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Technology Stocks : LORAL -- Political Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dragonfly who wrote (278)	5/28/1998 2:09:00 PM
From: peter a. pedroli	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 880

Ickes urged president to pressure Loral to help raise $3 million By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES hite House Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes urged President Clinton in two 1994 memos to pressure officials at Loral Space and Communications to help raise $3 million in "soft money" donations for the Democratic Party. The memos document efforts by Mr. Ickes, who left the administration in 1997, to put Mr. Clinton and Loral Chief Executive Officer Bernard L. Schwartz together to discuss the party's urgent need for political donations, according to law enforcement sources who have reviewed the papers. Loral is the focus of a Justice Department probe into whether export waivers the firm got for the transfer of satellite technology to China came in return for the more than $1 million Mr. Schwartz has donated to the Democratic Party since Mr. Clinton became president. The memos are one focus of the inquiry, the sources said. Congress also is looking into the transfers, with Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, saying that there is "strong evidence" the exports materially strengthened the Chinese defense system and that Chinese ballistic missiles are now pointed at the United States. Mr. Clinton has denied that satellite-technology transfers to China were influenced by campaign donations. In a September 1994 memo, Mr. Ickes told the president that Mr. Schwartz could play a role in generating campaign donations "in order to raise an additional $3,000,000 to permit the Democratic National Committee to produce and air generic TV/radio spots as soon as Congress adjourns." He urged Mr. Clinton to invite the defense company chief and others to a White House breakfast "to impress them with the need to raise $3,000,000 within the next two weeks." That memo followed by days a trade mission by Mr. Schwartz and other U.S. business leaders to China with Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown, during which the Loral executive obtained -- with Mr. Brown's help -- satellite-transmission rights worth billions of dollars for a mobile-telephone network in China. Mr. Schwartz had asked to be included on the trip, having donated $100,000 to the DNC in June 1994. An October 1994 memo by Mr. Ickes advised the president that Mr. Schwartz was "prepared to do anything he can for the administration." Mr. Ickes called on Mr. Clinton to personally solicit the longtime Democratic Party loyalist for a donation. That memo came at a time Loral was looking for the White House to switch licensing authority for satellite exports from the State Department, which had included them on a banned "munitions list," to the Commerce Department, which sought to sell U.S. goods. Within weeks of the memos and continuing over the next several months, Mr. Schwartz gave $140,000 in soft-money donations -- general party-building funds not aimed at a particular candidate --to the Democrats. Between October 1995 and March 1996, he donated more than $150,000 to the party. Between April and December 1996, he gave an additional $300,000, making him the Democrats' largest individual soft-money donor during the 1995-96 cycle. He also has contributed nearly $420,000 during the past two years. Mr. Ickes, who helped direct the Democratic Party's fund-raising efforts in 1994 and 1996, was out of town yesterday and did not return messages left on his answering machine. He was forced out of the White House in 1997 but returned this year to give legal and political advice in the Monica Lewinsky sex-and-lies probe. His name, however, has been at the center of a number of campaign-finance practices --some now under investigation by federal authorities in New York and an independent counsel in Washington. In memos released last year, Mr. Ickes routinely sought to use the White House to pursue Democratic donors -- including offering overnight stays and access to the president at various White House coffees, dinners and other activities. In February 1996, Mr. Clinton signed waivers for four satellite launches by the Chinese, waivers required because of sanctions imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Five weeks later, one of China's rockets crashed, destroying a $200 million Loral satellite. In March 1996, Mr. Clinton reversed a ruling by Secretary of State Warren Christopher and awarded authority over satellite-export licensing to the Commerce Department. In approving the waiver, the president also ignored warnings from the Justice Department, which was investigating whether Loral improperly provided sensitive missile information to China after the 1996 crash. Loral, in a report, had determined that the crash was caused by a flaw in the rocket's flight-control system. The firm then shared the findings with the Chinese, who used them to make improvements in the guidance and control systems of China's rockets. According to a recent CIA report, China has 13 of its 18 nuclear-tipped strategic missiles now aimed at the United States. National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger, who supported the waiver for Loral, has said he is "convinced that national security was not compromised by any decision that we made." Mr. Schwartz, 72, also denied using his political clout to affect U.S. policy. He said he had "never spoken" with Mr. Clinton about his business and "never once raised any issue that would be favorable" to his company.