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

Norta Trulock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2003 | ISBN-10: 1893554511 | ISBN-13: 978-1893554511 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.

Review

"If we are serious about getting the answers and avoiding a future even worse than the recent past, we owe it to ourselves and our country to begin by reading Trulock's work." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 383 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; 1 edition (January 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893554511
• ISBN-13: 978-1893554511
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,538,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing insight, April 21, 2008

By 

J. Tinney "book maven" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Code Name Kindred Spirit: Inside the Chinese Nuclear Espionage Scandal (Paperback)

An amazing book. I met the author prior to reading the book and found him to be intriguing. This book is definitely worth taking the time to read, understand and absord exactly what took place.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kindred Spirit tells us more about the disastrous Clinton administration, August 24, 2007

By 

David Thomson "Second Rate Eric Hoffer Imitator" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Code Name Kindred Spirit: Inside the Chinese Nuclear Espionage Scandal (Hardcover)

I was one of those Americans originally conned into believing Wen Ho Lee was a victim of racial prejudice and unjust persecution. It enraged me that he was isolated and shacked during much of his imprisonment. Notra Trulock's revelations, however, have made me realize that the left-wing media cooperated with Bill Clinton's administration to provide cover for the latter's unforgivable fecklessness. Lee was likely a spy for the Chinese communist government. Nothing else comes close to explaining his suspicious behavior. At the minimum, Lee committed gross security violations mandating the revocation of his security clearance. Nonetheless, Clinton's people were apparently interested only in damage control. Slandering the author as a racial bigot and perhaps even mentally unbalanced was deemed necessary. The intellectual virus of political correctness also pervaded the culture---and the President took full advantage of this sad state of affairs to severely damage Mr. Trulock. The results were not pretty.

The majority of American voters supported Bill Clinton in the 1992 election. They thought The End of History and the Last Man had arrived and our country could therefore concentrate on domestic issues. Islamic nihilism, for instance, was rarely even mentioned. Trulock's splendid work adds to the already substantial evidence that Clinton weakened our nation's defenses and emboldened our enemies. Reading Kindred Spirit is a harsh reminder that the citizens of the United States should never again become so nonchalant concerning their security. You should read Rich Lowry's: Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years. The National Review editor's book, as you might expect, is also highly critical of the Clinton era.

21 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Folly of Political Correctness ..., January 17, 2003

By 

Grimmy "Grimmy" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Code Name Kindred Spirit: Inside the Chinese Nuclear Espionage Scandal (Hardcover)

... and the naivete of the Clinton administration in 1) kowtowing to China and offering all kinds of tribute in the form of sensitive technology, etc. and 2) hobbling the FBI investigation because of racial concerns.

Unfortunately, many Asian-Americans (P.S. I'm Asian myself) were transformed into China's "useful idiots," blindly supporting Wen Ho Lee's unbelieveable charges of racism.

Read along with "A Convenient Spy" and, if you've the stomach, Lee's own self-serving (but fatally incomplete) book.