A Lee family friend said that Zia was deferring all questions to the book's editor. Schwalbe declined to say whether he had read the manuscript. Usually, any book this close to publication would have been thoroughly edited, with publicists working hard to win favorable reviews for it.
Hyperion's publicity describes the book as a "compelling narrative that takes readers inside Los Alamos," the New Mexico birthplace of the atomic bomb and today a sprawling federal laboratory complex. It says the book's disclosures include why Lee downloaded nuclear weapons codes to insecure computers, what he really did at Los Alamos for two decades and how the Federal Bureau of Investigation was "hell-bent on proving Lee Wen-ho was a spy, even if they had to resort to deception and fabrication to do so."
In December 1999, prosecutors charged Lee with 59 counts of mishandling classified information. But in September 2000, after Lee had spent nine months in jail awaiting trial, a judge freed him after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of mishandling secrets. His jailing, the judged declared, had "embarrassed our entire nation."
Lee's plea agreement put no restrictions on his writing about his experiences. A publisher's advertisement says the book tells the story of Lee, his legal battle and "how violations of nuclear security were rampant throughout the weapons laboratory."
In the past, people have gotten into serious legal trouble for ignoring the censors. Frank Snepp, a former CIA employee, was accused of violating his security oath after he skipped the security review to publish Decent Interval, about the fall of Saigon. He was forced by the Supreme Court to give the government US$140,000.
A senior federal official familiar with government security reviews, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Lee case was so politically charged that Washington might pull its punches. "They're scared to death of the guy," he said, most especially of new "charges of racism."
Some experts have suggested that the rush to publication and the security dispute is simply a way for Lee to thumb his nose at the government or for the publisher to win publicity. Others say it reflects simple bumbling.
A private expert familiar with Lee's case, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the government was unlikely to go after Lee even if he did share the manuscript with other people. The reason, he said, is that "you can't write a book in the modern age without violating security rules." For instance, he said, individuals are likely to use home computers to write books rather than going to a secure federal site, as the letter of the law requires. "You're not going to prosecute people for that," the private expert said.
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