Judge Reverses Jiang Pre-trial Release Decision
Judge: Chinese NASA contractor to be held till trial, Virginian Pilot
“Prosecutors argued that Jiang is a flight risk, saying he tried to leave the country abruptly after a Virginia congressman publicly identified him in connection with an investigation of NASA security procedures. Jiang worked for the National Institute of Aerospace, a Hampton-based NASA contractor. He was fired in January, two months after taking a NASA-owned laptop computer with him on a visit to China, an alleged violation of the space agency’s security regulations. Jiang has admitted taking the laptop but says he had his supervisor’s permission. Prosecutors acknowledged there is no evidence that Jiang possessed any sensitive, secret or classified material.”
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Political interference and abuse of the processes of law like this belongs in some tinpot dictatorship.
Is Virginia somewhere in Africa?
This is a federal prosecution in a federal court, nothing to do with Virginia. Still, VA not only has Frank Wolf but also an oaf for lieutenant governor (Ken Cuccinelli) who’s now running for governor. So, depending on the voters, VA may not be too far from it….
What is the evidence that there was political interference and abuse of processes of law?
I don’t mean that as a rhetorical question — I really am interested in hearing what leads you (or anyone else) to the conclusion that there was political interference or abuse of power in this case. I’m open to the idea it might have happened, but nothing I’ve read in this case says to me that it did.
All I can tell is that this man was arrested when about to leave the country, has been charged with lying to federal agents who were questioning him, and will get a trial in a month and a half. The court has found there is sufficient evidence to support the charge enough to hold him over for trial, and enough flight risk that he be held until that trial. All of that sounds consistent with the judicial system functioning as it is supposed to to me.
Two and a half months from arrest until the trial date and they’re locking him up again even though there is no actual evidence of any wrong-doing on his part. Is this kind of delay normal?
That’s actually pretty quick for Federal courts. Some trials wait up to a year.
“even though there is no actual evidence of any wrong-doing on his part”
The article doesn’t say there’s no evidence of wrongdoing. It says there’s no evidence he possessed secret information. What he is charged with is lying to federal agents while they questioned him. Presumably there is evidence of that, or the court never would have him be held over for trial.
There is evidence that a powerful Congressman who controls the DOJ and NASA budgets wants him held. If there were real evidence they would have trumpeted it. This is a classic witch hunt.
Maybe someday NASA will start enforcing rules about contractors hiring foreign nationals on student visas and giving them potential access to systems that may contain sensitive information. And someday we will learn that not everybody that comes here loves the US. En Garde.
I agree, if someone gave this individual access to information he shouldn’t have had, that person should face consequences.
Would you please identify this mythical information Jiang “shouldn’t have had”? Was it work he himself did? Remember Mr. Jiang was a graduate student at Old Dominion University. He came to the US like most graduate students, because he was looking for a better job. He was hired because he had done original research in the US and China that was considered useful to NASA.
A Chinese company that was really interested in US information of strategic value in the modern world would have no reason to send a graduate student to work at a NASA center. They would simply offer to manufacture state-of-the-art products for US companies at a price that would boost short-term profits for their stockholders. And they would have so many offers they would have to turn them away.
Ralphy, I have worked with a fair number of Chinese students, and they come here for the same reason your ancestors did- because they were told America was a land of opportunity for people that were willing to work hard for a better future. Most modern Chinese have little regard for political ideology. They do not remember the Korean War, and when reminded, consider it a mistake. But they all remeber that in the time of their greatest crisis, the war with Japan, America came to their aid. They are taught in school about the national cemetary that holds the bodies of the Flying Tigers, American volunteers who died defending China. How many Americans remember that more than 100,000 Chinese died protecting the Doolittle Raiders after their landings in China?
China is a different country, with a history and culture very different from ours, and different geopolitical goals. But there are also common threads, and common values. I think it’s time we learned that not everybody from a different culture is our enemy.
from the article: “Prosecutors acknowledged there is no evidence that Jiang possessed any sensitive, secret or classified material.” …but people who know math are scary, so we should lock him up just to be safe.
I may be splitting hairs, but in the contexts in which I’ve seen the terms used, “export controlled” information may not overlap with “sensitive, secret or classified” material. Seems self-contradictory, but those are the terms thought up by lawyers.
The charge against Jiang isn’t that he possessed sensitive, secret, or classified material. The charge is that he lied to federal agents who were questioning him. So it doesn’t matter if there’s any evidence that he possessed sensitive, secret, or classified material.
This is what sent Martha Stewart to jail. Bad idea to lie to the Feds.
Martha Stewart lied about insider trading, which is illegal, and as a former floor trader on the New York Stock Exchange she was well aware that she had committed a crime, albeit a “white collar” offense.
Wolf has made bizarre allegations about China for many years and, his public allegations notwithstanding, there is no evidence at all that Bo Jiang committed a crime.
As to the actual charge, he was asked if he had any computer equipment with him and turned over all he had. There is absolutely nothing in the FBI statement to suggest he was asked about his checked luggage. Nor is there any evidence he had committed a crime. If you were leaving Sahnghai for America after a member of the Central Committee had claimed you were a spy, and were stopped in the airport and questioned in Chinese, and were then arrested because you did not answer a question that was only implied but never asked, you would say you were entrapped, and you would be right. I an sorry to say that I have not seen the FBI so ill used since the days of J. Edgar Hoover.
I think an important lesson here is that if you are being questioned by federal agents, be very, very careful not to lie to them in any way shape or form. Even if you didn’t do what they suspect you of doing, you could go to prison for a lie that you felt was minor.
There was an interesting article last year in the Wall Street Journal about this phenomenon. There’s a lot of controversy about whether this power to prosecute people for lying to federal agents is a good thing.
http://online.wsj.com/artic…
Chris,
Although I seem to have a different mindset than you on this issue, I won’t argue it, because your points are consistent with what has been reported. However, I think you need to at least consider the language issue. His “lies” may have been the result of ambiguous communication, rather than actual deliberate lies.
There has been testimony and commentary that his English is not great. And let’s be honest, the FBI had him in crowd, outnumbered, and could have been hitting him with loaded questions. I wasn’t there, but in his position, as it has been described in the news, I’m pretty sure I would be scared and probably confused, certainly not at my best. Add in the language problem and he could have been completely overwhelmed.
I’d also like to point out that in the one picture of this guy that we see he has what could be interpreted as a smug expression. I suspect this is not his usual appearance. We have no idea where the picture came from or what happened when it was being taken. For all we know he could have been reacting to a bad joke or a dumb suggestion. To me, this whole situation seems almost like it’s been choreographed right from the start.
Steve