Questions Haunt Wiretap Denial in China Spy Case 01 April, 1999 By Bruce Sullivan CNS Staff Writer (CNS) - The Department of Justice approved 748 applications for electronic surveillance or physical searches in 1997. It denied only one - the FBI's request to wiretap Wen Ho Lee, a computer scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, who has since been fired amid suspicions of espionage at the laboratory. The wiretap was denied despite Attorney General Janet Reno's admission that there was "probable cause to believe the target to be an agent of a foreign power," according to Justice Department documents. "In one case, although satisfied as to the probable cause to believe the target to be an agent of a foreign power, the court declined to approve the application," wrote Reno in a letter to L. Ralph Mecham, Director, Administrative Office of the United States Courts dated April 29, 1998. When Lee was given a sensitive new job at the Los Alamos facility, which conducts top-secret nuclear research, the FBI suspected him of espionage and only approved his assignment with the stipulation that they would seek a wiretap authorization from the Department of Justice. The DoJ denied the request on the grounds that the evidence against Lee was too old. "The government has filed a motion to withdraw that case as it has become moot," said Reno in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CNS. The Justice Department did not return CNS telephone calls for further comment, but FBI Supervisory Special Agent Anita Dickens told CNS that there is an ongoing investigation in the case, which prevents the Bureau from commenting on it. Chinese espionage at the Los Alamos laboratory is now suspected to have been going on since at least the early 1980's, but the extent of it was not suspected until 1995, when American experts found similarities between China's miniature nuclear warheads and America's most advanced miniature warhead, the W-88. The security breaches occurred after the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which greatly expanded the powers of law enforcement agencies to wiretap and search espionage suspects. Additionally, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12949 on February 9, 1995, which gives the attorney general the authority to conduct surveillance of suspected spies without a court order. "Pursuant to section 302 (a) (1) of the Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year," wrote Clinton in the executive order. With evidence of suspected espionage and expanded power to investigate such suspicions, some are wondering why the Clinton Administration failed to exercise its authority to learn more about security breaches within America's nuclear weapons technology community. A bipartisan House select committee on technology transfers to China, which is co-chaired by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA) and Rep. Norman Dicks (D-WA) is scheduled to release all or part of its classified report by the end of April, a committee spokesman told CNS. Cox had hoped to release the report in March, but disagreements between the committee and the White House over which parts of the top-secret report should be declassified and released have delayed publication of the committee's findings.
