-Caveat Lector-
[Note the last sentence. --MS]
December 14, 1999
NYTimes
Nuclear-Weapons Scientist Pleads
Not Guilty; Held Without Bail
By CHRISTIAN BERTHELSEN
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A weapons scientist
pleaded not guilty on Monday to the illegal computer
downloading of a vast trove of nuclear arms data, but a
federal magistrate ordered him jailed pending trial,
declaring that the acts he is accused of represent "a clear
and present danger to the security of the United States."
The defendant, Wen Ho
Lee, was ordered held
behind bars after all-day
proceedings here, where
he entered the courtroom
smiling broadly at relatives
and dozens of supporters
and left to live in a cell
while awaiting a trial that
may be months away.
"I plead not guilty," Lee
responded in a loud, clear
voice after Magistrate Don
Sven asked what he had to
say about the 59-count
indictment returned against
him on Friday.
The hearing produced
testimony that Lee's
unauthorized downloading
of highly classified data in
1993 or 1994 roughly
coincided with his notice
from the Department of
Energy that he might lose
his job at the Los Alamos
laboratory because of
cutbacks.
There was also testimony
that seven computer tapes
containing a virtual
blueprint for much of the
country's nuclear arsenal
had been created by Lee,
then had vanished -- not
turning up despite an
investigation involving
about 1,000 witnesses, a
review of a million
documents and inquiries
by the FBI in Europe and
in Asia.
And at the end of the day,
Lee's lawyer, Mark
Holscher, said his client
had destroyed the tapes.
But he refused to tell
questioners outside the
courtroom where or how
they had been destroyed,
or whether there was any
proof that they had been.
FBI investigators have
concluded after a search
of Los Alamos computers
that Lee copied
information relating to the
design, construction and
testing of the most
advanced nuclear weapons
in the American arsenal --
data that Lee's former
boss said on Monday was
of extraordinary
importance.
The former boss, Stephen
Younger, said that the
material Lee is accused of compromising could, in the
wrong hands, make the U.S. missile systems vulnerable to
hostile nations, perhaps even change the global balance of
power.
"The very first day I entered the nuclear weapons program
it was made crystal-clear to me how important this
information was to national security," said Younger, the
associate laboratory director for nuclear weapons. "We are
more aware of anyone else of the destructive capability of
these weapons. It is a sacred trust to me that we have taken
on for the country, and we take that very seriously."
While he is not accused of espionage, or passing the
classified data to another country, Lee has not explained
why he downloaded the data or what he did with it. A few
of the computer tapes he used have been recovered, but
most are unaccounted for.
An FBI special agent, Robert Messemer, testified that the
volume of material downloaded by Lee would have made a
stack of paper 134 feet tall if it was printed.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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