Update: NASA researcher arrested on China-bound plane

Update, March 19, 2013: While not mentioning Bo Jiang by name, NASA spokesman Michael Cabbage said that the space agency referred a "potential security breach at our Langley Research Facility" to investigators earlier this month, adding that "the agency takes any allegation of a security violation very seriously."

At an oversight hearing Tuesday, Rep. Wolf questioned FBI Director Robert Mueller about the threat to American research facilities and labs from foreign spies. Mueller agreed that the threats are "significant" and said that the FBI has "embedded" agents in 17 facilities to help protect against espionage and unauthorized access. He had no comment on the pending case against Jiang but said that several similar investigations are taking place.

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WASHINGTONThe Justice Department has filed charges in a case that raises more questions than answers. The central figure is Bo Jiang, a researcher at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

Jiang was arrested Saturday night on a plane as it pulled away from the gate at Dulles International Airport bound for China. An FBI affidavit filed in support of the charges against Jiang says he "was leaving the United States abruptly to return to China on a one-way ticket."

The affidavit also says Jiang was questioned by federal agents about electronic devices he was carrying. He allegedly said that he was carrying a cell phone, a memory stick, an external hard drive and a new computer.

But agents discovered several items that Jiang failed to disclose, including "an additional laptop, an old hard drive and a SIM card." Federal prosecutors then filed charges that Jiang lied to federal investigators. He appeared briefly in federal court in Norfolk Monday and will remain in custody at least until a detention hearing on Thursday.

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Jiang is facing more serious accusations, but not from the Justice Department. Representative Frank Wolf whose district includes the NASA research facility, is accusing Jiang of being "a Chinese spy."

In this image from video, Rep. Frank Wolf., R-Va., speaks in the House Gallery on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 11, 2008.

/ AP PHOTO

Appearing at a news conference on Capitol Hill, Wolf, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA, says Jiang worked on programs involving "source code for high technology imaging" that could be used by the Chinese military. Wolf says he spoke out after being contacted by NASA whistleblowers who claim Jiang and other Chinese nationals have traveled to China with laptops containing NASA research work.

Wolf revealed Jiang's name publicly last Wednesday, the same day the FBI launched its counter-intelligence investigation. With the FBI investigation only five days old, agents are still digging through the devices Jiang was carrying and scouring his background to see if the whistleblower allegations yield additional charges.

[USArocksChina]

my user name speaks for itself

[Jeff_G_Liu]

Bo Jiang's case looks suspicious to me. First, why did the NASA whistler-blowers go to Rep. Frank Wolf first? If they are real whistler-blowers, shouldn't they go to the police first? Or shouldn't they at least go to the employer NASA first? Anyhow, Jiang is supposed to steal important information from NASA, and NASA do have internal security staff. It's even weird that "FBI special agent Rhonda Squizzero said the FBI reviewed these whistle-blower reports that it received from Wolf's office on March 13 and concluded that the information was 'reliable'." Hey, we are talking about a spy here. It's not an easy case. Why didn't FBI bother to take a professional investigation, but instead, they relied on the unprofessional Frank Wolf? And the innocent NASA seems like the last one to know it?
A second suspicious point is FBI made the arrest on March 16, 2013, yet "Wolf first named Jiang at a press conference on March 7, saying that he had previously had unauthorized access to sensitive NASA documents, which he might have taken to China in 2012". So Wolf went to the press first, broadcasting to the whole world that Jiang is a Chinese spy. A week later on March 13, 2013, Wolf finally passed this info to FBI. 3 days later on March 16, FBI finally made the arrest.
1. Can Wolf accuse someone without hard police evidence? Isn't that you are supposed to be innocent until proven otherwise?
2. Why was Wolf so eager to go to the press, yet so reluctant to tell the police? The time between his press release, in which he accused Jiang of being a Chinese spy, and his telling FBI was a whopping 6 days! Shouldn't it better that Wolf privately called FBI, let FBI secretly lay down a net around Jiang? More evidence can be collected this way, and possibly more Chinese spies could be caught. Hey, Jiang might not work alone.
You broadcasted to the whole world someone is a spy, and waited 6 days to tell the police; any stupid spy would have enough time to destroy all the evidence in this 6 days. Yet our supposed spy Jiang was still carrying this incriminating evidence to the airport. Wow! That's incredible, on both sides.

My hunch is this is yet another framed case directed by the FBI. The FBI anti - Chinese espionage team constitutes of Fa Lung Gong members, a cult banned by the Chinese government. All their published Chinese spy cases have one thing in common: there is no Chinese government involvement. Bo Jiang is one such example, the contemporary Benjamin Pierce Bishop is another example. They do this for the funding. They have pilfered hundreds of millions dollars from the US and Canadian government. They have fabricated tens of such Chinese spy cases. Thousands innocent people have fallen victims.
My hunch is that the Obama administration has finally tired of them and wanted to cut this branch; they used Rep. Frank Wolf to attack the government to try to save themselves. Fear mongering is their traditional tactics.
My hunch is that the whole thing is a sting operation. Jiang's employer National Institute of Aerospace is actually a FBI run company, the whistler blowers are under covered FBI agents, NASA was well aware of the game even before Jiang was hired.

[jackchan2013]

yep, its quite suspicious why a politician is so deeply involved in a spy case. I would not say china haven't send any spy to US, but I bellieve US has send spy to China as well, it's quite normal between different countries. Whether Jiang is a spy or not, let FBI handle it. What Wolf role is in this case?

It appears to me that this is more like a political game, for whatever purpose Wolf want to achieve, or whatever point Wolf want to make, please don't screw ordinary people's life for your own disgusting deal.

[jackchan2013]

Nice, another wen ho lee, I hope they can really find some spy evidence this time, instead of just putting an innocent people in jail just because he's Chinese and work for nasa

[BobbyFletcher]

This is a witch hunt. The FBI is using a trumped up charge to perform illegal search and seizure:

1) According to Bo Jiang's friends (source MITBBS, an overseas scholar message board), Jiang went to NASA with his professor. His boss died in a car accident and his employment contract was not renewed. Without valid work visa Jiang had to go back to China (and there's no reason to buy a round trip ticket.)

2) The lying to investigator charge is bogus. Jiang was questioned during a layover, and he described to the FBI what he had with him in the carry on. Now the FBI is charging him because he didn't mention what was in the checked luggage? It's not even omission based on the context of the conversation.

3) There's a perfectly reasonable explanation why Jiang had two SIM card - he canceled his cell phone contract and was using a prepaid SIM card for the last few weeks in the States.

[Last_Dominion]

Bobby fletcher is more than likely a 50 cent party troll. He has copy and pasted this same response to numerous articles. Witch hunt? Hardly, the Feds dont usually jump to conclusions like this without some evidence of shenanigans.

1) using an overseas message board as gospel truth? A chinese one at that, heavily screened and monitored by the communist government (like all chinese sites?)...FAIL

2)Lying charge bogus? They asked what he brought with him into the states. He failed to mention the equipment in his carry-on, which is usually IN YOUR HAND until you board. Thats pretty shady. "Oh, you meant THOSE laptops and cell phones!" Gimme a break. Oh and...FAIL

3)Prepaid cell phones/SIM cards are also used by people trying to avoid paper trails. And of course cheap poeple like myself who dont like contracts. Shady, probably, but certainly not a crime. However, adding the other facts together, certainly paints a shady picture of a person who could quite possibly be a spy.

[Protect_US_Jobs]

Bringing manufacturing back home to the USA is going to end up being not only a key to restoring our economy, but to maintaining our national security as well.

While our politicians have been bickering for years like idiotic babies, China has been crushing the USA in a war that we don't even know we're in and without even firing a shot.

[Dialogos]

According reports. It was the Obama Administration who organized the inclusion of these Chinese nationals. Outside those that are still in their Obama-Coma, should we be surprised.

[Dialogos]

An affidavit says Bo Jiang was under investigation for possible violations of the Arms Control Export Act and that he had previously taken a NASA laptop to China that contained sensitive information.

Hosts Brian Wilson and Larry O'Connor pressed the congressman on the details of the program that allows hundreds of Chinese nationals who work directly with the Chinese Liberation Army to access the Hampton, Va. facility for the National Institute of Aerospace. Wolf revealed that the program is not meant to be a cultural exchange as Americans are not invited to work in Beijing's counterpart facilities. Furthermore, when asked who was responsible for allowing the questionable access to Chinese nationals, Wolf responded simply, "The Obama Administration."

[filmguy107]

Duh...THAT'S how they do it!!!

[silvereagle2718]

We spent a lot of money fighting wars in the Middle East over the last 20 years. The Chinese have directed their economies in different ways, which may include military buildup, manufacturing, and technology development.

China and international relations are complicated subjects.

The merits of the path chosen are open for debate, but we are stuck with history.

[skeezix06]

The statement that Asians are smarter than us is racist, erroneous, and stupid.

[Bush-cheney-R-Terrorists]

The sad part is that they take our stuff and make it better.

[stroyde]

Yeah sure, let us know when gently set down a four wheeler by sky crane on Mars.

[Rafterman11]

The Chinese haven't had an original invention since gunpowder.