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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andy Thomas who wrote (7549)	5/9/1999 1:17:00 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 17770

Richardson: China Stole Secrets On Clinton Watch May 9 12:03pm ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Sunday the Chinese government had obtained nuclear secrets during the Clinton presidency -- something the administration had previously denied. Speaking on NBC television's ``Meet the Press'' show, Richardson admitted security breaches had occurred during the Clinton presidency, despite denials by the president. ``There have been damaging security leaks,'' Richardson said. ``The Chinese have obtained damaging information ... during past administrations and (the) present administration.'' In a March news conference, President Clinton denied the Chinese had secured nuclear secrets during his presidency. ``To the best of my knowledge, no one has said anything to me about any espionage which occurred by the Chinese against the labs, during my presidency,'' Clinton said then, referring to allegations of security breaches at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. But The New York Times reported a week ago that counter- intelligence officials had told the Clinton administration in November that China posed an ``acute intelligence threat'' to nuclear arms labs. The Times disclosed in March that a scientist at Los Alamos, Wen Ho Lee, was suspected of helping China obtain arms secrets. China has repeatedly denied the charges and the scientist last week rejected the accusations against him. The Senate intelligence committee said in a report last week that China gained technical information from U.S. companies during satellite launches which will improve its missiles and could threaten the United States. The report capped a 10-month investigation by the committee into the impact on U.S. national security of advanced satellite technology exports to China. Senator Richard Shelby, chairman of the intelligence committee, said Sunday, ``This is probably the most serious espionage we have had in this country in modern times.'' Shelby said his committee's investigation uncovered ``very suspicious banking relationships'' which would need further investigation. The Republican from Alabama said millions of dollars were funneled to a small bank in the United States from China, possibly as political campaign donations. Bob Kerrey, the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, agreed there had been leaks at the Los Alamos lab. ``I have no doubt there has been Chinese espionage at these nuclear labs,'' the Nebraska senator said. ``I have no doubt the efforts to reduce the risk of that espionage was sloppy and not well coordinated and as a consequence has been damaging to the people of the United States.'' Despite the breaches, Kerrey said, the threat to Americans was not on the scale suggested by Shelby. ``This is a very serious case of espionage, a very serious breach of security at the labs, but its very important for us not to overestimate the threat,'' he said.