Clinton disagrees with Reno, Freeh over handling of Lee case

WASHINGTON - In a rare public disagreement, President Clinton said yesterday that Wen Ho Lee's long detention ''just can't be justified,'' but Attorney General Janet Reno refused to apologize and said the confinement was the nuclear scientist's own fault.

The 60-year-old Lee, a former Los Alamos laboratory scientist, went free Wednesday after pleading guilty to one felony of mishandling weapons secrets.

Reno told her weekly news conference that Lee could have avoided nine months of detention by agreeing earlier to plead guilty and tell the government what he did with the secrets.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said ''the safety of the nation demands that we take this important step'' under which Lee was sentenced to the 278 days he had served. The government dropped 58 other counts.

Hours after Reno spoke, Clinton expressed an opinion far closer to that of U.S. District Judge James Parker, who said Lee's detention ''embarrassed our entire nation.''

Clinton, who met with Justice officials at the White House before Lee's indictment last Dec. 10, said he found it difficult in retrospect to reconcile how the government could ''keep someone in jail without bail, argue right up to the 11th hour that they're a terrible risk, and then turn around and make that sort of plea agreement.''

''It just can't be justified. ... I too am quite troubled by it,'' Clinton said. Reno did not respond.

Later, White House press secretary Joe Lockhart told reporters Clinton's comments should not be read ''as a blanket criticism of anyone'' and added that Reno and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson retain Clinton's support.

Republicans who have spent months calling Reno too timid in investigating leaks from Los Alamos slammed her for being too aggressive with Lee.

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said Reno and Richardson would resign if they ''had any honor and any shame.'' Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is leading a subcommittee probe of the case, said it looked like Justice and the FBI ''threw the book at Dr. Lee to make up for their own failings.''

Earlier, Reno said she was comfortable with the government's handling of the case. ''I'm not embarrassed.''

''I think Dr. Lee, from the beginning, had the opportunity to answer this and I think now he needs to look to himself,'' rather than expect a government apology, she said.

The government ''tried from the beginning'' to win Lee's cooperation to help verify his claim that he had destroyed seven of 10 computer tapes he made of nuclear weapons data. ''We now have what we sought then,'' Reno said.

Lee now acknowledges illegally transferring the data from a highly secure computer at the nuclear weapons lab into personal files on an unsecure computer where, Reno said, it was ''accessible to intruders, hackers or other governments who could hack into that computer.''

''With all my heart and soul,'' Reno said she wished ''Dr. Lee had come forward, said, 'This is what I did with the information ... (and) I'll ... try to give you as much information as possible to permit you to confirm and corroborate it.''' If he had done so, the government would have reconsidered detention and its charges, Reno said.