UCLA: Chinese visiting college researcher arrested, charged with destroying evidence

Karen Townsend August 29, 2020

Once again, a Chinese national has been arrested and detained in the United States for his alleged activities as a military scientist. Guan Lei first came under investigation in July by the FBI. He was under suspicion for visa fraud and possibly transferred “sensitive software or technical data” from UCLA.

Guan Lei studied machine-learning algorithms in UCLA’s mathematics department. According to one FBI agent’s affidavit, he transferred information to “high-ranking” officials in the Chinese military.

He isn’t charged with that, though. He is accused of destroying evidence. FBI agents staked out his apartment, saw him pull a computer hard drive from his sock and throw it into a trash dumpster. He tossed the damaged hard drive just days after he was interviewed by investigators and tried to board a plane back to China. It sure sounds like he’s hiding something, right?..........To Read More....


My Take - After WWII scientists became secular demi-gods, followed by unbelievable levels of weirdness and hubris.  It must have been heady stuff for the academics, and understandably so.  Someone would say Professor nobody said this. or Dr. so and so said that, and everyone would just nod and act, okay it must be true, we can’t argue with scientists. 

I've never been good at that.  

Instinctively I seem to have a logic button that gets pressed over and over again, but I didn't have the knowledge to refute so much of what was said in those days.  I had attitude, but I was ignorant. 

Ignorant attitude is much worse than just being ignorant.  I fixed both, sort of. I still have attitude, but when you get old it’s amazing what you can get away with. What I fixed was the ignorance, and what I found in my adventures of discovery is that scientific integrity is an oxymoron.  That truth is no longer the holy grail of science! It's now grant money, which then translates into.....any money!

Why? 

Because they’re people, and people will always be people. And that lack of integrity spreads like the Black Plague into every facet of their lives.  People are like nations. They’ll act in what they perceive is in their own best interests, even if it’s negative for others, even it's totally nefarious and corrupt. 

People will always be people.  That's a follow up statement to De Omniibus Dubitandum.