From Alan Bock
The Justice Department has announced the arrest of two people, including Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 72, a former Boeing engineer, of Orange County, for passing secrets to the Chinese.
Since most of what Chung (is alleged to have) passed along to China involved the space shuttle, maybe we ought to think about giving him a medal instead. The space shuttle has been a long blind alley for the United States, wasting all kinds of resources for marginal advances in space at best. If a couple of spies can help push China down a similar road, it just might waste billions on a space shuttle too. While that would be a net loss to science, it might be a net gain for the United States in terms of the old nation-state power game. Is it better for China to waste money too? Given that it will be the government building whatever, you can be sure there will be plenty of waste anyway, but might it not be a coup if China decided to build something like the useless space shuttle too.
Even if the info didn’t push China toward a wrong path, of 100 classified documents, approximately 99 don’t deserve to be classified in the first place, and the one is probably subject to question. Like most governments ours has a fetish about secrecy, putting millions of dubious documents beyond public scrutiny and retarding innovation in the process.
Maybe these guys — a Defense Dept. employee was arrested in Virginia as well — deserve medals instead of an indictment.
So what do you think?
A medal?? Oh, Mr. Bock…you aparantly don’t know much about the [Chinese] intelligence threat to the U.S., nor do you even attempt to leave room for the fact that many technologies, including those stolen by Chung, are dual-use; I.e. those which can be used for other areas of defense-related systems than that which they were originally taken (in this case stolen).
First of all, read the indictment (available publically) before you limit your comments to the Shuttle…he also stole (alleged) information on the next generation delivery system, the DELTA IV, the B-1 bomber, and the USAF C-17.
If you read the indictment, you would know that he stole information on the phased array communications antenna which aparantly contains sensitive trades secrets to Boeing. China is a main competitor in the commercial satellite market…information taken on the shuttle and DELTA IV will undoubtedly give them an edge in this market. The Shuttle “airframe” may be antiquated, but the technology used on it is NOT. The thermal protection system and comms systems are state of the art….I.e. our enemies don’t have the technology…BTW….The indictment never said anything about this guy sending “classified” information.
As far as classification of documents…what credibility do you have to say what should and shouldn’t be classified? You live under the umbrella of safety provided by those who have determined what technologies should be kept secret so that our enemies don’t remove those freedoms. Maybe you should go live in China for a few years to understand just how “secret-less” this country really is in comparison.
The only thing this guy deserves is a 100-year stint in the slammer….better yet, send him back to his beloved China…
Alan,
Have you worked for the government, or had a security clearance? How do you know 99/100 documents shouldn’t be a secret? I don’t disagree with you, but I agree with the response, what experience do you have to justify your comments? As far as the shuttle goes, it still our most current space craft until we launch the next generation (ORION) craft after 2015. As far as I know, the Chinese use a capsule, not a shuttle. I guess I really don’t care if the government classifies it’s documents about our technology…I don’t see a reason why any of us who don’t work on those programs need to know anyway. All I know is those military planes, and rockets let me sleep better at night.