Your title is not an accurate reflection of what the paper says. Quoting specifically, it says:<p><pre><code> > Most foreign students, researchers, or professors
> studying or working in the United States are here
> for legitimate and proper reasons. Only a very small
> percentage is actively working at the behest of
> another government or organization.
</code></pre>
Nowhere can I find it saying that "many" are spies. I've searched specifically for the word "many," but perhaps I've missed the section you are quoting.<p>From <a href="http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html" rel="nofollow">http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html</a> :<p><pre><code> You can make up a new title if you want, but
if you put gratuitous editorial spin on it,
the editors may rewrite it.
</code></pre>
Please could you quote the section from which your title derives?<p>Thanks.
Foreign students contribute 12bn+ to US universities by way of tuition fees; the majority funded by their own government, organisations or families. If the US government wishes to limit foreign nationals ability to contribute to and participate in valuable research they may find the funding for that research will disappear as well.<p>Not to legitimise espionage, but you can't have it both ways.<p>This is actually a bigger issue that also encompasses outsourcing manufacturing and technology development to foreign countries where they don't play by the same rules as far as patents and IP rights.
At least the government is reacting to the threat.
Successive US administrations have done their best to try and ensure that there is no longer any cutting edge university research to steal!
this is just blowing up a tiny number up to generate page views very similar to the Spy mania at the out break of WW1 or McCarthy like witch hunts in the 50's