Bail Sought for Accused Nuclear Expert

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Attorneys for former government scientist Wen Ho Lee asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to grant him bail, arguing that his right against self-incrimination was violated in denying him bail.

Defense attorneys Mark Holscher and John Cline urged the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn rulings disallowing bail for Lee, 60, who is charged with breaching security at Los Alamos National Laboratory by moving material to computers and computer tapes that weren’t secure.

The prosecution has said that Lee stole enough nuclear secrets to build a functional thermonuclear weapon and called the data he downloaded the “crown jewels” of American science.

The defense contends that U.S. Magistrate Don Svet and U.S. District Judge James Parker denied bail on the basis of “far-fetched hypotheticals” by FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Messemer.

The agent suggested Lee might still have seven computer tapes he swore he destroyed, might give them to spies and might be airlifted out of the country by foreign agents.

Despite Lee’s willingness to put up $100,000 bond and be electronically monitored, the judges still found no way to guarantee the nation’s secrets would be safe.