给联邦调查局局长的一封信：你犯了一个严重的错误
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今天，百人会董事胡善庆博士给FBI局长雷伊发去一封抗议信，我们在此刊登中文译本和英文原文。
2017年8月2日，克里斯托弗·雷伊就任联邦调查局局长（Source: Wikipedia）
给联邦调查局局长的一封信：你犯了一个严重的错误
胡善庆博士
尊敬的雷伊局长，
2017年12月7日，你在众院司法委员会听证会上作证，并发表如下声明 [1]：
“我们（联邦调查局）是否会犯错误？我敢打赌我们会犯错误，当我们犯错误时，会有独立的流程来驱动和深入探究这些错误的真相。如果完成了独立的事实调查，我们会在适当的情况下让我们的员工负责。”
作为一名退休的联邦雇员，我真诚感谢你的勇气和坦率，维护联邦调查局及其35,000名员工的诚信，他们为保护我们的国家安全作出个人牺牲并冒着生命危险，日复一日地辛勤执法。
然而，在2018年2月13日参议院情报委员会听证会上，你把所有华人留学生，学者和科学家都视为美国的国家安全威胁，是犯了严重的错误 [2]。
联邦调查局局长的说话是有后果的。我高度尊重你追求和惩罚有罪人员。但是，就我所知道的美国司法系统，你也有责任保护无辜者。你这番言论无助于以上两个目的中的任何一个。
你的前任利用宣传运动作为执法的普遍手段。一批在学术界 [3]，联邦政府 [4] 和私营企业 [5] 工作的无辜华裔美国科学家因此冤枉被捕，错误地被指控背叛美国这种最严重的罪行。虽然他们的案件后来都被撒销，他们的生活和家庭已经遭受了严重的损害。
联邦调查局向以高质量的起诉、执法而自豪。然而，制衡制度在（保护）这些美国公民时遭遇惨败。也许祸因是人为错误和“附带损害” [6]。也许这是联邦调查局的偏见甚或邪恶目标，使他们作为中国崛起的替罪羊。不管原因是人为错误，隐含的偏见或明确的仇视，联邦调查局一直没有被追究责任，反而表现得好像这些案件从未发生过。
作为美国能源部的前任国家监察员，我经历了20世纪90年代的考克斯报告 [7] 所创造的仇外心理，殃涉所有华裔美国科学家。你目前的“非传统情报搜集人员”一词与当时联邦调查局使用的“沙粒群众” [8] 非常相似。
据我所知，考克斯报告没有抓到任何间谍。随之而来的歇斯底里在许多美国人，特别是在美国国家实验室工作的华裔美国科学家当中，引起恐惧和愤怒。它对在洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室的核科学家，一位美国公民，李文和博士造成了不可挽回的损失。
联邦调查局鲁莽指责李博士为调查中唯一的嫌疑间谍。尽管外国情报监视法院的声誉就批准政府请求而言它仅仅是个“橡皮图章” [9]，但联邦调查局特工提供的可能原因就连这样法院手令的法律标准也“从未达到接近”的程度 [10]。
经过九个月的单独监禁后，李博士被审判法官当庭释放，基于包括联邦调查局在内的政府行政部门对李博士的虐待，作为司法部门一员的审判法官前所未有地向李博士表示道歉 [11]。
美国国会亚太裔美国人核心小组前任主席Patsy Mink（D-HI）在2000年的一次国会特别指令会议上发表了关于李博士的调查和待遇的讲话。她呼吁对联邦调查局的行为和做法进行审查，这事目前在国会记录中仍然悬而未决 [12]。
作为一名亚裔美国人，我希望你的行为能够符合联邦调查局局长在2017年12月7日发表的承诺。包括亚裔美国人在内的美国人民将他们的信任和巨大权力赋予你身上，期望你会公正和公平。你也要对你自己说的话负责。
为了维护为其光荣职责兢兢业业工作的联邦调查局人员的荣誉，为了维护联邦调查局这一美国机构的信誉，我希望你在公开声明和未来的国会监督听证会上提供事实和证据，以证实你2018年2月13日的言论。
这也许是个奢望：基于华裔美国人，包括以前和现在的学生、学者和科学家，为美国社会的方方面面做出了许多积极的贡献，希望你能够重新审视你的群众定性的政策。
本文中所表达的意见和看法仅是个人观点。它们不反映任何美国政府机构和组织的官方立场或政策。
A Letter to the FBI Director: You Made a Grave Mistake
Jeremy S. Wu, Ph. D.
Dear Director Wray,
On December 7, 2017, you testified in the House Judiciary Committee hearing and made the following statement [1]:
“Do we (the Federal Bureau of Investigations) make mistakes? You bet we make mistakes, and when we make mistakes, there are independent processes that will drive and dive deep into the facts surrounding those mistakes. And when that independent fact-finding is complete, we will hold our folks accountable, if appropriate.”
As a retired federal employee, I truly appreciate your courage and frankness in upholding the integrity of the FBI and its 35,000 employees, who make sacrifices and risk their lives in protecting our national security and enforcing the law day in and day out.
However, you made a grave mistake in the February 13, 2018 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing by targeting all students, scholars and scientists of Chinese origin as a national security threat to the United States [2].
The words of the Director of the FBI have consequences. I hold you to the highest esteem to pursue and punish the guilty. However, you are also responsible to protect the innocent in the American justice system that I know. Your remarks will help neither purpose.
Your predecessor also used publicity campaigns as a broad brush approach to law enforcement. A series of innocent Chinese American scientists in academia [3], federal government [4], and private industry [5] were caught in the dragnet and wrongfully accused of the most serious crime of betraying the U.S. Although their cases were all subsequently dismissed, severe damage was already done to their lives and families.
The FBI prides itself in bringing high-quality prosecutions to justice. And yet the system of checks and balances failed these American citizens miserably. Perhaps they were human mistakes and “collateral damage” [6]. Perhaps it was the FBI’s bias or sinister objective to use them as convenient scapegoats for the rise of China. Be the cause human mistakes, implicit bias or explicit prejudice, the FBI has not been held accountable, instead acting as if these cases never occurred.
As the former National Ombudsman at the U.S. Department of Energy, I lived through the xenophobia created by the Cox Report [7] which implicated all Chinese American scientists in the 1990s. Your current term of “non-traditional collectors” is eerily similar to the term of “grains of sand” [8] used by the FBI at that time.
As far as I know, the Cox Report did not catch any spies. The hysteria that followed created fear and fury among many Americans in general, and Chinese American scientists in the national laboratories in particular. It inflicted irreparable damage to Dr. Wen Ho Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen and a nuclear scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The FBI rushed and locked into Dr. Lee as the only suspect in its investigation. FBI agents “never came close” to meeting the legal standards of probable cause for a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [9], despite the court’s reputation as a “rubber stamp” for approving the government’s requests [10].
After nine months of solitary confinement, Dr. Lee was released by the presiding judge, who issued an unprecedented apology [11] to Dr. Lee on the mistreatment he received from the executive branch of government, including the FBI.
Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI), former Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, took the House floor and spoke about the investigation and treatment of Dr. Lee in a special order session in 2000. Her call for a review of the FBI behavior and practices is still pending in congressional records [12].
As an Asian American, I hope your deeds will match the words of the FBI Director on December 7, 2017. The American people, including Asian Americans, vested their trust and enormous power to you to be just and fair. You are also accountable by your own words.
For the sake of the FBI workforce dedicated for its honorable duties and the FBI as an American institution to be trusted, I hope you will further justify your February 13, 2018 remarks with additional facts and evidence in public statements and future congressional oversight hearings.
It may be hope against hope that you would also review the profiling approach by recognizing that Chinese Americans have made many positive contributions to every aspect of the American society. They include former and current students, scholars and scientists.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are mine and mine only. They do not reflect the official position or policy of any organization or any agency of the U.S. government.
参考文献/References：
[1] YouTube (2017). House Judiciary Committee Hearing: Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://bit.ly/2GDsmdk.
[2] C-SPAN (2018). Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing: Global Threats and National Security. http://cs.pn/2ERs6Ki.
[3] New York Times (2015). U.S. Drops Charges That Professor Shared Technology With China. http://nyti.ms/1jFui9J.
[4] New York Times (2015). Accused of Spying for China, Until She Wasn’t. http://nyti.ms/1J3RKSe.
[5] Wall Street Journal (2014). Wire Fraud Charges Against Former Lilly Scientists are Dismissed. http://bit.ly/1OjNbf3.
[6] CBS 60 Minutes (2016). Collateral Damage. http://cbsn.ws/1Nvsii1.
[7] U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee (1999). U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with The People's Republic of China. http://bit.ly/2EFgfM0.
[8] Washington Post (1999). China Prefers the Sand to the Moles. http://wapo.st/2GMEit2.
[9] Washington Post (1999). FBI `Never Came Close' To Threshold in Lee Case. http://wapo.st/2o8c9WG.
[10] National Public Radio (2013). FISA Court Appears To Be Rubber Stamp For Government Requests. http://n.pr/2HrtmSI.
[11] New York Times (2000). Statement by Judge in Los Alamos Case, With Apology for Abuse of Power. http://nyti.ms/2EVARmQ .
[12] C-SPAN (2000). Rep. Patsy Mink on the Investigation and Treatment of Dr. Wen Ho Lee. http://cs.pn/2oj2dsL.
作者简介
胡善庆博士，资深统计专家和数据分析师，百人会董事，陈霞芬法律维权基金托管人。曾经在美国联邦政府任职30多年，担任过联邦人口普查局、农业部、能源部、交通部和商务部的高管。
作者：胡善庆博士（Jeremy S. Wu, Ph. D.）
本文首发于“美国华人”公众号(ID: ChineseAmericans)
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