These guys may be locked up for providing consulting services to Cuba. Cuba is not a government-approved dictatorship, so they should have consulted with the Saudi or Georgian governments instead. It’s OK to trade with those despots.
The company is accused of selling “U.S. technology” to foreigners. That’s where the company went wrong. It was probably under the impression that it owned the technology. Sorry guys, the US government owns everything whether you know it or not.
This reminds me of the policies that Britain and some other western nations had in the 18th and 19th centuries. Engineers and others with specialized industrial and technical knowledge were forbidden to emigrate lest they pass on their knowledge to foreigners in foreign lands. Of course, a large number of those prisoners of their own lands secretly emigrated anyway.
Don’t get too smart either. The government, which already figures it owns you, may notice you.
11:49 pm on September 5, 2008
