posted 03-19-2013 08:04 AM               

A former NASA Langley Research Center contractor was arrested Saturday and charged with lying to federal investigators after he was blocked from leaving the country on a "one-way ticket" back to his native China.

Bo Jiang -- a Chinese national who was under active investigation for possible violations of federal arms control laws -- is accused of lying to federal agents about the computers and storage devices he was carrying when agents boarded the plane he was on at Dulles International Airport, according to an FBI affidavit.

The investigation into Jiang, who worked at the National Institute of Aerospace, a Hampton-based nonprofit that conducts most of its work for NASA Langley, has spurred Langley to review its security practices.

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-McLean, chairman of the Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, said it's clear that NASA Langley and the National Institute of Aerospace did not follow procedures designed to prevent such security breaches.

NASA Langley Research Center is now "moving quickly ... to review all security protocols and access to the center by foreign nationals," said Wolf, who got the original whistle blower tip that helped spearhead the investigation.

"It is my understanding that the center is in the middle of a comprehensive security review and is implementing new training," he said.

Later in the article some details of the actual arrest are given:

On Saturday morning, he flew out of Norfolk International Airport. He changed planes at Dulles International, bound for Beijing.

While the plane was still on the ground at the Northern Virginia airport, however, federal agents came aboard and asked to have a word with him. Jiang agreed to a "consensual" search, in which they pressed him for what computers and storage disks he had with him.

That's when he lied to federal agents about what he had in his possession, the FBI affidavit stated.

"Jiang told the Homeland Security Agent that he had a cellphone, a memory stick, an external hard drive and a new computer," FBI Special Agent Rhonda A. Squizzero wrote in the affidavit. "However, during the search, other media items were located that Jiang did not reveal. Such items found include an additional laptop, an old hard drive and a SIM card."

posted 03-27-2013 06:08 PM               

The NASA technical reports server will be unavailable for public access while the agency conducts a review of the site's content to ensure that it does not contain technical information that is subject to U.S. export control laws and regulations and that the appropriate reviews were performed.

The site will return to service when the review is complete. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

posted 03-27-2013 06:20 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by p51:
The one-way ticket I bet played a hand in tripping him up.

---

posted 05-02-2013 07:55 AM               

Along with the misdemeanor, the government said it had resolved the false statements case...

He was going home because he had no job prospects and his student visa had expired, according to the documents.

posted 05-02-2013 12:04 PM               

He was going home because he had no job prospects and his student visa had expired, according to the documents.

posted 05-02-2013 12:27 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Glint:
There was probable cause.

---

posted 05-02-2013 12:30 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by issman1:
Will this spoil any chance of China becoming an ISS partner?

---

posted 05-02-2013 02:27 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Violating his employer's security policy is indeed grounds for firing, not necessarily probable cause for being held as an alleged spy.

---

Also, it seems that the new copyright violation case is in addition to, not in place of, the export case and springs from "separate criminal information" according to the Bloomberg article. Therefore, I believe that the original export case is still ongoing.

A recent article from The Examiner has more information and also references an upcoming hearing that Bloomberg overlooked:

Former NASA contractor employee Bo Jiang, arrested last March by federal agents as he was about to board a flight to Beijing, took vast amounts of sensitive research by a noted colleague to China in 2012, The Washington Examiner has learned...

Jiang was arrested March 16 at Washington Dulles International Airport and charged with making false statements to federal agents under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act.

Prior to his arrest, NASA Langley had suspended Jiang as a contract employee following internal allegations that he had taken "voluminous" NASA files to China in 2012.

posted 05-02-2013 07:51 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Glint:
Also, it seems that the new copyright violation case is in addition to, not in place of, the export case...

---

"None of the computer media that Jiang attempted to bring to the PRC on March 16, 2013, contained classified information, export controlled information, or NASA proprietary information," according to the statement of facts filed in Jiang's case.

As part of the agreement, prosecutors dismissed the indictment and Jiang was ordered to leave the country within 48 hours.

posted 05-03-2013 06:49 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by issman1:
Will this spoil any chance of China becoming an ISS partner?

---

posted 05-03-2013 01:28 PM               

NIA Statement on the Release of Dr. Bo Jiang

The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) is pleased to learn that Dr. Bo Jiang a former NIA employee who conducted research at NASA’s Langley Research Center was exonerated yesterday in federal court of the felony charge of lying to federal investigators. This single charge had led to him being detained at the Chesapeake City Jail for the past six weeks while the FBI conducted a thorough investigation. After the charge was dropped, Dr. Jiang was released from custody yesterday and is returning home to China with his family.

According to the statement of facts from the court, nine computers and storage devices were examined for their contents during the investigation. “None of the computer media that Jiang attempted to bring to the (China) on March 16, 2013, contained classified information, export controlled information, or NASA proprietary information,” according to the statement of facts filed in the case.

Dr. Douglas Stanley, president and executive director of NIA remarked, “From the beginning of this investigation, we have cooperated with federal authorities to ensure the facts came to light.” He added, “We are very pleased that Dr. Jiang was exonerated on all charges and implications of export control violations, espionage and lying to federal officials. We were confident in his innocence and happy to see that our judicial system eventually reached the correct conclusion.”

Jiang’s work as a research scientist at NIA was part of the institution’s ongoing support of NASA and the aerospace industry to improve aviation safety. Dr. Jiang’s research, as all research performed by NIA, went through multiple export control reviews by NIA and NASA and his work was always ruled to be fundamental research that was not export controlled. NIA remains committed to protecting all export controlled data and to vigilant adherence to all applicable federal security rules, policies and procedures as we employ the best and brightest researchers and scientists who use their skills and talents every day to make the world a better place.

posted 05-07-2013 08:39 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by SpaceAholic:
If Chinese espionage and illegal exportation/theft of US technology were the criteria that decision would have been made long ago...

---

According yesterday's email edition of Aviation Week's Aerospace Dailly & Defense Report, "U.S. China-watchers believe the U.S. can expand cooperation with China in space without harming national security, and in fact ease the tense relationship in a manner comparable to the approach President Richard Nixon used in the run-up to the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975."

James Logsdon is said to be researching Richard Nixon's role in space policy. Logsdon told a recent symposium that, "With respect to space, Richard Nixon was a pretty strong internationalist from the start," who "suggested, as John Kennedy had suggested in his inaugural address, that space was an area where countries could cooperate."

Not that the idea of inviting China is widespread or a developing national policy. Seems it's the opinions of persons who are using their position to advocate personal opinions.

Such is the case of Joan Johnson-Freese, described as a "political scientist at the U.S. Naval War College, who stressed that she was expressing her own opinion as an academic." She said, "U.S. restrictions on working with China in space are coming across as the U.S. as a bit of the mean girl in the international space community, as though we think we can just decide who is in the clique and who is not."

She added, "We could do ourselves a big favor in terms of regaining the image and the perception of space leadership, that I think has been faltering lately, by working with China on some aspect of human spaceflight."