Amid lingering resentment among Asian-Americans over the Wen Ho Lee case, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced safeguards Monday to guard against racial profiling within the department and among its private contractors.
Saying he will “not tolerate even hints” of racial profiling, he ordered his inspector general to investigate whether any such activity has occurred.
“We have made progress addressing concerns of racial profiling, but more needs to be done,” Richardson said.
He said in an interview that he remains convinced that Lee, Taiwan-born former Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Laboratory scientist, was not singled out in an espionage investigation because of his Asian background.
Still, he said, there are “enough instances throughout the complex” to raise suspicion that such discrimination may have occurred in other circumstances.
