[On Wednesday July 19, 2000, the SPSE Executive Board voted to adopt a resolution on behalf of Dr. Wen Ho Lee. It is in the form of a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, mailed on July 20, 2000. To our knowledge, this is the only such statement issued by an employee organization at the national labs.]

July 19, 2000

 

Janet Reno
Attorney General
US Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

 

Dear Attorney General Reno:

The Executive Board of the Society of Professional Scientists and Engineers* is deeply concerned about the inhumane conditions of the pretrial incarceration of Dr. Wen Ho Lee, specifically the denial of bail, the solitary confinement, and the shacklement.

Based on the information available to us, we understand that the charges against Dr. Lee all relate to mishandling of classified information; he is not charged with espionage. Let us emphasize that as laboratory employees, wemore than othersunderstand and recognize the severity and potential harm that can result from improper handling of classified data.

We do not prejudge Dr. Lee's innocence or guilt; that will be decided in a court of law. We do, however, feel that the charges against Dr. Lee do not justify the harshness of his pretrial confinement. In fact, we are not aware of other cases, in which a person who committed security violations received similar treatment. This fact, combined with alleged, unrelated, and unproven reports of Chinese attempts to acquire US nuclear secrets, has given rise to the widespread concern that Dr. Lee has been singled out based on his ethnic background. As an employee rights organization, we share these concerns.

We respectfully urge you to treat Dr. Lee fairly and humanely, and to handle his case on its own particulars, thereby living up to the high principles of American justice.

Sincerely yours,

/s/

Patrick Weidhaas
SPSE President


* The Society of Professional Scientists and Engineers is an independent organization of employees at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It is dedicated to representing the interests of professionals at the Laboratory.

 

P.O. Box 1066, Livermore, CA 94551-1066 * Voice (510) 449-4846 * Fax (510) 449-4851
SPSE Web sitehttp://www.spse.org E-mailspse@spse.org
(Please note: Our area code is now 925.)

See the REPLY from Richard M. Roges, Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General (PDF).

For More Information...

Professor L. Ling-chi Wang Speaks at LLNL
APAHE Resolution
The Wen Ho Lee Legal Support Fund, http://www.wenholee.org/
An SPSE Board Member's Interpretation of the Facts of the Wen Ho Lee Case
DOE Ombudsman Jeremy Wu
Jeremy Wu & Robert Gee's Response to APAHE Resolution
LLNL Employees Write to Ombudsman Wu

 

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