December 11, 1999

Group Questions Motives For Scientist's Arrest

The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE -- An Asian-American public policy group is concerned about possible racial undercurrents in the prosecution of a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist.
Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwan-born scientist who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was accused Friday of compromising U.S. security by moving nuclear secrets from secure computers to portable computer tapes.
Seven of 10 high-volume tapes Lee is accused of filling with nuclear computer codes are still missing, officials said. Three tapes were recovered.
Lee was not charged with passing nuclear secrets to China or any other country.
The Committee of 100, based in Washington, D.C., is reviewing the 59-count indictment against Lee because the group is worried about selective prosecution due to his race, said Henry Tang, committee chairman.
"It is our understanding there have been other high federal officials who have perpetrated the same so-called misdeed," Tang said.
"If these are equivalent transgressions, then there should be some consideration for equivalent treatment," he said.
The Associated Press left a message Saturday seeking comment from Ron Lopez, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque, but the call was not immediately returned.
Lee, fired by the lab in March, was arrested Friday at his White Rock home by FBI agents.
He is accused of unlawfully gathering and retaining defense secrets with intent "to secure an advantage to a foreign nation."
The indictment charged Lee with violations of the federal Espionage Act, including tampering, altering and concealing classified information, and violations of the Atomic Energy Act, including removing secret weapons files from the Los Alamos lab computers.
"Security violations like this are a lot more pervasive than anyone cares to admit," said John Pike, a defense analyst with the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C.
"For every person who does this for espionage purposes, there are surely many thousands who do it just for personal conveniences because it makes their job easier," Pike said.
Lee is the first employee in lab history to be charged in a criminal case for mishandling classified information, said Kevin Roark, a lab spokesman.
Other lab employees have been disciplined or fired for the same offenses, Roark said.
Mark Holscher of Los Angeles, Lee's lead attorney, said there is no evidence the tapes ever left the lab's top-secret nuclear weapons research building where Lee's office was located.
Lee never gave the tapes to a third party, Holscher said.
The indictment is a "horrible injustice," and Lee is innocent, Holscher said.
"Since this matter came to light, Dr. Lee has made every effort to engage in dialogue with the government to demonstrate his innocence and to refute a number of groundless accusations that have been made against him," Holscher said.
Lee is being held in an undisclosed detention center, awaiting a detention hearing set for 11 a.m. Monday before U.S. Magistrate Don Svet.
The judge will decide whether Lee posses a flight risk or a danger to others and whether he should be held in jail until his trial.
Holscher said the Justice Department "is blatantly overreaching."
Lee has been under 24-hour surveillance since March, Holscher said.
"He has been under investigation for three years and during this time has fully cooperated with the government," Holscher said.
"Dr. Lee voluntarily relinquished his passport prior to this time and voluntarily notified the government on every occasion on which he has traveled outside of the Los Alamos area for the past nine months," Holscher said.