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 The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your letters to the editor.

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Justice bungles again

Web posted September 12, 2000

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Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff

The Los Alamos scientist who has been in jail for the past nine months for spying has cut a deal with the government, admitting his guilt in one count of mishandling secret documents. He's due to be released from jail today.

The government's case was evidently pretty shaky. But there's little doubt Wen Ho Lee had moved classified material from a classified computer to an unclassified computer, and there is still a serious question as to whether tapes are still missing, or have been destroyed, as he claims.

The government originally had 59 counts against Lee, most involving the collection and storing of information critical to the national defense. The case grew more complicated when Lee accused the government of going after him because of his Chinese-American ethnicity. The fact is that Lee was taking home an awful lot of sensitive information, and had no credible rationale for doing so. It was a clear security lapse.

It's also true that, although he is an American citizen, he has a lot of contacts with China, both Taiwan and mainland. It isn't an irrational thought to wonder if Lee has conflicted loyalties, as with the Jonathan Pollard-Israel espionage case.

But Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis J. Freeh evidently didn't have the evidence to pursue Lee and, in fact, one senior law enforcement officer now says there was no breach of national security. Who are you going to believe? Janet Reno?

Another apparent government concern is that if the matter goes to trial, classified nuclear weapons information will have to be disclosed to defense attorneys. That would mean the material would need to be declassified, creating another government headache.

Either way, the whole thing has been yet another Clinton administration bungle.

Part of the plea agreement requires Lee to take lie detector tests. If he fails those tests, the government has the right to, and should, proceed with a perjury trial.