By
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear scientist once vilified as a suspected spy so dangerous he couldn't be granted bail, will go home a free man after he pleads guilty to just one of the 59 counts against him, officials said.
Friends and neighbors, who planned a welcome-home party, characterized the Los Alamos National Laboratory worker as a loyal citizen, and his attorneys said he was singled out for prosecution because he is ethnic Chinese.
"It's an astonishing development and an amazing retreat by the government," said Steve Aftergood, who directs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington.
Under the plea bargain, Lee was to be released after a hearing yesterday afternoon and be sentenced to the nine months he's already spent behind bars, government officials said.
In exchange, the 60-year-old Taiwan-born scientist, who has been jailed in solitary confinement since his arrest Dec. 10, will divulge all he knows about seven computer tapes onto which he was accused of downloading sensitive information, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
An investigation that started as an offshoot of a Chinese espionage case led to accusations that Lee had downloaded the "crown jewels" of U.S. nuclear weaponry, might be poised to hand them over to a foreign power and might even be spirited away by spies in helicopters.
The government backed down from nearly all those charges.
"Dr. Lee and his family are thrilled at the prospect that he may be released unconditionally," defense attorney Mark Holscher said Sunday, adding that he could not elaborate on the deal because it had not been filed.
The government sources said a key turning point in the 2-month-old plea discussions was Lee's willingness to explain what happened to the computer tapes. Lee has said they were destroyed at the lab; now he will better explain how, the officials said.
"The location and fate of the tapes were always of paramount concern," one official said.
The case turned in Lee's favor last month when an FBI agent acknowledged he incorrectly testified at a bail hearing last December that Lee had told another scientist he wanted to use that scientist's computer to print a resume when in fact Lee told the other scientist he wished to download files. The testimony had been a key to U.S. District Judge James Parker's original decision to deny bail. Also, several scientists disputed the government's "crown jewels" assertion.
Parker eventually ordered Lee's release on $1 million bail, saying the reasons for keeping him jailed had largely evaporated. However, a federal appeals court delayed the release.
Parker issued a brief order Sunday announcing a plea agreement had been reached but gave no details.
The government sources said Lee agreed to plead guilty to one count of unlawful gathering of national defense information.
Lee also will agree to make himself completely available to federal investigators and cooperate with them over the next six months, the sources said. Lee also was expected to drop his allegations that prosecutors went after him because he is Chinese-American.
A trial on charges of downloading restricted nuclear data to unsecured computers and tapes had been set for Nov. 6. He could have faced life in prison if convicted of all 59 counts.
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said he believes the jailing without bail was imposed only to elicit a guilty plea.
"This case stinks," Dershowitz said, `"and the resolution doesn't make it smell any better. It only makes the contestants happy, but it shouldn't make the public happy."
"If he pleaded innocent, he had to remain in jail, but if he pleads guilty, he gets out of jail - it is so Soviet," Dershowitz said. "It is un-American."
