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Muslim engineer at U.S. defense contractor gets 8 years for giving details on U.S. jets to Iran

Oct 24, 2015 11:05 am By Robert Spencer

“He not only minimizes his criminal conduct but genuinely fails to understand the significance of his actions, and that is especially troubling,” said U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant. How does she know he doesn’t understand the significance of his actions? Meanwhile, we can be sure that U.S. defense contractor Pratt & Whitney didn’t think twice about hiring a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, and never thought of questioning him about his loyalties. That would have been “Islamophobic.”

Mozaffar Khazaee

“Man who sent details on U.S. jets to Iran sentenced to eight years,” by Richard Weizel, Reuters, October 23, 2015 (thanks to Lookmann):

A dual U.S.-Iranian citizen apologized on Friday for exporting sensitive information about U.S. military jets to his native Iran, saying he was simply applying for a job, before a judge sentenced him to eight years and one month in prison.

Mozaffar Khazaee, who had worked as an engineer at U.S. defense contractor Pratt & Whitney, was arrested in January 2014 as he tried to leave the country with sensitive material about the engines for the U.S. Air Force’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F-22 Raptor aircraft in his luggage.

Khazaee had also exchanged e-mails containing information about the programs with Iranian contacts, according to court papers. He said the e-mails were part of a job application.

“I never sold anything to anybody,” Khazaee, 61, told the court, standing hunched over and reading from notes. “Had I known that making a Powerpoint presentation to an Iranian university in my attempt to get a job was breaking the law, I never would have taken the documents at all.”

U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant said she was unimpressed with his assertions about e-mails relating to his previous employer, a unit of diversified manufacturer United Technologies Corp.. The company had laid him off in 2013.

“He not only minimizes his criminal conduct but genuinely fails to understand the significance of his actions, and that is especially troubling,” Bryant said.

The sentence she imposed, which included three years’ supervised release, was less than the 10 years prosecutors had sought.

The U.S. Arms Export Control Act limits the export of information related to weapons systems.

Federal prosecutors contended that Khazaee’s description of that exchange was inaccurate, saying he had e-mailed information on the jets well before being laid off and that he had told a contact in Iran in an e-mail the information he sent was “very controlled … I am taking [a] big risk.”

His 85-year-old mother, who spells her name Molok Khazaye, had asked in a letter to the court for leniency for her son.

“I have no protector other than (my son) and am depend on him financially and emotionally strongly so,” the defendant’s mother wrote. “I kindly request you to grant him a pardon due to his mistake.”…

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Filed Under: American jihadis, Featured, Iran, Jihad in the U.S., United States Tagged With: Mozaffar Khazaee


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Comments

  1. Joseph says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 11:18 am

    dual U.S.-Iranian citizen,
    _______________________
    Charge him with treason, no more, no less.Then fry him till crispy.
    Make him an example to all out there that will sell/give away military secrets.
    It is things like this that get our U.S. soldiers killed.

    • mortimer says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 11:50 am

      Joseph obviously doesn’t like being in a country ruled by laws. Should YOUR time come, you will find the LAW will protect you from wrongful arrest and prosecution…and no, the LAW is not perfect all the time, but much of the time, lawyers and judges get it right.

      Mozaffar Khazaee will get American justice and the rest of the world will see it is transparent, independent and fair…unlike what Joseph is proposing in the heat of passion…and unlike the Iranian judicial system that is not independent. Mozaffar Khazaee acted as a foreign spy. His American citizenship should be revoked.

      • Joseph says

        Oct 24, 2015 at 12:44 pm

        Yes Mortimer he is a spy. What the left does not acknowledge is that we are at war with Islam. We the USA did not declare it but they did. As a spy holding American citizenship his acts are treasonous.

        Should my time come I will find that the law will protect me?????
        BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! My time came and I was wrongly accused of something I did not do.
        The court system treated me as if I was guilty and I had to prove that I was innocent. Many thousands of dollars later I was exonerated but it took a tole on my health and marriage.
        Am I angry? NO I am PISSED to the point of fury. The D.A. was going to make an example of me, so he could strut around like the PRICK he is, all this on absolutely NO evidence and only the word of one person. Even my alibi was ignored. To top it all off I received death threats. Was this investigated?? NO, NO, NO, Why? because the police and the **justice system** thought I was guilty and I am getting what I deserved.
        Here this guy is caught red handed, now put yourself in my shoes.

        I have to take a walk now, the veins in my neck and temples are bulging.

        • More Ham Ed says

          Oct 24, 2015 at 5:58 pm

          Taking things (news, events, posts, articles, etc.) personally, we all have a huge tendency to do that, however the less we take things personally (the more we learn to not do that), the more success we all seem to find. I find a good night’s rest helps me not take things personally so much, although it’s not a guarantee.

        • EvaGirl says

          Oct 25, 2015 at 7:46 pm

          @ More Ham Ed
          Mortimer attack Joe personally so Joe explained things to him. I do not see where Joe’s comments are lawless. The penalty for treason is death, or at least it was for the Rosenbergs. He should have been tried for treason. Does anyone really think he did not know what he was doing? We have an enemy to attack not each other. This is one fallacy of the right, we spend as much time or more whacking at each other than we do at the left. Just saying!

      • Angemon says

        Oct 24, 2015 at 1:07 pm

        mortimer, I don’t think Joseph is trying to go above or around the law. The guy was convicted after due process and, the way I see it, Joseph is just stating that the act he was convicted for should have been classified as treason, which carries a different, harsher sentence.

        • EYESOPEN says

          Oct 24, 2015 at 8:55 pm

          Agree Angemon. What riled Joseph up (I believe), was not only his own situation, but the fact that “mortimer” is quick to jump on his self-righteous high-horse every time someone posts something that offends his sensibilities. It is quite irritating. When I find posts that go a bit beyond the pale, I generally just ignore them.

      • Sheikh Yabooti says

        Oct 25, 2015 at 8:58 pm

        Mortimer wrote: “Mozaffar Khazaee will get American justice and the rest of the world will see it is transparent, independent and fair…”

        Let’s see: provide U.S. military secrets to an Islamic regime (Iran) whose leaders regularly call for “Death to America”, and the penalty is 8 years and one month (perhaps with a possibility for early release, due to good behavior?).

        On the other hand, provide US-kept secrets regarding the military capabilities of America’s “Muslim allies” to another close ally (Israel), perhaps America’s only real ally in the Middle East, and the penalty is life in prison (which, in reality, worked out to around 30 years).

        “Fair”? I personally don’t think so. “Transparent”? Very much so; as much as politicians (both Democrats and Republicans) voice their support for Israel on the campaign trail and their willingness to fight America’s enemies, their views always remarkably change once they get into the White House and decide that they have to now play the role of “honest broker” in a fight between savages and a threatened civilization. Of course, the current occupant of the White House has taken this to a whole new level, continually finding ways to strengthen Israel’s enemies while, in public, still formally playing the role of a “staunch supporter of Israel”.

        Finally, is this kind of justice “independent”? Perhaps we will all find out, one day, how these sentencing recommendations (and other forms of US policy directives) are really getting created…

    • Kathy Brown, Esq. says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 8:55 pm

      Oh, amen to that.

      I trust none of these people. None of them.

  2. Jim says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 11:21 am

    He had to have been cleared by the govt for his security clearance. That’s who dropped the ball, not Pratt Whitney.

  3. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 11:26 am

    Severe problems and risks follow from the fantasy that the fantasy that most Moslems are separate from the tiny minority of extremists who’ve hijacked one of the world’s great religions one of the three Abrahamic faiths. This is one. A reality-based view of Islam and Moslems would entail these rules:

    1) No Moslems in the military
    2) No Moslems in military contractors
    3) No Moslems as practicing physicians or nurses
    4) No Moslems in any form of law enforcement

    These are reasonable rules, because observance of Islam supresedes loyalty to any man-made government. Sharia trumps all.

    • Katnis says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 11:58 am

      I agree with your thoughts. We see example after example after example of anti-American, disloyal, anti-human behavior coming from muslims who live and work in the US. An educated muslim applying for a white collar job doesn’t prove to be any different from the migrants clawing at the gates of the European borders.

      • Charli Main says

        Oct 24, 2015 at 12:35 pm

        Muslims use several methods to infiltrate ” Western” society. “Refugees”, “asylum seekers”, ” students”, “legal immigrants” or just sneak in under the fence or in the back of lorries. Regardless of their method of entry, these Muslims all have one common objective—–the ultimate Islamisation of the host country that they have got into. Their Mohammed/ Allah has commanded it.

    • underbed cat says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 12:20 pm

      Breach of trust, yes.

      I am shocked, shocked, and he didn’t even get a trip to the WH, sent to Florida for some fun, or sent gifts by the techies….I am shocked. No awards? Shocking.

      He must have served his purpose and then got arrested…..at least he didn’t send billions to Iran for their nuclear power plants, so Iran can have air conditioning. Just saying.

    • EYESOPEN says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 8:58 pm

      To which I would add (to APF’s list): NO muzlims in any branch of government. (Because that is one of their FIRST priorities for civilization jihad!)

  4. mortimer says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 11:36 am

    His mother wants the judge to ” grant him a pardon due to his mistake”…she does not admit a crime, but why would she?

    Perhaps the Iranian government that demanded the breach of trust will provide a pension for the old woman.

    The old saying applies: ‘if you can’t afford to do the time, don’t do the crime’.

    Mozaffar Khazaee obviously understood he was breaking the law, but his first loyalty is to THEOCRATIC FASCISM, rather than to freedom and democracy.

    • Katnis says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 12:00 pm

      He should have thought of his mother when he was engaging in illegal activity. Cleary his loyalty to Iran trumped even his love for his dependent mother. He’s a traitor and a bad son.

      • mortimer says

        Oct 24, 2015 at 12:05 pm

        Why was someone who hated the US allowed to enter the US and then take citizenship in the first place.

        Muslims have a conflict of interest between submission to Sharia law and the requirements of American adherence to the Constitution. They can’t be a practicing Muslim and a sincere American.

        • Katnis says

          Oct 24, 2015 at 7:12 pm

          Agreed 100%. And our POTUS wants to bring more into the country? For what? More problems?

  5. Gbox says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 11:38 am

    Why was this guy even working in our defense industry? The penalty for subversion and treason should be death.

  6. jihad3tracker says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 11:45 am

    For those visitors to Robert’s superb website who have not seen the video I am going to mention, it is a perfect companion to posts like this one about the engineer.

    Go to www dot answeringmuslims dot com and search for “The Jihad Triangle”, one of the brilliant concise humorous educational items which counter-jihadist David Wood has made. Four minutes and 57 seconds explaining how recruiters flip the shoulder-mounted switch on oodles of Muslims from Off to On.

    Also, on a much deeper level, it you have undistracted time this weekend, take a look at “Three Stages of Jihad” — also by David. Abundantly cited with parts of the Trilogy as factual references. Stay with it until the last two minutes, please, because he added a fourth stage to cover a current reality.

  7. Isabellathecrusader says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 11:45 am

    Look into his eyes and you can see he is missing his soul. We’re dealing with beings that have lost all sense of humanity.

    • mortimer says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 12:02 pm

      Mozaffar Khazaee is not without a soul, but without reason. Islam demands the submission of the intellect and the REPRESSION of reason. Even well-educated Muslims make the mistake of compartmentalizing Islam into a non-rational category in which intellect is restricted from operating.

      Muslims want to obey Allah, but they have the wrong information. Islam was entirely man-made by the caliphs who needed a state religion justifying their dynasties.

      A man-made system of absurdities such as Islam cannot logically be divine. Endless, formulaic repetition of Islam’s absurdities cannot make one of them true.

      • Isabellathecrusader says

        Oct 24, 2015 at 1:37 pm

        Look at his dead eyes. Look at the dead eyes in every picture of every Muslim felon caught after doing something horrible. I stand by what I said.

        • Charli Main says

          Oct 24, 2015 at 4:41 pm

          For you Isabella
          ” The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter ”
          Marcus Tullius Cicero

  8. Brutal Truth says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 11:50 am

    The DOJ should question Pratt & Whitney over this and prosecute them. Why did they hire someone with Iranian citizenship and allow him access to sensitive technology? They couldn’t have found an American engineer to do his job? Or did P&M compromise national security because he was prepared to work for less than an American citizen?

  9. Dave J says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 12:52 pm

    All Muslims hold allegiance to Allah, the Koran and Shariah over everything else. They don’t hide this fact. So they should never be hired in any type of security position, obviously.

    • EYESOPEN says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 9:01 pm

      Agree 100% Dave J.

  10. Angemon says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 12:56 pm

    A dual U.S.-Iranian citizen

    A traitor then. To the US, that is, not to Iran – as Matthew 6:24 has it, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”.

    • Joseph says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 2:06 pm

      Thanks Angemon for your above reply and this one; ” Matthew 6:24 has it, “No one can serve two masters.” You know I am a Christian but I am still a human with emotions. This passage you wrote calmed me more than anything. I can’t serve hate which is evil and proclaim love at the same time. Next time I will read my Bible first then walk and contemplate second.
      Am I turning the other cheek? Yes I am because turning the cheek refers to frivolous legal matters like this. Trust me I am old enough to have seen where it is better for GOD to handle it. In other instances He most certainly had done a much better job at justice than I could have ever wished for. As for what happened to my false accusers and persecutors? I have no idea and right now I don’t care anymore.

      • Angemon says

        Oct 24, 2015 at 7:21 pm

        No problem, Joseph. And I’m sorry to hear about your trial and tribulations 🙁

  11. underbed cat says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    The inherent problem with these issues, are so emeshed in industry. All industries and government jobs have newly minted citizens from Russia, China, Iran, as it is not unusal at all that companies search worldwide for the best minds that are educated by the U.S.or abroad and placed in positions from pharmaceutials, to military, in fact work on military bases, build and run companies. There are incredible risks that may or may not have been analysed.

    From my limited contact with some, I have noticed that they bring a loyalty from their home country. Yes, they are very intelligent, yes they wanted to come here but there has to be always an awareness that they can send out information that in the end can be a surprise to those who hire. In fact those who hire may also be newly minted citizens, but not necessarily one who can be trusted. We are a diverse country, but it seems that the very freedoms we have allow for these types of issues.

    This can allow for complete loss of security, where someone with bad intent could literally build a ship in our country without question, or work in defense depts. and only have to sign a paper to not do harm seems a little weak, but it is not limited to newly minted it can also be anyone. But just like Major Hassan, Fort Hood, sometimes they drop clues, and will need cultural infomation, that includes religious motivations, but first we have to know the facts.

  12. Ron Swaren says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 1:47 pm

    Please—send this story to the Congressional Committees on Homeland Security. For chair Michael McCaul—- homeland.security@mail.house.gov for Chair Ron Johnson use contact forms—— https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/contact/committee

    Everyone please take time to do this. This is the only avenue with Washington officials that will really work, if any does. Your comments are presented to the chairs, to help shape new legislation.

    This past week the Senate Committee on Homeland Security held hearings.
    Full Committee Hearing : Ongoing Migration from Central America: An Examination of FY2015 Apprehensions
    Full Committee Hearing : Threats to the Homeland

  13. Max Publius says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 1:50 pm

    Dual citizenship used to be illegal in the USA except for a child with one American parent and one foreign. Why would we ever permit someone to emigrate and keep their other citizenship? It’s patently unfair to American born single citizens. What if there is a draft? Talk about dual allegiance. Most especially, why would anyone given US citizenship be permitted to retain citizenship in a anti-American place like Iran?

    Criminal quisling politicians using immigrants as meat puppet voter farms created this mess.

  14. Dave says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 2:43 pm

    I love the whole DUH routine. “I swear I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong. Even though I’m an engineer and I work at defense contractor I only have a childs grasp of reality” Give me a f*cking break!!!! Try him for treason and fry his ass like bacon.

    • cs says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 3:09 pm

      Absolutely. He does not deserve less than that.

  15. More Ham Ed says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 6:01 pm

    The guy starts in with “I never…” and “Had I known…” in other words whenever you see a totalitarian ideology you will see LOW or ZERO levels of responsibility and along with it blame-shifting and victimology. He’s THE VICTIM doncha’ know. Don’t forget that LYING and taqiyya thing, the unholy ko ‘ran taught him well.

    Flashback/related: Obama Turns NASA Into Muslim Outreach Program

    http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/flashback-obama-turns-nasa-muslim-outreach-program

  16. Infidela says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 8:34 pm

    Why do people always blame the left for sucking up to muslims when the right do exactly the same thing? What about David Cameron and George Bush saying that Islam is a religion of peace?

    • EYESOPEN says

      Oct 24, 2015 at 9:05 pm

      Neither of them were – or are – conservative. They subscribe part-and-parcel to the “New World Odor”.

  17. Jay Boo says

    Oct 24, 2015 at 9:18 pm

    No wonder they refuse to say — the Pledge of Allegiance.

    Muslim immigration

  18. Baucent says

    Oct 25, 2015 at 9:01 am

    This is someone who probably fled to the US from Iran after the Islamic Revolution, so what’s he doing now spying for the same regime?
    unless he was a long term sleeper agent, sent by Iran to work his way into the sensitive parts of the defense industry for espionage purposes. Then again, a suitcase full of money by have turned his head.

  19. David says

    Oct 25, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    How on earth did a muslim ever even get hired to work with Top Secret material in the first place? During ww2, does anyone think that a NAZI would have such a job???
    This is just NUTZ! It’s treason on the part of the, oh so very PC traitors responsible. Those idiots who got him hired need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.

  20. steve says

    Oct 26, 2015 at 12:08 am

    I guess the magic carpet air force in iran is needing an upgrade. It seems they can’t find all their inventions when they need them so they just reach out and grab them care of any good islamist. Hope this religion of p*88 “lone wolf” buys it in prison!

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