Congressional Record: September 19, 2000 (House)
Page H7743
BLUE RIBBON PANEL SHOULD BE FORMED TO PROTECT RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, at the time that Wen Ho Lee was first arrested, I met with the Chinese-American Political Association of the greater San Francisco Bay area. Many in that community raised their concerns that he was the target of selective prosecution, of racial profiling, and prosecutorial abuse. As we now see, as that case has started to come to a conclusion with the plea bargain, in fact many of the concerns raised by the Chinese community turned out to be true. All Americans should be deeply disturbed by the prosecutorial abuse that was raised in this case and used against Wen Ho Lee. This does not suggest that Wen Ho Lee did not have some serious transgressions of the current law and policy, but what his government did to him should cause concern by all Americans. All Americans are entitled to an impartial review of the actions by all parties to that prosecution. Unfortunately, the congressional committees, the FBI, the intelligence agencies, and all the rest participated in the feeding frenzy at the time of the arrest. I think maybe we ought to have a national, impartial blue ribbon commission to look at the Wen Ho Lee case and see how we can better safeguard the rights and liberties of all American citizens.