Harvard Scientist Is Arrested- Lying about China Ties

[amberlyrose]

I looked this up after a meme my Trumper cousin posted didn't seem true. Unfortunately, it was.


"Charles Lieber, the chair of Harvard University's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has been arrested and criminally charged with making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the U.S. Defense Department about his ties to a Chinese government program to recruit foreign scientists and researchers.



The Justice Department says Lieber, 60, lied about his contact with the Chinese program known as the Thousand Talents Plan, which the U.S. has previously flagged as a serious intelligence concern. He also is accused of lying about about a lucrative contract he signed with China's Wuhan University of Technology."

www.npr.org/2020/01/28/800442646/acclaimed-harvard-scientist-is-arrested-accused-of-lying-about-ties-to-china

[irishbride2]

The thousand talents thing has been a huge issue with scientists. Lying about it was not ok, but I do feel for the scientists who have gotten wrapped up in an innocent award program and then bam their research is stolen and they are on a list to be hunted in the US.

[WOT?*]

My sister posted the meme with the "and it was sent to the WUHAN province where the virus originated. Tin Foil Hat stuff going on" or some such. From PBS.twimg or some such so I suggested that she find an article that wasn't so inflammatory (I think pbs.twing or pbs.twimg isn't actually PBS but one of those that tries to look like it's a trustworthy source. There are even Reddits about it.) So I found time and she found CNN. Unfortunately it happened but it wasn't nearly as inflammatory as the meme made it sound; they were conflating several different matters into this one professor's culpability.

[tracita]

I work in academia and this has become a major issue. DOJ is also use the False Claims Act to go after researchers for not reporting support they receive from China and other countries. The talents program and others like it have been under-reported for years by US researchers, and funding agencies are now coming down hard on them.
If faculty would just report honestly there would be no issue. Unfortunately, they don't.

[smock]

It's crazy to me that Trumpers are spreading this story when the president uses an unsecured phone to call ambassadors in foreign countries and lets anyone walk around Mar a Lago while he decides who to bomb next. Talk about a security concern.

[amberlyrose]

Feb 18, 2020 21:42:01 GMT -5 WOT?* said:

My sister posted the meme with the "and it was sent to the WUHAN province where the virus originated. Tin Foil Hat stuff going on" or some such. From PBS.twimg or some such so I suggested that she find an article that wasn't so inflammatory (I think pbs.twing or pbs.twimg isn't actually PBS but one of those that tries to look like it's a trustworthy source. There are even Reddits about it.) So I found time and she found CNN. Unfortunately it happened but it wasn't nearly as inflammatory as the meme made it sound; they were conflating several different matters into this one professor's culpability.

Same one my cousin shared. It was factual, but there was a lot of correlation there between this professor and the virus. It also made it sound like the two others were his students, when in fact, they were researchers in other areas or universities. 

[aurora]

There's definitely been more information out there recently about foreign talent recruitment programs for people who do federally-funded research. I don't really remember hearing much about it back in 2012 when the article says he started.

That said...this isn't a case of accidentally hiring the wrong graduate student. The article says he was being paid $150k/year plus up to an additional $50k/month! On top of his Harvard salary! No way should he have thought that was totally cool without running it by Harvard's lawyers.

Unless the article is very misleading, this is not a guy I'm going to spend sympathy on.

[secretlyevil]

m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ihvgfU_g7LI


My day is made from watching this. /petty #notsorry