Chinese National Given 5 Years In Jail For Stealing Secret Missile Guidance Data

[seruriermarshal]

A federal court has sentenced a Chinese citizen to more than five years in prison for taking thousands of files about a secret military project to China, Peter Finn of The Washington Post reports.

The project involves an advanced version of a tiny device that is "designed to allow drones, missiles and rockets to hit targets without satellite guidance."

The device, called a disk resonator gyroscope, was being secretly developed for the U.S. military by a small company and L-3 Communications. It "can navigate, control and position missiles, aircraft, drones, bombs, lasers and targets very accurately,” David Smukowski, president of Sensors in Motion, the small company in Bellvue, Wash., told the Post.

On Monday a court sentenced Sixing Liu, who worked at L-3’s space and navigation division, to five years and 10 months for exporting defense data without permission plus separate counts of possessing stolen trade secrets and lying to authorities.

Prosecutors said Liu, 50, twice told his supervisor he was going on vacation to Chicago when he actually went to China to speak at a technology conference organized by the Chinese government and Chinese universities.

“We believe Sixing Liu was a serial thief,” Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Judson Welle said, noting that Liu also took information on other defense systems.

Finn notes that military data theft by China is a huge problem as unsealed court documents indicate that "nearly 100 individual or corporate defendants have been charged by the Justice Department with stealing trade secrets or classified information for Chinese entities or exporting military or dual-use technology to China" in the past four years.

“These schemes represent a threat to our national security," John Carlin, acting assistant attorney general for national security, told the Post. "The intelligence community has assessed China to be among the most aggressive collectors of sensitive U.S. information and technologies and our criminal prosecutions across the country reflect that assessment.”

Last week a U.S. defense contractor in Hawaii was charged with passing classified information about nuclear weapons and ballistic missile systems to his Chinese girlfriend.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-man-steals-secret-military-data-2013-3

 

[bobbymike]

Because of recent events the NASA administrator was asked how many Chinese Nationals worked at NASA he said about 190 when it is over 300. Do we have any idea/grasp of what is happening?

On a conspiritorial note, maybe this is payoff for the continual purchase of US government debt?

 

[sferrin]

Because of recent events the NASA administrator was asked how many Chinese Nationals worked at NASA he said about 190 when it is over 300. Do we have any idea/grasp of what is happening?

On a conspiritorial note, maybe this is payoff for the continual purchase of US government debt?

Honestly, as a nation, I think we are too damn stupid anymore. Worrying about people taking your secrets is now "paranoia" because "The Cold War is over". And would it be too much to ask for them to actually catch the spies before the horse is not only out of the barn but at the glue factory?

 

[chuck4]

This is a result of a social trend that divert native talents away from elite science and engineering careers. As a result, we have to train and hire foreign born talents to do our jobs, and pray they would love their own countries less than we think they ought to love ours.

 

[Triton]

This is a result of a social trend that divert native talents away from elite science and engineering careers. As a result, we have to train and hire foreign born talents to do our jobs, and pray they would love their own countries less than we think they ought to love ours.

I've seen this lack of native talent argument as an excuse to establish engineering centers in lowest cost regions such as the People's Republic of China and employ engineers in other nations, such as the Russian Federation, India, and the PRC, who are willing to work for less money than similarly qualified applicants in the United States. These workers are typically employed by contract agencies outside of the corporation and are considered "flexible staff."

I believe that we are being undone by corporate greed rather than any shortage of qualified native talent. I've seen qualified Americans layed-off and replaced by cheaper foreign workers from outside contract agencies as part of plans to cut costs and increase profits. They may be a security risk, but they're cheaper to hire than Americans.

 

[chuck4]

This is a result of a social trend that divert native talents away from elite science and engineering careers. As a result, we have to train and hire foreign born talents to do our jobs, and pray they would love their own countries less than we think they ought to love ours.

I've seen this lack of native talent argument as an excuse to establish engineering centers in lowest cost regions such as the People's Republic of China and employ engineers in other nations, such as the Russian Federation and the PRC, who are willing to work for less money than similarly qualified applicants in the United States. I believe that we are being undone by corporate greed rather than any shortage of qualified native talent. I've seen qualified Americans layed-off and replaced by cheaper foreign workers as part of plans to cut costs and increase profits.

Well, I see no similar lack of native talents for lawyering and finance, so I think there is a social trend to regard engineering and science as fields for suckers who would actually have to do lots of hard mental work, and still not get a good shot at swiftly rising to the any position where they get to lord over lots of people and play with lots of other people's money.

 

[Triton]

Well, I see no similar lack of native talents for lawyering and finance, so I think there is a social trend to regard engineering and science as fields for suckers who would actually have to do lots of hard mental work, and still not get a good shot at swiftly rising to the any position where they get to lord over lots of people and play with lots of other people's money.

I can only speak of events that I have witnessed in organizations that I have worked for. Where more costly qualified American workers were layed-off and replaced by cheaper foreign-born contractors in software development and engineering because of cost cutting and profit increase pressures imposed by senior management. The argument that there weren't qualified American-born applicants was a bunch of bull. Your experience may differ.