ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When Wen Ho Lee goes on trial on charges that he breached national security at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory, his wife's lesser-known role at the lab could be used in his defense.
Sylvia Lee acted as an official liaison and hostess alongside her husband at lab gatherings for visiting Chinese scientists. Then, she provided information about those scientists to the FBI — and possibly to the CIA.
It all might seem incongruous for a shy housewife, soccer mom, gardener and quintessential "good neighbor." But defense attorneys say Sylvia Lee's past cooperation with the government is relevant to her husband's case. Prosecutors contend it is not.
Wen Ho Lee, jailed pending a November trial, is charged with 59 counts alleging he downloaded restricted nuclear weapons codes from secure to unsecured computers and to computer tapes. He could face life in prison if convicted.
Defense attorney Mark Holscher said Wen Ho Lee, whose work at Los Alamos involved computer simulations of nuclear explosions, was allowed access to the restricted codes, and no unauthorized person ever saw them. The defense also portrays Lee and his wife as "loyal Americans" who did undercover work for the FBI.
Sylvia Lee is neither charged in her husband's case nor considered a suspect. She wanted no story written about her, preferring to remain in the background, according to friends and one of her attorneys, Brian Sun.
According to federal computer databases, Sylvia Lee was born in China's Hunan Province in December 1939 and emigrated to the United States from Taiwan when she was 30. She first met her Taiwanese-born husband in Pasadena, Calif., a year later. Both are 60. They have lived in Los Alamos since 1978 and have two children.
She worked at the nuclear weapons lab starting in the 1980s, first as a secretary and later as a programmer. She retired in 1995.
She was so well thought of that lab officials asked her, early on, to serve as hostess for an important visit by one of China's top scientists. She also visited China with her husband, and, on one occasion, even delivered a speech prepared by lab officials.
The family has spoken Chinese at home, but all are fluent in English. Sylvia Lee did some translating for the lab.
"To the best of my recollection, Sylvia was asked by a high-level lab manager to help with the visit of the head of the Chinese Academy of Science, Su Wi. This was in the early 1980s," said Robert Vrooman, former head of security at the lab.
"This led to a lot of lab and Chinese people asking Sylvia to translate for them. It ended in 1988 when Sig Hecker, lab director, and I thought that it was getting to be too much for Sylvia and might adversely impact her real job of data entry," Vrooman said.
After each session, government officials have said, she briefed the FBI.
The San Jose Mercury News, citing unnamed intelligence and congressional sources, reported July 23 that she also gave information to the CIA. The report said she was regularly debriefed by CIA agent Dan Wofford, who has since died.
Agency spokesman Bill Harlow told The Associated Press that "any suggestion ... that she worked for the CIA is wrong," but Harlow declined to comment on whether she gave the CIA information in any other capacity.
Defense attorneys have asked the court to order the government to produce information about any CIA contacts.
In a motion filed June 13, the defense argued that the jury "should be permitted to consider the assistance that his wife (with Dr. Lee's participation on at least two occasions) provided to federal intelligence agencies."
Neighbors and friends described Mrs. Lee as devoted to her children — Chung, now in medical school, and Alberta, a technical writer.
Alberta Lee, 26, recalls a happy childhood and a mom who still is always there for her.
"She'd pick us up from ballet, cello, soccer, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, swimming lessons," she said.
"My mom is great," she said. "We go shopping, we go to restaurants together, hiking together. She and I love spending our weekends in Santa Fe, the art galleries in Santa Fe."
Steve Lawrence, a graduate student in biomedical engineering at the University of Utah, says he was Chung Lee's "best buddy" and soccer teammate at Los Alamos High School. Lawrence, who often hung out at the Lee home, said Mrs. Lee is shy — "she definitely took the background."
"I just remember her as being a real smiley person, fairly quiet, definitely a good mom."
Alberta Lee said her mother has remained strong while her husband's case has been in the national spotlight.
"My mom has been my spiritual guide through all this pain with my dad," she said. "She's the one who tells me how to stay sane in all this, the source of my strength."