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Wen Ho Lee discloses more contacts with Chinese

Lee, as part of a plea bargain, must be available for informal follow-up inquiries until September 13, 2001, but will not submit to interrogations under oath

From CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sources close to the Wen Ho Lee investigation confirmed Monday that new details have emerged from a debriefing with the former Los Alamos scientist, including accounts of additional contacts with Chinese and Taiwanese nuclear weapons scientists.

Attorneys for Lee blasted the leaks, saying the government was violating his privacy.

In the debriefing, which ended in December, Lee disclosed more meetings with Chinese and Taiwanese counterparts, and said he had deposited part of a $5,000 consulting fee from the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology into a bank account in Taiwan, sources said.

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Investigators have raised questions about whether the institute was involved in past efforts by Taiwan to develop nuclear weapons.

Another admission that surfaced during the debriefing, sources said, was that Lee, who had been a nuclear scientist at the New Mexico facility, reviewed on his office computer classified data about the newest U.S. nuclear warheads, but one source said investigators knew that before Lee admitted it.

Lee's answers were described as vague and non-specific. One source said they were so general as to make it impossible to charge Lee with perjury.

Another source said prosecutors are looking into questioning Lee again, but "no decision is imminent".

Government investigators are expected to give Lee a polygraph examination based on his answers, but that test hasn't been scheduled.

Lee, who was fired last year from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, pleaded guilty in September to one felony count of mishandling secret nuclear data.

Federal authorities had originally launched an investigation into Lee for allegedly providing nuclear secrets to China, but he was never charged with espionage. Instead, authorities charged him with downloading classified information to an unsecured computer and duplicating tapes of sensitive nuclear weapons information.

He had been indicted on 59 counts, but wound up pleading guilty to just one charge.

As part of his plea deal, Lee -- a Taiwanese-born U.S. citizen -- agreed to answer the government's questions about missing computer tapes, which he contends he threw away.

Lee's criminal attorney, Mark Holscher, said he is concerned that two years after leaking reports that Lee was a spy for China, the government is trying to leak other information they are obligated under law to keep confidential.

"The government is violating the same statutes they charged Dr. Lee under," he said.

Holscher declined to say whether Lee was scheduled to have another conversation with investigators.

The lawyer handling Lee's violation of privacy suit against the government said this is just another example of the" unfortunate and unlawful leaks which prompted Lee to file his privacy suit in the first place".

Lee's civil attorney, Brian Sun, says he will pursue the leaks in court as part of the privacy suit against the Dept. of Justice and the Dept. of Energy. That suit goes before a judge on February 12 for a status conference.

FBI lab examining possible Wen Ho Lee computer tapes
December 12, 2000
Wen Ho Lee debriefing begins Tuesday
October 17, 2000
Justice Department to launch formal investigation of Wen Ho Lee case
September 22, 2000
President Clinton calls Lee case 'troubling'
September 14, 2000
Reno offers no apology for Wen Ho Lee case
September 14, 2000
Nuclear scientist Lee goes home after plea bargain
September 13, 2000

Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Department of Justice
WenHoLee.org
Los Alamos National Laboratory

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