CBS News JANE CLAYSON, co-host:
The Early Show
September 12, 2000Anchors: Bryant Gumbel; Jane Clayson
Bryant, a welcome home party planned for nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee will have to wait, at least for the moment. Lee is accused of mishandling top-secret material. He was expected to be set free on Monday after spending nine months in jail, but a snag developed in a plea-bargain deal.
Mr. CHUNG LEE (Wen Ho Lee's Son): We don't know what--what's going on, what happened, but we hope and we expect to see our dad on Wednesday.
Ms. ALBERTA LEE (Wen Ho Lee's Daughter): This isn't over. We're here. We're going to be fighting this to the end.
CLAYSON: Lee is expected to plead guilty to one count charging him with violating national security and help prosecutors figure out what happened to the missing data. A new hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.
In Washington, Steven Aftergood's with the Federation of American Scientists. Mr. Aftergood, good morning.
Mr. STEVEN AFTERGOOD (Federation of American Scientists): Hi.
CLAYSON: Dr. Lee was expected to be released today. What do you make of these latest developments?
Mr. AFTERGOOD: Well, all along the way in this case, the government has been determined to do things the hard way. Hopefully, this is just a temporary glitch, but it's disconcerting.
CLAYSON: And in your opinion, in general, how has the government mishandled this case all along?
Mr. AFTERGOOD: Well, they have mobilized their entire security apparatus against this man, and they have overstated their case to the point that eventually, they had to abandon 58 of the 59 counts that they had lodged against him. I think it has been a case of overkill, and we've seen an amazing transformation of the public image of Dr. Lee from master spy to today he's largely considered a victim of government overreaching.
CLAYSON: That's the government. What about Los Alamos? In your opinion, how should it have handled Dr. Lee? You don't believe that he should have been jailed or charged, maybe th--maybe fired.
Mr. AFTERGOOD: Well, Dr. Lee is not wholly innocent. He did violate the rules, and he ought to be held responsible for that. He should have lost his security clearance and perhaps his job. He should never have been incarcerated for nine months in solitary confinement. That's an astonishing abuse of governmental authority, and I think more and more people are now starting to say, 'Let's stop investigating Dr. Lee. Let's start investigating the government that carried on this prosecution for so long.'
CLAYSON: Because after all, the documents that he downloaded were reclassified only after he downloaded them, right?
Mr. AFTERGOOD: That's one of the several points of contention. The government had said, 'These are the crown jewels of our nuclear weapons program.' And the defense explained in response that these documents were not even classified strictly speaking at the time that he downloaded them. So there's been a lot of confusion, and there's been a lot of prosecutorial bad faith, in my opinion.
CLAYSON: Dr. Lee has spent months, as you mentioned, in solitary confinement. He'll likely never get his reputation back fully. Who needs to take responsibility for this?
Mr. AFTERGOOD: Well, I think there--the situation demands an apology. The FBI needs to be held accountable for the false testimony that it presented, which deprived him of his liberty for many months. The justice system, the attorney general need to explain how this happened. There has been some defective reporting in the media, which has in some quarters uncritically reported exactly what the government stated. And all of us need to find out just how this happened, so that there are no other Dr. Lees in our future.
CLAYSON: Final word here in our last 10 seconds, do you think Dr. Lee will be out soon?
Mr. AFTERGOOD: I think he will and I certainly hope so.
CLAYSON: Steven Aftergood, thanks so much.
Mr. AFTERGOOD: Thank you.