Rating: 
Summary: Ever Vigilent
Review: I just finished reading Wen Ho Lee's book and I couldn't help feeling that I had just read a story about my father, or any worker who gets caught up in the net others with political egos and hypocrisy run rampant. He describes in the book his very practical steps and yes, little lies and actions that aren't quite by the book but that we all do to survive at work. Nothing he did warrents the action taken, only that he was ethnically Chinese. You see in his book how he grows from basically a person trying to do a good job and live a simple life, to one who understands the real motivations of people in politics and how necessary it is to participate in the American system. I think the words "Ever vigilent" are made all so real thru his story. I recommend this book for a first hand account of history, instead of the slanted and spinned accounts in newsmagazines like Newsweek or the other book out now written by some reporters.
Rating:
Summary: Shocking story, engagingly told
Review: I loved this book and could not put it down. Helen Zia does a marvelous job relaying Wen Ho Lee's shocking story with an engaging clarity that underscores the horror of this ordinary man's ordeal: from the several lie detector tests Dr. Lee voluntarily took for the FBI and PASSED; the truth about the so-called 'crown jewels'; the intricate lies and threats by the FBI and government; the shameful role of ugly politics; the manipulating media; the inhumane treatment Dr. Lee endured in "pre-trial detention"; to the amazing public apology issued by a Federal judge to Dr. Lee when he was released.It's a scary eye-opener showing how easy it is to target and racially profile loyal Americans, soley because of their ethnicity. It's happened to Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, and now Arab Americans. Who's next?
Rating:
Summary: Finally the truth revealed
Review: I think this book gives a wake up call to all the minority group
in this country. What happened to Dr. Lee is repeating on some of the Arab Americans now. While at the same time, what happened to Dr. Lee also happened on thousands of Japanese Americans during WWII. Does our country always have to say that I am sorry
twenty or thirty years later. What a pity.
Rating:
Summary: A reader
Review: I think this is an excellent book. I'd also like to comment
on the review by "A reader from Gaithersburg, MD United States".
You said "...and it wasn't (just?) his genetic makeup...". Your
writing just betrays you and shows that you are a racist.
Modern Genetics has shown that the so-called racial looking
has little to do with genetics makeup just as
height. You behavior illustrates how a person can become a
racist - ignorant and regarding your belief as knowledge. So
everything that you said like "He's obviously lying" just
applies to you. The funny thing is that you may not realize that
you are lying since you think that it is right to regarding your
racist belief as knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: We the People...
Review: I was anxious to read this book. Here my government, meant to serve and protect me, was using the very laws to do that to punish someone because he fit a racial-profiling matrix. I am not denying Dr Lee committed a security infraction, but other government officials have committed worse errors without punishment. I am floored (but not surprised) by the outrageous actions of our so called protectors. From the FBI to the White House, powers were completely, if not illegally, misused. This was nothing more than a present day witch hunt. Unfortunately, Dr. Lee was the supposed "witch." As I am in the computer industry, I completely understand Dr Lee's purpose of making backups and backups of your backups. The way the FBI, congressman, senators and others twisted the facts in this case should make every American concerned.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly surprised
Review: I was pleasantly surprised: the book's simple prose nonetheless conveys Lee's basic humanity. After all the horrible things that happened to him, Wen Ho Lee could be seething with anger and bitterness, but he is not, and this fact alone makes the book remarkable to read. Other reviewers suggested Lee seems arrogant or pompous, but that is way off the mark - if anything, Lee comes across as one of the simplest, least egotistical people in the entire book. Unlike his accusers, Lee was humble enough to admit his mistakes in mishandling PARD data (which are the low-level "secrets" he downloaded), and was man enough to say he deserved some punishment for that. (But he did not deserve to be jailed without a trial, his family harrassed, and his life destroyed.) I only wish his persecutors could do the same - admit their mistakes and stop pretending they did nothing wrong. The obstinacy, paranoia, egotism, and self-righteousness of Lee's accusers seem to be the true threats to national security, not Wen Ho Lee.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb Irony
Review: I'm convinced. After watching "journalist" after "journalist" for the major networks look Wen Ho Lee in the eye and ask, "Are you a spy?"[what in the world did they expect him to say?] and hearing Helen Zia and Lee speak I have absolutely no doubt left in my mind that Lee is guilty as charged. The ineptness of this narrative and the avoidance of answering any hard questions convincingly while constantly pandering to sentimentality and latent racism won me over to the other side. In the hands of a better writer, in the hands of someone whose behavior was much less bizarre and suspicious than Lee, I could have been sympathetic toward him. But he seems to have followed, with Zia's enthusiastic prompting, what has become a path for all those charged with serious crimes: steal government secrets, lie about it, plead innocent, go fishing, write a book, make a fortune. After this book, one can hardly wait to read John Walker Lindh's plea for understanding and his accusations about the racist country that apprehended him in Afghanistan.
Rating:
Summary: Straight stuff
Review: In this book Wen Ho Lee comes off as what I think he is, an uncomplicated, straightforward scientist and family man who got embroiled in a highly complex and ugly political game. His voice comes through clearly even with a co-author, although it alternates between simple grammar and highly polished constructions. Still, even in the polished parts, the thinking seems to be authentically Lee's own. This is a credit to Helen Zia, his co-author, who put the book into the first person in his voice based on the account he gave her. The book is loaded with details about the case, from the investigations leading up to it, to his own account of his actions, to the legal battles, and the conclusion with the apology from judge Parker. There's a lot packed in here but it is extremely readable. Lee's account of why he copied the data onto tapes is technically detailed and convincing. Some of the other facts in here are astonishing, like the fact that the data was assigned a "classified" rating only after the government found evidence of copying. That is just one small point in this amazing story.
Rating:
Summary: a story about Dr. Lee, also about FBI
Review: In this book, you will see various kinds of FBIs. The images of FBIs have never become so vivid to me. Dr. Lee dealed with FBIs from the beginning to the end. Even his wife was a volunteer to FBI long before he was arrested. I happened to be there when Dr. Lee gave a speech at UCLA alumini center on Jan.20th, 2002. He said one of FAQs for him is "What shall I do if FBI comes to see me?". His anwser was "Tell them to go away!". He came to this conclusion after his miserable dealing with FBIs. He had dealt with FBI for 3 months solely and without a lawyer because he believed his honesty would convince FBI he is innocent. But he was wrong.
There was also a funny side of the story, "...sometimes I took the "kids" fishing with me. I say this because my FBI shadows were not much older than my own kids. I heard that I made them happy when I went fishing in the moutains -- they got a nice break from sitting all day in a hot car in White Rock. ... When I dropped my line, they relaxed. Some would sit and sunbathe. A few asked me to pose with them for pictures - me, the celebrity spy...."
Rating: 
Summary: May raise more questions than answers
Review: It's interesting to read Lee's side of the story, but annoying to read his assertions that the only reason he was picked on was because of his race. That kind of appeal to race-baiting and hatred is hard to fathom, and makes the rest of his story suspect, even if most of it is true. Because, whatever the FBI's screwups (and even contemptible behavior), Lee was investigated for a number of reasons, and it wasn't (just?) his genetic makeup. It is strangely silent on the most troubling aspect of the case. "Lee's book, however, does not totally explain why he downloaded computer codes associated with nuclear weapons designs in 1993-94, and again in 1997. In fact, he focuses his attention on the earlier download and not at all on those of 1997. "As he did in earlier interviews, he said in his book that the downloading in the 1993-94 period was done "to protect my files, to make a backup copy." He adds, as he did just before his guilty plea to the surprise of his own lawyers, that he had "made more than one backup copy, actually." Why more than one backup? Because, he writes, "there were no lab rules against making copies -- most prudent people keep copies of their important documents." "He also said he had "lost some important codes before, when the [Los Alamos computer] operating system changed, and I didn't want that to happen again." "But, as Los Alamos senior scientists testified at Lee's trial, and another newly published book on the Lee case, "A Convenient Spy," repeats, Los Alamos scientists in the highly classified X Division where Lee worked were repeatedly offered opportunities to copy their own work in case of computer failure, "day by day, even computer stroke by computer stroke," one said recently." ("Los Alamos Scientist Criticizes FBI in Book,"
Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday, January 16, 2002; Page A08) As for his current bitterness now ("the American dream is dead for me" or something like that), taking into account the unanswered questions, it's hard to believe that he truly believes he was accused just because of his race. Well, let me come out and say it. He's obviously lying, on this point. He must know that it wasn't solely a matter of race. (In fact he mentions several incidents and meetings with Chinese scientists and the like, without giving wholly satisfying explanations.) And it hurts the rest of his book, for all its detail. So even if he is innocent of spying charges, there are still critical questions left unanswered - and which he didn't answer in this huge book. Perhaps he will remedy this in the future; for until this is done, there will always be doubts about his complete innocence.
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