Engineer convicted of spying

[Hater Depot]

Or something. This looks very fishy to me.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/05/10/military.secrets.china.ap/index.html

Jurors on Thursday convicted a Chinese-born engineer of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China, including data on an electronic propulsion system that could make submarines virtually undetectable.

Chi Mak also was found guilty of being an unregistered foreign agent, attempting to violate export control laws and making false statements to the FBI. Prosecutors had dropped a charge of actually exporting defense articles.

When the verdict was read, Mak at first showed no emotion but then appeared to hold back tears as defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski teared up and rubbed his back. Defense attorney Ronald Kaye's face was flush.

Mak faces up to 35 years in prison when he is sentenced September 10.

...

In many instances, the government was allowed to present classified information to U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in his chambers, and the defense team did not receive some classified information about a request by the FBI to bug Chi Mak's house, Kaye said.

...

Mak said he believed he was doing nothing wrong by giving the documents to his brother to take out of the country because they were papers that had been presented previously at international conferences.

[Vahz]

Moral of the story: Don't work for the US government.

[Ike]

Other moral of the story: Being Asian is anti-American.

[Kuroyama]

I dunno guys, Im as conspiracy theory as the next guy, but Ive done this kind of work. Its pretty clear what documents are "passed out in public conferences" and what documents you dont leave unattended, much less give to a family member.

What is strange though is that to do this kind of work you need to be checked out first. That was before 911. Now I can only imagine someone might be talking RFID when/if I move back home. My point is that this guy shouldve been checked out long before he was given sub propulsion info. If he was questionable, whats happened to the guys that cleared him?

[minbo]

He had secret clearance and those documents were classified as secret. Even if it had been presented at an international conference, that does not change the fact that they were classified documents.

If the thousands of pages of documents were all at some point presented at international conferences, and not simply summaries of the work, then I can believe that it is likely that it was not willful and malicious, though it was in violation of his security clearance agreement.

IMHO, this outlines a few issues:
1) The security classifications for documents needs to be fixed. There are things that are not "secret" which are classified as such, things that once were "secret" but no longer are but remain classified as such, etc. Things need to be changed so that only things that are truly "secret" are classified as such, so that there can be no mistake that documents classified as such CANNOT be copied or distributed.

2) People who are given security clearance need to be more cognizant of what their responsibilities are, and on a whole, the responsibilities need to be enforced more pro-actively before it gets to a prosecution issue. This was evident at the Wen Ho Lee trial also. If everyone copies secret documents, bring the copies home, transports and stores the copies in a non-secure fashion, then why bother having that classification.

[wuwei]

lol, dont work in these fields if you are Asian, just not worth it.

[warpeaceandfashion]

Asians are always "secret spies" for China nowadays, huh? Seems to me America thinks so.

[DONKEY]

good points minbo but the question remains.. would he have been investigated if he wasn't Asian?

the guy is not a spy. i only believe the spy accusations when they catch someone who is passing on info that really is secret and not just classified as "secret."

[Kuroyama]

Donkey

I think I didnt make my intent clear in my post...but felt that Minbo had picked up on it.

Classified material is classified. Submarine technology, drone aircraft, advanced avionics, stealth tech, special weapons (nukes)... crap like that isnt even borderline. Theres NO WAY I can see anyone with an IQ larger than his shoe size not understanding the ramifications of giving out such information. Theres pretty much no excuse for handing out such info regardless of your skin color.

The only fault I can find with the US is with whoever cleared this guy.

[minbo]

I do think that he would have been investigated if he was not Asian. I don't think that he would have been prosecuted as vigorously, but then I would have never expected that they would have prosecuted Jonathan Pollard either.