-Caveat Lector-
Richardson accused of Lee leak
Secretary of energy named Wen Ho Lee as suspect in spying,
ex-aide testifies
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 � A former
Energy Department investigator whose own conduct in the Wen Ho
Lee case has been harshly criticized fought back Tuesday,
testifying before a congressional panel that Energy Secretary
Bill Richardson was himself responsible for leaking the
scientist�s name to the media.
NOTRA TRULOCK, the former head of counterintelligence at the
Energy Department, testified Tuesday that a New York Times
reporter had told him that Richardson identified Lee as the
primary suspect in the investigation. It was Trulock�s first
public comment on the case since he abruptly resigned from the
department in August 1999 amid growing controversy over his role
in the Lee case.
�One of the reporters involved in the publication � told me
directly that Secretary Richardson had provided to him the name
of Wen Ho Lee,� Trulock testified at a hearing before a Senate
Judiciary subcommittee that is looking into the government�s
handling of the Lee case. Asked if he could identify the
reporter, Trulock replied, �James Risen, New York Times.�
ENERGY DEPARTMENT DENIAL
In response to a phone call seeking comment, Energy Department
spokesman Stu Nakurka said, �Secretary Richardson categorically
denies this outrageous accusation.�
At the Times, spokeswoman Kathy Park said, �We never comment on
speculation about the identities of confidential sources.� Lee�s
lawyers have filed a Privacy Act lawsuit against both the Energy
and Justice departments, claiming that Richardson and others
leaked Lee�s name to various news organizations. The case is in
the very early stages, before U.S. District Judge Thomas
Penfield Jackson in Washington. Risen was one of two New York
Times reporters who in March 1999 broke the story of an alleged
spying incident at Los Alamos National Laboratory in which China
had obtained U.S. nuclear secrets. Lee was not identified in
the initial story, but his name surfaced in a follow-up report in
the Times and in stories by other news organizations, including
MSNBC.com, several days later.
At Tuesday�s hearing, Trulock also targeted accusations by senior
Energy Department officials that he made Lee the focus of the
agency�s investigation because of what one investigator claimed
were �racist views toward minority groups.� He charged that
Energy Department investigators Robert Vrooman and Charles
Washington had made false public statements about his conduct
during the investigation. It was Washington who charged in a
sworn affidavit filed on Lee�s behalf that Trulock had exhibited
�racist views toward minority groups.� Vrooman, in a similar
affidavit, charged that Lee had been unfairly targeted by Trulock
and others because he is a Chinese-American. Vrooman, who retired
from the Energy Department last year, was himself reprimanded by
Richardson for allegedly failing to assist the FBI investigation
of suspected Chinese espionage.
Trulock said both Vrooman and Washington, as well as other senior
officials at the lab and at the FBI, had been briefed throughout
his investigation and had never expressed concerns about its
direction until public criticism erupted following the
near-collapse of the government�s case against Lee. He said he
has filed lawsuits alleging libel and slander against Richardson,
Vrooman, Washington and Lee in an effort to clear his name.
Trulock is himself under investigation for allegedly compromising
classified information.
FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
Vrooman acknowledged Tuesday that he had failed to communicate
with Trulock despite being angry over what he considered the
investigation�s improper focus on Lee. He said he kept quiet
because senior officials had instructed him to get along with
Trulock and because he was confident that the FBI would clear
Lee.
�We decided as a matter of course to let the FBI have this case,�
he said. �They�ve always protected people�s civil rights and we
thought they would quickly come to the same conclusion that we
had� � that Lee was guilty of carelessness but not espionage.
Also at the hearing, a senior scientist at the Los Alamos lab,
John Richter, told lawmakers that he was not talking about all
the material that Lee downloaded when he testified at a bail
hearing that �99 percent� of the information that Lee had copied
onto tapes was unclassified.
Richter said he was referring only to computer codes detailing
basic scientific principles widely circulated since the 1950s,
not material deemed �secret and restricted� that included basic
design details of U.S. nuclear devices. After being fired by
the lab, Lee was arrested in December and charged with 59 counts
of downloading classified weapons information, including data
that one government scientist characterized at the time as the
�crown jewels� of the U.S. weapons program.
The government�s case against Lee ultimately proved to be weaker
than it was initially portrayed. After spending 278 days in jail
� much of the time in solitary confinement � Lee pleaded guilty
to a single felony count of mishandling classified data in
September and was freed from jail with credit for time served. At
the time, District Judge James Parker of New Mexico apologized to
Lee for his long incarceration without bail and sharply
criticized the government�s handling of the case.
The New York Times, in an unusual �clarification,� last month
expressed regret for �flaws� and �a problem of tone� in its
initial reports on the case.
MSNBC.com�s Mike Brunker, NBC producer Robert Windrem and The
Associated Press contributed to this report.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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