Well, Mr. Lee has accepted a plea bargain, and will not be charged with espionage on behalf of China. Given the Clinton administration’s lack of truthfulness on various topics (the bombing of the Sudanese aspirin factory, the undeclared war on Serbia,the Lewinsky affair, etc.) I smell a rat. Obviously, the Chinese have acquired some major portions of our nuclear weapons secret-they let us know as much! And, we know that security procedures at Los Alamos have been lax for many years. But why is the govt. ending this bizarre investigation this way? Either there is much damning evidence (that Clinton/Gore don’t want to see daylight) or an equally disturbing explanation: the fact that Clinto really WANTED the Chinese to be able to build high-yield nuclear weapons!
What is YOUR take on this? Bad as Clinton is, I don’t think he is that bad! But still, there has to be more here than meets the eye!
I dunno, if the facts were not so odd, I’d just label him “Moron” and let it go. But considering we can’t trust either Clinton or Gore, people are going to think the worst regardless.
egkelly:
For a less jaundiced view see this LA Times story. Better hurry though, it won’t be up long.
I should also warn you it does not support your theory that Clinton is a Chinese spy.
Why ignore the third possibility: that the Chinese obtained the information in a manner unconnected to Wen Ho Lee?
This accusation (against Lee) has always struck me as being very suspect.
Total scapegoat. If you follow how the story broke, the Loral (sp?) corporation gave rocket tech to China which was part of what they needed to perfect MIRV. They already stole some tech in the early nineties, so there was a great deal of concern they might get or have gotten the final piece of the puzzle. So, the blame came down on Mr. Lee. Never mind that Loral execs and engineers probably are still out there living la vita loco, or that they gave a lot of money to Clinton who mysteriously and against all military advice approved the tech transfer, it is obviously all some poor immigrant’s fault.
Please ignore the man behind the curtain.
According to the American Physical Society, he’s totally a scapegoat. I’m inclined to take their word on it.
Yup, it seems the FBI totally screwed this case up. OTOH, it would have been much easier for him to get out of this had he not been doing things he was not supposed to be doing (copying information).
I’m with the scapegoat theory. They didn’t start looking until they thought W88 might have been compromised. Then they conveniently find a Taiwanese national. Then the retroactively make the files he has classified. Oh brother. Why am I not surprised that the case collapses?
Daniel Shore on NPR commented that we might have been played by the Chinese as well, as they are concerned about the mass exodus of their talent to the US. This’ll make 'em think twice before the come over here.
Was there any proof even found that the information on the W-88 warhead was stolen from the USA? My recollection is that there is no consenus on that in the “intelligence” world.
My opinion is that some FBI agents focussed on Lee to the detriment of the investigation, and ignored other likely possibilities.
Well, in General Questions, Wen Ho Lee is “a guy who pled to one count of unauthorized possession of national security material” or somesuch.
For anything else, perhaps Great Debates is where you wanted this thread. I’ll move it there.
I’m leaning towards scapegoat, but I would like to hear his excuse of exactly WHY he downloaded that data, and what he did with it. If he is so innocent, he should answer that question.
He has answered it already. It was in order to do work elsewhere. Apparently there were others who did the same.
Say, for instance, Deutch. Y’know, the head of the CIA.
I think that Lee was a convenient scapegoat at the time. I also think that he’s almost destined to get screwed in the future. After all, if he doesn’t give the feds the information that they think is absolutely true, then they’ll start prosecuting again.
Waste
Scapegoat in smokescreen. "The weapon data were not formally classified when Lee copied them. Even now, the material is classified “secret restricted data,” which means under Energy Department regulations that it may be mailed through the U.S. Postal Service. And many senior scientists openly dispute the government’s contention that the missing data represent America’s “crown jewels.” "
Don’t get on Janet Reno’s wrong side!
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 — President Clinton, who called the government’s treatment of scientist Wen Ho Lee unjustified, said Friday he will discuss his concerns with Attorney General Janet Reno. Reno has refused to apologize to Lee for his nine-month-plus detention on charges of breaching national security, and said she was “comfortable” with the way the case was handled.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/458022.asp
The judge said it was a shame what the FBI did, even Clinton has said it! But Janet Reno thinks it was OK. I think she’s lost it. maybe she lost it long time ago.
(Why is the board acting up again?)
The man was a scapegoat, the security at the lab was ludicrous.
Lest the Republicans try to look like innocents in all this mess, let’s remember how they were crying for blood over security leaks even though said leaks and poor security had gone back to the days when Reagan and Bush Sr. were in charge. Day in and day out we were treated to Republicans screaming about lax security and how bad things were because of Clinton and Reno. The right wing talk shows were quite open in accusing Clinton of having nefarious ties to China.
The Republicans baited a trap here, it seems to me, and the Democrats fell all over themselves trying to arrest someone to shut out the hue and cry. They walked right into the trap and made themselves look stupid. Politically created hysteria and foolish arrests. Where have we seen this before? Politics is ugly.
I’m not sure why ANYONE would think that Wen Ho Lee is a “Chinese” spy when he’s a Taiwanese national. Sure, Taiwan is “Chinese”, but we’re talking about the mainland, Communist China here. Mainland China would like nothing better than to have an excuse to invade Taiwan and re-absorb it into the motherland. If China gets more advanced nuclear weapons technology, it isn’t exactly going to mean good times for Taiwan. So, why in the hell would our government suspect a Taiwanese guy of spying for mainland China?! Is our government really so racist that anyone who’s Asian is automatically a suspect?
How about the latest twist in this bizarre tale-Clinton has made remarks about how poorly Mr. Lee was treated-he even saod that Lee should have been granted bail!
What’s with clinton-he won’t stand behind his own appointees? What a man!
Regarding Clinton and Reno, his comments were right on the money I thought. I really can’t stand Clinton, and he’s done precious little that pleased me, but when I heard his comments I actually thought that he was doing the right thing there. Loyalty to appointees shouldn’t, in my book anyway, cause one to refrain from speaking out when there has been a really obvious miscarriage of justice. (For the moment, I will refrain from commenting on the Prez’s own judicial maneuverings, as that would be a long thread.) Lee was obviously shafted in some ways, and Clinton’s statement (that I heard anyway) indicated that it was impossible to reconcile arguing that the man was a grave threat to national security who should be refused bail and kept in isolation on one day, and agreeing to a plea bargain for time served the very next day. He also said that he was troubled by the way the case was handled. IMO, pointing out the hypocrisy inherent in the Justice department’s actions and questioning its decisions was absolutely the right thing to do.