More info on what CNN and MS-NBC have lately taken to calling, with pointed hyperbole, the "biggest Bomb scandal since the Rosenbergs." Clinton Addresses Scientist Furor By H. JOSEF HEBERT .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton, addressing for the first time criticism of his administration's handing of an espionage investigation at a federal weapons lab, said Thursday U.S. officials ``moved quickly and decisively'' when the scope of the concerns became known. ``We did not ignore evidence. Quite the contrary, we acted on it. ... The record is clear we did respond in an appropriate way,'' Clinton said when asked about the national security controversy involving China during a stop in Guatemala during his Latin America trip. The House Intelligence Committee was briefed Thursday on a still classified report by a special congressional panel concerning technology transfers to China. The report, according to committee lawmakers, is highly critical of security at federal weapons laboratories. Some Republican lawmakers and GOP presidential aspirants have accused the administration of not moving aggressively to investigate suspicions in 1996 that top-secret nuclear warhead information may have been given to China in the 1980s by an employee of the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. Earlier this week the Energy Department fired a Los Alamos computer scientist who has been under investigation by the FBI for nearly three years in connection with the concerns first raised in 1995. The Taiwan-born scientist, Wen Ho Lee, has not been charged with any crime. Clinton said that when it was learned in 1997 that ``the scope of the potential espionage might be very broad and might be directly related to lax security at the energy labs ... we moved quickly and decisively.'' The president added that congressional committees were informed along the way and ``have received at least 16 briefings on this issue.'' But some lawmakers have complained that they received detailed information about the Los Alamos investigation only relatively recently and not before a special committee of the House began closely looking into weapons lab security related to the China case. ``I feel a better job could have been done,'' said Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Commitee, when asked Thursday about the investigation. He declined for security reasons to say when he learned of the case or to provide any further details. Some Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, said the case was taking on too much of partisan tone. ``There's a knee jerk tendency to have a political response by some people,'' complained Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., chairman of the special House committee that wrote the still-classified China technology report. Cox alluded to recent comments by Vice President Al Gore that the Los Alamos espionage occurred in a Republican administration. As for security at federal labs, Cox said his panel's report will show ``there's a real problem, an ongoing problem. It's today's problem.'' Rep. Norman Dicks of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the special panel, said, ``I don't think anybody knew the magnitude of the problem until it got to the committee.'' The 700-page report remains top secret. Negotiations are underway between committee members and the White House on how much of it should be made public. Cox said he favors declassifying all of it except for parts that refer to sources or methods of intelligence gathering. A part of the report deals with the Los Alamos investigation, he said. He said progress was being made with the administration on declassification, but that considerable disagreements remain.
