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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan B. who wrote (13503)	4/14/1998 8:57:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 20981

Clinton sold out the US for campaign cash, one of many transactions: WSJ April 14, 1998 China Syndrome President Clinton approved the transfer of missile guidance technology to China at the behest of the largest personal contributor to the Democratic Party. He granted the needed waiver despite an ongoing Department of Justice criminal investigation of the same company's earlier transfer of similar technology: a Pentagon study concluding that in the earlier episode "United States national security has been harmed." That is the essence of a report yesterday by Jeff Gerth of the New York Times (who also reported the original Whitewater story in 1992) concerning satellite launch technology provided by Loral Space and Communications and Hughes Electronics, a subsidiary of General Motors. Loral Chairman Bernard L. Schwartz topped the personal contributions list in 1997; his 1994 trip to China with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown was quickly followed by a memo to the President from Harold Ickes saying Mr. Schwartz "is prepared to do anything he can for the Administration." Lobbying jointly with Hughes Chairman C. Michael Armstrong, who has gone on to head AT&T, Mr. Schwartz succeeded in softening licensing requirements for export of guidance technology to China. At one level, this is another round in ongoing disputes over technology exports. In the commercial space satellite business, Loral and Hughes want to use low-cost Chinese launch capability, and of course want the launches to succeed. But the technology they have provided for this purpose will help make military missiles more accurate. The usual arguments revolve around the military importance of the technology, the size of the commercial interests and, probably most significant, whether the same technology is available elsewhere. Within the government, there are nearly always legitimate arguments on both sides of such issues. Expectations that a President will resolve such issues on the merits, though, have been deeply muddied by the ongoing controversy over the Clinton contributions scandal and Chinese money. The Justice Department is reportedly upset that Mr. Clinton's waiver decision undermined its criminal probe. Perhaps, but this is the same Justice Department that has repeatedly refused to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the Chinese connection. The Gerth story is only the latest reminder that the time for an independent counsel is long past. After all, consider the record: Senator Fred Thompson's Governmental Affairs Committee has been in a running controversy over illicit Chinese political contributions. In March it voted out a report identifying six individuals in the campaign finance mess with ties to Beijing--Charlie Trie, John Huang, James and Mochtar Riady, Maria Hsia and Ted Sioeng. The Riadys "had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency," the report noted. Ms. Hsia, the central figure in Al Gore's Hsi Lai Temple fund-raiser, was identified as an "agent of the Chinese government." The Justice Department campaign finance probe has secured indictments of Mr. Trie and Ms. Hsia, and a plea agreement with Democratic Party fund-raiser Johnny Chung on various schemes to funnel money into the 1996 campaign. But these are low-level actions, and there is no sign that they will move the inquiry up the food chain in either Washington or Beijing. In February 1996, Mr. Trie played White House escort for Wang Jun, head of China's main overseas investment operation, Citic (China International Trust & Investment Corp.). Mr. Wang is also president of China Poly Group Corp., an arms-trading company owned by the People's Liberation Army and connected to military research and development including strategic missile programs. More than $1 million of the money Mr. Trie funneled into the Clinton campaign came from mysterious Macau entrepreneur Ng Lap Seng. Mr. Ng, our Micah Morrison reported in March, runs a Macau nightclub frequented by officers of the PLA, as well as the Wo On Lok triad crime syndicate. In January, Mr. Ng was rewarded by Beijing with an appointment to the Chinese People's Consultative Conference in the capital; two other Macau figures who have visited with President Clinton, casino magnate Stanley Ho and Macau legislator Chen Kai-kit, received the same honor. Ted Sioeng, another campaign contributor named in the Thompson report, turned up back in Asia in the company of Cambodian tycoon Theng Bunma, who has been barred from entering the United States because of drug trafficking. And then there is John Huang, the former Riady employee with a high-level security clearance who spent 18 months reading raw intelligence data while working as a Commerce Department official and then transferred to the Democratic National Committee after a meeting with the President and others on September 13, 1995. In all of these contacts, Mr. Clinton was interested in campaign contributions; the question is what the other side wanted. The significance of the Gerth report is that it may have not been merely face-time or intelligence on commercial negotiations; national security issues were also in play. If the Justice Department is really alarmed by the President undercutting an investigation, it's time for Attorney General Janet Reno to do the right thing in chartering an independent counsel to take over the whole contributions issue. interactive.wsj.com It's nice to know that the Chinese will soon be targeting American cities with nuclear missles, courtesy of "the most ethical Administration in history". Gee, with all his illegal offshore cash you'd think Clinton could have bought himself at least a majority, but no, he's relegated to status as the only two term minority President in US history.