Lee Probe Not Racist, Report Says Investigation Still Is Called Flawed
By Dan Eggen and Ellen Nakashima Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, August 8, 2001; Page A01
Federal investigators did not target former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee based on his ethnicity, according to a classified report that is otherwise highly critical of the conduct of the FBI and Energy Department during the probe.
The internal report by federal prosecutor Randy I. Bellows, a version of which is scheduled to be released publicly next week, says that while the government's espionage investigation of Lee, a native of Taiwan, had many shortcomings, "racism was not one of them," according to numerous people who have reviewed its findings.
"Recent allegations of racial bias in the selection of Wen Ho and Sylvia Lee are without merit," the report says. It was unclear yesterday how Bellows reached that conclusion, which was based on his review of documents and interviews with individuals involved in the case.
The report's findings on racism have not been revealed previously, and appear to contradict the accounts of at least two former Energy Department officials. They include the former chief of counterintelligence, Robert S. Vrooman, who has said in sworn statements that, based largely on his race, Lee was targeted for investigation of whether he leaked nuclear secrets to China.
Bellows's review, completed in May 2000, is certain to figure prominently in a defamation lawsuit by another former Energy Department official who said he was wrongly accused of racism in the case.
Lee was jailed on 59 felony counts of mishandling classified information and violating the Atomic Energy Act. He pleaded guilty last September to a single felony charge of mishandling classified information after the government's case largely fell apart in court. He had spent nine months in solitary confinement.
Lee has indicated in press reports and in court filings that he believes he was singled out because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen who is a Taiwanese native.
The case prompted condemnations from Asian American leaders, who accused the government of engaging in racial profiling and stereotyping in its flawed investigation of Lee. Those problems, including allegations that the FBI moved too slowly, was sloppy in its investigative methods and may have failed to detect other national security breaches, were revealed last year, after Bellows completed his report.
Notra S. Trulock III, a former Energy Department official who has filed a defamation lawsuit against Lee, said Bellows's findings on race bolster his suit, which alleges Lee authorized supporters to accuse Trulock of racism on the scientist's Web site.
A federal magistrate in Alexandria who is hearing the case has demanded portions of the Bellows report from the Justice Department, which has tentatively scheduled its release for Monday.
"I feel that I am exonerated," said Trulock, 53, who left the Energy Department in August 1999 and is unemployed. "I knew that racial profiling had not been employed and that certainly I'm not a racist. Finally, hopefully, this is a turn in the right direction. I've got to see it to believe it."
Larry Klayman, Trulock's lead attorney and chairman of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, said that "obviously, this helps make our case against Wen Ho Lee."
Lee's lead attorney, Los Angeles lawyer Mark Holscher, said he had no comment on the racism issue. "We have not seen the Bellows report and can't comment on any of the rumors regarding its contents," he said.
Vrooman, who is one of the defendants in Trulock's lawsuit, also declined to comment last night.
The 800-page Bellows report stems from an internal probe into the Chinese espionage investigation ordered by former attorney general Janet Reno in May 1999, shortly after Lee was fired.
Lee and his wife have filed a civil suit against the FBI, the Justice Department and the Energy Department, alleging that Lee's privacy was violated by government leaks of his name to the press during the investigation. Lee is also locked in a dispute with federal government censors over whether his forthcoming autobiography violates security rules.
Lee has alleged in court documents that his ethnicity played a role in his being targeted as an espionage suspect at Los Alamos. Vrooman and Charles E. Washington, the Energy Department's former acting director of counterintelligence, have provided sworn statements alleging that race played a role in his prosecution.
In one declaration, Vrooman said, "I state without reservation that racial profiling was a crucial component in the FBI's identifying Dr. Lee as a suspect."
However, an Energy Department investigator, Daniel J. Bruno, said in an interview last year that ethnicity was not a factor when he first focused on Lee for investigation in 1995.
Bruno said Lee's personnel record was full of "anomalies" that raised suspicions, and said an initial list of suspects from the Los Alamos and Livermore nuclear laboratories consisted of six Caucasians and three Asian Americans.
Researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.