Wen Ho Lee

After reading "A Convenient Spy", I still had questions as to what really happened in this case. I felt that Dr. Lee asked for much of the suspicion he was under, and that there was still missing information.

I still feel that too much was made of the racial profiling part of this case. Yes, there was racial profiling, and yes it was wrong and others should have been investigated. But it was not the only reason they grabbed and held so hard to Dr. Lee. There were the tapes full of downloaded codes that were unaccounted for. I think there was a language/cultural misunderstanding on some of the questioning and it wasn't really intentional at first - but it sure made him look rather guilty. And after Mr. Lee had attorneys, they told him not to talk as the government had told so many lies and never came through on any of their promises so they stopped talking and cooperating for a bit. And the tapes weren't explained until near the end of the book. The answers were a bit unsatisfactory, but I wouldn't go as far to to say untrue. As for why he made them, his reasoning is very clear and understandable -- the labs changed operating systems several times over a short period of years and Dr. Lee lost important, time consuming code and had to start over. Fearing another change, he made some tapes as back-up, which he had in his safe. But several of the tapes were missing, and this becomes the FBI's sticking point.

Mostly this book put a new face on my understanding of "political prisoner". Anyone that thinks it doesn't happen in the USA only has to look at this case. People wanted to run for office and be the spy catcher. And the treatment of Dr. Lee was so very, very bad. Someone should have done jail time for ordering and allowing it. The man wasn't even convicted of a crime and they had him living like an animal.

It is a rather big shame on America that the media "leaks" were not exposed and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The politicians and FBI agents and others involved broke the very laws they put in place in a big way. And the media took the leaks and printed them without attempting to find out if they were true -- which would not have been a hard task in most of the cases. All those involved should have to serve the same 7 months in the exact same conditions as Wen Ho Lee as punishment for those crimes.

One good thing to come out of this case was the bringing together of many Asian groups to protest racial profiling and the singling out of Asians in employment situations. It was something that needed national attention and this was the catalyst that put the people in motion to do something about it.

This was a good read - or in my case, I listened to the tape in the car. I think it can give us some insight into some of the racial issues that Asians face in the work place.… (altro)