Risen, James, and Jeff Gerth. "China Stole Nuclear Secrets From Los Alamos, U.S. Officials Say." New York Times, 6 Mar. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]Materials presented chronologically.
Risen, James, and Jeff Gerth. "China Stole Nuclear Secrets From Los Alamos, U.S. Officials Say." New York Times, 6 Mar. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
China's technological breakthrough in the 1980s in producing small nuclear warheads "was accelerated by the theft of U.S. nuclear secrets from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico." In June 1996, "the FBI formally opened a criminal investigation into the theft.... The bureau maintained tight control over the case. The CIA counterintelligence office, for one, was not kept informed of its status, according to [Paul] Redmond, ['the agency's chief spy hunter,'] who has since retired."
Sanger, David E. "Clinton Aides Admit Lapses on Espionage by Chinese." New York Times, 7 Mar. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
National Security Adviser Sandy Berger and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said on 6 March 1999 "that the investigation into China's acquisition of U.S. nuclear weapons technology showed enormous lapses in security at the Energy Department's laboratories in the 1980s."
Suro, Roberto. "GOP Calls for Hill Probe of Chinese Nuclear Spying." Washington Post, 8 Mar. 1999, A13. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 7 March 1999, "Republican congressional leaders ... called for investigative hearings and threatened sanctions against the Clinton administration if it was found to have looked the other way while Chinese spies raided U.S. nuclear warfare technology."
CNN. "CIA Measures Damage Following Leaked Nuclear Secrets." 9 Mar. 1999. [http://www.cnn.com]
According to U.S. officials on 8 March 1999, "[a] CIA-led task force is assessing how much damage may have been done to U.S. national security after a Chinese scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico allegedly shared nuclear secrets.... The information leaks at the Los Alamos nuclear research laboratory allegedly happened during the 1980s."
Harris, John F., and Walter Pincus. "Gore Defends U.S. Stance on China, Security Issues." Washington Post, 10 Mar. 1999, A06. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
In an interview with CNN, broadcast on 9 March 1999, "Vice President Gore took the lead ... in defending the administration's China policy, saying suspected nuclear espionage on behalf of Beijing is a problem inherited from President Clinton's predecessors that is being aggressively pursued by law enforcement agencies."
Lugar, Dick. "Threats From China." Washington Post, 10 Mar. 1999, A23. [http:// www.washingtonpost.com]
The Indiana Senator (R) argues in this Op-Ed piece that "[t]his could well be one of the most serious security breaches in the nation's history.... [T]he CIA's former counterintelligence chief has labeled [these actions] 'far more damaging to the national security than Aldrich Ames.'"
Brooke, James. "An Earlier China Spy Case Points Up Post-Cold War Ambiguities." New York Times, 13 Mar. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
"Within two weeks, Peter H. Lee, a Taiwan-born physicist who once worked at the nuclear weapons laboratory [at Los Alamos], will complete a one-year sentence to a halfway house in California." Lee "pleaded guilty to passing classified national defense information to Chinese scientists on a visit to Beijing in 1985. He also pleaded guilty to lying to a government agency after he described on a security form a May 1997 visit to China as a pleasure trip. In reality, Dr. Lee, then a researcher for an American military contractor, met extensively with Chinese scientists."
Clark comment: The Peter H. Lee case resurfaced at this time because of the firing on 8 March 1999 by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson of Wen Ho Lee (no relation) from the Los Alamos National Laboratory for security breaches.
Gates, Robert M. "The ABC's of Spying." New York Times, 14 Mar. 1999. [http://www. nytimes.com]
This Op-Ed by the former DCI argues that "[t]he current furor in Washington over Chinese espionage at Los Alamos offers fresh evidence that finger-pointing and sound bites are a lousy way to protect and advance American security interests.... [B]oth the Clinton Administration and its critics neglect [a reality]: despite the bonhomie of countless summit meetings and press statements, the post-cold-war world is a very tough neighborhood in which nations still cynically and ruthlessly pursue their own interests."
Harris, John F., and Vernon Loeb. "Spy Case Tests U.S. Openness With China; Engagement Policy Failing, Critics Say." Washington Post, 14 Mar. 1999, A1. "Is the U.S. Too Engaging with China?" Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 22 Mar. 1999, 15-16.
"At its heart, the Los Alamos case remains a mystery. The prime suspect, Chinese American scientist Wen Ho Lee, was fired ... by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson after failing an FBI polygraph test.... But government sources acknowledge that he may never be charged, noting that FBI agents secretly investigated him while he performed his duties from June 1996 almost up until the point when he was polygraphed last month. They never had enough evidence to obtain a wiretap to monitor his calls or a warrant to search his home."
Associated Press. "Congress to Push for More Disclosure of Chinese Spying." 15 Mar. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
DCI George Tenet said on 15 March 1999 that "retired Adm. David Jeremiah will provide an independent review of the work being done now by a multiagency intelligence team" with regard to how much nuclear weapons information was lost to China through a suspected spy working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Holloway, David. "Los Alamos Spies, Then and Now." New York Times, 15 Mar. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
"'This is going to be just as bad as the Rosenbergs,' Paul Redmond, formerly the chief spy hunter for the Central Intelligence Agency, recalls saying when he was briefed in 1996 on the evidence that China had stolen nuclear secrets from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The current scandal inevitably conjures up memories of Soviet atomic espionage. There are similarities between the two cases, but differences between them are more significant."
Sanger, David E. "'No Question,' U.S. Says, Leak Helped China." New York Times, 15 Mar. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
National Security Adviser Sandy Berger "acknowledged [on 14 March 1999] that 'there's no question' that China benefited from obtaining the design of America's most miniaturized nuclear warhead from the Los Alamos National Laboratory."
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