[see he didn't actually *spy* he just wanted to which is TEWTALLY different wink wink wink!]
by Peter Grier, staff writer for Christian Science Monitor
Washington - Did top US space scientist Stewart Nozette spy for Israel?
The short answer is, he did not. He was caught in an undercover sting operation in which an FBI agent posed as an Israeli spy. US officials have emphasized that the espionage charges filed Monday against Mr. Nozette do not implicate Israel itself.
The longer answer has yet to come, though, and is likely more complicated. Nozette clearly thought he was spying for Israel, according to a criminal complaint filed in US District Court. And US investigators first began tracking Nozette after they picked up indications he might be working for a foreign government.
"People who spy are motivated by ideology or money. You've got to run it to ground in either case to try and find out what was going on," says William Martel, an associate professor of security studies at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.Why would Nozette even think Israel wanted an American spy? Historically, nations spy on each other if they feel they have a reason to do so, whether they are friendly with each other or not. That goes for the US as well as its allies.
"Countries are looking out for their interests," says Professor Martel, speaking generally and not specifically about the Nozette case.
But Israeli officials say their country ended any espionage against the US following the conviction of Jonathan Pollard, a former analyst for US Naval Intelligence, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for spying for Israel. [HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHHAHAHa]
...
Among his more sensitive jobs was a stint as a physicist in the "O Division" of the Advanced Concepts Group at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He held a "Top Secret" security clearance from 1989 to 2006, according to the FBI.
"So any [sensitive work] that the US has done in space, I've seen," Nozette boasted to an undercover FBI agent during a lunch at the Mayflower hotel in September.
At that meeting, the FBI agent was pretending to be a representative of Mossad, Israel's espionage agency. Appraised of this, Nozette reacted with aplomb, according to a transcript of the conversation excerpted in the court complaint.
"I don't get recruited by Mossad every day. I knew this day would come, by the way," said Nozette, according to the FBI.
"How's that?," asked the undercover agent.
"I just had a feeling, one of these days," said Nozette in reply.
So, why did Nozette have that "feeling"? [oh why indeed?]
read more @ christian science monitor
2. Ex-FBI translator [Sibel Edmonds] claims spying at DoD
In sworn testimony to attorneys on Aug. 8, Sibel Edmonds described a Pentagon where key personnel helped pass defense secrets to foreign agents or provided them names of knowledgeable officials who were vulnerable to blackmail or co-option.
And firmly rooted in this espionage program in the 1990s, according to Edmonds’ deposition, were two men who, with the election of George W. Bush as president in 2000, found themselves in the Pentagon: Douglas Feith, who would head the Office of Special Plans, and Richard Perle, who would become chairman of the Defense Advisory Board.
"They were 100 percent directly involved," Edmonds told Military.com. "They were not in the Pentagon [in the late 1990s] but they had their people inside the Pentagon." One of those people, she said, was Larry Franklin, an Air Force officer assigned to the Office of Special Plans who, in 2003, passed classified information to representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Office, or AIPAC. By then Feith was leading the OSP.
Edmonds cautioned that she does not know if these practices are continuing, since she was fired by the FBI in April 2002 after pressing for an investigation into an attempt by a colleague to recruit her for an organization that was itself a target of FBI surveillance.
Perle, today a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and board member for or adviser to other think tanks, including the National Institute for Neareast Affairs and the Center for Security Policy, emphatically denied Edmonds’ claims in an interview with Military.com.
“This woman is a nutcase. Certifiable,” Perle said. “She makes wild accusations. She was fired from her job, and has been on a vendetta against … imagined demons ever since.”
Feith, in an email to Military.com, said: “What I’ve read on the Internet about Ms. Edmonds’s claims about me is wildly false and bizarre.”
3. Israeli spies busy in the US - Wayne Madsen
The U.S. air force and Department of Energy are being targeted by the Israeli intelligence service, according to investigative journalist Wayne Madsen. He says the Mossad is busy at work in Nevada.
On Monday, a leading US scientist, Stewart Nozette, 52, was arrested for allegedly trying to pass classified secrets to Israel in exchange for cash.
Wayne Madsen says the proof of Israeli intelligence’s presence in Nevada “comes out of what we hear about” Nozette.
4. Energy business deals announced in Nevada
Israel business deal - an Israeli subsidiary of a US company (presumably) and and Israeli private company - making solar power deals that will operate in Israel --- announced in Reno, Nevada. Vertical integration of geothermal and recovered energy. Sounds great. I wonder who did all this research. Hey it's for Israel. Maybe someday they'll sell it to the world as part of the profitable green Agenda 21. I bet they can make a ton of money hmm?
Ormat signs Joint Venture Agreement for solar (PV) power systems
RENO, Nevada, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ormat Technologies, Inc.
(NYSE: ORA), announced today that its Israeli subsidiary, Ormat Systems Ltd.,
has signed a Joint Venture Agreement ("JVA") with Sunday Energy Ltd.
("Sunday"), an Israeli private company to develop, construct and operate
solar-photovoltaic ("PV") energy systems in Israel with a total capacity of 36
MW.
Under the JVA, Sunday will contribute the rights to all of its property and
roofs required to develop solar energy systems above 1 MW to special purpose
entities ("SPEs"). Ormat will own 70% of each SPE and will also have control
of it. Under the terms of the agreement, Ormat and Sunday will act, jointly,
as the EPC contractor and the operator of each project in accordance with each
company share in the SPEs .
The estimated capital expenditure for 36 MW of solar power systems is
approximately $195 million. The electricity generated from the projects will
be sold to Israel Electric Corporation Ltd. under long-term power purchase
agreements (20 years) and will generate approximately $30 million in annual
revenues. The SPEs expect to finance their capital expenditure with 80%
Non-Recourse project finance debt.
...
Lucien Y. Bronicki, Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer of
Ormat Technologies, said, "Ormat's commercial activity in the solar energy
market is part of a strategic plan to be a leading player in renewable energy.
We have a long, rich history in renewable energy that includes activity in
solar energy that we believe we can leverage to bring unique benefits to this
project. Our connection to solar energy goes back over 30 years to the solar
pond project that we developed between 1977 and 1984. Our work on the solar
pond created the technological foundation for our geothermal technology, which
today positions Ormat as the industry leader. We are pleased to finally add an
Israeli solar installation, to the current 1,200 MW of Geothermal and
Recovered Energy power plants that Ormat has installed throughout the years.
We are looking at this joint venture as an attractive business opportunity
derived by the reduction in solar PV modules prices and the increase in their
supply on one hand and the expected Israeli feed-in tariff for large solar PV
systems on the other hand."
About Ormat Technologies
Ormat Technologies, Inc. is the only vertically-integrated company primarily
engaged in the geothermal and recovered energy power business. The Company
designs, develops, owns and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based
power plants around the world. Additionally, the Company designs, manufactures
and sells geothermal and recovered energy power units and other
power-generating equipment, and provides related services. The Company has
more than four decades of experience in the development of
environmentally-sound power, primarily in geothermal and recovered-energy
generation. Ormat products and systems are covered by 75 U.S. patents. Ormat
has built over approximately 1,200 MW of plants half for its own account and
half as supplies to utilities and developers. Ormat's current generating
portfolio includes the following geothermal and recovered energy-based power
plants: in the United States - Brady, Heber, Mammoth, Ormesa, Puna, Steamboat,
OREG 1, OREG 2 and Peetz; in Guatemala - Zunil and Amatitlan; in Kenya -
Olkaria; in Nicaragua - Momotombo and in New Zealand - GDL.
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