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Scientist Conspired to Develop Nuclear Weapons for Venezuela....
FROM A
DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW by Monte Friesner
~ 27 September 2010 ~
A nuclear scientist and his wife have been charged, in US District Court in New Mexico*, with conspiring to develop atomic weapons for the Government of Venezuela. Dr. Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, a physicist, and his wife Marjorie, who formerly worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, have been charged, in a 22-count Indictment**, with communicating classified information to an individual whom they believed to be a Venezuelan Government official.
The Defendant allegedly stated, according to the Indictment, that he could produce 40 nuclear weapons for Venezuela by the year 2020. The individual whom he believed was a Venezuelan official was actually an undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI].
It is also alleged that the Defendant, who is Argentinean, had contacted the Venezuelan Embassy for the purposes of manufacturing a laser weapon that he was developing, after the United States declined to support the project. The Islamic Republic of Iran was named by the Defendant, as a potential source of materials.
The twenty-two charges include:
- Conspiracy to Communicate Restricted Data
- Aiding and Abetting
- Conspiracy to Participate in the Development of an Atomic Weapon
- Attempt to Participate in the Development of an Atomic Weapon
- Conspiracy
- False, Fictitious or Fraudulent Statement or Representation
Dr. Mascheroni is being held in pre-trial detention.
* United States vs. Mascheroni, Case No. 10-CR-2626 (D NM)
** http://www.american.com/graphics/2010/nuclear%20scientist%20indictment.pdf
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