NASA hired 118 Chinese nationals to work on IT matters

Washington Examiner:
NASA employs 118 Chinese nationals in "remotely-based" information technology jobs that may enable them to penetrate the space agency's national security database servers, The Washington Examiner has learned.

But NASA administrator Charles Bolden said nothing about these individuals during his testimony last week before a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on cyber espionage threats against the space agency.

Bolden told the panel he counted 192 Chinese nationals in positions with "physical access" to NASA facilities like its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and Ames Research Center near San Francisco.

The 118 employees with remote access were described in a sensitive but classified NASA document given to the subcommittee separately from Bolden's testimony.

The Washington Examiner obtained a subcommittee summary of the document, which described the 118 individuals as having "varying degrees of access" to NASA research and databases.

Rep. Frank Wolf, the subcommittee chairman, told The Washington Examiner he found the discrepancy troubling because "the numbers didn't match" with other data he had seen.
... 
So, why does NASA think this is a good idea?  On the surface it seems laden with risk of exposing national security secrets to non US citizens who happen to be from the country that most seem to think is engaged in a cyber war with us.  NASA has been targeted by China for data and the FBI recently arrested a man as he was boarding a plane for China.  We need to find who is responsible for these hiring decisions.

The Washington Post reports that a Chinese citizen has been sentenced to over five years in prison for theft of documents and a device used to target rockets without satellite guidance.

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