If an American physicist sold nuclear information to Iran, would they be guilty of a crime?
To what extent can an American do business with a country that the U.S. is not on good terms with (Iran, Cuba, etc.)?
Have you ever heard of treason? That is what that is and it is very likely the physicist would be executed for it under federal law.
The Rosenbergs were the last high-profile treason case like that. If the physicist wasn’t executed, it is likely that he would spend the rest of his life in 23 hours of solitary confinement in a federal Supermax prison.
Even if he could not be charged with treason, he could also be charged with a felony under export control regulations. These reg’s cover export of intellectual property as well as physical products, bizarrely enough. For example it would be a felony to transfer the technical details of the new Sony computer games console to Iran (or any other “country of intrest”) even though it is made in Japan! Possibly there are other regulations dealing specifically with nuclear or other WMD related materials/knowledge.
I think we need more information before we cast accusations of treason.
There is lots and lots of “nuclear information” that is public, if specialized, knowledge and not in any way a government secret.
There are limitations on certain non-secret technological information so that it cannot be sold abroad, and violating these limitations is a crime. There may also be special restrictions on information to certain countries.
But I don’t think that any of this is treason.
right, what would happen in the case of a top notch college professor, who has no link whatsoever to any governmental organization … could he take his (expert, but common) knowledge to teheran?
if changed, what and why would he be charged with?
thx
al
If the technology was controlled (as defined by the Bureau of Export Administration) then he would be breaking export controls, just as if he had exported a centrifuge or a lump of uranium. He wouldn’t even have to go to Iran if he talked about a visiting Iranian professor that would be “deemed” exporting it. It wouldn’t matter if the information was actually common knowledge (the algorithm for performing encryption is trival and well known, but still controlled).
Also I think Iran is actually completely embargoed by the US currently, so any commercial transaction would be illegal (as Bobby Fischer discovered to his cost with Yugoslavia).
Julius and Ethel were convicted of espionage, not treason. To convict the physicist the government would need at least two people to testify in court that they both witnessed the same over act. There have only been a few dozen treason prosecutions and even fewer convictions.
I intentionally left the word secret out of my OP, because that would clearly be illegal and likely treason. The thread seems to be heading the way I intended though.
It seems that there are various lists involved here. Lists of countries that you can trade nothing with, and those that are just limited would certainly exist somewhere. I’m sure there are similar lists that describe which products and knowledge are considered protected. Wouldn’t these types of lists have to be made public? How else would I know if it would be illegal to sell product X to country Y?
I beleive this is what your after…
http://www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/ear_data.html
This is the “by country” list.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/pdf/738spir.pdf
Iran, Iraq, Rwanda, and Syria have their own section:
How soon they forget…
Way back in the 1980s, we had a very similar thing going on with the US and Iran. Missiles, deals on hostages, etc. All in violation of Federal law and all that.
Virtually everyone got off scott-free and those few that actually were convicted and had their convictions upheld were given pardons.
It would depend entirely on which side of the political fence you were on.