Robert Vrooman's Statement

Governor Bill Richardson is a poor choice for Secretary of Commerce or, for that matter, any position in the Obama Administration. President-elect Obama has stated many times that he wants people in his administration who are willing to tell him things that he does not want to hear. This is not the way Governor Richardson operates. I have personal experience with Bill Richardson when he was Secretary of Energy. I opposed his decision to railroad Dr. Wen Ho Lee on bogus espionage charges. Secretary Richardson was not willing to listen to minority opinions on Dr. Lee, and he punished me and others who defended Dr. Lee. We were proven correct when the government settled with Lee for $1.6 million.

The Chinese-American community has correctly claimed that Dr. Lee was identified as an espionage suspect because of his race. I know more about this subject than any other person in the US and agree with this assessment. This is not, however, Bill Richardson’s real problem. Secretary Richardson made three mistakes that raise serious questions about his judgment and character. First, because of political pressure, he refused to listen to minority opinions on Lee. Secondly, even after it was abundantly clear that Lee was not guilty, Secretary Richardson supported pursuing the prosecution. Finally, Secretary Richardson has never apologized to the people that he punished for “not aggressively pursuing Wen Ho Lee.”

Selecting Governor Richardson to serve in the Obama Administration is not “change we can believe in.”
______
Dr. Robert Vrooman was the counterintelligence director at Los Alamos National Laboratory who fiercely objected WHL's arrest. Vrooman himself was reprimanded by Bill Richardson for continuing to oppose the charges and actions against WHL. He supported the campaign to free WHL through many speeches and the media.

See Vrooman's declaration at http://nobillrichardson.blogspot.com/2008/12/investigation-and-treatment-of-whl.html. His declaration stated he believes "the failure to look at the rest of the population is because Lee is ethnic Chinese."