Future Carrier (Including Costs)

[Modern Elmo]

Espionage really does happen. There really are traitors out there. I too a course under Prof. J. Reece Roth back in 1981. Pompous gent.
The only fellow I ever saw wearing a white lab coat while teaching class.

Now Dr. Roth's going to a taxpayer-supported retirement home!

washingtonpost.com > Nation
Professor Is Convicted Of Sharing Technology

J. Reece Roth
J. Reece Roth (AP)
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By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 4, 2008; Page A04
A federal jury in Knoxville, Tenn., convicted a retired university professor on conspiracy, wire fraud and export control charges yesterday for improperly sharing sensitive technology with students from China and Iran.
Plasma physicist J. Reece Roth, 70, faces more than a decade in prison when he is sentenced early next year. Prosecutors say the professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee exchanged restricted military data with foreign research assistants and traveled overseas with electronic versions of sensitive materials on his laptop computer.
The case is the latest in a series involving the Arms Export Control Act. It also is among the first in which the government sought to punish a defendant for distributing scientific know-how rather than equipment to foreigners studying at universities with military research contracts.
Roth worked with a Knoxville technology company on a pair of U.S. Air Force contracts to develop plasma-based guidance systems for the wings of unmanned vehicles from 2004 to 2006, according to court papers. The drones are used in surveillance and to house weapons. This year, the company, Atmospheric Glow Technologies, and another scientist there pleaded guilty to related charges.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/03/AR2008090303228.html

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Roth's mind-set on trial
Dueling lawyers say man either arrogant or naive in violation
By Jamie Satterfield (Contact)
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Related links
* Indictment of John Roth and Atmospheric Glow Technologies
* University of Tennessee faculty page on J. Reece Roth

University of Tennessee professor emeritus J. Reece Roth either was too arrogant to comply with laws designed to keep foreign eyes from peeking at sensitive military data or too naive to know when he should.
That line of demarcation was clearly drawn Tuesday as dueling attorneys sought to sway a federal jury deciding whether Roth plotted with a Knoxville technology firm to violate the Arms Export Control Act, repeatedly allowed two foreign national graduate students access to information on a U.S. Air Force project and took data about it to China in May 2006.
Jurors deliberated some five hours before U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan sent them home for the night. They will return today to continue debating Roth's fate.
Roth ran afoul of the law when he agreed to serve as a subcontractor on an Air Force project awarded to Atmospheric Glow Technologies Inc. that involved the use of plasma actuators on drones.
AGT and ex-employee Daniel Max Sherman, a physicist and former Roth student, have pleaded guilty.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Will Mackie told jurors in closing arguments Tuesday that Roth well knew the project fell under the auspices of export control, pointing to Roth's own handwritten notes. In those notes, Roth detailed a plan to divide labor between an American graduate student, who would handle export control data, and a Chinese graduate student, who would work in the UT Plasma Research Laboratory.
That plan fell apart, however, when the division stymied progress, and the two graduate students began sharing information, testimony showed. The case came under federal probe when Roth wanted to include an Iranian student. AGT balked. Roth complained to UT officials, who, testimony showed, told him he was violating the law.
"His mind-set was, 'I know what the rules should be. This is my area. I know what's best for this,' " Mackie told jurors. "Dr. Roth, in his own mind, said, 'I know what I'm doing. I don't have to follow this.' "
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http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/sep/03/roths-mind-set-on-trial/