Sensitivity of Lab Tapes Is Disputed

Attorneys for a scientist accused of putting nuclear secrets on unsecured computer tapes said in Albuquerque that the information, far from being “crown jewels” of U.S. weapon science, was not even classified top secret. Wen Ho Lee’s attorneys, in a filing sent to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, said that if the information had been as vital as government witnesses said, it would have been given the top-secret classification, instead of the lower classifications it was under, they said in seeking to get Lee released from jail pending trial. Lee, fired from Los Alamos National Laboratory in March, is accused of transferring nuclear weapon information to unsecured computers and tapes.