Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

U.S. Arrests Former NASA Scientist Over Alleged Israel Espionage Bid

U.S. authorities arrested a Defense Department official who allegedly agreed to spy for Israel.

Stewart David Nozette, 52, of Maryland, allegedly told an FBI agent claiming to be an Israeli agent that he had access to U.S. satellite information and had once held top security clearances, news agencies reported on Monday.

Nothing in the complaint suggests that Israel’s government was involved in the alleged crimes.

Nozette, who also worked for NASA, once designed “highly advanced” technology at the Energy Department, Bloomberg reported.

Nozette, arrested by FBI agents on Monday, will appear on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. on charges of attempted spying.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.