Ex-Los Alamos scientist called spy for China

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | January 17, 2003 | Bill Gertz

[Alpha One]

A former Energy Department intelligence chief charges in his new book that fired Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee provided sensitive weapons data to China during unreported meetings with nuclear-weapons scientists.

The FBI, however, mishandled the counterespionage investigation of Mr. Lee because the nuclear weapons designer and his wife worked as FBI informants, according to the book by Notra Trulock, Energy intelligence director from 1994 to 1998.

[Registered]

Great reading if you get the chance to pick up a copy!

[ntrulock]

Thank you for your kind words.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for the heads up! Jeepers...

[Registered]

Thanks Mr. Trulock!

I forgot to ask you if you have ever read the evidence on Chinese espionage as compiled by members of FreeRepublic?

CLICK THIS http://www.freerepublic.com/china/index.html to see the report

[tallhappy]

I am referring to Robert Messemer. From February 5, 2001 New York Times:

In testimony, Mr. Messemer, the lead F.B.I. agent, acknowledged having misstated important evidence against Dr. Lee. For example, Mr. Messemer had testified in December 1999 that Dr. Lee had lied by asking a colleague to borrow his computer to download a resume. In fact, Dr. Lee was downloading nuclear secrets, and that testimony seemed to show Dr. Lee's deception -- an element in proving the intent charges.

But defense lawyers discovered that the colleague, in interviews with the F.B.I., had never said Dr. Lee told him he was downloading a resume. Mr. Messemer told the judge he had made "an honest error," and never intended "to mislead you or anyone in this court or any court." Next he acknowledged that after further investigation, there was no evidence that the job-search letters found in Dr. Lee's house had been sent. That undercut the prosecution's image of Dr. Lee feverishly job-hunting.

Also, who provided information for the original Gerth articles on the Lee case?

[ntrulock]

Ah yes, Messemer. This was during the bail phase of Lee's hearings. Messemer truthfully testified that Lee had been downloading nuclear secrets on a friend's computer outside the security perimeter at LANL. Lee would visit his colleague's office during lunch and after hours to make his illicit tapes. The colleague told the Bureau that Lee had told him that he wanted to download some documents and may have mentioned a resume at one point. When the defense team reviewed the notes from the Bureau's interview of the colleague they could find no reference to a resume. The Bureau does not record these interviews, believe it or not, and relies on hand-written notes and memory. In his book, Lee admits that he was downloading secrets. He says he never told the colleague what he was doing...the colleague didn't have a security clearance after all! Not surprisingly, the defense jumped on Messemer's statement and that helped convince Judge Parker that he had been misled by the government re: the need to hold Lee in solitary. All in all, a shameful episode. But, bottom line, Lee had been downloading secrets outside the security perimeter to an unsecure computer. Re: Gerth. I never talked to Gerth until much later. I did talk to Jim Risen, but limited my "revelations" to the manner in which the administration had (mis)handled the case up to that point. But both Risen and Gerth had many "sources" inside the government, including the CIA Director and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. Thanks for you patience in reading this.

[tallhappy]

So Richardson or his people fed the story to the NY Times. Interesting.

Lee had been downloading secrets outside the security perimeter to an unsecure computer

Lee admitted this and was convicted.

Another word for "secrets" is his own work.

No way almost every other coder equivalent to Lee has not also broken rules in a similar fashion -- i.e. moving their code around.

How come the press knew a lot about Lee and his background after his name became public and began staking out his house, but didn't even know he'd left and gone to California? The whole thing was surreal in the lack of and stilted nature of the news reports on this and on Lee.

[ntrulock]

Let me challenge one statement re: what other coders have done. We uncovered a lot of sloppy handling of classified information on laptops, home PCs etc., during my time as D/In and CI. Nothing even remotely came close to the scope and magnitude of what Lee transferred to unclassifed networks. As Joe Stalin once said, "at some point quantity does take on a quality all its own." Transferring 1,2,5 classified files is criminal, transferring the contents of every input file containing sizes, shapes, geometries, materials of every warhead in the US arsenal is in a whole 'nother league. Thanks to Richardson, but also the FBI for siccing the press on Lee in 1999 after he was fired. I often thought it was deliberate, to ensure that Lee could ultimately claim that he couldn't get a fair trial due to sensational media coverage. So Richardson, et.al., wouldn't have to deal with espionage allegations re: china. Ultimately that's what this was about, even the criminal prosecution of Lee was not about espionage, but simply "mishandling classified info." Likewise Peter Lee, who admitted giving Chinese nuclear secrets, but also some very sensitive ASW stuff but was let off with less than a slap on the wrist and no espionage charges.

[tallhappy]

My hunch was this is how you would answer. I think the amount is significant.

[ntrulock]

Well, it is. Nobody should be given a free pass to carry classified material out of the lab or anywhere else. Or to load it on their laptop, etc. But Lee...

[Mia T]

play tape