The Case of the Chinese NASA Scientist and a Carry-on Bag Full of State
Secrets
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/03/nasa-china-fbi/63286/
J.K. Trotter Mar 19, 2013
On Monday evening an officer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
arrested a NASA-affiliated Chinese researcher named Bo Jiang while Jiang was
onboard a China-bound passenger jet that was taxiing at Dulles International
Airport, in Washington, D.C. The particulars of the arrest - an airplane
about to leave, a foreign citizen - gave the arrest a cinematic feel,
reminiscent of the escape scene in Argo, only in reverse. Gawker called it
"a total James Bond scenario." But why was Jiang arrested in the first
place? And should you be worried? Here's what we know so far.
Who?
According to his still-active LinkedIn profile (a version of which was
captured by the China website Sina), Jiang worked as a researcher at the
National Institute of Aerospace, which describes itself as "a non-profit
research and graduate education institute created to conduct leading-edge
aerospace and atmospheric research, develop new technologies for the nation
and help inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers." Jiang has
worked at NIA since October 2011, and at the time of his arrest he was
working on the NASA Aviation Safety Program. (NIA is located in Hampton,
Virginia, near NASA's heavily-guarded Langley campus.) Virginia Congressman
Frank Wolf has alleged that Jiang was permitted to walk around NASA
facilities unsupervised.
Significantly, Jiang is a Chinese national - he obtained a college degree
from the Chengdu University of Technology - which could bear on how the
charges against him play out.
The Charges
The FBI arrested Jiang before he could leave for China because he appears to
have provided false information to federal authorities about the contents of
a bag he was carrying. From the arrest warrant (which you can view at the
end of this article) comes this detail at Dulles, where he was stopped by
Homeland Security agents while switching flights:
Federal agents asked JIANG what electronic media he had with him. JIANG
told the Homeland Security Agent that he had a cellphone, a memory stick, an
external hard drive and a new computer. 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.
According to Congressman Wolf, however, Jiang's arrest places him in a much
larger conspiracy to shuttle NASA secrets to the Chinese government. On
Monday Wolf held a press conference on Capitol Hill in which he suggested
that Jiang was in possession of information that would be useful to the
Chinese military:
We know that Mr. Jiang has in the past taken sensitive information back
to China that he should not have been allowed to remove from Langley. I am
particularly concerned that this information may pertain to the source code
for high-tech imaging technology that Jiang has been working on with NASA.
This information could have significant military applications for the
Chinese Peoples Liberation Army.
Wait, So Was He Actually a Spy?
That's really difficult to say. We don't know, for example, if there was any
kind of confusion in Jiang's encounter with the FBI - after all, the arrest
warrant indicates that Jiang cooperated with the FBI, and willingly
indicated that he was in possession of computer equipment. As for the
contents of what he was carrying, that's even sketchier. At the time of his
arrest, Jiang was working on aviation safety - not nuclear launch codes.
It's possible that he just wanted to bring work home while he visited his
friends or family in China.
Congressman Wolf, however, isn't giving Jiang the benefit of the doubt. He
told Discovery News that "what they did here potentially could be a direct
threat to our country. The Chinese have the most comprehensive spying
program in Washington that has ever been. They make the KGB look like they
were the junior varsity or freshman team."
What Now?
It's unclear what's going to happen to Jiang now. He was arraigned in
Norfolk on Monday afternoon, and appears to be out of a job. A NASA official
told the Washington Examiner that Jiang is no longer employed by NASA,
though Jiang is still listed in an employee directory at the National
Institute of Aerospace, meaning that his contract with NASA could have
recently ended, too. We'll update here if the FBI (or NASA) announces any
new developments.
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