A convenient spy : Wen Ho Lee and the politics of nuclear espionage

No espionage case in recent decades has been anything like the Wen Ho Lee affair. As Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman describe in "A Convenient Spy," an astonishingly inept investigation of a crime that may never have occurred ended in a national disgrace. A weapons-code scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lee was hunted as a spy for China, indicted on fifty-nine counts, and held in detention for nine months as a threat to the entire nation. But after pleading guilty to just one count, he went home -- with an unusual and emotional apology from a federal judge. Prosecutors' claims that Lee had stolen America's "crown jewels" of nuclear security simply evaporated. Yet Lee's motives have never been satisfactorily explained, and his often-repeated excuse that he was just backing up his work files does not stand up to scrutiny. As Stober and Hoffman report, Lee's lies and his unexplained connections to foreign scientists spanned eighteen years. He was a security nightmare. Tapping at his keyboard, he assembled a private collection of the computer programs used to design America's nuclear weapons, then left them vulnerable to hackers and foreign intelligence services for years. The FBI's belated discovery that he had also put the codes on portable cassette tapes launched a frenzied worldwide search that eventually carried agents to the Los Alamos landfill. And yet today, the tapes have never been found. In 1995, Lee was just another American, a Taiwanese immigrant striving to support a family he cherished and to make a name for himself in scientific circles. Unknown to him, however, scientists working in the secret world of nuclear-weapons intelligence examined purloinedChinese documents, studied spy reports, and wondered: Had China stolen the secrets of the W88, America's most advanced nuclear weapon? Scientific hunches rapidly evolved into a criminal investigation aimed at Lee. He had been overheard by the FBI while telephoning a spy suspect, and he was warmly embraced by a high-ranking Chinese nuclear-weapons official whom he wasn't supposed to know. The FBI noted that he was "ethnic Chinese." And in this uncertain period after the Cold War, many politicians played up China as a threatening new enemy. Energy Secretary and vice presidential hopeful Bill Richardson was eager to fire Lee and appear decisive in protecting national security. In this stormy confluence of intelligence and politics, Lee became a convenient spy. But was he guilty? Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman tell the story of the Wen Ho Lee fiasco dramatically and authoritatively, providing an objective account that no partisan version of the story can match. Dan Stober, Ian Hoffman......Page Flyleaf.djvu A Convenient Spy......Page 3.djvu ISBN 0743223780......Page 4.djvu Acknowledgements......Page 5.djvu C O N T E N T S......Page 9.djvu Prologue : 'They Electrocuted Them, Wen Ho’......Page 11.djvu 1 Nantou to Los Alamos......Page 17.djvu 2 The Hill......Page 27.djvu 3 A Neat and Delicate Package......Page 36.djvu 4 The China Connection......Page 45.djvu 5 Tiger Trap......Page 62.djvu 6 The Narrow Neck of the Hourglass......Page 67.djvu 7 Alarm Bells......Page 79.djvu 8 ASKINT Meets Guanxi......Page 86.djvu 9 The Collector......Page 96.djvu 10 Kindred Spirits......Page 103.djvu 11 A Shallow Pool......Page 120.djvu 12 Mass—Market Espionage......Page 128.djvu 13 The Out-of-Towner......Page 140.djvu 14 The PISA......Page 150.djvu 15 Flying the False Flag......Page 157.djvu 16 Trulock and the True Believers......Page 163.djvu 17 Exile from X Division......Page 171.djvu 18 Panic......Page 179.djvu 19 "As Bad as the Rosenbergs"......Page 191.djvu 20 Becoming the Enemy......Page 204.djvu 21 Shock Waves......Page 220.djvu 22 Intent to Injure......Page 237.djvu 23 The Crown Jewels......Page 248.djvu 24 'It’s Conceivable That This Is Possible’......Page 268.djvu 25 Swords of Armageddon......Page 285.djvu 26 The Momentum Shifts......Page 303.djvu 27 Freedom......Page 314.djvu Epilogue......Page 332.djvu Photographs......Page Plate_1.djvu Notes......Page 351.djvu Index......Page 361.djvu "No espionage case in recent decades has been anything like the Wen Ho Lee affair. As Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman describe in A Convenient Spy, an astonishingly inept investigation of a crime that may never have occurred ended in a national disgrace. A weapons-code scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lee was hunted as a spy for China, indicted of fifty-nine counts, and held in detention for nine months as a threat to the entire nation. But after pleading guilty to just one count, he went home - with an unusual and emotional apology from a federal judge. Prosecutors' claims that Lee had stolen America's "crown jewels" of nuclear security simply evaporated. Yet Lee's motives have never been satisfactorily explained, and his often-repeated excuse that he was just backing up his work files does not stand up to scrutiny."--BOOK JACKET. Journeys behind the scenes to provide a close-up look at the untold story behind the bungled nuclear espionage case, offering a vivid portrait of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, the secret intelligence competition between the U.S. and Chinese, and the implications of the case for the development of modern nuclear weaponry and Sino-U.S. relations. 50,000 first printing. Examines the untold story behind the bungled nuclear espionage case, offering a portrait of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee and discussing the implications of the case for the development of nuclear weaponry and Sino-U.S. relations Dan Stober And Ian Hoffman. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 351-359) And Index. World War II had just begun in Europe when Wen Ho Lee was born-December 21, 1939.