[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 65 (Thursday, May 6, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H2909-H2910]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           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.

                              {time}  2030

  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

[[Page H2910]]

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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