“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.’”

If the facts as represented are accurate, it seems clear enough: the professor is guilty, if not of actual treason against this country, then of extremely poor judgment. Even naturalized U.S. citizens (to my great dismay) have betrayed this country before either for the sake of money or for the sake of their “motherland” (as if after they took the naturalization oath, they belonged to any country other than United States of America). Foreign graduate students are not U.S. citizens. They are not even permanent residents. Their stay in the U.S. is contingent not only on the visas we issue them, but on the validity of their passport. They can not only be persuaded by their home government but even pressed into service against their will, given how much control over their life the foreign government has. As brilliant as these people are, they cannot work on sensitive projects, and they cannot be allowed access to sensitive data, even inadvertently.

No one said that we cannot hire foreign graduate students—that would be great tragedy indeed, as they are some of the brightest people in American graduate schools (at least judging by test scores and classroom grades). We just cannot hire them for sensitive projects (at least before they decide to stay in this country and become naturalized). This professor was an idiot for not properly shielding his graduate students from sensitive information that would be too tempting for them—or even if not, the access itself, whether they actually used it or not, could be brought against them to arouse sufficient suspicion.