Special Report: The China Puzzle ( Repost- subhead "Clinton Legacy:)
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 7:19:41 AM by backhoe
Special Report: The China Puzzle
-
Crime/Corruption Front Page News Keywords: TREASON OF BIBLICAL DIMENSIONS
Source: Various
Published: 2/21/00 Author: John Huang Is A Chinese Spy
Posted on 02/21/2000 21:44:04 PST by John Huang Is A Chinese Spy
|
"In both our societies (the United States and China) there are voices of those who seek to redirect or frustrate our cooperation. We both must take bold measures to overcome these negative forces. We extend the hand of friendship and hope that you will do the same," Statement by former National Security Advisor to President Bush, Brent Scowcroft, to Chinese leaders in the capital Beijing in response to critics of the June 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, December 9, 1989. |
On May 15, 1995, China conducted an underground nuclear test.
That same day, President Clinton's newly appointed Director of Central Intelligence, John Deutch (a former member of President Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in the early 1990s and assistant Energy Secretary under President Carter -- the Energy Department oversees America's nuclear weapons laboratories and was created during Carter's term in office. Prior to then, the weapons labs were under the direct oversight of the Pentagon), announced the appointment of a new leadership group to head the agency. The new group included Nora Slatkin, James Lilley and Brent Scowcroft. By October 1995, Deutch replaced the entire top three tiers (and most of the fourth tier) of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) management with new hirees.
James Lilley was the former ambassador to China under President Bush. Scowcroft was President Bush's national security advisor.
During the last week of May, China successfully test-fired its first mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (The Dong Feng 31). The missile has a range of 5,000 miles and puts all of Europe and western North America within its reach. Mobile missile are different from the conventional silo-based missiles in that they can be hidden from spy satellites and, in turn, are not as vulnerable to first-strike attacks.
CIA agents in Taiwan first learned of the theft of all seven of America's nuclear warhead designs sometime in late spring 1995, but allegedly failed to inform their boss, John Deutch, until July.
President Clinton's ambassador to China, Stapleton Roy, announced June 11 he would step down from his position at the end of the week. Roy was originally named ambassador to China by President Bush. He replaced James Lilley in mid-1991.
French President Jacques Chirac announced on June 13 that France would resume nuclear testing in September.
Former Secretary of State/National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger (under both Presidents Nixon and his successor Gerald Ford) met with then Secretary of State Warren Christopher sometime in mid-June. China was the focus of their discussion. Both Kissinger (who was born in Germany) and his organization Kissinger Associates have numerous business interests in China. Brent Scowcroft is a former vice chairman of Kissinger Associates and worked under Kissinger in President Ford's National Security Council (NSC).
Excerpt from a July 5, 1995 State Department press briefing:
| Q You referred before to a Christopher-Kissinger conversation... could you give us some idea of whether the Secretary asked Kissinger to do anything to help the relationship (with China) or whatever?
MR. BURNS: I really can't, Barry. I was not part of that conversation. I understand that the Secretary had lunch with former Secretary Kissinger some time ago in anticipation of this particular trip. Then I believe that Assistant Secretary Win Lord also briefed them more recently about the state of our relations with China. This is normal that we do that. We have great respect for Secretary Kissinger, so it's reasonable for us to do this. But I'm not aware that there's any specific request by Secretary Christopher or anybody else to Mr. Kissinger to carry messages… |
Former President George Bush visited CIA headquarters June 27 (just weeks after a walk-in double agent dropped off America's nuclear weapons designs at the CIA office in Taiwan). According to a CIA press release that day, Bush was given several intelligence briefings during his 2-hour visit. This was Bush's one and only visit to CIA headquarters since 1990 (Bush was President Nixon's ambassador to the United Nations and ambassador to China and CIA director under President Ford).
On June 28, President Clinton nominated Stapleton Roy to be his next ambassador to the Pacific island nation of Indonesia.
Clinton's former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, chief of staff Leon Panetta, and CIA Director John Deutch (who was born in Belgium) claim they first learned of China's theft of America's nuclear warhead designs sometime in July 1995. All three allege they never bothered to inform President Clinton -- ever.
Panetta, a former Republican congressman from California, was a staff member in President Nixon's administration.
Former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ) visited the White House July 10.
On July 11, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wrote a letter to Chinese President Jiang Zemin. In the letter, she asked if she could come to China and meet with him. Feinstein (a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and its Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs) and Zemin are friends and have known one another since the mid-1980s when she was mayor of San Francisco and he was mayor of Shanghai. San Francisco and Shanghai officially became "sister" cities during their terms of office.
On July 13, President Clinton approved the permanent closing of Long Beach (California) Naval Station during an Oval Office meeting with then Defense Secretary William Perry, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and his chief of staff, Leon Panetta.
President Clinton visited CIA headquarters July 14. According to a picture in the July 15 issue of the New York Times, First Lady Hillary Clinton joined him on his visit. According to a CIA press release that day, the president received intelligence briefings from CIA Director Deutch while he was there.
| "Every morning I start my day with an intelligence report. The intelligence I receive informs just about every foreign policy decision we make. It's easy to take for granted, but we couldn't do without it. Unique intelligence makes it less likely that our forces will be sent into battle, less likely that American lives will have to (sic) put at risk. It gives us a chance to prevent crisis instead of forcing us to manage them," Statement by President Clinton in a speech to CIA employees, July 14, 1995. |
Allegedly, Deutch failed to inform the president about China's theft of America's nuclear weapons designs during his briefing.
Robert Mueller III, former assistant attorney general in President Bush, returned to the Justice Department sometime in 1995 (Mueller prosecuted former Panama President Manuel Noriega and headed the botched BCCI money laundering investigation). Upon his return, Mueller first became senior litigation counsel and then head of the department's homicide section for Washington, DC.
Former President Bush visited the White House July 17 for the first and only time since leaving office.
Excerpt from a July 21, 1995 White House press briefing by then Press Secretary Mike McCurry:
| Q Were you able to find anything out on China and Bush?
MR. MCCURRY: I did. I talked to the President about that. They had a very good discussion. When President Bush was here for the unveiling of his portrait, the President had -- President Clinton had a very specific interest in talking to him about China. President Clinton is troubled by the current status of Sino-US relations. I think he is very intent on making sure that in an honest and candid way, we address those impediments that exist in the bilateral relationship. And for that reason, he has been consulting with a number of those he considers expert on US-China relations. He met not long ago with Dr. Henry Kissinger who had just returned from a trip to China. In fact, Alexander Haig, John Whitehead, several others were part of that delegation, I believe -- they were here for a visit with the President as well. He has talked to some -- additionally, to Senator Bill Bradley. He had an opportunity to talk to former Secretary (Lloyd) Bentsen recently who, as you know, has spent considerable amounts of time in China. And he specifically sought out former President Bush so he could talk about China. …They discussed China at some length. They did not discuss any role that former President Bush might play if he indeed makes a trip to the People's Republic sometime shortly. But they did review the current status of the relationship. And President Clinton found President Bush's views helpful, very enlightening, and it was a good discussion all the way around… |
Alexander Haig (former chief of staff to President's Nixon and Ford and deputy national security advisor to President Nixon) is a paid advisor to China's state-owned China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO). Haig also has interests in the building of a Caspian Sea oil pipeline.
In late July, China test-fired ballistic missiles toward Taiwan.
President Clinton nominated Charles B. Curtis to replace outgoing Deputy Energy Secretary Bill White on July 27.
On July 31, the US News and World Report published a classified diagram of America's W-87 nuclear warhead. Allegedly, a reporter for the magazine obtained the document directly from Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary during an interview she conducted. According to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA), O'Leary "opened up a ledger of classified documents sitting on her desk and proceeded to show the reporter a diagram of the W-87 warhead in order to prove a point. She then handed the classified diagram of the nuclear warhead to the reporter. Her staff attempted to protest, pointing out that the document was classified. O'Leary hesitated a moment, took the document back from the reporter, crossed out the word 'classified' and promptly gave it back to the US News staffer." Attorney General Reno has never brought criminal charges against O'Leary concerning the matter.
On August 16, Sen. Bradley made his surprise announcement he was retiring from the Senate at the end of his current term (within a month of his meeting with Clinton on China and just hours before China conducted its second underground nuclear test). Bradley discussed his retirement plans with President Clinton by telephone just prior to his announcement. China began conducting war games off the coast of Taiwan the very same day. Sen. Bradley was a member of the Senate Energy Committee. The committee oversees the Energy Department and, in turn, the weapons labs.
In late August, Sen. Feinstein visited China and met with President Jiang Zemin. Richard Blum, her husband, joined her on the trip. Blum has numerous business interests in China.
Hillary Clinton and then UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright (who was born in the former Czechoslovakia) attended a "women's conference" in Beijing, China on September 5-6.
On September 5, France conducted a nuclear test.
On September 6, President Clinton met with Panama President Ernesto Perez Balladeres at the White House. The topic of discussion was the then planned hand over of the Panama Canal. Panama eventually leased operational control of the canal to a Chinese company called Hutchinson Whampoa.
On September 13, President Clinton met in the Oval Office with the Indonesian corporation Lippo Group's James Riady, Hillary Clinton's former boss at Little Rock's Rose Law Firm, C. Joseph Giroir, his deputy chief of staff Bruce Lindsey and Commerce Department official John Huang (pronounced "Wong"). Huang -- a suspected spy -- was employed by the Lippo Group just prior to joining the Commerce Department in 1994. During the meeting, they decided Huang should leave Ron Brown's Commerce Department and become a senior fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Both the CIA and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have stated they believe James Riady and his father, Mochtar Riady, to be agents of China.
Excerpt from a July 9, 1997 White House press briefing with President Clinton in Madrid, Spain:
| Q Mr. President, while we've been over here there have been reports that you personally intervened with the Democratic National Committee to get John Huang hired as a fund-raiser. I wonder what you could tell us about any activities that you had involving John Huang, why you felt so strongly about him, and what, in retrospect, do you think of that?
THE PRESIDENT: I can only tell you what I recall about that. I believe that John Huang at some point when I saw him in 1995 expressed an interest in going to work to try to help raise money for the Democratic Party and I think I may have said to someone that he wanted to go to work for the DNC. And I think it was -- he said that to me and I relayed that to someone -- I don't remember who I said it to, but I do believe I did say that to someone. And I wish I could tell you more; that's all I know about it. Q Why were you so -- THE PRESIDENT: Well, I had known him for -- first of all, most people don't volunteer to help you raise money in this world; it's normally an onerous task. And so if anybody volunteered I would have referred virtually anybody's name to the party. But I had had some acquaintance with him for several years going back to my service as governor, so I knew who he was… |
White House counsel Abner Mikva resigned, September 20. He was replaced by Jack Quinn.
On September 21, President Clinton made a campaign stop in Long Beach, California. While there, he met with Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neil.
Sometime in September, President Clinton, Leon Panetta and Deputy Defense Secretary John White met in the Oval Office and discussed plans to transfer control of Long Beach Naval Station to the city of Long Beach with the full knowledge they planned on leasing it to COSCO. The Navy had approved the deal (the Navy was led at the time by Navy Secretary John Dalton and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda). No national security review was performed before the decision.
On September 28, the Department of Energy (DOE) opened an administrative inquiry into the theft of the W-88 nuclear design (The W-88 is America's most advanced nuclear warhead).
On October 1, France conducted its second nuclear test in the South Pacific.
On October 9, Secretary of State Christopher ended a debate within the Clinton administration by initialing a classified order preserving the State Department's strict limits on China's ability to launch American-made satellites aboard Chinese rockets.
That same day, Former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made his surprise announcement he would not seek re-election.
On October 11, Commerce Department official John Huang visited the Indonesian embassy in DC. Afterwards, he went to the residence of the Chinese ambassador. Commerce Department records show Huang made numerous phone calls to the Chinese embassy in both June and August of 1995.
On October 17, DNC Finance Director Richard Sullivan sent a letter to then Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin from Don Fowler concerning a request by DNC money man Johnny Chung for a meeting. "Mr. Chung, one of the top supporters of the Democratic National Committee," the letter read, "has asked me to assist him with this request. I would appreciate your strong consideration of this invitation." Chung was seeking a meeting at Treasury for a delegation headed by Huaren Sheng -- president of China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC)-- who was allegedly looking for low interest loans. Rubin was held in contempt of court in 1998 on another matter.
On October 18, Commerce Secretary Brown attended a dinner at the Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong. He was joined by Ernie Green (a Clinton friend and employee of the financial group Lehman Brothers), Charlie Trie, DNC operative Antonio Pan and Ng Lap Seng. Later, in testimony before Congress, Ernie Green stated the Shangri-La dinner was organized by Trie and Ng Lap Seng and he was merely invited to the dinner by Trie. A former Commerce official and friend of Huang, Melinda Yee (who also attended the dinner), later testified Green hosted the event. Others attending the event included the business elite from Hong Kong, Macau and the People's Republic of China (PRC): Eric and Patricia Hotung, Chinese arms merchant Wang Jun of China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) and its subsidiary Poly Technologies and representatives of Hong Kong and Macau tycoons Stanley Ho and Li Ka-shing (owner of Hutchinson Whampoa of Panama Canal fame). Li is believed to be the sixth richest man in the world.
On October 23, Johnny Chung and Huaren Sheng attended a meeting at the Treasury Department with then Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.
On October 24, President Clinton had a 90-minute informal meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in New York City. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Winston Lord (former deputy national security advisor under Henry Kissinger), National Security Advisor Anthony Lake (former State Department official under Henry Kissinger), Secretary Christopher and Robert Suettinger, Director of Asian Affairs for the NSC, joined them at the meeting. No one brought up China's theft of America's weapons designs during the discussion because, at this point, all five claim they had not yet been told.
On October 27, France conducted its third nuclear test.
President Clinton's attorney in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, Robert Bennett, claimed he discovered in late 1995 the president had two old insurance policies (one with Chubb Insurance and one with State Farm Insurance) that allegedly covered allegations like those made by Jones. Bennett filed a claim and the two companies decided to split the bill.
CIA Director Deutch allegedly briefed NSC Director Anthony Lake about China's theft of America's nuclear weapon designs sometime in November. The president, allegedly, still had not yet been informed. Lake later claimed he did not recall the briefing, but he and White House officials said there was a record of it.
Also in November, Attorney General Janet Reno, Defense Secretary Perry and FBI Director Louis Freeh allegedly learned of China's theft of all of America's nuclear weapons designs for the first time. Allegedly, no one informed the president -- ever.
Arief and Soraya Wiriadinata contributed $30,000 to the DNC. Arief worked as a landscaper in Virginia. Soraya's father, Hashim Ning, was a business partner of the Riady family. Ning had wired a total of $500,000 from Indonesia to the Wiriadinatas' account in the US between November 5 and November 7. The Wiriadinatas have since fled back to Indonesia.
The following day, November 8, the DNC held its top-level African-American fund-raiser at the Car Barn in Washington, DC. The event was hosted by Ernie Green and Richard Mays. David Mercer also worked the event. Charlie Trie also became involved and attended the event with Ng Lap Seng and others. DNC documents indicate Trie committed to raising $100,000 for the event. Trie and his guests later attended a special private reception for the event's largest donors. Other attendees included President Clinton, Ng Lap Seng and former Joint Chiefs of Staff (under both President Bush and Clinton) Gen. Colin Powell.
On November 10, the Clinton administration said it was investigating Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary after she spent $43,000 in taxpayer money to hire a consulting firm to rank news reporters covering her agency.
| A DNC aide wrote a memo to then chairman Don Fowler that requested he call Johnny Chung and remind him he "committed to contribute $75,000 to the DNC reception in Los Angeles on September 21. He has still not sent his contribution. Tell him if he does not complete his commitment ASAP bad things will happen." |
DNC Finance Director Richard Sullivan interviewed John Huang. Huang was offered a DNC job later that day.
In mid-November, former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) made her suprise announcement she planned to retire at the end of her term. Kassebaum was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and its Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
On November 21, France conducted its fourth nuclear test.
On November 22, former Rep. Ronald Coleman (D-TX) made his suprise announcement he planned to retire at the end of his term. Coleman was a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
In late-November, former Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-CO) made her suprise announcement she planned to retire at the end of her term. Schroeder was a member of the House National Security Committee and chaired its Subcommittee on Military Installations and Facilities.
In late 1995 and early 1996, DOE intelligence official Notra Trulock took his findings on China's theft of America's nuclear warhead designs to the FBI. A team of FBI and DOE officials then traveled to three weapons labs (Lawrence Livermore, Sandia and Los Alamos) and pored over travel and work records of lab scientists who had access to the relevant technology. By February, they narrowed its focus to five possible suspects.
On December 2, former Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-OR) made his suprise announcement he planned to retire at the end of his term. Hatfield was a member of the Senate Energy Committee and chaired the Appropriations Committee.
That same day, former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY) announced he planned to retire.
Bruce Lindsey arranged for Huang to transfer to the DNC as its chief fund-raiser soliciting Asian-Americans.
A National Security Agency (NSA) intercept revealed China completed a deal to sell Pakistan 5,000 ring magnets in December 1994 (ring magnets are used to help build nuclear weapons). The NSA immediately informed the CIA, Pentagon, White House and State Department, but the Clinton administration ignored the violations, however.
CIA officials analyzing the documents dropped off in its Taiwan office back in spring 1995 focused on one that included what appeared to be classified design information about the W-88 nuclear warhead. Dated 1988, the document also included a hand drawing of a US nuclear warhead reentry vehicle. Initially the CIA did not tell the Energy Department that it had obtained the W-88 document, but Energy Department's analysts had somehow already obtained a copy themselves in August even though it was not officially distributed throughout intelligence agencies until December.
On December 4, John Huang physically left the Commerce Department to join the DNC (Huang officially remained a Commerce employee on leave without pay through January 22, 1996).
According to the Washington Post, President Clinton met with Alexander Haig at the White House on December 5.
That same day, President Clinton signed Executive Order (EO) #12981. The order allowed the Commerce Department to license some satellite exports if they heard no response from other reviewing agencies after 30 days and set a rigid 90-day limit on license review. A senior nonproliferation official in the Pentagon said he had not been informed of several sensitive export-license applications. A senior State Department official said he "could not guarantee" that "a few" applications had not been vetted by all the agencies that should have reviewed them.
On December 11, both Henry Kissinger and President Clinton attended a function at the National Building Museum in DC.
That same day, Vice President Gore unveiled new initiatives to "improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal government's intelligence agencies." According to a White House press release on December 13, 1995:
| "The intelligence agencies are consolidating and streamlining, maintaining intelligence leadership while meeting the challenge of decreasing resources," said Vice President Gore. The intelligence report, presented by Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch, consolidates intelligence collection sites worldwide, implements administrative and management reforms, and consolidates the mapping and imagery activities of all 13 intelligence agencies. Director Deutch said the creation of a consolidated National Imagery and Mapping Agency "will foster the development of new technologies and supply military commanders and policy makers with significantly improved information." Director Deutch said the report also details plans to integrate the acquisition of military and intelligence satellites. The intelligence community will consolidate much of its operations in the Washington area and cut in half the amount of warehouse space it leases in the Washington area… The three largest agencies, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, are reducing their personnel at a rate more than twice the rate of the rest of government. By 1999, these agencies will have reduced personnel by 25 percent. |
On December 14, John Huang was granted a top secret consulting clearance by the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO) in connection with an unsuccessful effort to make Huang a consultant to the Department of Commerce while he worked for the DNC. Due to Huang's existing top secret clearance DISCO did not conduct a separate background investigation of Huang.
On December 15, President Clinton met with Sen. Feinstein's husband Richard Blum and Arief Wiriadinata for coffee in the White House. Wiriadinata informed President Clinton: "James (Riady) sent me."
Sometime in December, Chubb and State Farm Insurance companies sent checks totaling $891,000 to President Clinton's attorney Robert Bennett. Others would follow. Chubb later hired former President Bush in early 1996 to lobby China on their behalf.
On December 19, Johnny Chung contributed $40,000 to the DNC. Later that same day, he visited the White House.
Sometime in late 1995 the admiral commanding US Naval Forces in the Persian Gulf transmitted a classified report that warned the PRC had delivered to Iran a considerable number of sophisticated anti-shipping missiles. He noted the missiles posed a significant threat to the surface combatants of the 5th Fleet. In June 1998, President Clinton vetoed a Congressional bill that would have applied sanctions against any business or nation that supplied Iran with ballistic missile technology saying it was not in America's national interest.
On December 27, France conducted its fifth nuclear test.
| Peter Lund, a retired senior China analyst for the Canadian Intelligence Service, wrote in a paper he delivered in 1996 that both the United States and Canada had been the target of a sustained and very successful Chinese intelligence effort. "Not only have the Chinese obtained some of the United States' most closely guarded secrets," he wrote, "but there is a strong reason to believe that they have secured agents of influence in the government, the civil service, academia, the media and the private business sector," Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1997. |
Sometime in January 1996, Sen. Feinstein visited China again. Richard Blum, Sen. Sam Nunn and former Sen. John Glenn (D-OH) -- a member of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees -- joined her on the trip. While there, they had dinner at the former home of Communist China's founder, the late Mao Tse-Tung (Mao is believed to be responsible for the deaths of as many as 50,000,000 people between 1949-1976). Sen. Glenn co-chaired the Senate's 1997 hearings on campaign finance violations and China's attempt to influence America's election.
On January 5, the White House announced the mysteriously disappearing/reappearing Rose Law Firm billing records were found -- lying openly on a table in the White House residence quarters -- two years after they were subpoenaed by Judge Kenneth Starr. The documents contradicted Hillary's claim she did not do legal work for the now-defunct Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. In November 1994, Kenneth Starr (a former Bush Justice Department official) represented Citisteel in a civil suit. Citisteel is a subsidiary of Wang Jun's CITIC.
Ron Brown's mistress, Nolanda Hill, swore under oath in late 1997 that in early 1996 Brown showed her Commerce Department documents signed by Melissa Moss of the Office of Business Liaison that proved the department's trade missions were used for partisan political fundraising. Specifically, plane seats were sold to business people who gave at least $100,000 each to the DNC. She also said she told Brown he should fire Moss because of this and that he said he would speak to her about it.
Sometime in January, Kissinger Associates hired Commerce Department employee David Rothkopf. As former deputy undersecretary for international trade in the department, Rothkopf was one of John Huang's supervisors.
Clinton friend and former US Associate Attorney General under Janet Reno, Webster Hubbell, was questioned at Congress' Whitewater hearings about a $700,000 payment he received from DNC donors and Indonesian billionaire, Lippo Group owner and Clinton pal (since early 1980s Arkansas), Mochtar Riady. Hubbell refused to explain what work he did for the money.
| "For the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, there is not a single, solitary nuclear missile pointed at an American child, and I am proud of that," Remarks by President Clinton at a luncheon at the Opryland Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee, January 12, 1996. |
In early 1996, Notra Trulock told CIA officials about his discoveries on China's theft of America's nuclear warhead designs.
On January 17, Sen. Bill Cohen (R-ME), a member of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, made his surprise announcement he would not seek re-election. Cohen had voted to send articles of impeachment concerning President Nixon to the full House as a freshman member of Congress in 1974.
Justice Department lawyers informed Elizabeth Mann, a recent Chinese immigrant who is the Arizona head of American-based Communist Chinese corporate giant COFCO, that she was a target of a grand jury investigation for failing to report income by using foreign bank accounts opened in the name of fictitious offshore entities. Janet Reno's Justice Department would later have the investigation into her finances terminated. Sen. John McCain, a friend of Mann, helped her son gain entrance into the military academy.
On January 27, France conducted its sixth and final nuclear test.
On February 1, Wang Jun of CITIC and Poly Technologies entered the United States (Wang has had business dealings with COFCO's Elizabeth Mann). It is unclear what he did between then and February 5.
On February 2, President Clinton granted Wang Jun's company Poly Technologies import permits that were to allow the shipment of over 100,000 semiautomatic weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition to a Detroit company that had ties to the Chinese military.
On February 5, Charlie Trie held a reception for Wang Jun and other CITIC officials at his Watergate apartment. Little else is known about the meeting. Monica Lewinsky and Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) were also residents of the building at the time.
On February 6, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown met with Chinese arms merchant Wang Jun. Nolanda Hill claims they discussed lowering export controls.
After meeting with Brown, Wang Jun met with Ernie Green at his Lehman Brothers office. Charlie Trie and Ng Lap Seng also attended the meeting. According to Green, the purpose of the meeting was to "reintroduce" CITIC to Lehman Brothers.
Later that same day, Charlie Trie escorted Wang Jun to a White House coffee. DNC chairman Don Fowler and co-chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd (CT) also attended. Ng Lap Seng, who in 1994 showed up at the White House with $175,000 in cash at the time Web Hubbell was paid off, was another guest (Ng's total donations to Clinton was $333,000). DNC money man Johnny Chung would later finger Trie as a Chinese agent in mid-1998 testimony before a federal grand jury. Trie is presently represented by Brown lawyer Reid Weingarten. President Clinton signed four new waivers for American satellite launches in China that same day.
On February 14, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) space launch vehicle crashed destroying the Loral Space and Communication satellite it was carrying. Chinese officials kept American investigators away from the crash scene. When they were finally allowed access, they found the highly militarily sensitive encryption chips were missing even though their encasing was left intact (encryption technology denies outsiders access to, or control over, American satellites in space). Loral and Hughes Electronics' engineers gave away missile secrets to China in the ensuing investigation.
Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz was the top contributor to President Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign and joined Ron Brown on numerous trade flights to China. He was also on Clinton's short list of potential nominees for the defense secretary position being vacated by William Perry. Sen. Bill Cohen would become the eventual nominee.
On February 18, John Huang raised $1.1 million at a DNC fund-raiser at the Hay Adams Hotel a block from the White House. Around the same time he sent a letter to Clinton saying a top Asian-American priority was to keep "sibling preference" immigration laws as is (sibling preference laws give first come immigration priority to the brothers and sisters of naturalized US citizens. Huang is naturalized. Clinton said he favored ending this practice in 1995). Ng Lap Seng, Wang Jun, Ted Sioeng (pronounced "Shong"), Pauline Kanchanalak (Pronounced "Kan-CHAN-al-ak") and Charlie Trie attended the dinner and sat with Huang at President Clinton's table. All had breakfast with Vice President Al Gore the following day.
CIA Director Deutch told a Senate Committee he believed China transferred M-11 missiles to Pakistan.
On March 6, Commerce Secretary Brown announced he would take a trade delegation to Bosnia in April.
On March 7, the PLA intimidated Taiwanese citizens by shooting ballistic missiles at both ends of the islands. Taiwan was scheduled to hold its elections March 23.
Ambassador (to China) Jim Sasser sent a fax to Lynn Cutler, wife of former White House counsel Lloyd Cutler, on March 8. In it, he said Johnny Chung visited his office when he was not available. He informed Cutler that he was searching Beijing hotels for Chung in an effort to set up a meeting.
On March 10, the White House announced a Naval fleet would be sent to patrol the water between Taiwan and China.
On March 14, President Clinton signed an order that transferred decision-making authority over granting of licenses for overseas sales of "dual-use" technology from the State Department to the Commerce Department -- thereby making it easier for the PLA to launch American satellites -- against State Department and Pentagon objections. The order would not take effect until November 6 -- a day after the presidential election. Dual-use technology includes high-performance computers (HPCs) and nuclear power plant technology among other things. Clinton's Commerce Department allowed the sale of 603 HPCs to China between 1996 and 1998. That is more computing power than is found at the Pentagon.
White House records indicate a meeting between Al Gore and John Huang took place on March 15.
Sometime in mid-March, President Clinton reversed his policy on "sibling preference" immigration laws. He now agreed with Huang they should stay as is.
On March 18, a weapons cache of 2,000 AK-47s was seized aboard a COSCO ship in Oakland, California. The weapons were owned by Wang Jun's Poly Technologies.
Charlie Trie attended a meeting with Buddhist Master Suma Ching Hai and her followers in New York City. Sect members gave Trie money for Clinton's legal defense fund. The donated money was wired in from banks in California, Cambodia, and Hong Kong.
On March 21, Charlie Trie dropped off $640,000 into Clinton's legal defense fund. At the same time he delivered a letter to President Clinton that contained a not-so-subtle threat to back down over Taiwan. Soon after, the ships left and American policy toward Taiwan went into drift mode. During Clinton's 1998 trip to China he described the sending of the fleet as "not intended as a threat to the PRC". Trie's money was returned later when it was noticed that the money orders, from many different people, had sequential serial numbers.
On March 25, First Lady Hillary Clinton visited Tuzla, Bosnia with Army Secretary Togo West.
On March 26, the Pentagon announced Defense Secretary Perry would soon leave on a trip to Bosnia, Croatia, Albania and Egypt.
White House records show John Huang met with the president March 27.
That same day, Energy Department officials were notified by an American agent that it appeared China recently stole America's neutron bomb secrets. Neutron bombs act like nuclear bombs except without the explosion. In other words, they kill people by radiation, but leave buildings and structures intact.
White House records show John Huang met with Harold Ickes on March 29 (Ickes is currently the chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign for the Senate).
Defense Secretary Perry arrived in Zagreb, Croatia March 30.
On March 31, Perry went on to Tuzla and Sarajevo in Bosnia.
Hillary Clinton returned to Washington DC on April 1.
On April 2, Secretary Perry met with Albania's president in the country's capital, Tirana.
Commerce Secretary Brown arrived in Tuzla, Bosnia that same day.
On April 3, Brown died in a plane crash en route from Bosnia to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Thirty-four others perished as well. Many were Commerce Department employees (John Huang's immediate boss at Commerce, Charles Meissner, included). Commerce oversaw the satellite launches in China. Brown's body was later discovered to have a suspiciously round hole in his head. No autopsy was performed. The plane did not have a "black box". No safety investigation was performed over the accident.
That same day, the CIA discovered evidence China was supplying parts and technicians for a plutonium reprocessing plant in Pakistan.
Sometime in April, intelligence analyst Ronald Pandolfi wrote a report for the CIA warning about military implications of Hughes Electronics' sharing of missile expertise with the Chinese. The CIA decided not to distribute the classified report to select government officials, as is routinely done with intelligence estimates, saying it was insufficiently rigorous. The report would remain hidden from Congress until late 1998. The CIA would later come under criminal investigation for allegedly giving Hughes a "heads up" on information relating to a congressional committee's investigation of the matter.
On April 13, the DOE briefed the White House about China's espionage at Los Alamos weapons lab. A group of senior officials including Notra Trulock sat down with Deputy National Security Advisor Sandy Berger and told him that China appeared to have acquired both W-88 nuclear and neutron bomb secrets and that a spy for China might still be at Los Alamos. Prior to joining the White House in 1993, Sandy Berger worked as a lobbyist to expand trade ties with China. Berger later claimed he did not inform the president of the espionage until July 1997.
Sometime in April, former President Bush traveled to China with Brent Scowcroft and Chubb Insurance CEO Dean O'Hare. While there, Bush and Scowcroft introduced O'Hare to President Jiang Zemin and dined with CITIC and Poly Technologies' head Wang Jun. President Clinton later named O'Hare to his Advisory Committee on Trade September 18, 1998.
On April 22, Charlie Trie was officially appointed to Clinton's Commission on US-Pacific Trade & Investment Policy.
On April 28, former CIA Director William Colby (during both President Nixon and Ford's administrations) went missing. His canoe was found on the bank of a creek behind his home.
On April 29, Vice President Gore met at the Hsi Lai (pronounced "See Lie") Buddhist Temple near Los Angeles. Alleged Chinese spy Maria Hsia (pronounced "Shaw)" was his host. John Huang helped organize and attended the event. Ted Sioeng was also there. Gore walked away with $140,000 in campaign donations from "monks" and "nuns" which was later returned. The "nuns" later pleaded the Fifth before Congress. Maria Hsia is currently represented by lawyer Nancy Luque (pronounced "Luke"). Luque was the lead attorney for the 1996 Clinton/Gore campaign. She also represented Virginia housewife Julie Hiatt Steele who was indicted by Ken Starr's grand jury in relation to the alleged Kathleen Willey sexual assault and ensuing intimidation.
Sometime in April, Vice President Al Gore's national security advisor Leon Fuerth was allegedly informed about China's nuclear espionage at America's weapons laboratories. Allegedly, he failed to mention it to his boss.
On May 6, Colby's body was found -- only 20 yards from the canoe. A Navy search and rescue team could not find him for eight days. Later, a pathologist report concluded he drowned after having either a heart attack or a stroke.
On May 10, President Clinton decided not to place sanctions against China for its exporting of nuclear technology to Pakistan. China claimed they did not know how the technology got there. Clinton took them at their word. The transferring of nuclear technology to non-nuclear countries is a direct violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) of which China is a signatory.
On May 16, Navy Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. He left a typewritten note behind. It was believed he committed suicide because he was about to be outed by Newsweek magazine for wearing valor medals he did not properly earn. A June 1998 Naval report said he did earn them. Adm. Boorda was under the command of Navy Secretary John Dalton. Dalton served in the post from 1993 until November 1998 (He announced his decision to leave in June). Prior to joining the Pentagon, Dalton was employed by Stephens Inc. Stephens Inc. became joint-owner of Little Rock's Worthen Bank with Mochtar Riady's Lippo Group in 1984. James Riady was named the bank's director. Worthen loaned $3.5 million to the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign. Mochtar Riady was the biggest individual donor in the 1992 White House run. Stephens Inc. founder Jackson Stephens is a friend and financial supporter of former President Bush.
On May 20, President Clinton formally announced his decision to renew Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status with China. In 1993, Clinton de-linked weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation issues to the granting of MFN status to China. He did the same in regards to human-rights abuse questions in 1994.
President Clinton announced May 22 he was opposed to the deployment of a missile defense system to protect American cities. He said it made no sense to build an antimissile system "before we know the details and dimensions of the threat we face".
Arrest warrants were issued by US Attorney Michael Yamaguchi (Northern California District) May 23 in regards to Poly Technologies' attempt to smuggle 2,000 AK-47s into the United States for sale to drug gangs. During the sting operation, the smugglers also offered agents access to shoulder launched missiles and tanks. The sting operation was sprung earlier than planned due to a leak to the press from an unknown person.
On May 30, the FBI formally opened a criminal investigation into the theft of the W-88 design. The inquiry made little progress over the rest of the year.
| "Throughout the 1996 Clinton campaign for President, China's agents of influence had the run of the White House as they raised millions for the Clinton campaign. Chinese military intelligence officials were waved in without clearance. US executives contributed megabucks as they lobbied for easier approval of sales of sensitive technology to Beijing," William Safire, New York Times, March 3, 1999. |
On June 3, the FBI briefed representatives of the NSC about China's attempt to influence America's elections.
On June 5, "Filegate" surfaced. At first, the White House claimed only 34 FBI files of Republicans ended up in their hands. Later it was learned close to 1000 did. Blame for Filegate was passed off on Craig Livingstone. In later testimony, the White House claimed they could not recall who hired Livingstone. Livingstone claimed the same thing.
On June 8, China conducted its third and final underground nuclear test.
Excerpt from a June 10, 1996 State Department press briefing by spokesman Nicholas Burns:
| Q Any more detail, Nick, on the size of the explosion Saturday; where did you say it was?
MR. BURNS: I can't tell you the size of the explosion. It was an underground nuclear test at the Lop Nur -- L-o-p -- two words -- N-u-r -- facility, which I believe is in northwest China. The statement released by the White House regretted the action. It urged China to refrain from further nuclear testing. It urged China to agree that we should have a treaty -- a Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty to ban all nuclear tests. So a quite forthright statement by the Administration. Q Was the US informed in advance by China that it would be conducting this test? MR. BURNS: I don't know the answer to that question. Q Follow to that? Nick, did you talk with the Chinese since the test and voice your opposition? MR. BURNS: Yes. We've not only spoken publicly, we have certainly voiced our regret to the Chinese Government. We're also, as I mentioned before, working very closely with China in Geneva to try to get over the final hurdles in the negotiations toward the Test-Ban Treaty, and we do welcome some of the statements made last week by the Chinese Government. Q Nick… MR. BURNS: Still on China? Any more on China? Q I just have a brief follow-up to David's question. I saw it was reported that this was a 5.6 Richter explosion. That's a pretty good-sized thermonuclear bomb, isn't it? MR. BURNS: I can't confirm that for you. I don't have those figures. |
In early June, University of California Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien met with Chinese Premier Li Peng in China. While there, he became the first non-Chinese citizen to be inducted into China's Academy of Science. The University of California holds the contract to operate Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. Shortly after his return, Tien announced he planned to resign as chancellor at the end of his term in July 1997.
Sometime in June, Johnny Chung met with Liu Chaoying (pronounced "Loo Chow-ying"). Liu was the head of Chinese Aerospace Company. The company builds and launches Chinese rockets and missiles and had dealings with Loral executive Bernard Schwartz. Liu is also a Lt. Colonel in the PLA. Liu later introduced Chung to Gen. Ji Shengde (pronounced "Zhee Sheng-Dee"), head of Chinese military intelligence (The Chinese equivalent of the CIA).
On June 14, Sen. Feinstein was briefed by the FBI about China's attempt to influence America's elections. Five other members of Congress were briefed as well.
In late spring 1996, federal examiners discovered the Central Bank of China funneled tens of millions of dollars into a maze of accounts controlled by Nan Nan Xu (pronounced "Shoo"), a Chinese executive of Far East National Bank in California. Ms. Xu is related by marriage to Liu Chaoying.
On June 26, US barracks in Dharan, Saudi Arabia were bombed. Nineteen service people were killed. FBI officials believed Osama bin Laden was involved. Saudi officials differed. Billionaire bin Laden family's construction company was later hired by the Pentagon to build a new base there. Osama's brother, Hasan bin Laden, is part-owner of Iridium LLC. Iridium is a communications group that has worked with Loral and had four of their satellites launched on Chinese rockets. Osama is known to have ties with both Albania and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
That same day, Energy Secretary O'Leary announced her decision to overrule the State Department and allow the sale of super computers to China.
In late June or early July, the CIA issued an internal government statement that declared they may have misread their original analysis of the documents delivered by the double agent to their Taiwan offices and that China may not have America's weapons designs after all. The FBI, in turn, suspended their investigation of the matter (which had just started) for about six weeks.
On July 3, President Clinton signed another waiver allowing an American satellite to be launched in China. He would sign another six days later.
On July 6, NSC Director Anthony Lake went to China.
Sometime in July, Loral Space and Communications obtained President Clinton's approval to launch 48 satellites in the country of Kazakhstan (a former Soviet republic).
On July 11, Johnny Chung arranged a visa for Liu Chaoying to visit the United States.
Johnny Chung received a wire transfer of $190,000 from a Hong Kong bank on July 15.
On July 18, the president went to a California fund-raiser attended by Johnny Chung and Liu Choaying.
On August 2, former Commerce Department employee Ira Sockowitz left the building with 2,800 pages of intelligence documents. Many of the documents dealt with top secret satellite and encryption technology information. Sockowitz would end up locking the documents in the safe of his new office at the Small Business Bureau (SBA). Eventually, the documents would be joined by other classified material from the NSA, State Department and CIA. Attorney General Reno has never charged Sockowitz for the thefts.
On August 11, Chinese Gen. Ji Shengde gave Johnny Chung $300,000 to funnel into the Clinton/Gore re-election campaign. According to Chung, Ji said at the time: "We like your president".
On August 19, Ng Lap Seng and Charlie Trie attended President Clinton's 50th birthday celebration.
On September 18, President Clinton unilaterally declared the formation of a new 1.7 million-acre national monument in southern Utah (Escalante National Monument). Local residents and government officials were never consulted before the decision was made. The area protected contains one of the largest deposits of clean-burning coal known to exist in the world. Another large deposit of the same coal exists in Indonesia and is owned by the Riady's Lippo Group.
That same day, Johnny Chung arranged a meeting between Energy Secretary O'Leary and Sheng Huaren of China's SINOPEC.
Sometime in October, the CIA delivered a "statement of fact" report to both the White House and State Department detailing Chinese efforts to assist Pakistan in building a missile plant. Both President Clinton and then Secretary of State Warren Christopher ignored the report's conclusions. Pakistan later detonated its first nuclear weapon in a mid-1998 test.
Brent Scowcroft secured a meeting between Chubb Insurance CEO Dean O'Hare and Chinese Premier Li Peng sometime in October, as well.
The first press report about John Huang appeared. Huang met with the president in the Oval Office later that same day.
On October 18, The DNC fired John Huang.
On October 24, a US Marshall reported Huang missing after attempting to serve a subpoena to him in relation to a lawsuit brought against the Commerce Department by attorney Larry Klayman and his watchdog group Judicial Watch.
John Huang's attorney accepted the subpoena on Huang's behalf October 27. Huang showed up for questioning two days later.
The FBI's Albuquerque, New Mexico bureau queried headquarters about possibly searching scientist Wen Ho Lee's computer at Los Alamos National Laboratory on November 4.
President Clinton was re-elected November 5.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher resigned on November 7.
On November 9, President Clinton called for campaign finance reform and endorsed the campaign finance legislation being pushed for by Sens. McCain and Russ Feingold (D-WI).
On November 12, Los Alamos National Laboratory officials falsely advised the FBI that Wen Ho Lee never signed the waiver that would allow access to his work computer.
Janet Reno rejected a request by Sen. McCain for the appointment of an IC to investigate fundraising abuses on November 13.
On November 14, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary resigned.
Some time in November, Sen. Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, visited China yet again.
On November 19, President Clinton signed a waiver that allowed satellite parts to be shipped to China. He signed a waiver for an American satellite launch in China four days later.
Commerce Department employee Barbara Alice Wise was found dead in her office November 29. Within hours of her discovery, President Clinton interrupted his Thanksgiving weekend at Camp David, Maryland and returned by helicopter to the White House to pick up a book of poetry he needed for his inaugural speech in January. The DC coroners office ruled Wise died of natural causes by the end of the same day.
On December 5, Chinese Gen. Chi Haotian (pronounced "Wo-Shen") began a two-week tour of the United States in New York City. Gen. Chi is believed to have been in command of the 1989 Tiananman Square massacre.
Also on December 5, NSC Director Anthony Lake was named as acting CIA director to replace outgoing Director Deutch (Deutch left for a job at Citibank). During a routine check of outgoing CIA personnel, agents discovered Deutch brought 14,000 top secret government documents home and left them on an unsecured computer hooked up to the Internet. An investigation was immediately begun. Deputy CIA Director George Tenet failed to inform the FBI or Justice Department of his investigation for over a year, however. In the middle of the investigation, Deutch helped Nora Slatkin (who led the probe) gain a position at Citibank, too. President Clinton nominated former Sen. Bill Cohen to be the new defense secretary the same day, as well.
Also on December 5, CNN reported Commerce official Melinda Yee threw away documents concerning the department's trade missions after a judge ordered they be turned over to Larry Klayman's Judicial Watch group. Yee is presently represented by Maria Hsia and Julie Hiatt Steele attorney Nancy Luque.
On December 8, Gen. Chi attended a dinner at the National Defense University in Maryland. The dinner was hosted by Defense Secretary Perry and attended by Alexander Haig, Brent Scowcroft, Deputy Defense Secretary White, Joseph Nye (head of the Kennedy School at Harvard who set up a study program for Chinese colonels in Spring 1997), Sen. John Glenn, Rep. Doug Bereiter (NE), chairman of the House Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Sen. Craig Thomas (WY), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and then Joint Chiefs Gen. John Shalikashvili, among others.
On December 9, Gen. Chi and Secretary Perry met with President Clinton at the White House. Allegedly, China's theft of America's nuclear weapons designs was never discussed. The president, allegedly, had still not yet been informed.
Chi and Perry then returned to the Pentagon and had a meeting with Ambassador James Sasser.
Newly appointed Commerce Secretary Bill Daley interrupted a press conference December 13 when he fainted and fell off a platform.
Before leaving the US in mid-December, Gen. Chi was given a tour of Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico by Defense Secretary Perry. Lab security officials were given little advanced notice of the visit and Chi was not given a normal background check.
Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) announced he planned to retire at the end of his term December 16. Coats was on the Senate's Armed Services Committee.
On December 18, CNN reported University of California Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien led president Clinton's short list to replace outgoing Secretary Hazel O'Leary at the Energy Department. Tien (who was born in China) is a close friend of China's President Jiang Zemin and had accepted money from Mochtar Riady. He eventually lost out to then Transportation Secretary Frederico Pena, but was placed on the president's National Science Board by Clinton in 1998.
| "Mr. Speaker, it is no wonder that millions of Chinese dollars have popped up in American politics. I mean, check it out: China alone gets $45 billion from American taxpayers in a sweetheart deal known as most-favored-nation trade status. Now to me, that is absolutely disgusting, with the 17 cents an hour labor wage. But if that's not enough to rip one of those false made-in-America labels on one of those Chinese imports, check this out: The United States Air Force just issued military combat boots to our troops that were made in China. That is right. American military personnel are wearing combat boots now made in China. Beam me up, Mr. Speaker. What is next, marines in Mao suits? I think it is time to take a look at what China has done and take a look at everyone of those sweetheart trade deals," Statement by Rep. James Traficant (D-OH) on the floor of the House of Representatives, March 12, 1997. |
President Clinton announced on January 7, 1997 former Watergate prosecutor Charles Ruff would succeed outgoing White House counsel Jack Quinn. Quinn left for a position at Chubb Insurance Group. Chubb's CEO Dean O'Hare later led a delegation from the Coalition of Service Industries to Beijing, China on March 17-19, 1999. The delegation included Jack Quinn and Arnold Kantor (co-chairman of Brent Scowcroft's consulting firm, The Scowcroft Group).
On January 14, Clinton nominated Colorado Gov. Roy Romer to be the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Also on January 14, UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright became the new Secretary of State. Rep. Bill Richardson (D-NM) replaced her at the United Nations. Richardson was a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
On February 3, President Clinton named Waco, Texas insurance executive Bernard Rapoport to his Advisory Committee on Trade. Rapaport is a long time Clinton friend and one of the donors who generously paid Webster Hubbell for unknown work in 1994. He attended a White House coffee on August 13, 1996.
On February 13, President Clinton allegedly learned about China's plot to influence America's elections for the first time.
FBI Director Louis Freeh was sent to Saudi Arabia again by President Clinton to investigate the June 1996 bombing of American barracks in Dharan. Saudi officials eventually executed the bombing suspects without allowing Freeh the opportunity to interrogate them.
On February 18, White House counsel Charles Ruff attempted to access the FBI's intelligence about China's attempts to influence America's elections while Freeh was away. He used Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick at the Justice Department as an intermediary. FBI officials warned Freeh who then blocked Ruff's request for information. Ruff claimed he wanted to inform now Madeleine Albright about the situation before she headed to China later in the month.
Albright went to China. Allegedly, she had yet to be informed about China's nuclear espionage campaign by NSC Director Anthony Lake or his deputy, Sandy Berger. Clinton, allegedly, had yet to be informed either.
Energy Department intelligence analyst Notra Trulock learned of new nuclear espionage evidence. He attempted to contact newly appointed Energy Secretary Pena about the information but was not given an appointment to see him until July.
| "I don't believe you can find any evidence of the fact that I had changed government policy solely because of a contribution," Remarks by President Clinton, White House press briefing, March 6, 1997 |
President Clinton claimed he was never briefed about the FBI's information on China's attempts to influence the 1996 elections. White House officials claimed the FBI ordered NSC aides not to allow the information up the chain of command. The FBI denied doing so.
On March 10, Sen. Wendall Ford (KY) announced he was retiring from the Senate at the end of his term. Ford sat on the Senate Energy and Commerce Committees.
On March 13, Attorney General Janet Reno claimed she tried to inform Anthony Lake at the NSC about the FBI's information concerning China's attempt to influence America's elections back in June 1996, but did not because she "could not find him". She also said she did not tell President Clinton herself because she felt it was the job of the NSC. Sandy Berger replaced Lake as head of NSC the following day.
FBI Director Freeh told Congress his investigation into campaign finance irregularities was not focusing on individual criminal acts, but on a possible conspiracy involving a foreign government.
On March 21, China's Navy destroyer Harbin docked in San Diego. This was a first-ever visit to the US mainland by a Chinese Navy vessel.
Vice President Gore visited China March 24-28. He met with China's President Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng while there. The trip was announced in a March 11 press briefing by Press Secretary Mike McCurry.
Jamie Gorelick resigned as deputy attorney general in April. Gorelick also left her position as the Defense Department's lead counsel. She had been doing double duty until then.
Attorney General Reno decided against appointing an IC to investigate China's attempts to influence America's elections.
The FBI issued a classified report that recommended background checks on foreign visitors to nuclear laboratories be reinstated. The Energy Department ignored the recommendations for 17 months.
On April 29, current Defense Secretary Bill Cohen met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen at the Pentagon.
In May, Los Alamos laboratory employee Wen Ho Lee (a suspect in the FBI's investigation of China's nuclear espionage campaign) was promoted to a position that required an even higher security clearance than he already had. Reno's Justice Department repeatedly refused FBI requests to tap Wen Ho Lee's phone and gain access to his computer over the next few months. When the FBI finally gained access to Lee's computer in March 1999, they discovered Lee had downloaded all of America's nuclear research information gathered over the last 50 years.
Some in May, Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili visited China.
Former Sandia and Los Alamos laboratory employee Peter Lee (no relation to Wen Ho Lee) gave top secret information on antisubmarine radar technology away to Chinese nuclear-weapons experts during a May 11 lecture at the Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics in Beijing, China. Attorney General Reno and John Dalton's Navy Department later refused FBI requests to allow open-court testimony about the technology even though doing so would kill the FBI's espionage case against him.
On May 12, the Los Angeles Times reported the FBI identified DNC and Republican National Committee (RNC) fund-raiser Ted Sioeng as a Chinese spy. Sioeng was a friend of former Commerce employee, DNC fund-raiser, and suspected spy John Huang.
President Clinton called for the renewal of MFN trade status for China on May 19.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien went to China sometime in early June.
On June 6, President Clinton named Jamie Gorelick as the chairperson to the Advisory Committee for the Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection. She was on the Steering Committee until she left the Justice Department.
Hong Kong reverted back to Chinese control. Madeleine Albright and Sen. Feinstein attended the ceremonies. Neither women attended the Panama Canal hand over ceremony in December 1999.
Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) opened his hearings on China's influence of America's 1996 presidential and congressional elections on July 8.
Sometime in July, Secretary Pena finally met with Notra Trulock who had new information about China's ongoing espionage at America's nuclear weapons laboratories. After the meeting, Pena sent him to see Sandy Berger.
Trulock briefed Berger.
Afterwards, Berger, allegedly, briefed President Clinton about China's nuclear espionage campaign.
Chang-Lin Tien was officially replaced as head of UC Berkeley by Robert Berdahl. Originally a German history professor, Berdahl had been the president of the University of Texas at Austin until then. He was appointed to that position by the University of Texas' Board of Regents led by Clinton friend Bernard Rapoport. On March 31, 1998, President Clinton named Berdahl to the Advisory Committee of his Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection.
Federal examiners gave evidence China's Central Bank funneled upwards of $90 million into California bank owned by Nan Nan Xu to the Justice Department. Janet Reno ignored the information.
Sandy Berger went to China in August. Before he left, he assigned NSC aide in charge of proliferation, Gary Samore, to assess the nuclear espionage situation. Samore would later claim that, while the espionage had taken place, Trulock's briefing was only a worse-case scenario.
Former Sen. Sam Nunn was appointed by President Clinton to his Advisory Committee for the Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection on August 13.
FBI Director Louis Freeh concluded sometime in September there was not enough evidence to arrest Wen Ho Lee but there was no longer any reason to keep him in a position with such a high security clearance. The Energy Department ignored his recommendation and kept Lee on the job for another year and a half.
A government audit released on September 3 showed the Department of Defense was unable to account for the whereabouts of almost $100 billion worth of taxpayer-owned property.
Sometime in September, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with China's Foreign Minister Qian Qichen in New York City.
On September 16, Attorney General Janet Reno appointed Charles LaBella to head her campaign finance investigation. LaBella eventually called on Reno to appoint an IC. She ignored his recommendation.
On September 18, President Clinton named Norm Mineta to his Advisory Committee for the Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection. Mineta, who retired from Congress in 1996, is the senior vice president and managing director of transportation systems and services at defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
Also in September, Attorney General Reno opened its criminal investigation into Loral Space & Communications and Hughes Electronics' illegal transfer of ballistic missile technology to China.
In October, Reno decided not to appoint an IC to investigate Vice President Gore for illegal fundraising.
On October 21, the FBI announced they hired Donald Kerr (a nuclear physicist who previously headed Los Alamos National Laboratory) to run its crime lab.
The London Telegraph reported October 26 that 25-year career officer Gordon Oehler resigned his position at the agency's Non-Proliferation Center in Langley, Virginia. Oehler, who was responsible for co-ordinating all American intelligence gathering on nuclear arms sales, claimed he was driven to resignation by plans to cut the budget and responsibilities of his department and by endless interdepartmental battles over what information should be passed on to the public and Congress.
On October 28, China's President Jiang Zemin had a private 90-minute meeting with Clinton, Berger, and Albright in the White House residence quarters. This was the first state visit by a high-ranking Chinese official in over ten years. They failed to discuss China's espionage against America's nuclear weapons laboratories. Albright, allegedly, still had not been told of the information by Berger or Clinton.
On October 29, President Clinton certified that China was not engaging in the export of nuclear technology to non-nuclear nations. The move allowed a 1985 US-China Nuclear Cooperation Agreement to go into effect. The agreement allowed for the shipping of nuclear power plant technology to China. "This agreement is a win-win," Clinton said. "It serves America's national security, environmental and economic interests… It is the right thing to do for America."
That evening, the White House held a state dinner in Jiang's honor. In addition to the President, Vice President, their family and staff, the guest list for the dinner included:
The president of CNN and publishers of the Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal,
CEOs from Hughes Electronics, Xerox, AT&T, Viacom, Atlantic Richfield, Boeing, Walt Disney, Pepsico, Eastman Kodak, Motorola, IBM, Apple Computers, Westinghouse (owners of CBS), Time Warner, Lucent Technologies, Mobil, Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Bell Atlantic, and General Electric (owners of NBC),
Henry Kissinger,
Alexander Haig,
Brent Scowcroft,
President Bush's Secretary of State James Baker III,
Sen. John Glenn,
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum,
Former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Winston Lord,
Then UN Ambassador Bill Richardson (current Energy Secretary),
Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott (President Clinton's roommate at Oxford and former Time Magazine State Department correspondent at the time Kissinger headed the department),
Then Energy Secretary Federico Pena (former mayor of Denver, Colorado),
Commerce Secretary Bill Daley,
ABC News' Diane Sawyer (former press aide to President Nixon. Sawyer was also part of the Nixon-Ford transition team from 1974 to 1975 and she assisted Nixon in the writing of his memoirs. Hillary Clinton and Sawyer were fellow classmates at Wellesley College in the late 1960s),
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan and his wife, NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell,
President Reagan's Secretary of State George Shultz (who worked in the department under Henry Kissinger in Nixon's administration),
Thomas "Mack" McLarty (President Clinton's personal advisor, special envoy to Latin America and first chief of staff. McLarty was hired by Henry Kissinger in 1999),
Rep. Robert Matsui (D-CA) and his wife Doris Matsui (President Clinton's liason to the Asian-American community),
Then Ambassador to China James Sasser,
Senate minority leader Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD),
Then House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA),
Sen. Craig Thomas,
Rep. Doug Bereiter.
NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw,
Former President Jimmy Carter,
Harold Ickes,
Former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson,
Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC),
Senate majority leader Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) who was on the House Watergate Committee,
CBS News anchorman Dan Rather,
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT),
| "…A new world is dawning on the other side of the millennium. From Shanghai to San Francisco, a community is emerging that can become 'Pacific' in every sense of the word…
I hope some day… the children of both our nations will say of us that our decision gave new meaning in our time to President Lincoln's call for a new birth of freedom. The United States has benefited already beyond measure from the contributions of Chinese Americans… Already, China has enriched America's history. Now… let us work together with confidence to enhance our common destiny. The ancient text, the I Ching, in English is called The Book of Changes. It tells us leaders plan in the beginning when they do things; leaders consider problems and prevent them. With this summit we have considered problems, taken steps to prevent some of them, and we have begun to plan together for a future not of problems, but of progress for America, for China, for the world. It is in that spirit that I ask you to join me in a toast to the people and the President of the People's Republic of China," Toast by President Clinton to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, October 19, 1997. |
Sen. Thompson suspended his Senate hearings into the campaign finance scandal.
President Jiang Zemin completed his tour of the United States with a November 2-3 visit to Los Angeles. While there, he met with former Secretary of State Warren Christopher and toured Hughes Electronics' main headquarters and manufacturing plant.
The Justice Department separately interviewed both Clinton and Gore about campaign fundraising on November 12. The FBI was denied the opportunity to ask questions and was only allowed to take notes. Neither Clinton nor Gore were asked a single question about John Huang, Mochtar and James Riady and the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple fundraising event led by suspected spy Maria Hsia and attended by John Huang and Ted Sioeng.
On November 13, Attorney General Reno learned the FBI "overlooked" intelligence dating back to 1991 that showed Chinese government efforts to influence American politicians.
Janet Reno hosted a closed-door meeting November 17 with a Chinese delegation led by China's Justice Minister Xiao Yang (pronounced "Show" as in shower) at the Justice Department in DC.
On November 21, Michael Brown received 3 years' probation and a $3,000 fine in a plea bargain with Reno's Justice Department.
On November 25, Janet Reno fainted while on a visit to Mexico.
In early December, Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Cogswell, a deputy medical examiner at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, said an autopsy should have been performed on Ron Brown due to a suspiciously looking round hole found in his head. Cogswell said the hole could have been made by a bullet from a .45 caliber gun.
On December 2, Attorney General Reno rejected calls for an IC to investigate former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary for accepting money from Johnny Chung and Vice President Gore for fundraising calls placed in White House.
That same day, FBI Director Freeh wrote a memorandum to Reno calling for an IC to investigate the fund-raising scandal. Reno ignored the request.
On December 4, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry and other unnamed White House officials told the press that Louis Freeh was terrible at his job and that they thought he should resign.
Reno ignored a subpoena from Congress' that demanded a copy of the Freeh memo be sent to them on December 5.
Robert McNamara Jr. (former assistant Democratic counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee) became the new CIA general counsel on December 13.
Then DNC chairman Roy Romer said he would resist subpoenas for information on campaign financing from Rep. Dan Burton's committee.
President Clinton named Chinese-American Bill Lann Lee as the acting head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Acting heads of Executive Branch departments do not require congressional approval.
| "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the -- if he -- if 'is' means is and never has been that is not -- that is one thing. If it means there is none that was a completely true statement," Statement by President Clinton before a federal grand jury, August 17, 1998. |
In early January 1998, Monica Lewinsky filed a false affidavit in the Paula Jones lawsuit that stated she never had a sexual relationship with the president.
Janet Reno rejected calls for an investigation into the death of Ron Brown.
Congress learned Navy Secretary John Dalton had meetings with Johnny Chung.
Attorney General Reno secretly expanded Ken Starr's mandate to include possible obstruction of justice and witness tampering charges in the Paula Jones lawsuit.
According to Taiwan's China News Agency, a delegation led by former Defense Secretary William Perry, Brent Scowcroft and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili visited with Gen. Chi Haotian in China sometime in mid-January.
Defense Secretary Bill Cohen went to China during the same time period. He met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Gen. Chi Haotian.
President Clinton denied he ever had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky during his deposition in the Paula Jones lawsuit.
On January 18, the Lewinsky story broke in the press.
On February 3, President Clinton and then Energy Secretary Frederico Pena visited Los Alamos National Laboratory. This was the president's second visit to Los Alamos in his administration. Lab security officials were given five days advanced notice to prepare for his arrival.
| "For more than 50 years, since we first split the atom and unleashed its awesome force, the nuclear threat has hovered over our heads. Throughout the Cold War and the arms race, it has been an ever present threat to our people and the people of the world. For five years I have worked to reduce that threat. Today, there is not a single RUSSIAN missile pointed at America's children," Statement by President Clinton to employees of Los Alamos National Laboratory, February 3, 1998. |
The FBI arrested Charlie Trie on February 3 as well.
On February 12, President Clinton signed a Presidential Decision Directive (PDD). The directive was the first and only action taken by the president to safeguard America's national security secrets from foreign espionage. The directive was implemented over the course of the following year.
On February 18, President Clinton signed a waiver for Loral Space & Communications that effectively killed the Justice Department's investigation of the company. The waiver allowed the shipment of the same technology it was believed to had transferred illegally.
The Justice Department indicted Maria Hsia that same day.
UNITED STATES CODE - TITLE 18 - CHAPTER 37 (Espionage and Censorship) - SECTION 794 (Gathering or delivering defense information to aid a foreign government):
(a) Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is… to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to communicate, deliver, or transmit, to any foreign government, or to any faction or party or military or naval force within a foreign country, whether recognized or unrecognized by the United States, or to any representative, officer, agent, employee, subject, or citizen thereof, either directly or indirectly, any… information relating to the national defense, SHALL BE PUNISHED BY DEATH…
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1596613/posts