China: Suspected Acquisition of U.S. Nuclear Weapon Secrets

119 (...continued)
Investigation,” August 12, 1999.
CRS-33
assignment changed to limit his access to classified information much sooner than
it was, and cooperation with the FBI should have been stronger.” He also announced
that of the 19 DOE officials identified by the Inspector General as bearing some
responsibility for counterintelligence and security, three employees would be
disciplined. News reports identified those three individuals as Sig Hecker, former
director of Los Alamos from 1986 to 1997 who was still employed as a scientist;
Robert Vrooman, former head of counterintelligence at Los Alamos serving as a
consultant; and Terry Craig, a former counterintelligence team leader working at a
different part of the lab. In addition, former secretary Federico Pena, former deputy
secretary Elizabeth Moler, and former deputy secretary Victor Reis reportedly would
have been subject to disciplinary action if still employed by DOE. 120
Wiretaps and Computer Monitoring. Some critics also raised questions
about the FBI’s case, since it had not conducted electronic surveillance of the suspect
or searched his office and home computers earlier in the investigation. Although the
government already considered Lee its only suspect, FBI agents did not begin to
intensively interrogate him until March 5, 1999 121 and look at his government
computers in his office that day. They did not search his home until later in April
1999. 122 Some questioned the Department of Justice’s role in not supporting the
FBI’s requests to electronically monitor him through wiretaps. The FBI said that the
Justice Department’s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR) denied the
FBI’s applications for electronic surveillance, or wiretaps, of the suspect in August
1997 and in December 1998, because there was insufficient evidence that the
suspected espionage activity was current. Because the OIPR did not approve the
applications, they did not reach the court established under the authority of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
On May 24, 1999, Reno said that the Justice Department did not authorize
intrusions in the lives of American citizens “when, as in this case, the standards of
the Constitution and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) have not been
met.” She further explained that “although I was not apprised of the details of the
case at the time the decision was made, I have reviewed the decision of the OIPR and
fully support it.” Also, contrary to some reports, the 1997 request for FISA coverage
“did not contain a request to search any computer.” 123 At a closed hearing of the
Senate Judiciary Committee on June 8, 1999, Attorney General Janet Reno explained
120 Loeb, Vernon, “Discipline Urged Against Los Alamos Employees,” Washington Post,
August 13, 1999.
121 Risen, James, “U.S. Fires Nuclear Scientist Suspected of Spying for China,” New York
Times, March 9, 1999.
122 Vernon Loeb and Walter Pincus, “FBI Searches Home Of Scientist Suspected Of Spying
For China,” Washington Post, April 11, 1999.
123 Department of Justice, “Statement by Attorney General Janet Reno on the Los Alamos
Laboratory Matter,” May 24, 1999.