More Charges Against B-2 Bomber Designer Accused Of Spying

[Ryan Ruck]

More Charges Against B-2 Bomber Designer Accused Of Spying

Noshir Gowadia, one of the lead engineers on the US B2 stealth bomber project, has been charged with additional counts of spying in an indictment returned by a grand jury last week.

ABC News reported that Mr. Gowadia, who had already been indicted in November 2005 for selling secrets about the B2 to China, was also accused of trying to sell more US classified military information to individuals in Israel, Germany, and Switzerland.

In recent years the FBI and Justice Department believe [Gowadia] went on a marketing campaign, via e-mail, essentially selling information about sensors and the stealth propulsion system to several countries, including China.

"The defendant in this case attempted to profit from his know-how and his knowledge of sensitive military technology," said Ken Wainstein, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's National Security Division.

Ha'aretz reports that the allegations of secrets sold to Israel are "secondary" to charges concerning China.

The identities of the Israeli sources have also not been disclosed, nor whether they were private businesspeople or firms. The indictment does not refer to the Israeli government as being involved in the matter.

The Associated Press reports that Gowadia, a naturalized US citizen originally from India, was allegedly paid $110,000 for the information that he passed to China.

An 18-count indictment issued Wednesday alleges that Gowadia designed and helped test for China a hard-to-detect cruise missile nozzle and that he analyzed for his Chinese clients how the modified cruise missile would lock on to U.S. air-to-air missiles.

The indictment also alleges that Gowadia conspired with a Chinese agent to conceal his trips to the communist country to discuss the project. The indictment says the two arranged for Chinese border control authorities not to stamp Gowadia's passport and entry papers when he traveled there.

Air Force Times reports that prosecutors could seek the death penalty for Gowadia, but have not yet decided if they will do so.

Gowadia, who resided in Hawaii before his arrest, pleaded not guilty to the new charges. His trial is set to begin in July 2007. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports that Gowadia's son called the charges "ridiculous" and said his father is the subject of a sham prosecution by the US government.

Ashton Gowadia described his father as a hero who has risked his life for 40 years doing work behind the scenes for the United States, had to travel with armed guards and had to carry suicide pills to swallow if he were ever captured. "To go out doing something stupid for $100,000 is ridiculous," he said.

The Gowadia indictment is not the only Chinese espionage case that the US has faced recently. This summer, Ronald N. Montaperto, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst had pleaded guilty to "illegally holding classified documents and admitted in a plea agreement to passing 'top secret' information to Chinese intelligence officials," reported The Washington Times

Mr. Montaperto was sentenced to three months house arrest and five years probation. The National Ledger, an independent news website, reported that the judge in the case said that although the charges were serious, he had been "influenced by letters of support from military and intelligence officials who wrote letters on Montaperto's behalf."

Because of the ongoing intelligence tensions between the US and China, both nations are taking "extreme precautions" in building new embassies in each other's capitals, reports Agence France-Presse.

In an apparent bid to avoid any security problems, US State Department spokesman Kendal Smith said the United States and China concluded an agreement giving them the right to use their own workers in constructing the embassies. There are about 500 US workers in Beijing solely responsible for constructing key portions of the embassy, he said.

Around the same number of Chinese workers are in Washington to build their embassy, other sources said.

[Ryan Ruck]

China Bought Bomber Secrets

China obtained secret stealth technology used on B-2 bomber engines from a Hawaii-based spy ring in a compromise U.S. officials say will allow Beijing to copy or counter a key weapon in the Pentagon's new strategy against China.

Details of the classified defense technology related to the B-2's engine exhaust system and its ability to avoid detection by infrared sensors were sold to Chinese officials by former defense contractor Noshir S. Gowadia, an Indian-born citizen charged with spying in a federal indictment released by prosecutors in Hawaii.

Additionally, Mr. Gowadia provided extensive technical assistance to Chinese weapons designers in developing a cruise missile with an engine exhaust system that is hard to detect by radar, according to court papers made public recently.

He also helped the Chinese modify a cruise missile so that it can intercept U.S. air-to-air missiles, and helped Chinese weapons designers improve testing and measurement facilities, the court papers state.

Most of the indictment, handed up Nov. 8, outlines how the engineer helped China develop a radar-evading stealth exhaust nozzle for a cruise missile engine.

Additionally, the court papers indicated that Mr. Gowadia sent e-mails to Israel, Germany, and Switzerland in 2002 and 2004 that contained data labeled "secret" and "top secret" that was related to U.S. stealth technology intended for use in the TH-98 Eurocopter and for foreign commercial aircraft.

One computer file found in Mr. Gowadia's Maui, Hawaii, home was a file containing the radar cross-sections of U.S. B-1 and F-15 jets and the Air Force's air-launched cruise missile, information that would be useful to countering those systems by anti-aircraft missiles or other air defense weapons.

The case is the second major military technology espionage case involving China. Earlier this year, two Chinese-born brothers in Los Angeles were arrested as suspects in passing Navy warship and submarine weapons secrets to China.

In all, Mr. Gowadia is charged with making at least six secret visits to China from 2002 through 2005, and being paid at least $110,000 by Chinese officials for highly classified defense technology supplied through January, according to court papers. Investigators think he was paid as much as $2 million, some of which remains in foreign bank accounts.

The first known compromise was Mr. Gowadia's lecture in a foreign country in 1999 that involved the disclosure of defense secrets. He offered classified defense information to as many as eight foreign nations, the court papers state.

Mr. Gowadia was first indicted in November 2005 in connection with passing information to several countries that were not identified. The new indictment states that Mr. Gowadia continued to be engaged in a conspiracy to sell classified technology through January 2006.

Mr. Gowadia worked for B-2 developer and manufacturer Northrop Aircraft Inc. from 1968 to 1989 as part of an ultrasecret special access program for the B-2, and later as a Northrop contractor involved in classified research on missiles and aircraft. He also worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1990s.

He developed the still-secret method used by military aircraft to suppress infrared signals from the engine that blocks heat-seeking missiles from targeting the jet.

U.S. officials familiar with the case said the compromise of the B-2 technology is extremely damaging because it will give China key secrets on the bomber.

A defense official said the case highlights China's intelligence efforts to counter key weapons systems that give the United States strategic advantages over Chinese forces. "The B-2 is at the head of the list of their intelligence targets," said the official.

The Pentagon recently completed a major upgrade of bomber storage facilities on the Pacific island of Guam as part of a new strategy designed to position forces in Asia for a swift defeat of China in a future conflict.

B-2 bombers are regularly deployed for short periods of time on Guam as part of what the Pentagon is calling its "hedge" strategy to be ready to deal with a Chinese threat in the future.

According to the indictment, Mr. Gowadia, who lives on an estate on the island of Maui, conspired with two men, Tommy Wong and Henri Nyo, to sell the technology.

Mr. Wong was identified in court papers as an official of the Chinese Foreign Experts Bureau who met the other men during meetings in Chengdu, China. The bureau is a center that conducts "research and development of Chinese fighter aircraft and cruise missiles."

During the six visits, Mr. Gowadia was there "for the specific purpose of assisting the [People's Republic of China] in designing, testing and analyzing a low observable exhaust nozzle ... for a PRC cruise missile," the indictment said.

In the earlier indictment, Mr. Gowadia was quoted as telling investigators that he "disclosed classified information and material both verbally and in papers, computer presentations, letters and other methods to individuals in foreign countries with the knowledge that information was classified."

"The reason I disclosed this classified information was to establish the technological credibility with the potential customers for future business," he said. "I wanted to help these countries to further their self aircraft protection systems. My personal gain would be business."

Mr. Gowadia has pleaded not guilty to the charges and his son, Ashton Gowadia, told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that the charges against his father are false. A trial is scheduled for July.