More problems with the religion of Muhammad surface as a
naturalized American citizen, who worked for the US Navy, has been arrested
after attempting to sell secret technological information to and agent of the
Egyptian government.
Mostafa Ahmed
Awwad, 35, was indicted by a grand jury on December 3, 2014, according to
Department of Justice Documents. The agent he attempted to sell the secrets to
was a federal undercover agent, who was working for the FBI.
According to a redacted affidavit from federal agent James Blitzer,
Awwad was born in 1979 in Saudi Arabia. He married a US citizen in May 2007 in
Cairo, Egypt, and later became a US citizen.
At the time of his indictment, Awwad, of Yorktown, Virginia, was
working as a civilian engineer in the nuclear engineering and planning
department of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, where he had been hired in February.
He had been given a clearance of Secret.
The office provides engineering support for the Gerald R. Ford, under
construction at Newport News Shipbuilding in nearby Newport News, Virginia.
The indictment and affidavit provide details of how, on Sept. 18, an
FBI undercover agent speaking in Arabic contacted Awwad by phone and asked to
meet the following day. Awwad subsequently agreed to copy and turn over
diagrams and schematics of the carrier, many marked "NOFORN," meaning
no distribution to foreign citizens.
In a Justice
Department statement,
they provided the following timeline of events surrounding Awwad's treason:
Based on
joint investigation, an FBI undercover agent speaking in Arabic contacted Awwad
by telephone on Sept. 18, 2014, and asked to meet him the following day.
Without seeking additional information from the caller, Awwad agreed. The
next day, Awwad met with the undercover FBI agent, who was posing as an
Egyptian intelligence officer, in a park in Hampton, Virginia. During the
meeting Awwad claimed it was his intention to utilize his position of trust
with the U.S. Navy to obtain military technology for use by the Egyptian
government, including but not limited to, the designs of the USS Gerald R. Ford
nuclear aircraft carrier. Awwad agreed to conduct clandestine
communications with the undercover FBI agent by email and unattributable
telephones and to conduct "dead drops" in a concealed location in the
park.
On Oct. 9, 2014, Awwad and the undercover FBI agent met at a hotel
where Awwad described a detailed plan to circumvent U.S. Navy computer security
by installing software on his restricted computer system that would enable him
to copy documents without causing a security alert. At this time, Awwad
also provided the undercover FBI agent four computer aided drawings of a U.S.
nuclear aircraft carrier downloaded from the Navy Nuclear Propulsion
Information system. These drawings were marked with warnings that foreign
distribution could result in criminal prosecution. During the discussion,
Awwad indicated his understanding that the drawings would be sent to and used
in Egypt. Awwad also asked the undercover FBI agent for $1,500 to
purchase a pinhole camera he would wear around the shipyard to photograph
restricted material. At the conclusion of the meeting, Awwad agreed to
provide the undercover FBI agent with passport photos which would be used to
produce a fraudulent Egyptian passport so that Awwad could travel to Egypt
without alerting U.S. government officials.
On Oct. 23, 2014, Awwad traveled to the pre-arranged dead drop site,
situated on a secluded hiking trail in a park, and utilized a concealed
container disguised in a hole in the ground. He retrieved $3,000 in cash
before placing a one-terabyte external hard drive and two passport photos
inside. The FBI later collected the contents of the dead drop container.
On Nov. 28, 2014, Awwad was observed entering his office at the Norfolk
Naval Shipyard holding a cardboard tube about three feet long. Once in
his office, Awwad opened the cardboard tube and took out several white sheets
which appeared to be design schematics of an aircraft carrier. Awwad then
placed the schematics on the floor of his office and photographed them.
After approximately 45 minutes of viewing the schematics and taking
photographs, Awwad placed all the schematics back in the cardboard tube and
left his office.
"Awwad pleaded guilty to
leveraging his position of trust within the Navy to share the schematics of the
USS Gerald R. Ford nuclear aircraft carrier with what he believed to be a
foreign government," said
Assistant Attorney General Carlin. "The National Security Division will
continue to pursue and bring to justice those who abuse their access to
sensitive defense information. I would like to thank all of the special agents,
prosecutors and other personnel whose work led to the guilty plea in this
case."
"Today, Mr.
Awwad is being held responsible for attempting to steal the valuable plans for
the USS Ford and to provide them to a foreign government," said U.S.
Attorney Boente. "This office is committed to safeguarding our nation's
sensitive defense information, and we will bring to justice those who seek to
steal it. I want to commend our partners at the FBI Norfolk and NCIS Norfolk
for their excellent work on this case."
"This case
underscores the persistent national security threat posed by insiders stealing
critical national defense information in order to benefit foreign
governments," said
Assistant Director Coleman. "Fortunately, the aggressive
counterintelligence posture of the FBI and our interagency partners enabled the
identification and neutralization of Awwad's efforts before he transferred any
information to a foreign power. Working together, we prevented the loss of
billions of dollars in research costs and the exposure of potential
vulnerabilities to our newest generation of nuclear aircraft carrier."
"This case
demonstrates that NCIS aggressively pursues anyone who would endanger our
national security by targeting critical platforms like the Ford class
carrier," said
Special Agent in Charge Triesch. "The close collaboration between NCIS and
the FBI thwarted this insider threat and we will continue cooperative efforts
to safeguard those who protect and serve in the Department of the Navy."
Interestingly
enough, Egypt does not have aircraft carriers.
Awwad pled guilty
in federal district court in Norfolk to attempted espionage in June. He will be
facing a sentence of between eight and 11 years in prison on September 21,
2015. Like everything else in America, prison seems to be the only thing the
system can come up with for punishment of criminal acts. This is not justice,
but a tax burden on the very people his treason is against. Instead of feeding,
clothing and housing this man for 8 to 11 years, why is there no capital crime
for selling out the people of this country?
http://eaglerising.com/22676/muslim-on-us-aircraft-carrier-tried-to-sell-military-secrets/
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