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November 24, 2006
China Bought Bomber Secrets
China obtained secret stealth technology used on B-2 bomber engines from a Hawaii-based spy ring in a compromise U.S. officials say will allow Beijing to copy or counter a key weapon in the Pentagon's new strategy against China.
Details of the classified defense technology related to the B-2's engine exhaust system and its ability to avoid detection by infrared sensors were sold to Chinese officials by former defense contractor Noshir S. Gowadia, an Indian-born citizen charged with spying in a federal indictment released by prosecutors in Hawaii.
Additionally, Mr. Gowadia provided extensive technical assistance to Chinese weapons designers in developing a cruise missile with an engine exhaust system that is hard to detect by radar, according to court papers made public recently.
He also helped the Chinese modify a cruise missile so that it can intercept U.S. air-to-air missiles, and helped Chinese weapons designers improve testing and measurement facilities, the court papers state.
Most of the indictment, handed up Nov. 8, outlines how the engineer helped China develop a radar-evading stealth exhaust nozzle for a cruise missile engine.
Additionally, the court papers indicated that Mr. Gowadia sent e-mails to Israel, Germany, and Switzerland in 2002 and 2004 that contained data labeled "secret" and "top secret" that was related to U.S. stealth technology intended for use in the TH-98 Eurocopter and for foreign commercial aircraft.
One computer file found in Mr. Gowadia's Maui, Hawaii, home was a file containing the radar cross-sections of U.S. B-1 and F-15 jets and the Air Force's air-launched cruise missile, information that would be useful to countering those systems by anti-aircraft missiles or other air defense weapons.
The case is the second major military technology espionage case involving China. Earlier this year, two Chinese-born brothers in Los Angeles were arrested as suspects in passing Navy warship and submarine weapons secrets to China.
In all, Mr. Gowadia is charged with making at least six secret visits to China from 2002 through 2005, and being paid at least $110,000 by Chinese officials for highly classified defense technology supplied through January, according to court papers. Investigators think he was paid as much as $2 million, some of which remains in foreign bank accounts.
The first known compromise was Mr. Gowadia's lecture in a foreign country in 1999 that involved the disclosure of defense secrets. He offered classified defense information to as many as eight foreign nations, the court papers state.
Mr. Gowadia was first indicted in November 2005 in connection with passing information to several countries that were not identified. The new indictment states that Mr. Gowadia continued to be engaged in a conspiracy to sell classified technology through January 2006.
Mr. Gowadia worked for B-2 developer and manufacturer Northrop Aircraft Inc. from 1968 to 1989 as part of an ultrasecret special access program for the B-2, and later as a Northrop contractor involved in classified research on missiles and aircraft. He also worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1990s.
Wild Thing's comment......
We develop it ... The Chinese steal it from us.
It just never seems to stop, and we don't seem to do anything about it. It's way beyond sad. When you look at the Cold War and how we strove to protect our nation's secrets and keep spies out, you see how truly outrageous our current policies are. Heck, we even let them into the White House and other top-level agencies during the Clinton fiasco.
The US is not severe enough with its traitors. I know it is too late now, but I have always felt we should start with the Clinton's and Loral executives giving guidance technology and bring it all the way up to this. Punish to the max all involved. It makes me sick how the Clinton's got away with what they did and now we have this jerk.
Posted by Wild Thing at November 24, 2006 12:55 AM
Comments
This SOB needs to be executed for treason.
Posted by: BobF at November 24, 2006 07:41 AM
.......and yet the Chinese seem to do a good job of playing their hand close to their chest. Heck, I can't even find a good recipe for Mu Shu Pork...!!!
Billy
Posted by: Billy at November 24, 2006 10:17 AM
Bob, I agree, I sure hope they execute him, we have got to stop this being so easy on treason.
Posted by: Wild Thing at November 24, 2006 10:57 AM
Billy, hahaha good example.
Posted by: Wild Thing at November 24, 2006 10:58 AM
We need to get tougher on both our prosecution of treason and our immigration policies. Too many foreign born people working in our defense industry. To be fair, some of the most traitorist individuals have been native-born. But, in our zest to get the skills needed we may have brought in too many foreigners for our counter intel sources to handle. Then, you also have to wonder if we have been lax due to worries about profiling and political correctness.
We won't return to it, but you have to think about the value of deterrence if we we still hanged traitors.
Posted by: TomR at November 24, 2006 11:26 AM
Heck, even if they did arrest and prosecute the traitors either Washington state would release them or Massachussets would elect them.
Posted by: Jack at November 24, 2006 01:08 PM
Billy, You sure that is pork ?
Got this one time as a Wave, sung to the tune Cats in the cradle
"Did you ever think when you eat Chinese, it aint Pork or Chicken but a fat Siamese. But the food tastes good so you don't complain but that aint Chicken in your Chicken Chow Mein.
Seems to me I ordered Sweet and Sour pork but Garfield's on my fork, there's a hair ball on my fork."
Posted by: Mark at November 24, 2006 02:48 PM
We will be lucky if he get even ten years. Hopefully in ten years when he gets out his knowledge will be antiquated but I doubt it. He needs to disappear.
Hey, just another naturalized citizen helping us advance sensitive technology. More like he was given the tools, opportunity and resource to persue his dream a of research as well as acess others research and he turned on us. No doubt he has personal grievences against his employers and fed that probably trampled all over his academic freedom.
Posted by: dw at November 24, 2006 07:23 PM
How do these people get clearence's in the first place. Wasn't it the Clinton administration that half his cabinet could not be cleared above the confidential level.
This is unbelieveable, and what prosecution is the Bush administration following in this case.
Posted by: Mark at November 24, 2006 07:48 PM
