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“CHINESE ESPIONAGE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2909-H2910 on May 6, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CHINESE ESPIONAGE
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I applaud my colleague who was just at the podium addressing the issue of Chinese espionage at our nuclear facilities and would, of course, like to engage the gentleman from Indiana, if I may.
And certainly a question that would have to be raised at this point in time is, can America feel secure today with its nuclear weapons secret intact now? Have we solved this problem yet? Or is there something we should be doing?
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. No, the problem has been exacerbated by the espionage that has taken place, as I alluded to a few minutes ago.
The thing that really concerns me is the head of the National Security Council, Sandy Berger, who was briefed about this in April 1996 really did not do anything about it.
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He informed the President in 1997. The President has not owned up to that, and the thing that concerns me a great deal is that when this was known we should have called the head of the FBI, Louis Freeh; Janet Reno; the head of the CIA; and the head of the Energy Department, and together to come up with a way to catch the people who were involved in the espionage and make sure it stopped. But unfortunately they kept the people on at Los Alamos for 3 years after that, and the Justice Department would not even allow wiretaps on the fellow.
So it has been a real mess, and we need to get to the bottom of it.
Mr. GIBBONS. Is the gentleman suggesting that through inadvertence or maybe intentionally disregarding the danger here, the FBI and the Justice Department failed to take an active role in the investigation of this espionage once it was found out in 1995 and 1996?
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I think that Louis Freeh and the FBI were trying to do the best that they could. They went to the Justice Department four times asking for electronic surveillance on Mr. Wen Ho Lee, the man who was involved in the espionage, or allegedly involved in the espionage, and the Justice Department denied on four separate occasions the electronic surveillance, and to my knowledge that was the only denial of electronic surveillance where there was probable cause by the FBI in the year of 1997, 1998. And so why did they deny it when we are talking about national security, and why was this man left in this position for 3 years?
Those are questions that need to be answered and answered very quickly.
Mr. GIBBONS. Well, I do express the same concerns that my colleague has over this issue because once our nuclear weapons technology has spread to other countries, of course, as we know, there is a likelihood that that will even progress further in the proliferation of that technology to Third World countries or even rogue states. I know that China has an ongoing participation with countries like Iran, Pakistan and others who are in the process today of building up their nuclear arsenal.
So from the standpoint that America has lost a great deal of its internal security, we have also lost a great deal of our national security from the fact that now these weapons, the design of which was obviously transferred to the Chinese through some process like the gentleman is describing here, now can be directed toward us by the Chinese or other countries who possess this technology.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. The gentleman makes a very valid point. The proliferation of nuclear weapons is growing at a rapid rate, and with this technology going to the Chinese communists, I do not know if they are going to let it out or not, but the fact is they have been selling a lot of advanced weaponry to countries like Iran, and I am not sure about Iraq, but I believe Iraq, and my colleague mentioned some other countries as well. And that technology, if it gets into the wrong hands, could precipitate a strike by some kind of a crazy like Saddam Hussein, if he had the opportunity, that could cause untold human misery.
And so we need to keep a tight lid on all of the nuclear technology that we have, and for us to keep a person who is suspected of espionage in a position of leadership at Los Alamos for 3 years and not allow the FBI to even put electronic surveillance on him is a real dereliction of duty.
Mr. GIBBONS. Well, I thank the gentleman for, of course, his interest in looking into this issue. It is on the forefront of the minds of a great number of Americans, and I applaud him for his interest in keeping all of us apprised of this and looking into it on behalf of the committee and on behalf of the American people.
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