December 6, 2014

Saudi Arabia Born US Citizen By Marriage Charged With Espionage



Photo by: Steve Earley
Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 35, of Yorktown, Va., a civilian with the U.S. Navy, leaves the federal courthouse in Norfolk, Va. on Friday, Dec. 5, 2014 after he was arrested on charges he tried to steal schematics for the under construction Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier for Egypt. Prosecutors said Awwad provided computer drawings downloaded from the Navy to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Egyptian intelligence officer in October. 

AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, Steve Earley


[From article]
Saudi-born Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 35, of Yorktown, Va., was arrested Friday on an FBI affidavit claiming he planned to use a dead-drop location along a secluded hiking trail to hand off secret information about the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, set to be delivered to the Navy in 2016, Fox News reported Saturday.
During a hotel meeting on Oct. 9, Mr. Awwad gave the undercover agent, posing as an Egyptian spy named “Yousef,” secret drawings of the vessel and “discussed where to strike the vessel with a missile in order sink it,” the affidavit says.
He also asked for $1,500 to buy a tiny camera to photograph restricted material around the shipyard.
[. . .]
According to the affidavit, Mr. Awwad was born in Saudi Arabia, married a U.S. citizen in Cairo in 2007 and took steps to become a U.S citizen.
He was hired to work at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s nuclear engineering and planning department in February and received security clearance in August.
[. . .] At the end of the meeting Mr. Awwad agreed to provide the undercover agent with passport photos at the dead-drop location to be used to create a fake Egyptian passport so he could travel to Egypt without alerting U.S. government officials.
On Oct. 23 Mr. Awwad traveled to the dead drop location on the hiking trail where he retrieved $3,000 from a hole in the ground and left the photos and a one-tarabyte external hard drive, which the FBI later collected.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/6/fbi-charges-saudi-born-naval-engineer-over-plans-s/

FBI charges Saudi-born naval engineer over plans to sink aircraft carrier
By Kellan Howell
The Washington Times
Saturday, December 6, 2014

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