Posted on 03/16/2022 5:47:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
Disgraced naval engineer Jonathan Toebbe and his wife, Diana, had tried to sell U.S. nuclear secrets to Brazil in 2020
The identity of the nation the couple had tried to sell classified information had been previously concealed by federal officials
Analysts allege Brazil was an 'odd choice' given how close the nations were after Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro strengthened the nations' alliance
The Toebbes allegedly selected Brazil because they thought the nation would be interested in the technology and could afford their prices
They also thought the nation wasn't 'overly hostile' towards the U.S., noting that selling secrets to adversaries, like Russia or China, was immoral
Toebbe pleaded guilty to conspiring to pass classified information to a foreign government, causing 'injury to the United States'
Diana still denies the charges against the couple and has pleaded not guilty
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A disgraced Navy nuclear engineer and his wife facing a combined 20 years in prison for to trying to sell secrets about American nuclear-powered warships approached Brazil with the classified information, it has been revealed.
Jonathan Toebbe, 43, and his Trump-hating teacher wife, Diana, were arrested last October after prosecutors said he approached a foreign government in an attempt to provide the nation with thousands of pages of stolen classified documents about the nuclear reactors that power the U.S. submarine fleet.
The identity of the foreign power had been concealed by federal prosecutors. It was widely speculated to have been France after investigators revealed the Toebbes had contacted a friendly foreign power, rather than an adversary.
However, a senior Brazilian official and others familiar with the investigation have since confirmed Toebbe approached their government during April 2020, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You have FRMail...
Walker is dead and son released after 15 years in prison.
"Long running" is right. Brazil's nuclear submarine program was started in the 1970s, to develop a nuclear fuel cycle program, a suitable submarine design, and the construction of a nuclear reactor to power the submarine. A Brazilian nuclear submarine, Álvaro Alberto, is planned for launch in 2029.
While it might be hard to object to Brazil (which does have nuclear power plants) deciding to build its own nuclear-powered submarine, this means that Brazil's uranium fuel production technology (currently enriching to 3% for NPPs) would have to ramp up to possibly >90% enrichment for producing nuclear submarine fuel. However this expanded capability gets into the region of uranium enrichment needed for nuclear weapons production.
That does make the IAEA and other people concerned, if not nervous.
Brazil earlier under a different leader had a pretty good relationship with Iran as I recall. Hillary pulled off some sort of heavy water deal with Iran via Brazilian intermediaries.
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