Pincus, Walter, and Vernon Loeb. "Senators Irate At Handling of Nuclear Spy Probe." Washington Post, 30 Apr. 1999, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]Materials presented in reverse chronological order.
Pincus, Walter, and Vernon Loeb. "Senators Irate At Handling of Nuclear Spy Probe." Washington Post, 30 Apr. 1999, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
"After grilling FBI Director Louis J. Freeh for nearly three hours in a closed-door hearing, members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from both parties appeared equally outraged at what they depicted as lax handling of past and present investigations into suspected leaks of classified data."
Loeb, Vernon. "50 Years of Nuclear Know-How Compromised: Los Alamos 'Legacy
Codes' May Be More Valuable Than Blueprints, Experts Say." Washington Post, 30 Apr.
1999, A16. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
Secret computer programs transferred by Wen Ho Lee "from a classified computer network to a vulnerable desktop machine are mathematical models, known aptly as 'legacy codes,' embodying 50 years of American nuclear know-how. Their discovery last month during a search of Wen Ho Lee's office computer ... has sent shock waves through the weapons laboratory and the Department of Energy."
Loeb,
Vernon, and Walter Pincus. "Los Alamos Security Breach Confirmed."
Washington Post, 29 Apr. 1999, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 28 April 1999, "[t]he Clinton administration acknowledged" that Wen Ho Lee "transferred secret nuclear weapons data from a classified computer network to an unclassified system vulnerable to outsiders. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson called the data transfer, between 1983 and 1995, 'a serious security breach that is unconscionable.' But he stressed that FBI agents have yet to determine whether the highly sensitive data ... have been pilfered from the unclassified computers by foreign countries."
Schmitt, Eric. "Lab's Laxity in Spy Case Outrages Lawmakers."
New York Times,
29 Apr. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
"Senior lawmakers expressed outrage and frustration on [28 April 1999] over the government's failure to monitor a scientist suspected of spying for China, who officials now say may have given away secrets to virtually every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal."
Risen,
James, and Jeff Gerth. "U.S. Says Suspect Put Data on Bombs in Unsecure
Files." New York Times, 28 Apr. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Wen Ho Lee, the former Los Alamos scientist suspected of spying for China, "improperly transferred huge amounts of secret data from a computer system at a government laboratory, compromising virtually every nuclear weapon in the United States arsenal, government and lab officials say."
Gertz, Bill, and Nancy
Roman. "Chinese Building Multiple Warheads Using U.S. Spy Data."
Washington Times National Weekly Edition, 26 Apr.-2 May 1999, 1,
22.
The CIA damage assessment of China's nuclear spying warns that "U.S. nuclear warhead secrets will be built into new Chinese strategic missiles in 'a matter of years' and could include Beijing's first first multiple-warhead systems."
Macintyre,
Ben. "Nuclear Theft 'Badly Harmed US.'" Times (London),
22 Apr. 1999. [http://www.the-times.co.uk]
A CIA review team has concluded that "American security was seriously damaged by the Chinese theft of designs for the most sophisticated nuclear warhead in the US armoury." The damage assessment also concluded that China had received "information from other sources, such as academic communications between Chinese and US scientists in which information was passed inadvertently to Beijing."
Pincus, Walter, and Vernon Loeb. "Chinese Stole Data on Reentry Vehicles: U.S. Intelligence Assesses Losses." Washington Post, 22 Apr. 1999,
A4.
An intelligence assessment delivered by DCI Tenet to the President and Congress on 21 April 1999 "found that Chinese spying has obtained secret information over the past 20 years not only on U.S. nuclear weapons designs but also on U.S. reentry vehicles, the containers that carry explosive devices through space.... [T]he finding that China has stolen classified information on reentry vehicles for multiple-warhead missiles marked a new dimension in the Chinese espionage debate."
Gerth, Jeff. "Report Warns of Big Gains to Chinese From Spying."
New York Times, 22 Apr. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Discussing a new intelligence assessment issued on 21 April 1999, a senior intelligence official said that "China is likely to use stolen advanced American nuclear weapons secrets to upgrade its weapons within years, not decades."
Risen, James, and Jeff
Gerth. "China Stole Data on Atom Warhead, U.S.
Report Finds." New York Times, 21 Apr. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
According to government officials, a comprehensive damage assessment by the intelligence community, coordinated by the National Intelligence Officer for Strategic and Nuclear Programs and independently reviewed by an outside panel headed by retired Adm. David Jeremiah, "has concluded that China stole design information related to the United States' most advanced nuclear warhead from a government nuclear weapons laboratory."
Pincus, Walter, and Vernon Loeb. "Spy, Counterspy and a Splitting Atomic Headache: Energy Sleuth's Testimony Seems to Undercut GOP." Washington Post,
21 Apr. 1999, A23.
Testimony last week by Notra Trulock, the Energy Department's intelligence chief, "seems to undercut many of the Republican charges ... [o]n the issue of foot-dragging" by the Clinton administration in responding to charges of security breaches at the U.S. nuclear laboratories.
In addition, "[a] CIA review of Trulock's concerns, headed by retired Adm. David Jeremiah..., reportedly confirms the initial CIA analysis that, although classified U.S. data were obtained and probably aided Chinese nuclear programs, the overall impact 'is a lot more uncertain than some people -- including Trulock -- admit,' according to a source familiar with the study."
Gertz, Bill. "Energy
Official Blocked Spy Report." Washington Times National Weekly Edition,
19-25 Apr. 1999, 1, 22.
Notra Trulock, the Energy Department top intelligence official, and Elizabeth A. Moler, who was acting Energy Secretary in 1998, disagreed over whether the latter blocked the former's notification of HPSCI about the nuclear spying case at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Hosenball, Mark, and
Daniel Klaidman. "Unleasing 'Golden Tiger' on Beijing." Newsweek,
19 Apr. 1999, 42.
A U.S. task force, codenamed "Golden Tiger," will investigate unsolved cases of Chinese technology smuggling and acquisition of military and technological secrets.
Risen, James. "White House Said to Ignore Evidence of China's Spying."
New York Times,
13 Apr. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Notra Trulock, a senior intelligence official at the Energy Department, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on 12 April 1999 "that his superiors and other Clinton administration officials repeatedly downplayed or dismissed evidence that China had stolen nuclear weapons secrets from a government weapons laboratory."
Drogin, Bob. "Secrets, Science Are Volatile Mixture at Los Alamos Lab."
Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 1999. [http://www.latimes.com]
"[F]or all the high-tech hardware used to protect 7 million classified documents from spies, Los Alamos increasingly is under attack by critics in Congress and elsewhere who fear security is left behind when some scientists meet their peers overseas, especially in China."
Forward to Fallout - May 1999
Return to Spy Cases/U.S. Table
of Contents
Return to China Table
of Contents
Return to Spy Cases/China
Table of Contents