Code Name Kindred Spirit: Inside the Chinese Nuclear Espionage Scandal - Hardcover

Trulock, Norta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1893554511 ISBN 13: 9781893554511

Publisher: Encounter Books, 2003

Synopsis

Code Name KINDRED SPIRIT takes us directly into the murky world of nuclear espionage. But it is also a daunting story about the fate of the man who brought the bad news. After the scandal broke, Trulock found himself the targeted by the Clintonites who resented him for speaking out. He was smeared as a bigot and a mentally unstable alarmist. When he attempted to tell his side of the story, the FBI tried to silence him by claiming he had revealed classified data. He was demoted and driven out of government, his career and his personal reputation ruined. Code Name KINDRED SPIRIT tells the inside story of one of the major spy scandals of recent years. It reads like a Le Carre story told by Franz Kafka.

About this title

About the Author

Notra Trulock had a long and distinguished career in intelligence and national security. He currently resides in Falls Church, VA.

Reviews

At last, here is Trulock's account of the Wen Ho Lee case, long delayed by foot-dragging on security clearance at the FBI, CIA and Department of Energy; Trulock was the head of DOE's intelligence office during the investigation into whether Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee had given nuclear warhead secrets to China. The government failed to mount a strong case against Lee, and Trulock received the blame, accused of racial bias in choosing Lee as the "only" suspect. But this detailed account reveals that the spy hunt didn't focus solely on Lee, or even on Los Alamos. Lee finally came under heavy scrutiny, according to Trulock, because he had been recognized as a "walking security nightmare who violated nearly every security rule" at Los Alamos and "lied repeatedly" to government officials about his ties to Chinese nuclear scientists. While he denies knowledge as to whether Lee "did it," the author drops hints that Lee and his wife may have been double agents. Trulock frequently exhibits his bitterness at being scapegoated by his superiors for the failure of the government's case, but even at his most objective, he offers a harsh assessment of DOE's leaders' failure to treat the security crisis seriously, of the FBI's "disastrous" management of the Lee investigation and of Lee's continuing ability to download top-secret information for years while competing counterintelligence teams "screwed around." He provides a unique look into the American intelligence community and an unsettling perspective on the lax attitude toward national security. Wen Ho Lee's defensive memoir grabbed plenty of headlines, but Trulock's account has a disturbing ring of truth.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1893554511
• ISBN 13: 9781893554511
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 383