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Home Front: WoT
Engineer Guilty in Military Secrets Case
2007-05-11
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Jurors convicted a Chinese-born engineer Thursday of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China, including data on an electronic propulsion system that could make submarines virtually undetectable. Chi Mak also was found guilty of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, attempting to violate export control laws and making false statements to the FBI. Prosecutors had dropped a charge of actually exporting defense articles.
Goodbye, and don't bother writing.
When the verdict was read, Mak at first showed no emotion but then appeared to hold back tears as defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski teared up and rubbed his back. Defense attorney Ron Kaye's face was flush.

Mak faces up to 45 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 10, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples said. It took jurors close to three days to reach a verdict after a six-week trial.

The government accused Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen, of taking thousands of pages of documents from his defense contractor employer, Power Paragon of Anaheim, and giving them to his brother, who passed them along to Chinese authorities over a number of years. Chi Mak's wife, brother and other relatives also have been indicted and are to go on trial together June 5.

Mak, 66, was arrested in 2005 in Los Angeles after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong. Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in their luggage that contained documents on a submarine propulsion system, a solid-state power switch for ships and a Power Point presentation on the future of power electronics.

Mak acknowledged during the trial that he copied classified documents from his employer and kept copies in his office. He maintained he didn't realize at the time that making the copies was illegal.
He also didn't know that encrypting all that information onto a CD was illegal, and he certainly didn't know that having family members deliver it to Chinese intelligence was illegal. He's kinda slow even though he's an engineer.
Kaye said the defense team still believes Mak is innocent. "We believe the facts of the case have been manipulated, and we believe Mr. Mak didn't necessarily get a fair trial," Kaye said.
Sure, sure, whatever, file the appeal. Bye.
Posted by:Steve White

#19  Both were born American citizens, gorb

I know. I was just pointing out how even the third generation idea can be turned on its head. But it can make first generation even scarier, too. Nothing's straightforward, but I think my idea is more straightforward than the alternative, which seems to be downright dumb to me to be having Chinese and Indian citizens designing our next-gen weaponry for us. Most are good, but it only takes one to really sell the whole farm for us.
Posted by: gorb   2007-05-11 22:28  

#18  From Wikipedia:

Julius Rosenberg was born to a Jewish family on May 12, 1918 in New York City. He graduated from the City College of New York with a degree in electrical engineering in 1939 and in 1940 joined the Army Signal Corps, where he worked on radar equipment. Ethel Greenglass (the future Mr.s Julius Rosenberg) was born on September 28, 1915, in New York City.

Both were born American citizens, gorb. Given the timing of German-Jewish immigration to the US, his family could well have been here since the mid-1800s, making him possibly 3rd or 4th generation American. It was the Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia who came later, at the turn of the century. And, Julius used his engineering degree as a soldier in the US Army to help further the war against the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese... before he stole those A-bomb secrets and gave them to his Soviet masters.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-05-11 21:08  

#17  The fuzzy hed Jooooo Einstein wasn't American either.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-05-11 18:27  

#16  Thisn Fermi fella sounds kinda odd too.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-05-11 18:25  

#15  After other foreign scientists helped us put it together

Yep, Niels B. wasn't exactly 3rd generation American.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-05-11 18:24  

#14  I'm sorry, but that's just silly, gorb

I don't think so. That is true for you. And most people who came over to get away from Germany and contribute to the war effort against Germany through America. But today it is different. We don't have the same kind of filtering going on here/now as we did then. First of course we have to be PC or it just doesn't stand a chance in the The Real World According to America, hence the third generation thingy. Second, why do we need people from India and China helping us out with this stuff? The countries would not send their spies over here unless it was worth it in terms of narrowing the gap. They aren't going to come up with it themselves, and it would just take us a little bit longer to do it ourselves. I'd say make the trade and be done with it. In the long run, we would be ahead. Even if some feelings got trampled. Mine included, believe it or not.

And even after WWII I belive it was the Rosenburgs who gave the A-bomb secrets to Russia. After other foreign scientists helped us put it together.
Posted by: gorb   2007-05-11 16:25  

#13  Here's hoping, USN, Ret..
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-11 15:35  

#12  I 'spect Ho Chi Mak Daddy is going to be real 'friendly' in the showers with Bubba and company, soon. he may not see the end of that 45 years.....
Posted by: USN. Ret.   2007-05-11 14:39  

#11  So when's this guy gonna be shot? And can his brother and sister-in-law sit in his lap?
Posted by: tu3031   2007-05-11 13:47  

#10  Good memory work with that photo DocMan.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-05-11 13:41  

#9  DO NOT LET PEOPLE WORK IN SENSITIVE POSITIONS UNLESS THEY ARE THIRD-GENERATION AMERICANS.

I'm sorry, but that's just silly, gorb. Someone like my mother, who came over a month shy of her 21st birthday after surviving the Nazis, has greater loyalty to the country that gave her sanctuary and citizenship than any of the BDS-spouting idiots who think of themselves as this country's elite.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-05-11 11:48  

#8  old white men be damned, go away!

Got turned down again, eh?
Posted by: Pappy   2007-05-11 10:18  

#7  We'll know how deep he was in the 'game' when he's offered up on an exchange for one of ours, real agent or unfortunate businessman.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-05-11 10:06  

#6  In the good old days, we used to execute spies. So 45 years is a relatively light sentence.
Posted by: Rambler   2007-05-11 09:18  

#5  Please, we must have MORE! MORE multi-culturalism, more minority preference hiring, foreing students, more affirmative action.... old white men be damned, go away!
Posted by: Besoeker   2007-05-11 09:07  

#4  Kaye said the defense team still believes Mak is innocent.

Well, I guess the presumption of innocence begins with the payment of the retainer.
Scumbag lawyers are every bit as bad as their clients.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2007-05-11 09:01  

#3  DO NOT LET PEOPLE WORK IN SENSITIVE POSITIONS UNLESS THEY ARE THIRD-GENERATION AMERICANS. What's so hard? In their rush to get ahead they fall behind really.
Posted by: gorb   2007-05-11 02:44  

#2  Mak faces up to 45 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 10

I'm sure he can do the 45 yr standing on his pointy head....

How would I know you might ask?

well he's an expert spy right..

and expert spies have hard pointy heads, lest you forgots.

i hope it's solitary, damp, dimly lit, cold, drafty, vermin infested, blaring with rap music cheerless cell.
Posted by: RD   2007-05-11 00:47  

#1  He appears to have the same brain rot as Gonzalez. Doesn't know what he doesn't know, but he does know he's not guilty. "Can I just leave now?"
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter2970   2007-05-11 00:44  

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