Whom do you side with in the curious case of the deported French scientist?
The scientist in question traveled to the U.S. earlier this month to attend a conference in Houston. Upon arrival, he was stopped and subjected to a random security check. Agents looked through his phone and laptop and discovered something so alarming that they turned him right around and put him on a plane back to France the next day.
The dispute has to do with what they found.
On Thursday a Department of Homeland Security official claimed that the security check had revealed “confidential information on his electronic device from Los Alamos National Laboratory—in violation of a non-disclosure agreement—something he admitted to taking without permission and attempted to conceal.” That sounds like stealing state secrets, surefire grounds to bar someone from entry.
France’s minister of higher education says that’s…
