(Briefing contd.) For the next 10 months, Dr. Lee was kept in a pre-trial detention facility while the government tried to make a case against him. In September 2000, Dr. Lee was finally released after pleading guilty to one count of mishandling confidential documents. The other 58 charges were dropped and two FBI agents admitted to lying about key aspects to the case.

Dr. Lee is a nationalized citizen of the United States. Originally from Taiwan, Dr. Lee was one of the Asian scientists at Los Alamos suspected of spying for the Chinese government.

Though the Justice Department and the FBI deny all accusations of racial profiling, obviously Dr. Lee's ethnicity played a factor in the government's case against him.

Dr. Lee's case is not the first case against the government of discrimination. In December 2000, nine Asian American scientists and engineers at the national lab, Livermore, filed a discrimination complaint with the State of California.