信源：星岛日报
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NASA前华裔雇员姜波认轻罪 已买好返华机票
美国联邦助理检察官1日表示，涉嫌从事间谍活动的联邦太空总署（NASA）前华裔合约雇员姜波，将就违反NASA电脑使用规定的一项轻罪认罪。有媒体称姜波将在认罪后的48小时内离境，而且他已经买好回中国的机票。
WAVY网站的报道称，姜波将对这项把政府财产作个人用途的轻罪认罪。报道还说，姜波需要在48小时内离境，但未知时间从何时算起。不过报道称，他们获悉姜波已经购买离开美国的机票。
此外，联邦助理检察官克罗姆伯格1日在向法庭提交认罪协议文件时表示，除了这个轻罪指控外，政府已解决了指姜波作出虚假声明的案件。如果向联邦干员撒谎的罪名成立，姜波最高可判监5年及罚款25万。
姜波今年3月被捕时，联邦当局应NASA的请求对他展开串谋违反武器出口控制法的刑事调查。检察官在4月2日的法庭文件中表示，他们正致力鉴定，姜波是否已将或打算将机密资料带回中国，但搜查没有发现类似证据。
受雇于NASA合约商国家太空研究所的姜波，去年年底从中国旅行一个月后回美，12月被禁止进入NASA设施，今年1月11日被国家太空研究所解雇。他3月16日试图从杜勒斯国际机场乘坐飞机返回北京时被拦下。联邦当局指称，姜波向联邦干员撒谎，没有如实透露他行李中的电脑装置。但姜波的律师辩称，姜波英文不好，未能很好理解关员的提问。
当时的法庭文件指称，姜波在去年的中国之行中，违反NASA的安全规定，带上该机构的电脑和硬盘，因而被怀疑他将机密资料带回中国。
NASA photographer Sean
Smith hitched a ride with the U.S. Coast Guard to get this aerial view of NASA Langley
Research Center on December 7, 2011.
A Chinese research
scientist suspected of spying on the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration - -- and pulled from a plane in March as he was about to depart
for China -- is set to plead to a misdemeanor charge of violating agency
computer rules.
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.
Along with the
misdemeanor, the government said it had resolved the false statements case,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg said in a filing today.
At the time of his arrest in
March, Jiang was under federal investigation at NASA’s request for a possible
conspiracy involving violations of the Arms Export Control Act, according to an
FBI affidavit. Prosecutors said in court papers on April 2 that they were
trying to determine whether Jiang had taken, or was seeking to take, “secret,
confidential or classified information” to China.
Lost Job
Jiang, barred from NASA
facilities late last year and fired from his job in January at the National
Institute of Aerospace, was stopped on March 16 as he tried leave Dulles
International Airport outside Washington for Beijing. Federal authorities
alleged he lied to them by failing to disclose the computer equipment in his
possession.
Jiang, 31, was one of
about 281 nationals from countries designated as security threats employed at
NASA facilities, according to congressional testimony in March by NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden. He was blocked from resuming his work at NASA’s
Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, after coming back from a
monthlong trip to China in December, according to court filings.
He took a NASA computer,
as well as an NIA external hard drive from his employer, with him on that trip,
violating the agency’s security regulations, according the criminal
information. Jiang’s employment at the non-profit aerospace and atmospheric
research and graduate education institute was terminated on Jan. 11.
Whistle-Blower Concerns
Representative Frank
Wolf, a Virginia Republican, 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.
The agency “should
immediately review all foreign nationals with current NASA credentials” and
eject anyone with ties to organizations or foreign governments designated as
counterintelligence threats, Wolf said on March 7.
A week later, Wolf named
Jiang as one of the individuals identified by the whistle-blowers during an
exchange with Paul Martin, NASA’s inspector general, at a hearing of the House
Appropriations subcommittee led by the lawmaker. The same day, the FBI opened
an investigation into Jiang for potential violations of the Arms Control Export
Act, according to the bureau affidavit.
Jiang’s lawyer, Fernando
Groene, declined to comment on the new charge and plea hearing. Zachary
Terwilliger, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride in Virginia, didn’t
immediately respond to a phone and e-mail messages seeking comment on the plea
agreement.
Jill Shatzen, a
spokeswoman for Wolf, said he didn’t have a comment on the plea agreement.
Foreign Nationals
Bolden told Wolf’s
subcommittee in March that 192 foreign nationals from China had physical access
the agency’s facilities. That amounts to more than two-thirds of the total
number of employees from countries designated as potential security risks, such
as North Korea and Iran, who have access to NASA offices.
Bolden said he had taken steps
regarding individuals from designated countries, including a moratorium on
granting them any new access and termination of remote computer access to NASA
facilities for employees from those countries.
Jiang, while working at
Langley’s Visual Information Processing lab through a NASA-funded agreement
between NIA and the agency, dealt with “generic work resulting from fundamental
research with no classified sensitive or restricted information,” court papers
filed by Jiang’s lawyer.
NASA Research
Jiang, who has been in
the country since 2007, obtained his doctorate from Virginia’s Old Dominion
University in 2010 and worked as a researcher on the multi-scale retinex, an
image enhancing project developed by NASA, according to court documents. He was
going home because he had no job prospects and his student visa had expired,
according to the documents.
Prosecutors alleged that
Jiang moved his departure date forward -- from April 5 to March 16 -- after his
name was released during the March 13 hearing with Martin, the NASA inspector
general.
Jiang said in court
papers that he is innocent and was targeted by Wolf for political purposes.
A judge overturned a
magistrate’s decision on releasing Jiang on $10,000 bail after the government
objected and labeled the defendant a “serious risk of flight.” Prosecutors told
the court on April 2 that they hadn’t fully reviewed the electronics found on
Jiang at the airport, which included a second computer, two external hard
drives, a sim card and an iPod found in Jiang’s luggage.
Jiang faced as many as five
years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted for lying to federal agents.
The case is U.S. v.
Jiang, 13-mj-00076, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Newport
News).
To contact the reporter
on this story: Tom Schoenberg in Washington at tschoenberg@bloomberg.net; Phil
Mattingly in Washington at pmattingly@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor
responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net; Steven
Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net
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