Espionage

A scientist who worked for the Defense Department, a White House space council and other agencies was arrested Monday on charges of attempting to pass along classified information to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.

Stewart David Nozette, 52, of Chevy Chase, Md., was charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to communicate, deliver and transmit classified information, the Justice Department said. The complaint does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf violated U.S. law.

This is one of the worse forms of treason that can be done to the American people. Giving the precious secrets away that our government uses for the defense of its people is an utter shame.
Nozette had plenty of clearances that enabled him to access several databases that kept the nuclear capabilities of the United States. While Nozette tried to pass these secrets to a friendly government with the United States that is still no excuse on Nozette’s part or the Israeli government’s part. With a world that is forever changing, friends can be enemies very quickly.

The Russians, Chinese, the British, Cuba and Germany have all engaged is some type of espionage activity in the United States. Do not get me wrong the United States has returned the favor several times as well. Being proactive is one thing, but doing it and using the secrets gained has been around since the Roman days. The individuals that perpetrate these high crimes are nothing more than criminals regardless of which country they live in.

Following is a chronology of recent major espionage cases in the United States:

2000
GEORGE TROFIMOFF, a retired Army Reserve colonel, was accused of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for a quarter of a century. He is the highest- ranking American military officer ever charged with espionage. He allegedly photographed documents and passed the film to KGB agents, and was later recruited into the KGB.

1997
EARL PITTS, who was stationed at the F.B.I. Academy in Quantico, Va., was sentenced to 27 years in prison after admitting he spied for Moscow.

1996
HAROLD JAMES NICHOLSON, a C.I.A. officer, was charged with committing espionage on behalf of Russia. At the time of his arrest at a Washington airport, he was carrying rolls of exposed film which contained Secret and Top Secret information. He pleaded guilty to the charges in 1997 and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

1994
ALDRICH H. AMES, a CIA counterintelligence official, and his wife, Rosario, pleaded guilty to spying for the Soviet Union in what was characterized as the most damaging espionage case in the nation's history. He passed information to the Soviets from 1985 to 1994, including the identities of American agents. He is blamed for the deaths of at least nine United States agents in the Soviet Union, and for disclosing American counterintelligence techniques.

1989
FELIX BLOCH, Foreign Service officer, was suspended by the State Department after reportedly being monitored by video camera passing a suitcase to a Soviet agent in Paris. Mr. Bloch, who was once charge d'affaires at the Embassy in Vienna, was not charged with espionage, but was fired in 1990 on the grounds that he lied to investigators.

1986
JONATHAN JAY POLLARD, a civilian Navy intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty to spying for Israel. He is serving a life sentence, which President Clinton refused to commute despite pleas from the Israeli government.

1986
RONALD W. PELTON, a former National Security Agency employee, was convicted of selling top-secret signals intelligence information to the Soviet Union.

1985
LARRY WU-TAI CHIN, a retired C.I.A. analyst, was charged with selling American secrets to China for more than 30 years. He killed himself in his jail cell in 1986, two weeks after being convicted of espionage and tax violations.

EDWARD LEE HOWARD, a former C.I.A. officer, fled the country as the F.B.I. was investigating him for spying for the Soviet Union. He turned up in the Soviet Union in 1986, where he still lives.

A retired Navy warrant officer, JOHN A. WALKER JR., pleaded guilty along with his son, Seaman MICHAEL L. WALKER of the Navy, to charges of spying for the Soviet Union. The elder Walker admitted passing secrets to the Soviets while he was a shipboard communications officer and after his retirement by recruiting his son, brother and a friend to provide fresh information.

1984
RICHARD W. MILLER, an F.B.I. agent in Los Angeles, was arrested on spying charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The sentence was reduced to 13 years, and he was released in 1994.

1980
DAVID H. BARNETT, a former C.I.A. agent, pleaded guilty to spying for the Soviet Union between 1976 and 1979 while based in Indonesia. He admitted exposing the identities of 30 agents.

There can never be enough security around the DoD, CIA, or the National Security Agencies top secret information. As someone who has worked in this industry, I believe the government has not spent the monies needed to secure the information most vital to its defense. Until proper change control is put in place, our national secrets are at risk.

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