MESSAGE
| DATE | 2015-01-30 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Nuke NYC and get 5 years of prision ... seriously
|
Feel the need to leave NYC, now might be the right time
http://news.yahoo.com/tape-scientist-offers-build-nuke-bomb-targeting-york-203327645.html
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A disgruntled, former Los Alamos National
Laboratory scientist promised to build 40 nuclear weapons for Venezuela
in 10 years and design a bomb targeted for New York City in exchange for
"money and power," according to secret FBI recordings released
Wednesday.
In the recordings, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni tells an agent posing as a
Venezuelan official that the bombs would prevent the United States from
invading the oil-rich nation and brags to his wife that the passing of
secrets would make him wealthy.
"I'm going to be the boss with money and power," the naturalized U.S.
citizen from Argentina is heard saying. "I'm not an American anymore.
This is it."
Mascheroni said his New York bomb wouldn't kill anyone but would disable
the city's electrical system and help Venezuela become a nuclear
superpower. It was not known how realistic his New York bombing idea
was.
But he suggested that once Venezuela obtained a bomb, the country should
explode it "to let the world know what we've got," according to the
recordings.
The recordings were played Wednesday in U.S. District Court in
Albuquerque before a federal judge sentenced Mascheroni, 79, to five
years in prison followed by three years of supervised release as part of
a plea agreement.
View gallery
FILE - This Oct. 22, 2009, file photo shows former …
This Oct. 22, 2009, file photo shows former Los Alamos National
Laboratory nuclear physicist Pedro L …
Mascheroni and his wife, Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, pleaded guilty in
2013 to offering to help develop a nuclear weapon for Venezuela through
dealings with an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of the
South American country.
His wife received a year and a day in prison for conspiring with her
husband to sell nuclear secrets.
The U.S. government did not allege Venezuela sought U.S. secrets.
Despite the evidence and the plea agreement, federal prosecutor Fred
Federici said Pedro Mascheroni refused to admit he did anything wrong
and has tried to argue that he was the victim of the federal government
trying to trap him after being critical of U.S. nuclear policy.
"He was no true hero," Federici said. "He was simply a man who betrayed
his country."
View gallery
FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2010, file photo, Marjorie …
In this Sept. 20, 2010, file photo, Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, center,
leaves the federal courthouse …
Speaking to a judge, Mascheroni was defiant and said that if his case
had gone to trial, a federal jury would have acquitted him. He said the
information he passed onto the agent was already available online or
simply was made up.
"I was basically selling used cars," Mascheroni said during a long
tirade in federal court that had to be interrupted by U.S. District
Judge William P. Johnson. "What I was selling was completely science
fiction."
Before his indictment, Mascheroni was under investigation for about a
year. The FBI had seized computers, letters, photographs, books and
cellphones from the couple's Los Alamos home.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Mascheroni said he believed
the U.S. government was wrongly targeting him as a spy and denied the
accusations.
The scientist said he approached Venezuela after the United States
rejected his theories that a hydrogen-fluoride laser could produce
nuclear energy.
Mascheroni worked in the nuclear weapons design division at the Los
Alamos lab from 1979 until he was laid off in 1988. His wife, a
technical writer, worked there between 1981 and 2010.
He told The AP that he was motivated by his belief in cleaner, less
expensive and more reliable nuclear weapons and power. He began
approaching other countries after his ideas were rejected by the lab
and, later, congressional staffers
|
|
