Wen Ho Lee and his daughter Alberta
This is a textbook example of collusion between the government and “pet” journalists to try someone in the press before they bring him to trial. In this case, the pressures were exacerbated by the months of solitary confinement inflicted by the feds for “security” reasons before and during his trial.
Wen Ho Lee, the former nuclear weapons scientist once suspected of being a spy, settled his privacy lawsuit Friday and will receive $1.6 million from the government and five news organizations in a case that turned into a fight over reporters’ confidential sources.
Lee will receive $895,000 from the government for legal fees and associated taxes in the 6 1/2-year-old lawsuit in which he accused the Energy and Justice departments of violating his privacy rights by leaking information that he was under investigation as a spy for China.
The Associated Press and four other news organizations have agreed to pay Lee $750,000 as part of the settlement, which ends contempt of court proceedings against five reporters who refused to disclose the sources of their stories about the espionage investigation.
Lee said of the settlement: “We are hopeful that the agreements reached today will send the strong message that government officials and journalists must and should act responsibly in discharging their duties and be sensitive to the privacy interests afforded to every citizen of this country.”
The payment by AP, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and ABC is the only one of its kind in recent memory, and perhaps ever, legal and media experts said.
The governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson wants to be the first Hispanic President [or VP] so bad he can taste it. I think he would pick up the tab for the reporters himself just to hide his part in the leaks — when he was head of the DOE in the Clinton Administration.
Thank God her dad’s name is Wen Ho Lee instead of Wen Lee Ho, or she’d be a Ho – and her mother too.
“Thank God her dad’s name is Wen Ho Lee instead of Wen Lee Ho, or she’d be a Ho – and her mother too.”
“Wen Lee Ho” i dont get it. may be time for another Chinese teacher.
“Thank God her dad’s name is Wen Ho Lee instead of Wen Lee Ho, or she’d be a Ho – and her mother too.”
Actually, in Chinese, the familial name name comes first and then the given name.
Some Chinese in America do turn it around to be more like the Americans of European descent. But, they are a minority.
So, it is very likely that the daughter of Wen Lee Ho (assuming that he has one) is named somenting like Wen Chi Yee.
Oh, by the way, xully, yours was a fairly racist post.
When are they going to pay Michael Milken?
Racist? Hardly. The comment would stand if it was a white, black, or martian that had the last name Ho.
Humor from names isn’t racist. I’ve met, and been amused by a Diamond Geezer, and served in a store a man by the name Huw Janus.
It wasn’t a particularly funny comment, but it wasn’t racist.
Actually the joke is from an asian comedian, so I guess he was the racist. Is it possible for minorites to be racist? I didn’t think so. In the original skit, an asian son said to his father, “Father, YOU are a HO, I am a HO, and mother is a …” and his father cut him off. “Oh by the way”, a “racist” is someone who thinks one race is better than another, how you got that from my post shows what a pathetic politically correct lemming you are.
Xully, since someone let these idiotic comments get posted I’ll leave them. But this comment section is to add insight or find fault with the report, not for someone to practice their stand-up routine. Go to the Cage match forums if you want to rave.
xully and Gregory,
I stand corrected. xully did not make a racist post. See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racist.
So, I guess that that joke, is just a racial slur. Just because I grew up with racists that told just kinds of jokes as part of their racism, I should not generalize that all people that use racial slurs are racists.
John C, Yeah I know, it is a side issue and my comments have nothing to do with the original article. I will try to bear that in mind in the future and let such side issues go.
The governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson wants to be the first Hispanic President [or VP] so bad he can taste it. I think he would pick up the tab for the reporters himself just to hide his part in the leaks — when he was head of the DOE in the Clinton Administration.
Ya know, it would be one thing if Bill Richardson was somehow behind this but he wasn’t. The reason he wasn’t is that the whole Wen Ho Lee debacle was cooked up by Notra Trulock (notorious neocon) as an attack on the Clinton administration (another faux scandal) and fed to the NY Time’s Jeff Gerth who swallowed the bait and ran with it.
Don’t take my word for it. Just Google Notra Trulock + Wen Ho Lee and read up on it for yourself.
$1.6 mil! those greed-head lawyers!
oh, wait – this isn’t a lawyer-bashing thread, it is a lawyer-praising thread.
my bad.
If you want something insighful, find out how the government admitted they targeted Lee because he was an ethnic Chinese, then found themselves not guilty of ethnic bias.
Justice was served?
Neal Saferstein
No, justice was not served. Five reporters kept their asses out of jail on the street after refusing to report their sources in a criminal act. By paying a fine they get off free. They should be serving at least as much time in solitary confinement as Wen did for conspiracy. I imagine the fines were paid by their papers or employers. (or maybe even Bill Richardson.)
Not revealing a reporters sources should only be acceptable when a wrong is being reported. When the confidentiality is part of covering a crime, as here, there should never be immunity or withholding who gave them the information.
It’s about time he is compensated for being followed, spied on, falsely accused and jailed pretrial under cruel and illegal conditions.