A Time to Say No: An Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama
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November 26, 2008
Dear President-Elect Obama,
For the past few days, the media have been abuzz with the “news” that you are about to appoint Governor Bill Richardson to be your Secretary of Commerce. If that is indeed the case, I strongly urge you to reconsider your decision.
I’m a naturalized citizen of Chinese descent who came to this country for higher education, then stayed on, lured by the promise of a free society with justice and equal treatment for all. In 1999, my faith in these American ideals was sorely tested in the case of the United States of America vs Wen Ho Lee. The particulars of this case, substantiated in the Congressional Record of October 12, 2000 (House), Page H9880-H9894, fully illustrate why Governor Richardson should have no part in your Administration, an Administration in which I and other Americans have placed so much hope for a better and different tomorrow.
I list below the most egregious of Governor Richardson’s acts in contributing to Dr. Wen Ho Lee’s ordeal:
1. In March of 1999, two days after the New York Times story broke in which a Chinese American at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was identified as the spy who compromised the “crown jewels” of American nuclear secrets, Richardson fired Lee before specific charges were brought against the latter, making a mockery of employee rights and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
2. In December 1999, Lee was detained, denied bail and put in solitary confinement for nine months, in conditions so dire that numerous professional and scientific academies publicly protested while Amnesty International called the shackling of Lee in his cell for 23 hours a day a contravention of “international human rights standards.” Apparently the Department of Energy requested such treatment which were then approved by the Justice Department. Richardson then was an initiator of cum participant in the government’s abuse and denial of Lee’s due process rights.
3. Finally 59 charges were brought against Lee, none of which pertained to espionage or was heinous enough to warrant the demeaning treatment he received in his pretrial detention. After pleading guilty to one charge of downloading classified information, Lee was sentenced to 278 days in prison, one day less than he spent in solitary confinement, and was allowed to go free. However, downloading classified information was apparently a widespread LANL practice for which only Lee was prosecuted due to, many thought, his Chinese ethnicity. Again, Richardson was implicated in every stage of the government’s misstep from selective prosecution and overreach, to probable racial profiling.
4. In a September 17, 2000, 60 Minutes broadcast, Richardson was seen insisting he knew Lee gave the Chinese information, and said, “we know because he (Lee) would not tell us what he told them.” He went on to assert that he had tried to protect Lee’s legal status and reputation. The ludicrous circular reasoning of the first statement, and the boldface lie of the second called into question Richardson’s judgment, honesty and integrity.
In conclusion, Richardson should not be appointed to a position of power on any level in a society as diverse as ours. He has shown himself to be insensitive to discriminatory practices, blind to violations of civil and human rights, and willing to use or misuse the power of his position to crush a citizen all in the guise of national security. Further his actions in the Wen Ho Lee case contributed to the marginalization of a whole generation of hard-working and loyal Chinese Americans, keeping alive their image as perpetual foreigners. Being the antithesis of a responsible, inclusive, and accountable public servant, he should not be entrusted with another position of power.
Larry Sabato, Director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, opined in a 2005 article that Richardson could overcome his share in the debacle as there would probably be few who could remember the Wen Ho Lee case. Sabato is wrong. A group in California has started a petition to urge you not to nominate Richardson and in the three days since the petition was posted on the Internet, as I am writing this letter, over 1500 all over the country had signed. In the coming days, a press conference/press conferences will be organized to remind the country of Richardson’s complicity in the travesty of justice that is the Wen Ho Lee case.
Again, as an American and a loyal Democrat since my naturalization, I urge you to reconsider your decision.
Yours respectfully,
Ivy Lee, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, California State University, Sacramento
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Accompanying Transmittal letter
As President-Elect Obama has made clear during his entire campaign, change is what he is about to bring to this country and its governance. In hopes that one of the changes is openness and accessibility of public officials, including a President, to his constituents, I would greatly appreciate your handing him the attached open letter in a pdf file regarding the prospective appointment of Gov. Bill Richardson.
The letter, reprinted below this email and to be posted later in the week on my blog, states my opposition to this prospective nomination. I believe the sentiments expressed therein are not merely mine but are representative of Chinese Americans as a whole.
Let me hasten to add that I am not anti-Hispanic. Nor should the letter be construed as such. I am opposed to Governor Bill Richardson as one of the principals who has marginalized a whole generation of hard-working, loyal Chinese Americans, keeping alive their image as perpetual foreigners.
Your helping me reach President-Elect Obama with this letter would restore not only my sense of political empowerment but that of all who signed an online petition to oppose this nomination.
I thank you in advance.
Yours respectfully,
Ivy Lee
