U.S. Drops Charges That Professor Shared Technology With China

[JSCh]

NY Times - U.S. Drops Charges That Professor Shared Technology With China

By MATT APUZZO
SEPT. 11, 2015

WASHINGTON — When the Justice Department arrested the chairman of Temple University’s physics department this spring and accused him of sharing sensitive American-made technology with China, prosecutors had what seemed like a damning piece of evidence: schematics of sophisticated laboratory equipment sent by the professor, Xi Xiaoxing, to scientists in China.

The schematics, prosecutors said, revealed the design of a device known as a pocket heater. The equipment is used in superconductor research, and Dr. Xi had signed an agreement promising to keep its design a secret.

But months later, long after federal agents had led Dr. Xi away in handcuffs, independent experts discovered something wrong with the evidence at the heart of the Justice Department’s case: The blueprints were not for a pocket heater.

Faced with sworn statements from leading scientists, including an inventor of the pocket heater, the Justice Department on Friday afternoon dropped all charges against Dr. Xi, an American citizen.

It was an embarrassing acknowledgment that prosecutors and F.B.I. agents did not understand — and did not do enough to learn — the science at the heart of the case before bringing charges that jeopardized Dr. Xi’s career and left the impression that he was spying for China.

“I don’t expect them to understand everything I do,” Dr. Xi, 57, said in a telephone interview. “But the fact that they don’t consult with experts and then charge me? Put my family through all this? Damage my reputation? They shouldn’t do this. This is not a joke. This is not a game.”

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.

But Dr. Xi’s case, coming on the heels of a similar case that was dismissed a few months ago in Ohio, raises questions about whether the Justice Department, in its rush to find Chinese spies, is ensnaring innocent American citizens of Chinese ancestry.

Con't->http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/u...t-professor-shared-technology-with-china.html

 

[fatman17]

US paranoia

 

[kbd-raaf]

To be quite honest, I've seen Australian DoD notices around my department about sharing technology/articles with people overseas. Can only assume that they are talking about China.

 

[Pakistanisage]

NY Times - U.S. Drops Charges That Professor Shared Technology With China

By MATT APUZZO
SEPT. 11, 2015

WASHINGTON — When the Justice Department arrested the chairman of Temple University’s physics department this spring and accused him of sharing sensitive American-made technology with China, prosecutors had what seemed like a damning piece of evidence: schematics of sophisticated laboratory equipment sent by the professor, Xi Xiaoxing, to scientists in China.

The schematics, prosecutors said, revealed the design of a device known as a pocket heater. The equipment is used in superconductor research, and Dr. Xi had signed an agreement promising to keep its design a secret.

But months later, long after federal agents had led Dr. Xi away in handcuffs, independent experts discovered something wrong with the evidence at the heart of the Justice Department’s case: The blueprints were not for a pocket heater.

Faced with sworn statements from leading scientists, including an inventor of the pocket heater, the Justice Department on Friday afternoon dropped all charges against Dr. Xi, an American citizen.

It was an embarrassing acknowledgment that prosecutors and F.B.I. agents did not understand — and did not do enough to learn — the science at the heart of the case before bringing charges that jeopardized Dr. Xi’s career and left the impression that he was spying for China.

“I don’t expect them to understand everything I do,” Dr. Xi, 57, said in a telephone interview. “But the fact that they don’t consult with experts and then charge me? Put my family through all this? Damage my reputation? They shouldn’t do this. This is not a joke. This is not a game.”

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.

But Dr. Xi’s case, coming on the heels of a similar case that was dismissed a few months ago in Ohio, raises questions about whether the Justice Department, in its rush to find Chinese spies, is ensnaring innocent American citizens of Chinese ancestry.

Con't->http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/u...t-professor-shared-technology-with-china.html

So what did the Professor send to his friends in China ?

 

[bobsm]

NY Times - U.S. Drops Charges That Professor Shared Technology With China

By MATT APUZZO
SEPT. 11, 2015

WASHINGTON — When the Justice Department arrested the chairman of Temple University’s physics department this spring and accused him of sharing sensitive American-made technology with China, prosecutors had what seemed like a damning piece of evidence: schematics of sophisticated laboratory equipment sent by the professor, Xi Xiaoxing, to scientists in China.

The schematics, prosecutors said, revealed the design of a device known as a pocket heater. The equipment is used in superconductor research, and Dr. Xi had signed an agreement promising to keep its design a secret.

But months later, long after federal agents had led Dr. Xi away in handcuffs, independent experts discovered something wrong with the evidence at the heart of the Justice Department’s case: The blueprints were not for a pocket heater.

Faced with sworn statements from leading scientists, including an inventor of the pocket heater, the Justice Department on Friday afternoon dropped all charges against Dr. Xi, an American citizen.

It was an embarrassing acknowledgment that prosecutors and F.B.I. agents did not understand — and did not do enough to learn — the science at the heart of the case before bringing charges that jeopardized Dr. Xi’s career and left the impression that he was spying for China.

“I don’t expect them to understand everything I do,” Dr. Xi, 57, said in a telephone interview. “But the fact that they don’t consult with experts and then charge me? Put my family through all this? Damage my reputation? They shouldn’t do this. This is not a joke. This is not a game.”

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.

But Dr. Xi’s case, coming on the heels of a similar case that was dismissed a few months ago in Ohio, raises questions about whether the Justice Department, in its rush to find Chinese spies, is ensnaring innocent American citizens of Chinese ancestry.

Con't->http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/u...t-professor-shared-technology-with-china.html

Unfortunally, this won't be the last of US justice department's racial profiling. Remember Wen Ho Lee? He wrote in his memoir that his Chinese ethnicity was a primary factor behind his prosecution by the government.

 

[JSCh]

So what did the Professor send to his friends in China ?

US dropping sale-of-secrets-to-China case against professor
Posted: Friday, September 11, 2015 7:18 pm | Updated: 8:15 pm, Fri Sep 11, 2015.
Associated Press

Federal prosecutors sought to dismiss charges Friday against a Temple University physics professor who was accused of scheming to provide secret U.S. technology to China after being confronted with statements from physicists that investigators had misunderstood the technology.

The U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia declined to comment on the four-page motion the office filed seeking to drop four counts of wire fraud against the professor, Xi Xiaoxing.

In its filing in federal court in Philadelphia, the government said only that the motion is based on "additional information" it received since the charges against the 57-year-old professor were filed in May.

The dismissal motion comes after Xi and his lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, gave a presentation on Aug. 21 to investigators. That presentation included affidavits from world-renowned physicists and experts who looked at the emails between Xi and contacts in China and explained that he was involved in a scientific pursuit that had a very narrow commercial application and did not involve restricted technology, Zeidenberg said.

"We're very relieved that the charges against my father were dropped," his daughter, Joyce Xi, said by telephone from the family's home in the Philadelphia suburbs. "It's been a very difficult time for our family and we're looking forward to regaining some normalcy in our lives."

The motion still must be approved by U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick.

Federal prosecutors want the opportunity to confer with their own outside experts and have reserved the right to bring charges again, Zeidenberg said.

"We have no reason to think that that's going to happen," he said.

Asked how the government made such a mistake, Zeidenberg said he didn't know.

Prosecutors thought he was sending information related to a magnesium diboride pocket heater for which he had signed a nondisclosure agreement, Zeidenberg said.

When they arrested Xi in May, prosecutors said he had participated in a Chinese government program involving technology innovation before he took a sabbatical in 2002 to work with a U.S. company that developed a thin-film superconducting device containing magnesium diboride.

Superconductivity is the ability to conduct electricity without resistance. A superconducting thin film could be key to making computer circuits that 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 is patented and plans on how to make it can be looked up online, Zeidenberg said.

Xi was chairman of Temple's physics department until his arrest. He voluntarily stepped down as chairman and remains a faculty member. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China.

US dropping sale-of-secrets-to-China case against professor - Dothan Eagle: National

 

[Keel]

做贼心虚
Thieves calling theft

 

[Keel]

U.S. drops spy charges against Chinese-born professor
English.news.cn 2015-09-12 13:49:58



WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Justice Department on Friday dropped charges against a Chinese-born professor who had been accused of sharing sensitive U.S. technology with China, after an "embarrassing" mistake was found about the case's key evidence, media here reported.

The so-called sensitive technology involved a device called "pocket heater," which is used in semiconductor research.

Xi Xiaoxing, an American citizen and chairman of Temple University's physics department, allegedly sent schematics for such a device to scientists in China and was therefore arrested in May.

But when the evidence was shown to independent experts, including one of the device's co-inventors, it was found that the diagram, which the Justice Department said was for the pocket heater, was for a different unrestricted device.

"It was an embarrassing acknowledgment that prosecutors and FBI agents did not understand -- and did not do enough to learn -- the science at the heart of the case before bringing charges that jeopardized Dr. Xi's career and left the impression that he was spying for China," the New York Times wrote.

"But Dr. Xi's case, coming on the heels of a similar case that was dismissed a few months ago in Ohio, raises questions about whether the Justice Department, in its rush to find Chinese spies, is ensnaring innocent American citizens of Chinese ancestry."

About a dozen FBI agents, some with guns drawn, stormed Xi's home in the Philadelphia suburbs in May. Xi was then handcuffed and taken away as his two daughters and his wife watched. He was also demoted from his position as the chairman of the physics department at Temple University.

"I don't expect them to understand everything I do," Xi, 47, who came to the United States in 1989, told the the New York Times. "But the fact that they don't consult with experts and then charge me? Put my family through all this? Damage my reputation? They shouldn't do this. This is not a joke. This is not a game."

"If he was Canadian-American or French-American, or he was from the UK, would this have ever even got on the government's radar?" Xi's lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, asked. "I don't think so."

It's the second time this year the Justice Department has falsely accused Chinese-born scientists of spying on the United States.

In March, U.S. federal prosecutors dropped charges against Sherry Chen, an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Chen, whose given name is Xiafen, was accused of stealing sensitive information from a database for the nation's dams and lying about the breach.

The case against Chen backfired as 22 U.S. Congress members urged the country's Attorney General Loretta Lynch in May to investigate whether there is a practice of targeting federal employees based on their race or national origin.

"There's been a history of discrimination against Asian Pacific Americans, and the recurrent theme is one of suspicion," House Representative Ted Lieu said during a press conference at that time.

 

[VCheng]

The justice system worked, as it does.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

The witch hunt simply won't stop.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

The joke is that he is an American citizen.

 

[Keel]

"In March, U.S. federal prosecutors dropped charges against Sherry Chen, an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Chen, whose given name is Xiafen, was accused of stealing sensitive information from a database for the nation's dams and lying about the breach."

U.S. drops spy charges against Chinese-born professor
English.news.cn 2015-09-12 13:49:58



WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Justice Department on Friday dropped charges against a Chinese-born professor who had been accused of sharing sensitive U.S. technology with China, after an "embarrassing" mistake was found about the case's key evidence, media here reported.

The so-called sensitive technology involved a device called "pocket heater," which is used in semiconductor research.

Xi Xiaoxing, an American citizen and chairman of Temple University's physics department, allegedly sent schematics for such a device to scientists in China and was therefore arrested in May.

But when the evidence was shown to independent experts, including one of the device's co-inventors, it was found that the diagram, which the Justice Department said was for the pocket heater, was for a different unrestricted device.

"It was an embarrassing acknowledgment that prosecutors and FBI agents did not understand -- and did not do enough to learn -- the science at the heart of the case before bringing charges that jeopardized Dr. Xi's career and left the impression that he was spying for China," the New York Times wrote.

"But Dr. Xi's case, coming on the heels of a similar case that was dismissed a few months ago in Ohio, raises questions about whether the Justice Department, in its rush to find Chinese spies, is ensnaring innocent American citizens of Chinese ancestry."

About a dozen FBI agents, some with guns drawn, stormed Xi's home in the Philadelphia suburbs in May. Xi was then handcuffed and taken away as his two daughters and his wife watched. He was also demoted from his position as the chairman of the physics department at Temple University.

"I don't expect them to understand everything I do," Xi, 47, who came to the United States in 1989, told the the New York Times. "But the fact that they don't consult with experts and then charge me? Put my family through all this? Damage my reputation? They shouldn't do this. This is not a joke. This is not a game."

"If he was Canadian-American or French-American, or he was from the UK, would this have ever even got on the government's radar?" Xi's lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, asked. "I don't think so."

It's the second time this year the Justice Department has falsely accused Chinese-born scientists of spying on the United States.

In March, U.S. federal prosecutors dropped charges against Sherry Chen, an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Chen, whose given name is Xiafen, was accused of stealing sensitive information from a database for the nation's dams and lying about the breach.

The case against Chen backfired as 22 U.S. Congress members urged the country's Attorney General Loretta Lynch in May to investigate whether there is a practice of targeting federal employees based on their race or national origin.

"There's been a history of discrimination against Asian Pacific Americans, and the recurrent theme is one of suspicion," House Representative Ted Lieu said during a press conference at that time.

Here is Ms Sherry Xiafen Chen's story:

Feds to drop charges against Wilmington NWS employee
Woman accused of stealing dam information
Published 11:02 AM EDT Mar 11, 2015

related WILMINGTON NOAA WORKER ACCUSED OF STEALING GOVERNMENT FILES

DAYTON (AP) —A National Weather Service employee accused of illegally accessing a restricted federal computer database containing information about the nation's dams, stealing information and lying to federal investigators will have charges against her dismissed if a judge approves the prosecution's request.

A woman working at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Wilmington was arrested Monday on federal charges.

Prosecutors filed the motion Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Dayton to dismiss charges against Xiafen "Sherry" Chen just days before her trial is scheduled to start on Monday.

A statement by prosecutors said only that they were exercising "prosecutorial discretion" and were unable to comment further.

Chen's attorney, Peter Zeidenberg, said the Wilmington hydrologist was "overjoyed."

Chen, 59, was indicted in October and pleaded not guilty to charges of illegally accessing a U.S. government computer database, theft of U.S. government property and making materially false statements to federal agents.

Zeidenberg said he met with prosecutors Monday, telling them why he thought the case should be dismissed. He said he was surprised and grateful that they agreed.

Chen was accused of illegally accessing the restricted area of the database and downloading sensitive files from the National Inventory of Dams, prosecutors had said in court documents. The inventory maintained and controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Dam Safety Review Board includes information on about 87,000 dams.

Prosecutors had said Chen illegally accessed restricted information after meeting with a former Chinese colleague on a visit to family in the People's Republic of China in 2012. But she was not charged with providing restricted data to anyone.

The defense said Chen had legitimate reasons to be on the website because of her job and never gave restricted information to anyone.

Chen has been on non-duty, non-paid status with the weather service.

 

[Aepsilons]

So they're tracking us eh?

I wonder if NSA is tracking me, lol.

 

[VCheng]

So they're tracking us eh?

I wonder if NSA is tracking me, lol.

Are you a US national? The status makes all the difference.

 

[Aepsilons]

Are you a US national? The status makes all the difference.

No, Japanese Citizen with US Permanent Visa.