http://www.asianweek.com/2008/12/14/letters-to-the-editor-richardson-and-wen-ho-lee-michael-wong-responds-oppression-nothing-new/#more-9972
Richardson and Wen Ho Lee
The Wen Ho Lee case will forever haunt Richardson (Emil Amok, Dec. 5).
China is one of America’s biggest trading partners and creditors. Richardson, if confirmed, would have a very difficult time dealing with the Chinese, as they all remember the inhumane, cruel and unusual treatment Dr. Lee received while incarcerated. The Obama administration needs to reassess this nomination.
Guy M. Wong
Sacramento, Calif., Dec. 6
To me the whole issue is not about race but about the person who did not have courage to apologize for his mistake (“Commerce Secretary Appointment Draws Ire From Asian Americans,” Nov. 28). What happened to Dr. Lee has also happened to people of other races: whites, Hispanics, blacks. My concern about Richardson is that he misses very important traits of a leader. Have courage to apologize when you made a mistake.
Anand Shaw
Sunnyvale, Calif., Dec. 9]
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
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."
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."
Poll on Richardson
Please click on the link below and vote on this Richardson poll
http://news.aol.com/main/obama-presidency/article/richardson-to-be-commerce-secretary/257746
http://news.aol.com/main/obama-presidency/article/richardson-to-be-commerce-secretary/257746
Remember Richardson's sorry role in Wen Ho Lee case
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/08/ED1G14IQH0.DTL
George Koo
Monday, December 8, 2008
Many, including Bill Richardson himself, are probably wondering why anyone would object to him serving in the Obama administration. They surely have forgotten the Wen Ho Lee case and Richardson's role in one of America's most disgraceful cases of miscarriage of justice.
The objection to his nomination as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of commerce arose from the fact that Richardson, while serving as Clinton's energy secretary, never owned up to his responsibility in the case of the United States vs. Wen Ho Lee. Until he does, he cannot be allowed to forget.
The organized opposition to the appointment originated in the Bay Area and, as of last week, had more than 4,000 signatories to a petition asking Obama to reconsider Richardson's nomination.
In March 1999, as secretary of energy, Richardson fired Wen Ho Lee without cause from his job as an atomic scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and falsely identified him as a spy for China, which led to Lee's arrest and solitary confinement without the benefit of due process.
Even after the FBI apologized for lying under oath, and the presiding judge apologized to Lee for the arrest on behalf of the federal government for judiciary misconduct, Richardson has continued to defend his actions in the case as proper.
He justifies his conduct by pointing out that Lee is a now a convicted felon, conveniently overlooking that 58 of the original 59 counts of the indictment were thrown out by the court.
The final count was a face-saving way out for the government. Federal prosecutors had Lee plead guilty on a count of downloading information to his computer against laboratory regulations in exchange for the nine months of jail time already served. Because no individual can withstand indefinitely the full legal weight of his own government, Lee copped a plea despite the injustice of the circumstances.
Richardson's actions legitimized racial profiling as practiced then, and now, by the law enforcement agencies. To this day, the FBI continues to assert that ethnic Chinese are potential spies for China.
Those of us protesting Richardson's appointment are asking him to disavow racial profiling as an accepted practice. He should do this, and he can do so by simply admitting he made an error in judgment, and in no way condones racial profiling.
The protest has nothing to do with Richardson becoming the highest ranking Latino appointee in the Obama administration. We applaud the appointment of the most talented and able men and women, regardless of ethnicity, to serve our country.
However, so long as the Wen Ho Lee case is a blot on Richardson's record, we challenge the notion that he is among the most qualified to serve.
Perhaps the Obama transition team is unaware of Richardson's baggage. It is our duty to call this matter to its attention.
As the first African American president-elect, Obama has electrified the world. However, if Richardson's confirmation is not preceded by a public apology, the act would only confirm that politics as usual prevail.
George Koo
Monday, December 8, 2008
Many, including Bill Richardson himself, are probably wondering why anyone would object to him serving in the Obama administration. They surely have forgotten the Wen Ho Lee case and Richardson's role in one of America's most disgraceful cases of miscarriage of justice.
The objection to his nomination as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of commerce arose from the fact that Richardson, while serving as Clinton's energy secretary, never owned up to his responsibility in the case of the United States vs. Wen Ho Lee. Until he does, he cannot be allowed to forget.
The organized opposition to the appointment originated in the Bay Area and, as of last week, had more than 4,000 signatories to a petition asking Obama to reconsider Richardson's nomination.
In March 1999, as secretary of energy, Richardson fired Wen Ho Lee without cause from his job as an atomic scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and falsely identified him as a spy for China, which led to Lee's arrest and solitary confinement without the benefit of due process.
Even after the FBI apologized for lying under oath, and the presiding judge apologized to Lee for the arrest on behalf of the federal government for judiciary misconduct, Richardson has continued to defend his actions in the case as proper.
He justifies his conduct by pointing out that Lee is a now a convicted felon, conveniently overlooking that 58 of the original 59 counts of the indictment were thrown out by the court.
The final count was a face-saving way out for the government. Federal prosecutors had Lee plead guilty on a count of downloading information to his computer against laboratory regulations in exchange for the nine months of jail time already served. Because no individual can withstand indefinitely the full legal weight of his own government, Lee copped a plea despite the injustice of the circumstances.
Richardson's actions legitimized racial profiling as practiced then, and now, by the law enforcement agencies. To this day, the FBI continues to assert that ethnic Chinese are potential spies for China.
Those of us protesting Richardson's appointment are asking him to disavow racial profiling as an accepted practice. He should do this, and he can do so by simply admitting he made an error in judgment, and in no way condones racial profiling.
The protest has nothing to do with Richardson becoming the highest ranking Latino appointee in the Obama administration. We applaud the appointment of the most talented and able men and women, regardless of ethnicity, to serve our country.
However, so long as the Wen Ho Lee case is a blot on Richardson's record, we challenge the notion that he is among the most qualified to serve.
Perhaps the Obama transition team is unaware of Richardson's baggage. It is our duty to call this matter to its attention.
As the first African American president-elect, Obama has electrified the world. However, if Richardson's confirmation is not preceded by a public apology, the act would only confirm that politics as usual prevail.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Richardson's 2nd Least Likely to be Confirmed
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/12/the_friday_line_ranking_the_ca.html
The Friday Line: Ranking the Cabinet Confirmation Prospects
The Friday Line: Ranking the Cabinet Confirmation Prospects
With President-elect Barack Obama having filled roughly half of his 15 Cabinet appointments by the end of this week, we thought now would be a good time to take a closer look at the confirmation prospects for each of the seven Cabinet members already chosen.
In truth, most of the soon-to-be president's picks are likely to be approved by the Senate barring some sort of glaring problem (see Baird, Zoe) with their backgrounds. Historically the pattern has been that the Senate generally defers to the president on his picks for the Cabinet but, according to the Post's indispensable Al Kamen, there always seems to be one person -- Linda Chavez, Baird, John Tower -- who doesn't make it through the confirmation process.
Who is this Administration's Tower/Baird/Chavez? We won't hazard a guess and, remember, that with eight Cabinet officials still not named, the nominee most likely to go down in flames may not even be known yet.
Below you'll find our rankings of the squirm factor for the seven men and women Obama has selected to fill Cabinet jobs in his Administration. The number one ranked person is the one likely to squirm the most under questioning from the Senate. To be clear, all seven of these people seem likely to be confirmed today but some of them will cruise to confirmation while others will stumble to it.
As always, the Line is meant to spark conversation so use the comments section to agree or disagree with our picks or rankings.
7. Robert Gates (Defense): Gates is already the Secretary of Defense. So, he doesn't need to be confirmed by the Senate. Done and done.
6. Tim Geithner (Treasury): Geithner's credentials as head of the New York Fed are impeccable, and, given the current economic strife gripping the country, it's hard to imagine any senator risking his or her political life by delaying this confirmation in any way, shape or form.
5. Janet Napolitano (Homeland Security): The strong support of Sen. John McCain for his home state governor's nomination to the post would seem to clear the decks for Napolitano. Party operatives who know her also speak highly of her political acumen and smarts so don't expect any flubs here. (Napolitano would almost assuredly welcome a lower profile given the hubbub over comments made about her this week by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.)
4 (tie). Tom Daschle (Health and Human Services)/Hillary Rodham Clinton (State): Both Daschle and Clinton have their enemies in the Senate but the world's greatest deliberative body generally protects its own -- Tower being a high-profile exception -- and it's hard to imagine either nominee getting too bad a grilling from their colleagues.
2. Bill Richardson (Commerce): Working in the New Mexico governor's favor is that he spent nearly two decades in Congress -- building relationships that should help him during confirmation. Richardson's role in the Wen Ho Lee case during his tenure as Energy Secretary in the Clinton Administration is already being mentioned as an issue and almost assuredly will come up during confirmation hearings.
1. Eric Holder (Justice): Holder, who led Obama's vice presidential search earlier this year, seems to be the one nominee thus far about whom Republicans are publicly raising questions. The central issue for Holder is the pardon by President Bill Clinton of financier Marc Rich whose ex-wife was a major donor to the Clintons and the Democratic Party. During the Rich pardon, Holder was serving as deputy attorney general and played enough of a role for the Post's own Richard Cohen to insist in a recent column that Holder should be disqualified for the AG post.
By Chris Cillizza | December 5, 2008; 5:45 AM ETThursday, December 4, 2008
Best of China Blog
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/12/03/best-of-the-china-blogs-december-4/
–Chinese-American activists are gearing up to protest Obama’s nomination of Bill Richardson for commerce secretary, calling into question his role in the handling of the Wen Ho Lee case. In 1999, Lee was wrongly accused of spying for China during Richardson’s tenure as energy secretary. [Huffington Post]
–Chinese-American activists are gearing up to protest Obama’s nomination of Bill Richardson for commerce secretary, calling into question his role in the handling of the Wen Ho Lee case. In 1999, Lee was wrongly accused of spying for China during Richardson’s tenure as energy secretary. [Huffington Post]
Sen Byrd on Richardson
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/us/politics/04richardson.html
His tenure at the Energy Department was marred by reports of nuclear security lapses at Los Alamos National Laboratory. At one contentious hearing, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, told him that he would never again “receive the support of the Senate of the United States for any office to which you might be appointed.”
His tenure at the Energy Department was marred by reports of nuclear security lapses at Los Alamos National Laboratory. At one contentious hearing, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, told him that he would never again “receive the support of the Senate of the United States for any office to which you might be appointed.”
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