On May 21, 1:08=A0pm, PaPaPeng <PaPaP...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Retired prof accused of passing military secrets
> He allegedly violated arms act by involving Chinese student in drone
> work
>
> updated 9:12 a.m. MT, Wed., May. 21,
2008http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24755=
526/
>
> KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A retired University of Tennessee professor was
> indicted Tuesday on charges of conspiring to provide military secrets
> to a Chinese graduate student.
>
> J. Reece Roth, 70, a professor emeritus who headed the school's Plasma
> Sciences Lab, faces 18 charges related to violating the Arms Ex****t
> Control Act and trying to defraud the U.S. Air Force.
>
> The charges involve work performed from 2004 to 2006 by Roth, the
> student and a university spinoff company for an Air Force contract to
> develop flight controls for unmanned aircraft, or "drones."
>
> Prosecutors said Roth and the company he helped found, Atmospheric
> Glow Technologies Inc., failed to get government permission before
> involving foreign national Xin Dai in the work.
>
> The government also claims Roth carried sensitive documents on a
> lecture trip to China in 2006 and directed wire transmissions of
> restricted technical data to China.
>
> Xin was in the U.S. on a visa to work on his doctorate in electrical
> engineering at the university. He was one of several students,
> including an Iranian national, who worked on the contract. Atmospheric
> Glow Technologies, which was started to market commercial applications
> for the plasma lab's research, has since filed for Chapter 11
> bankruptcy protection.
>
> Roth's attorney said his client did nothing illegal and has conducted
> himself ethically and honestly.
>
> Could get 150 years in prison
> The indictments come about two years after Roth was searched and
> questioned by federal agents after returning from a trip to China. He
> told The Knoxville News Sentinel in 2006 that all the work he
> discussed abroad was already published in scientific papers and
> journals.
>
> "Certainly the technology was complicated, the research they were
> doing was complicated," attorney Thomas Dundon said Tuesday. "But I
> don't think the facts of the case =97 what was done, what was thought
=97
> I don't think those are complicated."
>
> If convicted, Roth could face more than 150 years in prison and
> millions of dollars in fines. He is expected to make an initial court
> appearance next week.
>
> One of Roth's colleagues, physicist Daniel Max Sherman of Littleton,
> Colo., 37, has pleaded guilty on related charges and is awaiting
> sentencing, though he claimed he was unaware a law was broken.
Looks like the FBI is looking for a scapegoat.
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