Theft of Nuclear Secrets

Robert Scheer (Commentary, Oct. 5) states that “we know” the theft of design information on the most sophisticated thermonuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal, the W-88, “occurred during the Reagan administration.” The Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China warned against focusing on events prior to 1988 and the FBI and the Department of Justice have recently reopened their investigation. The arbitrary 1988 cutoff in the original espionage investigation is one of the reasons for its premature focus on Wen Ho Lee.

Scheer implies that information about Lee “leaked from a congressional committee.” The New York Times cited the administration--not Congress--as its source for the leaked information. Lee’s name does not appear even in the classified version of the Select Committee’s report. Rather, Lee was very publicly fired by the secretary of Energy. Scheer falsely states that the Los Alamos Laboratory is no longer a target of the espionage investigation. In fact, it remains very much a focus of the newly launched, widened FBI probe.

As a result of the Select Committee’s rigorous and bipartisan work, President Clinton signed legislation creating the National Nuclear Security Administration, which will take over responsibility from the problem-riddled Department of Energy in the wake of these damaging security breaches.

REP. CHRISTOPHER COX

R-Huntington Beach

REP. NORM DICKS

D-Wash.

* I fully agree with Scheer that our government owes Lee an apology; and I hope Cox will be among the first to apologize.

FRANK S.C. CHANG

Brentwood