Scientist Lee says data he copied were non-vital 'junk'

Sat Jan 12 15:21:55 PST 2002

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Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 20:45:35 +0100
From: Mario Profaca <mprofaca at reporters.net>
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Subject: [Spy News] Scientist Lee says data he copied were non-vital 'junk'

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/012/nation/Scientist_Lee_says_data_he_copi
ed_were_non_vital_junk_+.shtml

Scientist Lee says data he copied were non-vital 'junk'

By Richard Benke, Associated Press, 1/12/2002

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - In a new memoir, former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee
says the nuclear ''crown jewels'' he was accused of mishandling were really
the ''crown junk'' and were not vital to national security.

The files he downloaded were old, with much of the information already
public and very little of it classified, Lee says in ''My Country Versus
Me,'' published by Hyperion. He says he copied the material onto tapes
because he had lost files before and did not trust the computer system.

He 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.

''I want to share through this book how I fell into a trap,'' Lee says,
''one slippery step at a time, not even realizing what was happening until
it was too late.''

Lee, a Taiwanese-born naturalized US citizen, was arrested in December 1999
and indicted on 59 felony counts alleging he transferred nuclear weapons
information to portable computer tapes. He was held in solitary confinement
for nine months, but never charged with spying.

As the government's case crumbled, Lee pleaded guilty to a felony count of
downloading sensitive material, and was set free. The mishandling of the
case was an embarrassment for the FBI and the Justice Department.

While Lee was behind bars, one senior scientist called the files ''the crown
jewels.''

Lee says the downloaded tapes were all work-related, routine, and contained
in a secure area at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

''In fact, the `crown jewels' are largely the crown junk,'' he says. ''This
is the biggest nuclear weapons secret that LANL and the government have to
hide.''

Lee says he copied the files - needed to design computer simulations for
nuclear explosions - so he could have backup copies.

''In 1993, I lost several files as a result of a computer system conversion
at the lab,'' he says. ''One of the codes I lost was about nuclear reactor
safety. ... This was an important code, and it was gone.''

A call to the US attorney's office in Albuquerque yesterday was not
immediately returned.

Lee, who has been a US citizen since 1974 and spent 20 years doing
top-secret work at the lab, is suing the government for defamation and
claims he was targeted because he is ethnic Chinese.

In a recent deposition made public yesterday, former energy secretary Bill
Richardson said that ethnicity was not a factor in his firing of Lee or the
decision to investigate him for possible security breaches.

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