I know that in the sauna-like warmth of post-Seattle solidarity we shouldn't broach such divisive subjects, but for the two or three shameless sectarians lurking on the lbo-list who might be interested in lending financial or emotional support to Dr. Wen Ho Lee, his family and friends have set up this web site: http://www.wenholee.org. [But don't let Jimmy Hoffa or Mike Dolan catch you peeking at those pages.] (jsc)
While I sympathize with anyone being tried on trumped up and probably racially motivated charges, I'm not particular enthusiatic about giving "financial or emotional support" to a guy whose work (assuming he was innocent) involved building bombs whose primary purpose is to terrorize or threaten third world populations.
So the system turned around and bit him on the ass. Pehaps the prosecution will serve as a wake-up call or deterent to others who think selling their skills to the DOD is an honest way to make a living.
John ------------
Well,
I have to agree I don't have much sympathy for the personal plight of a scientist who has devoted his research and creativity to developing weapons of mass destruction either. And more particularly, a Chinese-American who should have realized the only target left on the globe is China. But, that is just my sniveling moral puke talking. [I have to remember to work harder on exterminating the bourgeois child within.]
In any event I think the best response to Wen Ho Lee, and something that might really help him is to go after the government agencies and examine just exactly why they are pursuing this case. I really don't care whether he handed over Los Alamos to Beijing. That is irrelevant. The issue involved is geo-political posturing of the US towards the PRC for leverage on Taiwan and WTO. I am even cynical enough to believe it could be to extract more money for repairs on the US embassy in Beijing, or lower the cost of repairs on their embassy in Belgrade or even more venal, to buy a few more votes from racists in Congress, or more petty still, provide a demonstration that the Dept of Energy is ON TOP of the leaky info drain of high tech. Whatever, this case isn't as simple as it is made to sound.
I think Lee is actually Taiwanese--but I could be wrong. Let's say Lee did pass on material. How about the possibility it went to the Taiwanese, and it was facilitated by the some section of the CIA? Not that I am proposing that, but entertaining those kinds of possibilities helps focus attention on what I think this arrest is really about, which is geo-political and domestic propaganda.
It may have been lab protocol violation to take home or transfer work files to a home computer, but I am certain the lab runs remote logons (ssh or ssh2, encrypted borne shell in particular). Under that kind of system it is almost impossible to demonstrate that files 'went' anywhere. You can literally open a window for a remote logon and cut and paste directly out of that window and into another window, without ever downloading anything.
In any event I bet the charges are bogus and technically impossible to prove. What they might be able to show would be rlogin or rsh logs which would include a listing of the users, systems, directories and files accessed and the times. So what? What else would Lee do--it is his work isn't it? Not only that, but I also bet that 99% of his work group do exactly the same thing. And how come none of those little science creeps are stepping up to the news cameras to defend him? Well, they're chicken shit, that's why.
Lab security is really an insane trip. Here is a funny story.
I used to work in one of the LBL (Lawrence Berkeley Lab) facilities, the Calvin Lab. Yes, I was one of the evil minions--my excuse was we were guests, irradiating plants and not people. Yes evil bio-tech genetics and worse still, corn, looking for mutants. And yes, right here in nuclear free Berkeley, cranking up the old cobalt_60 source. But our work was worthless to agri-bus, which might explain why it wasn't re-funded. Well, that, and we had no positive results.
Anyway, one of the older scientists (Chinese-American, BTW) used to spend very late nights in the lab in his office with the door closed. This raised suspicion in the bureaucracy (probably racist and nationalist based) and so DOE bureaucrats had one of the system administrators monitor his computer activity.
Guess what? It wasn't downloading security secrets that kept the old man up'til all hours. Our guy had all the high speed hardware that the Dept of Energy could bring to bare on momentous matters of security, science, and technology, turned on to show Mister Johnson dirty pictures. Hilarious. Everyone was shocked, appalled and deeply offended, all sotto voce of course--except me. Right on. Get off in the lab, because god knows nobody was going to put out for him any more anyway. Thankfully, they didn't call the FBI. Instead, his web access was filtered just as if he was in grade school again.
Chuck Grimes