Lee says no -- will seek justice
(5-7-99) Today, Lee Wen Ho made good on his statement in March (passed on by his older brother, Wen Tu Lee) that he would go public.
The LA Times today reported his attorney provided a six page document outlining his innocence. The Washington Post also reported this as well.
What I find interesting is that the Post wrote this line about it:
Wen Ho Lee, the prime espionage suspect at Los Alamos National Laboratory, spoke out for the first time yesterday...
Well if you look here, you saw that he had spoken out about this before, saying essentially the same thing as has been reported today.
The Los Angeles Times was more accurate in their intro by stating: "...his first detailed response" to the allegations. That is an accurate statement.
I wondered if or when the media would pick up on Lee and his claims of innocence. And I also wondered if Lee would ever make good on the statements made in March that he would go public to clear his good name.
Apparently he has now.
Here are the LA Times and Washington Post articles about it.
(3-16-99) Wen Ho Lee in LA suburb, plans to fight for justice -- says charges are false, will go public and take legal action to clear his name.
Last week news broke that said the People's Republic of China stole US nuclear bomb technology that allows bombs to be made smaller. This is the top of the line technology and is important for multiple warhead missiles.
The story broke in the New York Times on March 6, and soon after Dr Wen Ho Lee was fired from his post at Los Alamos.
He is not arrested because the FBI says they do not have enough evidence that he provided the classified data to the Chinese Communist Government. This aspect of the case has been covered extensively in the US press.
Lee has been quiet, not talking to the press.
What hasn't been reported is that he left his Los Alamos home after the furor erupted and went to stay at his older brother's house in southern California.
Reports from the Central News Agency of Taiwan that also appeared in the Mingpao Chinese language newspaper tell of Lee's whereabouts and plans via his older brother and a friend.
He has gone to California to avoid the swarm of media and has stayed inside watching TV and reading the paper and is said to be sad and angry about the misrepresentation of his case.
According to the reports, Lee has decided to get a lawyer and address this through legal action and to go public and fight for justice. He wants people to know he is virtuous person and did not do it.
The reports also state that Lee's brother's wife and son were killed in a robbery last year and the family is having to endure more than ordinarily people need to bear.
A good review of the case is here from the Asian Wall Street Journal.
MSTKG comment: I have no idea if Lee did it or not. Reports indicate he was in a position to have access or knowledge of the information need to upgrade nuclear bombs. He did apparently have that expertise.
He says he didn't do it and will go public and prove it. I assume thie reports I talked about above mean he is going to sue.
If he did do it the FBI will have to make their case.
Only Lee and the Chinese Communists know for sure...
