Wen Ho Lee Freed

* The Wen Ho Lee case is a travesty of justice and an obscene abuse of government power (Sept. 13-14). Lee may be a free man, but he is a felon who has lost his right to vote, run for office, bear arms or serve on jury duty. And for what? Downloading classified data onto an unsecured computer and portable tapes, which was a common practice at the lab.

Even when the government realized its case was weak, it continued to hold Lee in strict confinement for 278 days. Yet nothing was made of the missing and mysteriously reappearing hard drives that occurred during the Los Alamos fire while Lee was in custody. Like the Canadian Mounties, the FBI “always gets its man.” Unfortunately, the FBI doesn’t care whether he’s guilty or not. Lee was a scapegoat and a victim of racial profiling who deserves more than a profuse apology from U.S. District Judge James A. Parker.

LIONEL De LEON

Garden Grove

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In listening to the reports on the release of Lee from solitary confinement, I have been struck like a thunderbolt by Judge Parker’s comments. Never have I heard such a terrible indictment of our federal government and its higher officials in such a reasoned fashion. That the government was able to fundamentally deprive an individual of the most basic human rights, apparently without cause, strikes to the very core of our values and our Constitution.

That the evidence presented indicated no crime was committed and that despite this the government proceeded with the case, knowingly depriving Lee of basic human contact, reeks of the twin evils of Nazism and Stalinism. That this may have been done for political reasons makes me ashamed to call myself an American.

The current administration has a history of using the law and other tools of the state as a weapon against the helpless to further its political fortunes. It would seem that Orwell’s “1984” was only a few years off target.

MATTHEW HOLZMANN

Newport Beach

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Lee’s plea bargain is a travesty of justice. The government had no case. They threw Lee into solitary confinement for nine months and turned him into a felon so they could save face. What has happened to our justice system? What has happened to the 4th Amendment? Why didn’t the judge throw the plea bargain out with the rest of the garbage?

This is the problem--if Lee can be locked in solitary and turned into a felon for no reason, we are all at risk. Our government is no better than the governments we regularly criticize for human rights violations. We had better pay attention; our house is not in order.

JOAN E. MEIJER

Los Angeles

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Re “How FBI’s Flawed Case Against Lee Unraveled,” Sept. 13: You quote the FBI as saying it had achieved its goal by “securing the full cooperation of Mr. Lee.” Wow. And all it took was a threat to execute him. How do I spell professionalism? F-B-I.

TOM GORMAN

Pasadena

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I read the long piece on the detention and “interrogation” of Dr. Lee. I was surprised to find that I had been under a false impression these many years. I was sure we had all been told that Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover were dead.

GLORIA DREXLER

Santa Monica