Katrina Leung & Wen Ho Lee

* a while back i looked at the Katrina Leung case with much help from emptywheel. today she has a new post about the apparent settlement of the Wen Ho Lee civil case, which may or may not have anything to do with Leung.

emptywheel on the WHL case:

"This is actually remarkable news, with many possible implications for the Imperial Presidency. Apparently, the Bush Administration prefers to spend (presumably) a chunk of money to avoid any court rulings on this case. What kind of rulings were they fearing?"

and emptywheel on Leung:

"But suffice it to say this known double agent and Republican donor was never charged as a spy and subsequently all charges against her were dismissed on a technicality. This is a Chinese spy the Ashcroft DOJ let walk free.

Don't get me wrong. I can imagine the Administration would like to avoid enshrining journalistic privilege. As it would like to avoid setting any precedents equating smear campaigns and violations of privacy.

But the Wen Ho Lee case partly derived from the disinformation of a Republican donor and double agent, who purposely scuttled an investigation into a Reagan-era transfer of nuclear technology to the Chinese. That same Republican donor and double agent may have provided the information that purportedly incriminated Lee. And that same Republican donor and double agent went free last year, through the either willful or typical incompetence of the Ashcroft DOJ.

I think it's a fair question: Why has BushCo made such a concerted effort to settle this case?"