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FBI Misled Fired Nuclear Scientist
2000-01-08
WASHINGTON - Fired nuclear physicist Wen Ho Lee was misled by federal investigators who told him he'd failed a Department of Energy lie-detector test, The Washington Post reported today. During a long interrogation, FBI agents pressed Lee to confess passing nuclear weapons secrets to China. Lee, however, denied that, insisted he was telling the truth and was never told by his interrogators that DOE polygraph operators had in fact given him a very high score for honesty. ``I don't know why I fail,'' Lee told the FBI. ``But I do know I have not done anything. ... I never give any classified information to Chinese people.'' The Post obtained a transcript of the March 7 interrogation, which was recorded by the FBI. The newspaper said the questioning by the federal agents was highly adversarial and ended only after Lee asked repeatedly to leave. Lee, a 60-year-old Taiwan-born researcher, is being held without bail for allegedly copying classified nuclear data to computer tapes, seven of which are missing. Federal prosecutors deny their investigation was biased or unfair and maintain that the FBI's skepticism about Lee's statements was justified because he'd lied in the past. Lee has pleaded innocent to 59 counts under the Atomic Energy and Espionage Acts. If convicted, the former employee of the Los Alamos National Laboratory could face life in prison.
Wen Ho Lee's Attorneys Ask Court to Grant Him Bail (2000-01-19)U.S. scientist's children protest FBI techniques (2000-01-11)FBI Misled Fired Nuclear Scientist (2000-01-08)Judge Denies Wen Ho Lee Bail, Warns of `Enormous Harm' (1999-12-30)Nuke Scientist Denied Bail (1999-12-30)
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