Posted on: Wednesday, March 20, 2002

EDITORIAL
Energy lab experience shows flaw of profiling

Asian American scientists and engineers haven't exactly been begging for jobs at the nation's nuclear weapons labs after the saga of Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, a former suspected spy and hapless subject of a sloppy FBI investigation.

So it's a sign of hope if not an all-out truce that after a two-year boycott against Department of Energy labs by Asian American workers, a campaign is under way to lure them back to the labs and restore a sense of colorblind collegiality.

It won't be a seamless transition, but at least steps can be taken to address some of biases and the disparities in promotion and pay some Asian American scientists claim to have suffered. These complaints came to light during the Lee case.

Just to recap, the Taiwan-born Lee was held in solitary confinement for nine months and indicted on 59 felony counts alleging he transferred nuclear weapons information to portable computer tapes. He was never charged with spying. The Justice Department later concluded that FBI's investigation into Lee was so flawed as to resemble a "Three Stooges" gag fest.

Media reportage of the investigation spurred a degree of anti-Chinese hysteria. Ultimately, perhaps, the perception that racial profiling was involved in the hunt to nail Lee backfired against the FBI and Department of Energy.

We'll probably never know for sure what, if any, crimes were committed or if Lee was singled out because of his Chinese origin. Nonetheless, the perception that Asian Americans are not to be trusted in the realm of national security and are easily recruited as spies is likely to persist until the U.S. Department of Energy engages in frank and open dialogue about these perceptions with its entire community.

There is a larger point to be made as well: Simplistic decisions about the trustworthiness or value of people based on race, gender or any other such category almost always comes back to haunt us. We lose valuable human capital for reasons that make no sense.

That certainly was the experience — at least temporarily — in the case of our national energy labs.