Article Posted on : - Oct 23, 2009

Nozette palyed a key role in India's Chandrayaan mission in finding evidence of water on moon.

WASHINGTON (AP/PTI): A former government scientist involved in India's Chandrayaan mission in finding evidence of water on moon who arrested earlier this week tried to provide Israel with classified information on satellites and early warning defence systems, says a grand jury indictment.

The grand jury indictment follows Monday's arrest of Stewart D. Nozette, who spent 16 years doing sensitive defence work for the Energy Department, the US Naval Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The information Nozette allegedly tried to provide Israel in an FBI sting operation dealt with "satellites, early warning systems, means of defence or retaliation against large-scale attack, communications intelligence information and major elements of defence strategy," said the indictment, which did not elaborate.

Earlier this week, a former colleague said that Nozette was primarily a defence technologist who had worked on the Reagan-era Star Wars missile shield effort formally named the Strategic Defence Initiative.

The former colleague, Stanford University professor Scott Hubbard, said Nozette worked on the Star Wars project at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

According to the indictment, Nozette worked there from 1990 to 1999. At the Energy Department, Nozette had a "Q" clearance, which is equivalent to the Pentagon's Top Secret clearance.

Nozette faces a court appearance next Thursday before a federal magistrate. He is jailed without bond.