Lee’s Detention Ran Counter to U.S. Values, Clinton Says

Nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee’s nine-month pretrial detention conflicted with America’s disdain for “abusive executive authority,” President Clinton said Friday as his administration came under growing criticism concerning the handling of the nuclear security case.

The 60-year-old Taiwan-born scientist, fired in March 1999 from his job at the Los Alamos weapon lab in New Mexico and vilified as a suspected spy, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of mishandling classified material and was freed.

The government dropped 58 other felony counts that once charged him with endangering some of America’s most sensitive nuclear secrets. He was never charged with espionage, although the FBI at one point attempted to get him to confess to such a charge--which can be a capital crime. Lee has maintained he never provided secrets to anyone.

Lee’s lawyers said Friday that Lee had given the go-ahead to pursue a civil lawsuit accusing the government of violating federal privacy laws by leaking information suggesting he was a spy. The lawsuit, which had been on hold since May pending outcome of the criminal case, may also address whether Lee was singled out by investigators because he is ethnic Chinese.

Clinton said he has seen no evidence of racial profiling in connection with the Lee case. “I don’t believe that,” he told reporters at the White House.

The civil suit, originally filed shortly after Lee was indicted in December, is being heard in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Lee’s lawyers argued in the now-concluded criminal case heard in Albuquerque that the scientist had become a suspect because of his Chinese heritage.

Some Republicans in Congress called the Justice Department’s pursuit of Lee a “fiasco,” and at least one Senate hearing on the government’s actions has been scheduled.

The president, who said Thursday that he was concerned about how the Lee matter was handled, was sharply critical Friday of Lee’s pretrial detention--nine months in solitary confinement, often shackled and under conditions normally reserved for terrorists. He was allowed little contact with even his family.

Later, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, when asked if the government owed Lee an apology, said, “There’s no discussion of that.” Clinton noted that while all but one of the felony counts were dropped, Lee still admitted to having committed “a serious national security violation.”