Thursday, July 19, 1999 -- HONG KONG -- On May 27th I wrote a column for this journal that called into question the circumstances surrounding the fingering of Taiwanese-born American, Wen Ho Lee, as a deep cover agent for China who passed on to his Beijing masters American nuclear secrets from the Los Alamos lab where he worked. Not that he was being described by the American media as a 'deep cover agent' or 'mole' or 'sleeper' - no, Wen Ho Lee was painted as a traitor and a thief - and if the White House and Energy Department has its way - that is the way he will be remembered. 

I really hate the words 'steal' and 'theft' . They carry such a negative connotation, an implication of  low life scum. But back in May I was lambasted by the liberal minded readers of American Politics Journal when I suggested that Wen Ho Lee was the victim of a politically inspired hate campaign against the Chinese to cover up for a - how shall we describe it - another incident where the American intelligence community didn't exactly cover itself in glory! Intelligence community - now there's misnomer - not that they aren't intelligent, but since they are involved in obtaining the secrets of other nations shouldn't they be renamed  The Central Theft Agency? Just a thought. If a Chinese spy is a thief, then an American spy is what? A crusader for world peace and the freedom of man? Give me a break. 

And this week, an American counter-intelligence chief at Los Alamos has admitted that Wen Ho Lee was singled out as a Beijing employed thief  for one outstanding reason -  because he has slanty eyes and a funny accent. What were the spycatcher's words again? Not a shred of evidence!  And I suppose while we are on the subject of spies,  lies, spinning stories, and the China connection I should make a confession. I still don't believe for one second that the accidental bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade was an accident. Too much of a stretch for me, sorry. The way the missile went direct to the electronic heart of the embassy's 'news' gathering operation... Yeah, right. Something in the genre of a magic bullet that defeats accepted ballistic science and has the ability to change direction. 

Think about it for a second. You are the most powerful superpower in history, with the most sophisticated weapons and a zillion dollar intelligence (Ed.: pilfering) organisation. You are attacking a city where you have friends and Security Council partners that you really don't want to kill by accident. So with all of these gadgets and  budget that would feed most of the Third World you go out and buy an out of date Michelin map? 

We'll never know, of course. What I mean is, we'll never know if the diminutive Wen Ho Lee is innocent or if he was the most cunning spy of the past decade. We'll just remember him as a thief and the Belgrade bombing as an accident. 

Oh, and we'll also remember the NATO aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia as the model for future international operations to prevent ethnic cleansing. More than a million Kosovo Albanians who fled after it started and almost 200,000 Kosovo Serbs who've left since it ended must not be reading from the NATO script, eh!