Wen Ho Lee
Wen Ho Lee's Story
One of the most prominent modern-day cases of Chinese American surveillance, Wen Ho Lee’s story demonstrates how race plays a critical role in shaping perceptions of loyalty within America. Born in Taiwan in 1939, Wen Ho Lee grew up in Taiwan before moving to the United States to study at Texas A&M in 1965. Naturalized in 1970, Wen Ho Lee joined Los Alamos as a scientist in the late 70s and began working on computer simulations of atomic warhead detonations while raising his family. He would work at Los Alamos for 20 years before suspicions of nuclear espionage disrupted his life.
Timeline of Events
1974 - Became a naturalized US citizen
Late 1970s - Joined Los Alamos as a scientist
While at Los Alamos, Lee’s work would focus on analyzing the data collected from nuclear detonation tests in order to generate models of nuclear explosions
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1988 - Receives approval from Los Alamos to travel to China to give a seminar
It’s on this trip to China that the FBI alleges Wen Ho Lee both leaked classified design information on US nuclear warheads at the seminar as well as making contact with prominent members of the Chinese Communist Party.
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June 1995 - FBI begins to formally investigate the leaking of US nuclear secrets to China
Operation Kindred Spirit would focus on Los Alamos and other sites involved in the development of the W-88 nuclear warhead. This program would single out Wen Ho Lee and his wife who was also a secretary at Los Alamos their previous involvement in indicting another spy and his wife’s previous role as an FBI informant.
March 6th, 1999 - The New York Times publically reveals the FBI investigation identifying a Chinese-American Los Alamos scientist who was suspected of leaking US nuclear secrets to China
As one of only a couple Chinese Americans working at Los Alamos, Wen Ho Lee was quickly singled out and revealed to the public resulting in media scrutiny and death threats. This time of turmoil significantly impacted his family of 4 with Lee’s daughter, Alberta Lee, sharing that former friends began to distance themselves from their family as a result of the allegations against her father especially among friends from immigrant families whose American status could also be questioned.
NYTimes TimesMachine (March 6th, 1999)
March 9th, 1999 - Wen Ho Lee is fired from Los Alamos by Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson
​Alberta Lee would go on to describe this day as the day the Wen Ho Lee allegations became personal to her. The heightened media attention and narrative of her father as a threat to American safety would go on to produce significant anxiety for her and her family, even going so far as to scream at the TV due to the negative coverage of her father. The continued coverage of Wen Ho Lee at this point would continue to inflame the public’s perceptions of Wen Ho Lee leading to widespread belief in his guilt and danger to society.
Bill RIchardson 60 min
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxJBaUoqccF1boIPb6fYBSJReTF1t38vCL
December 10th, 1999 - Wen Ho Lee is detained and placed in solitary confinement out of fear of contacting the Chinese government
Leading up to the arrest, the FBI had investigated Lee and his family, going through both work and personal records and even tailing Lee and his family until they found downloaded classified information from Los Alamos to his unclassified office computer at Los Alamos. Throughout this entire period, Wen Ho Lee refused to retain an attorney believing that the American criminal justice system would absolve him since he hadn’t committed any crimes. It wasn’t until the FBI began to draw comparisons between Lee and the Rosenbergs, the prominent spies who leaked the American nuclear bomb to the Soviet Union and were subsequently executed by the US, where Lee began to seek an attorney.
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February 2000 - Denied bail due to the perceived risk to national security
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November 2000 - Trial began with Wen Ho Lee facing 59 different charges dealing with espionage and mishandling of classified information
The FBI’s primary case against Wen Ho Lee rested on the assumption that only an individual who sought to harm the United States would download as much information as Wen Ho Lee did. This was despite Lee’s background and job in data collection and analysis, the ubiquity of digital backups of data at Los Alamos, and the fact that the data Lee downloaded was unclassified at the time of download before being classified after the fact. In the lead up to the trial, Lee’s family worked tirelessly with organizations and activists, especially formerly interned Japanese Americans, to secure proper due process for Wen Ho Lee.
September 13th, 2000 - Entered into a plea agreement to drop 58 charges only pleading guilty to mishandling of classified information and received a formal apology from the trial judge for his treatment
While free from the worst indictment, Lee and his family faced enduring consequences both from the invasiveness of the FBI investigation as well as the media scrutiny which surrounded their family. Alberta Lee would go on to describe their once apolitical family as now disillusioned with the American government, the criminal justice system, and the media apparatus.
The Significance of the Wen Ho Lee Story
While this timeline conveys some of the characteristics of Wen Ho Lee’s detainment and release, it fails to show important details which made Wen Ho Lee’s case uniquely troubling. The initial New York Times coverage was quick to emphasize the national security risk at the time without critically evaluating Wen Ho Lee’s life and personal relationships with other people leading to a media frenzy and public outcry against Wen Ho Lee and his family. It fails to highlight how the prosecution’s case against Wen Ho Lee was premised on the idea that only a person who sought to damage the US would download the files he did ignoring that it was common practice among Los Alamos scientists at the time while failing to include that downloaded data was never taken off site or connected to the Internet. Finally, it fails to discuss how the post-Cold War politics of the time likely amplified Lee’s case with Republicans criticizing the Democrats for their weak national security and with Bill Richardson being a contender for Al Gore’s VP nominee. All of these details illustrate how quickly the loyalty of Chinese Americans is questioned regardless of legal status or contribution to the United States, reminiscent of the detention of Japanese-American citizens during WWII. Most importantly, we still do not fully know the FBI’s rationale for indicting Wen Ho Lee with the plea deal being accepted just a few days before sharing investigatory documents with the defense team would have been required by court order. Justice has not been achieved for Wen Ho Lee and much of his family.