Cabinet head met with Wen Ho kin

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Cabinet official secretly met with the daughterof former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee as government prosecutorstried to build a case against him for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets,WorldNetDaily has learned.

Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta talked with Alberta Lee about thethen-still-active prosecution of her father in a July 29 meeting inAtlanta, according to security officials within the department.

They say Mineta, the first Asian-American member of a U.S. Cabinet,reassured Lee that her father was not targeted because of his race andencouraged her to send that message to the Asian-American community,which has threatened to rein in political donations to the DemocraticNational Committee.

That same day, Mineta gave a speech to members of the Organization ofChinese Americans gathered in Atlanta for their annual convention. The10,000-member group includes several prominent DNC fund-raisers.

"He was trying to calm the waters in the Chinese-American community,"said a Commerce security specialist who requested anonymity.

But members of the executive protection team whotravel with the secretary were concerned about theappearance of the meeting between Mineta and Lee, apotential witness in the case.

"With all this stuff going on, it was so stupid," one securityofficial said. "It looks really bad."

At the time, Lee's outspoken daughter was campaigning to free herjailed father, who was charged with 59 counts of mishandling classifiednuclear information. He was freed last month in a surprise plea-bargaindeal that dropped 58 of the counts against him. He was convicted of asingle felony.

Critics of the deal and the Clinton administration's overall handlingof the four-year investigation of Lee, who originally was a Chinese spysuspect, say the meeting confirms their fears that politics derailed theprobe.

"They met after Mineta was confirmed and before Lee was convicted?Knock me over with a feather," said Notra Trulock, the former EnergyDepartment counterintelligence chief who first put Lee on a suspectlist, which included several Caucasians.

"This is kind of the smoking gun that shows there was a politicaleffort to make this case go away," Trulock said.

Asked to comment on the appropriateness of the meeting, Mineta'sspokesman demurred.

"He wasn't Commerce secretary then," Commerce press secretary MorrieGoodman argued. "I don't think he was, I don't think he was. I don'tthink he was Commerce secretary then."

Told Mineta was confirmed fully a week before the Atlanta meeting, onJuly 20, Goodman declined to comment further and insisted questions besubmitted in writing under the Freedom of Information Act.

Alberta Lee could not be reached for comment. "She's in a quietperiod," said Cecilia Chang, a family friend who helped set up theWenHoLee.org website and his legal defense fund.

At the Organization of Chinese Americans convention, held at theGrand Hyatt in Atlanta's tony Buckhead district, Lee gave severalspeeches herself.

"She spoke out at workshops and the general membership session," saidDaphne Kwok, the group's executive director.

The workshops focused on reaffirming the need for social justice andequal opportunity for Asian-Americans.

In his speech, Mineta told members that last year alone the "SmallBusiness Administration granted three-and-a-half times more loans toAsian Pacific American businesses than in 1992."

He also pointed out that "President Clinton and Vice President Gorehave appointed 70 Asian Pacific Americans to the administration."

John Huang and Melinda Yee are among several top DNC fund-raisers whoare members of the Organization of Chinese Americans, but Kwok says theydid not attend the Atlanta gathering. However, prominent DNC fund-raiserand activist Maeley Tom, who has White House clout, did attend.

Before taking over the helm at Commerce, Mineta spoke out publicly onthe Lee case, echoing complaints that he was singled out because of hisrace.

In July 1999, Mineta joined a panel discussion in Dallas on Leetitled "The Loyalty Question." He told the audience they must speak outto fight racial injustice.

Mineta's predecessor at Commerce, Bill Daley, has said he thinks Leewas a victim of "great hysteria."

"There was a great hysteria when those revelations (of Chinesespying) were made (in March 1999)," Daley said on CBS' "Face the Nation"just days after Lee's release. "And there were all sorts ofcongressional statements. There were all sorts of newspapers, to befrank with you, with outrageous allegations based upon -- seeminglybased upon no evidence."

Daley, now running Gore's campaign, led the White House's recentlobbying of Congress to pass permanent trade benefits for China.

A former Daley aide at Commerce says he doesn't know if Daley has metwith Alberta Lee since he took over the Gore campaign July 15.

"I don't know that he did, but I just don't know,"said Andy Pincus, who left his job as Commerce'sgeneral counsel and followed Daley to Nashville,Tenn., to work on the Gore campaign as an unpaidvolunteer.

Chang says during a campaign stop about six months agoin San Francisco, Tipper Gore told her "I'm verysorry" about what happened to Lee.

Now that her father has been released, Chang saysAlberta Lee will lobby the president to pardon him forthe single felony to which he pleaded guilty.

President Clinton has said he was "quite troubled" by Lee'streatment, which included nine months in solitary confinement.

Recently Posted