Wen Ho Lee Backlash At Weapons Labs

Three top weapons laboratories in the United States are offering to change their hiring and promotion practices in return for the end of a boycott by two Asian-American groups over the treatment of Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, the New York Times reported in its online edition Tuesday.

Lee, the Taiwan-born nuclear weapons scientist who was suspected of spying for China, was fired from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in 1999 and held in solitary confinement for nine months. He was never charged with espionage and the government ultimately dropped all but one of the 59 charges of mishandling nuclear weapons data against him.

Lee admitted he had incorrectly downloaded classified data, but said others in the top secret lab also did this. The 63-year-old scientist has said he was targeted by U.S. investigators because of his Asian heritage.

A Justice Department report released last year found the FBI had conducted a "deeply and fundamentally flawed" investigation of Lee's case. However, the report rejected claims Lee had been singled out because of his race.

Angry about Lee's treatment, two academic organizations had urged Asian-American scientists in early 2000 to boycott the weapons laboratories by not applying for jobs there, the paper reported.

But in light of the proposed changes, the professor who led the boycott, his organization, the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education, and the Association of Asian American Studies are prepared to call off the boycott, according to the paper.

Richard Mah, the lab's associate director for weapons engineering and manufacturing, told the Times the boycott has had a large impact on the Los Alamos lab's ability to hire Asian-Americans.

If a formal agreement is signed, it will focus on creating better advancement opportunities for Asian-American scientists and addressing what professor L. Ling-chi Wang considers disparities in research opportunities, the paper reported.

Last week, a class-action lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of Asian-American employees was filed against the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, according to the paper.