We're worried this might be a case of selective prosecution. Some of the responses to Dr. Lee's arrest were strikingly emotional. Cecilia Chang, a friend of Dr. Lee and his family, cried as she asked how a country that stood for freedom and fairness could prosecute a man who, she said, was a simple family man devoted to his adopted country. Several Asian-Americans said the event merely brought to a head four years of growing anger at the way they were being treated and portrayed in the media. The concern began in the last presidential campaign, when several fund-raisers of Asian descent pleaded guilty to charges that they had arranged or made illegal contributions to President Clinton's campaign.
People are angry.
While Dr. Lee's arrest was the culmination of an F.B.I. investigation into his computer activities that began in March, the espionage inquiry that first brought Dr. Lee to the government's attention is continuing at a much slower pace. The government stumbled onto evidence of Dr. Lee's unauthorized computer transfers because he was under investigation in connection with an inquiry into evidence that China may have stolen secret data related to America's most advanced nuclear warhead, the W-88, which was designed at Los Alamos. That investigation began in early 1995. By 1996, when the F.B.I. opened a formal criminal investigation, Dr. Lee had emerged as a suspect. Privacy Information Stay connected to the news that interests you with free e-mail alerts from The New York Times.