Security News > 2009 > October > Espionage suspect has friends puzzled

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102704121.html By Del Quentin Wilber and Maria Glod The Washington Post October 28, 2009 By all accounts, Stewart D. Nozette is a brilliant and creative scientist, an astronomer who once sketched a key part of a lunar mission on the back of a cocktail napkin and daydreamed of colonizing the moon. In a recent photograph, he appears the caricature of a NASA geek: a pudgy man wearing an ugly green shirt with a pen protruding from the pocket. Wisps of his hair scatter in all directions. But Nozette is not your stereotypically shy, reserved genius. He is ambitious and unafraid to engage in political combat. He has been known to prod public officials and lawmakers to fund his programs or scuttle those of rivals, friends and colleagues said. He has donated more than $35,000 to politicians and causes. And, according to recently unsealed court documents, he stole lots of government money to finance personal credit cards, mortgages, car loans and maintenance on his swimming pool. It's those traits -- his hubris and expensive tastes -- that might explain why the astronomer regarded by many in his field as accomplished and gifted has landed in such serious trouble with the law, investigators and former colleagues say. [...] ________________________________________ Did a friend send you this? From now on, be the first to find out! Subscribe to InfoSec News http://www.infosecnews.org

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102704121.html