South Pole". J. Geophys. Res. 104 (E2): 3845–3862. Bibcode:1999JGR...104.3845S. doi:10.1029/1998JE900038. hdl: 2060/19990047963 .
  10. ↑ Campbell, Donald B.; Campbell, Bruce A.; Carter, Lynn M.; Margot, Jean-Luc; Stacy, Nicholas J. S. (2006). "No evidence for thick deposits of ice at the lunar south pole". Nature. 443 (7113): 835–837. Bibcode:2006Natur.443..835C. doi:10.1038/nature05167. PMID   17051213. S2CID   2346946.
  11. ↑ Spudis, P.D.; Bussey, D.B.J.; Baloga, S.M.; Cahill, T.S.; Glaze, L.S.; Patterson, G.W.; Raney, R.K.; Thompson, T.W.; Thompson, B.J.; Ustinov, E.A. (2013). "Evidence for Water Ice on the Moon: Results for Anomalous Polar Craters From the LRO Mini-RF imaging Radar". Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. 118 (10): 1–14. Bibcode:2013JGRE..118.2016S. doi:10.1002/jgre.20156. hdl: 2060/20150000268 . S2CID   6908750.
  12. ↑ Spudis, P.D; Nozette, S.; et al. (2010). "Initial Results for the North Pole of the Moon from the Chandrayaan-1 Mission". Geophys. Res. Lett. 37 (6): L06204. Bibcode:2010GeoRL..37.6204S. doi: 10.1029/2009GL042259 .
  13. ↑ Thompson, B.J.; et al. (2012b). "An Upper Limit for ice in Shackleton Crater as revealed by LRO Mini RF Orbital Radar". Geophys. Res. Lett. 39 (14): L14201. Bibcode:2012GeoRL..3914201T. doi: 10.1029/2012GL052119 .
  14. ↑ "Clementine, Engineering Model". Archived from the original on May 24, 2021. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  15. ↑ Margasak (2009).
  16. 1 2 Toby Harnden, "Top US scientist accused of trying to spy for Israel," The Daily Telegraph, 19 October 2009(web version Archived 2019-07-10 at the Wayback Machine , retrieved 19 October 2009).
  17. ↑ The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's FY2006 Budget Request: Description, Analysis, and Issues for Congress (fas.org)
  18. ↑ News | GRI (msstate.edu)
  19. 1 2 Jim McElhatton, "Prominent scientist pleads guilty to attempted espionage," Washington Times," Sept 7, 2011. web version Archived 2011-09-08 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ↑ DOJ press release (2009).
  21. ↑ "Office of the Pardon Attorney | Search for a Case | United States Department of Justice". 25 May 2017. Archived from the original on 7 May 2023. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  22. 1 2 Scott Shane, "Ex-White House Scientist Pleads Guilty in Spy Case Tied to Israel," New York Times, September 8, 2011, p A22 (web version Archived 2017-10-16 at the Wayback Machine )
  23. ↑ Office of Public Affairs | Noted Scientist Sentenced to 13-Year Prison Term for Attempted Espionage, Fraud and Tax Charges | United States Department of Justice
  24. ↑ "Inmate Locator". Archived from the original on 2014-01-29. Retrieved 2023-11-12.

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