Nuclear scientist- Codes were 'junk'

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- In a new memoir, former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee says the nuclear "crown jewels" he was accused of mishandling were really the "crown junk" and were not vital to national security.

The files he downloaded were old, with much of the information already public and very little of it classified, Lee says in "My Country Versus Me," published by Hyperion. In an early copy of the book obtained by The Associated Press, he says he copied the material onto tapes because he had lost files before and did not trust the computer system.

He describes himself as a loyal "Cold Warrior" for the United States, yet says the FBI threatened him with execution "like the Rosenbergs" if he did not confess to giving nuclear secrets to China.

"I want to share through this book how I fell into a trap," Lee says, "one slippery step at a time, not even realizing what was happening until it was too late."

59 felony counts

Lee, a Taiwanese-born naturalized citizen, was arrested in December 1999 and indicted on 59 felony counts alleging he transferred nuclear weapons information to portable computer tapes. He was held in solitary confinement for nine months, though never charged with spying.

As the government's case crumbled, Lee pleaded guilty to a felony count of downloading sensitive material, and was set free. The FBI's mishandling of the case was a major embarrassment for the bureau.

While Lee was behind bars, one senior scientist called the files "the crown jewels."

Lee says the downloaded tapes were all work-related, routine and contained in a secure area at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"In fact, the 'crown jewels' are largely the crown junk," he says. "This is the biggest nuclear weapons secret that LANL and the government have to hide."

A call to the U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque on Friday was not returned.

'Political whimsy'

Lee, who has been a U.S. citizen since 1974 and spent 20 years doing top-secret work at the lab, is suing the government for defamation and claims he was targeted because he is ethnic Chinese.

"Had I not been Chinese," he says, "I never would have been accused of espionage and threatened with execution. ... Now I know that political whimsy can destroy the contributions of a life's work."

Lee said he was threatened with execution in March 1999, when he was interrogated by FBI agents: "They told me that unless I confessed to giving nuclear secrets to China, I might be executed, like the Rosenbergs." Julius and Ethel Rosenberg went to the electric chair in 1953 for giving atomic secrets to the Soviets.