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Data in US nuclear spy case reclassified: report

NEW YORK: The computer files at the heart of the case against U.S. nuclear espionage suspect Wen Ho Lee were given higher security classifications last year only after the former Los Alamos scientist was arrested, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The newspaper said that at the time Lee downloaded the files onto his computer they were classified but not designated secret or confidential as the indictment against him alleges.

Instead they were covered by a lower kind of security precaution, the Times said, citing sources on both sides in the case as well as a document that federal prosecutors filed as evidence.

The case against Taiwan-born Lee has become the most-watched espionage affair in years, with prosecutors saying he may have given away the designs to the "crown jewels" of the U.S. nuclear arsenal to China.

Lee, who has not been officially charged with espionage, has maintained his innocence. His lawyers have said they intend to argue that the computer tapes and files he made were copies of scientific work already published with the government's permission.

The lead lawyer for Lee, Mark Holscher, told the Times the change in security classification which he said his team discovered while studying prosecution evidence, would be a powerful weapon for the defence. "The indictment is deceptive," he told the newspaper.

Government officials conceded to the Times that the original security level was low but emphatically denied the material was insignificant. A Justice Department spokesman said the government stands by the indictment.

Lee, 60, was arrested in December and is now in jail awaiting trial on charges of illegally downloading nuclear secrets from his lab's computers.

The Times said the downloaded material had a security designation "protect as restricted data" or PARD, a category applied to scientific data so voluminous and changing so frequently as to be impossible to asses in terms of security.

While such material is classified, it is not subject to the same stringent precautions applied to data designated secret or confidential. For example, scientists may leave such material on their desks overnight rather than keeping it in a safe.

One independent expert on security and classification told the newspaper that the revelation would throw the government on the defensive and shows the case is more complicated than it first seemed.

The indictment in the case said that in 1993, 1994 and 1997 Lee had illegally transferred secret and confidential restricted data, the federal term for information about the design, manufacturing and use of atomic weapons. But a document filed as evidence in the case said the downloading involved either unclassified or PARD data.-Reuters