This is not a NASA Website. You might learn something. It's YOUR space agency. Get involved. Take it back. Make it work - for YOU.
China

Attn Frank Wolf: Bo Jiang Had Porn – Not Secrets – on His Laptop

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
May 2, 2013
Filed under , , ,

U.S. Finds Porn Not Secrets on Suspected China Spy’s Laptop, Business Week
“Bo Jiang, who was indicted March 20 for allegedly making false statements to the U.S., was charged yesterday in a separate criminal information in federal court in Newport News, Virginia. Jiang unlawfully downloaded copyrighted movies and sexually explicit films onto his NASA laptop, according to the court filing. A plea hearing is set for tomorrow.”
NIA Statement On The Release Of Dr. Bo Jiang
“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.”
Chinese Spy Suspect Pleads Guilty to Violating NASA Rules
“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.”…
… “I remain concerned that neither the prosecutors nor NASA have addressed the original question of why a NASA laptop was inappropriately provided to a restricted foreign national associated with ‘an entity of concern’ and why he was allowed to take the laptop and all of its information back to China last December,” Wolf said in an e-mailed statement.”

Chinese “spy” caught with NASA laptop full of porn, not secrets, Ars Technica
“A press release issued by Wolf after the arrest and copy of Jiang’s arrest warrant have since disappeared off the the congressman’s website. In the release (cached by Google here), Wolf had said, “I am particularly concerned that (the) information (on Jiang’s laptop) 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.”
Keith’s note: Here is the press release Frank Wolf wants you to forget he never actually released. What sort of “imaging technology” was he referring to? Newsflash: you cannot make things disappear from the Internet by deleting them. What did we learn from this? Porn is being exported to China on a NASA laptop by some guy who got fired from NASA. Apparently the porn in question was unclassified. Frank Wolf now wants us to forget that he was ever concerned about this – for now.
Wolf Addresses Arrest at Dulles Airport of Chinese National Potentially Involved in NASA Langely Security Violations
Earlier posts

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

41 responses to “Attn Frank Wolf: Bo Jiang Had Porn – Not Secrets – on His Laptop”

  1. Paul451 says:
    0
    0

    Charging him with piracy seems desperate. An admission he’s innocent of the thing they accused him of, but madly trying to save face.

  2. Wendy Yang says:
    0
    0

    So it is *still* five years of sentence, then? (The charge for merely illegally downloading is $250,000 plus five years of sentence) What an [beep] pull.
    Note to self: never save private stuff on any work computer.

    • guesto says:
      0
      0

      We don’t even know if he really downloaded the videos or just watched them online and then the videos were cached on his computer. You know FBI has tools to recover every bit of data on hard drives.

  3. Gonzo_Skeptic says:
    0
    0

    I called it!

  4. pennypincher2 says:
    0
    0

    So can we get the NASA technical report server back now?

    • aerowatch says:
      0
      0

      Word is that the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) is coming back after having a huge set of tens of thousands of reports reviewed. The staff at the contractor-run Center for Aerospace Information (CASI) are to be commended for this accomplishment. — But here is the punch line– Just days after completing this task, NASA directed the contractor to lay them all off. For those who don’t know, CASI is the operational heart of the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Program (STI). These folks have longer careers with NASA than most civil servants.___Without the experience and knowledge base of CASI, there is no STI program. So the big question is what is NASA going to do now–there are still hundreds of thousands of reports to be reviewed! As my father used to say– stupidity reigns!

      • Steve Whitfield says:
        0
        0

        This, I would say, is the most serious impact of this entire pathetic comedy. NTRS is very valuable. STI is beyond value. And now we lose them both because of Frank “the Bigot” Wolf? Consider the unnecessary costs that this has placed on NASA, unbudgeted costs, for absolutely no reason. Make up an invoice and send the bill Frank Wolf. Maybe that will shut him up.

    • mmeijeri says:
      0
      0

      Came here to ask just that. But I suppose it’s best if they check if there’s any porn on NTRS first…

  5. Dewey Vanderhoff says:
    0
    0

    I wonder what would have been found on Rep. Frank Wolf’s computer or SmartPhone that same day …

  6. Stuart J. Gray says:
    0
    0

    Sounds like the porn evidence will be inadmissible in court.
    They must have had a search warrant to sieze and inspect the laptop.
    I suspect that the search warrant did not have the word “porn” anywhere in the text.
    Same thing as having a search warrant to search your house for a stolen piano… if they find a controlled substance in your kitchen drawer, it is inadmissible since the search party had no reason to check the kitchen drawer for the stolen piano…. Now if they found the controlled substance IN the stolen piano then…..

    • John Thomas says:
      0
      0

      Actually it wasn’t his laptop, it was NASA’s. It’s the same thing as you downloading porn at work on your company’s computer.

      • dogstar29 says:
        0
        0

        Where is it alleged in the FBI report that he had a NASA laptop (or any NASA property) at the time of his arrest? Obviously having ended his employment at the Institute of Aerospace he would have turned in any such property.

  7. OpenTrackRacer says:
    0
    0

    So this guy received his higher education here, worked for NASA and lost all opportunities for employment after he was named in congressional testimony (based on hearsay) and then was the subject of a witch hunt by law enforcement. I’m guessing he’s just a bit disillusioned with the American Dream. Now he’ll take his education and knowledge and apply it back home in China. Way to go USA…

    • Anonymous says:
      0
      0

      Is this same as what happened to that other guy kicked out of USA and back in China he helped create their first a-bomb and rockets?

      • Jim Kelly says:
        0
        0

        A-bomb? No. Rockets? You bet.

        Qian Xuesen: http://www.nytimes.com/2009

        “…an undisputed genius whose work was providing an enormous impetus to advances in high-speed aerodynamics and jet propulsion.” – Theodore von Karman

    • Paul451 says:
      0
      0

      And every Chinese-born American-resident PhD student who can identify with him will feel that little bit more unsafe in your country, more and more with every ignorant statement from every publicity seeking Congressman.

      You drove out the Muslim scientists after 9/11. Now you’re driving out the Chinese scientists. Which billion people will you exclude next? Hey, them Indians seem a bit dodgy.

    • John Thomas says:
      0
      0

      According to the article “Jiang, barred from NASA facilities late last year and fired from his job in January at the National Institute of Aerospace” and “Representative Frank Wolf … told reporters in Washington on March 7, more than a week before Jiang’s arrest, that whistle-blowers at NASA were concerned about possible security breaches at its research facilities.” and “A week later, Wolf named Jiang as one of the individuals identified by the whistle-blowers”.

      So according to this article “this guy” was barred from NASA more than 3 months before the congressional testimony. Was there some other congressional testimony that occurred late last year that you’re referring to? Seems he lost his employment opportunities late last year.

    • dogstar29 says:
      0
      0

      Bo Jiang came to the US to help NASA with the problem of aircraft collision avoidance, to advance science, and if possible to become an American. Unlike most immigrants he brought state of the art skills in engineering and science. He was treated with prejudice fueled by xenophobia and politicization of the justice system.

      The US-China graduate student exchange program was proposed by Henry Kissinger because he saw major benefits for the US, not over a few years, but over decades. He foresaw that the brightest students in a country of over a billion would come to America. Those that stayed would help our country advance. Those that returned to China would spread the ideas of capitalism and democracy and bring the Communist era to an end.

      Now these goals are threatened because Chinese parents who send their kids to American universities wonder if they will ever see them again. The US and China will be the world’s superpowers for the next generation, and if we do not understand each other we could easily create a generation of conflict.

      The evil done by Frank Wolf will live on long after he is gone. The whistle-blowers should not be criminally charged, but their statements to Congressman Wolf and the FBI should be publicly released immediately so that we, the public, can judge whether our government acted honorably.

  8. Geoffrey Landis says:
    0
    0

    After investigating him for stealing technical secrets, if an illegally downloaded movie is all they could find, they should apologize and let him go home, not waste taxpayers money on a misdemeanor prosecution that’s completely irrelevant to the original charge. De minimis non curat lex.

    • hikingmike says:
      0
      0

      Yeah, and I doubt he’ll be coming back now. He’ll probably join some government sponsored hackers BECAUSE of this.

  9. Anonymous says:
    0
    0

    “he didn’t have a comment on the plea agreement.”

    Rep. Wolf didn’t have a comment because for him Jiang and the truth is immaterial. He met his red-baiting goal of “NASA is giving away secrets to the Chinese” headlines. He’s long moved on.

    • Steve Whitfield says:
      0
      0

      He’s long moved on.”

      It seems that the law is a hypocrite. It turns out that Wolf and/or his alleged source(s) gave false information to federal investigators (the FBI). Does Wolf get away with this without investigation because he’s a member of Congress? Are Rep. Wolf and those protecting him succeeding into taking law enforcement back to the Salem witch hunts of the 17th century? I consider this disgusting. It’s long past time that Wolf was properly leashed and subject to the same law as everybody else.

  10. Joe Cooper says:
    0
    0

    I don’t get it. What would Chinese intelligence want with porn?

  11. Joker says:
    0
    0

    It was probably Japanese porno, Japanese porn copyrights are very well protected in the US. Way to go USA.

  12. ziping Tang says:
    0
    0

    Can Jiang Bo sue Frank Wolf for destroying his career?

    Can FBI sue Frank Wolf for misleading the federal agent?

  13. ziping Tang says:
    0
    0

    What is the penalty for Frank Wolf then? Can we accuse him something and then invade his privacy ?

    • hikingmike says:
      0
      0

      Yeah… I saw him take a House of Representatives issued laptop on a business trip to somewhere (I think hiking the Appalachian Trail) and I’m pretty sure it had secrets on it.. honest. Get him! FBI investigation please.

    • Paul451 says:
      0
      0

      Making false statements to the FBI? Contempt of Congress? Fraudulently claiming a salary for duties not performed? And defamation.

    • Steve Whitfield says:
      0
      0

      I’d love to see Wolf in a cell for the same number of days, and have the fact get the same level of news coverage.

  14. Mader Levap says:
    0
    0

    Ghost of McCarthy laughs loudly.

  15. James Muncy says:
    0
    0

    Leaving aside all of the humor, there is an important lesson to draw. There are some disgruntled employees at NASA Langley and NASA Ames (and probably elsewhere) that don’t like NASA working with any foreigners or entrepreneurs or anyone “outside” and therefore fabricate allegations to drive away the “others”. These so-called whistleblowers are not courageous patriots and must be punished — not because they spoke out, but because they lied to investigators and prosecutors. It’s one thing to debate the merits of commercialization or international cooperation; it’s quite another to inflame national security hysteria because you don’t like your management.

    Sen. Grassley and his staff in particular should draw an object lesson from this Langley example, so he stops lending credence to nutbags who only want to tear down the achievements of real patriots.

  16. bob626 says:
    0
    0

    Both articles indicate that he had been fired and was arrested when attempting to leave the country with a NASA laptop, containing porn and copyrighted material. If he had been fired from his job, why did he have NASA-issued laptop? Was it DAR’d?

    • Steve Whitfield says:
      0
      0

      I think it’s fair to say that the media trail is by now pretty much meaningless, being a patchwork of information and misinformation from various sources, some of which have since been discredited.

      I hope what will come out of all of this is a little more care and proper procedure in the future, preventing any similar embarrassing episodes. As for Frank Wolf, I’d say he’s out of strikes.

  17. Dr. Brian Chip Birge says:
    0
    0

    It’s classified porn. We don’t want that falling into Chinese reds hands.

  18. Anonymous says:
    0
    0

    “I remain concerned that neither the prosecutors nor NASA have
    addressed the original question of why a NASA laptop was inappropriately provided”

    It would be nice to see what is meant by “NASA laptop.” If Jiang and NIA were working on a NASA project that funded hardware purchases, a laptop bought from Dell or wherever is a “NASA laptop” even if Jiang was the only one to use it and it was never connected to anything but the Internet. Could someone point me to where it has been proven this was “inappropriately provided?”

  19. Gonzo_Skeptic says:
    0
    0

    Rep. Wolf is the “What? Me Sorry?” poster boy.

  20. dogstar29 says:
    0
    0

    Keith, you have press credentials. Can you find out if the computers he had when arrested were NASA property or his personal property? How could he have had a NASA computer months after being terminated? If the computer was his own, how could he be accused of downloading porn on a NASA computer? This just doesn’t add up.