Said the physics professor, Xi Xiaoxing, who was charged with sending the schematics of a secret design to China. But the evidence, the blueprint he sent, was not the design of the thing that was secret, and the U.S. government has dropped the charges in "an embarrassing acknowledgment that prosecutors and F.B.I. agents did not understand — and did not do enough to learn — the science."
About a dozen F.B.I. agents, some with guns drawn, stormed Dr. Xi’s home in the Philadelphia suburbs in May, searching his house just after dawn, he said. His two daughters and his wife watched the agents take him away in handcuffs on fraud charges....
Temple University put him on administrative leave and took away his title as chairman of the physics department. He was given strict rules about who at the school he could talk to. He said that made it impossible for him to continue working on a long-running research project that was nearing completion.
Dr. Xi, who came to the United States in 1989 and is a naturalized citizen, was adamant that he was innocent. But it was only when he and his lawyers reviewed the government’s evidence that they understood what had happened. “When I read it, I knew that they were mixing things up,” Dr. Xi said....
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70 comments:
Astonishing the casualness with which they employ violence and destroy lives.
Oh, the dangerous imperfection of government.
Hugs to Xi and the incompetent FBI folks.
Shameful. The jackbooted thugs of the Obama Administration.
tim maguire said...
Astonishing the casualness with which they employ violence and destroy lives.
You appear to have found common cause with BLM.
I think instead of a 'Bad Science' tag you need a 'Stupid Law Enforcers' tag. What was bad about the science that the Physics Prof was doing?
From the Article: Late Friday afternoon, the Justice Department dropped the case “in the interests of justice.”
A more correct statement: The case was dropped because lawyers and investigators at the Justice Department are scientifically illiterate.
Don't let Temple University off the hook here. More than one CONVICTED felon still teaching there.
The United States faces an onslaught from outside hackers and inside employees trying to steal government and corporate secrets. President Obama’s strategy to combat it involves aggressive espionage investigations and prosecutions, as well as increased cyberdefenses.
Regardless of the particulars here, the Chinese are stealing us blind. Among the methods is applying leverage to every overseas Chinese and every Chinese traveler.
They have several agencies employing more than 100,000 case officers/analysts to pre-brief, debrief and run agents in place.
That doesn't even begin to address their cyber mapping of US critical infrastructure. Their ability to penetrate SCADA could result in millions of US deaths. All without an overt traceable act on their part.
MadisonMan said...
I think instead of a 'Bad Science' tag you need a 'Stupid Law Enforcers' tag. What was bad about the science that the Physics Prof was doing?
Althouse must have been thinking that the "bad science" occurred at the DoJ. By that logic, the David Greenglass (Rosenberg) case would merit a "good science" tag.
As the Instapundit would say: "We're in the best of hands."
"You appear to have found common cause with BLM."
Yeah, 'cause Dr. Xi is just like Michael Brown.
Blogger Original Mike said...
'cause Dr. Xi is just like Michael Brown.
A US citizen?
I guess ARM needed this: "/sarc"
Blogger AReasonableMan said...You appear to have found common cause with BLM.
There is some commonality, as there is between literally any two human groupings, but there is an unbridgable gap between us--I say what I mean while they are cynical manipulative stooges of a larger political force that is antithetical to everything they profess to stand for.
But other than that....sure, we're two peas in a pod.
tim maguire said...
I say what I mean while they are cynical manipulative stooges of a larger political force
So partisan hackery over the problem of the Chinese stealing US intellectual property is 'saying what you mean'. Good to know what the cool kids are calling it this year.
I just read the entirety of that news story. Nowhere - absolutely nowhere - does it state what those blueprints were for. OK, they were not for the pocket heater. But they were designs for something. What???? Who knows?
Make no mistake here -- the government is a thug and it overreaches in ignorance all the time. But sharing any information, particularly technology and intellectual property, with nations that have an agressive spying campaign against this country, is rightly viewed as suspicious.
Nowhere - absolutely nowhere - does it state what those blueprints were for.
From his page at Temple University....
Xiaoxing Xi’s research focuses on the materials physics underlying the applications of oxide, boride, and transition metal dichalcogenide thin films, in particular epitaxial thin films and heterostructures at the nanoscale. Using various deposition techniques including Laser Molecular Beam Epitaxy and Hybrid Physical-Chemical Vapor Deposition, his group is currently working on the atomic layer-by-layer growth of artificial oxide heterostructures, magnesium diboride thin films for electronic and radio frequency cavity applications, iron pnictide superconductor thin films for phase sensitive measurements, and thin films of 2D layered materials transition metal dichalcogenides. He has published over 300 papers in refereed journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings, and holds three patents in the area of thin films of high-Tc superconductors and magnesium diboride.
I hope this helps /sarc
I'll guess he was sharing lab equipment designs, and the article alludes to that.
"lab equipment designs"
No, it doesn't help. A lot of "lab equipment" can be potentially sensitive that it should not be shared with hostile nations. Any kind of cooperation with the communist Chinese that might possibly help them to take even one step is counter to national security.
No, no.
If a "scientist" is working on a government sponsored program to develop a Romulan cloaking device, then anything related to that program - even just that the program exists - may be a classified secret.
But if some civilian just have an Eureka moment and thinks of how such a device may work, he or she is perfectly free to share that with anyone.
Just so we are clear, are the collectivists (e.g. AReasonableMan) happy with the ever-expanding, increasingly incompetent federal government they have cheered at every turn?
Or is there some doubt creeping into their tiny brains?
Also, are they worried about Chinese Communists hacking the federal government, including Obamacare databases with all our medical information, or is Single-player still an undiluted good?
Just cannot keep up...
Birkel said...
Just cannot keep up...
Don't be so hard on yourself, you are doing a bang up job erecting straw men.
"I think instead of a 'Bad Science' tag you need a 'Stupid Law Enforcers' tag. What was bad about the science that the Physics Prof was doing?"
The govt was doing the bad science. This tag collects things that belong together: doing science badly and the consequences of that.
So no one has a problem with the way that this is handled at the very least? Guns drawn entering the family house?
I have explained many times to people, all since the Clinton email scandal, how every company I have worked for treats their materials (every email, every attachment/document, any thing that hits their servers) as their property. They have people who monitor everything. Forwarding any no.n-approved materials by email could get you fired. You want to work on something at home? You have to remote in securely to your desk top, not fwd work to home. Any drive that could download (to a token) or upload materials to a drive has been removed too.
The scientist should have known he was being monitored like I am. It was right that they questioned him and investigated. The storming the house and Temple's reaction was completely over the top.
AReasonableMan said...
Birkel said...
Just cannot keep up...
"Don't be so hard on yourself, you are doing a bang up job erecting straw men."
The Chinese already got my SF86 material thanks to Obama not giving a shit and hiring incompetent cronies to guard that material. They wont even tell us, despite numerous FOIA requests, how many times the Obamacare database has been hacked or what information has been compromised. They just say it has been hacked.
I am stuck in the VA system, which is single payer, where it takes me around 2-3 months to get in to see a doctor. I also have to drive 2 to 3 hours to access this service. The government ostensibly actually cares about veterans. What do you think will happen when the average joe tries to get anything out of a system 10 times larger and more complicated?
These are detailed occurrences that have already happened with specifics. Just figured I would help you out because you seem like you are genuinely interested in discussing these topics.
This isn't really uncommon- the government in general, and federal agencies in particular, are woefully short of technical expertise. If you just look at how Albert Gonzalez was able to pull off Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin' while he was under control of the Secret Service...
Achilles said...
These are detailed occurrences that have already happened with specifics.
With respect to the security of electronic records, if you just accept that they are not and never will be secure then you will be perfectly fine, something the members of Ashley Madison should have known. Your anonymity is your only shield. Even if it was possible to design a system that was perfectly immune to an external attack you can never completely protect against an internal attack, as Edward Snowden showed decisively.
You appear to have found common cause with BLM.
Perhaps if he had said Chinese-Americans shouldn't be treated like that and then gotten upset if anyone said that no one should be treated like that.
AReasonableMan cheers big government. Big government forces us into programs run by big government. Big government puts our information in easily hackable databases. Those big government databases are hacked.
AReasonableMan suggests we maintain our anonymity.
And I am using strawmen...
#mailingitin
If they can't figure out that if they pull the plug on a reservoir, the water inside will flow out, you should not expect much with real technical stuff.
Well, but remember from the John Doe raids that having professional law enforcement agents enter and search your home while you and you loved ones are present isn't a big deal--we're not talking about jackbooted thugs here, or anything. As such I find the use of the verb "storm" out of place, and the detail that the agents had "guns drawn" is needlessly provocative.
Ann Althouse said..The govt was doing the bad science.
I think the question is over what counts as "doing science" here--clearly the gov. misunderstood something, and the thing they misunderstood was science or science-related...but if understanding counts as "doing" then we're all doing science any time we talk about anything science-related, and that seems overly broad. Pedantic, I know, but precision is important sometimes (in law an in science, for instance).
What I want to know is if there will be consequences. Someone had to swear before a federal judge that sensitive information had been sent. Isn't that perjury? Will anyone be reprimanded? Will his legal fees be paid? Will anyone get fired? (Hint based on past cases: No)
No, it doesn't help. A lot of "lab equipment" can be potentially sensitive that it should not be shared with hostile nations. Any kind of cooperation with the communist Chinese that might possibly help them to take even one step is counter to national security.
You've got this backwards. Xi is a civilian and an American citizen. His only relationship with the US government is contractual -- note that the charges were fraud, not spying. If the US government hasn't contracted for a piece of information to be treated as a secret, it's not a secret.
There are very good reasons to be pursuing international collaborations. For one thing, pursuing scientific collaborations is part of his job -- being an author on 300 papers means that there are a lot of projects where his lab is doing part of the work and another lab is doing another part. This is a big part of condensed matter physics, where creating chips or crystals with specialised properties can be really difficult.
If you look at his bio, you see that this is the case:
Using various deposition techniques including Laser Molecular Beam Epitaxy and Hybrid Physical-Chemical Vapor Deposition, his group is currently working on the atomic layer-by-layer growth of artificial oxide heterostructures, magnesium diboride thin films...
So his lab specialises in making stuff. In order to justify the specialised (and expensive!) equipment and expertise necessary to make the best stuff, they collaborate with other groups that have cool ideas but don't know how to put them on a chip. Since those groups tend to be spread out over the planet, pursuing international collaborations is more or less exactly what he's supposed to be doing.
Once upon a time, that was called "scientific humanism" and was thought of as a way to build friendships between rival countries.
We've certainly reached the point where federal prosecutors have more power than they have the requisite professional ethics to properly apply. The same might certainly be said of some state prosecutors in Wisconsin and Texas.
Nobody should be that enthusiastic about the exercise of their power. Isn't that also the issue with that cop who took down the tennis pro in NYC in front of a hotel?
- Krumhorn
#Chineseresearchersmatter
Why armed agents with guns drawn needed to storm his house early in the morning is utterly beyond me. The man is chairman of the Temple Physics department, and the dispute is ultimately over whether he violated a letter of agreement. He's not a flight risk, there's no chance of violence, and it's not clear he would be facing prison time if convicted. You could arrest him with a certified letter asking him to present himself at such and such a time, or with a polite phone call.
Hard to believe the name "Wen Ho Lee" hasn't come up yet.
Lee, Xi and everyone else are innocent until proven guilty. No need to lard up on a bunch of self-righteous whinging over how incompetent and racist the Obame/Holder/Lynch FBI might be.
But, if you are a Chinese-born naturalized citizen working at a high-level STEM position, and you think it's a good idea to carry your work-product in your proverbial back pocket while attending secret meetings with mysterious strangers, well pardon me if I'm not surprised the gov't might take an unhealthy interest in your well-being.
Yeah, I get it, stupid FBI thought they had a pocket heater when really Xi was carrying a schematic for his daughter's Barbie Dream Car. Like the "valuable" schematics couldn't have been in another file and the "wrong" schematic was there to throw of the counter-espionage guys?
Agreed that the FBI screwed this up one way or another. But I don't think Xi was on the up and up either.
Oh, and how about this pair of Argentinian-born "naturalized citizens" who were working at Los Alamos, and got caught offering nuclear secrets to what they thought were agents from the Venezuelan (?!) gov't.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/28/us-usa-espionage-losalamos-idUSKBN0L12HA20150128
Zach said...
Why armed agents with guns drawn needed to storm his house early in the morning is utterly beyond me
Because they could...
Psota:
So you are advocating people in certain positions with certain ethnicities be closely scrutinized?
Tell me how you feel about Kerry demanding the U.S. accept Muslims who claim persecution into this country, please. And remember, the government might take an unhealthy interest in you if you've the incorrect opinions.
Some of these comments.
Jesus Christ!
Hagar said...
If they can't figure out that if they pull the plug on a reservoir, the water inside will flow out, you should not expect much with real technical stuff.
If you knew even a little bit about this you would know that the commercial databases have been some of the easiest targets. You planning on stopping using your credit card or shopping at Target?
Achilles said...I am stuck in the VA system
Unless you have a 100% disability, there is no reason to go to the VA.
People who go to the VA because they are unemployed or destitute, are going there merely for the welfare.
The VA was never designed for family practice.
The best thing that non-purple heart veterans can do, is to participate in Obama care, and leave the VA to the people who need it.
The VA would work perfectly without all the strap-hangers. Get off the bus already!
Immunity for cops and prosecutors needs to be eliminated. These are unforce errors, and would not happen if consequences loomed for lazy police work.
Perfect, Coupe, now all you have to do is euthanize all the 100%ers, and PROFIT!
"Did not do enough to learn the science". Sounds like the NFL was involved.
You appear to have found common cause with BLM.
Actually, yes. It the BLM folks could drop the idiotic pretense that police are only overzealous when dealing with black people, then we could actually make some headway in much-needed police reform. But right now BLM is more of a sideshow and impediment than an ally.
If you knew even a little bit about this you would know that the commercial databases have been some of the easiest targets. You planning on stopping using your credit card or shopping at Target?
"Have been" is correct. These days the government is a far easier target. Commercial firms have had to contemplate lawsuits and loss of business due to the bad publicity, so they are motivated. The Obama administration just doesn't seem to care very much about privacy and information security, and my information is that the OPM hack and other hacks have not motivated them to change at all.
The govt was doing the bad science. This tag collects things that belong together: doing science badly and the consequences of that.
@Althouse, the "bad science" tag is still wrong. The gov't was doing no science worthy of the name. I understand that one does not go to law school when one is a world-class scientist, but even so ...
Big Mike said...
It the BLM folks could drop the idiotic pretense that police are only overzealous when dealing with black people, then we could actually make some headway in much-needed police reform.
So, while I largely agree with this, it is remarkable that only blacks have been willing to make a stand on this issue, as the rest of us have been perfectly content to watch our civil liberties be flushed down the toilet.
Big Mike said...
These days the government is a far easier target.
Since they are all ultimately dependent on the same hardware and software I doubt that you can establish this statement beyond being your opinion. There are still commercial break-ins occurring on a regular basis.
I am amazed that nobody mentioned Graham Greene's 1950s book and movie Our Man in Havana. This sounds just like that.
British vacuum cleaner salesman living in 1950s Havana is recruited by mi6 to spy on the Cubans. pressed for information he draws pictures of the vacuum cleaner and sends it in to london saying that it is a Russian construction in the mountains.
Excellent novel but it has been a long time since I've seen the movie so no comment there.
John Henry
"Superconductivity is the ability to conduct electricity without resistance. A superconducting thin film could be key to making computer circuits work faster. Films of magnesium diboride are particularly promising for this use, and Xi helped develop a way to make them.
"Prosecutors say he “exploited it for the benefit of third parties in China, including government entities” by sharing it with the help of his post-doctoral students from China. Xi also offered to build a world-class thin film laboratory there, according to emails detailed by prosecutors in May.
"But Xi was sending information about a different device, which he helped invent. It was not restricted technology or supposed to be kept secret by a nondisclosure agreement, Zeidenberg said.
“It was typical academic collaboration,” Zeidenberg said. “Nobody’s getting rich off this stuff.”
"In any case the pocket heater was patented and plans on how to make it could be looked up online, Zeidenberg said."
Dear FBI,
This is your ass. This is a hole in the ground. Please try to understand the difference.
"AReasonableMan" continues to advocate for a larger government and more centralization while complaining about enforcement.
And cannot see his EPIC FAIL.
Of course it's also possible that top secret data was embedded in the innocuous diagram via a technique called steganography. If so then there are scientists at NSA and possibly CIA who might be able to pull that information out. But the FBI has never played well in the sandbox with the other three-letter agencies so it's going to stay hidden.
Birkel said...
more stupid shit ...
Coupe said...
Achilles said...I am stuck in the VA system
"Unless you have a 100% disability, there is no reason to go to the VA.
People who go to the VA because they are unemployed or destitute, are going there merely for the welfare.
The VA was never designed for family practice.
The best thing that non-purple heart veterans can do, is to participate in Obama care, and leave the VA to the people who need it.
The VA would work perfectly without all the strap-hangers. Get off the bus already!"
I will let the idea that I am a strap hanger during the 5 year period after my multiple deployment enlistment ended go.
So. The VA doesn't work, but it would work if there were fewer of us vet's in it. But single payer, with 10 times as many people, is the answer to our health care problems? The current VA system cannot handle the load it promised, so the answer is more government?
Proving once again the Republicans are anti-science. (What? This was the Obama administration!) Never mind.
Yes, yes. "AReasonableMan" says what I have said is stupid shit. And who can argue?
After all, I advocate less federal government control, greater dispersal of pOWER and individual rights. My consistency in these matters is utterly frustrating to those who would exercise dominion over me.
Your will to power is not convincing.
You wish for greater centralization and more control. I hope you choke on the effects you desire so greatly. That you cannot see the effects is of no matter.
Birkel said...
what I have said is stupid shit. And who can argue?
I'm guessing no one.
Blogger AReasonableMan said...So partisan hackery over the problem of the Chinese stealing US intellectual property is 'saying what you mean'.
A moment earlier you were accusing me of agreeing with you. Now, based on the same post, I'm a partisan hack?
You're a pathetic troll.
If espionage by the ChiComs is such a BFD, why does the Federal government allow universities to enroll so many students from China as undergraduates and graduate students in the US? A number of them likely end up as research assistants on the faculty research projects the Feds seem to worry about when it comes to technology transfer.
tim maguire said...
A moment earlier you were accusing me of agreeing with you.
You have reading comprehension problem.
With clever editing (i.e. Dowdification) "AReasonableMan" can change the meaning of what I wrote.
Pathetic little troll gonna troll.
I'm shaking my damn head, as usual, at all the people who have no idea how science or academia works weighing in regardless.
A university physics lab is the last place you are going to find secrets. Dissemination is what they are set up to do, and the things that they build are more proof-of-concept than anything that can actually be used (see here the first transistor).
Secondly about a third of the physics research in this country is being carried out by Chinese citizens. They know intimately what they developed. Unless you plan to lobotomize them they are going to be sharing it--and that's the whole intent. Scientific research is not intended to be kept secret. I worked once in a lab where 50% of the researchers were Libyan or Iranian.
Dr Xi is a US citizen, and doing the normal and expected things a US citizen in his position ought to be doing, and there is absolutely no reason to think that there is anything improper in his collaborating with scientists in China.
Thirdly academics in my experience almost are never monitored, not their email and not their internet activity. I work now for a company that strictly controls email and internet and the difference is immediately apparent. If an academic emails something they shouldn't, the university generally doesn't know about it until it's in the media, or they're in discovery.
"Bad science" sounds reasonable, as does "bad police work" and "incompetent prosecution." I mean, establishing that a crime actually occurred seems to be something you want to get done early on, so confirming those blueprints (were export prohibited) with an independent authority might be high up on the to-do list. This is a typical FBI kind of error, being essentially one of arrogance or inflated self-assessment.
As for guns and the arrest, there was probably no need to display firearms, and their presence was contraindicated, since if there was any kind of minor physical struggle - more likely than a gunfight in this kind of scenario- the guns become an impediment. But the drawn guns really didn't hurt anything either. What's the big deal? The arresting agents could not have known whether the scientist was going to pick up a firearm and do something stupid when confronted. Plus, no matter what the FBI would have the public think, most agents have probably never drawn a weapon in anger, unlike many big city cops who might draw their weapons every night or two (or more) when working a bad neighborhood.
I don't see much in common with this and with what the BLM people are bitching about, except both involve law enforcement.
Science is hard. Math is hard. Doing the right thing is hard. Doing things right is harder.
Edmund said...
What I want to know is if there will be consequences. Someone had to swear before a federal judge that sensitive information had been sent. Isn't that perjury? Will anyone be reprimanded? Will his legal fees be paid? Will anyone get fired? (Hint based on past cases: No)
Yes,
Blogger AReasonableMan said...
tim maguire said...
A moment earlier you were accusing me of agreeing with you.
You have reading comprehension problem
One of us does, I'll meet you that far. No, that's not true. If your posts were honest, then I'd wonder about your comprehension, but the truth is, you don't care what people are saying. You're just a shit stirrer and I've set aside my habit of ignoring trolls long enough. I'm going back to ignoring you now.
Mark said...
"lab equipment designs"
No, it doesn't help. A lot of "lab equipment" can be potentially sensitive that it should not be shared with hostile nations. Any kind of cooperation with the communist Chinese that might possibly help them to take even one step is counter to national security.
Funny story.
When I started in my current position I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. A secrecy agreement that my lawer said was pretty much horeshit but go ahead and sign it anyway. I agreed that any patentable ideas would be shared 50/50 with the company. If I had to take a picture of a pice of equipment in the plant I had to do it with the company camera, print it out on a company printer and hand carry it to the fabrication shop in an envelope when I was done with the picture it had to be returned to the office and shreded in front of at least one company officer.
And then I went to an fastener industry show in Las Vegas.
We stole from everybody! Not an original idea in the bunch.
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