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Virginia Man Accused of Acting as Unregistered Agent of Syrian Government and Spying on Syrian Protestors in America
Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 47, a resident of Leesburg, Va., has been charged for his alleged role in a conspiracy to collect video and audio recordings and other information about individuals in the United States and Syria who were protesting the government of Syria and to provide these materials to Syrian intelligence agencies in order to silence, intimidate and potentially harm the protestors.
Soueid, aka “Alex Soueid” or “Anas Alswaid,” a Syrian-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was charged by a federal grand jury on Oct. 5, 2011, in a six-count indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia. Soueid is charged with conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Syrian government in the United States without notifying the Attorney General as required by law; two counts of providing false statements on a firearms purchase form; and two counts of providing false statements to federal law enforcement.
According to the indictment, since March 2011, Soueid has acted in the United States as an agent of the Syrian Mukhabarat, which refers to the intelligence agencies for the Government of Syria, including the Syrian Military Intelligence and General Intelligence Directorate. At no time while acting as an agent of the government of Syria in this country did Soueid provide prior notification to the Attorney General as required by law.
Under the direction and control of Syrian officials, Soueid is accused of recruiting individuals living in the United States to collect information on and make audio and video recordings of protests against the Syrian regime – including recordings of conversations with individual protestors – in the United States and Syria. He is also charged with providing the recordings and other information to individuals working for the Mukhabarat. Soueid and others conspired to use this information to undermine, silence, intimidate and potentially harm those in the United States and Syria who engaged in the protests. The indictment also alleges that Soueid provided information regarding U.S. protestors against the Syrian regime to an individual who worked at the Syrian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
On Aug. 3, 2011, FBI agents interviewed Soueid, and the indictment accuses him of lying to the agents when he denied that he had collected information on U.S. persons and transmitted that information to the government of Syria. In addition, Soueid allegedly made further false statements when he denied to FBI agents that he had directed someone to audio or videotape a conversation, meeting, rally or protest, or that he was aware of any individual taking photographs or videotaping people. He also allegedly made false statements when he denied that he had ever been an agent of the Syrian government or a foreign intelligence officer.
In addition, the indictment alleges that, when purchasing a Beretta pistol on July 11, 2011, Soueid listed a false current residence address on a firearms purchase application and in records that were kept by a licensed firearms dealer.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison on the conspiracy and foreign agent charges, 15 years in prison on the firearms purchase charges and 10 years in prison on the false statement charges
The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in Federal Criminal Defense matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.
U.S. Scientist with NASA Attempted to Sell State Secrets to Israel
It’s been reported that Stewart David Nozette, a former U.S. government scientist with NASA, has pleaded guilty to one count of attempted espionage for trying to sell classified information to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli spy. The offense of espionage has a maximum penalty of death, but because Nozette cooperated with the investigation he was offered a plea agreement with a 13 year sentence.
The secrets Nozette attempted to sell to Israel included information about satellites, early warning systems, ways of retaliating against large-scale attacks, communications intelligence information and major elements of defense strategy. In a recorded conversation with an undercover agent Nozette had estimated the secret information could have cost the U.S. government between $200 million and $1 billion to develop and that he expected around 1% of that value as compensation from Israel. He also requested an Israeli passport in case he needed to flee the country.
Espionage is a serious federal offense, one that carries penalties as stiff as life imprisonment or death. The law was first passed as the Espionage Act of 1917 and is now codified at 18 U.S.C. 792 et. seq. In relevant part, the statute Nozette pleaded guilty to makes it a crime for anyone who “attempts to communicate, deliver, or transmit, to any foreign government . . . either directly or indirectly, any document, writing . . . or information relating to the national defense” with intent or reason to belive that such information is to be used “to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation.”
Historically, criminal defense attorneys have argued that the espionage statute is an unconstitutional infringement on a person’s 1st Amendment right to free speech. However, the Supreme Court unanimously decided in Schenk v. United States that the government can infringe upon free speech if such words being infringed upon “are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.” Thus validating the Espionage Act’s constitutionality in 1919.
Any future attempts to construe the statute as unconstitutional on the basis of the First Amendment will likely be unsuccessful because since 1919 the Supreme Court has eased the restrictions imposed upon Congress’ ability to restrict free speech. Namely that the “clear and present danger” test from Schenk has been replaced with the “imminent lawless action” test from Brandenberg v. Ohio. Congress is allowed to restrict speech so long as the defendant, through his speech, (1) intended the occurence of an evil Congress is authorized to protect against; (2) the evil was actually imminent; and (3) the evil was likely to occur.
In the case of espionage, the sharing of state secrets with foreign nations implicates all three requirements of this test: (1)Compromising the national security interests of the United States is an evil Congress is authorized to avoid; (2) Sharing top secret information with an agent of a foreign government makes such an evil imminent; and (3) it is likely that U.S. national security concerns are compromised if a foreign government possesses U.S. state secrets. Thus fighting the espionage statute itself will likley bear little fruit.
Therefore a defendant facing federal criminal charges implicating national security should hire experienced counsel that is capable of leveraging the defendant’s knowledge of facts that interest the government against the prosecutor in order to negotiate a plea arrangement that benefits both sides. Avoiding life imprisonment or the death penalty is imperative. Much like Nozette, who is only being sentenced to 13 years, the opportunity to cooperate should be seized by a defendant facing similar offenses.
The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in Federal Criminal Defense matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.
