DATE=6/8/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=WEN HO LEE PROTESTS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263308
BYLINE=MIKE O'SULLIVAN
DATELINE=LOS ANGELES
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
Voiced At:
Intro: Asian-American activists staged protests
Thursday in a number U-S cities over the treatment of
Wen Ho Lee, a former U-S scientist charged with
mishandling nuclear secrets. Mr. Lee, a U-S citizen,
was born in Taiwan. As we hear from Mike O'Sullivan,
his supporters call him a victim of selective
prosecution.
Text: Mr. Lee is a former weapons scientist at the
Los Alamos National Laboratory who is charged with 59
counts of mishandling nuclear secrets. The government
says he downloaded the secret data onto unsecured
computers and portable tapes.
The scientist is being held in solitary confinement
while he awaits trail. The government argues that
releasing him on bail would allow him to disclose the
location of seven computer tapes, which are now
missing.
Representatives of 20 Asian-American organizations in
California protested his treatment on Thursday, in one
of at least eight demonstrations around the United
States.
/// SFX - CROWD SOUNDS ///
Local organizations from Los Angeles neighborhoods of
Koreatown, Chinatown and Little Tokyo say Mr. Lee is
receiving harsh treatment because of his race.
Political activist Alfred Foung (fong) believes the
scientist is a victim of racial profiling.
/// FOUNG ACT ///
That's how we see it, because in our legal
system people are innocent until they are proven
guilty. And there are many more people who have
committed similar or more severe code violations
that remain free and were not charged.
/// END ACT ///
Protesters point out the former C-I-A director, John
Deutch, placed classified information on an unsecure
computer that was attached to the Internet. He lost
his security clearance last year, but did not face
criminal charges.
Dan Tokaji of the American Civil Liberties Union calls
that unfair.
/// TOKAJI ACT ///
Mr. Lee, on the other hand, was the subject of a
massive investigation involving some one-
thousand witnesses being interviewed, some one-
million files being reviewed. At the end of all
that, they could uncover no evidence of
espionage on the part of Mr. Lee, and
essentially to save face are making these
charges against him.
/// END ACT ///
Federal officials respond that the two cases are very
different. They say Mr. Lee first drew their
attention in 1982, and in the 1990s he systematically
copied thousands of pages of files. In 1995, he came
under investigation by the Energy Deapartment, which
runs U-S nuclear labs. A multi-agency probe finally
led to his indictment in December last year.
/// OPT /// One supporter of Mr. Lee, Kathy Feng
(fung) of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center,
says despite its invesigation, the government has not
found any proof of espionage, only that Mr. Lee
mishandled sensitive data.
/// FENG ACT ///
They're charging him with 59 counts because they
couldn't find any espionage but they didn't want
to backpedal so they had to charge him with
something.
/// END ACT - END OPT ///
When the trial begins, the government says it will
prove Mr. Lee jeopardized nearly every U-S nuclear
secret through his unauthorized copying. Most
alarming, they say, some of the files that he copied
are now missing.
Mr. Lee's supporters ask the U-S Department of Justice
to reexamine the evidence, and if they still want to
prosecute, to release Mr. Lee on bail until his trial
date. Federal officials contend that would pose a
grave risk to U-S security. The trial will begin in
November. (Signed)
Neb/PT
08-Jun-2000 19:04 PM LOC (08-Jun-2000 2304 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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