Her father's champion: a talk with Alberta Lee

BY ALISON YANG

In March 1999, Dr. Wen-Ho Lee was pinpointed as the prime suspect in a government investigation of the Las Alamos Nuclear Laboratory (LANL). Seemingly overnight, his family became embroiled in a spy scandal.

KATIE ALDRICH/YH

Sure of her father's innocence, Alberta Lee became the champion for her father's release and an activist against racial profiling. On Wed., Sept. 13, after the espionage case had crumbled due to the sheer lack of evidence, Dr. Wen-Ho Lee accepted an agreement, pleading guilty to just one of the 59 initial charges. At Lee's sentencing, U.S. District Judge James Parker apologized for the ordeal, saying the government's conduct in the case "embarrassed our entire nation."

Once unsure and soft-spoken, Alberta Lee is now an unyielding opponent of selective prosecution based on ethnicity. In an interview with the Herald, she presented a unique critique of the American legal system and the social status of Asian-Americans.

Yale Herald: In your view, was your father a victim of racial profiling? Was he prosecuted because of the notion that ethnicity makes a difference in one's loyalty to this nation?

Alberta Lee: Three investigators have spoken out about the racial profiling involved in my father's case. Robert Vrooman, the former chief of counter-intelligence at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), said that ethnicity was a large factor in explaining why my father was prosecuted. His statement was printed and publicized in August of 1999.

Charles Washington, acting director of counter-intelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), also stated he believed my father was improperly targeted because of his race and national origin. He spoke out against Notra Trulock, who was at the time leading the DOE investigation. Washington, who is African-American, stated that Trulock has biases against people of color. In fact, there was a racial discrimination case, which is now settled, against Trulock.

YH: What kind of treatment did Dr. Lee receive during his 278 days of solitary confinement?

AL: Every time I saw him, he was being treated like an animal. During every visit, he was handcuffed, with a chain to his waist and shackles around his ankles. There were always FBI agents on either side of the glass pane, across which we spoke through an intercom. He was held in complete seclusion for a month. He was watched and monitored continuously. Agents took notes of what he was doing in his cell every fifteen minutes. He was denied things like books, magazines, or music for the first two months. The officials finally allowed him to go out to the public to get fresh air one hour a day, five days a week. I was not allowed to speak to him in Mandarin Chinese until a translator was brought in to monitor the conversations. It took weeks for him to receive letters. The family was given one-inch thick packets on what could and could not be said during phone calls.

We were told that two U.S. Marshalls with machine guns accompanied him wherever he went within the confine of the prison. The conditions were not normal even for mass murders, bank robbers, and rapists. The protocol was the so-called "Special Administrative Measure" that was personally assigned to him by the former Attorney General Janet Reno. The conditions were completely unthinkable. My father would not talk to me about the days of his confinement —it is simply too painful for him. Until today, I still can not believe all this happened in America just a few months ago.

But my father is a strong man and he knew he was innocent. I think when you are sure of your innocence, you are able to survive anything.

YH: Since the March 1999 New York Times article, there has been a lot of criticism targeted at the allegedly exaggerated facts in the article and its inflammatory tone that may have polarized the situation. In retrospect, what do you think about the role of the media in your father's ordeal?

AL: Even in the justice system, a lot of times you're put in the position to prove yourself innocent while the system is certain of your guilt. The media—together with the public—definitely has the tendency to make rash judgments based on stories that are half true or manipulated. With the media I've learned that I really don't know what to believe. You shouldn't take everything you read at face value unless you can verify the sources.

It's fascinating—it's also disgusting—to see how powerful the media can be at times. It's really an unofficial branch of the government. I do have a lot of respect for journalists. It's challenging to report stories with the limited information available. The media works under a bizarre dynamic between the government, politics, and pressures from the public and from the government. It's also a vehicle of backstabbing, ass-covering, and rash decision-making of conflicting interests.

YH: Lee's reputation has been dragged through the mud during the past two years. The media has at times portrayed him as a very sinister man—a Julius Rosenberg of the '90s. But what is he like as a man, a father, and a husband?

AL: My father is a very simple man. He loves his science, his math, and his garden. If you do meet him, you'll realize that he is very unassuming and naïve in ways. At age 26, he came to this country—like many first-generation Chinese-Americans—with very pure and idealized notions of America. To him, this was a nation where corruption and discrimination didn't exist. Just do your science to the best of your ability and you'll be recognized for your efforts. I believe this is why he wasn't, and didn't try to be, well-connected and socially savvy. He never made an effort to suck up to the management at work, and I think that's part of the reason why he was made the scapegoat when the investigation started.

YH: Your father's experiences have left many Asian-Americans uneasy, wondering if their heritage alone could make them vulnerable to suspicion and prosecution. What do you think about the status of Asian-Americans in this nation?

AL: As Asian-Americans, we are a very young minority group. We are not very savvy. We are not very strong politically. We need more leaders. Asian-Americans should stop pressuring their children into becoming doctors and engineers. More of us should to go into politics and law to empower ourselves in the legal arena. As a whole, Asian-Americans are a very obedient group. We listen to our parents and believe what we read and hear from "authority." It's a pervasive theme that needs to be changed.  

YH: How do you feel about the fact that parts of the media has portrayed your father's ordeal as a purely Asian-American issue?

AL: I am happy to see that Americans from all walks of life, all colors, all economic backgrounds have come forward in support of my father. They sign petitions, donate to the defense fund, and write letters to newspapers. I don't think that my father's experiences have been or should be pigeonholed as an Asian-American issue. This is a case that all Americans should be concerned about because it is really about what American stands for and what kind of justice we want for this nation.

YH: How has this whole ordeal affected your faith in the American justice system?

AL: My faith in the justice system grew both stronger and weaker. My belief in it is stronger in the sense that I'm more committed than ever to practice law some day. I want to help people who have been subjected to racial profiling and discrimination. In ways my father is lucky—at least he is out of jail now. But what happens to all those people who haven't been treated fairly and do not have proper representation? That terrifies me. And in that sense my faith in the system is weakened. I used to believe that justice is a very black and white thing. Now I realize that there are a lot of gray areas. Justice is no precise science.

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