Lee says he has been unfairly singled out by the government because of his Chinese heritage

December 10, 1999
Web posted at: 1:37 p.m. EST (1837 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal government is preparing to indict a former physicist at the Las Alamos National Laboratory on charges he mishandled highly classified nuclear data -- but not that he spied -- sources told CNN Friday.

An announcement could come later in the day.

Although Wen Ho Lee has been investigated in connection with allegations of Chinese espionage at U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories, sources said the indictment would not accuse him of spying.

Instead, the indictment would allege he failed to adequately safeguard classified information by downloading top secret data into a non-secure computer.

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Sources say that information includes essentially the blueprint for many of the nation's most sophisticated nuclear weapons.

Lee, an American physicist who was born in Taiwan, has denied passing secrets to China. He was fired from the Los Alamos lab in New Mexico last March for security violations.

Lee and some critics of the investigation say he was unfairly singled out because of his ethnicity. China has steadfastly denied stealing U.S. nuclear secrets.

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