Wen Ho Lee Set Free 7 Years Ago Today (NM-Bill Richardson)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | September 13, 2007 | Bruce Daniels

[CedarDave]

It's unlikely that Gov. Bill Richardson will be reminding voters in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination of this part of his fabled resume.

Former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee pleaded guilty on Sept. 13, 2000 to a single count of mishandling nuclear secrets, ending an ordeal in which the Taiwanese-American scientist had spent 278 days in solitary confinement after being arrested in December 1999 for allegedly violating the Atomic Energy Act and stealing nuclear secrets.

Seven years ago today, federal prosecutors dropped 58 counts of illegally downloading classified data from Los Alamos National Laboratory computers, and Lee was given an extraordinary apology by U.S. District Judge James A. Parker who accused the federal government of "abuse of power" in going after Lee.

It was while Richardson was President Bill Clinton's energy secretary that he ordered Lee's firing and was considered by some to be the source who leaked Lee's name to reporters -- which became the object of a lawsuit by Lee, who sued the Energy Department, the FBI and "unnamed individuals" for damages he suffered to his reputation caused by leaks of confidential information.

According to the Albuquerque Journal story at the time of the lawsuit, Richardson denied in sworn testimony that he was the source of the leaks or that he made any improper disclosures.

It was announced in June 2006 that the government and five news organizations settled the privacy lawsuit for a total of $1,650,000.

[CedarDave]

A news item reminder for history buffs and conspiracy theorists.

[CedarDave]

NM Ping!

[Elsiejay]

Soome day, I hope, someone will write a book about the way security procedures and classified materials handling were made farcical during the reign of Richardson’s predecessor, a female nonentity whose name has escaped (what remains of ) my mind. How that national security fiasco was swept under yet another Clinton rug deserves to be revealed.

[3AngelaD]

Let’s see now. Wen Ho Lee was criminally negligent, at least, with the way he handled America’s nuclear secrets. He was almost certainly a spy, although one school of thought has it that he was a double agent. It is very likely Richardson was the one who revealed his name and violated his “privacy,” although Richardson of course denied it. Lee, playing his victim card cleverly, ends up $1.6 million courtesy of the taxpayers for having his “privacy” invaded. Where is he now?

[CedarDave]

Where is he now?

I have no idea. Probably still in Los Alamos as he and his wife had a nice house there. How much in money he has after he gets through paying his lawyers and the IRS, I don't know.

[greyfoxx39]

NM Ping

If you want on or off the NM Ping list, please FReepmail me.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Hazel O’ Leary

When she stopped by Sandia on a tour, they showed her the manipulator arms in the hot cell. There were 2 sets, one “Master” and one “Slave”. Her comment? “Re-name those immediately!”

Another Clintoon afirmative action poster child.

[Santa Fe_Conservative]

He also wrote that book, which I heard it’s procedes went to pay for his lawyer fees.

[greyfoxx39]

 

Hazel R. O'Leary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• navigation,

Hazel Rollins O'Leary
7th
In office ,  – ,
President
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Born	,

Hazel Rollins O'Leary (born , ) was the seventh from 1993 to 1997.She was the first and to date only woman to hold the position.

Born in , she is an alumna of of Newport News.

O'Leary worked as a in after graduation from and was later a partner in the accounting firm of . During the administration, O'Leary was assistant administrator of the , of the , and administrator of the Economic Regulatory Administration at the newly-created . In 1981, O'Leary established with her husband the consulting firm of , serving as vice president and general counsel. From 1989 to 1993, she worked as an executive vice president of the . O'Leary was nominated to be Secretary of Energy in 1993 by . Since 2004, O'Leary has served as President of her undergraduate alma mater, the historically black in .

Contents

[

] Declassification of human radiation experiments by U.S. government

She won early plaudits for declassifying Cold War-era records showing that the U.S. Government had used American citizens as guinea pigs in , which was in response to President Clinton's Executive Order 12891 which created the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE).

] Travel scandal

During her term as Secretary of Energy, she was often accused of travelling too frequently and spending lavishly on her accommodations. She apologized to Congressional committees in 1996 for spending which exceeded limits on the funds appropriated for travel and resigned in January 1997. Some also made the accusation that these trips, which according to a report sometimes paid expenses for businessmen, were used to pay back contributors.

It was later revealed that scandal figure claimed that O'Leary met with Chinese oil officials after Chung had donated $25,000 to O'Leary's favorite charity . Janet Reno refused to authorize an investigation of this charge, however. It was later revealed that director had advised Reno that the circumstances surrounding the donations were "extraordinarily suspicious".

[greyfoxx39]

Sorry about the gaps...hot links didn’t transfer.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***When she stopped by Sandia on a tour, they showed her the manipulator arms in the hot cell. There were 2 sets, one “Master” and one “Slave”. Her comment? “Re-name those immediately!”***

Don’t let her near my auto brakes!

[pigsmith]

Hazel O’ Leary

When she stopped by Sandia on a tour, they showed her the manipulator arms in the hot cell. There were 2 sets, one “Master” and one “Slave”. Her comment? “Re-name those immediately!”

Another Clintoon afirmative action poster child.

Among some of the other stupid changes she mandated was having all the badges redone in all one color. She apparently claimed that having different colors for different clearances was discrimination.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I remember that one now!

[pigsmith]

She’s also the reason for those “slap you first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen all day” turnstiles.

[Tijeras_Slim]

They’re not so bad compared to getting a vehicle into area 5.

[pigsmith]

Ah, memories! I rather enjoyed A-5, only because getting in there was such a pain, it kept out the high level busy-bodies that only drove out there when they got bored with life in A-1.