Home
Asian-
American
Candidates
Asian-
American
Issues
Key
Contests
Close
Contests
Presidential
Election
Voting
Records
Hot Topics
Write Your
Politician
News
Hate Crimes
Statistics
Reverse
Discrimination
Wen Ho Lee
Hall of Shame
Colleges
Medical
School
Law Schools
Law Firms
Veterans
Free The
North Koreans Links
Stop Being
a Sap
Legal
Disclaimers
Who Is
This Guy? | |
See www.captainyee.org
or www.j4na.org for the latest developments in
the
Captain James Yee case.
12/4/08 Asian Week: "A Slap in Our Face: We can’t forget what
Richardson
did to Wen Ho Lee,"
by Emil Guillermo
Wen Ho Lee is as close as it gets
in contemporary Asian Pacific
American history to a mythic victim of racism in our nation.
Unlike a symbol of injustice like a Rosa Parks, Lee was no
activist and
did not seek to challenge society. He was merely an ordinary Asian
American scientist doing his life’s work. And solely because of his race
was he wrongly suspected of being the most heinous kind of criminal
to democracy — a spy.
For his ordeal, Lee rarely receives the respect he deserves
and now
lives in quiet obscurity after being stripped of his livelihood as a nuclear
scientist. To add insult to injury, some still don’t think Lee is innocent.
Meanwhile, Bill Richardson, secretary of energy in the late
1990s and
the man who fingered Lee and presided over his public flogging, remains
in the limelight and is now being honored as President-elect Obama’s
new secretary of commerce.
That may be the ultimate injustice to Wen Ho Lee.
Simply for his lead role in the Lee case,
Richardson
should have a
karma deficit so huge that he should be happy to remain ensconced as
the popular governor of
New Mexico
, far from the national stage.
But politics and ambition being what they are,
Richardson
has
apparently rehabilitated himself to glory in the last eight years. His recent
unsuccessful run for president seemed to be waged on the basis that
someone who was Latino had to do it. Yet it’s likely he never saw himself
with a real shot to win, and instead used the campaign to position
himself to fail upwards.
Sure enough, at this year’s Democratic National Convention,
the
also-ran spoke on that last memorable night at Invesco Field and
achieved what his failed presidential run could not — a real shot at
national prominence and a place in Obama’s inner circle. I mean, there’s
got to be a Latino in there somewhere, right?
Too bad it’s someone responsible for what is arguably the
most
prominent case of racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans
since the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Richardson, the charming politician, would love for us all to
forget
Wen Ho Lee. But we must insist that APAs and all Americans go back
to the memory vault and re-experience the pain of that episode, which
caused a ripple effect from the white towers of academia to the dim
sum houses of Chinatown and everywhere in between where Asian
Americans were.
For a time in our country, every Chinese American was seen as
a
suspect. Whether student or professor, Asian or Asian American, just
enough doubt was cast to impact all working relationships.
Wen Ho Lee’s pain suddenly became all our pain. We were all
suspects. Before Sept.11 and the terrorist fear, the profiling standard
was not a man with a turban, but a brainy Chinese or Asian American
scientist or student with access to some form of technology, top secret
or not. It really didn’t matter. All that mattered was your Asian heritage.
Richardson
’s disgusting role
These days, the modern memory vault seems to be YouTube
(check out this short recap of the Lee saga at: tiny.cc/BGHDZ).
It’s a
painful reminder of
Richardson
’s adamant defense of his role in the
Lee case. The clip includes
Richardson
being grilled on 60 Minutes, as
well as Lee being interviewed on NBC. There’s a shot of the cell where
Lee spent nine months in solitary confinement, waiting for the trial that
would exonerate him from espionage charges.
The broadcast clips unfortunately do not represent the
overall media
coverage, which was as close as it gets to a modern “yellow journalism.”
The media and the government were in lockstep, feeding on each other.
There were so many leaks to the media from federal sources that it
could not have been done without some orchestration from the top of
the Department of Energy. The New York Times was so gung-ho about
being leaked upon, it lost its sense of ethics.
But even The Times was able to see its error. It ran a
massive
apology to Lee for its failure to present a fair human portrait of Lee and
admitted to an over reliance on a few government sources.
The Times had no choice but to apologize. Even Judge James
Parker,
the presiding judge in the Lee case, issued an apology to Lee upon his
release for how badly government prosecutors had bungled the case.
One man should have had the moral courage to change all of
that
history: Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. But he didn’t.
Now he hopes we’ve forgotten all about it. It would be
quite the norm
to forget what happens to Asian Americans; we have constantly been
ignored, overlooked. How many Asian Americans do you see
mentioned in the Obama transition? So why should we expect anything
different now? Because
America
cannot afford to forget what
happened to Lee.
President-elect Obama should not give in to
Richardson
’s charm or
to the large Latino vote he claims. Latino activists have propped
Richardson
up as the “Latino guy.” But how many people outside a
small circle even know
Richardson
is Latino? Besides, his race is
irrelevant; ours isn’t.
A
Richardson
selection is purely a matter of ambition and political
payback, not the public good. Surely there is someone better for the
commerce job who doesn’t have a history of trading in xenophobia?
President-elect Obama shouldn’t dismiss concerns of Asian
Americans who overwhelming supported his campaign. The choice
sends a negative message to APAs everywhere.
Richardson
represents a regression. He is simply unfit to be part of any “cabinet
of change.”
On-line petitions are being circulated at http://www.wenholee.org/
and petitiononline.com/GovBillR/petition.html.
12/02/2008 San Jose Mercury News: “Chinese-American activists oppose
any Bill Richardson cabinet nomination,”
by Ken McLaughlin
In a move bound to create political tension between Latinos
and Asian-
Americans, a group of Chinese-American activists in Silicon Valley has
launched a nationwide grass-roots movement to fight President-elect
Barack Obama's nomination today of Bill Richardson as commerce
secretary.
The group is upset at the
New Mexico
governor for his handling of the
nearly decade-old case of Taiwanese-American Wen Ho Lee, a former
nuclear scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
U.S.
officials once
suspected Lee of giving nuclear secrets to
China
when
Richardson
was
President Clinton's energy secretary.
The Chinese-Americans say they realize that challenging the
nomination
of
Richardson
, 61, the nation's most high-profile Hispanic politician, will
ruffle the Latino community, many of whose leaders felt he should have
been named secretary of state instead of Sen. Hillary Clinton.
But the Chinese-American group insists that
Richardson
's refusal to
acknowledge making serious errors in the case makes it a moral
imperative to oppose his nomination to Obama's Cabinet. They say their
criticism of
Richardson
has nothing to do with him being Latino but
everything to do with his lack of judgment in the case.
"This was the major Chinese-American civil rights case
in the last 30
years,'' said Albert Wang, a
Fremont
physician. "And there was a feeling
among many Chinese-Americans, particularly in Silicon Valley, that Bill
Richardson did a lot to promote the notion that all Chinese-Americans are
potential spies.''
The group has already gathered more than 4,000 electronic
signatures
protesting
Richardson
's nomination as head of the federal department
dealing with business and industry.
A former congressman and
U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations,
Richardson ran for president against Obama in the Democratic primary
and later endorsed him over Sen. Clinton. He has acknowledged the
government made "some mistakes'' in the Lee case, but he has denied
that his public statements naming Lee as an espionage suspect
represented racial scapegoating or exhibited a lack of judgment.
But Roger Hu, a 30-year-old Silicon Valley engineer who was
raised in
Los Altos and was an Obama delegate at the Democratic convention,
has written an "open letter'' to Obama and the transition team stating that
Richardson should not be nominated or confirmed for any Cabinet-level
position.
In the letter, which appears on his blog at http://notorich.blogspot.com,
Hu says he became aware of the Lee case when he was entering his
senior year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"
Richardson
's actions were simply inexcusable,'' he writes.
Hu, Wang and well-known Chinese-American human rights
activists
such as Henry Der plan to say in a new letter to Obama today, posted at
www.wenholee.org,
that
Richardson
's actions violated Lee's due process
rights by firing him without the required legal notice. It will also accuse
Richardson
of promoting Lee's indictment when there was no evidence
that he had engaged in espionage.
Until
Richardson
apologizes for his actions, the group says, it will
continue to oppose the nomination.
Der accused
Richardson
of fueling suspicions about the loyalties of
dedicated, hardworking Chinese-Americans.
"Wen Ho Lee bore the brunt of Richardson's actions, but
there were
many Chinese-American scientists who felt great fear,'' said Der, who
once headed Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco. "Even I
got a visit from the FBI, and I'm not a scientist.''
Caitlin Kelleher, press spokeswoman for Gov. Richardson,
referred
calls on Tuesday to Obama's transition office. A spokesman there would
not comment on anyone not yet officially nominated.
Victor Garza, chairman of La Raza Roundtable, a San
Jose-based
civil rights group with about 800 members, said Richardson "is one of the
most high-profile Hispanics in the United States who has done an
excellent job in many high-profile jobs.''
Noting that his group has endorsed many Asian-Americans
running for
local offices, Garza said he hopes "my brothers and sisters who happen
to be Chinese don't allow their resentment'' over
Richardson
's handling
of the Lee case "to become a single issue'' that could threaten his
nomination.
"And I hope this single issue won't create a major
problem between
the two groups,'' Garza said.
Lee, now 68, was indicted on Dec. 10, 1999, on 59 counts that
accused him of mishandling nuclear weapons secrets. His arrest followed
months of press reports and speculation that he had passed secrets to
China
—
something with which he was never charged and always denied.
He spent the next nine months in solitary confinement at the Santa Fe
County Jail.
Supporters claimed Lee, who was born in
Taiwan
and is a naturalized
U.S.
citizen, was being targeted because of his race. The government
denied that, although former
Los Alamos
counterintelligence chief Robert
Vrooman says Lee was singled out because he is ethnic Chinese.
Initially, government attorneys said Lee had stolen the
"crown jewels"
of
U.S.
nuclear weaponry science and intended to turn them over to a
foreign power. But the government was eventually forced to acknowledge
that the material was classified "restricted" rather than secret and
that
"99 percent" of the material was already available to the public.
Lee eventually pleaded guilty to one felony count of
downloading
sensitive material and was sentenced to time served.
Some political analysts see the dust-up as one of the opening
salvos in
an evolving political mosaic created by the election of the nation's first
black president.
Gregory Rodriguez, a senior fellow at the New America
Foundation,
said the controversy shows that all the talk about a "post-racial
America
''
is overblown.
"We believed we were going to work our way to the point
where race
did not matter,'' said Rodriguez, author of "Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans,
and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America.''
But the reality, Rodriguez said, is that "race is only
going to affect our
society in more complex ways.''
11/28/08 Asian Week: “Commerce Secretary Appointment Draws Ire
From Asian Americans: Community looks back at
Richardson
’s role in
Wen Ho Lee Case,”
by Andrew Lee
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s
appointment this week as
President-elect Barack Obama’s commerce secretary is being greeted
with anger and disappointment by some who remember the former energy
secretary’s role in the botched investigation and prosecution of scientist
Dr. Wen Ho Lee.
In 1999, Richardson and several other Department of Energy
officials
publicly accused the Taiwanese-born Lee of stealing classified nuclear-
related documents from the Los Alamos Laboratories.
Lee, who had been employed at
Los Alamos
for 21 years, was indicted
and spent 278 days in solitary confinement. Meanwhile, the case became
a national story as suspicions formed that Lee was performing espionage
for the Chinese government.
In the face of insufficient evidence, Lee pled guilty to a
substantially
reduced charge and received a public apology from President Bill
Clinton for his mistreatment at the hands of the federal government.
The future
New Mexico
governor came under fire for his role in the
case, as allegations surfaced that it was Richardson who leaked
damaging classified personal information about Lee in an apparent
attempt to smear the 69-year-old doctor in the press. Lee eventually
received a multimillion-dollar settlement from the federal government and
several media outlets in 2006.
Richardson
’s new appointment has drawn fierce criticism
from
members of the Asian American community, many of whom still blame
the
New Mexico
governor for perpetuating a harmful image of Chinese
Americans.
“
Richardson
inflamed the stereotype that Americans of Chinese
descent are easily disloyal citizens of our country,” said Henry Der who
was Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action in the 1990s.
Der called upon members of the Senate Commerce Committee to
investigate
Richardson
’s conduct as secretary of energy during
Richardson
’s confirmation hearings.
For critics like Der,
Richardson
’s refusal to acknowledge his own
misconduct during the scandal remains a bitter sticking point.
“[He] needs to… apologize for the grave, calculated
mistakes and
harm he perpetrated against Lee and our nation’s sense of justice,”
Der said.
Guy Wong, a member of a group of Chinese Americans who
supported Wen Ho Lee during his imprisonment, went further in his
criticism of the former energy secretary.
“Bill Richardson is simply a ruthless opportunist,” said
Wong, who
circulated a petition urging President-elect Obama to deny
Richardson
any cabinet position prior to Tuesday’s announcement. Wong criticized
Richardson and other government officials for being “willing to lie, not
just to Dr. Lee, but also in open court, in order to gain advantage over
an innocent and powerless man.”
That Richardson’s appointment comes at a time of
unprecedented
economic turmoil concerns Asian American business leaders like John
Jin Lee, chairman of the Asian Business League of San Francisco.
“Mr. Richardson’s association with the well-documented
mishandling
of the Wen Ho Lee case at the very least raises the question as to his
qualifications,” said Lee.
Shien Biau “S.B.” Woo, former lieutenant governor of
Delaware
and
co-founder of the prominent 80-20 Initiative, an Asian American political
organization, had a different view.
“I doubt if we want to burn our political capital opposing
the
appointment of
Richardson
,” Woo said, questioning the notion that the
Wen Ho Lee case was an important issue to Asian Americans.
In lieu of opposing the appointment and risk angering the
Hispanic
community, Woo proffered that the Asian American community should
work to increase its influence instead of focusing on negatives.
“The politic way of doing things has always been not to be
concerned
with what others are getting,” said Woo. “We have to be politically astute.
Otherwise we’ll never succeed in enlarging our political clout.”
6/6/06 San Francisco
Chronicle: Why privacy matters -- the case of Wen Ho Lee, by Helen Zia
Wen Ho Lee, the former
Los Alamos
nuclear physicist, finally may be vindicated. Now that the federal government
and five media companies have agreed to pay a settlement of $1.6 million, of
which Lee will receive $750,000, it is his turn to point a finger.
After he was accused of espionage, imprisoned, then released
with an apology in September 2000, Wen Ho Lee's legal battles continued over the
government leaks of his personal information that led to his ordeal. The five
media companies -- the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated
Press, the Washington Post and ABC -- announced in a joint statement that they
are making this unprecedented settlement to protect the identities of their
confidential news sources, and to protect journalists. More specifically, they
feared that the courts would force their reporters to reveal the anonymous
sources who leaked Wen Ho Lee's personal information, in violation of the
Privacy Act.
While the defense of journalists is a noble ideal, the actual
news reports about Wen Ho Lee tell a far less admirable tale. Lee's lawsuit
recounted numerous incidents of government officials manipulating and misleading
the news media into producing stories that falsely portrayed the Chinese
American as a devious master spy and threat to the American people.
To cite just a few examples, named and unnamed government
sources told the news media that:
-- Wen Ho Lee had failed a polygraph test about giving
secrets to
China
, proving that he was deceptive, which was prominently reported in the news.
This was false -- he had unequivocally passed the polygraph.
-- Lee's private financial data indicated that he had
purchased a ticket to
Shanghai
, which was prominently reported in the news. This was false -- he had given
money to his daughter so she could take a tour of
Hong Kong
.
-- He failed to report the names of
Peoples
Republic
of
China
scientists he met at a conference, as required; this was also false -- he had
duly filed the appropriate reports.
-- He had tricked a
Los Alamos
colleague into using a computer by saying he wanted to "download his
resume" -- this too was false.
News stories containing such fabrications and distortions
were often attributed to anonymous government sources and appeared as regular,
indeed headline, news for nearly a year before his arrest, beginning with the
New York Times coverage in March 1999. This was well before Wen Ho Lee was
charged with "mishandling classified information" -- not with
espionage that was "as bad as the Rosenbergs," as characterized by the
Times. Nevertheless, Lee was imprisoned for nine months in pre-trial detention,
shackled and chained in solitary confinement, largely because he had been
portrayed as such a sinister threat to
America
's national security. Yet even after Wen Ho Lee and his attorneys proved such
stories to be false, the factual stories or follow-up reporting on why
disinformation had been planted received little or no coverage.
Though Lee had been a
U.S.
citizen for more than 30 years, the fact that he was born in
Taiwan
and his Chinese ethnicity played into the feverish innuendo from pundits and
politicians that Chinese spies were swarming into the
United States
. Many observers of this case, including many Asian Americans, believe that Lee
was singled out because of his Chinese heritage.
Indeed, because of his mistreatment by the government, Asian
scientists virtually stopped seeking employment to the national labs, severely
depleting their scientific talent pool.
It is worth noting that Lee was the first -- and remains --
the only person to be criminally prosecuted and imprisoned for mishandling
classified information -- the same charge that Special Prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald is considering in his investigation of the leak of CIA agent Valerie
Plame's name to the press.
What happened to Wen Ho Lee still stands as a cautionary tale
for all Americans, especially as untold numbers of people are being detained,
without charges or trial, because they too are "threats" to national
security. It is not yet known who will be profiled from the immense database the
National Security Agency is amassing on everyone's phone calls. Experts are
already warning that "false positives" are inevitable. Wen Ho Lee's
experience shows how bits of private information can be manipulated into a
nightmare.
When the federal judge freed Wen Ho Lee from prison, he
offered an apology, saying what happened to Lee has "embarrassed our nation
and each of us who is a citizen of it." It behooves us all to remember why.
Helen Zia, a writer based in the Bay Area, co-authored Wen Ho
Lee's book, "My Country Versus Me" (Hyperion, 2002).
6/2/06 Associated Press:
Wen Ho Lee settles privacy lawsuit,
by Mark Sherman
Washington Wen Ho Lee, the former nuclear weapons
scientist once suspected of being a spy, settled his privacy lawsuit Friday and
will receive $1.6 million from the government and five news organizations in a
case that turned into a fight over reporters' confidential sources.
Lee will receive $895,000 from the government for legal fees
and associated taxes in the 6 1/2-year-old lawsuit in which he accused the
Energy and Justice departments of violating his privacy rights by leaking
information that he was under investigation as a spy for
China
.
The Associated Press and four other news organizations have
agreed to pay Lee $750,000 as part of the settlement, which ends contempt of
court proceedings against five reporters who refused to disclose the sources of
their stories about the espionage investigation.
Lee said of the settlement: "We are hopeful that the
agreements reached today will send the strong message that government officials
and journalists must and should act responsibly in discharging their duties and
be sensitive to the privacy interests afforded to every citizen of this
country."
The payment by AP, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times,
The Washington Post and ABC is the only one of its kind in recent memory, and
perhaps ever, legal and media experts said.
The companies said they agreed to the sum to forestall jail
sentences for their reporters, even larger payments in the form of fines and the
prospect of revealing confidential sources. The companies and their reporters
were not defendants in the privacy lawsuit.
"We were reluctant to contribute anything to this
settlement, but we sought relief in the courts and found none," the
companies said. "Given the rulings of the federal courts in
Washington
and the absence of a federal shield law, we decided this was the best course to
protect our sources and to protect our journalists."
The statement noted that the accuracy of the reporting itself
was not challenged.
The government agencies did not admit that they had violated Lee's privacy
rights.
Betsy Miller, one of Lee's lawyers, said the payments show
"that both the government and the journalists knew that they had
significant exposure had this case gone to trial."
Lee was fired from his job at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory in
New Mexico
, but he was never charged with espionage. He was held in solitary confinement
for nine months, then released in 2000 after pleading guilty to mishandling
computer files. A judge apologized for Lee's treatment.
Two federal judges held the reporters in contempt for
refusing to reveal their sources to Lee. The journalists had argued that he
could obtain the information elsewhere.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer signed an order Friday
vacating the contempt proceedings against the reporters, H. Josef Hebert of The
Associated Press, James Risen of The New York Times, Bob Drogin of the Los
Angeles Times, Walter Pincus of The Washington Post, and Pierre Thomas, formerly
of CNN and now working for ABC News.
CNN, in a separate statement, said it declined to join in the
settlement "because we had a philosophical disagreement over whether it was
appropriate to pay money to Wen Ho Lee or anyone else to get out from under a
subpoena."
The reporters had appealed the contempt rulings to the
Supreme Court. The justices recently delayed a decision on whether to take up
the reporters' case after being told a settlement was near.
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee
for Freedom of the Press, called the payment unusual and perhaps unprecedented.
"I'm certainly not happy about this, but I'm not sure I
could have dreamed up a better result," Dalglish said. "On the
positive side, it appears that this result will allow these reporters to
continue to protect their sources."
The settlement underscores the need for a federal law that
would shield reporters from having to disclose their sources, she said.
12/22/05 San Gabriel Valley
Tribune: Legal experts say prosecution bungled espionage case,
By Gene Maddaus
It's a ploy familiar to anyone who's watched a Mafia movie.
When prosecuting two defendants, offer the small fry a deal in exchange for
testimony against the big fish. You pocket a partial win and improve the chances
for a total victory.
It should have worked that way in the case of accused double
agent Katrina Leung, the
San Marino
society figure once accused of passing secrets to
China
.
Instead, the plea agreement prosecutors struck with Leung's
FBI handler and ex-lover, James J. Smith, ended up sinking the Leung
prosecution.
A clause in the agreement spurred the judge to declare
prosecutorial misconduct and toss out the case, leading to last week's
face-saving denouement. Once considered so dangerous to national security that
she could not be given bail, Leung pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and filing
a false tax return. She got probation.
In retrospect, the case seems to have fallen apart due to
what appeared to be a relatively harmless mistake. But legal experts and
community leaders also have questioned the government's strategy in pursuing
Leung to the exclusion of Smith.
Smith, after all, continued his affair with Leung for a
decade after learning of her illicit contacts with Chinese intelligence agents,
according to FBI affidavits. He also continued to work as her handler, using her
to gather information on
China
, and continued to provide her with classified information, documents show.
Many in the legal community were surprised when Smith was
allowed to take a plea deal with no jail time in exchange for his testimony
against Leung.
"This was a rather significant betrayal by an FBI
agent," said attorney Stanley Greenberg, who defended Richard W. Miller,
the first FBI agent ever accused of espionage. "It's one thing to have a
dipsy woman on the outside trying to play off both sides who has a bunch of
friends in
China
. To me, the greater harm is the betrayal by the FBI agent."
Some, including Leung's lawyers, see it as a clear-cut case
of discrimination. Leung's attorneys argued in an early motion that the decision
to grant Smith bail was the result of "unintended sexism and/or
racism." In their motion to dismiss the case, the defense argued that
Smith's plea deal was "unsavory" because it perpetuated the
"gross and unfair disparity in treatment between Mr. Smith and Ms.
Leung."
In her order dismissing the case, U.S. District Judge
Florence-Marie Cooper all but agreed, calling Smith's plea a "sweetheart
deal."
Though legal observers discounted the idea that Leung's
gender or ethnicity played a role in the government's pursuit of her, some
community leaders noted that the case was laden with familiar stereotypes.
"I'm concerned about the continuing string of
allegations against Asian-Pacific Americans regarding espionage that crumble
into minor plea deals," said Assemblywoman Judy Chu,
D-Monterey
Park
.
"It challenges the loyalty of Asian-Pacific Americans
without generating any apparent benefit to national security."
Others wondered whether Leung's gender was the operative
factor.
"It probably goes back to Adam and Eve," said Diana
Peterson-More, a candidate for Assembly who has long worked on feminist causes.
"We women are somehow the evil ones that cause the men to fall from
grace."
Cooper dismissed the case in January because of an unusual
clause in the Smith plea agreement that prevented him from speaking with Leung's
defense lawyers as they prepared for her trial.
Though unlikely to have had any practical effect - Smith
almost certainly would not have talked to Leung's lawyers with or without the
clause - Cooper found it to be unethical and grounds for dismissal.
Legal experts saw the clause as unnecessary.
"I've been in dozens of cases where people have entered
into plea agreements," Greenberg said
"And nobody has ever put in a plea agreement that you
can't talk to the defense. It's understood that if you're sleeping with the
government, you're not having extramarital affairs with the defense. ... It's
either unspoken, or spoken verbally but not put in writing. So why did they put
it in writing?"
The government maintained that the language was misconstrued,
and that prosecutors merely wanted to prevent Smith from disclosing classified
information.
Greenberg speculated the clause was added because of
"micromanaging from
Washington
."
Bruce Merritt, a former federal prosecutor who worked on an
espionage case, agreed that the clause was ill-advised, but said he was
"unsettled" by Cooper's decision.
"The sanction of dismissing the case does seem to be a
little severe," he said.
Prosecutors appealed, but lacking absolute confidence of
victory, U.S. Attorney Debra Yang worked simultaneously with Leung's lawyers to
negotiate a resolution.
"I think the government realized that their best
argument was, `Even if we engaged in misconduct, there wasn't real
prejudice,"' said
Loyola
Law
School
professor Laurie Levenson. "That's not the strongest position to be in -
to say `We got caught, but it didn't really damage the case."'
Leung and her defense team could not be completely confident
either. She was under a separate investigation for tax charges, and may have
thought that Cooper's dismissal order was just a lucky break - unlikely to be
granted by most judges and vulnerable to being overturned.
The deal announced last Friday provided that Leung's sentence
would be identical to Smith's.
At last, she got parity.
"It looks like both sides gave up something but got
something," Greenberg said. "The government gave up the more serious
charge but got the face-saving conviction. She has to be a felon for the rest of
her life, but she put this all behind her without serving any jail time."
Leung's attorneys declared victory. Merritt said that
prosecutors, on the other hand, will label it a "failed case."
"These espionage cases are about as high-profile as
cases get in the federal system," he said. "You don't generally
surface a case like that, and let the media wallow in it, unless you think (A)
it's sufficiently serious to warrant prosecution and (B) the case is
sufficiently strong to be a probable winner. In this particular case, they got
egg on their face."
Left unanswered, because there was no trial, is just how
culpable Smith and Leung may have been. Did she, as court papers allege, pass
state secrets to
China
? Was Smith an unwitting dupe or a willful accomplice? Or was the whole thing,
as the Leung defense maintained, "much ado about nothing"?
"I know that in the (defense) statement issued on
Friday, they complained that Ms. Leung was never going to be able to tell her
story," said U.S. Attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek. "It's fair to say
the government, by virtue of how this case moved along, was never able to tell
its side of the story either."
12/16/05 Sacramento Bee: Former FBI informant in China-linked case makes plea
deal,
By Linda Deutsch
Los Angeles
(AP) - A woman once accused of being a Chinese
double agent while having a long love affair with an FBI agent, pleaded guilty
Friday to making a false statement to the FBI and filing a false tax return in
a surprise ending to a complex case in which implications of sex and intrigue
overwhelmed suggestions of spying.
Katrina Leung, 51, admitted she lied to the FBI about her
intimate relationship with her FBI handler, James J. Smith, and that she failed
to include all her income on her tax returns for the year 2000.
Leung, a socialite who lives in the wealthy suburb of
San Marino
, stood between her attorneys as she addressed U.S. District Judge Florence
Marie Cooper.
"I want to say that it's great to be an American. I
love
America
. I love American values," Leung said.
"I'm looking forward to putting this behind me and
continuing on in this beautiful country," she said. "God bless
America
."
Leung, who already spent three months in jail and 18 months
in home detention, agreed to be immediately sentenced. The plea deal provided
for no more time in custody, three years of probation, 100 hours of community
service and a $10,000 fine. She agreed to government debriefings, including use
of polygraph devices.
Leung acknowledged that when she was questioned by the FBI
about Smith she told them that he was "just a good family friend" and
that she had never traveled with him abroad. In her plea she said she traveled
with him to Hong Kong and
England
and they did have an intimate relationship.
She said she concealed $35,000 in payments from the FBI and
$16,389 in rental income on her tax return.
The tax return was filed for her and her husband. The judge
said the plea agreement relieves him of all further tax consequences as well.
Her husband, Kam Leung, sat in the front row of the courtroom as she entered
the plea.
Smith pleaded guilty in connection with the case and was
sentenced earlier this year to probation and a fine of $10,000. He admitted
that he had lied to the FBI about his affair with Leung.
Leung, a naturalized citizen, was recruited to work for the
FBI, gathering intelligence during frequent business trips to
China
. Smith was her FBI handler and vouched for her trustworthiness during
briefings with his superiors.
Prosecutors claimed Leung began working for
China
as a double agent around 1990. An indictment contended she had access to
classified documents from Smith's briefcase which she copied with the intent of
using them to benefit a foreign nation. But neither she nor Smith was ever
charged with espionage.
Smith was charged with gross negligence for allegedly
allowing her access to the classified material. He ultimately pleaded to a
single count of making a false statement about their affair.
The case against Leung virtually collapsed early this year
when the judge rebuked prosecutors for "deliberate misconduct" and
dismissed all charges.
The judge said prosecutors purposely kept the defense from
contacting Smith as they prepared for Leung's trial and, in so doing, violated
her due process rights to a key witness.
The government appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals to reinstate the charges and that appeal was pending when the plea
bargain was announced.
Outside court, Leung was asked why she decided to plead
guilty with the government appeal still pending.
"I pled guilty today because I want to put this all
behind me and let the past be the past and move forward," she said.
Defense attorney Janet Levine said the outcome was
"vindication for Katrina and Kam Leung."
Co-counsel John Vandevelde said, "It takes a strong
individual with a strong family and resources to fight this kind of case. The
government has incredible power, especially today."
Leung was paid a total of $1.7 million by the FBI for her
information as an intelligence asset code-named "Parlor Maid." Both
she and Smith were married during their affair and their respective spouses
have stood by them.
12/15/05 The
New York
Review of Books: The Strange Case of Chaplain Yee,
By Joseph Lelyveld
1.
Each time the Muslim prisoners held in open-ended preventive
detention at the Guantánamo naval station in Cuba have to be moved from their
cells to interrogation rooms, they're fitted in what their military police
guards sardonically term "a three-piece suit," which consists of
shackles attached by chains to a heavy belt: one shackle for each ankle, the
third for the wrists. Captain James Yee, a 1990 graduate of the US Military
Academy at West Point, witnessed innumerable such fittings during the ten months
he was a daily presence as a Muslim chaplain inside the cages of Camp Delta
where supposed al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists were dumped as a way of holding
them beyond reach of any US court. This might have prepared him for his own
fitting in a "three-piece suit," which occurred at the naval brig in
Jacksonville, Florida, shortly after his arrest in September 2003 on what he was
eventually advised were charges of mutiny, aiding the enemy, and espionage, on
any of which prosecutors could have demanded the death penalty.
Al-Qaeda, anonymous investigators suggested to
the press, had infiltrated Guantánamo in the person of this West Point
graduate, a third-generation Chinese-American from
New Jersey
who had made his first profession of faith as a Muslim at a
Newark
mosque, three months after completing his officers training.
James Yee's spiritual journey over the next decade, which
eventually brought him to
Cuba
as the fourth Muslim chaplain assigned in less than a year to
Camp
Delta
's detainees, seems to have begun almost casually. At first, his conversion
"did not feel particularly momentous," he tells us in his memoir For
God and Country. In his description, it sounds more like a consumer than a
theological choice: accepting the "simplicity" of Islam's belief in
one God didn't require trading in Jesus for Muhammad, as he saw it, but putting
them more or less on a par as prophets. Although he had been raised as a
Lutheran to believe in the Trinity, he had never considered religion to be a
major factor in his life and didn't see why it had to become one as a
consequence of his conversion. Islam, at this stage, was a more comfortable
creed, not a way of life.
To his apparent surprise, its claim on his attention
gradually deepened, particularly when he was assigned to
Saudi Arabia
, after the first Gulf War, as an air defense artillery officer in a Patriot
missile crew. Setting an example of religious tolerance that, needless to say,
went unreciprocated, the American command allowed its troops to frequent a Saudi
"cultural center" at King Abdul Aziz air base where non-Muslims were
quietly proselytized- Yee claims that large numbers of Americans converted
during the Gulf War-and Muslim servicemen could sign up for bus excursions to
Mecca. Yee, who professes to have felt entirely at home in the relatively
homogeneous
New Jersey
suburb where he'd grown up as a member of an ethnic minority, found a kind of
liberation in the "diversity" of Islam. This was real
multiculturalism, all those Asians, Africans, Iranians, and Turks mixed in with
Arabs and praying on a footing of equality; this was indeed
"momentous."
Mecca
, as he experienced it on this first of three trips (the first a mere visit, the
second two a proper Hajj), was what his father had always taught him
America
was supposed to be. "The diversity of Islam," he writes, "was
incredible.... I'd never seen anything as truly diverse as this."
So moved was he that within two years he'd resigned from
the army with the aim of pursuing Islamic studies to qual-ify as an imam and
immersing himself in Arabic; within three years, this Chinese-American West
Point graduate from New Jersey was enrolled in Abu Noor University in Damascus
where he stayed four years, returning home with a Palestinian wife who kept
herself covered and spoke only limited English. Captain Yee's story is
remarkable even before he was recruited back into the army as a Muslim chaplain,
even before he was sent to Guantánamo. His story up to this point, before it
turns really dark, has strong interest as a narrative of one American's quest in
the mall of religions, faiths, and cults that this country becomes for so many
of its denizens. One would like to see what a novelist with a taste for American
tales of improbable self-invention and cultural mutation, T.C. Boyle, perhaps,
would do with it. To tell the rest of Captain Yee's story would require Joseph
Conrad.
Its subsequent episodes display the US military's
profound confusion about Islam: its self-congratulation and religiosity, which
lead it to boast that it provides Korans, chaplain services, and an opportunity
to pray in the direction of Mecca to those it detains indefinitely as
"terrorists"; while its overriding devotion to its mission leads it to
interfere with the religious practice of those same detainees in order to
pressure them psychologically, squeeze them for intelligence they may or may not
have held back, and, generally, show them who's in charge. It's asking a lot of
the individual military policeman, not to mention the individual major general,
to draw a fine line between the war on terror and a war on Islam, when Islam and
their own misery are all that unite the inmates in the wire-mesh cages of a
high-security prison. In this case, the major general was General Geoffrey
Miller, who had been dispatched by Donald Rumsfeld to
Camp
Delta-
and later Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq
-with the specific charge of improving the "harvest" of what's known
as "actionable intelligence."
Into this storm of cultural confusion and ruthless
resolve walked the naive James Yee in November 2002, rendered even more so by
his head-turning success in his first posting as a chaplain at Fort Lewis,
Washington, where he'd won the warm approbation of his commanders who thus
reinforced the conviction he'd formed in Mecca that there could be no conflict
between service to Allah and service to America. In Yee's eclectic theology,
American values like religious freedom "are inherent in Islam and were a
large part of what had led me to embrace this religion." In the immediate
aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the newly minted chaplain had initiated
at
Fort
Lewis
a series of "sensitivity training" sessions on Islam for officers and
enlisted men, in which he earnestly argued that terrorist attacks on innocents
were inimical to the teachings of the Koran. "This work was
fulfilling," he declares in For God and Country, written "with"
(or perhaps by) a journalist, Aimee Molloy. "It was why I had become a
chaplain." Soon he was being sent to other military installations to make
the same presentation and army publicists were arranging for him to be
interviewed on National Public Radio and MSNBC. "I had become the
US
military's poster child of a good Muslim," he says.
He was so prized during this period that no one in the
military seems to have raised questions about his long stay in Damascus, a line
on his résumé that might have rung some bells during a security vetting,
if there had been such a thing for chaplains assigned to Guantánamo. It seems
there wasn't, at least in the case of the one Muslim chaplain with a
West Point
diploma. If his Syrian connection was ever noted, it would have been only later
when a cloud of suspicion had already settled over the heads of all the Muslim
servicemen with access to this remote and heavily guarded prison. Then the
fairly striking (but easily explained) fact that he had tried placing phone
calls from Guantánamo to Damascus-where his wife and daughter had gone for
the duration of his stay in Cuba, in order to be with her family-may well have
been added to the dossier being assembled for General Miller that depicted James
Yee, grotesquely and implausibly, as an al-Qaeda ringleader.
Before the case against Chaplain Yee collapsed, Senators
Charles Schumer of
New York
and Jon Kyl of
Arizona
, the columnist John Leo, as well as an array of conservative and Christian
bloggers would seize on his arrest as evidence that radical Islamicists had
taken control of the recruitment of Muslim chaplains into our armed forces. They
offered no evidence bearing on his recruitment back into the army, however; by
his own telling, Yee was first approached by a Muslim African-American, an
ex-marine, at a Ramadan banquet at that hotbed of Islamic ferment, that
notorious madrasa, the Pentagon.
Yee had scant opportunity to offer a public rebuttal of
the charges he faced, or the portrayal of him as a traitor by anonymous
government leakers, or the further allegations the charges and leaks inspired.
First he was held in solitary confinement; then, on his release, placed under a
gag order. "Speech that undermines the effectiveness of loyalty, discipline
or unit morale is not constitutionally protected," he was warned. The gag
order stayed in force until his separation from the military-on a hard-won
honorable discharge-early this year. His book thus tells a story that reporters
who followed his case never got to hear from the accused.
Actually, it appears, all Captain Yee had to do to
attract suspicion was to intercede repeatedly at Camp Delta on behalf of the
prisoners, as their chaplain, when he saw their guards being unnecessarily-and,
he came to feel, deliberately-provocative: in handling Korans during cell
searches, for instance, or taking detainees out of their cells in shackles for
interrogation just as the hour arrived for prayer. He had also begun to meet
regularly with the forty or so Muslim servicemen on the base, for he was their
chaplain, too. Since the mess halls didn't provide halal food, some of them
found it convenient to gather in the captain's quarters for meals. Among these
American-born or naturalized Muslims were some who brought back stories of
prisoner abuse from the interrogation rooms, where they were assigned as
interpreters but which were off-limits to the chaplain, who soon began keeping a
"personal journal of the atrocities that I was hearing about in the
interrogation rooms and on the blocks." Some of this abuse the interpreters
not unreasonably took to be abuse of Muslims as Muslims-for instance, wrapping
prisoners in an Israeli flag, or playing a compact disc of verses from the Koran
to set the scene for an interrogation session, only to drown it out with
screeching rock music. The prisoners were also left chained in a fetal position
for hours.
In their second year of confinement, a significant
proportion of the prisoners began to exhibit symptoms of depression. Some went
mute; others seemed to be regressing to patterns of childish behavior, singing
to themselves in thin high-pitched voices. About a third, Yee says, were on
antidepressants; at any given time, roughly twenty were kept in a psychiatric
ward.
In the claustrophobic circumstances of the American
military enclave, Captain Yee's evening gatherings and services could be
construed as alien, suspicious, not with the program, even mutinous. We now know
that the captain's quarters were searched. We don't know if they were ever
bugged, a possibility that Yee doesn't raise in these pages. But it stands to
reason that they may have been, in which case the investigators-inexperienced
reservists who thought they were uncovering a plot-may have heard resentful talk
that they took to be conspiratorial. Such suspicions were apparently fanned by
interpreters from non-Muslim backgrounds (who mostly learned Arabic in the
military, where they would have achieved a level of proficiency that didn't
begin to match that of native speakers). The idea that Camp Delta had been
infiltrated by al-Qaeda was far-fetched from the start, but the prison was on a
war footing since the day it was set up, patrolled as if attack from the sea by
the nonexistent al-Qaeda navy were a real possibility; infiltration from within
was not the least-plausible threat imagined by the command in training exercises
designed to keep the prison's guards on constant alert.
Eventually Yee became such an object of suspicion that
military policemen took to calling out "Chaplain on the block!" to
warn guards inside that an intrusion was about to occur in the person of a US
Army captain, or bar him till they were good and ready to let him in, even
though his orders gave him complete access to the prison and he outranked the
enlisted men who stood in his way. But this didn't happen until many months had
passed. And, as a result, Yee is now able to give us the most coherent and
detailed account that we've had of conditions inside the Guantánamo cages; he
can also provide the context and narrative for bits of information about abuses
of prisoners that had emerged earlier in a fragmentary way as a result of
discovery motions brought by civil liberties lawyers. For instance, he makes it
clear that an epidemic of suicide attempts in the summer of 2003 was an
organized protest, not a collective nervous breakdown. He was often present when
the prisoners erupted in fury, banging on the cages, shouting, and spitting at
the guards.
2.
Newsweek appears to have got it wrong last year when it
reported that a Koran had been flushed down a toilet at
Camp
Delta
(not an easy thing to accomplish, if you think about it). But abuse of the holy
book that the command had so proudly installed in every cell, like a Gideon
Bible in a hotel room, was a chronic issue, providing the kindling for most of
these flare-ups. What he calls "the worst incident I was aware of"
occurred in late July 2003 when, he tells us, an interrogator threw a detainee's
Koran on the floor, "stepped on it, and kicked it across the room."
When word of the incident spread through the cages, as it inevitably did, the
prisoners tried to go on strike by vowing not to speak at all in the
interrogation rooms.
That didn't get them the apology from General Miller
they were seeking so they escalated their protest, orchestrating a series of
suicide attempts. It started with a detainee using his bed sheet to hang himself
from the wire mesh in his cage while prisoners nearby raised a storm of noise.
The guards then came stomping into the cell to cut him down, holler for medics,
and transfer him in shackles to the infirmary. No sooner was this done than
another prisoner would be found hanging by a sheet and the same cycle, with all
the yelling, banging, and stomping, would be repeated. Over several days,
twenty-three prisoners tried to hang themselves in protest over the incident and
the general hopelessness of their situation.
The struggle over Koran abuse reached such a pitch that
the Muslim chaplain actually recommended to his superiors that the books be
removed from the cells and placed in the prison library for safekeeping. He'd
gotten the idea from detainees with whom he'd been speaking, but the colonel who
served as
Camp
Delta
's warden wouldn't consider it. "Every cell gets a Koran," he's quoted
as saying. "That's not an option." In effect, the chaplain was being
told that we would respect Islam in our own way, giving as much offense to its
practitioners as we wanted.
In an effort to end this ugly farce, Captain Yee drafted
a military SOP (standard operating procedure) on how to avoid incidents over the
Koran that was accepted by the command and read out to the prisoners in Arabic,
on General Miller's order, over the public address system. Guards were told
never to touch the book and to call on the chaplain or a Muslim interpreter to
handle it if they felt one had to be moved or searched. If Muslim servicemen
were not readily available, the guard was to put on clean gloves. Surgical masks
were provided to each cell to serve as little hammocks in which Korans could be
safely deposited, high off the floor and away from toilets.
The surgical masks proved to be no solution. On their
daily inspections, Captain Yee says, MPs would not infrequently manage to tug on
the masks so that the Korans fell out. According to him, the 344 MPs Company
from
Connecticut
stood out for its adeptness at mask tugging. They knew they weren't supposed to
touch the Korans, its members told him when he remonstrated with them, but
they'd been instructed that the masks were not off limits. Finally, to his
disgust, the use of force was allowed to resolve the issue. A detainee who
refused to accept a Koran in his cell would be subject to what was known as
"a forced cell extraction" by an IRF (for "initial response
force")-six to eight MPs in riot protection gear (plastic masks, chest
protectors, shin guards, shields) who would burst in on a cell to subdue a
problem detainee in what was commonly known as an IRFing. Here is Yee's
description of these stampedes:
After they suited up, they formed a huddle and chanted
in unison.... Then they rushed the block, one behind the other.... The sound of
their heavy boots hammered down the steel corridor and their chants ricocheted
off the tin ceiling.... The IRF team stopped at the detainee's cell.... The team
leader in front drenched the prisoner with pepper spray and then opened the cell
door. The others charged in and rushed the detainee.... The point was to get him
to the ground as quickly as possible, with whatever means necessary.... When it
was over, there was a certain excitement in the air. The guards were pumped....
They high-fived each other and slammed their chests together, like professional
basketball players...an odd victory celebration for eight men who took down one
prisoner.
Once "extracted," the recalcitrant prisoner
was placed in isolation in an MSU (for "maximum security unit") until
he was ready to accept a Koran. What are we to make of this struggle in which
alleged Islamic "terrorists" refuse to accept Korans from their
insistent captors until they've been pounded into submission?[*] And how, the
chaplain rightly asks, was it "good for the mission?"
James Yee couldn't easily ignore the fact that Muslim
servicemen were becoming objects of hostility and suspicion; he was a little
slow to recognize that he himself was now regarded as a suspicious case.
(Perhaps he derived a false sense of security from his obvious usefulness, for
he was still being trotted out for visiting congressmen and journalists to give
a rosy picture of all that was being done to attend to the spiritual needs of
the detainees.) He'd heard that Muslim servicemen had been collectively
nicknamed "Hamas" by members of the Joint Task Force responsible for
interrogations. And once General Miller himself, on a visit to Camp Delta, took
the chaplain for a stroll on the gravel path inside the fence; the general said
friends of his had died in the attack on the Pentagon and confided that he'd
sought counseling from a chaplain to deal with the anger he felt against
"those Muslims" responsible for the attack. "I appreciated his
candor," Yee says, "but sensed ...there was a subtle warning behind
his words."
At about the same time, he noticed plainclothesmen on
the periphery of services he conducted and wondered if they were FBI agents.
Several Muslim enlisted men, he heard, had been detained on their return to the
mainland. Finally, on September 10, 2003, a day before the second anniversary of
the September 11 attacks, Yee found himself taken into custody by agents of the
Naval Criminal Investigative Service, shortly after landing in
Jacksonville
on leave. After five days in solitary confinement, he was shown a memo signed
by General Miller charging him with espionage. "Chaplain Yee is known to
have associated with known terrorist sympathizers," it said. He was also
said to have classified documents hidden away in his quarters at Guantánamo,
along with a ticket to
London
, suggesting that he'd been preparing to flee. None of this turned out to be
true.
But before the military prosecutors started to
backtrack, they put Captain Yee through many of the experiences his fellow
Muslims had endured at
Camp
Delta
. Not only was he shackled and held in solitary confinement, he was
strip-searched and made to wear blackened goggles and earmuffs as he was shifted
from the naval brig in
Jacksonville
to the one in
Charleston
,
South Carolina
. This was where the authorities stashed terrorist suspects who could advance
some slight claim to ordinary legal rights, where Yasser Hamdi and Jose
Padilla-two "enemy combatants" with
US
citizenship, whose right to due process was now being contested by the
government- were held. "Was I in fact being considered an enemy
combatant?" Captain Yee wondered. The obvious answer was yes, even if no
such formal classification had been made.
But a month after his arrest, the charge of espionage
and other ser-ious charges were abruptly dropped. Though Captain Yee had been
branded a traitor and was still being held in solitary, a navy lawyer said the
government lacked the "prosecutorial resources" to continue the case;
also, the lawyer said, it needed more time to investigate his
"misconduct." Nothing more was ever heard of that investigation. The
only interpretation that fits the known facts is that the military lawyers
assigned to the case found that there was nothing there to support the extreme
charges. So now Captain Yee was left to face two relatively minor counts of
mishandling classified documents. (He insists he never had any.) Still, he was
held in solitary confinement for seventy-six days and shackled whenever he was
taken from his cell.
As the charges against him dwindled to nothing, the
conduct of the prosecution became, if anything, more relentless, vengeful, and
ugly. Yee's wife had returned to their home in
Olympia
,
Washington
, where she was visited by a female Defense Department investigator who showed
her pictures of the chaplain with other women, and told her that he'd been
having affairs. When, finally, the prosecution was unable to produce any
evidence of his ever having possessed classified documents, let alone of having
mishandled them, the criminal case collapsed. Far from acknowledging a
miscarriage of justice, the prosecution said it couldn't disclose its evidence
because of national security concerns. And still Yee wasn't in the clear. With
the criminal charges erased, the chaplain was made to face administrative
charges of adultery and downloading pornographic matter onto his laptop.
Someone's obsession was driving this vendetta.
Circumstantial evidence points to General Miller, the commander of the
Camp
Delta
operation, who showed up to personally conduct the administrative hearing in
Arlington
,
Virginia
, on the adultery and pornography charges he had set in motion. Not
surprisingly, he ruled against Yee, who then appealed to the US Southern
Command. There General James Hill, the commander, took the remarkable step of
throwing out another general's ruling but then, gratuitously, blamed Captain Yee
for "misconduct." The chaplain was getting off on all charges, the
general said, only because he'd suffered enough-not so much in solitary
confinement in navy brigs as at the hands of the press, which had reported
sensational charges that Hill's own subordinates had made and couldn't support
with evidence.
Even before the prosecution invaded Chaplain Yee's
private life- and by doing so, he acknowledges, wrecked his marriage-this was a
sordid tale in the sordid saga that has unfolded at Guantánamo. James Yee
arrived believing he could be useful to the military's mission by showing a
concern for the well-being of detainees who were held in small cages that they
never got to leave for days on end unless they were summoned by an interrogator.
He then concluded that the mission was actually to break their spirits, that his
mediation was at best tolerated and more often resented. He made himself even
more suspect when he addressed supposed "terrorists" as
"brethren" and withdrew from the social circle of his fellow officers
into the fellowship of other Muslims.
It's heartening that several senior officers from
Fort
Lewis
and Guantánamo supported him, writing to General Miller on his behalf. But
what is telling is that there hasn't been a Muslim chaplain assigned to
Camp
Delta
's detainees over most of the two years since Yee's arrest and there is none
now. A spokesman for the Joint Task Force that runs the prison assured me that a
chaplain is "on call"; and that the commanding general now has an
"Islamic adviser" on his staff, an Arabic speaker originally from the
Middle East who sometimes talks to the prisoners. The guards, said the
spokesman, are "sensitive to all the detainees' religious practices."
Of course, this is the same line that Guantánamo
spokesmen have been offering since the first prisoners landed in shackles in
early 2002, and in all these months and years no independent observers, no
journalists, no outsiders have been allowed inside the cages to make their own
assessments, with the exception of representatives of the International
Committee of the Red Cross, whose continued access depends on their keeping
their findings confidential. The official line sounded slightly more plausible
when there was a Muslim chaplain on hand, rather than "on call," to
vouch for it. Now who gets to make the call? Certainly not the five hundred or
so prisoners remaining where once the masterminds of the "war on
terror" expected to open new cellblocks that would enable them to raise the
capacity to more than two thousand. Now the emphasis is on scaling back the
number of prisoners by persuading their home countries to take them and, on
grounds that they are actual or potential terrorists, keep them out of
circulation. By early November this year 256 had been phased out in this way.
Next year will be the fifth for those who remain. The
Supreme Court ruled last year that federal courts do have some jurisdiction over
detainees, after all. But no court order has affected the life of a single
prisoner and now-in view of the moves underway in the Senate to limit the
jurisdiction of the courts in Guantánamo cases-it's far from clear that any
ever will. Nor has any detainee been convicted of anything, by a military
commission or anyone else. We didn't need Chaplain Yee to remind us that Guantánamo
has become an embarrassment. What this former insider shows us is that it's a
place of misery day in day out, year in year out.
We shouldn't be surprised. But we can be sure the
prisoners still have their Korans.
For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire, by
James Yee with Aimee Molloy. Public Affairs, 240 pp., $24.00.
Note [*] In small doses, medical
studies have shown, pepper spray causes a burning sensation and extreme pain.
Pepper spray in large doses has been reported to result in coughing, gagging,
even respiratory or cardiac arrest. None of these are effects Yee mentions in
his description of cell "extractions" at
Camp
Delta
. It's difficult to tell whether the use of the verb "drenched" is a
writer's flourish or the result of careful, firsthand observation.
[Unlike Wen Ho Lee or Captain James Yee, white guy not held in shackles or
in
solitary confinement]
12/13/05 Los Angeles Times: Ex-Official Admits Wrongdoing, Not
Espionage:
Donald W. Keyser pleads guilty to charges related to his interaction with
a
Taiwanese intelligence officer while he was with the State Department,
By Josh Meyer
Washington A former top State Department official pleaded
guilty Monday
to possessing classified information and concealing an improper
relationship
with a Taiwanese intelligence officer, but authorities stopped short of
alleging
that he was guilty of espionage.
Donald W. Keyser, the former No. 2 official in the
department's Bureau of
East Asian and Pacific Affairs, pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing
classified
U.S.
documents from the State Department and making false official statements.
In court documents released Monday by the U.S. attorney's
office in Alexandria,
Va., authorities disclosed that Keyser, 62, had removed thousands of
documents
from the department from 1992 until his arrest in 2004, including
documents
classified as top secret and some classified at an even higher level,
containing
what is known as secure compartmented information.
"Numerous additional classified documents were found on
a laptop computer
and on floppy disks in Keyser's home," the plea agreement says. "In
all, Keyser
had over 3,600 documents in either hard copy or electronic form."
The court papers do not say whether Keyser had given any
documents to
foreign officials.
Keyser is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 24; he faces a
maximum of eight
years in prison and $500,000 in fines. He is also disqualified from holding
a
government post, the documents say.
Authorities arrested Keyser on Sept. 15, 2004, after he met
with a Taiwanese
intelligence officer, Isabelle Cheng, and a second official from
Taiwan
's national
intelligence agency, at a suburban
Washington
restaurant, according to
U.S.
officials, court records and news reports.
State Department officials and Keyser's lawyers could not be
reached for
comment late Monday. The Justice Department disclosed the plea agreement
shortly before 7 p.m.
Keyser, who worked 33 years at the State Department before
retiring last year,
has not commented in detail on the case or on the specifics of his relationship
with
Cheng, 34.
But federal authorities said in the lengthy plea agreement
and supporting court
papers that Keyser had admitted to having an undisclosed personal
relationship
with Cheng that could have made him "vulnerable to coercion, exploitation
or
pressure from a foreign government."
"Those who are trusted to handle classified documents
must not allow such
material to be compromised in any way," said Paul McNulty,
U.S.
attorney for the
Eastern District of Virginia.
Keyser initially denied having an improper relationship with
Cheng, but later
confirmed to State Department investigators and the FBI that the two had had
"an
undisclosed personal relationship" from 2002 to September 2004.
The court documents say Keyser communicated regularly with
Cheng, met
privately with her on numerous occasions and occasionally traveled with
her,
without ever reporting those contacts to the State Department as required.
Between Sept. 3 and Sept. 6, 2003, Keyser met Cheng in
Taiwan
and then lied
about the trip to authorities, the plea agreement says.
Upon his return to the
United States
, he submitted a customs declaration form
that falsely stated he had visited only
China
and
Japan
.
Almost a year later, the court papers say, Keyser told an
investigator with the
department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security that he did not have a
relationship
with Cheng "when, in fact, he had."
Keyser was commissioned as a foreign service officer in 1972
and specialized
in
East Asia
. He became an expert on
China
for the State Department's Bureau
of Intelligence and Research, later served at
U.S.
embassies in
Tokyo
and
Beijing
,
then returned to top management at the State Department in 1993.
In February 2003, Keyser was promoted to principal deputy
assistant secretary
for East Asian and Pacific affairs. For much of that time, he held a
top-secret
security clearance, prosecutors said.
Court papers filed in the case detail how, in meetings in
Washington, Keyser
allegedly passed documents to Cheng and the other Taiwanese intelligence agent.
The papers do not say that Keyser took money, and they offer
no motive for his
actions. But they disclose that FBI agents found that during his unauthorized
stay in
Taipei
, Keyser had made $570.01 in credit card purchases at a Christian Dior
boutique.
11/17/05 Los Angeles Times: New Spy
Case Prompts Skepticism: Some in the
Southland's Chinese community see parallels to earlier arrests involving
Katrina
Leung and Wen Ho Lee,
By Jia-Rui Chong, Times Staff Writer
Southern California's Chinese community is watching another
spy scandal
developing in its backyard, and some have a sense of dj vu.
The latest case involves four people arrested last month on
multiple charges of
stealing
U.S.
military secrets from an
Orange
County
aerospace firm for the People's
Republic of
China
.
Federal authorities initially accused Chi Mak, wife Rebecca
Laiwah Chiu, Tai Wang
Mak and his wife, Fuk Heung Li, of the theft of government property,
conspiracy,
transporting stolen goods and aiding and abetting.
But when a federal grand jury returned indictments Tuesday,
three were charged only
with failing to register as agents of a foreign government; all charges were
dropped
against Fuk. One reason for the reduced charges, officials said, was because the
data
the defendants allegedly passed along turned out not to be classified.
The case has generated much discussion in the Chinese
community, but the
decision by the prosecutors to drop some of the more serious charges has
underscored
the feeling of some that there is more smoke than fire in the
U.S.
effort to crack down on
Chinese spying.
When Lisa Yang, a local developer and president of the
Chinese American Citizens
Alliance, heard about the spy case, her first reaction was "Uh-oh, here it
comes again.
I just hope the FBI really has a case, not like with Katrina."
"Katrina" is Katrina Leung, the prominent Chinese
American activist and
businesswoman who was charged with being a double agent for the Chinese
government. But a federal judge ended up dropping all charges against her.
Yang said she was relieved that the case turned out not to be
as far-reaching as
some initial reports suggested. But she is also disappointed.
"I'm sad for the FBI and for what the government
prosecutors have done to these
Chinese Americans," she said. "I'm sad because you make other people
think you
abuse the power."
Cat Chao, 39, who is host of a Mandarin-language talk show at
evening rush hour,
plans to talk about the most recent spy case tonight.
She said many in the community talk about any news of Chinese
American espionage
with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
"It's a cultural thing to always believe authority
whatever teacher says is always right,"
Chao said. "Then we found out Wen Ho Lee is totally innocent. It was
humiliating for our
Chinese community and Taiwanese community."
Wen Ho Lee, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, was
accused of stealing
nuclear secrets for
China
in 1999. Lee later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of
mishandling classified computer files but not spying. The Lee case became
something
of a rallying cry for many Chinese Americans who felt he was unfairly treated by
the
government.
The latest spying case shocked some in the Chinese American
community because
the defendants seemed to have long-standing ties in
Southern California
. The FBI
originally alleged in an affidavit that Chi Mak, a lead project engineer on a
contract to
develop a quiet electric-drive propulsion system for U.S. Navy submarines,
transferred
information about the system to his home computer.
The affidavit alleged that his wife helped him copy the
information onto CDs and then
Tai Mak, a broadcast and engineering director for a Chinese cable network, and
Fuk
planned to take the information to
China
.
The charges were changed for a number of reasons, some of
which cannot yet be
divulged, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the
U.S.
attorney's office in
Los Angeles
.
Even if the information copied was only sensitive, not
classified, Mrozek said,
transmitting sensitive information is inappropriate.
While some of the information on the submarine propulsion
system might have been
discussed at a conference, discussing this kind of information with military
applications
at a meeting of American scientists is not the same as handing it over to
foreign power,
he said.
"These are serious charges they've been indicted
on," Mrozek said. "You have people
you believe are intelligence operatives for another country and taking
information of a
military contractor to another country. Should we let them go with it?"
He said that some of the evidence the FBI had presented in
the original charges
showed that the three people were working for
China
. Federal agents who searched Chi
Mak's trash found a document written in Chinese that "lists a number of
military
technologies that were sought."
11/16/05 Los Angeles Times: Conspiracy
Charges Dropped: Three who had been
accused of a plot to steal military secrets now face lesser charges,
by H.G. Reza
Three people who had been arrested on multiple charges of
conspiring to steal
U.S. military secrets for the People's Republic of China were indicted Tuesday
by
a federal grand jury on the sole charge of failing to register as agents of a
foreign
government.
When arrested by the FBI last month, defense plant engineer
Chi Mak, his wife,
Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, and his brother, Tai Wang Mak, were accused of theft
of
government property, conspiracy and transporting stolen goods. Those
charges
were dropped Tuesday.
Tai Mak's wife, Fuk Heung Li, was also arrested in October
and similarly charged.
But she wasn't named in Tuesday's indictment by the grand jury in
Santa Ana
, and
U.S.
attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek said all charges against her were dropped.
The defendants each face up to 10 years in prison if
convicted of failing to
register as foreign agents.
Mrozek said prosecutors decided not to press the initial
charges against the
defendants because the information about submarine technology they
possessed
wasn't classified.
"It's sensitive but not classified. Some of the stuff
they had is talked about openly
at conferences," said Mrozek.
Nevertheless, the data seized is banned from export to
certain countries,
including
China
.
Defense attorney Ronald Kaye, who represents Chi Mak, said
his client was
innocent of all the charges. Tai Mak's attorney declined to comment, and
Chiu's
attorney could not be reached.
Chi Mak, 65, is the lead project engineer on a contract to
develop a quiet electric-
drive propulsion system for U.S. Navy submarines at Paragon Power in
Anaheim
.
He and Chiu, 62, are
Downey
residents who are originally from
China
. They became
U.S.
citizens in 1985.
Tai Mak, 56, is a broadcast and engineering director for a
Chinese cable network
based in
Hong Kong
. Prosecutors alleged in court last week that he is a member of
the Chinese military.
Chi Mak allegedly transferred information about the
propulsion system to his home
computer, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.
Tai Mak and Fuk allegedly planned to carry a CD encrypted
with that information
to
China
.
Tai Mak and Fuk, who live in
Alhambra
, were arrested Oct. 28 at
Los Angeles
International
Airport
as they awaited a flight to
China
. The couple, both Chinese
citizens, are legal residents who arrived in the
United States
in 2001.
Chi Mak and Chiu were arrested at their
Downey
home the same day. Chi and Tai
Mak were ordered held without bond. Chiu's bond was set at $300,000. Fuk, who
was
also being held without bond, will be released as soon as possible, Mrozek said.
11/16/05 Associated Press: Chinese immigrants face single count after
broad
allegations,
by Jeremiah Marquez
Los Angeles (AP) - The federal government's case against
three Chinese
immigrants first accused of a broad plot to steal secrets behind U.S.
warship
technology has yielded a single, dressed-down count of failing to register as
foreign
agents.
While government authorities said they may seek more charges, some
counterintelligence analysts see parallels with other cases against alleged
Chinese
spies that eventually unraveled.
"In their eyes, they feel the biggest
threat is going to come" from the U.S. Navy,
Marushi said.
10/4/05 Associated Press: Muslim Chaplain Recalls Guantanamo Deal
In New Book, Muslim Chaplain Recalls Ordeal of Guantanamo, Arrest on
Suspicion
of Espionage,
By Ben Fox
Army Capt. James Yee had just arrived at the U.S. prison for
terror suspects at
Guantanamo Bay when he got his first hint of trouble.
The man Yee would replace as Muslim chaplain showed him around the
high-security
base on the eastern edge of
Cuba
, and gave him a warning.
"The people down in
Guantanamo
probably know as much about Osama bin Laden
and al-Qaida as any private in the military would know what's going on
inside the
Pentagon," he said
9/8/05 Associated
Press:
Berger fined $50,000 for taking classified
documents;
Judge stiffens suggested penalty for
Clinton
's national security chief,
Washington
Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national
security adviser who
was once entrusted with the nation's most sensitive secrets, was fined
$50,000
Thursday for taking classified documents from the National Archives.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson handed down the punishment in
federal court, stiffening the $10,000 fine recommended by government
lawyers.
Under the deal, Mr. Berger avoids prison time but must surrender access to
classified government materials for three years.
Mr. Clinton was among the Democrats who
questioned the timing of the
disclosure of the Berger probe three days before the release of the Sept. 11
report.
Leaders of the Sept. 11 commission said they were able to get every key
document needed to complete their report.
8/13/05
The Asian American Journalists Associations National
Conference next week
(August 17-20) in Minneapolis will open its doors to the general public for a
special
Town Hall Forum on Thursday, August 18, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the
Hyatt
Regency Minneapolis, 1300 Nicollet Mall,
Minneapolis
.
The August 18 town hall meeting will allow community members,
leaders and
journalists to examine the relationship between Asian American and Pacific
Islanders, justice and the media. An esteemed panel will explore recent
examples
of Asian Americans that have been unfairly tried in the media.
The AAJA convention has a long history of hosting lively,
important town hall
meetings and this year is certainly no exception, states Neal Justin,
convention
chair and TV critic for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "This is a great
opportunity for
the Twin Cities community to come together and converse with national
newsmakers and have an impact on journalists from across the country.
The event will be the first major public appearance this year by
former Army Capt.
James Yee, a West Point graduate and Muslim chaplain who was unjustly
accused of espionage while on duty at
Guantanamo Bay
Cuba
, detained and
eventually released with all charges dropped and no apologies.
The event will explore Capt. Yee's ordeal and several other
high-profile stories
involving AAPIs who have made national headlines.
Capt. Yee will join a panel discussion with Minnesota State
Sen. Mee Moua,
Bill Ong Hing, Professor of Law and Asian American Studies,
University
of
Calif.
Davis, Jaideep Singh, Sikh Mediawatch and Sikh
American Legal Defense
and Education Fund.
Journalists on the panel will include Steve Montiel,
director, Institute for Justice
and Journalism, USC Annenberg School for Communication, and Tram Nguyen,
executive editor, Colorlines Magazine, and author of We Are All Suspects
Now:
Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities. Rekha Basu, columnist, Des
Moines
Register, will moderate the discussion.
The event coordinator is Helen Zia, the journalist and
author who exposed the
injustice in
Detroit
in the Vincent Chin murder, as well as unscrupulous labor
practices with Asian Americans in the
Alaska
canneries.
Issues expected to be brought up for discussion include
recent reports of
anonymous tips to Homeland Security with claims of Chinese "dirty
nuclear bomber
terrorists" entering
Boston
. Wire services immediately identify four suspects and
post artist renderings of them and the alert becomes national headline
news;
although the tip later proves to be hoax, no apologies are offered to the
accused or
those who might have been subject to their "profile."
A local example will include Chia Vang, a Hmong hunter
charged with shooting
six people and wounding two in a hunting altercation in near
Hayward
,
Wis.
The
initial media coverage implied and in some cases expressed a direct link with
the
shooting to the suspect's cultural heritage, and fear the coverage has hurt
his
chances for a fair trial.
With the perception that these cases and other are tried in
the media through
their coverage, the Town Hall will explore several issues: What are the hurdles
to
justice that AAPIs face? Is there a presumption of guilt when AAPIs are
accused
of certain crimes? How has the Patriot Act and the War on Terrorism
affected
AAPIs and what does the news media need to know to ensure fair and
balanced
coverage of the increasing numbers of such cases?
The convention will also feature speakers such as former
Vice President Walter
F. Mondale and Sharshi Tharoor, award-winning author/writer and United Nations
Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.
With more than 2,300 members, AAJA is the nations largest
professional
organization for Asian American and Pacific Islander journalists. AAJA
encourages
young people to consider journalism as a career, develops managers in the
media
industry, and promotes fair and accurate news coverage.
For information and to RSVP call 1-877-570-9285 or aajatownhall@gmail.com.
Visit the AAJA website at www.aaja.org.
July 11, 2005 Santa Fe New Mexican:
Richardson
could take prominent position
in Wen Ho Lee lawsuit,
Santa Fe
(AP) - Gov. Bill Richardson could play a
prominent role in the lawsuit
filed by former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Wen Ho Lee against
the
federal government.
Lee claims government officials leaked classified and
personal information
about him to the media.
Richardson
was secretary of the Department of Energy
at the time.
After The Santa Fe New Mexican covered the story on Thursday,
The
Albuquerque Journal reported in Sunday editions that Richardson and
several
others were again identified in a recent federal court ruling as likely sources
for
the leaks in 1999 that identified Lee as a suspect in an FBI investigation
into
the loss of nuclear secrets to
China
.
The governor has denied in sworn testimony that he was the
source.
The U.S. Court of Appeals recently upheld a lower court
ruling that journalists
from The Associated Press, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and a
former CNN corespondent were in contempt of court for failing to reveal
their
government sources.
A spokesman for
Richardson
said the governor does not comment on pending
litigation.
"He does believe the court decision will have a chilling
effect on the First
Amendment and a reporter's right to protect confidential sources, a
fundamental
tenet of our democracy," spokesman Billy Sparks said.
Brian Sun, Lee's attorney, said the journalists in Lee's
lawsuit "still have a few
more appeals they can exhaust" before they must reveal their sources or
face
possible fines or jail time.
Richardson
's involvement in the case is on some political radars as he
considers a run for the White House.
Lee was arrested and indicted on 59 felony counts of
mishandling classified
information in 1999. He was exonerated of all but one of the felony counts in
2000.
His lawsuit against the DOE, Department of Justice and FBI
alleges they
violated privacy laws.
After questioning more than 20 government officials, Lee's
attorneys were
unable to find the source of the leak and began pressing for the media to
identify
the source or sources.
6/29/2005 Reuters: "Reporters
in contempt over Wen Ho Lee, says court,"
Washington
: A federal appeals court yesterday found four journalists in
contempt for refusing to disclose names of sources in the case of Wen Ho
Lee,
the
Los Alamos
nuclear scientist once suspected of espionage.
The US Appeals Court in
Washington
overturned a lower courts contempt ruling
in the case of one other journalist, Jeff Gerth, who was also subpoenaed in the
case.
Lee filed a lawsuit accusing US officials of leaking personal information
about
him and the investigation against him. The journalists had all written about Lee
and
were ordered to testify in depositions but they refused to answer certain
questions
about their sources.
Judge David Sentelle said the lower court did not abuse its discretion in
holding
four of the five reporters in contempt.
It is clear that the information Lee is seeking goes to the heart of his
case, he
wrote for the three-judge panel. If he cannot show the identities of the
leakers,
Lees ability to show the other elements of the Privacy Act claim ... will
be
compromised. The journalists have refused to reveal even the employer of
their
unidentified sources, information that arguably would have been sufficient to
support
at least a portion of Lees claim.
Lee was fired from his Los Alamos job in March 1999 amid allegations he
was
spying for
China
. The governments case against him collapsed, and Lee eventually
pleaded guilty to one lesser charge.
After he was indicted, Lee sued the
Department of Energy, the Department of
Justice and the FBI for improperly disclosing personal information about him
and
the investigation.
May 2005
COMING IN OCTOBER FROM PUBLICAFFAIRS
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY
by James Yee, former Muslim Chaplain at
Guantanamo
Bay
with Aimee Molloy
In
2001, Captain James "Yusuf" Yee was commissioned as one of the
first Muslim chaplains in the United States Army. After the tragic attacks of
September 11, 2001, he became a frequent government spokesman, helping to
educate soldiers about Islam and build understanding throughout the military.
Subsequently, Chaplain Yee was selected to serve as the Muslim
Chaplain at
Guantanamo Bay
,
Cuba
, where nearly 700 detainees captured in the war on terror were being held as "unlawful
combatants."
In September 2003, after serving at Guantanamo for ten months
in a role that gave him unrestricted access to the detainees--and after
receiving numerous awards for his service there--Chaplain Yee was secretly
arrested on his way to meet his wife and daughter for a routine two-week leave.
He was locked away in a navy prison, subject to much of the same treatment
that had been imposed on the
Guantanamo
detainees. Wrongfully accused of spying, and aiding the Taliban and Al
Qaeda, Yee spent 76 excruciating days in solitary confinement and was threatened
with the death penalty. After the government determined they had made a
grave mistake in their original allegations, they vindictively charged him
with adultery and computer pornography. In the end all criminal
charges were dropped and Chaplain Yee's record wiped clean. But his
reputation was tarnished, and what was a promising military career was left in
ruins.
A third-generation Chinese-American and a 1990 graduate of
West Point, Chaplain Yee served in the U.S. Army for 14 years, including a tour
in
Saudi Arabia
during the aftermath of the first Gulf War. His spiritual conversion to
Islam in 1991 guided his travels to
Damascus
,
Syria
, where he studied for four years. He twice traveled to
Mecca
to make the Haj, the sacred Muslim pilgrimage.
Depicting a journey of faith and service, Chaplain Yee's FOR GOD AND COUNTRY is the story of a pioneering officer in
the U.S. Army, who became a victim of the post-September 11 paranoia that
gripped a starkly fearful nation. And it poses a fundamental question: If our
country cannot be loyal to even the most patriotic Americans, can it
remain loyal to itself?
Gene Taft
Director of Publicity
PublicAffairs
212-397-6666 ext. 234
http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com
2/2/05 http://binhan.home.netcom.com/DeniseK.htm
Denise K. Woo, 45 and a former FBI agent, was indicted on five criminal
counts in late 2004 for allegedly disclosing an informant's name to a
suspect
under investigation and lying to other FBI agents back in 1999. According to
the
Los Angeles Times which obtained a copy of the indictment, the FBI was
conducting a national security probe on a Chinese-American man, known only
as JW (a distant relative of Ms. Woo), suspected of collecting information
as
an employee of a defense contractor and subsequently passing it to the
Chinese
government. Woo's pro bono attorney, Mark Holscher, stated that "Denise
Woo
was forced to assist in an espionage investigation of an innocent man, and
the
FBI unfortunately has sought to criminalize her efforts to prevent a terrible
tragedy."
Ms. Woo had an impeccable employment record with the Bureau
prior to this
assignment. She is out on a $50,000 unsecured bail. Trial is expected to
begin
in late 2005 or early 2006.
After some efforts Ms. Woo concluded, using non classified
information, that
JW was innocent of any wrongdoing and reported her conclusion to her
superior.
They apparently did not like her report and waited until the last day of the
statute
of limitations to charge her with aiding and abetting the enemy, even though
the
FBI eventually came to the same conclusion that JW was innocent after
realizing
they had a dirty informant.
JW does not speak Chinese, has never been west of
Hawaii
and has no
contact with anyone from
China
.
Even though Ms. Woo was recruited to work in counter
intelligence, she has
had no training in this area. It appears the only reason she was put into
this
position was because JW was a relative and both of them are Asians--Ms.
Woo's father is Chinese and mother Japanese. Putting an agent in such a
position simply makes no sense, even if it does not violate FBI policy.
The FBI seldom indicts one of its own and when it does, it
generally holds a
press conference. But no press conference was held on this case, giving
the
appearance that the FBI wants to sweep this case under the rug. The U.S.
Attorney Central District of California office likewise did not issue a
press
release, see http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pr2004/pressindx.html.
The prosecutor must know they have a weak case against Ms. Woo because
they offered to settle with her for a guilty plea in exchange for probation. Ms.
Woo
decided to fight to clear her name rather than settling even though she risks a
long
prison term (10 to 15 years) if she loses.
This seems to be no more than a vindictive payback by someone in the FBI.
Her attorney, Mark Holscher, also defended Dr. Wen Ho Lee pro bono. JW's
attorney, Brian Sun, represents Dr. Lee in his civil lawsuit against the
government.
Ms. Woo's supervisor during her brief assignment
in the counter intelligence
division was none other than JJ Smith, Katrina Leung's handler. JJ Smith pled
guilty
to minor charges last year and is waiting for sentencing, which is expected to
be
probation. The judge dismissed the case against Katrina Leung due to
prosecutorial
misconduct. (see http://binhan.home.netcom.com/KatrinaL.htm).
Attorney Mark Holschers announcement on taking the case pro bono:
http://www.omm.com/communication/2004/12-15/fbi.htm
Click here
for the court calendar. Her indictment has been sealed.
San Diego Union, December 11, 2004
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20041211-0217-ca-fbiagentindicted.html
San Francisco Chronicle article, December 11, 2004
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/12/11/MNGPDAAH681.DTL
Associated Press article, December 11, 2004:
http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=19197
http://goldsea.com/Asiagate/412/11fbi.html
Washington Times (UPI), December 11, 2004
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041211-020345-5836r.htm
Taiwan Epoch Times (in Big 5 Chinese), December 14, 2004
http://www.epochtimes.com.tw/bt/4/12/14/n747301.htm
1/22/05
Associated
Press: Tipster
Possibly Lied About Immigrant Terrorists,
By Denise
Lavoie
Boston (AP) -- Gov. Mitt Romney said he has become "less
concerned, not more concerned"
about a potential terrorist threat against the city of
Boston
. The FBI, meanwhile, is exploring possible theories for the reports -
including a possible revenge motive.
FBI agents have been looking into an uncorroborated tip that
16 people might be planning an attack on the city. Those allegedly involved in
the plot include 13 Chinese nationals, two Iraqis and a man identified on the
FBI's Web site as Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones, whose nationality was not
given.
But the tipster who told federal officials about the alleged
conspiracy may have fabricated the story out of revenge, a federal law
enforcement official said Friday. The law enforcement official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said the tipster may have been angry because a group of
illegal immigrants had failed to pay for smuggling them into the country.
That scenario is one of many being examined in the case, said
the official in
Washington
, who declined to describe other theories being explored.
The original tip was received by the California Highway
Patrol, according to another federal law enforcement official in
Washington
who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
The tipster claimed four of the Chinese - two men and two
women - entered the
United States
from
Mexico
and were awaiting a shipment of "nuclear oxide" that would follow
them to
Boston
.
Several radioactive compounds take form as oxides and could
be used in a dirty bomb, said Charles Ferguson, a science and technology fellow
at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Plutonium and americium
oxides, in the right amounts, would be dangerous to human health, while uranium
oxide would be less so,
Ferguson
said.
Security was increased in Boston, where two of the planes
were hijacked for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
1/7/05 Los Angeles Times:
Spying Case Tossed Out: Federal judge scolds prosecutors in her dismissal of
criminal charges against a woman accused of working as a Chinese double
agent,
By David Rosenzweig, Times Staff Writer
Charging prosecutors with willful and deliberate misconduct,
a federal judge on Thursday dismissed all criminal charges against a former FBI
informant accused of serving as a Chinese double agent.
In a sharply worded ruling, U.S. District Judge
Florence-Marie Cooper blasted the
U.S.
attorney's office for "conduct unbecoming a prosecutorial agency."
Attorneys for Chinese American businesswoman Katrina Leung
had accused the government of illegally and unethically exacting a commitment
from her former FBI handler that barred him from talking to the defense.
The pledge was contained in an agreement that retired agent
James J. Smith reached with the government last year, allowing him to plead
guilty to a reduced charge of failing to report his 20-year-long sexual affair
with Leung.
Under long-established rules, prosecutors are prohibited from
obstructing a defendant's access to witnesses.
At a hearing before Cooper last month, Assistant U.S. Atty.
Michael Emmick disavowed any intent to prevent Smith from speaking to Leung's
defense team. He blamed "inartful" language in Smith's plea agreement.
But Cooper cited a Nov. 18 e-mail message to Emmick from
Robert Wallace, senior trial counsel in the Justice Department's
counterintelligence section in Washington, saying that the wording was aimed at
"preventing Smith from being interviewed by Leung's counsel because he is a
repository of classified information."
"In the face of that e-mail," Cooper wrote,
"anything short of an admission and apology on the part of the government
is hard to imagine. Mr. Emmick did neither. Rather, he chose to ignore the
e-mail."
The plea agreement clause in dispute specified that Smith
would engage in "no further sharing of information relating to this case
with Leung, counsel for Leung or the employees of counsel for Leung."
Cooper said the evidence was abundantly clear that the clause
was intentionally placed in the agreement to prevent Smith from talking to the
defense. And to make matters worse, she said, the prosecution subsequently
engaged in a series of explanations and denials that "compounds the problem
by undermining the court's confidence in the integrity of the process."
She accused the prosecution of misrepresenting to the court
its true intentions in drafting the "no-further-sharing" clause.
"While a certain amount of shading of the truth may be
tolerated, even in judicial proceedings, prosecutors are subject to constraints
and responsibilities beyond those which apply to other lawyers," the judge
wrote.
"In this case, the government decided to make sure that
Leung and her lawyers would not have access to Smith. When confronted with what
they had done, they engaged in a pattern of stonewalling entirely unbecoming a
prosecutorial agency."
U.S. Atty. Debra W. Yang issued a statement denying any
prosecutorial misconduct. "I stand behind the work of the prosecutors of
this case and I know that they have conducted themselves ethically," she
said.
Yang said her staff was analyzing the ruling and would
consider an appeal.
Leung's lawyers, John D. Vandevelde and Janet I. Levine, said
in a statement that they were gratified by the dismissal.
"Katrina Leung's nightmare is over," they said.
"The courts have again made sure that truth and justice are not mere
platitudes."
They described their client as a loyal American who dedicated
her life to serving her adopted country for 20 years. "She looks forward to
moving on with her life as a loyal and patriotic citizen."
Leung, a naturalized citizen, was recruited by Smith during
the early 1980s to gather intelligence for the FBI during her frequent business
trips to
China
, where she ingratiated herself with high-ranking government officials.
But starting about 1990, prosecutors said, she began working
for the Chinese as well, feeding sensitive, unauthorized information about the
FBI to her handler at the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
Smith, who had an extramarital affair with Leung for two
decades, learned about her activities but covered it up and continued to vouch
for her reliability, he admitted in his plea deal.
Leung was not charged with espionage but with illegally
copying and possessing classified documents that she could have used to harm the
interests of the
U.S.
government. The documents were seized during a search of Leung's
San Marino
home.
According to an FBI affidavit, Leung allegedly lifted the
papers from Smith's briefcase during his many visits to her house.
Through her attorneys, Leung denied any wrongdoing and
insisted she had acted at all times at the direction of Smith and other members
of the FBI's counterintelligence squad.
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the ruling
Thursday.
Smith, who retired from the FBI in 2000, was initially
charged with gross negligence in handling classified documents and faced a
possible 10-year prison term. Under terms of his plea agreement, the prosecution
could recommend that he receive no time in jail.
In her ruling Thursday, Cooper said that Smith still has
"everything to lose" by talking to the defense.
"Suspended over his head, like the proverbial Sword of
Damocles, is the sure knowledge that if he violates any of the terms of his plea
agreement, the deal is canceled and his future returns to its former bleak
state."
Consequently, the judge said, Leung has suffered substantial
prejudice as a result of the prosecution's due-process violation.
Reaction to the dismissal among leaders in the Chinese
American community was marked by a mixture of relief and continuing concern.
Assemblywoman Judy Chu (
D-Monterey
Park
), who knew Leung well and had worked with her, said: "I am glad for
Katrina, certainly. But I am terribly disturbed by the prosecutorial misconduct
involved in the case. Katrina's life has been turned upside down. And I fear
that the outcome was anticlimactic, compared to the charges that were leveled
against her."
"The community asked for a fair trial and restrained its
judgment when this case first broke,"
Chu
said. "I am glad that the justice system worked in responding to that
request."
David Ma, chairman of the Chinese American Rights
Organization in
Monterey Park
and a sometime critic of Leung, said the case had damaged the image of Chinese
Americans regardless of the dismissal.
"The legal part is one thing, because you need to prove
100% that she is guilty," he said. "From the point of the view of a
loyal Chinese American, I feel very painful about this incident, because people
like Katrina are taking advantage of this country."
Stewart Kwoh, president of the Asian Pacific American Legal
Center of Southern California, said: "This is a very unfortunate matter
that really required a fair trial to find out the truth." With the
dismissal, he said, "we may never know what really happened."
Lily Lee Chen, former mayor of
Monterey Park
, said: "It would have been better if we knew exactly what had happened.
The damage has been done not only to herself, in terms of her reputation, but
for the Asian American community."
Loyola
University
law professor Laurie Levenson said Cooper's decision contained a clear message
for prosecutors: "Candor to the court is Job 1."
Levenson, a former federal prosecutor, noted that Cooper
dismissed the case on two grounds that there was a constitutional violation,
and under the court's inherent supervisory powers.
Given that, she said, the government will face "an
uphill battle" if it appeals.
12/19/04 The New York Times: Evidence weak in Yee probe,
By Tim Golden
Officials familiar with the inquiries said they also fed on
petty personal conflicts: antipathy between some Muslim and non-Muslim troops at
Guantnamo, rivalries between Christian and Muslim translators, even the
complaint of an old boss who saw Al Halabi as a shirker.
The military's aggressive approach to the investigation was
established at the outset by Miller, the hard-charging Guantnamo commander.
Along the way, some investigators and prosecutors suggested that the job of
ferreting out spies at the base had put them, too, on the front lines of the
fight against terrorism.
Perhaps the most aggressive was the lead Air Force investigator in
the Al Halabi case, Lance Wega, a probationary agent who took over the case
after barely a month on the job. While he was later commended by superiors and
rewarded with a $1,986 bonus, testimony showed Wega mishandled important
evidence.
Ultimately, Air Force prosecutors could not substantiate the vast
majority of the charges they brought against Al Halabi, a translator at Guantnamo,
who had faced the death penalty.
He pleaded guilty to four minor charges of mishandling classified
documents, taking two forbidden photographs of a guard tower and lying to
investigators about the snapshots. He was sentenced to the 10 months
imprisonment he had already served.
Yee, a West Point graduate who was held for 76 days in solitary
confinement, charged with six criminal counts of mishandling classified
information and suspected of leading a ring of subversive Muslim servicemen, was
convicted only of noncriminal charges of adultery and downloading Internet
pornography. His conviction was dismissed altogether last April.
Another Guantnamo translator, Ahmed Mehalba, has been jailed
since September 2003 on charges that he lied to investigators about carrying a
computer disc containing classified Guantnamo documents to
Egypt
.
Coloring much of the episode, interviews and documents indicate,
were simmering tensions over the military's treatment of the roughly 660 foreign
men who were then held at Guantnamo without charge.
"Lots of the guards saw us as some sort of sympathizers with
the detainees,"
Al Halabi recalled in one of several interviews. "We heard it many times:
'detainee-lovers,' or 'sympathizers.' "
Al Halabi has emphasized his loyalty as a naturalized American
citizen. While insisting that he was careful not to share his views with anyone
but close friends at Guantnamo, he said he was one of many servicemen and
translators there who were deeply uncomfortable with the way detainees were
treated.
"I did disagree with what was going on," he said.
"These people had been there forever and were blocked from the legal
system. This country stands for justice and human rights, and there we were at
Guantnamo doing none of that."
12/17/04: Wrongfully
Convicted in America,
by
Lisa Wong Macabasco
After serving 18 years in prison for a crime he did not
commit, David Wong took another leap toward freedom on Friday Dec. 10, 2004,
when Clinton County District Attorney Richard Cantwell dropped murder charges
against him. Wongs conviction had been overturned on an appeal in October due
in part to the potential bias of the trial judge, Timothy Lawliss. The judge has
since recused himself from the retrial.
In a letter from Clinton County Jail, Wong said the victory
belonged to his support committee and his lawyers, whom he called the true
heroes.
My freedom did not come easy, but Im happy Im now
able to put my nightmare behind me, and Im excited for my freedom and the
prospect of my future, Wong wrote.
He now awaits the courts official ruling and faces a new
struggle against a pending order of deportation.
His life is the biggest waste of all, says Wongs
niece, Fei Yeung. She felt relieved but also angry that he has spent so much
of his life incarcerated. Im 27, and Im ready to begin my life and
career. Hes lost all that. Hes in his 40s, and hes going to start his
life now? Its not fair.
Yeung says Wong missed his sisters wedding and his
fathers funeral while in jail. My family and I have lost a beloved uncle,
brother and son, she says.
Wongs supporters now face the difficult task of preventing
his deportation due to his status as an undocumented non-citizen. Jaykumar Menon,
Wongs lawyer, says he does not know of a case in which someone who was
wrongfully convicted and subsequently ordered deported was allowed to stay in
the
United States
. Wayne Lum says the committee was pursuing political and diplomatic channels
to fight the deportation order and admitted, Legally, its very difficult
to overcome.
After 17 years, the David Wong Support Committee and his
allies in the community will not allow Wong to be deported, says Kwong
Eng.
Wongs 20-year odyssey through the criminal justice system
is an eye-opening look at one Asian in
America
in the between the cracks in the law. His story is the lesson of a man
wrongfully convicted and trapped at the nexus of race, immigration, crime and
the law.
Coming to
America
Wong is one of three children raised by their mother (above)
in the
Fujian
province and later in
Hong Kong
. He came to the
United States
in the early 1980s as a teenager, working long shifts at different restaurants
at below minimum wage.
Arrested and Sent to Prison: June 1984
At 21 years old, as a busboy in
Manhattan
s Chinatown, Wong is arrested for participating with co-workers in an armed
robbery of his employers
Long Island
house in 1983. Wong is sent to Clinton Correctional Facility in northeastern
New York
to serve an 8-to-25-year sentence.
A Brutal Murder: March 1986
On the afternoon of March 12, 1986, Tyrone Julius, a
32-year-old inmate at Clinton Correctional Facility serving a sentence for
second-degree murder, is stabbed in the neck with a five-inch blade in the
middle of the prison yard and dies 11 days later. Wong and Tse Kin Cheung, an
inmate from
Hong Kong
, are the only Chinese inmates and the only ones searched out of the 70 to
100 inmates present at the time of the stabbing. No weapon and no blood are
found on either man.
Found Guilty: July 1987
Wong, who speaks little English and claims he had never met
Julius, is tried for Julius murder by an all-white jury in Clinton County
Court. Four inmates testify to Wongs innocence. The prosecutions case is
based on the testimony of two witnesses: Ryan LaPierre, a corrections officer
who viewed the scene through binoculars from a tower more than 100 yards away,
and inmate Peter DellFava. Wong is convicted and sentenced to an additional
25-years-to-life for second-degree murder. Cheung writes to prominent Asian
American activists telling them that Wong was framed.
Yuri Kochiyama Organizes the David Wong Support Committee:
1990
Yuri Kochiyama (above), a longtime civil rights activist and
staunch political-prisoners advocate, visits Wong in prison. Kochiyama creates
the David Wong Support Committee, operating out of her
Harlem
apartment.
New York Times Eye-opener: March 1999
A New York Times article reveals new anecdotal
evidence suggesting Wong is innocent. Reporter David W. Chen (left) quotes
former prison employees who say Wongs innocence was common knowledge at the
prison. Former inmates who witnessed the murder said it was an act of revenge by
a former rival. Cheung says inmates were scared to speak up for Wong because
they feared for their safety.
Julius widow, Sharon Julius, states she never heard of
Wong or his conviction for the murder of her husband. She also says she received
threatening letters and phone calls well after Wong was arrested telling her
to stop investigating the case and therefore assumed his murderer was still
at large.
Wong loses every major appeal since his 1987 conviction, but
Wongs lawyers at
Manhattan
s Center for Constitutional Rights continue to question the credibility of
witnesses and cite misconduct by the prosecutor, errors in Wongs defense and
the lack of an adequate translator. LaPierre admitted in his testimony that he
did not see the stabbing or the weapon. DellFava may have tried to gain early
parole in exchange for his testimony. Wongs original lawyers also failed to
interview witnesses who identified the attackers as two Hispanic men.
Wong also did not have access to a translator who spoke his
Fuzhou
dialect; he had to use a translator who spoke Mandarin instead, which he barely
knew. The Times article quotes Wongs translator during the trial,
Jo-An Ting, who had never worked as a translator before and admitted to feeling
nervous and unprofessional during the case: If some outside person evaluated
my work and said that I was not competent, then I accept, she says.
After the publication of the article, the Times
receives a letter from a prisoner who claims to have witnessed Julius murder
and asserted that Wong was innocent and nowhere near the scene at the time.
Appeal Rejected: April 16, 1999
A State Court of Appeals judge rejects hearing an appeal on
Wongs case, saying there is no question of law.
Within the year, Manhattan private investigator Joseph Barry
locates DellFava. DellFava admits to having lied at Wongs trial in order to
secure a parole recommendation and a prison transfer. He says that a corrections
officer persuaded him to blame Wong because he knew little English and had few
friends in prison.
The Tide Turns: April 2002
Almost one dozen current or former inmates sign affidavits or
tell investigators that Julius was murdered by Nelson Gutierrez, a longtime
rival with a record that included drug charges and first-degree manslaughter.
One former peer counselor and inmate legally swears that Gutierrez confessed to
the murder to him. DellFava recants his testimony, and LaPierre, while still
adamant about Wongs guilt, supports a new trial.
The wives of both Gutierrez and Julius verify that the two
were rivals and had an earlier altercation at Rikers Island. In May, Sharon
Julius signs an affidavit that says Gutierrez killed her husband. Inmates come
forward who say they saw the stabbing but said nothing out of fear of
retaliation. Gutierrez won parole in 1994 and returned back to the Dominican
Republic, where he died of an apparent drug overdose in May 2000.
The case is one of very few taken up by criminal law
professor William E. Hellerstein, head of Brooklyn Law Schools Second Look
Clinic, which focuses on investigating wrongful convictions.
It was clear to me and to the students that David Wong was
innocent from the beginning of the case, Hellerstein says. The facts
didnt make any sense going the other way.
A Glimmer of a Chance: Jan. 7, 2003
Judge Timothy Lawliss, acting judge of the Clinton County
Court in Plattsburgh, N.Y., agrees to hear the fresh evidence in the case and
then decide whether the murder conviction still stands.
Reversing the Story: April 2003
At the evidentiary hearing, DellFava admits he lied in order
to get the hell out of that prison even though no official deal was made.
Three former Clinton inmates, including friends of Gutierrez, testify to seeing
Gutierrez stab Julius.
Judge Deals a Blow: October 2003
Lawliss denies Wong a new trial, ruling there is not enough
evidence and questioning the credibility of the witnesses. Clinton County
District Attorney Richard Cantwell now says DellFavas past fraud and perjury
convictions made him an untrustworthy witness.
Judge in Question: Dec. 2, 2003
The New York State Appellate Division in Albany reviews the
case. The court looks at whether Lawliss should have recused himself from the
trial because of his close connections to the prosecutor, who used to be his law
partner.
A Ray of Hope: Oct. 21, 2004
A five-judge panel in New Yorks Appellate Division
unanimously overturns Wongs murder conviction based on the new evidence.
Unlike the county court, the state court does not find DellFavas testimony
incredible. The decision questions LaPierres testimony because of his
great distance from the murder scene and says the testimony of the former
inmates should not be discounted. The case is sent back to Clinton County Court
for a new trial.
Behind the Scenes of the Case: The David Wong Support
Committee
The David Wong Support Committee was formed in 1990 by
longtime civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama, but members say it is often Wong
who inspires the committee to stay optimistic.
Hes the spirit of the committee he keeps everyone
else up when were down, says Siddhartha Joag, an artist and member.
Hes so selfless. Hes constantly asking what were doing to support
others. Hes not just indulging in his own case, even though hes lost most
of his life for no reason. It shakes you.
Joag says his impression of Wong upon meeting him was that he
was calm, friendly, well-read and just a good guy.
On Sept. 8, three dozen supporters went to Albany to show
their support at the Appellate Division hearing. Even though none of the
committee knew Wong before his case, many have developed a close relationship
with him.
A lot of us feel personally attached to him, Joag says.
Hes a friend.
Hes using his case as a vehicle for change in the
system, Joag says. He doesnt even believe in his own exoneration being
important. For every one David Wong that gets a retrial, there must be 1,000
that are on death row for a crime they didnt commit.
While Joag admits it has been difficult to get support from
the Asian American community for someone who is both an undocumented immigrant
and a convicted felon, William E. Hellerstein, Wongs lawyer, says the
communitys support has been strong and that support for the case shouldnt
stop there.
The fact the Asian American community has been so
supportive has been a blessing, Hellerstein says. The entire world should
care about this case. Any decent, right-thinking human being should care.
This is a grievous injustice, Hellerstein states.
This man is innocent. Everyone knows it.
12/14/04 OMelveny & Myers website
O'Melveny Represents Ex-FBI Agent Indicted in Spying Probe
O'Melveny partner Mark Holscher is leading an O'Melveny team
representing Denise K. Woo on a pro bono basis. Woo, a former FBI agent,
was indicted December 6 on charges that she tipped off the target of a national
security probe that he was under investigation. Holscher argues that Woo was
actually trying to help an innocent man, and that the FBI is trying to use her
as a scapegoat.
Los Angeles
counsel Michael Camunez and associates Angela Machala and Kelly O'Donnell are
also working on the high-profile case.
Woo, who is Chinese-American, was briefly assigned to the
FBI's Chinese counterintelligence squad in
Los Angeles
. In 1999 she was recruited for a covert operation involving the investigation
of a family friend, a Chinese-American man who worked for a defense contractor
and who was suspected of passing sensitive information on to the Chinese
government. He was never charged with any crime. Woo, however, was placed on
administrative leave and subsequently fired.
At her arraignment, Woo was charged with disclosing the
existence of a national security wiretap, revealing the identity of a covert
operative, and lying to FBI agents.
''Denise Woo was forced to assist in an espionage
investigation of an innocent man, and the FBI unfortunately has sought to
criminalize her efforts to prevent a terrible tragedy,'' said Holscher, who
previously led the successful defense of Taiwanese-American physicist Wen Ho Lee
against 58 espionage charges brought by the Department of Justice. The
American Lawyer later described the representation "one of the most
conspicuous acts of pro bono daring in 2000."
11/22/04 Sacramento Bee: Ex-spy suspect receives award, hero's welcome,
By Emily Bazar
When Army Capt. James Yee
was presented with a "Courage and Inspiration Award" by a local Muslim
organization Saturday night, a diverse audience rose to its feet to congratulate
him:
Muslims and Christians, Arab Americans and African Americans,
imams and politicians.
Asian Americans made up an especially large contingent at the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fund-raiser, which drew more than
400 people to the Hilton near Arden Fair mall.
Many Asian Americans said they attended because they felt a
special bond with Yee, a Muslim Army chaplain formerly stationed at the
U.S.
military prison in
Guantnamo Bay
,
Cuba
.
Yee, who is Chinese American, was charged last year with
mishandling classified information, and spent 76 days in solitary confinement.
Military officials had said they might have a Guantnamo-based spy ring on
their hands, but the government's case against Yee disintegrated. The criminal
charges against him were dismissed earlier this year.
"Things like this should stop," said Linda Ng,
president of the
Sacramento
chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans. "That's why all of us
are standing together."
One of Yee's assistants at Guantnamo, Ahmad Al Halabi, also
attended the fund-raiser. Al Halabi was tried this year at Travis Air Force Base
as a member of the alleged Guantnamo spy ring.
As in Yee's case, the espionage charges against Al Halabi
unraveled. In September, Al Halabi pleaded guilty to relatively minor charges of
mishandling military materials; his rank was reduced to airman basic and he was
given a bad-conduct discharge.
Al Halabi had originally been accused of attempting to spy
for his native
Syria
. The naturalized
U.S.
citizen spent 10 months behind bars and could have faced execution.
When Yee accepted his award Saturday night, he acknowledged
Al Halabi, saying the two were victims of "this new culture of eroding
civil liberties."
"There are many others who are considered heroes, who
are considered courageous and inspiration(al). Many of those who may even be
here tonight in this audience," he said.
The
West Point
graduate told the crowd that the Army has accepted his resignation, and he will
be honorably discharged Jan. 7. He is stationed at
Fort Lewis
,
Wash.
"At this time just one short year ago, I was still
fasting Ramadan and praying the Ramadan prayers, alone, without the benefit or
the rewards of praying in congregation, while still locked up in the naval brig
down in
Charleston
,
South Carolina
," Yee said. "So I'm thankful that this year is different."
Yee and Al Halabi declined to be interviewed Saturday.
Earlier in the week, Yee's civilian defense attorney, Eugene R. Fidell, said his
client was warned by military officials that his public statements would be
scrutinized.
"He was handed a letter that contained a not-so-veiled
threat of disciplinary action in case he said anything critical of the
Army," said Fidell, who is based in
Washington
,
D.C.
"To a person who had already spent 76 days in solitary confinement, you
can't overlook a threat like that."
The letter, dated April 6, informed Yee that "speech
that undermines the effectiveness of loyalty, discipline, or unit morale is not
constitutionally protected."
Military officials also declined to comment on Yee's
Sacramento
speaking engagement and his case.
"No one's talking about the Yee case. It's pretty much
an 'over' issue," said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Loundermon, a spokesman at U.S.
Southern Command in
Miami
. "He can tell you what he wants to tell you."
Though the military has deemed Yee's case "over,"
the chaplain's story continues to reverberate.
Area Muslims believe the government singled out Yee because
of his religion.
"I do think it was a witch hunt," said Frank Johnson, a 53-year-old
Pocket resident who attended Saturday's event. "If you say you're Muslim,
it's almost like you're open to harassment."
Yee's case also has become a flash point for Chinese
Americans. A host for Cantonese-language talk radio in the Bay Area made it the
focus of her show. The Chinese American Political Action Committee, active in
the
Sacramento
area, co-sponsored an online petition asking the Army to apologize to Yee.
"As Chinese Americans, we need to speak out," Ng,
of the Organization of Chinese Americans, said Saturday. "We should all be
treated equally."
Chinese American activist Alberta Lee, 31, was asked to
present Yee's award, but couldn't because she was out of town.
Lee, a
University
of
California
, Davis, law student, is the daughter of Wen Ho Lee, a nuclear scientist
formerly at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Wen Ho Lee was suspected of spying, but the case against him
largely fell apart. He received a rare apology from a federal judge.
Alberta Lee said she feared from the outset that Yee's case
was similar to her father's, particularly when she learned that Yee is Chinese
and Muslim.
"My first thought was, 'This is going to be exactly like
my dad's case all over again,' " she said. "The government really
painted them both to be very sinister people."
On Saturday, Yee addressed the issue of profiling, albeit
indirectly. He asked audience members whether they carry copies of a "Know
Your Rights" card distributed by CAIR.
"If you don't," he said, pausing, "please get
one. You may need it, at least for the next four years."
9/24/04 AsianWeek.com: James Yee's Story,
By Joseph Yee, father
James Yee was born in
Naperville
,
Ill.
in 1968 but spent most of his early years in
Springfield
,
N.J.
, where he attended public schools. He graduated from
Jonathan
Dayton
High School
in
Springfield
in 1986, where he played soccer and was an outstanding
wrestler. He was named Student Athlete of the Year when he was a senior.
He chose to attend
United States
Military
Academy
at
West Point
because he was
impressed by the discipline and the cadet honor code. He was a member of the
wrestling
team for all four years at
West Point
. He was commissioned in 1990 and served at
various bases in the States,
Germany
, and
Saudi Arabia
. At the end of the first Gulf War,
he served as a Patriot missile officer in
Saudi Arabia
. It was during these tours that he
met many Muslims and became acquainted with Islam. He visited
Mecca
while stationed
in
Saudi Arabia
. All these occurrences piqued his interest and led to his decision to
convert to Islam.
Due to cutbacks in the military, he left the Army in the
early 90s and worked as a pharmaceutical representative. He decided to pursue
his goal of becoming the first
Muslim chaplain in the military, since there were none at that time. He chose to
go to
Syria
to study the Arabic language and Islam since the teachings were much more
liberal than in
Saudi Arabia
.
James is the middle child of five siblings: older sisters
Gloria and Patricia, and
younger brothers Walter and Jason. All attended the
Springfield
schools. Jason, the
youngest, also graduated from
West Point
. All three sons are or have served in the
military. Walter is a doctor at
Fort Lewis
,
Wash.
While he was studying in
Syria
, Yee met his wife, Huda. They have a soon-to-be
5-year-old daughter, Sarah. They reside in
Olympia
near
Fort
Lewis
where he was
assigned prior to Sept. 11, 2001. He was very instrumental in making the public
aware
of the difference between terrorism and Islam; his skill was much in demand.
Similarly,
he was much in demand when the media was permitted to visit
Guantanamo
in early
2003. Then came his detainment on Sept. 10, 2003.
It is too bad that he will be leaving the service. I think he
had so much to offer,
especially now when the country needs people who understand both the
American
ideals and the Muslim culture and can speak the Arabic language. He respected
the
military and wanted a career as a Muslim chaplain. Unfortunately, the Army has
ruined
his career and his future and refused to admit any wrongdoing.
8/27/04 San
Francisco Chronicle: "Questions
Continue to Swirl Around Wen Ho Lee,"
From all appearances, these would seem to be days of
vindication for Wen Ho Lee, the former Los Alamos National Laboratory weapons
scientist whose politically charged fight with the federal government is still
being waged four years after he settled charges he mishandled nuclear
secrets.
A suit Lee filed claiming the government improperly leaked
private information about him has made progress, with a federal judge ruling
that five journalists must disclose the sources of damning information they
printed about Lee. And his former employer,
Los Alamos
, has suffered from a string of security scandals that mirror comments he and
his attorneys had made about lax procedures.
However, more quietly, new details about the crime Lee
committed are emerging, and they are reviving some of the unanswered questions
and ambiguities over why he downloaded a trove of nuclear weapons secrets.
Lee never denied that he had downloaded a virtual library of
data on weapons tests and designs and placed some of the material on 10 portable
cassettes that he took home, seven of which he said he had destroyed and were
never found. He insisted, though, that he had not leaked the data to anyone else
and that the downloading had been for work purposes.
In order to learn some lessons from a security standpoint,
the federal government recently concluded a long and careful technical
reconstruction of all Lee's actions at
Los Alamos
. Several experts and government advisers who received a highly classified
briefing at the Department of Energy on the results of that forensic analysis
said in interviews that its conclusions were extremely critical of Lee, showing
an extensive pattern of deceptions on his part in circumventing computer
security safeguards, some of which were disclosed at hearings in his criminal
case.
None of the experts would disclose what Lee had allegedly
done to defeat computer restrictions on handling classified data, but during
those hearings, the government described how Lee had allegedly transferred data
from secure to unsecure computers improperly or borrowed workstations from
colleagues to download secrets to cassettes.
Of even greater concern, said the experts, who spoke on
condition that they not be identified, the analysis also made clear that the
information Lee downloaded included some highly sensitive secrets relating to
warhead designs and performance that posed a national security threat if they
had been leaked. In hearings in his case it was disclosed that the information
related to computer-based testing of different warhead designs.
"I was very surprised at how bad this was," said
one of the experts.
During a hearing in Lee's case, one senior official had
called the information "the crown jewels" of the weapons labs, while
Lee had once referred to most of it as flawed "garbage" that would be
of little use in actually designing a warhead.
The experts who heard the recent briefing said that the truth was somewhere in
between and that at least some of the information on warhead specifications was
highly important and its loss would have been quite serious for the
United States
.
Charles
Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the government would have
no comment on the litigation.
8/19/04: FAIR Calls
for Revealing Sources in Plame, Lee Cases - Courts should Respect Anonymity of
Genuine Whistle-blowers
New York
- FAIR, the national media watch group, encourages the reporters and news
outlets who have been asked to reveal their sources in the Valerie Plame and Wen
Ho Lee cases to cooperate with investigators. Protecting the identities of
confidential sources is a journalistic right that should be recognized by the
courts, but only when it protects genuine whistle-blowers, not when it shields
government wrongdoing.
Plame is the covert CIA officer whose identity was apparently
leaked after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, charged the Bush
administration with misuse of intelligence. Lee was a scientist falsely charged
by the
Clinton
administration with being a Chinese spy, and officials seem to have leaked
selective information about him in an effort to discredit him in the press.
Reporters
in both cases are being told by investigators to reveal the specific members of
the government who transmitted information. FAIR believes that prosecutors'
attempts to discover these sources is legitimate, and the ethical journalistic
choice is to assist their efforts.
The
ability to protect confidential sources who reveal government wrongdoing is an
important journalistic protection that deserves judicial respect. In both the
Plame and Lee cases, however, the journalist's sources were not revealing
government wrongdoing, but committing government wrongdoing.
In
both cases, the alleged crime was the act of revealing protected information to
journalists in order to harm the government's enemies. Given that the alleged
criminal acts apparently involved oral conversations between government
officials and journalists, it is likely that no evidence of these purported acts
would exist except for the journalists' potential testimony.
Unless
one believes that the government ought to be able to surreptitiously use its
enormous information-gathering powers to attack opponents with impunity,
investigators must have the ability to ask journalists for their sources in such
cases, and to compel them if necessary.
Some
have presented these cases as government assaults against the freedom of the
press. "Journalists should not have to face the prospect of imprisonment
for doing nothing more than aggressively seeking to report on the government's
actions," declared Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the New York Times
(8/13/04), whose reporters have been subpoenaed in both cases. But in neither
case were reporters reporting on governmental activities; rather, they were
taking part in a governmental activity, namely the selective and illegitimate
revelation of information to damage an individual.
Lucy
Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for a Free Press told AP (8/18/04):
"All this has to do with secrecy. The government is trying to keep more and
more secrets all the time, and journalists are working harder to uncover those
secrets." Dalglish misses the larger context, which is that the
government's misuse of the power of information involves both concealing and
revealing information as it suits its purposes.
The
reporters who revealed protected information about Wen Ho Lee were not exposing
government secrets, but violating an individual's privacy. And the journalists
who are protecting the identity of the officials who outed Valerie Plame are
actually participating in a cover-up of official wrongdoing.
The
motive and effect of government leaks are the critical questions, and courts can
and should make a distinction between legitimate whistleblowing and illegitimate
governmental attempts to use information as a weapon. If Valerie Plame's name
had been leaked to expose an illegal covert operation, it would be an entirely
different matter and should be treated as such by the legal system. The First
Amendment exists so that the press can be a check on government abuse of power,
not a handmaiden to it.
8/4/04 Honda: Investigation Granted into Chaplain Yee Case Inspector General
Agrees to Request for Formal Inquiry
Washington, DC - US Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose) today
announced that the Inspector General (IG) of the US Department of Defense has
agreed to his formal request for an investigation into the US Army's court
martial of James Yee, the Muslim chaplain who resigned from the Army on August 2
after being subjected to months of questionable military legal procedures.
"Chaplain Yee's treatment by the US Army clearly
warrants an investigation into the handling of his entire case, including
whether his detention was supported by adequate evidence and appropriate legal
charges," Congressman Honda said. "I have grave concerns about the
government's track record of unsubstantiated charges - most notably in the case
of Wen Ho Lee - and Chaplain Yee's case raises serious questions about the way
the military administers justice."
Citing "irreparabl[e] injur[ies]" to his personal
and professional reputation due to the Army's "unfounded allegations,"
Chaplain Yee on August 2 submitted a letter of resignation to the Army,
requesting formal discharge as of January 7, 2005.
The issue stems from the September 10, 2003 arrest of US Army
Chaplain Yee, a commissioned officer of Islamic faith whom Army officials held
in solitary confinement for 76 days on a variety of charges ranging from treason
to mishandling classified documents.
The Army later dropped all criminal charges, opting to pursue
a non-judicial punishment that Chaplain successfully fought on appeal before his
full reinstatement.
In response to allegations that the Army denied Chaplain Yee
the military courtesies commensurate with his rank and targeted him because of
his religious affiliation with Islam, Rep. Honda publicly called for an
investigation into the matter to ensure that the Army complies with accepted
rules of law.
On June 4, Rep. Honda sent a letter to Joseph Schmitz,
Inspector General of the Department of Defense, formally requesting an
investigation into the Army's criminal probe and court martial of Captain
Yee.
Rep. Honda authored the letter in conjunction with House
Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Ike Skelton (D-MO), House Armed Services
Total Force Subcommittee Ranking Member Vic Snyder (D-AR), and Armed Services
Committee member Adam Smith (D-WA).
In the wake of Yee's announced resignation, Rep. Honda
contacted the IG's office seeking an update of his request for an investigation.
The IG informed him that, in response to his request, it "will conduct an
investigation into the issues raised with respect to" the matter of
Chaplain Yee's treatment by the Army. The IG will initiate its investigation
this fall.
"I am pleased that the Defense Department has decided
that they will investigate the circumstances surrounding Captain James Yee's
detention," Rep. Smith said. "It is important that this matter is
investigated and that any improprieties surrounding this case are
resolved."
8/3/04 Seattle Post-Inbtelligencer:
Army chaplain Yee to resign: Muslim cleared of spying charges cites
'irreparable damage' to career,
Army Capt. James J. Yee of Fort Lewis, a Muslim chaplain
cleared of espionage charges when the government's case against him collapsed in
March, has decided to leave the military.
Yee, 36, a West Point graduate, cited continuing frustrations,
including "irreparable damage" to his career that began with unfounded
leaks last year, his 76 days in prison last fall without a hearing and a
continuing gag order imposed by the Army that prevents him from defending
himself publicly.
Yee, who lives with his family near
Olympia
, asked to be discharged next Jan. 7 and expects to pursue a graduate degree in
international relations, said his lawyer, Eugene Fidell of
Washington
,
D.C.
Because of the military gag order, Yee cannot comment, Fidell said.
The Army must approve the resignation. Fidell said he believes the
Army will grant it.
Fort
Lewis
spokesman Lt. Col. Bill Costello confirmed that Yee's superiors had received
the letter, but said he did not know when Yee might get an answer.
"It'll go through the chain of command, and they'll either
approve it or disapprove it," Costello said.
A portion of Yee's letter, released through Fidell, cited
several reasons the chaplain is leaving the service.
"In 2003, I was unfairly accused of grave offenses under
the Uniform Code of Military Justice and unjustifiably placed in solitary
confinement for 76 days. Those unfounded allegations -- which were leaked to the
media -- irreparably injured my personal and professional reputation and
destroyed my prospects for a career in the United States Army," Yee wrote.
"The only formal punishment I received (on matters
having nothing to do with national security) was overturned, but at the same
time official statements again unfairly tarnished my reputation," Yee said.
Indicating frustration at the Army's gag order since then, Yee said
"my ability to defend myself against this pattern of unfairness has been
impeded by official correspondence, the clear purpose of which is to chill the
exercise of my right to free speech."
Yee said he has waited months for an apology from the government
"but none has been forthcoming. I have been unable even to obtain my
personal effects from
Guantanamo
Bay
, despite repeated requests. In the circumstances, I have no alternative but to
tender my resignation."
Yee, who studied Islam and Arabic in
Syria
, was arrested Sept. 10 while serving on temporary duty at Guantanamo Bay Naval
Station in
Cuba
, where suspected Islamist terrorists are held. Federal authorities initially
arrested Yee for carrying purported classified documents out of
Guantanamo
and linked him to a possible espionage ring.
Espionage charges never were filed. Instead, the Army charged Yee
with failing to obey orders by mishandling classified materials and wrongfully
transporting them without proper containers.
In November, the government added more charges: making a false
statement, storing pornography on his government computer and committing
adultery with a female military officer. The woman was granted immunity to
testify against him.
The government's case unraveled, however, as Yee's hearings were
postponed six times over several months. The government's legal staff
accidentally mishandled classified materials, and prosecutors eventually
acknowledged they were uncertain whether Yee had classified materials when he
left
Guantanamo
.
After the criminal charges were dismissed in March, Yee was
reprimanded on the adultery and pornography charges. A general, however,
overturned those final blemishes on Yee's record.
Yee's case, though, has drawn national attention. Democratic
members of Congress, led by Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, last month calling
for an investigation into the fairness of the military justice system and Yee's
treatment. In April, Sens. Carl Levin of
Michigan
and Edward Kennedy of
Massachusetts
in April voiced similar concerns to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
7/22/04 Associated
Press: 15 on Investigative Leave at Los Alamos,
Los Alamos, N.M. - Fifteen employees at the Los Alamos
National
Laboratory were placed on leave amid an investigation into the
disappearance of two computer disks containing classified information,
the director of the nuclear weapons lab said Thursday.
Four other employees also were placed on leave by Director Pete Nanos
in a separate investigation involving an intern at the lab who suffered a
serious eye injury from a laser.
The Energy Department has responded by putting
the contract to manage
Los Alamos up for bid for the first time in
Los Alamos
' 61-year history. The
University
of
California
has operated the lab for the government ever since it
was created during World War II to build the atomic bomb.
6/25/04
www.asianweek.com: Federal Probe
Urged for Capt. James Yee,
Four Democratic members of Congress are calling on the
Pentagon to investigate the Armys treatment of Capt. James Yee, a Muslim
chaplain who had been falsely accused of espionage and imprisoned for 76 days
before all charges were dropped.
Yee, 35, was investigated for alleged espionage at the
Guantanamo
Bay
detention camp in
Cuba
, where the military is holding suspected terrorists.
The June 4 letter was signed by Reps. Mike Honda (D-Calif.),
Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Vic Snyder (D-Ark.). Skelton is
the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, while Snyder and
Smith serve on the panel.
The letter follows an April 23 request by Democratic Sens. Carl
Levin of
Michigan
and Edward Kennedy of
Massachusetts
for a Pentagon investigation of the case to which there has been no response by
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.
Rep. Honda believes an independent investigation is the only way to
hold the Defense Department accountable for its actions.
In this administration, who is going to inspect themselves?
Honda asked. Well back up the Senate request, but I think our request with
the inspector general makes a little more sense. An investigation will be the
basis for an apology and reparations. We asked for an IG investigation on
Rumsfelds policies on the PATRIOT Act and we got one. [The IG] came back with
26 points of concerns, and we wrote a letter to Rumsfeld asking him to respond
to those points, and he as yet has failed to respond.
If the right wing accuses me of using this as a campaign issue,
I say theyre right. I want them to answer it, Honda said.
The governments additional reprimand against Yee for adultery
and pornography also has been overturned.
Those developments raise important questions about the strength
and legitimacy of initial assertions by Army officials that Capt. Yee had
engaged in espionage and treasonous conduct at
Guantanamo Bay
,
Cuba
, said Smith and three other House members in a letter to the Pentagons
inspector general.
Gov. Gary Locke also pushed for an investigation into the cases of
other individuals accused of having connections to terrorism, like Yee, who
after a lengthy imprisonment returned to
Ft. Lewis
,
Wash.
Theres a lawyer in
Portland
,
Ore.
, who was accused of being connected with the
Madrid
,
Spain
train bombing. And yet the fingerprints dont even match. And they had to
issue an apology, Locke said.
Why is our government time after time ruining the reputations of
people, charging them with being in concert with terrorists and then having to
drop all of the charges and then releasing them? There are too many abuses that
are occurring and we need to make sure that innocent Americans are not being
dragged under like they have, he said.
Joseph and Fong Yee, the parents of chaplain Yee, were heartened by
the calls for an investigation.
This will add a little more pressure so there will be an
investigation. The military has left a cloud over our sons head, Joseph
Yee said.
I want Jimmys name cleared, Fong Yee added, Every bit
of help is appreciated.
6/12/04 Oakland Tribune: Wen Ho
Lee flap should never have surfaced,
The flap over the Asian legislative caucus proposal to
present a "profile in courage" award to Wen Ho Lee on the floor of the
state Assembly is a
controversy that should never have gotten as far as it did.
If you erase race from the issue -- which is hard to do -- it becomes a question
of whether a state governing body, the Legislature, should honor a person who
has pleaded guilty to a lesser federal offense after a failed investigation into
espionage allegations. Under almost all circumstances, such a ceremony wouldn't
and shouldn't be held. Politically, it's too questionable.
The choice of Wen Ho Lee was certain to be
controversial, guaranteeing the war of words it evoked. We trust a better, less
divisive choice would have received a warmer reception.
6/12/04 Alameda Times-Star: "Wen Ho
Lee flap should never have surfaced,"
The flap over the Asian legislative caucus proposal to
present a "profile in courage" award to Wen Ho Lee on the floor of the
state Assembly is a
controversy that should never have gotten as far as it did.
If you erase race from the issue -- which is hard to do -- it becomes a question
of whether a state governing body, the Legislature, should honor a person who
has pleaded guilty to a lesser federal offense after a failed investigation into
espionage allegations. Under almost all circumstances, such a ceremony wouldn't
and shouldn't be held. Politically, it's too questionable.
The choice of Wen Ho Lee was certain to be
controversial, guaranteeing the war of words it evoked. We trust a better, less
divisive choice would have received a warmer reception.
6/12/04 Pasadena Star News: Lawmakers
withdraw honor: Asian American former scientist was once accused of being a
spy,
By Cindy Chang
Since the September day nearly four years ago when he
triumphantly emerged from a highly publicized imprisonment, the federal
government having dropped all but one of the 59 espionage-related charges
against him, Wen Ho Lee has spent his days fishing, writing scientific papers
and puttering around his garden.
He says he wants to forget that nightmarish time when his
name was regularly splashed across the front pages of newspapers, first as the
charges against him became known, then as a public outcry forced investigators
to acknowledge that they may have overreacted to indications that he might be a
spy for
China
.
But last week, when Lee, formerly a scientist at the Los
Alamos National Laboratory, went to
Sacramento
to accept an award from a group of Asian-American state legislators, he again
found himself at the center of a controversy. As a conservative political group
accused him of being a "domestic enemy,' Republican legislators closed
ranks, and plans to honor Lee on the floor of the state Assembly were
scrapped.
An army of Asian-American activists posed for a photo-op in
his defense, declaring in language echoing that of four years ago that Lee
continued to be a victim of a "perpetual foreigner' stereotype by which
Asian-Americans are suspected of having divided loyalties, even if their
families have lived in this country for generations.
Wen Ho Lee remains a powerful symbol for many civil-rights
activists. They claim the FBI unfairly focused its espionage investigation on
Lee because of his race, and that it also was his race that led authorities to
deny him bail and hold him in solitary confinement under unduly harsh
conditions.
The same "perpetual foreigner' stereotypes that underlie
the Lee case have potential consequences for every Asian American, from glass
ceilings at the workplace to hate crimes to the most extreme case, the
internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, they say.
But other Asian Americans, while acknowledging that
stereotypes are a problem, question whether Lee is an appropriate civil rights
symbol when he did plead guilty to one charge of mishandling state
secrets.
"Probably every Asian Pacific American can relate to the
perpetual foreigner stereotype,' said Assemblywoman Judy Chu,
D-Monterey
Park
, who led the effort to honor Lee. "For instance, I will be asked, 'Where
are you from?' I'll say I was born in
L.A.
They'll say, 'No, where are you really from?''
Howard Kaloogian, a former assemblyman and chairman of the
group Move America Forward, set off last week's controversy when he said to the
Oakland Tribune, "I wonder if they (caucus members) have ever considered
whether a domestic enemy could possibly be the man that they are honoring. I
would think they would be able to find other role models.'
While many Asian-American activists stood with
Chu
in condemning Kaloogian's remarks, others say they are not so sure that the
legislators should have chosen such a controversial figure to honor.
Virtually all acknowledge that the government treated Lee
unfairly. But some argue, using language not so far removed from that of
Kaloogian's group, that Lee was not completely exonerated and therefore should
not be honored particularly in a post-Sept. 11 climate where ethnic minorities
are under extra pressure to prove their patriotism.
"He has not exonerated himself of those accusations, so
he fell short. Therefore it put us in limbo about whether to honor him or not,'
said Saykin Foo of Los Angeles, grand president of the Chinese American Citizens
Alliance, who fought for Lee's release from prison but believes Chu and the
other legislators should have picked someone else to honor. "We want to
honor the contribution made, but where is the contribution? I don't know.'
Federal agents began investigating Lee on suspicions he might
have given information about an advanced nuclear warhead to
China
. The focus on him intensified when investigators discovered that he had
downloaded reams of classified material onto computer tapes.
The investigation was later criticized for targeting Lee to
the exclusion of other suspects. After initially insisting Lee was spying for
China
, prosecutors later backed down, saying he might have downloaded the information
to enhance his job prospects in countries including
Australia
,
Switzerland
and
France
.
Lee's case galvanized Asian- American groups, which rallied
to his defense. When he was released from prison in September 2000, the judge
apologized for holding him without bail under "extraordinarily onerous
conditions.'
But even though Lee went through a harrowing ordeal during
his nine-month imprisonment, he should be seen as more of a passive sufferer
than a true hero and was not the best person to receive the Profile in Courage
Award from the Asian-American legislators' group, some say.
After withdrawing their plans to honor Lee on the assembly
floor, the Chu-led Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus presented him with
the award at a banquet in
Sacramento
on Monday.
"He hasn't done
anything on his own symbolizing that he is a hero in the interests of Asians.
Yes, he's gone through a lot of painful experiences due to the mishandling of
the situation by the
U.S.
government,' said Paul Zee, a former
South Pasadena
councilman and a member of the California Republican Party's Central Committee.
"I'm 100-percent sympathetic, I understand the situation, but I don't think
he's done anything as a hero.'
For many civil-rights
activists, though, Lee remains an emotionally charged symbol of how a
U.S.
citizen of foreign extraction might be unfairly singled out for prosecution
when important national security interests are at stake. Investigators in the
case admitted that Lee's ethnic origins he was born in
Taiwan
and is a naturalized
U.S.
citizen were part of the reason he initially came under suspicion.
"To see him
accused and put into solitary for what turned out to be baseless charges really
rung true for a lot of Asian-Americans,' said Kathay Feng, director of the
voting rights and hate crimes programs at the Asian Pacific American Legal
Center and the national secretary for the Organization of Chinese Americans.
"The basis is the feeling of always being labeled as an outsider, or even
less than an outsider, that we're seen through the eyes of people as
second-class citizens or foreigners.'
6/11/04: Rep. Honda Demands Investigation Into Chaplain Yee Case Calls on
Army to Demonstrate Due Process Washington, DC -
US Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose) has formally requested an investigation into the
US Army's court martial of Chaplain James Yee, a commissioned officer of Islamic
faith who was held in solitary confinement for 76 days on a variety of charges
ranging from treason to mishandling classified documents. Ultimately, the Army
dropped all criminal charges. On June 4, Rep. Honda submitted a letter to Joseph
Schmitz, Inspector General of the Department of Defense, formally requesting the
investigation into the Army's criminal probe and court marital of Captain Yee.
Rep. Honda authored the letter in conjunction with House Armed Services
Committee Ranking Member Ike Skelton (D-MO), House Armed Services Total Force
Subcommittee Ranking Member Vic Snyder (D-AR), and Armed Services Committee
member Adam Smith (D-WA).
6/10/04 by Bill Wong:
"Why Would The API Caucus Honor A Person Convicted of A Crime?
This 60 Year Old Story May Jog Your Memory."
The Korematsu Case
Fred Korematsu was an American citizen of Japanese descent.
He was 22-years-old in 1942 when General DeWitt ordered everyone of
Japanese ancestry in the Western United States to report to assembly centers. But
Korematsu refused to report for internment.
Government authorities finally tracked him down on May 30, 1942 and they
arrested him for remaining in a military area barred to anyone of Japanese
ancestry.
After his conviction in a federal court, the judge sentenced
Korematsu to five years probation and the military immediately took him into
custody and sent him to the relocation camp at Topaz, Utah.
When Korematsu's case reached the Supreme Court in October
1944, the attorneys for the government pointed to the constitutional war powers
of Congress and the president. The
attorneys presented a report from General DeWitt, which repeated many of the
unproved rumors about Issei and Nisei disloyalty. The government also cited
those in the camps which had refused to sign the loyalty oath.
Korematsu's attorneys showed that during the nearly four
months between
Pearl Harbor
and General DeWitt's first evacuation order, not one person of Japanese descent
had been convicted of espionage or sabotage.
The attorney's for Korematsu charged that General DeWitt
accepted the prejudiced views of those hostile to the Issei and Nisei and was
himself a racist. To prove their point, they quoted a statement DeWitt made
before a congressional committee in 1943: "A Jap's a Jap. It makes no
difference whether he is an American citizen or not. I don't want any of them .
. . . They are a dangerous element, whether loyal or not . . . ."
On December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court decided, 6-3, to
uphold the conviction of Korematsu. Justice
Hugo Black, writing for the majority, fully accepted the views of General
DeWitt.
Korematsu had one more day in court. Researchers discovered
that the government had withheld important facts at his trial. Forty years
later, in 1984, a federal judge agreed that Korematsu probably did not get a
fair trial and set aside his conviction.
6/9/04 Pasadena Star News: "Poor judgment in Lee brouhaha,"
Local Assemblywoman Judy Chu,
D-Monterey
Park
, chairman of a new legislative caucus, stirred up a hornets nest when the group
honored a nuclear scientist once accused of spying.
It seems the newly formed Asian Pacific Islander Legislative
Caucus was on the right track in awarding a "profile in courage' award to
an Asian American, but their choice of recipients is suspect.
Los Alamos
computer engineer Wen Ho Lee no
doubt showed great courage during a nine- month incarceration, half in solitary
confinement, while federal officials pursued charges of espionage that were
eventually dropped in 2000.
Lee, who worked in the nuclear weapons program at the
national laboratory in the late '90s, was never charged with passing nuclear
secrets to the Chinese, allegedly the main focus of his case. But neither was he
completely cleared. He pleaded guilty to using an unsecured computer to download
"information related to national defense' onto personal tapes, which he
then supposedly discarded. Seems suspicious to us, despite
Chu
's characterization of Lee's case as a "racially charged
inquisition.'
While our hindsight view is that Lee's treatment may have
been overly harsh, neither is the possible trading of nuclear secrets to be
taken lightly.
Tapping Lee for the award was bound to leave many scratching
their heads. Another Chinese immigrant living in caucus member Assemblywoman
Carol Liu's district displayed genuine courage when he and fellow dissidents
faced down bullets and tanks June 4, 1989 in
Tiananmen Square
. Hundreds of pro- democracy demonstrators were killed in an unprecedented
massacre that stunned the world.
Pasadena
resident Yongun Zhou was among
those brave university students
as a leader of the pro-democracy movement in
Beijing
. Made an example by the Chinese authorities, Zhou was arrested and spent four
years in prison. After his release, he escaped to the
United States
where he continues to fight for the rights of imprisoned activists in his home
country.
As chronicled by Staff Writer Cindy Chang, Zhou's activism hasn't been dampened
even after spending another three years at hard labor after Chinese authorities
again arrested him when he returned to
China
in 1998. Talk about courage.
Let's just call this unfortunate
brouhaha poor judgment on all sides.
6/7/04 Pasadena Star News:
Assemblywoman defends decision to honor scientist,
By Gary Scott and Cindy Chang
Sacramento -- Assemblywoman Judy Chu said Monday those who
objected to a planned ceremony to honor former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee are
perpetuating a racist stereotype: that Asian Americans have divided
loyalties.
Speaking at a press conference outside the state Capitol,
Chu,
D-Monterey
Park
, chastised Howard Kaloogian and his Move Forward American group for comments
she said vilified Lee and questioned the patriotism of the lawmakers who chose
to honor him.
"Dr. Lee is a victim of the stereotype that plagues
(Asian Pacific Islanders) the perpetual foreigner stereotype,'
Chu
said. "That is, we are loyal to countries in
Asia
no matter how many generations we've lived in this country.'
The Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, which includes
Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D- Pasadena, had planned to present Lee with its
"profile in courage' award in a ceremony on the Assembly floor.
Kaloogian, a conservative who helped lead the recall of Gov.
Gray Davis, first raised his objections in an interview with the Oakland
Tribune.
Kaloogian questioned whether
Chu
and the other members of the API caucus were upholding their oaths to defend
the nation against foreign and domestic enemies.
"I wonder if they have ever considered whether a
domestic enemy could possibly be the man that they are honoring,' Kaloogian
said.
Kaloogian could not be reached for comment Monday, but Sal Russo, a strategist
for Move Forward American, said the charges of stereotyping are baseless.
"It is preposterous. It has nothing to do
with race or gender,' Russo said. "It has to do with poor judgment.
"We should not be honoring people who are convicted of
crimes and who are suspected of committing even more crimes,' Russo continued.
"There are certainly better role models.'
Chu
ultimately canceled the event after a staff
member from the Republican Caucus called her office to object. The award was
presented later that day at a dinner banquet.
A spokeswoman for GOP Assembly Leader Kevin
McCarthy said the Republican Caucus had taken no formal position on the
ceremony.
Chu
said she chose to honor Lee because he was
unfairly targeted in the 1999 espionage probe at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Federal prosecutors filed a 59- count indictment against Lee, a Taiwanese
immigrant, for allegedly passing on secret nuclear weapons data to
China
.
The fact that members of the Republican Caucus
appear to have agreed with Kaloogian's objections, Wang added, "shows they
have little regard for the truth and even less regard for the Asian-American
community.'
June 5, 2004 PR#: CO.04-22
Assembly Member Chu Statement on GOP Objection To Wen Ho Lee Ceremony
I regretfully cancelled the Assembly Floor ceremony honoring
Dr. Wen Ho Lee in order to spare him from an awkward situation arising from the
Assembly Republican Caucus' objection to the presentation. The Assembly GOP
Caucus informed our office of their objection to honoring Dr. Lee late Friday
afternoon.
I am outraged by the Republican Caucus objection to the
ceremony and Howard Kaloogian's inflammatory remarks in Friday's Oakland
Tribune.
Dr. Lee has already been victimized by an overzealous
prosecution by the government and I do not want him to be brutally victimized
again by unwarranted, racially-charged, inaccurate and irresponsible
accusations.
It is my great honor to honor Dr. Lee with an award that
celebrates and recognizes an Asian Pacific Islander American individual who has
shown tremendous courage in the face of overwhelming odds and inconceivable
injustice. Dr. Wen Ho Lee, survived nothing less than a racially charged
inquisition by runaway government officials and a justice system that was asleep
at the wheel.
Dr. Lee is a 60-year-old Taiwanese American scientist who was
unfairly singled out and charged with mishandling restricted nuclear data at the
Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he had been an employee for over 20
years.
Contrary to erroneous press accounts and the inflammatory
rhetoric, Dr. Lee was never charged with "spying".
Despite a lengthy investigation involving over 1,000
interviews and review of over one million files, the FBI did not uncover any
evidence that Dr. Lee passed on classified or restricted information to any
foreign agents.
The conditions of Dr. Lee's confinement were severe for a
60-year old scientist. He was placed in solitary confinement, shackled with leg
irons and chains every time he left his solitary cell, he was denied access to
daily exercise and showers, and had very limited access to phone calls,
visitors, or outside information.
Nevertheless, Dr. Lee persevered and justice was eventually
served. Dr. Lee walked out of court a free man on September 13, 2000 after a
federal judge repeatedly apologized for incarcerating him for nine months
without trial and angrily rebuked the federal government for its handling of a
case that "embarrassed this entire nation."
The government dismissed 58 counts against Dr. Lee. In a
sworn statement provided as part of the deal, Dr. Lee said that he did not
intend to harm the United States and that he had not passed the tapes or their
contents to anyone.
In the end, the FBI admitted that it had no evidence that Lee
was a spy and he was not charged with espionage.
Dr. Wen Ho Lee's courage in the face of such overwhelming
persecution inspired Asian and Pacific Islander Americans all over the country.
His perseverance and dignity during this horrendous ordeal is a beacon for all
of us to follow and for that I am proud to honor him with the inaugural API
Legislative Caucus "Profile In Courage" Award.
Dear Editor of Oakland Tribune:
I was dismayed by the title of your June 4, 2004 article on
the California API Legislative Caucuss decision to honor Dr. Wen Ho Lee
(Asian Caucus to Fete Former Accused Spy).
Dr. Lee was never formally accused of spying, although
anonymous government sources made this claim without support or merit. The
governments charges against Dr. Lee for mishandling classified data was so
weak that federal District Court Judge James Parker made this extraordinary
statement when Lee was released: I sincerely apologize to you, Dr. Lee, for
the unfair manner in which you were held in custody by the executive
branch.
The government held Lee for nine months in solitary
detention, shackled and chained whenever he left his cell in an attempt to
coerce a confession.
For right-wing zealots to now accuse the Caucus of honoring a
domestic enemy is slanderous and only illustrates the role that xenophobia
played in the original prosecution of Dr. Lee.
Lees ability to withstand the governments relentless
pressure and mistreatment with dignity is heroic.
His example is particularly relevant as the U.S. government
today continues to detain individuals in the U.S. and abroad in the name of
national security without criminal charges, due process or access to counsel.
The Caucus is right to honor Dr. Lee and to remind us that in our democratic
system of government, power should never go unchecked.
Ted Wang
Policy Director
Chinese for Affirmative Action
5/14/04 www.AsianWeek.com:
James Yees Family Calls for Congressional Investigation,
By Sam
Chu
Lin
Revelations of Americas controversial treatment of Iraqi
prisoners could vindicate
U.S.
Army Muslim Chaplain James Yee if a congressional hearing is held, said his
family.
So far, the Yee case has generated congressional interest, but the
military has not responded to appeals to investigate the Army captains case.
The West Point graduate was recently released and returned to active duty after
being detained for 76 days on suspicion of helping suspected terrorist detainees
at a
Guantanamo
Bay
prison.
A letter co-signed by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Carl
Levin (D-Mich.) was sent to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to encourage
the military to finally apologize and assume responsibility for its actions
against Yee.
Joseph Yee, father of James, is hoping for an investigation into
his sons case. The original charges were dismissed out of concern for
national security, and a letter of reprimand for possessing pornography and
adultery was later pulled from the captains personnel services file.
Im happy [the senators] wrote the letter, but Im a little
disappointed because I havent heard anything yet, he said.
It looks like the military or the Defense Department isnt
responding. Our senator [Jon Corzine] has also written to Gen. James Hill [head
of the U.S. Southern Command who oversees the prison], and I still havent
heard anything yet.
The Yee family patriarch said that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.)
last week queried Rumsfeld and the Army brass in a recent congressional hearing
about the case.
Yee recalled that
Clinton
asked why the military had leaked the stories about his son, ruining his
career, while keeping the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners under wraps.
But he said that Sen. Clinton also pointed out that the military
dropped all of the charges against him.
Joseph Yee believes a hearing would help divulge any connection
between his sons case and controversies surrounding
U.S.
military prisons.
There were probably things going on at
Guantanamo
Bay
that James was disturbed about. I believe he was trying to do his job as a
chaplain. They couldnt back him up and make it hard on the detainees at the
same time. They should have never sent him down there. A congressional hearing
would put Jim in a better light and reveal why he had all of these problems. I
want to know who set him up.
One military officer may have some answers, said Eugene Fidell,
Yees civilian attorney.
Brigadier General Geoffrey Miller, the man now in charge of the
Abu Ghraib prison in
Baghdad
, was responsible for Chaplain Yees long incarceration, said Fidell.
It looks like [Millers] going to be on the hot seat for a
while. Jim has been muzzled by the Army, and cards and letters to the president
and to Congress calling for a congressional hearing into his case will help.
Joseph Yee said his son has returned to
Fort Lewis
,
Wash.
, with his family after an extended leave. But Yees military career as a
chaplain is at a crossroads with his tour of duty ending in January 2005. In
civilian life, Yee had worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative for about
two years before he rejoined the Army as a Muslim chaplain.
Now he is setting up a social project, his father said. It has
nothing to do with being a chaplain.
He added, The letter
of reprimand has been removed, but the Army has made him a marked man with the
way theyve treated him. They havent even cleared his name from the
original charges.
Although Captain Yee has attracted congressional interest,
community help hasnt been strong. Captain Yees legal fees now total nearly
$200,000. While the elder Yee recognizes a slumping economy has dampened
financial support, he feels the Asian Pacific American community in particular
should mobilize around his sons fight.
Community indifference only leaves the door wide open for a James
Yee case to repeat itself.
Its tough, the elder Yee said. Its probably going to
discourage many APAs and Muslims from considering working for the government or
[joining] the military in the future.
Yee, a retired mechanical engineer, has sent a letter to Dr. Wen Ho
Lee, the former Los Alamos scientist who was once incarcerated on suspicion of
giving nuclear weapons secrets to
China
but never convicted. He has sent letters to Lees supporters, attorney and
family and noted the similarities between his sons case and Dr. Lees.
I think it would be very important for Dr. Wen Ho Lee to support
my sons case, Joseph Yee said. Dr.
Lee was railroaded and really never got a true apology from the government. We
need to know what really happened to Jimmy and hear an apology from those
responsible.
Yee is hoping that Lees daughter,
Alberta
, a law student at UC Davis, will encourage her father to voice his support
when he appears June 7 at the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus Policy
Summit.
4/30/04
press release
Contact: Janelle Hu, 202-223-5500
OCA CALLS FOR FULL GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION INTO HANDLING OF CHAPLAIN JAMES
YEE'S HOLLOW ESPIONAGE CHARGES
Washington,
DC - The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), a national Asian Pacific
American (APA) civil rights advocacy and educational organization with over 80
chapters and affiliates nationwide, objects to the unfounded charges brought
against Army Chaplain Captain James Yee.
Chaplain
James Yee is a captain in the U.S. Army who served honorably at Guantanomo Bay,
where his primary duty was in ministering to detainees and suspected terrorists
of Islamic faith. After
the U.S. military initially linked him to a possible espionage ring, Chaplain
Yee spent 76 days in custody on suspicion of espionage and treason.
When the military brought formal charges against Chaplain Yee, none of
these accusations appeared. As a
result, government prosecutors failed to establish any credible espionage case
against him.
Chaplain
Yee's vanishing resembles those of the thousands of immigrants of Arab,
Islamic, and South Asian decent who disappeared through secret arrests,
detention, and deportations, and became forcibly separated from their wives and
children.
Joining
Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan,
both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, OCA supports a full
exoneration and justice for Chaplain James Yee and calls upon the U.S.
Government to initiate an immediate investigation into the handling of this
case. Furthermore, OCA demands an
apology and compensation from the government for creating this unjust and
prolonged ordeal suffered by Yee and his family, and also destroying Chaplain
Yee's career as a military chaplain through false accusations, arrest,
detention, and reprimand. Finally,
OCA advocates that the war on terrorism cannot become an excuse for any
government to trump basic rights or to profile on the basis of race, ethnicity,
or religion.
"Although
all charges against Chaplain Yee were dropped, this case must not be overlooked
without a full investigation into the inadequate handling of his case," stated
OCA National President, Raymond Wong. "After suffering 76 days in solitary
confinement in vain, Chaplain Yee deserves a thorough investigation into
whether the U.S. Government had any substantial evidence to support the charges
brought against him."
"Chaplain
Yee endured the invasion of his privacy, infringement of his civil liberties,
and violation of his basic civil rights of human dignity.
Including the case of Dr. Wen Ho Lee, there are too many examples where
APAs have been deemed guilty without evidentiary support," said Christine
Chen, OCA Executive Director. "The
U.S. Government must prevent similar, unsubstantiated arrests from afflicting
innocent APAs in the future."
4/13/04 Associated
Press: "Judge Says Prosecutors in Leung Case Must Supply More
Evidence,"
Los Angeles -- Prosecutors must more strongly back up their
indictment of a woman accused of being a double agent for China by providing
details about documents seized from her home, a federal judge ruled.
The indictment against Katrina Leung is so vague that Leung
has been unable to prepare an adequate defense, U.S. District Judge
Florence-Maria Cooper wrote in a ruling made public Friday.
Leung, 49, is a naturalized U.S. citizen accused of taking
classified documents from the briefcase of her former lover and FBI handler,
James J. Smith. She is not accused of relaying the papers to Chinese officials.
She faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted of illegally copying and
possessing national security papers.
Defense attorneys acknowledge that Leung was a double-agent,
but say she was loyal to the United States, not China.
Leung was recruited to work for the FBI 20 years ago and
gathered intelligence during her frequent business trips to China. But
prosecutors allege she started working for the Chinese Ministry of State
Security sometime around 1990.
In response to a defense request, Cooper gave prosecutors
until April 29 to answer 19 questions about three documents seized in a December
2002 search of Leung's home.
One of the documents is a list of agents assigned to
investigate Peter Lee, a scientist at defense contractor TRW Inc. who pleaded
guilty in 1997 to passing classified secrets to Chinese scientists.
Cooper ordered prosecutors to explain how the documents are
connected to national security, how Leung knew their significance and how she
intended to use them to harm the United States.
Smith, 60, is accused of gross negligence for allegedly
allowing Leung access to classified materials and with mail fraud for filing
false reports to FBI headquarters about her reliability. He faces up to 40 years
in prison if convicted.
4/6/04 Associated
Press: "Feds Drop Probe of Deal with Chinese Lab,"
Denver (AP) -- The Justice Department won't press charges
against a Fort Collins businessman accused of illegally diverting U.S.
technology to a Chinese laboratory suspected of making military weapons.
The U.S. attorney's office in Denver said in a Feb. 25 letter
to Lee Yu that it was closing the investigation against him because ``we feel we
cannot, after investigation, prove the matter beyond a reasonable doubt.''
Yu's attorney said that a federal agent with the Commerce
Department in California based her investigation on inaccurate information.
Yu, a naturalized U.S. citizen who grew up in China, said he
believes he was targeted because of his background.
``I thought this was a great freedom country (where you)
don't have to be afraid of the police as long as you are a law-abiding
citizen,'' Yu said.
Federal agents searched his home in early 2003.
He drew the attention of federal investigators after buying a
high-speed video camera used by physicists and engineers. He acknowledged
helping send the $50,000 camera to a Chinese research institute, but said the
transaction was legal.
Yu's attorney, Trip Mackintosh, said a federal investigator
mistakenly reported the Beijing facility that received the camera was banned
from getting U.S. goods. Such facilities are suspected of developing weapons of
mass destruction.
``The agents were clumsily investigating a legal transaction
and they misinterpreted the law,'' Mackintosh said.
The Justice and Commerce departments declined to comment,
saying the letter from the U.S. attorney's office speaks for itself.
Yu said his business has fallen off since the investigation
became public. He works as a middleman between American companies and Chinese
factories.
Yu came to the United States from China in 1987 to study
mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University in Utah and stayed after
graduation.
For Immediate Release
March 24, 2004
Contact: Janelle Hu, 202-223-5500
Washington,
DC - The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), a national Asian Pacific
American (APA) civil rights advocacy and educational organization with over 80
chapters and affiliates nationwide, heralds the abandonment of all criminal
charges against Army chaplain Captain James Yee. Nevertheless, OCA is
deeply concerned these unfounded charges were brought against Yee in the first
place. As doubt and speculation regarding the validity of these charges continue
to surface, OCA urges the government to properly investigate and explain why
these charges were filed against Captain Yee.
James Yee, a Chinese American born and raised in New
Jersey, graduated from West Point in 1990. He served in the Persian Gulf
War and later spent several years in Syria, where he converted to Islam and
changed his name to "Yousef." At the time of his detention, Yee
was stationed as a Muslim chaplain for the Muslim detainees held at Guantanamo
Bay.
"OCA
is disturbed that government prosecutors have indicted innocent parties of
espionage charges without solid evidence. As with the case against Dr. Wen
Ho Lee, the most serious charges brought against Yee were dropped," said
OCA National President, Raymond Wong. "Because of the government's
unwarranted charges, Captain James Yee's reputation has been unnecessarily
tarnished and may never be restored." The
Organization of Chinese Americans, a national civil rights organization with
over 80 chapters and affiliates across the country, was founded in 1973 to
ensure the civil rights of the Asian Pacific American community. It
maintains its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
3/24/03 New York Times: "Military
Injustice,"
More than six months after Capt. James Yee, the former Muslim
chaplain at Guantnamo, was arrested on suspicion of espionage, the military
has dropped the charges. Military officials insist that the prosecution was
halted only to keep sensitive information from becoming public. What they really
are trying to hide from view, it seems clear, is not national security secrets,
but the incompetence and mean-spiritedness of their prosecution.
Captain Yee was arrested last September after inspectors found what
they claimed were suspicious, perhaps classified, papers in his luggage. Captain
Yee spent 76 days in a naval brig, much of the time in leg irons, and
prosecutors suggested that they might seek the death penalty. As the
investigation proceeded, it became evident just how weak the accusations were.
The military downgraded the charges to mishandling classified data. But it added
charges that Captain Yee had engaged in an extramarital affair and had kept
pornography on his government computer.
At a hearing in December, the government revealed that it had never
bothered to make a formal determination that the documents Captain Yee was
charged with carrying were actually classified. The hearing was adjourned so
prosecutors could make this basic determination. But before it was, the
government made public the more salacious charges. As Captain Yee's wife and
4-year-old daughter looked on, a fellow officer testified under a grant of
immunity about having an affair with him.
In dropping the prosecution last week, the military refused to
clear Captain Yee, contending that it had acted only because of "national
security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence." But
there is no reason to believe this is true. Lawyers on both sides had security
clearances, and sensitive evidence, if any existed, could have been kept
confidential. In a final unpleasant touch, rather than letting go of the
accusations of possessing pornography and having an affair, the military
formally reprimanded Captain Yee this week, based on those allegations. These
are matters the military rarely investigates. The reprimand appears to be the
military's feeble attempt to make Captain Yee look bad.
The case raises many questions not about Captain Yee, but about
his accusers. Did Captain Yee's position as a Muslim chaplain make him suspect
in the eyes of the military, even in the absence of significant evidence? Why
did prosecutors begin their case before determining whether the information at
issue was classified? Why were embarrassing sexual allegations included, and
emphasized, in a case that claimed to be about national security?
The damage this case did to Captain Yee is incalculable, but the
military has also hurt itself. It has cast further doubt on its detention
policies in Guantnamo. It has diminished public confidence in military
justice. And it has weakened its own credibility for future cases when it tries
to invoke national security. For Captain Yee's sake and its own, the military
should apologize for its misguided prosecution and put in place procedures to
prevent a case like this from
happening again.
3/23/04 Associated Press: "Yee reprimanded
for two infractions: Army chaplain accused of adultery, downloading porn,"
Arlington, VA. -- An Army chaplain once accused of
mishandling classified documents while ministering to terrorist suspects at
Guantanamo Bay was reprimanded yesterday for minor infractions.
The hearing for Capt.
James Yee on accusations of adultery and downloading pornography to his Army
computer concluded a prosecution that began with Yee suspected of crimes that
could have resulted in execution.
On Friday, Army officials
dismissed all criminal charges against Yee, saying national security concerns
prevented them from seeking a court martial, which would have to be conducted in
open court.
Yee, a Muslim convert, was
arrested last year and held for 76 days after the military initially linked him
to a possible espionage ring.
He was eventually charged
with lesser counts of mishandling classified material, failing to obey an order,
making a false official statement, adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer.
He could have faced 14
years in prison on those counts.
After yesterday's hearing, Yee's lawyer said his client
should have received an apology instead of a reprimand.
The lawyer, Eugene Fidell, said he thinks Yee's Muslim faith
led authorities to improperly suspect him of sedition. He also criticized the
government for leaking information about Yee's case, saying his client was
"a victim of an incredible drive-by act of legal violence."
"There's no effective
remedy other than the court of public opinion," Fidell said. "People
concerned with the military justice system have watched this case with a growing
sense of horror."
3/19/04 Associated
Press: Charges Dropped Against Muslim Chaplain,
Miami
- Citing national security concerns, the Army
on Friday dropped all charges against a Muslim chaplain accused of mishandling
classified documents at
Guantanamo
Bay
, which houses suspected terrorists.
Capt. James Yee will
be allowed to return to his previous duty station at
Fort
Lewis
, near
Tacoma
,
Wash.
, said the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the detention center in
Cuba
.
"Chaplain Yee has won," his attorney, Eugene R.
Fidell of
Washington
, said in a statement late Friday. "The Army's dismissal of the classified
information charges against him represents a long overdue
vindication."
In dismissing the charges, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller,
commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, which operates the detention center,
cited "national security concerns that would arise from the release of the
evidence" if the case proceeded.
"In the grand scheme of things, and in the interest of
national security, Gen. Miller felt like the charges needed to be dropped,"
said Lt. Col. Bill Costello, a Southcom spokesman. "It seemed to be the
prudent way to proceed."
Yee spent 76 days in
custody after the military initially linked him to a possible espionage ring at
the Naval base in
Cuba
. But the government failed to build a capital espionage case against him.
Prosecutors have not disclosed much about their case.
Some Asian-American
activists and Yee supporters have accused the government of racial and religious
profiling in Yee's case.
The Army charged Yee
last September with mishandling classified material, failing to obey an order,
making a false official statement, adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer
for allegedly downloading pornography on his government laptop.
Fidell rejected the
notion that security concerns played a role in the dismissal of charges. He said
Yee, who was in the Washington, D.C.-area on Friday, was entitled to an apology.
Miller said Yee, a
35-year-old Chinese-American, will be offered nonjudicial punishment for
allegations of adultery and pornography.
That would come
through an Article 15 proceeding, the military's method for dealing with minor
infractions. The penalties would be minor, such as duty restriction or a
temporary pay cut.
"We anticipate
that Yee will be returned to his home duty station at
Ft. Lewis
,
Washington
, at the conclusion of any Article 15 proceedings," Southcom said in a news
release.
If convicted of
all the original charges, Yee could have faced dismissal and a maximum of 14
years in prison.
Yee previously was a chaplain at
Fort
Lewis
, and his wife and child live in
Olympia
,
Wash.
At Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, he counseled suspected Muslim terrorists and
dispensed religious guidance.
He was arrested Sept.
10 as he arrived at a Jacksonville, Fla., naval base, from Guantanamo, carrying
what authorities said were classified documents. Some of the documents were
taken from his backpack, and others came from his laptop and his quarters at
Guantanamo
, officials said.
Before he was charged,
Yee had told The Associated Press in a January 2003 interview that one of his
goals as chaplain was to clear up misunderstandings about Islam. Telephone messages
seeking comment from Yee's wife in
Olympia
,
Wash.
, were not immediately returned.
2/4/04 www.ap.org:
Army Chaplain Yee's Father: Charges a Result of Ethnic Profiling,
New York (AP) -- The father of a Muslim Army chaplain accused
of mishandling classified information said the charges against his son are based
on ethnic and religious profiling.
Capt. James Yee, 35, is a Chinese-American who had been
serving as a chaplain to suspected terrorists at the military's detention camp
at
Guantanamo Bay
,
Cuba
.
Joseph Yee, 76, called on the government Monday to drop
charges against his son.
``They've smeared the Yee family name,'' he said. ``I think
they are running a conspiracy against him. It's a waste of time and of
taxpayers' dollars.''
A Pentagon spokeswoman referred questions to a spokeswoman at
Guantanamo
, who did not immediately return a call for comment.
The elder Yee spoke at a news conference before flying to
Fort Benning
,
Georgia
, for the resumption Wednesday of a hearing in his son's case.
Capt. Yee was arrested in September at the
Jacksonville
,
Florida
, airport on suspicion of espionage. Customs officials confiscated notes found
on him during a search.
The elder Yee said he wants to know why another Army officer,
Col. Jack Farr, accused of mishandling classified material and making false
statements was allowed to remain on duty.
Charges of spying and aiding the enemy -- both capital
offenses -- were never brought against Capt. Yee. He faces lesser allegations of
mishandling classified data, disobeying orders, adultery and storing pornography
on an Army computer.
6/18/03 UPI: "Oops: Los Alamos Lab Loses
Plutonium,"
Los Alamos, N.M. The Project on Goverment Oversight
quotes sources as saying about 2 grams of plutonium is
missing from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The plutonium has been missing since 2001 but was
reported only last week to Department of Energy officials
responsible for overseeing the lab. DOE requires any
missing weapons-grade nuclear material of a half-gram or
more be reported.
POGO said the fact the missing material was not
reported is a violation of department policy and raises
serious questions about the level of confidence in DOE's
Material Control and Accountability System that tracks
hundreds of tons of weapons-grade nuclear material.
A former DOE official advised POGO that even small
quantities of missing plutonium are a potential threat to
public health and safety and are taken very seriously.
6/6/03 Associated Press: "Justice
Department Refuses to
Release Report on Wen Ho Lee Case,"
Albuquerque, N.M. -- A watchdog group is appealing to the
U.S. Department of Justice to release a new report about the
bungled case against former Los Alamos National Laboratory
scientist Wen Ho Lee.
The Washington-based Federation of American Scientists
filed an appeal Wednesday seeking to reverse the government's
decision not to release the report by the Justice Department's
Office of Professional Responsibility, said Steven Aftergood,
a federation senior research analyst.
Lee, who was indicted in December 1999 on 59 felony counts
alleging he mishandled nuclear weapons information, was held
in solitary confinement for nine months before he was released
in September 2000 as the federal case crumbled. Lee, in a
negotiated settlement, pleaded guilty to a single felony count
and was sentenced to the time he had already served.
In handing down that sentence, U.S. District Judge James
Parker apologized to Lee, saying the government's handling of
the case ``embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who is
a citizen of it.''
Then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the internal review
after a private meeting with President Clinton to patch up their
differences following Clinton's public comment that Lee's
detention ``just can't be justified.''
Justice officials said at the time the internal review would start
with criticisms made by Parker and would encompass the whole
handling of the case by the Justice Department and the FBI,
including Reno's role.
Aftergood noted in his appeal that White House spokesman
Joe Lockhart said of the report at the time ``the American public
should look forward to an accounting there, and I think that will be
done.''
Marlene Wahowiak, assistant counsel for the Freedom of
Information and Privacy Act at the Office of Professional
Responsibility, wrote in a May 29 letter to the scientists
federation that she had determined the report ``should be
withheld in its entirety,'' according to a copy provided by
Aftergood.
Wahowiak cited exemptions to the law that allow the
withholding of certain information for security, privacy and law enforcement
reasons.
Aftergood said he understands that not all the information
may be appropriate for public consumption but that an outright
denial of access to the entire report was unreasonable.
``The whole point of this exercise was to provide public
accountability, not to educate the Justice Department about
itself,'' Aftergood said Wednesday. ``And while I can imagine
that portions of the report are properly withheld because they
contain classified information or privacy information, other
portions should be released.''
The Justice Department did not return Associated Press
calls seeking comment Wednesday.
Department spokesman Mark Carallo told the Albuquerque
Journal that the agency has ``a strong feeling of openness'' in
most cases but must abide by certain confidentiality rules.
The Justice Department in December 2001 released a
massive review of the FBI's bungled investigation of Lee. That
report, by federal attorney Randy Bellows, criticized the FBI for
never considering the Lee investigation a priority; failing to allot
it proper resources or properly supervise agents on the case;
failing to consider a CIA report that challenged the underpinnings
of the Lee case, and moving too slowly.
It condemned the communication breakdown between the FBI
and the Energy Department and chastised investigators for not immediately
searching Lee's computer files when suspicions
first arose.
Aftergood said the Bellows team only reviewed the case up
through March 1999, whereas the more recent report covers the
entire life span of the case up through Lee's release.
``There were matters that were left unanswered,'' Aftergood
said of the Bellows report, ``including possible professional
misconduct by Justice and FBI personnel.''
Aftergood said he is willing to go to court if the department
denies his appeal.
``If they are willing to compromise, I think that's the best option,'' Aftergood
said.
5/8/03 Associated
Press: "Researcher Acquitted of
Economic Spying Sues UC Davis,"
Sacramento -- A former biology researcher sued the University
of California Monday, nearly a year after he was
freed from jail and acquitted of economic espionage charges raised by his bosses
at a Davis campus laboratory.
Bin Han, 41, accused his former employer UC Davis of
firing him because he was Chinese and was about to expose wrongdoing in the lab
where he worked. In the civil suit filed in Sacramento Superior Court, Han also
accused the university
of orchestrating his arrest and 18-day incarceration last year.
Han is suing the University of California Regents and
seeks an unspecified monetary award.
UC Davis officials couldn't be reached late Monday, but
have maintained race never played a part in their firing Han.
Han was accused of stealing 20 vials of a protein gel
researchers were using in attempts to grow replacement
corneas for the blind. Police found vials of the gel in his
freezer in his home and a plane ticket to his native China.
He was originally charged with three felonies, including the
theft of trade secrets and embezzlement.
Han, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was held without bail in
solitary confinement because authorities considered him a
flight risk. Prosecutors later threw out all but one charge,
which a judge reduced to a misdemeanor.
A jury acquitted Han of the remaining count in August.
Han maintained he stored the vials in his freezer as a
convenience and was fired before he could return them
to the school.
Some critics called the case ethnically motivated and
compared it to the saga of former Los Alamos National
Laboratory scientist Wen Ho Lee.
Lee, who was prosecuted for making copies of sensitive
nuclear weapons data, pleaded guilty to a single count
of downloading data to computer tape at Los Alamos
National Laboratory. He has said he made backup copies
to protect data from being erased.
9/12/02 Associated
Press: "Wen Ho Lee case spurs political activism,"
Fremont, CA -
Cecilia Chang says she used to look the other way
when people talked about "heavy stuff' civil liberties,
constitutional
rights, discrimination.
Now she carries a stack of petitions, cajoling signatures from
strangers to bolster a presidential pardon campaign for her friend
Wen Ho Lee, the Taiwanese-American scientist once suspected of spying against
the United States.
Two years ago today Sept. 13, 2000 Lee was freed from nine
months of solitary confinement as the investigation around him
crumbled.
While convicted on a single count of copying sensitive nuclear
weapons data, Lee received an apology from a federal judge for his treatment.
The activism his case inspired continues to flourish in
Chang, along with many other Asian- Americans who have no
personal connection to Lee.
"It was really a watershed moment in terms of Asian-Americans
coming of age,' said Karen Narasaki, president of the National Asian Pacific
American Legal Consortium in Washington. "For the first time,
you had Asian-American professionals thinking about criminal justice
and the issue of whether the government is always right.'
In Fremont, Chang has started a new group inspired by the Lee
case, Justice for New Americans. In Sacramento, activist Ivy Lee
created the Chinese American Political Action Committee, which has about 30
members. And in Detroit, Marie-Ange Weng formed the
Council of Asian Pacific Americans, a coalition of organizations with about
1,000 members.
Weng helped create her group shortly after Lee was released.
Like Chang, she never considered herself a civil rights advocate.
But two summers ago, the nursing professor marched outside a
federal building in downtown Detroit at a Lee case protest she'd organized,
waving a red sign that read "Stop Racial Profiling.'
"I was hoping that by building such a coalition, in case another
event like Wen Ho Lee occurred, I would be able to reach out to
people much faster,' said Weng, 64.
Other people have joined existing national groups, such as the Organization of
Chinese Americans.
Lee, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, was suspected of
stealing what officials called the "crown jewels' of U.S. nuclear weapons
science with the intent of handing them over to
China. He was fired, then later arrested though charged with
unlawfully copying material, not spying and imprisoned.
In September 2000, he pleaded guilty to a single count of
downloading data to computer tape. He has said he made copies to protect data
from being erased.
The government dropped 58 other counts, and U.S. District Judge James Parker
apologized to Lee, saying the Justice and Energy departments had
"embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who
is a citizen of it' by the way they handled the case.
Lee's case raised the specter of a stereotype that runs throughout
Asian-American history, "of being the foreigner, not necessarily being
trusted,' Narasaki said.
"No matter how hard you work and how much you've contributed to
the community, how well you raise your children, your loyalty is still
going to be questioned just because of what you look like.'
Chang plans to mark the two- year anniversary of Lee's freedom
with an event today in San Francisco's Chinatown. Lawyers and advocates are
scheduled to speak on how Lee was "perceived as
a foreigner and therefore racially profiled and imprisoned, and how
the Muslim and Arab population have gone through the same thing'
since the Sept. 11 attacks, she said.
She'll also be soliciting more signatures to add to the 16,000 she's collected
for the petition.
The 51-year-old Chang met Lee when she was living in New Mexico more than 20
years ago. Though a friend of the family, her advocacy
work is not directed by the Lees.
Aside from a brief tour for his book, "My Country Versus Me,' Lee himself
has stayed out of the public eye. He spends his days at his
Los Alamos, N.M., home fishing, cooking, writing and looking for
another job in private industry or at a university.
Chang's activism has moved beyond the Lee case. In February,
she left her job as a high-tech marketing executive to work on civil
liberties issues full time out of her home in the San Francisco Bay
Area.
Her group, Justice for New Americans, will focus on minorities
who face discrimination because they are perceived as foreigners.
For Scarsdale, N.Y., engineer Peter Lew, the Lee case was a
political awakening. He began writing letters to the editor to protest
Lee's treatment. Now he continues to write, sending notes on issues
such as the environment and Middle East policy to President Bush
and other government officials.
"My parents always told me, 'Be humble, don't speak out,'' said
Lew. But with the Lee case, "I said, 'If I don't speak up, it's going to
happen to me.''
9/2/02 Associated
Press: "Richardson, Freeh Differ Over Info Released in Wen Ho
Lee Case,"
Albuquerque, NM -- Nearly two years
after a guilty plea freed
nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, former FBI director Louis Freeh and ex-Energy
Secretary Bill Richardson are at odds over whether Richardson's comments about
Lee hurt the government's case.
Richardson, now running for
governor, said no one told him not to release sensitive information in the case,
according to his deposition
in Lee's invasion of privacy lawsuit against the government.
But Freeh said in his deposition
that he repeatedly told Richardson
to keep quiet because disclosure of a failed polygraph and other information
could violate Lee's privacy rights and hurt the investigation.
``I told him on several occasions
before that he should not discuss
the investigation, Mr. Lee, the evidence, the course of the inquiry, etc.,
because that was prejudicial to the case and to Mr. Lee,'' Freeh said
in a deposition reviewed recently by The Associated Press.
Lee, a Taiwan-born naturalized U.S.
citizen, was fired March 8,
1999, from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Nine months later, he
was arrested and indicted on 59 felony counts alleging he transferred nuclear
weapons information to unsecured computers and tape. He
was held in solitary confinement for nine months. Lee supporters
alleged racial profiling.
The government's case later fell
apart, and Lee pleaded guilty to a single felony count of downloading sensitive
material. He was freed in September 2000 -- with a passionate apology from the
judge.
The lawsuit filed by Lee and his
wife, Sylvia, accuses federal
agencies of leaking misleading -- and sometimes classified --
information designed to convince the public that he had spied for
China.
After Lee was fired, Richardson
mentioned in several interviews
that Lee had failed a polygraph test.
In his Oct. 29 deposition, Freeh said he was ``upset about''
Richardson's talking about the failed polygraph during a March 1999 edition of
CNN's ``Crossfire.''
``I think I had another
conversation with him (Richardson). I think the attorney general had another
conversation with him,'' Freeh said.
Richardson told Lee's lawyer in May
that no one told him to stop
talking about the case, or that information he disclosed was classified.
He denied again Friday ever releasing classified information related to Lee.
Ed Curran, who was Richardson's
counterintelligence director, said Friday that he sat in on the secretary's
meetings with Freeh and never heard Freeh try to stop Richardson's comments.
``If that's the case, someone
should have told me and I would have been the first one up in Bill's office
saying, 'Hey, stop that,''' Curran said
by phone from Chittenden, Vt. ``To specifically finger Bill on this is very
unfair.''
Richardson said he told reporters
about the polygraph results and
other information because they were reasons for firing Lee and thus related to
policy rather than investigative issues.
Freeh did not return messages for
comment.
Lee lawyer Brian Sun read Richardson a Justice Department
memo suggesting that information about Lee's polygraphs and identity were
classified at the time. The memo also said evidence suggested that the
government was revealing information to the media to pressure Lee.
Richardson said he hadn't seen the
memo.
Lee's privacy lawsuit was filed in December 1999. No trial
date has been set.
8/20/02 Sacramento
Bee: "Ex-UCD scientist acquitted of
theft: He was accused of stealing vials of protein gel to take to China. The
defense called it a 'manufactured case.'"
A Yolo County jury found former UC Davis researcher Bin Han
not guilty of embezzlement Monday, three months after he was arrested and
charged with stealing 20 vials of protein gel used in university research.
The prosecution's case, which had started with allegations of
economic espionage and felony charges, dwindled to nothing as the 12-person
Superior Court jury acquitted Han of the only remaining misdemeanor charge.
The verdict brought strong applause from the courtroom full
of more than 20 Han supporters and tears to the eyes of his wife, Hongxia Wen.
It came four hours after the trial's closing arguments.
Han, who was originally jailed for 18 days without bail, said he would look for
another job, but that it would take some time for his life to return to normal.
Deputy District Attorney David Akulian said earlier that such
a verdict does not mean Han is innocent, but that he could not be proven guilty
beyond a reasonable doubt.
The prosecution dropped its charge of theft of trade secrets
in June, and a judge later reduced the embezzlement charge to a misdemeanor
because the gel was worth less than $400.
The case had provoked accusations that Han, a naturalized
U.S. citizen of Chinese origin, was a victim of ethnic discrimination. The
prosecution argued that Han intended to use the gel, found in his freezer, to
set up a company in China.
"I think that UC Davis needs to treat their people
fairly," Han said after the verdict. "Race discrimination is a big
problem for this university."
Defense attorney Stewart Katz called the prosecution a
"manufactured case" originating from an employment dispute. Han had
argued over whether he would receive premier authorship on a research paper, and
when his employment contract was later discontinued, he threatened to be a
laboratory whistleblower.
"When he made clear he didn't intend to go quietly into
the night, they -- with little regard to the truth or common sense -- threw
anything they could at him," Katz said. "This case was UC Davis versus
Bin Han."
Steve Drown, a UC Davis attorney, said in an earlier
interview that the case was in the hands of the justice system and the
university would accept the verdict. He said UC Davis is investigating Han's
complaint of employment discrimination.
"We really hope that other postdoctoral researchers
learn from Bin Han's case and will stand up for themselves," said Ivy Lee,
president of the Chinese American Political Action Committee.
During closing arguments, Katz presented an extensive
timeline of events to show that although Han took the protein gel, used in
corneal research, to his home freezer, he had no intention of using it for
profit.
Han meant to return it, Katz argued earlier, but was
distracted by other problems at work.
Katz highlighted e-mails among Han's superiors to try to show
an intent to persecute the researcher. One suggested taking away the prestigious
position of first author on an academic paper.
"I think it might be ugly -- Bin would be very, very
unhappy, and might seek a way to appeal? Or worse yet, get back at us,"
read the e-mail.
The prosecution had presented as evidence a plane ticket to
China in Han's name and a PowerPoint presentation, also with Han's name, that
proposed taking corneal research to China.
But Katz said Han simply intended to travel to visit his
ailing mother.
8/14/02 Associated
Press: "Ex-Los Alamos Scientist Wen
Ho Lee
Still Hasn't Found Job,"
Former government researcher Wen Ho Lee says he hasn't
found
a job since he was fired and prosecuted for making copies of
sensitive nuclear weapons data.
8/15/02 Sacramento
Bee: "UCD scientist didn't steal gel, defense says:
Bin Han's lawyer says he was trying to protect the material, not make a
profit,"
The lawyer for former UC Davis researcher Bin Han told a Yolo
County Superior Court jury Wednesday that Han was only protecting the vials of
protein gel he is charged with embezzling.
After the prosecution's opening statement that Han stole 20
vials of
the gel -- used in university cornea-replacement research -- and kept
them in his freezer to turn a profit later, defense attorney Stewart Katz
said Han wanted to keep them out of the Davis heat and later lost track
of them.
Han, a 40-year-old researcher with the UC Davis Medical
Center's department of ophthalmology, was arrested May 17 on charges of
theft
of trade secrets and embezzlement when police found the 20 vials at his Davis
home.
On May 7, Han picked up 40 vials from Rancho Cordova-based
Thermogenesis Corp., but only 20 vials were delivered to the medical center.
Prosecutors later dropped the theft of trade secrets charge,
and in
July a Yolo County Superior Court judge reduced the embezzlement charge to a
misdemeanor. Han could serve up to a year in jail if
convicted.
Katz said Han intended to return the other 20 vials to a
different lab.
But after eating lunch and picking up his youngest son from school, he worried
that the container in which the vials were packed was running
out of dry ice, so he took it home.
There was no hurry to bring the vials back because Han was
working
on another project, Katz said. When Han's employment contract was discontinued
on May 13, the gel was far from his mind, his lawyer said.
"If you wanted to steal the stuff and you have the keys
to the lab ...
walk out on a Sunday or a Saturday -- you don't tell everyone, 'I'm going
to take this,' " said Katz, adding that Han told co-workers he had
the
vials at his house.
Deputy District Attorney David Akulian said the researcher
was planning to use the vials and his experience to bring UC Davis'
cornea-replacement technology to China.
He highlighted a PowerPoint presentation, reportedly found
on
Han's computer, that was titled with Han's name and Northern
American Biotech Inc., a company that on other court documents is
linked to Han's home address.
The presentation details corneal and other stem-cell research
and
its potential for profit, ending with the statement, "NABT is very glad to
supply the technique in China to treat the patients and to serve the
public."
More than 30 protesters from Asian advocacy organizations and
a
UC Davis professional and technical union marched in front of the courthouse
Tuesday to condemn what they see as a case persecuting Han, a naturalized U.S.
citizen, for being Chinese.
The issue arose in Wednesday's testimony when UC Davis
Police
Lt. Matt Carmichael explained why police reported "eyeballs" found in
Han's freezer in addition to the vials.
Carmichael said he found what appeared to be meatballs but,
in a "late-night joke," said they were eyeballs, which accidentally
ended up
in a report.
"Are we savages?" exclaimed Ivy Lee, president of
the Chinese American Political Action Committee, during a trial recess.
The
eyeball reference also angered several other committee members attending the
trial.
UC Davis attorney Steve Drown said the university follows
anti-discrimination policies and is "terribly sensitive to these
issues."
Judge Charles Van Court estimated the trial will last
until
Wednesday.
8/5/02 Associated
Press: "In Biotech Espionage Prosecutions, Echoes
of Wen Ho Lee?"
Former University of California eye researcher Bin Han is one
of four Asian-born scientists working in U.S. labs who has been jailed in recent
weeks, accused of stealing valuable research material.
UC Davis officials said 20
vials of a biological ``glue'' used in stem
cell experiments found in Hans freezer were worth $1 billion in the
right hands. They told police they feared Han was planning to return to
his native China and launch a biotechnology company with the school's property.
When police also found Han
had a plane ticket to China,
investigators decided it all added up to economic espionage.
So Han was arrested and charged with three felonies that
could
have sent him to prison for 25 years. He was held without bail in
solitary confinement for 18 days.
But today, Han is out of
jail and the felony charges have been
dropped. Han is scheduled to go trial Aug. 13 on a single
misdemeanor theft charge, the legal equivalent of shoplifting.
As it turned out, Han had
innocent explanations for most of his
actions.
He said he stored the vials in his freezer because he didn't
have
time to drop them off on campus the day he picked them up from a Sacramento
biotechnology company. He said he was fired before he could take the vials to
the lab.
The ticket to China turned
out to be round-trip, for a long-planned journey to visit his parents. He said
he was leaving his family behind
in the Davis home they own.
The Yolo County District
Attorney's office, which is prosecuting Han, didn't return telephone calls. UC
Davis officials say race had nothing
to do with Han's case and still maintain he stole school property.
Separately, federal
prosecutors in Boston have agreed to delay an economic espionage case against
former Harvard Medical School scientists Kayoko Kimbara and Jiangyu Zhu as a
potential plea
bargain on lesser crimes is negotiated.
One possible sticking
point for prosecutors is the fact that two, who were arrested in June, are
accused of stealing genes they themselves discovered. Their defenders say it's
common for such post-doctoral scientists to take their work with them when they
change jobs.
Kimbara, of Japan, and the
China-born Zhu are accused of sending
the genes to a Japanese biotechnology company. They signed routine agreements
that gave Harvard ownership to any discoveries they made while working there.
They contend they meant only to further their
research and never intended to profit from it.
A spokeswoman for the U.S.
Attorney's office in Boston declined to comment on the case.
That prosecution followed one from the Cleveland Clinic in
which economic espionage charges were dropped against Alzheimer's researcher
Hiroaki Serizawa in exchange for his admission that he lied
to the FBI to cover up for Takashi Okamoto, a fellow Japanese scientist now in
his homeland resisting U.S. extradition attempts.
Okamoto is accused of
stealing and destroying vials of genetic material key to Alzheimer's disease
research from the Cleveland Clinic and taking them with him to Riken, a Japanese
government-sponsored research facility.
The alleged theft and
destruction of genetic materials led to the termination of the clinic's
Alzheimer's studies.
7/17/02 Sacramento Bee:
"Shrinking case: UC researcher charge now
a misdemeanor,"
Woodland, CA - On Tuesday, the case against former UC Davis
researcher Bin Han shrank when a Yolo Superior Court judge Thomas Warriner ruled
that the embezzlement charge against Han is -- if proved -- only a misdemeanor.
The vials of the protein gel that Han is accused of stealing
from UC Davis -- though they hold the potential to be the key ingredient in
valuable research -- are themselves worth less than $400, the threshold for
felony theft, the judge ruled Tuesday.
Han had earlier faced a felony charge of theft of trade
secrets that was
dropped by prosecutors. Police initially speculated that Han had plans for the
gels after his lab co-workers told investigators Han had ordered scientific
materials sent to a business at his home address and paid for supplies with his
own credit card.
Han was arrested in May by UC Davis police after officials
searched his home and found 20 vials of protein gel, as well as data related to
his university research and a plane ticket to China in Han's name.
Police searched the researcher's Davis home after co-workers
told officials they believed Han had ordered scientific materials and had
them sent to a business at his residence.
Co-workers made the accusation days after Han, a staff
researcher in the ophthalmology department of the UC Davis Medical Center, was
told his research grant would not be renewed at the university.
Supporters of Han claim university officials singled out the
researcher for retaliation because he questioned why he didn't receive top
billing on an important scientific paper. They also claim he was about to blow
the whistle on officials for allegedly unapproved lab practices.
Han's backers also believe the naturalized citizen is being
targeted
because of his ethnic background.
"The only thing Bin Han is guilty of is being
Chinese," said Pilar
Barton, a field representative for the University Professional and Technical
Employees Union, which represents Han.
About 50 supporters of Han rallied in front of the Yolo
County courthouse in Woodland on Tuesday before the researcher's preliminary
hearing.
During the two-hour hearing, co-workers of Han testified that
on
May 7, Han picked up the vials of protein gel from Thermogenesis Corp., a Rancho
Cordova company that synthesizes blood products. Han was supposed to deliver 40
of the vials to the UC Davis laboratory, but only
20 made it to the lab. Police found the other 20 in Han's freezer.
Co-workers also testified that Han was told May 13 that his
grant
would not be renewed and he must return all university property,
including his lab keys. Han still had the vials when police searched his home
May 17.
Since 1989, Han has worked in various research capacities at
the
university. Most recently he has worked in the lab of Dr. Ivan Schwab, a
professor who specializes in disorders of the cornea. Schwab told The Bee in an
earlier interview that he and his colleagues are experimenting with making a new
ocular surface for people whose corneas have been damaged.
The protein gels found in Han's freezer were an integral tool
in that process. They would be of no value to anyone who didn't know how
to
use them, Schwab added.
Trista Madsen, director of clinical affairs for Thermogenesis,
said the
protein gels used by Han and his colleagues were given to the university at no
cost. The gels have not received Food and Drug Administration approval for sale
in the United States. She estimated that they cost the company about $5,000 to
make, but the plasma itself from which the
gels are made was purchased for about $125 from a blood bank.
Han is scheduled to appear in court July 22 for a pretrial
hearing on
the misdemeanor charge of embezzlement. If convicted, he could face a year in
jail.
Han's attorney, Stewart Katz, called the ruling a victory. He
said Han also would contest his termination by the university.
Han's supporters likened his case to that of Wen Ho Lee,
the
Chinese American scientist accused of espionage in 1999. The government claimed
Lee sent nuclear technology secrets to China. But dozens of those charges were
dropped against Lee before he went to trial. The lab where Lee's alleged
espionage took place was the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is run by the
University of California.
Speaking at Tuesday's rally, Cecelia Chan, executive director
of the Wen Ho Lee advocacy group, WenHoLee.org, called for prosecutors to drop
all charges against Han.
"Any one of us can suffer from the same kind of
discrimination," she said.
7/15/02 Associated
Press: "Wen Ho Lee Supporters Gather 15,000 Signatures Seeking
Pardon,"
Albuquerque, NM -- Supporters of former Los Alamos
scientist
Wen Ho Lee have gathered 15,000 signatures seeking a presidential
pardon they hope will clear his name.
Lee, who was prosecuted for making copies of sensitive
nuclear weapons data, pleaded guilty to a single count of downloading data to
computer tape at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has said he
made copies to protect data from being erased.
Lee was held in solitary confinement for nine months, though
never charged with spying. He was sentenced to time served.
The petition was sent to President Bush on July 2 on behalf
of Lee
and was to be sent Friday to the Justice Department, said Cecilia
Chang of Fremont, Calif., who launched the petition drive.
A telephone message left for the White House Thursday seeking
comment was not returned.
Almost 10,000 signatures were gathered in the last few days
of
June, and organizers hope to have 30,000 by Labor Day, Chang said.
The letter to Bush said Lee was held unnecessarily without
bail and
had to plead guilty to get out of jail. The petition said the case
``stands
as an example of a miscarriage of justice that should be remedied.''
Lee was arrested in December 1999 and indicted on 59
felony
counts alleging he transferred nuclear weapons information to
unsecure computers and tape.
As the government's case crumbled, Lee was set free in
September 2000 after pleading to the lone felony count.
The Lee investigation caused nearly two years of controversy
over
the alleged loss of nuclear secrets to China and lax security at the
Energy Department's nuclear weapons laboratories.
7/15/02 San Francisco
Chronicle:
"Chinese community crusader: Wen Ho Lee case her call to action,"
For nearly two years, Cecilia
Chang, who grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the United States in 1969, has been
on a personal crusade to win a presidential pardon for her friend Wen Ho Lee.
15,000 people
have signed her petition.
The Taiwanese-born Lee is the Los Alamos, N.M., scientist
fired in 1999 and then held for nine months in solitary confinement amid
suspicion that he passed nuclear weapons design information to China.
Although Lee was never charged with espionage, he was held
for downloading secret files from the lab's secure computers and
transferring them to computer tapes. He was freed in September 2000 after
pleading guilty to a single felony count of mishandling security information.
On July 2, Chang sent the petition to Washington, asking
President Bush to clear Lee's name.
Chang, 52, has pursued the case beyond the bounds of her
friendship with the Lee family, which does not want a presidential apology.
Chang has her reasons.
"They are so timid that I can't wait for them to
agree," said Chang,
who moved to Fremont in 1996 and serves on the city's human relations
commission. "I've done things sometimes without their approval."
The case against Lee hit Chang hard, too. Her husband, Dan,
worked at the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque at the time, as a
scientist, and she'd worked there as well, as a technician.
But that wasn't it.
"I never really thought about what it meant to be a
citizen of this
country until I saw my friend's face plastered on the cover of every paper
in the country," said Cecilia Chang. "Is this how people really view
us?"
Things also deteriorated at work for Dan Chang, who took
early retirement within six months after Lee's arrest. After 20 years on the
job, colleagues sometimes questioned whether he should be attending sensitive
meetings.
"I felt the wound very deeply because it's my commitment
to my
country they are doubting, and that really hurts me," said Cecilia Chang.
Lee's treatment at the hands of federal authorities left her
little to
be optimistic about. The FBI investigation proved nothing and stripped Lee of
everything: his job, his name and his pride.
Upon his release from prison, Judge Parker apologized to Lee.
"I feel I was led astray by the executive branch of our government through
its department of Justice, by its Federal Bureau of Investigation and by
the United States attorney for the District of New Mexico," Parker said.
Parker's letter isn't enough for Chang, who believes that
admitting to even one of the charges is too much for an innocent man to bear.
She has asked for the support of congressional leaders and
received warm if cautious responses. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, accepted
the petition in his Washington offices and has promised to deliver it to
the president's office. Honda is expected to deliver the petition to the White
House later this week.
"His case is an embarrassment to our judicial and
political system," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Atherton. "He deserves an
apology from the federal government and to have this stricken from the
record."
Eshoo wouldn't sign a support letter without the support of
the Lee family, she said.
Many of the signatories are first-generation immigrants who
saw what
happened to their neighbors, friends and relatives who spoke out
against the Chinese regime.
And issuing a pardon to Lee, a power usually exercised at the
end of
a presidential term, wouldn't be out of the question considering others who've
been spared in past years.
President Bill Clinton issued at least a half-dozen pardons,
including that of ex-CIA chief John Deutsch, who was accused of mishandling
secret information, the same charge leveled against Lee.
Most of Clinton's pardons were issued to people who had
actually
done something illegal. It was never proved that Lee did.
But for Chang, having the freedom to set up a Web site, www.wenholee.org,
lobby Congress and raise the roof to demand Lee's
release underscores one of the nation's greatest rights.
"Do you know where I'd be had I tried to wage a campaign
like this in
China?" Chang asked. "I'd probably be in jail right now."
6/4/02 Daily
Cal: "Fueled by New Reports,
Boycott of National
Weapons Labs Continues: Study Reveals Possible Discrimination, Racial Profiling:
UC Berkeley professor Ling-chi Wang is leading the boycott against Los Alamos,
Lawrence Livermore and Sandia
National Laboratories."
Amid new reports of possible discrimination at Lawrence
Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories, a UC Berkeley professor
vowed yesterday that the Asian American boycott of the national
weapons labs will continue.
UC Berkeley Asian American
Studies Department Chair and
boycott leader Ling-chi Wang said a report released May 21 provides further
proof of discrimination and racial profiling at the nation's
weapons labs.
"The report confirms everything I have been telling the
labs," Wang said. Produced by the U.S. General Accounting Office, the
report documents "statistically significant" differences in both pay
and
promotion rates between white males and minorities and women.
The study found the promotion rate for minority men and all
women generally was 80% that of white men. Also, when comparing men and women of
the same ethnicity, the General Accounting Office found Caucasian, Asian and
Hispanic women earned less than men in the same positions.
Officials at Livermore lab disagreed with the report,
however. "If we look at our totals across the board for promotion
opportunities, we
come up with much different numbers," said lab spokesperson Lynda Seaver.
The U.S. Department of Energy, which oversees the labs, also
disagreed with the report's findings. "The numbers they used were
inaccurate," said Department of Energy spokesperson Lisa
Cutler.
But Cutler said the department did agree with the "broader point"
that
the labs needed to do more to increase diversity.
Allegations of discrimination at the labs began in 1999 when
the
federal government arrested Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee and charged him with
espionage. The government later released and then exonerated Lee, a Taiwan-born
American citizen.
Lee's allegedly unjust treatment prompted Wang to launch a
boycott
in 2000 that called on Asian American scientists to not seek
employment with Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia
National Laboratories. He said he will not call off the boycott until the
labs produce an "accountable plan" to deal with the alleged problem.
He also said the issues raised by the report must be addressed.
Wang sent a letter to Rep. David Wu, D-Portland,
yesterday
supporting Wu's efforts to increase diversity in the labs. Wu requested
the employment study and has called for investigative hearings before
the House Science Committee, of which he is a member.
Wu has also made allegations of discrimination at the
laboratories.
"It's not only an issue of fairness, it's important to our country
(for
national security) that our weapons labs can recruit the best and
brightest," said Wu's spokesperson Jennifer Hellburn.
Hellburn said U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham has
been responsive to calls for improving diversity, but the lab management has
resisted change. Of the three labs, Livermore lab has been the most resistant,
Hellburn said. "It's ironic because the Bay Area is one of the most diverse
areas, but Livermore has the worst track record," she
said.
But Livermore lab has made progress, Seaver said. "In
the early
1990s our numbers (weren't) as they could have been, but we have
been working to get those numbers up," she said.
Wang is continuing to work with the labs to make changes
and
"assist in the recruitment, retention and promotion of Asian American
and other minority and women employees."
5/22/02 San Francisco
Chronicle: "Congressional report hints at bias at weapon labs,"
A congressional report
released Tuesday found racial and sexual disparities in employment at the
nation's premier weapons laboratories, including the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in Alameda County, California.
Auditors with the watchdog
General Accounting Office looked at employment data from 1995 to 2000 regarding
22,000 employees at
Los Alamos, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories.
They found statistically significant differences in the way Asian Americans,
women, African Americans and Latinos fared versus white men.
Salaries for minorities
and white women at the labs, operated by the Department of Energy, were
generally lower than for white males. White males also held 64% of managerial
and professional jobs, while they represented just 54% of the workforce.
"Our findings . . .
do not prove or disprove discrimination," concluded the report, but
"they do, however, raise questions about the reasons for these statistical
differences." Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas,
said the report "paints a disturbing picture of inconsistency in the way
minorities and women are treated in certain personnel actions."
Johnson and Rep. David Wu,
D-Ore., asked for the study in October 2000, in the wake of the Wen Ho Lee case.
Lee, a naturalized citizen originally from Taiwan, was working as a scientist at
Los Alamos when
he was accused of spying.
Such charges were never
proved, and he later pleaded guilty to one count of mishandling classified data.
Susan Houghton, a
spokeswoman for Lawrence Livermore, said the laboratory disputed the way
auditors interpreted some employment statistics. For example, she said, while
the study found that the lab promoted just one Asian American manager, the
laboratory's data showed that 41 Asian American employees were promoted.
"To suggest that the
GAO statistics are a reflection of what's really going on in the lab is
inaccurate," Houghton said.
However, Houghton said,
the lab is trying to improve its record and
has expanded leadership and training opportunities for minorities and women.
"Since the Wen Ho Lee
issue surfaced, we have really tried to listen
to our minority communities," she said. "Things don't change
overnight. We recognize that. Have we made significant gains? You bet."
Among the other findings
in the report was that the proportion of the work force drawn from minority
populations varied among the labs. Just 19% of Lawrence Livermore staff members
in 2000 were from minority groups, compared with 27% at Sandia and 34% at Los
Alamos.
Each lab saw about the
same increase in minority employees from 1995 to 2000: 1%.
The Department of Energy's
three weapons laboratories have been under fire for their hiring and promotion
practices before.
In early 2000, two Asian
American academic groups began urging Asian American scientists to boycott the
labs by not applying for jobs there. The labs have since moved to change their
hiring and promotion practices.
At Lawrence Livermore, two
separate class action lawsuits were filed on behalf of women and Asian American
employees alleging job and wage discrimination.
Wu, chairman of the
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said the statistics were not
absolute proof of discrimination, but he said they indicated potentially deep
problems when combined with
employees' anecdotal reports.
He cited the findings of
an Energy Department survey that asked employees if problems existed with racial
profiling, stereotyping and
other disparities at the labs. Some 26% of whites said there were problems,
versus 62% of Latinos, 74% of Asian Americans and 80% of African Americans who
said there were. . A copy of the report, "DOE Weapons Laboratories: Actions
Needed to Strengthen EEO Oversight" (GAO-02-391), can be found online at www.gao.gov.
4/19/02 AsianWeek.com
"Taiwanese American
on Trial for
Suspected Espionage: Family Says It Is Entrapment,"
This week a Taiwanese-born
American citizen is being tried on
federal charges of attempting to export military encryption devices to
China.
Eugene You-Tsai Hsu, an
international businessman based in Blue
Springs, Mo., faces federal charges stemming from inquiries he made last May
into purchasing two encryption units. He was arrested in
August of 2001, after a four-month-long investigation by customs
agents, but then later released.
According to documents
released by U.S. Customs officials at the
time he was arrested, Hsu was attempting to buy the devices to export them
to Singapore en route to China. The documents say Hsu was repeatedly warned
the sale was illegal.
His family says Hsu was
just making business inquiries for overseas acquaintances, and that the case
smacks of entrapment and racial
bias. Employees of the company Hsu contacted regarding the
encryption devices have
testified that Hsus race was not a factor in
their decision to refer him to the federal government.
Hsu stands trial with
David Yang, who Customs officials said owned
a freight company in Compton, Calif., that would ship the units. A third man, Charlson Ho, who lives in Singapore, was allegedly arranging the sale for
Singapore-based company Wei Soon Loong Pte. Ltd.
Hsus family says the
case frames a man whose queries were no different than the any other
international business calls. Hsus son, Michael, believes his father was
the victim of racial discrimination because he speaks with what could be
considered a thick Asian
accent.
"He was the target of
an undercover sting because he had an
Asian-sounding voice when he called this company," said Richard
Gordin, Hsus attorney.
Gordin said the government has turned over a record of four people who made
inquiries with the company who were referred to customs agents for
suspicious conduct. All had Asian-sounding surnames. The company has denied
in court
testimony that race was a factor the decision to refer Hsu to the
federal government.
Business Inquiries
The case against Hsu began
on May 1, 2001, when Hsu contacted
Mykotronx Inc., based in Maryland, for information on the devices,
known as KIV-7HS.
Mykotronxs parent company, Rainbow
Technologies Inc., has regional
offices around the globe, including
Taiwan and China. Steven Aftergood, the
director of the FAS Project
on Government Secrecy, said the KIV-7HS is six
inches by eight
inches and weighs three pounds. The unit sells for $3,355.
But though
the unit is small, he said it handles heavy-duty government
work. Aftergood said the units guard highly classified information, and are
only to be used by the government and its contractors. "This is what
the
government uses when it wants to protect top-secret information," Aftergood
said. "The whole KIV family is only available
to authorized government
contractors."
The day after Hsu called
Mykotronx, he was referred to a man who posed as an intermediary for the
company. The man said his name
was Dan Stevenson and that he worked for a
company by the name of Stellar International. He was actually an undercover customs agent. For four months the
agent taped conversations with Hsu and the other men involved with the case.
While the government
alleges that the agent made it clear that the
deal they were arranging was
illegal, Hsus attorney said his client did
not understand the
implications of the deal. "The agent posed as a fast-talking
salesman," Gordin said. "I think that it is clear from the
tape
[of their conversations] that Mr. Hsu isnt following what he was
saying."
Chinese American Equals
Spy
Hsu is being charged with
conspiracy and attempt to violate the Arms
Export Control Act, two charges which carry a maximum sentence of 10
years in prison and a $1 million dollar fine. The U.S. Customs office and U.S.
Attorneys office would not comment on a case currently being
tried. The Rainbow
Technologies website, Hsus first resource as he sought information about
the product, carries information on both government and commercial security
systems. The KIV-7HS is not
clearly labeled on the site as classified material.
The companys site is currently advertising a convention for KIV-7 users,
which will take place next year. The only indication it gives that some of
the information may
be classified is a mention of government-only sessions.
Another company that sells
the same units, Titan Systems, lists the KIV-7HS as a "controlled
cryptographic item" only to be sold to
authorized government agencies. Other sites and sources are not as clear in
their labeling of the product.
But the units are
considered so top secret that information about
them is not common knowledge in
the encryption industry, Aftergood
said. "Because the KIV device is
not in general use, even people who know cryptography may not be familiar
with it," Aftergood said.
Hsu has no criminal
record, and no ties to China. His wife, Nancy,
and his two sons live and
work in the United States. Micheal Hsu
believes the case is similar to that
of scientist Wen Ho Lee, who was accused of spying for the Chinese
government. Most of the charges against Lee were ultimately dropped.
Professor Ling-Chi Wang,
the head of the Asian American Studies
Department at UC Berkeley, said the Cox report - the government
report that was
relied upon heavily in the Wen Ho Lee case - cast a
pale of suspicion upon
all Chinese Americans. "The Cox report alleged that the Chinese government
used Chinese American scientists working in these labs to steal secrets and
information," Wang said. "Immediately being Chinese American became
synonymous with espionage and treason."
Lester Lee, the president
of Recortec, an industrial computer manufacturer in the Silicon Valley,
pointed out these types of cases
force Asian Pacific Americans to be very
careful in the way they handle potentially sensitive technology. "The
encryption devices have different levels, and that takes an expert to
decide on the degree of importance,
be it commercial or military; when you talk about this type of thing,
its
very difficult to come to a black and white judgement," he
said. "You
have to protect yourself as much as you can."
3/27/02 San Francisco Chronicle:
"Ling-chi Wang Activist fights for
Asian Americans at U.S. labs Berkeley professor leads boycott
aimed at alleged inequities,"
The 63-year- old
coordinator of the Asian American studies
program at the University of California at Berkeley has been called
the "Asian Martin Luther King" for his four decades of activism.
Now
he appears to be on the brink of winning his toughest challenge yet -- improving
the lot of Asian American scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories
and the nation's other weapons research
facilities.
Wang is no stranger to big
causes. He successfully fought for
bilingual education in San Francisco in the '70s, the establishment of
an ethnic studies department at UC Berkeley in the early '90s and
revised height requirements for San Francisco police and firefighters. Two years
ago, in the wake of the Wen Ho Lee spy case, Wang and
an Asian American academic organization instituted a boycott of the
two labs run by the University of California, in Livermore and Los
Alamos, N.M.
Lee, a Los Alamos weapons
scientist, was accused of leaking
codes to the Chinese and mishandling data. He pleaded guilty two
years ago to one count in a case that made international headlines
and prompted Energy Department scientists to charge that
authorities were engaging in racial profiling.
Wang has urged top Asian
American scientists not to apply for positions at the lab until progress is made
toward wiping out what he describes as hiring, promotion and pay inequities.
"The short answer
is, no, the boycott is not over yet," Wang said this week. "But I
have
been in active negotiations, and we're coming close. The labs need
to be held accountable for everything from promotion to racial
profiling on security issues."
'NOT AFRAID TO FIGHT'
Lab officials at Los
Alamos and Livermore confirmed that an agreement addressing Asian American
scientists and other minority groups has been drafted and sent to the Energy
Department in Washington for review. But Wang says he will continue to keep the
pressure on the labs until the agreement is approved. In addition,
300 Asian American lab employees at Livermore say they will move ahead
with a class-action discrimination suit.
Wang moved to San
Francisco in 1969, shortly after he founded
the Chinese for Affirmative Action civil rights group.
In 1996, he angered some
liberal Asian Americans by speaking
out against President Bill Clinton and fund-raiser John Huang in the Democratic
Party fund-raising scandal. In 1984, he received death
threats from people in Taiwan for chairing the Committee to Obtain Justice for
Henry Liu, a Daly City journalist killed by gangs linked to
the Taiwanese government. He has also drawn rebuke from San
Francisco's Asian community for trying to prod it to, in Wang's words,
"not remain huddled together by themselves." "One time, in the
'60s
and '70s, when integration of schools was the big issue, I almost got lynched in
Chinatown by Chinese Americans for supporting
integration," Wang said, laughing. "They were going after me at the
school board meeting. And later, when I escorted the (school) superintendent
through Chinatown, they chased us away, and when
we hopped into the car, they surrounded us and started jumping on
the car. It was scary." But he didn't back down. "I just do what
needs
to be done," he said.
That is what led Wang to organizing Asian American scientists
at UC-run labs. He sees the Lee case, and the lack of upper-level Asian American
supervisors at Livermore and Los Alamos, as consistent
with the way his people have been treated in the United States since
the Gold Rush.
'PERPETUAL ALIENS'
"We are the perpetual
aliens, seen as foreigners, even if you're a
sixth- generation Asian American," Wang said. "If there wasn't a
protest here at Livermore, there would be many more Wen Ho Lees. Some Asian
Americans say I shouldn't have started a boycott,
because they feared a backlash against Asians. But why shouldn't
Asian Americans stand up for equal rights, equal protection and due process like
anyone else?"
In the past year, C.K.
Chou has been promoted to an associate director's position at the Livermore lab,
the highest position ever for
an Asian American. But an Energy Department ombudsman at
Livermore lab, Jeremy Wu, recently left for a position with the
Department of Transportation. He has yet to be replaced. "It's been
hard," Wang said. "And we won't stop until the labs actually
implement comprehensive plans to deal with racial profiling and promotion. We
don't want them to go back to business as usual."
3/19/02 Associated
Press: "Asian-American Scientists End Two-Year Lab Job Boycott,
LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) -- After two years of urging
Asian-American
scientists to pass up jobs at nuclear weapons labs, the Berkeley professor who
organized the boycott says he's proven his point.
``I am committed not only to ending this boycott, but also to
becoming
actively involved in recruiting Asian-Americans to these labs,'' Ling-chi
Wang said.
Officials at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national
laboratories agree a negotiated deal is near.
Wang, a longtime activist, is still waiting for a written
plan that would
address issues of promotion, disparity in pay and a workplace culture that
sometimes leaves Asian-American employees feeling left out.
``As long as that type of discrimination exists, there's no
reason an
Asian-American scientist would want to go in there and work in these
Department of Energy labs,'' he said.
Wang, the head of the ethnic-studies program at the
University of
California-Berkeley, initiated the boycott at a conference of Asian-Pacific
Americans in Higher Education in Long Beach in March 2000. He persuaded the
organization to pass a resolution calling for ``all Asian-American scientists
and engineers not to apply for jobs at the national labs.''
The resolution came at a vulnerable time for the labs. As a
result of the
Wen Ho Lee case, Los Alamos and Livermore had already seen a drastic drop in the
number of Asians, both U.S. citizens and foreigners, applying for assignments at
the labs. The effects of the boycott were magnified by the booming Internet
economy, which offered ample opportunity for jobs
elsewhere.
Lab managers and Department of Energy officials felt the
sting. They have been politely asking Wang to call off the boycott ever since.
But recent months have seen a number of management promotions
for Asian Americans. At Livermore, C.K. Chou, the associate director of the
Energy and Environment Directorate, is now the highest-ranking Asian in the
history of the lab.
``I understand their feelings,'' he said of the boycott
advocates. ``But I
believe that boycott is not the answer to the problem.''
A series of studies, lunch meetings, a survey and a recent
three-day
off-site conference of senior management have all dealt with ethnic issues, Chou
said.
Wang makes no apologies for initiating the boycott.
``As professors, we feel obligated to inform people about
what's going on in those labs.''
2/19/02 Associated
Press: "Judge Dismisses Defamation Case
Against Wen Ho Lee,"
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A
federal judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit against former Los Alamos
scientist Wen Ho Lee after government attorneys warned that national security
could be compromised if the case went to trial.
Notra Trulock, the Energy
Department's former security chief, sued Lee and two government investigators.
Trulock claimed they damaged his reputation by claiming that he singled out Lee
because of his ethnicity as the prime suspect behind a series of security
breaches at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Lee, a Taiwanese-born
naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested in December 1999 on suspicion of spying
for China and indicted on 59 felony counts alleging he transferred nuclear
weapons information to portable computer tapes.
Although Lee denied giving
information to China and never was charged with spying, he was held in solitary
confinement for nine months. As the government's case crumbled, Lee pleaded
guilty to a felony count of downloading sensitive material and was set
free.
2/6/02 Associated
Press: "Los Alamos Director Defends
Firing Lee, Hopes To Restore Image"
The director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory said last
Thursday that the firing of scientist Wen Ho Lee was just and he would make the
same decision today because of the severity of Lee's mishandling of classified
information.
`They were the most serious violations of security I've seen
in 30
years,'' said John C. Browne, director of the nuclear laboratory.
Browne said Lee downloaded 400,000 pages of classified
information to his computer -- enough to make a pile that would be 13 stories
tall. ``That's a lot of classified information,'' he said.
In his recent book, My Country Versus Me, Lee wrote that he
was trying to back up important files, most of which were unclassified, to
protect him
from a computer failure. Three earlier failures had wiped out files, he
said. Lee said others at the lab did the same thing.
``I knew I had committed a security infraction for making my
tapes. I
deserved to be punished for it,'' he wrote. ``But before me, no one was
ever fired for this.''
Browne took issue with Lee's assertion that other scientists
kept
sensitive material on their computers.
``Well, that's not true. We looked and we did not find any
evidence of
anyone else doing anything else similar to what Dr. Lee did,'' he said.
Lee was held in solitary confinement for nine months and
indicted on 59
felony counts alleging he transferred nuclear weapons information to
portable computer tapes. He was never charged with spying and denied
giving information to China.
As the government's case crumbled, Lee pleaded guilty in
September 2000 to a single felony count of downloading sensitive material. The
judge in the case apologized to Lee and then-President Clinton said his
imprisonment ``just can't be justified.''
The high-profile Lee case, and the FBI and Energy
Department's botched investigation, were damaging to the lab, Browne said.
Morale was a problem and young scientists didn't want to work there.
He said that has changed, and that since the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks
more young scientists want to be part of the labs and their newly
refocused efforts to improve national security.
The labs have played an important role since the terrorist
attacks, he
said.
For example, the DNA analysis of anthrax mailed to media and
political
figures was done at the Los Alamos lab and Northern Arizona University.
Browne said it was made possible by earlier research done at
the national labs.
Now he said the lab is focusing on finding ways to stop
global terrorism,
detect weapons of mass destruction moving across U.S. borders, and sensors to
detect potential chemical or biological assaults.
The more prominent national security focus will need to be
met with more money, he said. While spending on the physical sciences has
increased, he said it needs to continue to increase for the next decade.
For the coming year, Browne said he is expecting President
Bush to
recommend a $120 million spending increase to the lab's $1.5 billion
budget.
1/21/02 Associated
Press: "Wen Ho Lee Criticizes Federal Government,"
San
Francisco (AP) -- Being singled out as an espionage suspect may have damaged
Wen Ho Lee's career and reputation but not his sense of satire.
Promoting his memoir, ``My
Country Versus Me,'' and trying to rebuild his public image, Lee used humor
Friday to strike back at the government that prosecuted him.
He remembers 10 FBI agents
trailing him to a New Mexico fishing hole
that charged $10 admission and made $100 on all the agents.
``When I went there, this
guy was very happy,'' he said. ``He asked if I could come back tomorrow.''
Lee, 62, spoke briefly and
answered questions with co-author Helen Zia at the World Affairs Council of
northern California to a crowd of 180.
The Taiwanese-born
naturalized citizen was arrested in December 1999 and indicted on 59 felony
counts alleging he transferred nuclear weapons information to unsecured
computers and tape. He was held in solitary confinement for nine months. He
was never charged with spying and swore he never passed any secrets to
anyone.
U.S. District Judge James
Parker in Albuquerque apologized to Lee upon his Sept. 13, 2000, release.
Lee pleaded guilty to one count of downloading restricted material to tape
and was released.
Lee said he downloaded the
material because his earlier work had been lost on three occasions at the
national lab during computer upgrades.
``I decided to copy my
work and data onto one tape,'' he said. ``I'm a cautious person.''
He said jail conditions
were harsh, that he was denied TV, newspapers, daylight, the ability to
exercise and was not offered warm clothing or personal hygiene products
during his first month in custody.
``They wanted me to be as
miserable as possible,'' he said of the FBI.
Zia said the pretrial
imprisonment was designed to get a confession from Lee.
``These are the worst
conditions a federal prisoner can be subjected to,'' Zia said.
She presents Lee as an
innocent person ``caught in the eye of a hurricane'' and said the book is a
``cautionary tale for all Americans that shows racial profiling does not
work.''
Lee said he has had a
difficult time getting a job. He sent his resume to several universities
but received no offers to teach. He said he fills his time fly fishing,
exercising and doing scientific research on his own.
Lee joked he would like to
move to San Francisco if housing prices drop and indicated he was grateful
for support from the Asian American community, a large segment in San
Francisco.
When answering a written
audience question about what was learned from his experience, he said he
did not know whether the FBI learned anything -- but that he did.
``I do know if the FBI
knocks on your door, you should tell them to go away, to talk to your
lawyer,'' he said.
1/18/02 Associated
Press: "Wen Ho Lee Begins Book Tour,"
About 200 people lined up at a Santa Fe bookstore to purchase
``My Country Versus Me,'' a new memoir written by former Los Alamos
scientist Wen Ho Lee.
Retired scientists and co-workers from the Los Alamos
National Laboratory,
Lee's daughter's fifth-grade teacher and even his former jailer were among
those who showed up at Borders bookstore Tuesday.
In the book published by Hyperion, Lee describes himself as a
loyal
``Cold Warrior'' for the United States, yet says the FBI threatened him with
execution if he did not confess to giving nuclear secrets to China.
10/14/01 Associated Press: "Unsealed Documents
Show Wen Ho Lee Among Ethnic Chinese Targeted in Probe,"
Wen Ho Lee was among a dozen Los Alamos National Laboratory
employees, many of them ethnic Chinese, who were investigated on allegations
they mishandled classified nuclear weapons research, his defense attorneys said
in recently unsealed court documents.
Lee's attorneys questioned
why those employees were singled out when more than 500 people who had access to
the same data were not investigated, according to documents released last week.
The government has denied
engaging in racial profiling. Prosecutors also said only half of the dozen
employees investigated were ethnic Chinese, the documents said.
The unsealed documents
detail defense attorneys' arguments that Lee -- a Taiwanese-born naturalized
citizen imprisoned for nine months on charges of breaching national security --
was a victim of racial profiling.
Lee was freed in September
2000 after pleading guilty to one count of using an unsecured computer to
download a defense document. The government dropped 58 other counts.
U.S. District Judge James
Parker unsealed 20 of 22 documents in the case last week. The papers, many
partially censored, were made public Friday after a government security review.
San Francisco-based
Chinese for Affirmative Action and other civil rights groups requested the
documents be unsealed so they could look for evidence of racial profiling
against Lee.
The group is still
reviewing the documents for ``information that would allow us to identify any
policies that were in place or are continuing and to determine any impact on
Asian-Americans,'' director Diane Chin said Thursday.
She said the documents
have provided a ``good road map'' for pursuing more precise information from the
federal government through several Freedom of Information requests the group has
filed.
Days before Lee's case was
settled, prosecutors had been ordered to produce more documents that could have
shed light on whether the government engaged in racial profiling. That
information was never produced because the case was settled.
The investigation that
eventually led to Lee's arrest was triggered by fears that China had gotten
access to secrets regarding America's prized W-88 nuclear warhead.
Lee's attorneys detailed
four incidents in the late 1990s which they said showed other lab employees
mishandled secret information.
``To our knowledge, none
of the employees is ethnic Chinese, and none has been prosecuted,'' they said in
the court documents.
One incident was censored.
The others were:
--An employee who
unintentionally saved information on 1998 annual certification reports for
safeguarding nuclear weapons programs, including the W-88, for several months on
an unclassified hard drive. The employee was suspended for 90 days without pay.
``We understand the
document to be one of the most sensitive maintained at (the lab),'' defense
attorneys said in the documents.
--An employee who kept
classified data on an insecure interoffice computer network for 15 days. The
information was penetrated by Moscow, and could have been accessed via the
Internet. When security officials tried to confiscate her computer, she
allegedly tried to remove two floppy disks and only ``reluctantly'' turned them
over, said an FBI report included in the documents. The documents did not say
whether she was disciplined.
--An employee failed to
properly classify a graph and a foreign citizen who did not have clearance saw
the information. The employee was reprimanded, his clearance was suspended and
he was reassigned so he would not have access to classified information.
Prosecutors said in an
August 2000 session that Lee's attorneys mischaracterized government officials'
statements as evidence of racial profiling.
Prosecutors also said in
one transcript that three of the cases cited were not like Lee's because the
people involved created the documents they were working on. They said the other
involved someone who did not know the computer was not secure and who informed
supervisors upon discovering that.
Defense attorney John
Cline on Thursday declined to comment on the prosecutors' statements.
A DOE spokesman declined
to comment Friday, saying he hadn't seen the unsealed documents. He referred
questions to the U.S. Justice Department, which did not immediately return a
phone call seeking comment.
One of Lee's attorneys,
Mark Holscher, said in an August 2000 hearing that two former federal
counterintelligence directors referred to a policy of profiling ethnic Chinese
-- even though they were not aware of evidence that ethnic Chinese were more
likely to spy for China than other Americans.
Holscher also cited ``at
least 38 State Department cases in which people passed information and nothing
was done.''
He discussed cases of
people committing offenses similar to Lee's who were not prosecuted, including
former CIA director John Deutch, who was pardoned by then-President Clinton
before a case was filed against him.
10/11/01 Associated
Press: "Depositions Begin in WH Lee's Privacy Act Lawsuit,"
A Justice Department
official has been questioned under oath in the first deposition of Wen Ho Lee's
Privacy Act lawsuit, and more depositions are planned before a Dec. 31 cutoff
date, Lee's lawyer said.
The first deposition was
taken last Friday in Washington, D.C. Lee's attorney, Brian Sun, would confirm
only that sworn testimony was given by Myron Marlin, a Justice Department
spokesman.
Sun, who represents Lee
and his wife, Sylvia, in their civil suit, declined to discuss the substance of
Marlin's testimony.
``We expect to take a
number of depositions before the end of the year,'' Sun said Tuesday night
during a visit to Albuquerque.
Sun has informed U.S.
District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in Washington, D.C., that additional
depositions are anticipated from former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, former
Attorney General Janet Reno, former FBI director Louis Freeh, Edward Curran of
the Energy Department counterintelligence branch and others.
Richardson, who is running
for governor of New Mexico, is likely to be questioned in Washington, D.C.,
sometime before the court-imposed Dec. 31 deadline for completion of all
depositions.
Asked about the likelihood
of a settlement in the lawsuit, Sun said there was an exchange of correspondence
discussing such possibilities early in the case but nothing recent.
The lawsuit alleges
government officials illegally leaked confidential and even classified
information and, in the process, prejudiced the case against the Taiwanese-born
scientist.
Lee was charged with 59
counts of mishandling nuclear data at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He pleaded
guilty to one count in September 2000 and the rest were dropped, freeing him
after he was sentenced to the nine months he already had spent in jail.
In March 1999, two weeks
after Lee was fired from Los Alamos lab, the lawsuit says, Lee's lawyers sent a
letter asking Freeh to have the FBI investigate illegal leaks of confidential
information. That letter enclosed copies of more than 80 news articles
suggesting ``senior FBI officials'' had ``repeatedly made improper disclosures
of confidential investigative information.''
A letter sent the same day
to the Justice Department expressed concern that the leaks would ``inevitably
cause irreversible prejudice to Dr. Lee.''
The lawsuit cites examples
in news stories this year ``that quoted government officials revealing
classified information concerning Dr. Lee,'' including descriptions of ``secret
debriefings of Dr. Lee at Kirtland Air Force Base'' in Albuquerque.
10/3/01 Associated
Press:
"Judge Unseals WH Lee Race Profiling Paper,"
A federal judge unsealed 20 of 22 documents sought by
Asian-American advocacy groups trying to prove racial profiling in the
prosecution last year of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee.
The papers unsealed
Tuesday by Judge James Parker had been reviewed for national security purposes,
and most had been censored to protect classified and sensitive information,
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Paula Burnett said.
Burnett told Parker the
government did not oppose unsealing nearly all the documents, which were
referred to in court by number only. Their contents were not immediately
disclosed.
Roger Myers, lawyer for
San Francisco-based Chinese for Affirmative Action, said he hadn't had a chance
to argue about what was censored.
Parker said if Myers and
other lawyers want any of the censored material made public, they could return
to court. The judge added, however, that he believed the material would be
"of no importance whatsoever."
The government has denied
it engaged in any racial profiling.
One document remained
sealed at the request of one of Lee's attorneys. The judge ordered another
document kept secret because of national security concerns.
The 61-year-old Lee, who
worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 20 years, spent nine months in
solitary confinement before pleading guilty in September 2000 to one count of
breaching national security.
The government dropped 58
other counts when Lee admitted using an unsecured computer to download a defense
document.
At the time, Parker
apologized for keeping Lee jailed in the months before the plea deal, saying the
Justice and Energy departments had misled the judge and "embarrassed our
entire nation."
The prosecution came
after congressional investigations into suspected espionage on behalf of China.
There was sharp disagreement within the government, including the FBI and CIA,
over whether Lee was a possible spy.
Taiwanese-born Lee, a
naturalized U.S. citizen, was never charged with espionage. Asian-American
groups believe he was arrested at least partly because of his Chinese ancestry.
"I think this case
far more than any other has resonated with the Asian-American community,"
said Diane Chin, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action.
10/2/01 Associated
Press:
"Depositions Of Former WH Lee Case Officials To Begin,"
A court this week will consider unsealing documents sought as
evidence of racial profiling in the Wen Ho Lee case as lawyers get set to
question Bill Richardson and other ex-officials about news leaks that led to
Lee's prosecution.
On Tuesday, U.S. District
Judge James Parker will hear Asian American advocacy groups who seek documents
from the Lee criminal case. The groups believe the papers contain evidence that
Lee was singled out for prosecution partly because he is of Chinese ancestry.
The scientist, who worked
at Los Alamos National Laboratory 20 years, was born in Taiwan, came to the
United States in 1965 and became a U.S. citizen in 1974.
The hearing comes as
Lee's separate Privacy Act lawsuit against the FBI, Justice Department and
Energy Department moves into its depositions phase. Lawyers are expected to
begin taking depositions in the next week or so; they have until Dec. 31 to
complete depositions from Richardson, a likely candidate for New Mexico
governor; former Attorney General Janet Reno, a candidate for Florida governor;
FBI ex-director Louis Freeh and others who talked about Lee before his December
1999 arrest.
``These unlawful leaks
were designed to divert attention from defendants' inability to maintain proper
security procedures at the nation's nuclear laboratories,'' the lawsuit says.
``The illegal leaks promoted the FBI's and the DOE's efforts to pressure the
(Justice Department) to bring criminal charges against Dr. Lee.''
Meanwhile, publication of
Lee's memoir, My Country Versus Me, has been delayed until next year,
said Katie Long, spokeswoman for Hyperion Books. The book, once set for October
release, had been undergoing a government secrecy review, according to its
editor, Will Schwalbe. Long said Friday that Jan. 15 is ``the new and final
publication date.''
Others expected to give
depositions include Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, Assistant FBI director
Neil Gallagher and Edward Curran of the Energy Department counterintelligence
office.
The lawsuit quotes an
interview Curran gave The Nation, saying Los Alamos scientists had a record of
mishandling information more sensitive than material Lee downloaded.
The lawsuit includes
excerpts from the 1999 President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board report on
DOE security lapses, citing ``numerous incidents of classified information being
placed on unclassified systems,'' nuclear weapon designs left unsecured on Los
Alamos National Laboratory library shelves and says copying files from
classified computers to unclassified computers was not unusual.
Lee attorney Brian Sun of
Santa Monica, Calif., hasn't said yet whether Richardson's deposition will be
taken here or in Washington, D.C. Both Lee and his wife, Sylvia, are plaintiffs.
Richardson, reached
Saturday at United World College, said: ``I can't say anything'' about the
deposition. He was at the school near Las Vegas, N.M., to help welcome Queen
Noor of Jordan during her U.S. visit.
Lee, 61, last year
pleaded guilty to one count of unsecurely transferring nuclear weapons data to
computer tape at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1994, and 58 counts were
dismissed. Some lab officials said Lee jeopardized ``the crown jewels'' of U.S.
nuclear science. Other eminent scientists disagreed, calling that an
exaggeration.
Parker, in releasing Lee,
apologized for jailing him without bail based on those exaggerated claims.
Prosecutors alleged Lee
intended to use the information to land a job overseas after being listed among
employees facing layoffs in 1994. However, the layoff never happened, and Lee
stayed until Richardson fired him March 8, 1999.
Lee's lawsuit alleges
several instances in 1999 when Richardson and others leaked confidential
information to news media, including alleged polygraph results. In some
instances, information had been classified and only declassified later for use
in the criminal case.
Lee was never charged
with espionage.
9/1/01 Dallas
Morning News (AP): "FBI knew of flaws in Lee case in 1997: Freeh
advocated revoking scientist's security clearance"
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh supported stripping Wen Ho
Lee of his security clearance as early as fall 1997 because of suspicions the
nuclear scientist was spying, but his advice went unheeded, secret sections of a
government report show.
The unreleased chapters also divulge Mr. Freeh and other FBI
officials received a CIA analysis in September 1997 that challenged the
underpinnings of the Lee case.
Instead of re-assessing the stalled investigation, the FBI
"fumbled an extraordinary opportunity" to recognize three years
earlier than it ultimately did that the espionage inquiry was off the mark,
according to the chapters reviewed by the Associated Press.
"This [CIA] report could have and should have caused the
FBI to re-examine the predicate for the entire Wen Ho Lee investigation,"
wrote Randy Bellows, the prosecutor who conducted the review of the government's
handling of the Lee matter.
The consequence, the report said, was that "From May 30,
1996 until 1999, the FBI investigated the wrong crime."
FBI Assistant Director John Collingwood said Mr. Freeh was
focused on other issues - guarding against additional losses of nuclear secrets
- when the CIA assessment was offered in 1997.
"Because the investigation was stalled, Freeh was
focused on preventing even greater damage to the weapons program and was fully
engaged in helping the Energy Department establish a more vigorous
counterintelligence effort," Mr. Collingwood said.
He said the FBI recognizes now that it should have discovered
flaws in the investigation much earlier and has made significant changes -
including those recommended by Mr. Bellows.
Mr. Bellows has not responded to repeated requests for
comment.
The still secret chapters reveal that Mr. Freeh told the
Energy Department in 1997 that it should withdraw Dr. Lee's security clearance
at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in New Mexico, given the suspicions he was
a spy.
But Dr. Lee kept his clearance for months until investigators
discovered he had transferred many weapons secrets to unsecure computers.
The report also questioned why the FBI did not redirect a
misguided spy inquiry in 1997 when the secret CIA assessment indicated the
original Energy Department information that caused investigators to focus on Dr.
Lee was flawed.
The FBI was "handed and fumbled an extraordinary
opportunity to discover the fact that the administrative inquiry fundamentally
mischaracterized the predicate for the investigation," one secret portion
of the report states.
The CIA assessment disputed key elements of the Energy
Department's findings, and although Mr. Freeh was aware of the discrepancies,
lower-level bureau officials needed to understand them, Mr. Bellows wrote.
8/27/01 Washington
Post: "Report Details More FBI Blunders in Wen Ho Lee Probe,"
The FBI's investigation of
Wen Ho Lee was more seriously bungled than officials have previously disclosed,
with inept agents making amateurish mistakes and ignoring orders to consider
other suspects, according to an unreleased portion of a classified Justice
Department report.
The 166-page chapter, part
of a larger report on the Lee probe, outlines a succession of blunders,
misjudgments and faulty assumptions by the FBI that contributed to the
government's shoddy investigation of the former Los Alamos National Laboratory
scientist. Lee was suspected of giving nuclear secrets to China.
Inattentive FBI
supervisors in Washington compounded the problem by failing to correct the
mistakes or to keep the investigation on track. The chapter says FBI Director
Louis J. Freeh was not kept informed of the case's shortcomings, including
problems with the investigation in New Mexico and disagreement among government
experts over the seriousness of the suspected security loss.
"This investigation
was a paradigm of how not to manage and work an important counterintelligence
case," says the report, written by federal prosecutor Randy I. Bellows. If
Lee was a spy, Bellows concludes, the FBI let him get away. If he was not, the
bureau blew repeated opportunities to consider other options -- including the
possibility that nuclear weapons secrets were not obtained by the Chinese in the
first place.
Originally charged with 59
felony counts, Lee pleaded guilty in September to one felony charge of
mishandling classified information after the government's case against him fell
apart. He was not charged with espionage and has repeatedly denied giving
information to China.
Two other chapters of the
exhaustive Bellows inquiry were released by the government earlier this month.
They faulted the FBI and the Energy Department for their "slapdash"
investigation.
But the latest chapter,
obtained by The Washington Post with some sensitive information blacked out,
underscores how investigators botched the case. Among its revelations:
- Investigators in the FBI's Albuquerque office ignored an
order from top FBI officials in December 1997 to open inquiries into suspects
other than Lee and his wife, Sylvia. Those inquiries were not begun until 15
months later, after Lee had been fired.
- The photocopying of the
outside of Lee's mail, known as a "mail cover" operation, was allowed
to lapse for three months in 1997 because investigators failed to file a routine
renewal application.
- Most of the supervisors
and agents on the case didn't bother to read or question a flawed 1995 Energy
Department report that Bellows called a "virtual indictment" of Lee.
That report was the basis for opening a full FBI investigation. When the new
head of Albuquerque's FBI office finally read the report in December 1998, he
described it as a "piece of junk" that called into question the entire
probe.
- The agent in charge of
the case for its first three years, from 1994 to 1997, did not see the document
obtained by the CIA that detailed what the Chinese knew about the W-88 nuclear
warhead, the weapon Lee was suspected of compromising.
For years, the Lee probe
was handled by solo agents who also investigated robberies and other duties, and
it was frequently ranked as the lowest intelligence priority in the Albuquerque
office. Top Washington officials also were unaware that when two rookie agents
were sent to Albuquerque to bolster the Lee case in November 1996, they were
assigned to other cases.
Several agents assigned to
the probe were unqualified for the task, Bellows found. One supervisor said
working with the first agent was "like pushing a cart with a dead
donkey." Another supervisor called the second agent on the case "a
goddamn reject." Taken together, FBI Assistant Director Neil Gallagher told
the Bellows team, the first two agents to head the probe added up to "a
third of an agent."
The report by Bellows, an
assistant U.S. attorney in Alexandria, is the government's official account of
the botched probe that led to Lee's nine-month incarceration. The prosecution of
the former Los Alamos scientist spawned congressional hearings, civil lawsuits
and a strong rebuke from the judge in the case, who said the treatment of Lee
"had embarrassed this entire nation."
Bellows's assessment is
another in an extraordinary string of embarrassments for the FBI this year,
including the compromise of national security secrets by spy Robert P. Hanssen;
the FBI's failure to turn over thousands of pages of documents to defense
attorneys in the Oklahoma City bombing case; and the loss of weapons and laptop
computers by FBI agents. At least six reviews of FBI conduct are underway.
FBI officials said the
Bellows report, which was delivered to former attorney general Janet Reno in May
2000, has formed the foundation for wide-ranging reforms in the way the FBI and
other U.S. intelligence agencies deal with national security investigations.
FBI spokesman John
Collingwood also said the bureau deserves criticism for its early mistakes in
the Lee case. "Clearly, when the institution turned its full attention to
the case [in 1999] as it should have from day one, the resources and expertise
were in abundance," Collingwood said. "We should have done that
earlier on."
Lee's attorney did not
return a telephone message left for him Friday. Bellows has not commented
publicly on his report and could not be reached for comment.
For 4 1/2 years, Bellows
wrote, the case "proceeded at a pace that can only be described as languid,
if not torpid," and "suffered from neglect, faulty judgment, bad
personnel choices, inept investigation and the inadequate supervision of that
inept investigation."
The chapter, which serves
as the report's overview of the FBI's role in the Lee case, also confirms and
expands on many previously publicized missteps. These include the failure to
examine Lee's computer use despite waivers allowing the FBI and the Energy
Department to do so; the diversion of agents from the case; and the failure to
monitor two trips that Lee made to Taiwan in 1998.
Lee, a U.S. citizen born
in Taiwan, was charged in December 1999 with 59 felony counts of mishandling
classified information and violating the Atomic Energy Act, which could have
brought a life sentence on conviction. After pleading guilty to the charge of
mishandling classified information, he was sentenced to the time he had already
served. Lee ultimately acknowledged copying classified nuclear data onto
portable computer tapes and removing them from Los Alamos. Despite an intensive
debriefing by the FBI under the terms of his plea agreement, the tapes have
never been found. Lee has not publicly explained why he made them or what became
of them.
Lee is pursuing a civil
lawsuit against the FBI and the departments of Energy and Justice for violating
his privacy by leaking his name as a suspect. He is also sparring with the
government to obtain clearances for the release of his memoirs.
Because the 800-page
Bellows report was completed in May 2000, when Lee was in jail, it focuses
largely on ways in which investigators failed to be aggressive enough in pursuit
of the case. Nonetheless, Bellows also faults the FBI and the Energy Department
for focusing exclusively on Lee and ignoring the possibility that the alleged
crime -- providing nuclear weapons secrets to China -- may never have occurred.
The FBI is not the only
target of the critique. Another chapter of the report, also obtained by The
Post, faults the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review
for not granting the FBI a warrant to secretly monitor Lee's computer --
although it says in hindsight that the bureau misstated facts underlying the
request.
Bellows also devotes
chapters, including those already released, to criticism of the Energy
Department for being too quick to focus on Lee and his wife as espionage
suspects. The 1995 Energy report that prompted the FBI investigation, Bellows
wrote, included "misleading representations" that further sharpened
the focus on the Lees to the exclusion of others.
But much of the most
withering criticism is aimed at the FBI, which conducted an inquiry of Lee from
April 1994 to November 1995 and launched a full-blown investigation in May 1996.
For the next three years, Bellows concludes, the probe faltered and was often
dormant because of the incompetence of the agents assigned to it.
For extended periods,
Bellows found, the investigation essentially ground to a halt. An agent said he
did nothing on the probe for several weeks because he was working on other crime
cases. In another instance, the investigation stalled for four months in late
1997 while the Albuquerque office awaited instructions from FBI headquarters.
Yet when the investigative
plan finally arrived that December from Washington, "they largely ignored
it," Bellows found. One of the items was a mandatory directive to open
preliminary inquiries on other suspects, which did not happen until March 1999.
These and other blunders went largely unnoticed by Freeh, Bellows found. The FBI
director was not briefed on the investigation until more than a year after it
began, and important decisions -- such as a 1996 memo requesting mail cover
authority -- were made by subordinates. As a result, Bellows concludes,
"the Attorney General received a written briefing on the FBI's Wen Ho Lee
investigation before the Director did."
After June 1997, Freeh got
regular updates on the case but was not informed that the Albuquerque office
was, in the words of an FBI official, "screwing up and sitting on a time
bomb." "By the time Director Freeh was finally briefed on the case, it
was in trouble and the prognosis for the case seemed grim," Bellows wrote.
"So much had already gone wrong."
8/23/01 Associated Press: "Hearing Set on
Asian-American Race Profiling Inquiry"
The judge who apologized in sentencing Wen Ho Lee last year
has scheduled a hearing on a petition to unseal documents that Asian American
groups want to examine for evidence of ethnic profiling.
U.S. District Judge James Parker on Wednesday scheduled the
Albuquerque hearing for Oct. 2 at 2 p.m.
``I think it's very positive that the judge has set a hearing
in this case. We have always been under the impression that Judge Parker takes
this case very seriously and took very seriously the allegation of selective
prosecution (in the original Lee case),'' said Diane Chin, executive director of
Chinese for Affirmative Action.
The San Francisco-based civil rights group filed the petition
to unseal June 6, contending the documents may reveal profiling was used in
deciding to selectively prosecute the Taiwanese-born Lee, a naturalized U.S.
citizen and former Los Alamos scientist. The Asian Law Caucus and American Civil
Liberties Union supported the motion.
``We are excited about the opportunity to get the motion
heard and hopeful that the result will be that we can get most, if not all, the
documents unsealed relating to the racial profiling issue,'' said Zenobia Lai,
executive director of the Asian Law Caucus. She said her group would not
necessarily push to unseal all documents if national security issues were
clearly shown.
The petition said the sealing of the documents did not
satisfy First Amendment rules for denying public access.
``The sealing of records in this case violated the public's
common law right to inspect judicial records,'' it said.
``The court has apologized to Dr. Wen Ho Lee for the manner
in which his rights were violated in the course of his prosecution. However, the
American public's rights continue to be violated,'' it said.
The group said Parker observed last Sept. 13 that the rapid
conclusion of the Lee prosecution ``occurred shortly before the executive branch
was to have produced, for my review in camera, a large volume of information
that I previously ordered it to produce.'' Those documents related to selective
prosecution, the petition says.
The group contends it's the court's duty to decide what
documents must remain under seal and not delegate it to the court security
officer.
Last week, a Justice Department report criticized the Energy
Department, which oversees the Los Alamos lab, and the FBI for the Lee
investigation. The report completed by federal prosecutor Randy Bellows
concluded Lee was singled out for an investigation into suspected Chinese
espionage because the Energy Department misled the FBI.
Lee was never charged with espionage, but the report said:
``The message communicated to the FBI was that the FBI need look no farther
within DOE for a suspect. Wen Ho Lee was its man. The FBI never should have
accepted this message, as is.''
While the report says the DOE inappropriately targeted Lee,
it concludes it was not because of his race.
Lee has also sued the government for allegedly leaking
information to the media that made it appear he spied.
A motion filed by Lee's attorneys a year ago suggested
profiling may have been used in charging him with 59 counts of mishandling
nuclear data.
Lee pleaded guilty to one count last September, and the
government dropped the other 58 counts.
Lee was sentenced to the nine months already served.
Chin said Wednesday she believed ``the breadth of government
misconduct'' had moved ``Judge Parker to that amazing apology from the bench.''
Parker had said: ``I sincerely apologize to you, Dr. Lee, for
the unfair manner in which you were held in custody by the executive branch.''
He said the Justice and Energy departments ``embarrassed our entire nation and
each of us who is a citizen of it.''
8/17/01 Las Vegas Sun (AP):
"Groups question Wen Ho Lee report"
A report that criticized federal
investigators for the botched probe of scientist Wen Ho Lee is being questioned
by Asian-American advocacy groups, which say statements that Lee was the victim
of racial profiling weren't fully investigated.
The groups are asking President
Bush to appoint an independent commission to examine the racial profiling
claims. The White House will respond when it receives the groups' formal
request, Bush spokesman Ken Lisaius said.
Two chapters of a Justice
Department report declassified this week say the Energy Department
inappropriately singled out Lee, a former nuclear scientist at Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico, while investigating suspected Chinese
espionage at the facility.
The report criticizes the FBI for
accepting the DOE assertion that Lee was the only one who had opportunity,
motive and legitimate access to nuclear weapons information believed to have
been leaked to the Chinese.
Lee was indicted on 59 counts of
mishandling nuclear weapons secrets. He eventually pleaded guilty to one
felony count of downloading sensitive material.
The Justice Department report, by
federal prosecutor Randy Bellows, found no evidence of racial bias against Lee.
But the National Asian Pacific
American Legal Consortium, the Asian Law Caucus and the Asian Pacific American
Legal Center contend not enough attention was paid to statements that Lee was
targeted because of his Taiwanese heritage.
The Asian-American groups cite
affidavits that were unsealed in September saying former counterintelligence
officials Robert Vrooman and Charles Washington believed Lee was singled out
because of his race.
Vrooman, a former Los Alamos
counterintelligence chief, said in his statement that Lee became the focus of an
investigation to the exclusion of other potential suspects who fit a profile
based on access to certain information and travel to China. He said others with
those characteristics were not pursued.
"It is my opinion that the
failure to look at the rest of the population is because Lee is ethnic
Chinese," Vrooman said.
Vincent Eng, legal director for the
National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, said the report doesn't say
enough about those comments.
"I don't think anyone will be
satisfied until Vrooman's sworn statements are fully investigated," he
said. "They don't really go into what stood behind his comments, why he
made these comments."
Washington, who led the Energy
Department's counterintelligence branch for several years in the 1990s, said in
his affidavit he had "concluded that if Dr. Lee had not been initially
targeted because of his race...he may very well have been treated
administratively like others who had allegedly mishandled classified
information."
Notra Trulock, the former chief
investigator for the Energy Department who led the Lee inquiry, has sued Vrooman
and Washington over their statements.
The Bellows report said the team
reviewing the Lee investigation "has seen no evidence that the selection of
Wen Ho Lee was based upon an investigation of Chinese Americans to the exclusion
of any other group of potential suspects."
No files were assembled of only Chinese American employees
and potential suspects were not all Chinese, the report said. The investigation
"had many serious problems. Racism was not among them," it said.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment further
on Thursday, saying the report speaks for itself.
That didn't satisfy the advocacy groups, which want Bush to
appoint an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate whether Lee was
subjected to racial profiling.
"The only way one can get to the bottom of these issues
is to have some type of independent investigation outside of the Department of
Justice," Eng said.
8/15/01 Los Angeles Times: Commentary: "What,
If Not Race, Tagged Lee?" by Thomas W. Joo, a professor of law at the UC
Davis School of Law
This week, the Department of Justice released part of an
internal
report that called the investigation of Los Alamos nuclear scientist
Wen Ho Lee "deeply flawed." However, the report "found no
evidence
of racial bias" in the handling of the case. That conclusion has flaws
of its own.
When Department of Energy officials suspected China had
obtained U.S. nuclear secrets, they singled out the Taiwan-born Lee as a
suspect.
They ignored the many others who had access to the same information.
According to the Justice Department report, the DOE's inquiry pointing
to Lee "was so poorly written and organized that this alone made it
difficult to evaluate and comprehend." The Justice Department also
criticized the Energy Department's inquiry for "inconsistent and
contradictory statements as well as unsubstantiated assertions."
Nonetheless, Energy Department officials were so convinced of Lee's
guilt that they misled the FBI by falsely pointing to Lee as "the only
individual ... who had opportunity, motivation and legitimate access." Why?
The Justice Department report also faults the FBI for its
"unhesitating and unquestioning acceptance of DOE's identification of Lee
as the
most logical suspect." The FBI readily agreed to focus the investigation on
Lee. Despite the DOE's unconvincing inquiry, FBI officials did not
find it necessary to independently verify the choice of Lee as the prime
suspect. Why? If the evidence was so flimsy, what convinced the DOE and FBI that
Lee was "the most logical suspect"? Lee's race, of course.
Racial stereotyping is deeply ingrained in our culture.
Racial profiling causes some people to believe that all young African American
men are criminals or that all Latinos are undocumented immigrants. The
stereotype of Asian Americans portrays them as foreigners who lack loyalty to
the United States. This belief made it easy for a liberal
champion like Franklin D. Roosevelt to put innocent Japanese
Americans behind barbed wire during World War II. And it made it easy for
the DOE and FBI to choose a suspect.
Is it likely that the investigators were so incompetent that
they would pick an innocent suspect at random and waste years of investigation
on him? It is more likely that they were influenced-- whether consciously or
not--by the same kind of race-centered reasoning that contaminates so many
aspects of our society.
Acting on this kind of bias does not mean that the
investigators were
a sheet-wearing lynch mob. But it doesn't mean they are innocent,
either. They were quick to focus on Lee, but never stopped to ask
themselves, "Why?"
8/14/2001 Los Angeles Times: "Report rips Wen
Ho Lee probe: FBI, Energy Dept. are both faulted,"
Federal authorities in the Wen Ho Lee espionage case
''investigated the wrong crime'' for three years and zeroed in too aggressively
on the nuclear scientist as the prime suspect, according to a government report
released yesterday.
Investigators ignored evidence that might have led them in
other directions, mischaracterized their findings, and relied on scientific
analysts with suspect credentials, the long-awaited Justice Department review
found.
Misled by the Energy Department, ''from May 30, 1996, until
early
1999, the FBI investigated the wrong crime,'' the report said. ''Even a
cursory investigation'' by the FBI would have disclosed the department's
assumptions were ''woefully inadequate.''
The collection of gaffes means that investigators may never
know how - or even whether - the Chinese government stole technology on the
design of US nuclear warheads, the heavily censored report suggests.
The report, offering a host of new details about an
investigation that led to Lee's nine-month incarceration, amounts to the Justice
Department's strongest admission yet of just how badly officials botched their
work.
But the report rejects one of the central claims from Lee's
supporters: that he was unfairly branded a spy because he is Asian-American. A
1995 Energy Department plan for investigating possible nuclear breaches did in
fact say that ''an initial consideration will be to identify those US citizens,
of Chinese heritage, who worked directly or peripherally with the (nuclear
warhead) design development,'' the report reveals.
Even so, Assistant US Attorney Randy Bellows, who wrote the
report last year at the request of then-Attorney General Janet Reno, said there
is ''no evidence of racial bias'' in the Lee probe. The Lee investigation ''had
many serious problems. Racism was not among them,'' the report concludes.
The finding troubled some of Lee's supporters, who pointed
out that Bellows' report was completed before sworn declarations from two Energy
Department officials who said Lee was targeted partly because of his race.
But overall, Lee's backers were pleased with the report.
''We've said from the beginning of this investigation that the government should
not have focused on Dr. Lee as an espionage suspect, and this report appears to
support our concerns,'' said Mark Holscher, Lee's defense attorney.
Fired from the lab at Los Alamos, N.M., in 1999, Lee was
under investigation for more than three years for allegedly passing nuclear
secrets to China. But the case against Lee collapsed last September when
the Taiwanese-born scientist was allowed to plead guilty to a single felony
charge of mishandling nuclear secrets, as prosecutors dropped 58 other
counts.
Even now, nearly a year later, the case continues to
resonate. Lee is preparing to publish a book about his experience, which
he has submitted to the Energy Department for review to determine whether it
reveals any nuclear secrets. An Energy Department official accused of
racism in the investigation is bringing a defamation lawsuit against
Lee.
And the report sparked a new round of recriminations
yesterday from leaders in Congress who are pushing for widespread reforms at the
FBI because of the Lee case and other agency blunders.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and chairman of
the Judiciary Committee, said the report ''paints the picture of a wayward
investigation that was flawed from inception.''
Both the FBI and the Energy Department are blasted for their
handling of the Lee matter in Bellows' 184-page report, a top-secret review that
was prepared in early 2000 but was released publicly in redacted form yesterday
only by order of a judge in the defamation lawsuit against Lee. Portions of the
review are heavily blacked out on national security and privacy grounds, leaving
many unanswered questions.
It is part of a much longer report from Bellows that Justice
Department officials promised to release publicly last year. The longer version
is still weeks or months away from release. Officials at the Energy Department
and the FBI declined to discuss specific findings of the report.
This story ran on page A3 of the Boston Globe on 8/14/2001.
8/8/01 Dallas
Morning News (Washington Post): "Report: Lee not targeted by FBI
because of race":
Federal investigators did not target former Los Alamos
nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee based on his ethnicity, according to a classified
report that is otherwise highly critical of the conduct of the FBI and Energy
Department during the investigation.
A version of the internal
report by federal prosecutor Randy Bellows is scheduled to be released publicly
next week. It says that while the government's espionage investigation of Dr.
Lee, a native of Taiwan, had many shortcomings, "racism was not one of
them," said several people who have reviewed its findings.
The report's findings on
racism, which had not previously been revealed, appear to contradict the
accounts of at least two former Energy Department officials. They include the
former chief of counterintelligence, Robert Vrooman, who has said in sworn
statements that Dr. Lee was targeted for investigation of whether he leaked
nuclear secrets to China based largely on his race.
Dr. Lee, who was jailed on
59 felony counts of mishandling classified information and violating the Atomic
Energy Act, pleaded guilty last September to a single felony charge of
mishandling classified information after the government's case largely fell
apart in court. He had spent nine months in solitary confinement.
Dr. Lee, who is a
naturalized U.S. citizen, has indicated in press reports and court filings that
he believes he was singled out because he is a native of Taiwan.
The case prompted
condemnations from Asian-American leaders, who accused the government of
engaging in racial profiling and stereotyping in the Lee inquiry.
But Mr. Bellows' review is
certain to figure prominently in a defamation lawsuit by another energy official
who contends that he was wrongly accused of racism in the case.
Notra Trulock III, a
former energy official who has filed a defamation lawsuit against Dr. Lee, said
Mr. Bellows' findings on race bolster his suit, which alleges that Dr. Lee
authorized supporters to accuse Mr. Trulock of racism on the scientist's Web
site.
A federal magistrate
hearing the case has demanded portions of Mr. Bellows' report from the Justice
Department, which has tentatively scheduled its release for Monday.
"I feel that I am
exonerated," said Mr. Trulock, 53, who left the Energy Department in August
1999. "I knew that racial profiling had not been employed and that
certainly I'm not a racist."
Dr. Lee's lead attorney,
Mark Holscher, said he had not seen Mr. Bellows' report and could not comment.
The 800-page report stems
from an internal probe into the Chinese espionage investigation ordered by
former Attorney General Janet Reno in May 1999, shortly after Dr. Lee was fired
from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Dr. Lee and his wife,
Sylvia, have filed a suit against the FBI, Justice Department and Energy
Department alleging that Dr. Lee's privacy was violated by government leaks of
his name to the press during the investigation. Dr. Lee is also locked in a
dispute with federal government censors over whether his forthcoming
autobiography violates security rules.
7/18/01 Dallas Morning
News: "FBI reports
laptops, hundreds of guns missing,"
Already on the defensive for a spy scandal and other
embarrassments, the FBI disclosed Tuesday that hundreds of guns and computers
were stolen or are missing from its inventory. At least one lost laptop
contained classified material, and a stolen weapon was used in a homicide.
A review of the nearly 50,000
weapons in the FBI's inventory found that 449 were stolen or lost over the last
12 years, a "low number" of which later were used in robberies or
other crimes, a senior FBI official told reporters. Of the nearly 13,000 laptops
assigned to FBI personnel, 184 are unaccounted for, the official said, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
One missing computer, and possibly
three others, contained classified information, the FBI said.
"To date, we have no
indication that any investigations have been compromised," the official
said. However, he added, "We can't conclusively state that until the damage
assessment is complete."
In April, the inspector general
reported that the INS could not account for thousands of items, including 539
guns from its arsenal of more than 50,000 weapons.
The beleaguered bureau is under
investigation on and off Capitol Hill for mishandling evidence in the
investigation of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and the failure to detect
that one of its own agents was spying for Moscow.
"To have laptops missing that could have national
security information on them would be atrocious. For the FBI to have lost
firearms and failed to account for them is inexcusable," said Sen. Charles
Grassley (R-Iowa).
July 6-12, 2001 Asianweek.com:
"FBI Official Mislead Congress on Wen Ho Lee Case," (AP)
A top FBI official misled Congress about his confidence in
his part of the investigation into former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho
Lee, government watchdogs say.
FBI
Assistant Director Neil Gallagher told Senate committees in June 1999 that he
had full confidence in an early Energy Department inquiry into Los Alamos. He
told senators that the inquiry made a compelling case for focusing the
espionage investigation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to include Wen Ho
Lee.
That
testimony was inaccurate and misleading, said Robert Hast, managing director of
the General Accounting Offices special investigations office, in a letter to
several senators Thursday.
The
FBIs Albuquerque bureau had written to the national office in January 1999,
saying they had serious concerns about the inquiry, giving Gallagher ample
opportunity to know about its concerns, Hast said.
Gallagher
admitted to not reading all of the briefing book which included the
Albuquerque e-mail prepared for him before talking to Congress, the letter
said.
He
said that had he read the Jan. 22, 1999 electronic communication before he
testified, his testimony would have been different, Hast said.
Gallagher
told GAO investigators that the mistake was inadvertent. Although we
determined that Mr. Gallaghers testimony was inaccurate, we were unable to
determine whether he intentionally misled the committee, Hast said.
Gallagher
insisted that he would never intentionally mislead Congress. He said the
attorney general, the FBI director and others also did not read the part of the
briefing book that he skipped because it simply was not a significant issue
at the time.
To
the degree that your report suggests that I personally misled Congress, that is
simply not accurate, Gallagher said. While I would have preferred to have
had known all available information at the time of my testimony, the fact
remains that I did not.
"In Final Act, Clinton Issues Pardons,"
January 20, 2001 Associated Press. Clinton pardons John Deutch but
not Wen Ho Lee.
"Notra Trulock," Dec. 17, 2000 60 Minutes.
www.cbs.com. He admits leaking to the New
York Times that Dr. Lee was a suspect.
" Scientist moved hundreds of classified
files, undetected for
years by Los Alamos officials," by Dan Stober, Dec. 16, 2000 San Jose
Mercury News http://www0.mercurycenter.com/local/center/lee1217.htm
" Spy hunters hit peaks and valleys searching for thief of U.S.
secrets," by Dan Stober, Dec. 17, 2000 San Jose Mercury News
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/local/center/lee121800a.htm
Dr. Lee's legal expenses total $1.5 million, says attorney
Brian Sun at National Asian Pacific American Bar Association convention in
Washington, DC, October 14, 2000.
"Wen Ho Lee Defense Funds Drying Up: Lee's lawyer, pictured above, says defense costs
could end up totaling as much as $7 million." 9/7/00 Aonline.com
http://www.aonline.com/article/0,1153,2600-24142-1,00.html
"Scientist Wen Ho Lee Singled Out for Race,"
September 1, 2000, Washington (Reuters)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000901/ts/crime_scientist_dc.html
www.caasf.org - Coalition Against Racial
and Ethnic Scapegoating (CARES) A National Coalition of Individuals and Civil
Rights Groups Working Towards a Society Free of Racial Profiling and
Scapegoating and Justice for Dr. Wen Ho Lee
"Noted Scientist Testifies for Lee" Aug 18, 2000
Aonline.com
http://www.aonline.com/article/1,1153,1000-22827-1,00.html
NAPALC JOINS AMICUS BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF DR. WEN HO LEE'S MOTION FOR
DISCOVERY
Aug. 17, 2000 Washington, D.C.
The National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium and seven leading civil rights organizations joined as interested parties to the Asian Law
Caucus's recently filed "friend of the court" brief in the United States District Court for the
District of New Mexico. This amicus brief requests that the court grant Dr. Wen Ho Lee's Motion for
Discovery of Materials
Related to Selective Prosecution, a motion which would provide Dr. Lee's defense attorneys with
specific reports and files that squarely relate to the issue of whether Dr. Lee was selectively
prosecuted as a result of improper racial profiling.
"[FBI] Agent Concedes Faulty Testimony in [Wen
Ho Lee] Secrets Case," Aug. 18, 2000 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/081800lee-nuclear.html
Aug. 18, 2000 Virtual New York
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=110241
Judge again asked to release Wen Ho Lee
Aug. 18, 2000 Virtual New York
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=110268
Wen Ho Lee Accused of Using Information In Job Search
("Nuclear Scientist Document Released," July 6, 2000 Associated Press)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000706/us/scientist_secrets_1.html
The Asian-American Government Executives Network
(www.aagen.org) has an excellent page
on the Wen Ho Lee case.
"Universities
Say Research Hampered by Security Curbs:
Foreign students denied access to certain data," June 12, 2000, San
Francisco Chronicle
"Wen Ho Lee supporters stage rally in San Jose,"
June 1, 2000 San Jose
Mercury News
http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/lee01.htm
Lead Prosecutor in Lee Case Removed, May 12, 2000 Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52814-2000May11.html
Case Against Lee Is Flying Out Window, April 18, 2000 LA Times. See The
Spy Who Never Was
Lee Disputes Classification of Weapons Data. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48009-2000Apr19.html
Click here
for press release on filing of Privacy Act lawsuit by the family of Dr. Wen Ho
Lee against the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Energy
Click here
for front page August 16, 1999 Washington Post story "Ex-Official:
Bomb Lab Case Lacks Evidence" reporting Wen Ho Lee was accused of being a
spy solely because of his race
Click here
for August 17, 1999 Los Angeles Times story "U.S. Accused of Using
Race To Target China Spy Suspect" on Wen Ho Lee.
Journalist Bill Mesler took an in-depth look at
the Los Alamos case and published a comprehensive article "The Spy Who
Wasn't" in August 9-16 edition of The Nation. The story is posted and
linked under the "Los Alamos" section of the AAGEN web site at www.aagen.org.
December 22, 1999
Press/Media Excerpts Regarding the Wen Ho Lee Matter
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING LEE'S DISMISSAL
"Last month, Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was fired
amid suspicions that he passed classified weapons information to China from 1983 into the
mid-1990s. The lab has acknowledged that Lee apparently downloaded millions of lines of
'legacy' codes, which simulate nuclear weapons' performance, from a classified computer
system to an unclassified system." USA Today, Peter Eisler, New Breach of Security at
U.S. lab, May 7, 1999.
"The reason for the scientist's dismissal were
'failing to properly inform the laboratory and DOE about contacts with people from a
sensitive country; specific instances of failing to properly safeguard classified
material; and, apparently, attempting to deceive (the) laboratory about security related
issues,' the Energy Department said. CNN, March 8, 1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING LEE'S MISHANDLING
"In an interview with The Nation, Edward Curran, a
director at the DOE's office of counterintelligence, admitted that Los Alamos scientists
have a record of mishandling classified information. 'A lot of this is incidental,' said
Curran. 'These things often happen when an employee is under pressure because of
timeliness or things of that nature. These are issues that can be dealt with through
training.' Lee might have an even better excuse than other violators. In 1994 Los Alamos
split what had been a single computer system into a secure and an unsecure system. Lee had
just received a second, unsecure computer at this workstation, which could easily have
lead to confusion. As for his downloading of nuclear codes, Lee had been assigned to the
lab's archiving project, and it was his job to download vast amounts of such information.
'Of course he moved a lot of files,' says Chris Mechela, a former computer systems manager
at Los Alamos who worked with Lee for many years. 'Anyone who had a lot of files at that
time had to move them around because of the computer changes. This wasn't anything
sinister. What they have done to Wen Ho Lee is an outrage.' None of the articles the New
York Times ran on Lee's downloading of computer files mentioned that it was part of Lee's
job as an archivist." The Nation, Bill Mesler, The Spy Who Wasn't, August 9, 1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING THE LEE INDICTMENT
"Dr. Lee has not been charged with espionage, despite
a year of government claims that he, a native of Taiwan, was a spy for China. Instead,
under statutes 2275 and 2276 of the Atomic Energy Act, he has been charged with receiving
and tampering with information relating to national security -- the first and only person
ever charged under these statutes. Significantly, he was not charged with violating the
next statute, 2277, which prohibits disclosure of information relating to national
security." Pacific New Service, George Koo, Why the Wen Ho Lee Case Sticks in the
Craw, December 14, 1999.
"Last week, the government conceded with its filing
that it has no such case. Indeed, the FBI has now admitted that Lee and the Los Alamos lab
where he worked never had access to the flawed design drawing of the weapon. That
allegedly purloined drawing dates back to 1988 when Ronald Reagan was president, and it
was created, with its signature design flaws, at a stage in the weapons development after
the Los Alamos involvement." The Los Angeles Times, Robert Scheer, What's Left of
Case Against Lee? Not Much., December 14, 1999.
"Although the Justice Department has charged former
Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee with improperly downloading classified files between 1993
and 1997, they do not claim that this has anything to do with China's explosion of a
weapon like the W-88, which occurred before that time on Sept. 25, 1992.
Also, as Panofsky [Wolfgang K.H., Stanford Physicist]
states, the Chinese weapon 'is believed to be larger than the W-88 and is not even
remotely a copy or a 'knock-off,' to use Congressman Cox's term, of the W-88.'" Los
Angeles Times, Robert Scheer, The China Spy Scandal that Never Was, December 21, 1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING "EVIDENCE" AGAINST LEE
"A senior administration official told CNN, however,
it is 'unlikely' that the scientist, who is in his 50s, will be charged with any criminal
offense, since there is not enough hard evidence against him. 'The notion that this guy is
another Rosenberg is sort of silly,' said the official." CNN, March 9, 1999.
"In 1986 and 1988, Dr. Lee went to Mainland China to
present papers at two technical conferences. Dr. Lee's participation in these conferences
was pre-approved and encouraged by the Los Alamos Laboratory and the Department of Energy.
These same entities also cleared the texts of the papers given at these conferences. which
covered mathematics and physics topics." Press Release, Los Angeles, May 6, 1999,
Mark Holscher, Tina Hua and Karen Newlove.
"The press has incorrectly reported that Dr. Lee made
'several' trips to Mainland China and also has failed to report that his two trips were
approved in advance by the Los Alamos Laboratory and the Department of Energy. These two
approved trips were the only times Dr. Lee has ever traveled to Mainland China. These
false press reports do a disservice both to Dr. Lee and the Los Alamos Laboratory."
Press Release, Los Angeles, May 6, 1999, Mark Holscher, Tina Hua and Karen Newlove.
"The press reports also fail to include the fact that
Dr. Lee presented similar papers at conferences in several countries throughout Western
Europe and other parts of the world. The false insinuations that Dr. Lee went to Mainland
China in the late 1980s with an improper purpose are unfair. Not only did Dr. Lee go to
Mainland China to present a technical paper, his and his wife's attendance were with the
full knowledge and approval of the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Press Release,
Los Angeles, May 6, 1999, Mark Holscher, Tina Hua and Karen Newlove.
"I have worked on this case since June 23, 1995. I
know that there is not one shred of evidence that the information that the Intelligence
Community identified as having been stolen by the Chinese came from Wen Ho Lee, Los Alamos
National Laboratory, the Department of Energy complex or from a DOE office. The
information known to have been obtained by the Chinese was available in documentary form
on many classified documents distributed to hundreds of locations throughout the US
government and contractor complex.
No complete inventory of documents containing this data has
been made or is possible, but as an example, one containing a rather detailed description
of the W-88 had a distribution of 548 copies, of which only 180 copies are within the DOE
complex. The rest of the addresses are in the Department of Defense, military services
(including the National Guard), other government agencies, and contractors such as
Lockheed Missile and Space Corporation.
Please note that I am referring to 548 mailing addresses
not people." Los Alamos Monitor, Robert Vrooman's Written Statement (no date).
"I have been an outspoken critic of the flawed
investigation that identified Mr. Lee as the prime suspect in this case. I have expressed
my views to representatives of three Congressional committees and the President's Foreign
Intelligence advisory Board. I do not agree with Mr. Trulock or with the Secretary of
Energy that the information obtained by the Chinese came from the Department of Energy. I
consider disciplinary action against me to be retaliation for opposing them on this
issue." Los Alamos Monitor, Robert Vrooman's Written Statement (no date).
"'I've had a distinguished career,' said Vrooman, 62,
a former CIA operations officer who retired from Los Alamos in March 1998 and is now
working there as a consultant. 'And I'm not going to go down in history as the guy who
screwed up this case, because I wasn't. This case was screwed up because there was nothing
there - it was built on thin air.'" The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, Ex-Official:
Bomb Lab Case Lacks Evidence; Suspect's Ethnicity 'A Major Factor' in China Spy Probe,
August 17, 1999.
"Both Craig and Vrooman said there is no evidence
pinpointing Los Alamos as the source of secrets stolen by China. Similar conclusions were
reached earlier this year by the CIA, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb,
Ex-Official: Bomb Lab Case Lacks Evidence; Suspect's Ethnicity 'A Major Factor' in China
Spy Probe, August 17, 1999.
"Mr. Vrooman, a former case officer at the Central
Intelligence Agency, said yesterday in interviews and in a two-page statement that Federal
investigators had 'not one shred of evidence' that linked Dr. Lee to Chinese espionage. He
said he scrutinized the case for nearly three years, from June 1995 until he retired from
Los Alamos in March 1998." The New York Times, William J. Broad, Official Asserts Spy
Case Suspect was a Bias Victim, August 18, 1999.
"Even the New York Times, which did as much as any
media outlet to stoke this story, concluded after an exhaustive investigation by William
J. Broad, that paper's most experienced reporter on such matters, that Cox's congressional
report 'went beyond the evidence' to support its claims that the Chinese made a weapons
breakthrough based on stolen U.S. secrets. The Times' Page 1 story said that there was a
consensus among experts' that the federal investigation focused too soon' on Los Alamos
and Lee. It added, 'The lost secrets, it now appears, were available to hundreds and
perhaps thousands of individuals scattered throughout the nation's arms complex.'"
Los Angeles Times, Robert Scheer, Time to Say Farewell to Spy Scandal, September
14, 1999.
"That changed, however, in early September, when the
Times published an article by science reporter William Broad. The article cast doubt, not
only on the case against Lee, but also on the entire spy scandal as laid out by the Times.
Broad's 5,400-word, front-page story concluded that there was insufficient evidence to
prove that espionage was the main reason China had been able to advance its
nuclear-weapons program. And Broad reported that the federal investigation had focused too
quickly on Lee. 'The lost secrets,' Broad wrote, 'were available to hundreds and perhaps
thousands' of people." Brill's Content, Robert Schmidt, Crash Landing, November 1999.
"The Broad article came on the heels of a Times
editorial in late August that called for an independent investigation of charges made both
by Lee, in a 60 Minutes interview, and by a former head of counterintelligence at Los
Alamos, that Lee had been unfairly singled out because of his ethnicity."
Brill's Content, Robert Schmidt, Crash Landing, November 1999.
"Broad's story was meticulously reported. But it left
out one salient fact: The New York Times itself had been largely responsible for fueling
the scandal and portraying Wen Ho Lee as a traitor." Brill's Content, Robert Schmidt,
Crash Landing, November 1999.
"The existence of this exculpatory evidence regarding
Lee was revealed in a letter to the U.S. Senate last month by Asst. FBI Director Neil J.
Gallagher, who oversees national security cases for the FBI. Gallagher wrote that the
Albuquerque FBI office in charge of the investigation had filed reports in November and
December 1998 and again in January of this year that 'question the accuracy of certain
representations and conclusions' about the original evidence against Lee." The Los
Angeles Times, Robert Scheer, What's Left of Case Against Lee? Not Much., December 14,
1999.
"The AP last week also reported access to a document
from the FBI dated Jan. 22, 1999, stating that 'the FBI office in Albuquerque continues to
insist' that Lee had nothing to do with the China spying case. FBI Director Louis Freeh
was briefed by agents in Albuquerque last March and again told that 'it did not appear'
that Lee had anything to do with the theft of the warhead design." The Los Angeles
Times, Robert Scheer, What's Left of Case Against Lee? Not Much., December 14, 1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING RACIAL PROFILING/SINGLING OUT DR. LEE
"Norta Trulock, the Energy Department official who
first identified Lee as a 'prime suspect,' is doing much better. He just received the
department's Special Act Award, netting him $10,000 for his role in exposing Chinese
espionage. Announcing the award, Bill Richardson told The New York Times that Trulock
'performed a service to the country that needs to be recognized.'" The Nation, Bill
Mesler, The Spy Who Wasn't, August 9, 1999.
"While some Chinese American rights organizations
previously have charged that Lee was unfairly targeted, Vrooman is the first high-ranking
participant in the investigation to state that Lee's ethnicity was 'a major factor' in his
identification as the government's prime suspect. The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb,
Ex-Official: Bomb Lab Case Lacks Evidence; Suspect's Ethnicity 'A Major Factor' in China
Spy Probe, August 17, 1999.
"Vrooman made his remarks in an interview with The
Washington Post less than a week after Energy Secretary Bill Richardson recommended
disciplinary action against him and two other former Los Alamos officials for alleged
missteps during the espionage probe. The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, Ex-Official: Bomb
Lab Case Lacks Evidence; Suspect's Ethnicity 'A Major Factor' in China Spy Probe, August
17, 1999.
"Mr. Vrooman is apparently the first investigator in
the case to raise the issue of racial bias publicly, though some Chinese-American rights
groups had previously done so. His remarks were first reported yesterday in The Washington
Post." The New York Times, William J. Broad, Official Asserts Spy Case Suspect was a
Bias Victim, August 18, 1999.
"Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and other managers
at Los Alamos have denied that Dr. Lee's Asian ancestry sparked suspicions that he was
involved in possible espionage." The New York Times, William J. Broad, Official
Asserts Spy Case Suspect was a Bias Victim, August 18, 1999.
"Dr. Lee was identified by the Department of Energy's
Office of Counterintelligence as the prime suspect based on an, at best, cursory
investigation at only two facilities, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. The details of this investigation are still classified, but it can be said at
this time that Mr. Lee's ethnicity was a major factor. In spite of the lack of evidence
that the loss occurred in the Department of Energy, the Secretary of Energy decided not to
defend his Department." Los Alamos Monitor, Robert Vrooman's Written Statement (no
date).
"A former head of the FBI's Chinese
counterintelligence efforts, Paul D. Moore, bluntly told the Congressional Asian Pacific
Caucus this month that 'racial profiling' does occur in counterintelligence
investigations. But he blamed China, charging that its intelligence service routinely
targets Chinese citizens studying or working in the United States as well as Chinese
Americans who travel to technical conferences abroad. As long as Chinese agents remain
'interested obsessively in people of Chinese American ancestry to the exclusion of people
from other groups,' he said, it is inevitable that the FBI also will focus
disproportionately on Chinese American scientists. 'So you are profiling Chinese
Americans?' asked Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Calif.). 'What's the option?' Moore
replied." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, November 25, 1999.
"China rarely recruits master spies, according to Paul
D. Moore, who spent 20 years following operatives from China's premier intelligence
service, the Ministry of State Security. Moore and other experts believe that China
methodically sifts information from open sources and combines it with many small leaks of
secret information, typically culled one at a time from American scientists visiting
China, a strategy very different from the Cold War model of moles and master spies,
smuggled microfilm and secret meetings in the park." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb
and Walter Pincus, China Prefers the Sand to the Moles, Experts Say Beijing Mines Open
Sources, Digging Out Secrets Grain by Grain, December 12, 1999
"Moore believes the FBI erred, not so much by
targeting Lee, but by assuming that there had to be a spy inside the nation's nuclear
weapons complex, based on fragments of classified information contained in a document
handed over to the CIA by a Chinese 'walk-in' agent. 'So far as I can see, most folks are
simply asking the wrong question: Who stole what secrets?' Moore said. 'That's always an
important question, but the really critical one is: How and where were these thefts
accomplished?'" The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb and Walter Pincus, China Prefers the
Sand to the Moles, Experts Say Beijing Mines Open Sources, Digging Out Secrets Grain by
Grain, December 12, 1999
"Government officials deny Lee was singled out because
of his race, and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson sent a memo recently saying that 'at
this juncture it is appropriate that I reiterate emphatically my policy of zero tolerance
of any form of racial profiling within the DOE workplace.' The memo did not mention
Lee." Associated Press, Michelle Locke, Asian-Americans Defend Wen Ho Lee, December
17, 1999
"At least three individuals intimately familiar with
the assertions about Lee have described the racial profiling involved in the inquiry.
Robert S. Vrooman, the former counterintelligence chief of the Los Alamos lab, and Charles
E. Washington, who held a similar post at the Energy Department, have said that there is
no proof against Lee and that he became a suspect because of ethnicity. Michael S. Soukup,
a specialist who helped with the investigation itself, shared that view. Concerns about
Lee being targeted because of his ethnicity have brought more than a dozen Asian-American
organizations into a coalition to speak out in his behalf." Knight Ridder Tribune
Wire, Frank H. Wu, Wen Ho Lee Case Raises Questions About Racial Stereotyping, December
18, 1999.
"The whole affair has prompted charges of racial
profiling and criticism that the government is using Lee as a scapegoat for its own lax
security. Richardson acknowledged that Asian scientists have complained about unfair
scrutiny, but said 'Asian Americans should not fee racially profiled. We are not doing
that.'" The New York Times, AP, Energy Secretary Seeks Refocus of Labs, December 22,
1999.
"As early as 1997, federal prosecutors feared the FBI
had focused too narrowly on U.S. nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee and ignored other
leads in their investigation of alleged Chinese Spying, Attorney General Reno disclosed to
Congress." The New York Times, AP, Reno Testifies About Lee Concerns, December 22,
1999.
"The FBI probe focused on Lee and his wife, Sylvia,
when there were others at the Los Alamos, N.M., weapons lab where Lee worked who may have
had a better motive to help China, Reno told a closed-door meeting of the Senate Judiciary
Committee in June. A Transcript of her testimony was released Tuesday." The New York
Times, AP, Reno Testifies About Lee Concerns, December 22, 1999.
"In a secret hearing of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, Ms. Reno said that an administrative inquiry conducted in 1995 by the
Department of Energy, with help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had failed to
adequately investigate others who had access to classified information about the United
States''most advanced nuclear warhead, the W-88, according to a transcript of the hearing
released by the committee tonight. 'The elimination of other logical suspects, having the
same access and opportunity did not occur,' Ms. Reno told the committee. The New York
Times, AP, Reno Called Inquiry Too Focused on Scientist, December 22, 1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING LAX SECURITY/OTHER INSTANCES
"The Justice Department has declined to prosecute
former CIA Director John Deutch for keeping secret files on his unsecured personal
computer at home after he stepped down as the nation's top spy, a department official said
today." The Associated Press, Ex-CIA Chief Won't Be Prosecuted, April 12, 1999.
"But the department recently sent the case back to the
CIA for possible disciplinary action after it concluded Deutch's actions were reckless
rather than criminal, this official said, requesting anonymity." The Associated
Press, Ex-CIA Chief Won't Be Prosecuted, April 12, 1999.
"Justice sources tell NEWSWEEK that when Deutch was
CIA director, he repeatedly mishandled classified information, in violation of the
agency's well-known security protocols. The spymaster routinely took his work home with
him, these sources say, removing highly sensitive intelligence materials from CIA
headquarters and accessing them on his unsecured personal computer - even though he had a
secure CIA computer in the house. Deutch, now a Washington consultant, declined to
comment, as did his lawyers. The Justice Department, which investigated the case for more
than a year, decided not to press criminal charges, and has referred the matter back to
the CIA. Officials close to the case say that the CIA's inspector general is preparing a
'scathing' report about Deutch's alleged security breaches, and the agency is considering
whether to revoke his high-level security clearances." Newsweek, Daniel Klaidman,
April 19, 1999.
"Deutch's troubles began days after he stepped down as
CIA chief in December 1996. Agency technicians went to his house on a routine mission: to
ensure that Deutch, who stayed on briefly as a consultant, was using the CIA's computer
and his personal computer appropriately. To their astonishment, the technicians reportedly
discovered 31 secret files on his personal computer." Newsweek, Daniel Klaidman,
April 19, 1999.
"In this new case, material from the 'Green Book,'
which evaluates the status, maintenance needs and vulnerabilities of some of the nation's
most sophisticated weapons, was transferred from a secured computer at the Los Alamos
National Laboratory to an unclassified computer system linked to the Internet and e-mail,
federal officials say." USA Today, Peter Eisler, New breach of security at U.S. lab,
May 7, 1999.
"The FBI found not criminal intent and closed its
case. The DOE fined and suspended the scientist, who downloaded the Green Book material to
work on it at his office computer, agency officials say. They would not identify
him." USA Today, Peter Eisler, New breach of security at U.S. lab, May 7,1999.
"While the 'legacy' codes represents technical data
that could help in developing weapons, the Green Book's value is described by federal
officials as being more strategic." USA Today, Peter Eisler, New breach of security
at U.S. lab, May 7, 1999.
"An April 20 report by the General Accounting Office
on security at US nuclear labs found numerous 'problems with information security.' In the
case of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the report noted, officials have been
'unable to locate or determine the disposition of over 12,000 secret documents,' including
ones involving 'nuclear weapons design.' The report also noted that 'both DOE and
laboratory officials showed little concern for the seriousness of the situation and told
us that they believed the missing documents were the result of administrative error...and
not theft.'" The Nation, Bill Mesler, The Spy Who Wasn't, August 9, 1999.
"Breaking a long public silence, Robert S. Vrooman
also said he does not believe that China obtained top-secret information about U.S.
nuclear warheads from Los Alamos or any other laboratory belonging to the Department of
Energy. The stolen data, he said, could have come from documents distributed to 'hundreds
of locations throughout the U.S. government' as well as to private defense contractors.
The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, Ex-Official: Bomb Lab Case Lacks Evidence; Suspect's
Ethnicity 'A Major Factor' in China Spy Probe, August 17, 1999.
"The former director of the CIA, John M. Deutch, for
example, has acknowledged that he, too, downloaded data to his home computer. That is the
same type of breach of rules, presenting the same risk, which has ruined Lee's life. But
all Deutch got was his security clearance denied, which means that he can no longer serve
as an adviser to the CIA." Knight Ridder Tribune Wire, Frank H. Wu, Wen Ho Lee Case
Raises Questions About Racial Stereotyping, December 18,1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING THE COX REPORT
"'The Cox report and all this hoopla have not really
disclosed anything we didn't know before,' says Union of Concerned Scientists senior staff
scientist Lisbeth Gronlund." The Nation, Bill Mesler, The Spy Who Wasn't, August 9,
1999.
"Were the weapons designs a major advance for China? A
Stanford think tank this week downplayed the highly-critical Cox report that claimed
widespread weapons technology theft by China. The Cox conclusions were based on skewed
information and wrongfully dampened U.S.-China relations, the study claimed. A Cox
spokesman shot back that the bipartisan panel's findings were based on classified
information unavailable to the Stanford analysts." San Francisco Chronicle, A Nuclear
Spy - or Not?, December 17, 1999.
"For the past year, the news has been punctuated with
lurid stories heralding a China spy scandal. Most of that fear-mongering was based on the
report of a congressional committee headed by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) and compiled
by a staff that included not a single nuclear weapons expert." Los Angeles Times,
Robert Scheer, The China Spy Scandal That Never Was, December 21, 1999.
"Yet when five of the leading national security
experts released a study last week showing that the Cox committee report was riddled with
factual errors, its language 'inflammatory' and its key conclusion 'unwarranted,' the
media barely noticed." Los Angeles Times, Robert Scheer, The China Spy Scandal That
Never Was, December 21, 1999.
"The report, compiled by a research team at Stanford
University's Center for International Security, was coordinated by Michael M. May,
director emeritus of the Livermore National Laboratory, where he was a leader in the U.S.
nuclear weapons program for 36 years. The Stanford study concludes that 'there is no
credible evidence presented or instances described of actual theft of U.S. missile
technology.'" Los Angeles Times, Robert Scheer, The China Spy Scandal That Never Was,
December 21, 1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING LEE'S LAWSUIT
"The family of Dr. Wen Ho Lee announced that a lawsuit
was filed today in federal court in Washington, D.C. by Dr. Lee and his wife Sylvia
against the Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI and the Department of Energy (DOE)
alleging violations of the Privacy Act of 1974. The Privacy Act makes it illegal for
government agencies to willfully or intentionally disclose confidential and personal
information in their possession. According to the Privacy Act, each unauthorized
disclosure made by a government agency, or one of its officers or employees, constitutes a
separate violation subject to criminal conviction and monetary sanctions." Press
Release, Family of Dr. Wen Ho Lee Announces Filing of Privacy Act Lawsuit Against the
Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Energy, December 20, 1999.
"The Complaint states that the suit seeks to make the
DOJ, FBI and DOE and their employees accountable for a pattern of repeated Privacy Act
violations. According to the Complaint, beginning in at least early 1999 and continuing to
the present, the defendant agencies made numerous intentional and unauthorized disclosures
about Dr. Lee and his wife to the media and other third parties without their consent.
Moreover, the Complaint states the defendant agencies ignored repeated requests by Dr.
Lee's counsel that they stop these unauthorized disclosures, and instead, continued to
willfully and intentionally violate the Privacy Act over the objections of Dr. Lee and his
wife." Press Release, Family of Dr. Wen Ho Lee Announces Filing of Privacy Act
Lawsuit Against the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Energy, December
20, 1999.
"'Government officials ought not to be allowed to make
unlawful leaks and disclosures to the press, and try cases through the media,' attorney
Brian Sun said, on behalf of Scientist Wen Ho Lee who is being held without bail on
charges of mishandling top secret nuclear weapons data, in a lawsuit against the U.S.
government, alleging violations of the 1974 Privacy Act.
'Our system of justice is based upon the notion that the
government should be playing according to the rules on a level playing field. We don't
think that in this case they did. And with the use of unlawful and unauthorized leaks,
distorted the case involving Dr. Lee.'" Inside China Today, Quote of the Day,
December 21, 1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING THE EFFECT ON OTHER SCIENTISTS
"So far, he said, one senior Chinese American
scientist at the Los Alamos lab has quit, citing the discomfort of working in a suspicious
atmosphere.
Richardson said that he fears recruiting will suffer as a
result of the tighter security, including regular polygraph tests for scientists in
sensitive positions. 'I'm worried young scientists might find the labs excessively
restrictive,' he said." Los Angeles Times, Bob Drogin, Asian American Lab Employees
Fear Repercussions of Spy Inquiries, June 12, 1999.
"But after the U.S. Department of Energy fired Chinese
American physicist Wen Ho Lee in March for security violations, Feng [Gai] was ordered to
stay home from work for several days while Los Alamos put in place new screening
procedures." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, November 25, 1999.
"Feeling 'angry and hopeless,' Feng [Gai] says, he
decided to say goodbye to the hysteria. This summer he packed up his family and moved to
the University of Pennsylvania." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, November 25, 1999.
"...Feng [Gai] is just one of several who have left
Los Alamos 'because of the uncertainty associated with the environmental for foreign
nationals,' according to a report by the Los Alamos National Laboratory Fellows. The
report noted that all five top candidates for the lab's most prestigious postdoctoral
positions were foreigners, and added: 'of these five, three (including the top two)
rejected the offers.'" The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, November 25, 1999.
"Several said Asian-American scientists and academics
had been expressing worries that their career prospects had been damaged by the case
because of unwarranted questions about their loyalty. 'I've spoken with three or four
people personally who feel their career chances have been damaged, and I've heard of a
number of other such reports,' said Stewart Kwoh, the executive director of the Asian
Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California."
The New York Times, Sterngold, Los Angeles, December 12,
1999. "'Morale has been hurt by the espionage issue at all our labs and we're trying
to restore morale by ensuring that we emphasize science above security,' he [Richardson]
said. Richardson said he wants to accommodate lab visits by foreign scientists to allow
the collaboration. He said he has changed plans for lie detector tests so that only those
with access to the most highly classified nuclear secrets must take them." The New
York Times, AP, Energy Secretary Seeks Refocus of Labs, December 22, 1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING APA CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
"Five Nobel prizes in physics and one in chemistry
have gone to Chinese Americans." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, November 25, 1999.
"...at least a third of all engineers in Silicon
Valley are Asian Americans." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, November 25, 1999.
"Top officials at Los Alamos also realized their
dependence on foreign scientists when they advertised this year for a postdoctoral fellow
to do unclassified research in nuclear materials and had 24 applicants - none of whom were
American." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, November 25, 1999.
"Charles Sie, a retired vice president at Xerox Corp.,
said in a recent letter to President Clinton that approximately 150,000 Chinese American
scientists and engineers now work in the United States, including more than 15,000 in the
defense industry." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, November 25, 1999.
"Other Chinese Americans who have made major
contributions to U.S. defense programs include:
* Andrew Chi, a physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center who developed the atomic clock at the heart of the Pentagon's Global Positioning
System, a satellite network vital to guiding bombs and navigating ships.
* H.K. Cheng, a professor at the University of Southern
California whose work in hypersonic flow physics helped to enable the reentry of
intercontinental ballistic missiles and spacecraft into the atmosphere.
* Chih-Ming Ho, a scientist at the University of California
at Los Angeles who showed how tiny micro- electromechanical systems, or MEMS, could
replace traditional wing flaps and make U.S. fighter jets faster, more agile and harder to
detect." The Washington Post, Vernon Loeb, November 25, 1999.
PRESS COMMENTS REGARDING THE LINK TO CAMPAIGN FINANCING
"The information came to light while Congress was
investigating the role of international money in the 1996 presidential campaign and as
charges emerged that Beijing had secretly given money to the Democratic Party. It also
coincided with Clinton administration efforts to strengthen its strategic and commercial
links with China." CNN, March 6, 1999.
"Asian Americans, many of whom have served with honor
in the U.S. military and have devoted their professional careers to the federal
government, are rightly concerned about this case and other recent scapegoatings. The
year-long campaign-finance fiasco treated the 10 million Americans of Asian background as
if they were collectively responsible for the transgressions of a handful of political
fundraisers." Knight Ridder Tribune Wire, Frank H. Wu, Wen Ho Lee Case Raises
Questions About Racial Stereotyping, December 18, 1999.
|
