Word: lee
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There remain mysteries surrounding Lee. The engineer first came to the FBI's attention in 1982, when an FBI wiretap picked up a phone conversation between Lee and another Taiwanese-born scientist who was under investigation for passing U.S. neutron-bomb secrets to the Chinese. The FBI then administered a polygraph test on Lee. He passed with flying colors. In the mid-'80s, he and his wife again appeared on the FBI's radar screen, when they approached the Albuquerque field office and volunteered to inform on visiting delegations from the People's Republic and on Chinese scientists...
...field agents in Albuquerque zeroed in on Lee's office computer and proposed a covert search of his hard drive. But because of laws against searches and seizures in the workplace, government officials can't rifle employees' computers or desks unless the workspace has been specifically marked with banners warning of possible searches. The computers at Los Alamos weren't tagged, so to execute a search, the agents had to apply for a formal warrant through the Justice Department...
...then the investigation of Lee had devolved into a bureaucratic Byzantium. The Albuquerque agents filed their warrant request with the Justice Department in July 1997. Officials there concluded that the FBI did not have sufficient proof that Lee posed a national-security threat grave enough to merit a raid on his computer. Exasperated FBI authorities appealed to Attorney General Janet Reno, but she wouldn't budge. Attempts to get more goods on Lee turned up nothing. Says a veteran counterespionage investigator of China's spy network: "They're everywhere, but it's hard to catch them doing anything...
...Lee's undoing came about not from conclusive evidence of his spying but from disclosure of the case late last year to Representative Christopher Cox's committee investigating allegations of Chinese spying. The committee informed the Administration that it would reveal China's alleged W-88 theft in its report. That put the pressure on Richardson. In February he ordered a polygraph of Lee, who failed it. On March 5, FBI agents confronted Lee and extracted permission to search his computer. Three days later, Richardson fired Lee and assured everyone the worst was over. It was not. On March...
...President Gore have pushed for closer U.S.-China ties, they are also likely to face charges of elevating politics and commercial interests over national security. After White House stonewalling on two other China-related investigations (the fund raising and the technology transfers), Republicans will assume the worst about the Lee case. Says Republican Senator Richard Lugar: "This kind of thing is grist for the mill for endless investigations." With an election year coming up, Wen Ho Lee may prove to be the most dangerous man for Democrats on the campaign trail...