Now the government is trying to cover its tracks in a bumbling effort that is almost embarrassing. Others argued that because he was a native of Taiwan, he might have been helping that government. With that admission, the whole pattern of government fabrications and tenuous connections began to fall apart. CBS News revealed that, in spite of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's assertion on 60 Minutes that Lee had failed two lie detector tests, the accused scientist had in fact passed the tests. The field office sent a memo saying Lee was not their man, but back in Washington, there was extraordinary pressure on the FBI and the Energy Department to catch a spy.
Sources say that stunned the three experienced polygraphers on the case.
All three had concluded that Lee was truthful in his responses. Secretary Richardson, like other members of the Clinton administration, seems unacquainted with the concept of truth. The government lied from the get-go , apparently in full confidence that they would get away with it. After all, with most of the media in their pocket, they had gotten away with so much already. And they might have gotten away with it, if not for the efforts of Alberta Lee , Dr. Lee's daughter, who worked tirelessly to expose the phony charges, and, together with a growing network of supporters succeeded in reversing to a large extent the initial public impression of her father's guilt.