US scientist may have tried to help Israel

The grand jury indictment follows Monday's arrest of Stewart D. Nozette, who spent 16 years doing sensitive defense 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 defense or retaliation against large-scale attack, communications intelligence information and major elements of defense strategy," said the indictment, which did not elaborate.

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