My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused of Being a Spy

by Wen Ho Lee and Helen Zia

Book Overview

For the first time, Wen Ho Lee speaks out: about his work at Los Alamos and his experiences with the FBI, about his arrest and imprisonment. In January of 1999, the arrest of Wen Ho Lee, the Los Alamos scientist who was falsely accused of espionage by the U.S. government and imprisoned without trial, sparked controversy throughout the country. Throughout the ordeal, Wen Ho Lee quietly and steadfastly maintained his innocence. Now he tells his story...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786868031
• ISBN13: 9780786868032
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.6"
• Age Range: 18 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Postsecondary to Grade 12

Customer Reviews

The scapegoat of Elephant & Donkey

Dr Lee told his story in this book. As a naturalized American citizen, he does his professional job, raised a family with a typical middle class profile. But he was the wrong man as in the Chinese saying "The city gate fire victimized the fish in the pond" in the struggle of two parties ugly politics. Reading this book creates the following questions. 1. Where is due process for Dr. Lee? 2. What is the role of free press in democracy? 3. Why a free press is enthusiastic to make a guilty assumption on him? 4. Why there is silence on the spy on Crown Jewel Rocket secret afterward? 5. Why US Court Judge Parker ended the case with an unusual apology to Dr. Lee, an alleged felon in 9-month solitary confinement with 59 charges? 6. Why there is a plea bargain for one small charge to cover up lost face? 7. Why this case is important relating to US Constitution and the rule of law? Dr Lee warns readers "Do not talk to FBI without your lawyer." This book gives the reality lesson of politics, humanity and justice. All men are created equal - some are more equal than others?

National Security degrades into a racial profiling witchhunt

Wen Ho Lee's book covers some things missing inDan Stober and Ian Hoffman's "A Convenient Spy" book. Lee's book covers the fact that when Leewas working on his computer programs they werenot considered classified/secret but PARD, protectas restricted data(p.118-119,262-263). Stober and Hoffman always referrs to the programs as classifiedor secret and fails to state that said the programs were reclassified as "Restricted Data" and "Secret"ONLY AFTER Lee was fired from his job. Lee defends his motives to backup his data files in this book(p.118-124). Lee also gives the reader an ideaof the politics inside the National Labs that Stober and Hoffman totally misses. It appears from Lee's account that he may have earned the ill will of some scientist at the Lab for previouslycriticizing the lab's "crown jewels." ( p.112-114,228-229,271-273) Lee sometime for the sake of respectingpeoples personal lives refuses to provide any details,e.g. Stober and Hoffman's book does details U.S Prosecutor Gorence's personal affair/contact thatforces him to step down but Lee/Zia avoided providingan explanation (p.279). Lee's book provides transcripts of his interrogations and gives a better overall view of the political movement surrounding his case than the Stober and Hoffman book.( p. 139-144,153-157). Stober and Hoffman's book is more myopic and lacks the political background setting that shows how race, politics, national security,and law enforcement merged into a racial profiling witch hunt. Wen Ho Lee's account isbased on what he considers important and sometimsthat isnot always chronological, e.g. his account ofthe plea bargining process only comes as thevery end of the book when it becomes importantto understand how the case ends (p.311-312) Part I the investigation, Tiger Trap, carol covert, FBI interrogation/accusations.Part IIWen Ho Lee's life and career, getting legal help, the FBI searches Lee's home, getting bad press - the media leaks,anti-china/chinese espionage politics, the FBI dragnet -family members subpoenaed. going on CBS '60 minutes.' Getting arrestedPart III denial of Bail. difficult/special imprisonment situation, the court case, CIPA (p.263-264,286-287), Alberta, Racial profilingtestimony by Robert Vrooman and Charles Washington. Trial guilty plead bargining.

We the People...

I was anxious to read this book. Here my government, meant to serve and protect me, was using the very laws to do that to punish someone because he fit a racial-profiling matrix. I am not denying Dr Lee committed a security infraction, but other government officials have committed worse errors without punishment. I am floored (but not surprised) by the outrageous actions of our so called protectors. From the FBI to the White House, powers were completely, if not illegally, misused. This was nothing more than a present day witch hunt. Unfortunately, Dr. Lee was the supposed "witch." As I am in the computer industry, I completely understand Dr Lee's purpose of making backups and backups of your backups. The way the FBI, congressman, senators and others twisted the facts in this case should make every American concerned.

should be required reading for the FBI

... to remind them that when politics drives criminal investigations, the first thing sacrificed is the truth. This book has a plot worthy of a John Grisham novel, with a host of powerful villains, starting with politicians on both sides of the aisle. Republicans from Christopher Cox to the appallingly ill-informed Bob Smith (who couldn't even distinguish between Wen Ho Lee and Bill Lann Lee) chose Lee as a scapegoat in order to bring down the Democratic presidency; the Democratic administration complied with the persecution so it wouldn't look soft on Chinese espionage. Other villains included Robert Messemer, the FBI agent whose repeated lying in court should have had him thrown in jail for perjury, Notra Trulock, whose mysterious hand in the investigation was never clearly defined (and who was later revealed to be a rightwing shill), and Bill Richardson, whose political aspirations are, quite rightfully, dead as dirt thanks to his performance in this matter. One must also add the combined forces of the FBI, DOE, and DOJ, all of them so intent on proving that Lee was their man that they were blind to the truth: that Lee was never a spy, and that his worst infraction was the downloading of files that he was actively working on. The reason for those downloads are explained and strike one as completely logical to anyone who has lost precious computer files during a crash, something that had happened to Lee during a previous computer fiasco at Los Alamos. (One should also add that while the FBI was spending millions of dollars pursuing Lee, September 11 was being planned right under their noses.)But as culpable as the politicians and FBI villains are in this piece, they were, in truth, simply doing what they always do: bending the truth to get their way. The real villain, in my opinion, was the media, which was complicit in this witch burning. Journalists have a responsibility to seek and print the truth. In this case, they were shockingly negligent. In particular, the New York Times's Risen and Gerth come across as so egregiously shoddy and dishonest that they seem barely qualified to write for the high school newspaper. If the NY Times did not immediately fire them after this sorry episode, then shame on the gray lady of newspapers. As in any Grisham novel, there are also heroes. The hero in this book is not Wen Ho Lee, who comes across as a naive and clueless victim. Rather, the heroes were his attorneys, who worked largely pro bono, against the powers of the U.S. government, to defend a man everyone had already labeled a traitor. Just as heroic was Judge Parker, whose clear vision and intelligence allowed him to see straight to the truth of the case. Thanks to these heroes, my faith in the U.S. court system was -- somewhat -- restored.The moral of the story? If the FBI comes knocking at your door and wants to ask you a "few questions", shut the door, pick up the phone and CALL A LAWYER.

Straight stuff

In this book Wen Ho Lee comes off as what I think he is, an uncomplicated, straightforward scientist and family man who got embroiled in a highly complex and ugly political game. His voice comes through clearly even with a co-author, although it alternates between simple grammar and highly polished constructions. Still, even in the polished parts, the thinking seems to be authentically Lee's own. This is a credit to Helen Zia, his co-author, who put the book into the first person in his voice based on the account he gave her.The book is loaded with details about the case, from the investigations leading up to it, to his own account of his actions, to the legal battles, and the conclusion with the apology from judge Parker. There's a lot packed in here but it is extremely readable.Lee's account of why he copied the data onto tapes is technically detailed and convincing.Some of the other facts in here are astonishing, like the fact that the data was assigned a "classified" rating only after the government found evidence of copying. That is just one small point in this amazing story.

Ever Vigilent

I just finished reading Wen Ho Lee's book and I couldn't help feeling that I had just read a story about my father, or any worker who gets caught up in the net others with political egos and hypocrisy run rampant. He describes in the book his very practical steps and yes, little lies and actions that aren't quite by the book but that we all do to survive at work. Nothing he did warrents the action taken, only that he was ethnically Chinese. You see in his book how he grows from basically a person trying to do a good job and live a simple life, to one who understands the real motivations of people in politics and how necessary it is to participate in the American system. I think the words "Ever vigilent" are made all so real thru his story. I recommend this book for a first hand account of history, instead of the slanted and spinned accounts in newsmagazines like Newsweek or the other book out now written by some reporters.