Scientist charged in nuclear secrets case may have been job-hunting instead

July 7, 2000
Web posted at: 9:19 p.m. EDT (0119 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON -- Was scientist Wen Ho Lee job-hunting instead of spying when he allegedly downloaded nuclear weapons secrets from computers at Los Alamos National Laboratory?

A document filed this week by the Justice Department in federal court in Albuquerque, New Mexico, lists eight nations to which Lee addressed letter seeking employment: Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and China.

The letters were sent in 1993, when Lee had begun downloading nuclear secrets from the Los Alamos computers, according to the two-page statement filed in the court by U.S. Attorney Norman C. Bay.

	MESSAGE BOARD
National security

According to testimony late last year, Lee made contact with representatives of the People's Republic of China's Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, which has been involved in the design and simulation of nuclear weapons.

The 60-year-old scientist has been jailed without bond since he was indicted in December 1999 on 59 counts of illegally copying data on nuclear weapons design. He is not charged with espionage.

So far, prosecutors have presented no tangible evidence that Lee actually provided any nuclear secrets to any of the countries listed. Lee, who has pleaded not guilty, is expected to go to trial in November.

This is the first document filed by the government that has suggested a motive other than espionage.

While the U.S. does not recognize Taiwan as a state, the document notes Taiwan is a "foreign nation" for purposes of these criminal statutes. It also says contact with Hong Kong was made prior to July 1, 1997, while it was still "the British Dependent Territory of Hong Kong."

Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997.

CNN Justice Department producer Terry Frieden and Reuters contributed to this report.

Los Alamos nuclear lab reports two more security mishaps
June 24, 2000
(TIME.com) There's double trouble in the spy industry
May 19, 2000
Wen Ho Lee indicted, arrested in Los Alamos case
December 10, 1999
China denies spy link to fired U.S. scientist
March 9, 1999
China spy suspect fired by Energy Department
March 8, 1999

U.S. Department of Justice
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.