NYT's mea culpa over Wen Ho Lee

John K. Taber jktaber at dhc.net
Wed Sep 27 12:08:35 PDT 2000


John Halle <john.halle at yale.edu> wrote:

< This was, all in all, a win-win result.

First, when one considers what an appropriate punishment should be for building weapons for a terrorist state, a few months in solitary confinement seems about right. Already, according to Amy Goodman, several top scientists are considering quitting Los Alamos in protest.
>

That's pretty tough.

Imagine Dreyfus, instead of Lee. Was 10 years on Devil's Island appropriate for being a cadre in the armed might of a capitalist, bourgeois state?

If not, maybe 9 months, until J'accuse! is published?

Or, considering that Dr. Lee was employed to develop not just weapons, but nuclear weapons, far worse than just being a captain in the French army, perhaps 10 years on Devil's Island should be right instead of 9 months in solitary confinement?

Just what is the appropriate punishment, someplace between 9 months and 10 years?

Somehow, it seems to me that a serious wrong was done to Dr. Lee, and I don't see much good in that.

-- John K. Taber



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