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Government settles case with Wen Ho Lee
The government and five news organizations agreed Friday to pay former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee $1.6 million to settle his lawsuit that accused officials of wrongly identifying him as a suspected spy for China.Lee sued the Justice Department and the Energy Department claiming officials violated his privacy rights when they leaked damaging information about him to the press during a 1999 investigation into files allegedly missing from the nuclear research facility at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Government officials, including then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, publicly named Lee as a target of the probe, and investigators suspected the Taiwan-born U.S. citizen was spying for China. Lee, 66, was indicted on 59 counts of stealing nuclear weapons data from the Los Alamos facility. He was fired from his job, labeled a national security threat and spent nine months in solitary confinement. He was released in 2000 and all but one count was dismissed. He pleaded guilty to mishandling classified computer files, a felony. A federal judge sharply criticized the prosecution's case and President Clinton apologized to Lee for his treatment. Lee now lives near Sacramento, California. After his release from prison, Lee sued the government under the Privacy Act, alleging officials leaked false and incriminating information to several reporters. Rest at link. Posted by: ed 2006-06-06 |
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