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

233 (...continued)
8, 1999.
CRS-56
Energy Secretary Richardson recognized the allegation that Moler sought to
deny information to Congress, when he announced an internal inquiry as one of seven
initiatives announced on March 17, 1999. In August 1999, Richardson announced
the results of the internal probe by DOE’s Inspector General, which investigated the
question of obstructing briefings to former Secretary Pena and Congress. However,
the report failed to “establish with any certainty that any Departmental official,
knowingly or intentionally, improperly delayed, prohibited, or interfered with
briefings to Mr. Pena or to the congressional intelligence committees.” 234 Notra
Trulock, who led the investigation at DOE, criticized the Inspector General’s report
as “a whitewash” and resigned as acting deputy director of intelligence to work at
TRW Inc., a defense contractor. He expressed frustration that he had been removed
from further involvement in the espionage investigation, called “Kindred Spirit,” and
that the internal DOE report failed to support his assertions of political
interference. 235
On March 8, 2000, Senator Specter, as part of his investigation under the
jurisdiction of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and
the Courts, issued a report critical of the investigations of Wen Ho Lee. The report
criticized the FBI’s and DOE’s investigations as “inept.” It also criticized the
Department of Justice and Attorney General Janet Reno for not forwarding the FBI’s
request for a warrant to the FISA court, despite “ample, if not overwhelming,
information to justify the warrant.” 236 However, Senator Charles Grassley, chairman
of the subcommittee, criticized the FBI for not telling Congress through most of 1999
that the Bureau had found that Lee was not the prime suspect in the espionage case
at Los Alamos. Senator Grassley said that he, along with Senators Specter and
Torricelli, asked the GAO to examine whether a senior FBI official (believed to be
Neil Gallagher, head of the National Security Division) had withheld documents
from Congress in 1999. Senator Grassley sent a letter to Senator Specter that
disputed his report, saying that the evidence against Lee was weak. 237
Role of the White House. Some raised questions about how seriously
National Security Advisor Sandy Berger took concerns about PRC espionage at the
labs and the timing of when he informed President Clinton about the W88 case as
well as the neutron bomb case. Some Members called for Berger to resign over the
suspected compromise to national security. There were reportedly discrepancies
between various accounts of when the President was briefed by the NSC about the
alleged espionage cases and whether the President knew about suspected PRC
234 DOE, news release, “Richardson Announces Results of Inquiries Related to Espionage
Investigation,” August 12, 1999.
235 Loeb, Vernon and Walter Pincus, “Espionage Whistleblower Resigns,” Washington Post,
August 24, 1999; James Risen, “Official Who Led Inquiry Into China’s Reputed Theft of
Nuclear Secrets Quits,” New York Times, August 24, 1999.
236 Senator Arlen Specter, “Report on the Investigation of Espionage Allegations Against Dr.
Wen Ho Lee,” March 8, 2000.
237 Loeb, Vernon, “GAO Probing Senior FBI Official,” Washington Post, March 9, 2000.