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To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (16986)	8/29/2000 10:36:36 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

If Lee is locked up, Deutch should be sharing a cell with him. Agree 100%. But I wonder if Mr. Lee isn't being set up as a patsy. What did he do? When Energy Secretary Bill Richardson forced the labs to fire him on suspicion that he had given secrets to Beijing -- before discovering that his predecessor, Hazel O’Leary, had already posted all the secrets she could find on the Internet -- federal agents found that he had what looked like secrets sitting around on his desk at Los Alamos. (Of course, since he has been handling classified stuff for 20 years, one might suspect there would be some on his desk, in the most secure sector at Los Alamos.) There is also the question of seven missing tapes, which the feds would not have known about if Wen Ho Lee had not engaged his colleagues in taping them some years back, having since destroyed them. The feds say he acted "clandestinely" because he taped them after business hours. But what kind of a spy would ask his colleagues to show him how to download classified material to a tape? He explained what he was doing, but now the feds need some time to think of how to get around that argument -- keeping him cooking in solitary until he is ready to cop a plea. polyconomics.com

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (16986)	8/29/2000 11:27:17 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Put the government on trial, not Wen Ho Lee. Wrong One Is on Trial in Lee Case By Robert Scheer Published August 22, 2000 in the Los Angeles Times The latest revelations in the Wen Ho Lee spy scandal make it clear that it's the government that should be on trial and not the former Los Alamos scientist. Last week at a bail hearing for Lee, who has been held in solitary confinement since December under unusually cruel conditions, an FBI agent testified that he had "inadvertently" misled the judge on crucial aspects of the case. Among them was that Lee had failed a lie detector test, which in fact he passed with very high marks; that Lee failed to disclose a 1980s meeting with Chinese scholars, which he'd reported to his superiors at the time; and that Lee had lied to a Los Alamos colleague about his purpose in downloading files, despite a grand jury record to the contrary. That panoply of false testimony offered by the prosecution eight months ago had convinced a federal judge that Lee's "deeply troubling" deceptions justified imprisoning Lee in a small cell without the possibility of visitors or bail. When added to previous admissions of the government's distortions, they can only leave one with the specter of a government out to crucify an innocent individual in order to placate congressional and media critics. Government prosecutors in the spring of 1999 knew that after a four-year investigation, they had no case against Lee and were prepared to drop the matter. But then a congressional committee leaked to the New York Times lurid reports of the theft of the nuclear secrets of the W-88 warhead, the most modern weapon in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. In a March 6, 1999, story, a New York Times' writer identified as "the main suspect" a Los Alamos computer scientist "who is Chinese American." That is a reference to Lee, who was actually born in Taiwan and is a naturalized American citizen with no family ties to mainland China. The Times story stated that the government only administered a lie detector test to Lee the month before "after prodding from Congress and the secretary of Energy," which the FBI insisted Lee had failed. Obviously the newspaper's sources had not revealed that Lee had easily passed the department of Energy lie detector test two months before. The record now made public by order of the judge reveals that the FBI lied to Lee, telling him he had failed his previous test before administering a second test under extremely intimidating circumstances, during which the agency had threatened him with the electric chair. Most egregious was the substance of the New York Times story implicating Lee in the theft of the secrets of the W-88 warhead. Two days after the story ran, Lee was fired. The government now concedes that Lee is no longer a suspect in that case, nor is he charged with having passed any secrets to any person or nation. The counts against Lee now amount to only the improper downloading of computer files that were not even classified as secret at the time. This phony spy caper began back in 1988 when U.S. intelligence agents were fooled by a Chinese agent. The man, whom intelligence officials now classify as a double agent, produced a document relating to the design of the W-88. Five years ago, Lee became the target of that investigation. Critics--including two top counter-intelligence officials, Robert Vrooman and Charles Washington--have testified that Lee was improperly targeted for prosecution because he is ethnic Chinese. Whether these charges of racial profiling are true or not, prosecutors have since admitted that they went after the wrong man. The stolen document in question was never even at Los Alamos, where Lee worked; it was contained in safes at the Sandia and Lockheed labs, where the investigation is now centered. In other words, after all this, Lee is not accused of having anything to do with the presumed theft of information relating to the W-88 warhead. Indeed, the government recently stated that it will not contend in Lee's November trial that he was intent on damaging U.S. security. Instead, the case is based on the assumption that Lee intended to use the downloaded data--the only proof of his extensive scientific work--to buttress his application for jobs abroad. And the sole evidence for that is that he had drafted letters applying for jobs in Switzerland, Germany and other non-communist nations when general layoffs were pending at Los Alamos. But last week, prosecutors conceded that there is no evidence that Lee ever mailed those applications or that any foreign institute had received them. The pillorying of Lee has been denounced by many reputable scientists here and abroad and has gravely damaged recruitment and morale at the nation's weapons labs. Irrespective of the judge's pending ruling on Lee's bail request, those guilty of this perversion of justice and national security must be held accountable. It is time that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson were the ones on trial. robertscheer.com