WEN HO RE-REDUX

Wen Ho re-redux

Saturday, May 4, 2002
By Gordon Prather

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

You remember Wen Ho Lee, don't you? The "spy" for the People's Republic of China that the Cox Committee "uncovered" at Los Alamos National Laboratory in March of 1999?

The FBI investigated for about nine months, found no evidence Wen Ho was a spy, but threw him into jail anyway. Then, inexplicably, after nine months in solitary, they asked Wen Ho to please plead guilty to one measly count of "mishandling" classified data.

Three years after their report was issued, there continues to be Cox Committee "fallout."

For example, it was announced this week that Dr. Ray Juzaitis – the Los Alamos nuke scientist nominated to be director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory – had been rejected by Department of Energy weenies. Why rejected? It seems that Juzaitis was head of Los Alamos' X-Division at the time Wen Ho mishandled data.

It was also announced this week that Britt Snider – former general counsel for the Senate Intelligence Committee – had been forced to resign as head of the joint congressional investigation into the failure of U.S. intelligence agencies to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks. Why? Reportedly, it was because Snider knew that some staffers he had hired had "security clearance" problems, but kept that secret.

So what does that have to do with Wen Ho Lee? Well, Snider was special counsel to CIA Director George Tenet when the absolutely mind-blowing mishandling of classified data by departing CIA Director John Deutch was discovered in December 1996.

Tenet didn't officially notify the Justice Department – as he was required to do – about Deutch's crimes until March 1998. After a brief review, Reno decided not to prosecute Deutch.

According to the "crimes report" – also required to be sent to selected committees of Congress – after being "read-in" to highly sensitive classified programs, Deutch would create classified files about them on his personal unsecure computers at his home and on portable memory cards that he frequently carried around in his pocket. The classified files were found by CIA technicians immediately after Deutch had left the CIA.

Snider – becoming CIA inspector general in mid-1998 – didn't get around to telling Congress about Deutch's massive mishandling of highly classified information until February 2000. By then, Wen Ho had been in solitary confinement for three months, and it was beginning to look like no evidence would be found that he was a fiendishly clever Chinese spy.

Bummer! All they had on Wen Ho that Reno could prove was that he had mishandled classified information at Los Alamos. There was no evidence that Wen Ho had ever removed classified info from secure areas. On the other hand, Reno had proof that the director of Central Intelligence, himself, was guilty of far worse offenses.

When the disparity in Reno's treatment of Taiwanese-born Wen Ho Lee and Belgian-born John Deutch was revealed – reportedly by a "whistleblower" – it caused an international furor.

Here Reno was attempting to put Wen Ho in a federal prison for life, not for being a spy, but for mishandling classified information. On the other hand, Reno had declined even to prosecute Deutch, who at the time of his massive mishandling was the top official in the federal government responsible for the integrity of the entire system of "handling classified information."

So Reno was forced to initiate a criminal investigation of Deutch, after all. And as the inauguration of George W. Bush neared, rumor had it Deutch was ready to plead guilty.

Perhaps you wondered what Clinton and Tenet had done about Deutch's crimes?

In December of 1997 – a year after the Deutch violations had been discovered and six months after a CIA internal investigation had been completed – President Clinton appointed John Deutch to yet another highly sensitive post: co-chairman of the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Tenet – ignoring the recommendations of his own investigators – then gave Deutch the high level security clearances needed for his position. Tenet didn't "strip" Deutch of those clearances until August of 1999. You probably recall that, on his last day as Boy President, Clinton pardoned Deutch. Now, what was it that Britt Snider is rumored to have done – as the head of the congressional investigation into the failures of the intelligence community – that got him fired? Something about hiring people who would never be able to get security clearances? Hey, no problem. Isn't Snider's old buddy-roo George Tenet still in charge of handing those things out?

Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.