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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (42771)	4/18/1999 12:33:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

WHY IS BERGER SOFT ON CHINA? By DICK MORRIS FROM international trade to satellite launchings to spying, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger has consistently downplayed intelligence warnings and urged closer ties with China. What makes this troubling is Berger's past (and possible future) commercial relationship with the Chinese government. Berger was a lawyer-lobbyist in the years before Clinton tapped him to be deputy national security adviser. In a Jan. 26, 1997, Washington Post article by Nat Hentoff, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) revealed that Berger was the ''point person at the Hogan and Hartson law firm for the trade office of the Chinese government.'' This suggestion raises key conflict-of-interest issues. Pelosi's comment, which Berger never denied, aroused little interest when it was first reported because Berger's key role in the administration's China dealings was not yet widely known. But investigative reporter Jeff Gerth revealed last week that intelligence officials alerted Berger to Chinese spying in April 1996 - but he chose not to tell the president about it until July 1997. Specifically, Gerth reports that Berger learned of China's theft of the W-88 nuclear-warhead design, neutron-bomb designs and other ongoing Chinese espionage in the 1996 meeting. While Berger denies learning about the neutron-bomb espionage at the 1996 meeting, he admits that he was told about the intelligence failures at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory, where information about the W-88 warhead design was stolen. Why Berger waited 15 months to tell Clinton about the Los Alamos situation remains a mystery. Also last week, Berger was reported to be the one administration official who labored ceaselessly to complete a trade deal with China during the recent negotiations with Premier Zhu Rongji. This is not the first time that Berger advocated a position that ultimately helped China at American expense. He has been identified as the person whose urgent memos to the president triggered the administration's decision to grant a waiver to Loral Space Systems to launch its satellite on Chinese rockets. National Security Adviser Berger's memos cited Loral's critical financial situation in urging prompt approval of the waiver - even though Berger knew that the Justice Department was likely to indict Loral on ''serious'' charges of sharing classified information with the Chinese without government approval. Another example? In their new book ''Year of the Rat,'' defense experts Edward Timperlake and William C. Triplett II report, ''It was Berger who led the charge to repeal export controls on satellites for China.'' In view of Berger's law firm's past business relationship with the Chinese government, one may ask if he is subject to a conflict of interest when he takes the Chinese side so frequently. Here's an interesting bit of background: In 1995, the administration was considering a ban on contacts by Executive Branch officials with lobbyists for foreign governments. Disturbed at the number of Republican former trade and foreign policy officials in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush Administrations who had farmed out as lobbyists for foreign governments, the Clinton administration was considering closing them down by denying them access to their buddies in government. Although the president was interested in the proposal and it was discussed at several strategy meetings, Sandy Berger, then serving as deputy national security adviser, fought hard against the proposal. He defended those who lobbied for foreign governments as legitimate advocates. Could Berger be planning to return to a lucrative role in representing the Chinese government after he leaves public service? After a period of a year, he would be allowed to do so. With Berger's role as a China apologist becoming so evident, it would appear that Congress is entitled to ask him detailed questions about his past contacts with the Chinese government and those of his former law firm. Would it not be appropriate to ask what his firm did for the Chinese, how much they were paid, when they worked, and what role Berger played? Are they now involved in business dealings with China even as their former partner pushes for a more pro-Chinese policy in the White House? In my own communications with Berger on the China issue, he has always stressed the importance of a close U.S.-Chinese relationship. ''The key thing,'' he told me in a private meeting at the Jefferson Hotel in mid-1995, ''is to prevent a coalition of the militant Arab states, Russia and China from joining together to confront the United States globally.'' He was antsy about tough rhetoric on trade with China and opposed making toughness with China a political issue in the 1996 campaign. In the Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of April 8, voters said by two to one that Clinton was not being tough enough in his dealings with China. With reports of Chinese espionage widening and the trade deficit with Beijing growing, a closer relationship with China carries with it a significant political price for this administration. Add in the reports of an explicit effort by the Chinese intelligence community to funnel money to the Clinton 1996 campaign, and the president is clearly vulnerable on this issue. Republicans would be wise to jump all over the China issue with hearings and investigations to probe the intelligence disasters and the possible conflicts of interest of high administration officials like Sandy Berger.