-Caveat Lector-
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1999
Headlines
THE MONITOR'S VIEW
More at Stake Than Spying
The storm of allegations regarding Chinese espionage at US
national weapons laboratories has led to needed tightening of
security at those facilities. That's the positive outcome from
the spy scandal that agitated Washington for much of the past
year.
But the Chinese espionage affair has also had some disturbing
aspects. Most of these are tied to the government's criminal case
against Wen Ho Lee, formerly a physicist with the Los Alamos
National Laboratory. Mr. Lee became a magnet for suspicion as the
spy charges reached their zenith in Congress earlier this year.
The Chinese-American scientist apparently had been under
surveillance, on and off, for years. In the 1980s he had been
suspected of giving classified information to Taiwan, where he
was born, but had been cleared of those charges. This decade,
somewhat ironically, he became the FBI's prime suspect in the
alleged transfer of nuclear-bomb secrets to the People's Republic
of China, Taiwan's adversary.
Early in December, at long last, Lee was formally charged - not
with espionage, but with mishandling classified documents. It's a
lesser charge, but could still carry a lengthy prison term. Lee
has been denied bail.
The FBI probe of the possible tranfer of nuclear secrets to China
is continuing, and of late has broadened beyond Lee and Los
Alamos.
Meanwhile, other developments:
The release of secret congressional testimony by Attorney General
Janet Reno has clarified why she kept the FBI from tapping Lee's
phone in the course of its investigation. Ms. Reno was roundly
criticized for that. It's now clear she felt the bureau was
prematurely centering its attention on Lee before eliminating other
suspects with equal access to classified material and just as much
incentive, presumably, to pass it to other countries. This throws
new light on Reno's actions, and raises new questions about the
intensefocus on Lee.
This month the accused struck back with a lawsuit against the FBI
and the Justice and Energy Departments for invasion of privacy and
false accusation. The suit, reportedly, will emphasize that
investigators pursued him even after doubts had arisen that he was,
in fact, engaged in espionage. Lee doesn't deny that he
downloaded classified material to an unclassified computer, but
says it was a common practice.
Suspicion is growing among Asian-Americans activists that Lee is
in custody primarily because of his ethnicity. They argue that the
FBI's pursuit of him was dictated by racial "profiling" - by the
assumption that people of Chinese background were the most
likely to be exploited by Communist Chinese agents.
A detailed report by Stanford University's Center for International
Security and Cooperation throws doubt on the accuracy of the
congressional report, put together by Rep. Christopher Cox (R) of
California, that largely fueled the storm over Chinese espionage and
generated furious calls to net the perpetrators. The Stanford team,
including credible experts on nuclear weaponry, charges that the
Cox report is "inflammatory" and makes some ill-supported
allegations.
In summary, the country owes two things to itself: (1) Make sure
its system for designing and producing nuclear weaponry is as
secure as possible. (2) Just as important, make sure its system
of justice, operating in the Wen Ho Lee case, is driven by
fairness and a quest for the truth, not by the need to pillory
someone in the wake of a politically uncomfortable furor over
alleged espionage.
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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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