FBI May Have Misled Lee About Polygraph Exam
By Associated Press

Fired nuclear physicist Wen Ho Lee was misled by federal investigators who told him he had failed a Department of Energy lie-detector test, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

During a long interrogation, FBI agents pressed Lee to confess passing nuclear weapons secrets to China. Lee, however, denied that, insisted he was telling the truth and was never told by his interrogators that DOE polygraph operators had in fact given him a very high score for honesty.

“I don’t know why I fail,” Lee told the FBI. “But I do know I have not done anything. ... I never give any classified information to Chinese people.”

The Post obtained a transcript of the March 7 interrogation, which was recorded by the FBI.

The newspaper said the questioning by the federal agents was highly adversarial and ended only after Lee asked repeatedly to leave.

Lee’s family said Saturday in a statement that it was outraged by the FBI’s behavior during its interrogation of the scientist.

“The family believes this revelation is yet another example in the long series of cover-ups and deceptions that have marked the government’s pursuit of Dr. Lee,” the statement said. “The FBI ... employed outrageous tactics to coerce a false confession.”

Lee, a 60-year-old Taiwan-born researcher, is being held without bail for allegedly copying classified nuclear data to computer tapes, seven of which are missing.

Federal prosecutors deny their investigation was biased or unfair and maintain that the FBI’s skepticism about Lee’s statements was justified because he had lied in the past.

Lee has pleaded innocent to 59 counts under the Atomic Energy and Espionage Acts. If convicted, the former employee of the Los Alamos National Laboratory could face life in prison.