Reno Defends ‘Close Call’ on Spy Suspect

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno defended the Justice Department’s refusal to let the FBI search the computer of a suspected nuclear weapon lab spy in 1997 as “a close call” justified by a lack of evidence. Reno’s defense in a meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee left Republicans and Democrats angry over the slow response by Justice and the FBI to an espionage crisis. Critics contend a computer search would have turned up evidence found only last month that Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Wen Ho Lee shifted classified atomic weapon codes to an unsecured computer. Lee has not been charged with a crime, although he was fired from the New Mexico lab in March. He denies the allegations.