DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: RED FLAGS OF TREASON
SUBSECTION: FOREIGN CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
Revised 8/20/99

Global Intelligence Update 7/27/98 "There is no issue on which we have been more consistently wrong than on the ability of United States President Bill Clinton to weather the endless barrage of charges and accusations that he has faced.. While it is still not clear that his Presidency will end in resignation or impeachment, it does appear to us that events are moving forward in such a way as to force the President to devote the bulk of his remaining time in office to defending himself. As a consequence, his ability to conduct foreign policy will be hampered. The consequences of an American administration absorbed in an internal legal and political crisis must now be factored into the global equation.The one exception to the U.S.'s immunity to the repercussions of political scandal is foreign policy, which is the constitutional responsibility of the President and which cannot be transferred. .The deepest problem will come in China and throughout Asia. The campaign finance probe focuses on the role of China, and particularly of governmen and army officials, in passing money to the United States. This will inevitably strain U.S.-Chinese relations, along with U.S.-Indonesian relations. It may also have domestic Chinese political implications. We note, for example, that the Chinese government last week ordered the People's Liberation Army to get out of commerce and focus on ilitary affairs. While undoubtedly deriving from domestic concerns, we wonder the extent to which anticipation of American legal processes contributed to the decision. Whatever the consequences within internal Chinese politics, it is still clear that the campaign finance investigation will increase anti- Asian feeling in the United States at the same time that the Asian financial system will be undergoing its most severe tests. .."

Trie channeled more than $1.2 million to the DNC and to President Clinton's legal defense fund, all of which was returned on the suspicion it was foreign-tainted. At least $1 million was wired to Trie from Asian banks. Keshi Zhan, who earns $22,408 annually as a municipal employee was called Trie's social secretary. Her mother, Ying Qun Ma, is a retired senior Chinese government official and her father, Fan Zhan, has been a professor of Russian linguistics at prestigious Beijing University. Keshi Zhan held a joint bank account with Trie and Shao Zhengkang, a senior executive of a corporation owned by the Chinese State Council, the government's highest administrative body. She also had signatory authority over funds held by Ng Lap Seng, a Macao-based business partner of Trie's, that were used to make political contributions to the Democratic National Committee. A deposit of $12,500 from a Trie-Ng account was made to the joint Trie-Zhan-Shao account in February 1996, on the same day, Zhan made a $12,500 contribution to the DNC with funds from the Trie-Zhan-Shao account. Shao is a high-ranking officer of China Everbright in Hong Kong and Beijing, which is wholly owned by the Chinese State Council. Zhan shared another joint account on behalf of Trie with Shao and Su Yonghi, a former Chinese Embassy attache in Washington. Democrats on the investigating committee refused to grant immunity to Keshi Zhan for her testimony.

Far Eastern Economic Review quotes House Government Reform and Oversight Committee sources as saying Chinese money came in the form of a $3,000 check written by the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, as a partial reimbursement for a $5,000 contribution from Sioeng to Wong's campaign, payable to Ted Sioeng, an Indonesian businessman who gave $400,000 to the Democratic National Committee during the 1996 election cycle. Committee investigators said the FBI intercepted telephone calls from the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, mentioning Sioeng and plans to influence American elections Visa applications for investigators to meet with Sioeng in Hong Kong have been denied by the Chinese government.

Government Reform and Oversight Committee investigators may present evidence that Sioeng helped to get the daughter of a former Chinese consul-general in Los Angeles, Zhou Wenzhang, into the little-known Iowa Wesleyan College on a full scholarship. Sioeng has been on the board of trustees of the college since 1994. Since then, many of his contacts in Asia have obtained honorary degrees from the college. Tsang Hin-chi, chairman of Hong Kong-listed clothing-maker and retail-giant Goldlion Holdings may be investigated because of extensive links between himself and Sioeng in the U.S. and Asia. Tsang has been a member of the standing committee of China's parliament, the National People's Congress, since 1994 and is one of Hong Kong's most prominent pro-China figures. His company derives 80% of its revenue from mainland China. Tsang and Sioeng have known each other at least since 1994. In April of that year, Sioeng arranged for Tsang to be granted an honorary doctorate from Iowa Wesleyan. Sioeng's Belize-based SS Group owns 24% of a $7 million cigarette manufacturing and marketing venture that Goldlion set up with the government of Hainan province in 1995. In 1996, Sioeng and his daughter became part-owners and directors of Goldlion's U.S. subsidiary, Goldlion International. The company opened a store inside Sioeng's Hollywood Metropolitan Hotel in early 1996 and the store was managed by Tsang's eldest son, Jimmy. It folded after a few months and Sioeng's stake in Goldlion International was bought out by Goldlion. Jimmy Tsang and his wife, Jean Lim, attended a major DNC fund-raiser in Washington with Sioeng in February 1996.

Strangely, Senator Glenn offered to negotiate an immunity agreement on behalf of John Huang. And in Senate Campaign Finance Hearing, Senator Robert Toricelli who received donations from John Huang said "I find the fact that Mr. Huang would maintain an arrangement where he would make phone calls outside the Department of Commerce not in and of itself suspicious." John Huang had top secret clearance at Commerce and would go across the street to an office run by Riady partner, Stephens' of Little Rock - for documents, phone, fax, etc. Senate Campaign Finance Hearing committee member, Senator Carl Levin received donations from John Huang. Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle who accepted donations from Maria Hsia and who personally recommended John Huang to be placed in Commerce, was instrumental in imposing a fixed deadline on the Senate Campaign Finance Hearings. After Senator Thompson announced in November 1997 that he was suspending the public hearings, the FBI obtained evidence that the Ministry of State Security in Beijing - boasted that it had been successful in "thwarting" the inquiry.

8/3/98 The Michael Reagan Information Exchange Mary Mostert "Senator Hatch " Pledges Leniency if Clinton Tells the Truth . " That does not really describe what the man who would play a key role in an impeachment trial actually said yesterday on Meet the Press . What he said was , " If he comes forth , and tells it [ the truth ] , and does it in the right way , and there aren ' t a lot of other factors to cause the Congress to say this man is unfit for the presidency and should be impeached , then I think the president would have a reasonable chance of getting through this . ".Something hasn't surfaced yet. Whatever it is I strongly suspect that it's far more serious than Clinton merely committing perjury over his sex exploits.The Lippo Company controls the largest producing low- sulfur coalmine in the world. Low sulfur coal is in huge demand by energy producing companies trying to comply with environmental mandates. The only other easily accessible large deposit of environmentally friendly low sulfur coal is in Utah. But, a mere one month before the large contributions to the Clinton Campaign from the Lippo group were reported, Clinton suddenly, with no advance discussion, even with the Democrat Congressman in whose district the property lay, designated 1.7 million acres which contained the coal "a national monument." . I rather suspect that Clinton will do whatever he thinks he has to do to keep the Congress from finding out what ELSE he promised Lippo, besides the squelching of their competition from Utah..With the Indonesian currency at about 25% of what it was when Clinton was getting contributions for his campaign from them, their stock market mostly dead and unemployment growing rapidly, watch for efforts by Clinton to repay them with US Taxpayer funds funneled through the IMF ."

7/14/98 AP Tom Raum ".Lott told the Senate that investigators had unearthed "serious and credible charges of direct Chinese financing'' of 1996 Democratic campaigns. While declining to elaborate on the "new information,'' Lott said it "should remove all resistance to naming an independent counsel.'' ."

Summarized from WorldNetdaily 7/14/98 Charles Smithe re: Ron Brown's "Indonesia Advocacy Projects" document obtained via the Freedom of Information Act: Involved in the privately held Indonesian Paiton Power Plant (two 600 million watt, coal fired, plants) in the US led consortium was Mission Energy (a partner of Lippo Group part owned by Mochtar Riady,) Mitsui & Co., Ltd. of Japan, General Electric Capital Corporation of the U.S., and P.T. Batu Hitam Perkasa,. U.S. Ambassador Barry worked directly with Executive Director of the Asian Development Bank, Linda Yang, to obtain financial support despite the questions of kick-backs to Suharto. In fact, the document states that Ms. Yang was "doing all she can" to help Indonesia obtain the financing for Paiton. In the end, the Suharto corruption quietly killed the ADB financing and the Asian Development Bank refused to back the deal. However, Lippo partner Mission Energy and the Suharto family successfully got the U.S. Government to officially back the project. Thus in 1995, the Brown led Commerce Department found financing for Paiton through the U.S. taxpayer. In April, 1995, $1.82 billion in limited recourse project debt was provided to Paiton by The Export-Import Bank of Japan, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation ("OPIC") of the United States, and eight commercial banks. The Paiton power plant was designed to burn "low-sulfur Indonesian coal". In 1996 President Clinton created the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, placing off-limits the world's largest deposit of low-sulfur coal. The Lippo group is the primary owner of the only other supply of low-sulfur coal in the world, located in Indonesia. Clinton's move left the only remaining low-sulfur coal supply in Lippo hands, creating a Riady monopoly. The move vastly increased the dollar value of Riady's low-sulfur coal reserves in a single stroke of Clinton's pen. The Indonesian coal reserves, co-incidentally, just happen to be located close to the U.S. taxpayer backed Paiton power plant.

Summarized from WorldNetdaily 7/14/98 Charles Smithe re: Ron Brown's "Indonesia Advocacy Projects" document obtained via the Freedom of Information Act: In 1997 the Commerce Department was forced in court by Judicial Watch to reveal that the Lippo Group successfully gained official U.S. support for a power project in Fujian, China. The controlling partners in the project included Mission Energy, Bechtel Enterprises and Lippo. Handwritten notes and a Commerce e-mail revealed that Mission Energy representatives met with Commerce officials to discuss the project and that the Lippo Group specifically was mentioned. The Lippo-Mission-Bechtel project also makes use of low-sulfur coal.

Summarized from WorldNetdaily 7/14/98 Charles Smithe re: Ron Brown's "Indonesia Advocacy Projects" document obtained via the Freedom of Information Act: In August, 1994, the Ron Brown trade trip to China included support for a third Lippo backed power project in China with the Arkansas-based Entergy Corp., yet another large Clinton contributor. Former DNC fund-raisers Ira Sockowitz and John Huang worked for Brown in 1994 at the Commerce Department and were charged by Brown to "vet" or check out the Entergy project in China.

Summarized from WorldNetdaily 7/14/98 Charles Smithe re: Ron Brown's "Indonesia Advocacy Projects" document obtained via the Freedom of Information Act: The connections between Riady and Clinton have a much more sinister theme than coal monopolies and taxpayer backed power plants in the middle of Asia. Testimony before Senator Thompson's committee last year revealed Moctar Riady's involvement in Chinese espionage. Testimony revealed the Lippo Group is in fact a joint venture of China Resources, a trading and holding company "wholly owned" by the Chinese communist government and used as a front for Chinese espionage operations. China Resources investments in Lippo expanded rapidly during the Clinton administration, coinciding with illegal six-figure Lippo contributions to his 1996 re-election. Many of those illegal donations originated with former Lippo employee John Huang. Huang also had direct access to President Clinton and a secret clearance.

Jewish World Review Linda Chavez 9/8/98 "What few people believed even weeks ago -- that a president could face impeachment because of a sex scandal -- now seems probable. And, ironically, it's the Democrats who will try to keep the focus narrowly on the Lewinsky matter. Even those Democrats willing to dump Clinton overboard aren't anxious to have an impeachment investigation look too closely at whether Chinese communists helped finance the president's re-election or whether administration and Democrat Party officials were trading national security secrets and policy favors for campaign cash.."

Washington Post 9/21/98 George Lardner Jr "Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung set up fake businesses in California with at least a half-dozen Chinese executives to make it easier for them to get U.S. visas, according to testimony and records compiled by House Republican investigators. Chung brought most of the executives, who included the offspring of two retired Chinese generals, to fund-raisers for the Clinton-Gore 1996 reelection effort. Irene Wu, Chung's top assistant from 1995 to 1997, said in a deposition to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee that "all of these companies" were set up to facilitate travel to the United States by the Chinese business officials and eventually help them establish permanent residency here. The companies engaged in no real business activity, Wu said in her July 28 deposition. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Russ Bergeron said setting up dummy companies to acquire visas is a "growing fraud," particularly in faraway countries such as China. He said it involves "all kinds of scams," including bogus business cards, letterheads for nonexistent companies, phony tax returns and fake photos of business locations.."

11/17/98 from the Year of the Rat ".In Jakarta, James Riady likes to brag about where he was on the afternoon of April 19, 1993. On that day 80 members of the branch debate in religious cult or holed up in their compound outside of Waco, Texas, when it was shattered by a tank led assault. By the time the FBI and the Treasury's Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents had completed their work, 17 American children had burned to death. As might be expected, the White House was a busy place that afternoon, and the president was preoccupied. Bill Clinton was not too distracted, however, to chat with his leading contributors James Riady, John Huang, and Mark Grobmeyer in his little study off the Oval Office*. James Riady later told Indonesian diplomats that, during their chat, a television in the corner showed the Waco compound burning "over and over" as CNN repeated its coverage. Bill Clinton even took time to show his visitors the White House Situation Room, then on Full Alert **. White House logs confirm that James Riady and his companion were in the presidential offices (West Named) of the White House that day. They apparently also dropped and on Robert Rubin, now Secretary of the treasury, who was then a White House economics official***. ."

From the affidavit of Nolanda Hill: ".7. After the elections of 1994, and the Democrats' loss of Congress, I became aware, through my discussions with Ron, that the trade missions were being used as a fundraising tool for the upcoming Clinton-Gore presidential campaign and the Democratic Party. Specifically, Ron told me that domestic companies were being solicited to donate large sums of money in exchange for their selection to participate on trade missions of the Commerce Department. Ron expressed to me his displeasure that the purpose of the Commerce trade missions had been and were being perverted at the direction of The White House.

From the affidavit of Nolanda Hill: ".11. In early 1996, Ron showed me a packet of documents, about 1 inch thick, which he removed from his ostrich skin portfolio. Ron told me that these documents had been provided to him from Commerce Department files as part of the collection efforts to produce documents to Judicial Watch in this case. I reviewed the top five or six documents, which were on Commerce Department letterhead under the signature of Melissa Moss of the Office of Business Liaison. What I reviewed comprised letters of Ms. Moss to trade mission participants, each of which specifically referenced a substantial financial contribution to the Democratic National Committee (DNC).."

Los Angeles Times 4/4/99 William Rempel, Henry Weinstein, Alan Miller "...By 1994, Chung was trading money for access to the highest levels of the U.S. government. Chung "got caught up in this system," his attorney, Sun, told a federal judge just before he was sentenced last December. It was Chung's way of opening doors and getting to "hobnob with the big boys and girls." U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real in Los Angeles expressed skepticism at claims made by DNC officials that they had no idea Chung's money might have had foreign origins. He said if they "didn't know what was going on, they are the dumbest politicians" in his experience. Real then sentenced Chung to community service instead of a prison term...."

Los Angeles Times 4/4/99 William Rempel, Henry Weinstein, Alan Miller "...Ji works directly for Xiong Guangkai, the deputy chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army, who supervises all intelligence and foreign policy for the army. Xiong is a politically powerful figure in China and a close ally of Chinese President Jiang Zemin...."

4/4/99 Ed and Bill (Year of the Rat authors) "...We believe that Bill Remple, Henry Weinstein and Alan Miller have done a major service through their long frontpage article in today's Los Angeles Times. It's posted elsewhere by Rodger Schultz. Freepers should particularlty notice the reference to General Xiong Guangkai. He is the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence and is the same guy who threatened to incinerate Los Angeles. He is also the person who ran provocation operations against the students at Tiananmen. For example, he tried to plant weapons on them toshow they were part of an armed insurrection. Xiong is also a very frequent visitor to the United States. He sneaks in and out so often he almost qualifies for a green card! Xiong is also the PLA master behind the US-PRC military to military relationship. Freepers should also notice the reference to Lt. Col. Liu telling Chung that she and General Ji are relying on 'others to funnell funds to Democratic campaigns.' What 'others'? What 'Democratic campaigns'? Who else is tainted? Was it knowing? If you look at the chart on page 219, you will see all the money flows coming from PRC-related sources. It makes a kind of inverted triangle. We are now beginning to suspect that it should more of a diamond shape. That is, there should be lines going up from the boxes that read 'PLA' or 'PLA-Intelligence' etc to a single point and that single point would be the master spy, General Xiong Guangkai. Ed and Bill ..."

Los Angeles Times 4/4/99 William Rempel, Henry Weinstein, Alan Miller "...Like Liu, Ji is the offspring of a politically prominent father. Ji Pengfei served as China's foreign minister from 1972 to 1974 and later as a vice chairman of the National People's Congress. The elder Ji also supervised negotiations over the future of Hong Kong and helped draft the Basic Law under which Hong Kong is ruled. More significantly, the younger Ji is head of Qingbaobu, the wing of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army that is in charge of military intelligence. His responsibilities also include military intelligence in Hong Kong. Gen. Ji, who is in his mid-50s, was promoted to this post in 1992 during a closed five-day session of the Central Military Commission chaired at the time by future President Jiang. Ji has kept a low profile since that time and seldom appears in news accounts...."

4/4/99 AP/LA Times "....Chung and Ji were brought together by Liu Chaoying, who was a Chung business partner as well as a lieutenant colonel in the People's Liberation Army, the Times said. Liu did not respond Friday to questions sent by the Times to her office in Hong Kong. In their first meeting in August 1996, Chung said, he declined Ji's money but the general said he was already engaged in similar transactions with others serving as conduits for Chinese funds to support Clinton's reelection. Within a few days, Liu deposited $300,000 into Chung's Hong Kong bank account, telling him it was from Ji, sources told the newspaper. Federal election records show that five weeks after receiving the money, Chung donated $35,000 in three checks to the Democratic National Committee. The remaining funds went to one of Chung's California bank accounts but it is not known how that money was used...."

Los Angeles Times 4/4/99 William Rempel, Henry Weinstein Alan Miller "...The chief of China's military intelligence secretly directed funds from Beijing to help reelect President Clinton in 1996, former Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung has told federal investigators. Chung says he met three times with the intelligence official, Gen. Ji Shengde, who ordered $300,000 deposited into the Torrance, Calif., businessman's bank account to subsidize campaign donations intended for Clinton, according to sources familiar with Chung's sealed statements to federal prosecutors. "We like your president," Ji said, according to sources familiar with Chung's grand jury testimony. Chung testified that he was introduced to the intelligence chief by the daughter of China's retired senior military officer..... Chung told investigators that he and Ji were brought together by Liu Chaoying, the daughter of retired Gen. Liu Huaqing. At the time, she was a Chung business partner as well as a lieutenant colonel in the People's Liberation Army...Chung was introduced to Ji by Liu on Aug. 11, 1996, in Hong Kong. Chung told investigators that Ji's rank and government affiliation were not immediately apparent and that the general used a false name during that initial encounter. During this meeting Ji talked about providing money to help the Clinton campaign, Chung told investigators. Ji said he was going to provide some funds for Liu to give to Chung, sources familiar with Chung's grand jury testimony said. Chung told federal investigators that he tried to tell Liu outside the meeting that he didn't want Ji's money. Liu, in turn, attempted to reassure Chung by telling him that they were engaged in similar transactions with others serving as conduits for Chinese funds to support Clinton's reelection. Within a couple of days, Liu moved $300,000 into Chung's Hong Kong bank account. She told him it was from Ji. By that time, Chung was aware of Ji's position and decided he could not refuse the money, according to his account to investigators. After Ji's initial meeting with Chung, the two men joined Liu on another occasion. Details from that session could not be obtained. A third encounter took place in Beijing in late September 1996. Chung carried a congratulatory letter to a Beijing University student from Education Secretary Richard W. Riley and sought Liu's help in locating the student. Liu arrived at Chung's hotel with Ji. No further details about that meeting were available...."

Los Angeles Times 4/4/99 William Rempel, Henry Weinstein Alan Miller "...Soon after returning home from Hong Kong and his meeting with Ji, Chung hired the Chinese intelligence chief's son, then a University of California at Los Angeles student, to work at his Torrance fax business in late 1996.... Investigators were given access to Chung's Hong Kong bank records to help trace the origin of the $300,000 deposit. Most of the money never got to the Democratic Party on Clinton's behalf. Chung has told investigators that Liu said she and Ji also were relying on others to funnel funds into Democratic campaigns...."

Washington Weekly 4/5/99 Marvin Lee "...On November 8, 1995, at a presidential luncheon at the "Car Barn" in Georgetown, an unusual constellation of guests were in attendance: Charlie Trie, Ng Lap Seng and Eric Green met Richard Mays and Eric Wynn. Also attending was then-Commerce Secretary Ron Brown who addressed the assembled people as "The Trie Team," and said that "big business helps us everywhere." What is "The Trie Team"? We know from Timperlake & Triplett's book "Year of the Rat" that Trie and Lap Seng are members of the "Four Seasons" Triad gang of Chinese organized crime. We also know that Trie is a long-time friend of Bill Clinton. Another long-time friend of Clinton is Richard Mays, a Little Rock lawyer whose name has appeared in the Whitewater and tainted blood scandals as well as the investigation into the death of White House Deputy Counsel Vince Foster. He is also a fundraiser for Clinton who has repeatedly solicited money from people reported by the Washington Post to be tied to U.S. organized crime: Eric Wynn and Richard Tienken. Mays has also successfully raised campaign contributions from Charlie Trie. The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee during its Campaign Finance investigation obtained a video tape of the Car Barn event in Georgetown. During a recently released deposition of Richard Mays, David A. Kass, Investigative Counsel for the Committee asked about the Car Barn event. Mays did not seem comfortable testifying about the event that was co-chaired by himself and Charlie Trie, and had no explanation for why participants apparently had tried to hide photos from the event showing President Clinton and several top DNC officials socializing with members of U.S. and Chinese organized crime. Mays admitted during the deposition to giving Eric Wynn "free legal advice." Mays left for Africa when the Committee later subpoenaed him to testify during Campaign Finance hearings....What is the link between U.S. and Chinese organized crime? The Car Barn event may be providing the answer. It was a fundraising event. Could it be that U.S. and Chinese organized crime serve as one of the funnels of cash between the Chinese military and the Clinton administration? The Chinese military - Lt. Colonel Liu Chaoying - Johnny Chung - White House channel could not possibly have paid for all the military technology obtained from the Clinton administration by the People's Liberation Army...."

CNN 4/6/99 Freeper drib "…In the midst of reporting the same old things about Kosovo, CNN reported some new findings on Chinagate. Apparently there is a Chinese military official that has signed a confession that the Chinese Military DID in fact contribute to Clinton's campaign, and that the money did not come from Buddists (or wherever) …"

Rueters 4/5/99 "…An adviser to a California company was charged Tuesday with violating federal election law in 1996 by giving the Democratic Party a $150,000 check drawn from an account funded by a South Korean corporation. The Justice Department said Robert Lee, 49, a consultant to a fledgling development company, was charged in federal court in Los Angeles with a misdemeanor violation. Under the law, foreign contributions to U.S. elections are prohibited. According to court documents, Lee was working for K&L International Partners Inc., which had bid on a project in Inglewood, California…."

World Net Daily through Softwar.net 4/13/99 through E-Mail Alert "...According to documents provided by the Commerce Dept., White House official Robert Rubin and U.S. Trade Rep. Ambassador Celia Barshesky were both involved in policy meetings with the CSPP. A May 1994 "CONFIDENTIAL" letter to Ron Brown, partially withheld by the Commerce Dept., states the CSPP held a meeting with Brown, "Robert Rubin" and "Amb. Barshesky" where super-computer exports to China and Russia were discussed. However, Rubin was soliciting campaign donations from CSPP members at the same time. In November 1994, DNC million dollar donor Sanford Robertson wrote a letter to President Clinton, thanking him for the August 1994 trade trip to China and he included a "P.S." about Robert Rubin. Robertson wrote to Clinton the smoking gun of Chinagate, a letter directly implicating the President in trade trips in exchange for money. The Robertson letter states "PS - Bob Rubin came to our home on Thursday for a Dianne Feinstein dinner, which raised over $100,000 for her campaign. Bob, of course, turned out the financial community and Silicon Valley."..."

Washington Times 4/9/99 Jerry Seper "...Chinese military intelligence officers diverted illegal campaign donations to the Clinton-Gore Re-Election Committee through a Hong Kong bank controlled by an Indonesian family with long-standing ties to President Clinton, authorities said. Federal law enforcement officials, congressional investigators and others said several hundred thousand dollars in cash went to the campaign through several emissaries handpicked by the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The money, the sources said, originated in Beijing and initially was routed by the PLA to China Resources Holding Company Ltd. in Hong Kong. From there, it was transferred to the Hong Kong Chinese Bank -- jointly owned by the Chinese government and Lippo Group, a multibillion-dollar Indonesian conglomerate owned by longtime Clinton supporters Mochtar and James Riady, the sources said. Eventually, the cash was moved to other banks, then wired to the emissaries, who distributed it to the Clinton-Gore campaign U.S. intelligence officials believe the PLA bought into the Hong Kong bank after Mr. Clinton's 1992 election as a way of gaining access to the president through the Riady family, which has been a supporter of Mr. Clinton since he was governor of Arkansas...."

Washington Times 4/9/99 Jerry Seper "...Johnny Chung, a California businessman who gave more than $350,000 to the Democratic Party, has linked Democratic fund-raisers John Huang and Charles Yah Lin Trie to the PLA fund-raising scheme in grand jury testimony and sworn statements as part of a plea agreement in a Justice Department probe. Chung, an admitted bagman for Chinese intelligence, testified that his former business partner, Liu Chao-ying, a Chinese aerospace executive and lieutenant colonel in the PLA, told him Mr. Trie and Mr. Huang were "directed in their fund-raising activities by the Chinese government."..."

Washington Times 4/9/99 Jerry Seper "...At least one House committee is investigating the leadership of China Resources, based on preliminary information showing that top PLA officers have assumed key positions with the firm to continue efforts to influence U.S. policy on several issues. Of particular concern, the sources said, is a possible connection between China Resources and the PLA's chief military intelligence officer, Gen. Ji Shengde, who -- according to Chung's grand jury testimony -- ordered that $300,000 be transferred to Chung for donations to the Democratic Party. That transfer -- first reported by the Los Angeles Times -- took place after Chung personally met with Gen. Ji in Hong Kong in a meeting arranged by Miss Liu. The sources said Chung testified that Gen. Ji told him he already was engaged in similar transactions with others serving as conduits for Chinese money for Mr. Clinton. The cash eventually was wired to Chung's account at the Overseas Trust Bank in Hong Kong. He gave $35,000 to the Democratic National Committee. The rest was moved to a separate account at a California bank. It is not clear how it was used...."

Washington Times 4/9/99 Jerry Seper "...Lippo denies any wrongdoing in its relationship with the president, although the sources said the PLA was counting on the Riadys' ties to Mr. Clinton for access of its own. They said the PLA knew the Riadys' Worthen National Bank in Little Rock, Ark., had given Mr. Clinton a multimillion-dollar loan to get through the 1992 presidential election, and had handed over $100,000 to former Associate Attorney General Webster L. Hubbell after he quit the Justice Department and before he pleaded guilty to two Whitewater felonies. Lippo sold a 15 percent interest in its Hong Kong bank to China Resources in 1993, four days after Mr. Clinton's 1992 election victory. By July 1992, the company had sold off half the bank to China Resources in what U.S. authorities believe was a continuing effort by the PLA to cash in on the Riadys' relationship with Mr. Clinton. China Resources paid what U.S. intelligence officials said was a huge premium over the net asset value of the bank, giving Lippo a profit of $164 million...."

Washington Times 4/9/99 Jerry Seper "...A key player in the suspected plot appears to be Mr. Huang, a former Lippo employee, Commerce Department official and Democratic National Committee fund-raiser, who served as vice president of the Hong Kong bank from 1985 to 1986. When Mr. Huang left Lippo to join Commerce, he received a $780,000 bonus. China Resources, according to the sources, was used by the Chinese government as a cover for its spying activities. Owned by the PLA, Chinese military intelligence officials are said to be free to penetrate its operations for economic espionage. More recently, it has invested in several Lippo ventures within Indonesia. ..."

www.scmp.com 4/9/99 Reuters Freeper Thanatos "...The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) says it is attracting 1,000 recruits a day, including girls as young as 16, but admits it also uses press-gangs. A KLA officer in charge of 150 troops on the Albanian border said young ethnic Albanians expelled at gunpoint from their homes in Kosovo were queueing to join up. Gjejnaze Sula, a doctor who had been working with a US aid charity, left home to swell the KLA's ranks after a Serbian neighbour told her mother she was on a hit list...."

www.scmp.com 4/9/99 Reuters Freeper Thanatos "...Recent US polls may show public support for using Nato ground troops in Kosovo is growing - but proving that would have been difficult in the rural western Pennsylvania town of Evans City on Wednesday night. Saying he felt ambiguous about expanding Nato's war against Yugoslavia to include ground troops, Republican Representative Phil English asked people at a town hall meeting for their opinions. Their comments and a show of hands made it clear they did not want to see US soldiers advancing and retreating over Yugoslav terrain. "I haven't been given the argument I need to support ground troops," Mr English told the gathering of 55 residents. But he said he also understood the argument that not using such troops would hinder Nato from driving Serbian forces out of Kosovo..."

Stratfor 4/9/99 "...1920 GMT, 990409 - Reports coming from the G-8 meeting in Dresden appear to have reached an important turning point. The G-8 appears to be softening on a key demand that NATO troops be permitted to enter and control Kosovo as part of any agreement. The G-8 has shifted from the NATO formula to a broader international force. This will allay a critical Serbian fear, which is that the NATO force would be used as a cover for Kosovo's secession. An international force, including Greeks, Italians and Russians would permit supervision of a cease-fire and settlement without the political implications feared by the Serbs. Further G-8 meetings will be held, but if this shift holds, the possibility for a cease-fire in the next few days is substantial. It is clear to us that the Italians and probably the Germans are now insisting on an end to the conflict...."

The New York Times 4/9/99 Thomas Friedman "...Boy, I sure hope the Clinton team loses this war in Kosovo, because if it wins, there will be no one to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize. If I read The Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal correctly, everyone in this Administration has already blamed everyone else in this Administration for failure in Kosovo. Reading the front pages, one finds that the Joint Chiefs blame Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for dragging them into a morass. The State Department blames the Pentagon and the NATO allies, the C.I.A. says it predicted the war would go badly, the Vice President is worried that it's going to sink his election chances, the Congressional Democrats want to dump the whole Clinton foreign policy team for failing to anticipate Serbian behavior, and the Republicans don't know what they want but they all agree it's Bill Clinton's fault. Talk about turbo finger-pointing. You don't even have to leave this Administration and write your memoirs to betray it -- now you can do it on the job...."

Wall Street Journal 4/9/99 David Cloud Phil Kuntz "...Even as Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji visits President Clinton here, the steam is going out of one of their biggest problems: the federal investigation into whether China hatched an elaborate plot to funnel money into the Clinton-Gore 1996 re-election effort. Justice Department and congressional investigators have uncovered significant evidence that funds from China wound up in Democratic National Committee coffers. But law-enforcement officials think the evidence more strongly suggests uncoordinated efforts by business entrepreneurs who have prominent party or government positions, rather than a Chinese government plot. Even if there were such a plot, law-enforcement officials now seem to have concluded that there is little point in charging those responsible in China, because there is little chance they would ever be turned over to U.S. custody. That leaves the matter in the hands of U.S. counterintelligence officials... Sen. Thompson is especially scornful of skepticism by law-enforcement officials about what his committee dubbed the "China Plan" to funnel money to the Clinton campaign. He concedes that there is no evidence indicating that each step of the alleged conspiracy was directed by Chinese President Ziang Zemin. But he adds, "We know how the Chinese government operates -- through various companies. Practically everything is the government over there." ....But prosecutors have run into unexpected problems in two of the major cases, those of Little Rock, Ark., businessman Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie and Los Angeles immigration consultant Maria Hsia, both Democratic fund-raisers. Federal District Judge Paul Friedman has dismissed several counts against both of them, ruling that U.S. law doesn't prohibit foreigners from contributing "soft money" -- that is, unregulated donations to help build up political parties -- as it does "hard money" used to directly influence an election. He also has thrown out charges alleging the defendants caused false statements to be made to the Federal Election Commission..... The biggest remaining mystery of the case is whether DNC fund-raiser John Huang, whose attempts to tap Asian-American donors helped to ignite the scandal, will ever be charged. In seclusion since the first days of the scandal, Mr. Huang may soon be heard from again: Judicial Watch, a conservative group with a number of civil suits pending against the Clinton administration, has subpoenaed him to appear next week to give a deposition in a related suit it has filed against the Clinton administration...."

RNC.org 4/99 "...Furthermore, several of the DNC's largest campaign donors, solicited by DNC vice chairman fund-raiser John Huang, funneled nearly a half-million dollars into at least six state Democrat parties in 1996, according to state and party records. Totaling at least $482,500, the donations showed even broader involvement by a handful of fat-cat dollar party donors in financing the 1996 elections. Donations solicited by Huang ended up in Michigan, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, Florida and Illinois. (Source: The Washington Post, 1/26/97) ....Thai businesswoman Pauline Kanchanalak and her sister-in-law Duangnet Kronenberg were indicted by a U.S. District Court. Kanchanalak's husband Jeb and mother-in-law Praitun Kanchanalak were named as unindicted co-conspirators. They were charged with funneling money to the DNC and Democrat state parties in California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. (Source: The Chattanooga Times, 7/14/98) ....A review by the Los Angeles Times of state campaign finance records showed that many of the same people connected to improper contributions to national campaign funds - along with their business associates and relatives - funneled money to California state figures. Among the largest state contributions to the California State Democrat Party from figures involved in the federal campaign finance controversy was $54,500 in checks from Duagnet Kronenberg ($30,000) and P. Kanchanalak ($24,500), both of McLean, Virginia. In both instances, the DNC directed the money to California. (Source: Los Angeles Times, 4/2/97) .... Pennsylvania Four prominent Asian-Americans, at the center of the political money scandal, funneled $895,000 into the Pennsylvania State Democrat Party. At the urging of John Huang, one of the largest donations, $25,000, came from Pauline Kanchanalak. Kanchanalak's sister-in-law, Duagnet Kronenberg also, gave $25,000. Sen Jong Hsui contributed $20,000, and C. Joseph Giroir Jr. from Little Rock Arkansas gave another $25,000. (Source: Philadelphia Daily News, 1/29/97) ..."

Washington Post 4/9/99 Steven Mufson "…William Triplett, a longtime congressional staff member, had spent Wednesday morning doing some spring cleaning, doing some research on Chinese nuclear spying and watching President Clinton give a speech that suggested some of China's critics are Cold Warriors looking for a new enemy in the post-Soviet world. "I'm not a warmonger looking for an enemy," countered Triplett. "I've got real people pointing nuclear weapons at the United States." …. "My friends and I fight the good fight when we can by causing as much pain and suffering as we can," Triplett says. "Bill Triplett's name is a household word" among China experts, says Robert Kapp, head of the U.S.-China Business Council, which has helped arrange a dinner in New York for Zhu. "He has strong views on the dangers of China's intentions in the world and China's conspiratorial inclinations." An informal network, the "midnight patriots" take their name from a complaint made by one of the Founding Fathers -- Triplett cannot remember whether it was George Washington or Thomas Paine -- that too many people were "sunshine patriots," behind the country only during good times. "Midnight patriots are there when things are tough," Triplett says. Their goal: End Communist rule in China. "I think we have an obligation as leader of the democratic alliance." ….Last year Triplett cowrote "Year of the Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash." Published by the right-wing Regnery Publishing Inc., the book has sold 100,000 copies, Triplett says. The book focuses on allegations that top Chinese officials used a variety of conduits to illegally funnel money to the Clinton-Gore campaign. "Our thesis is simple," Triplett and his co-author Edward Timperlake wrote. "The Clinton administration has made a series of Faustian bargains and policy blunders that have allowed a hostile power to further its aims in Washington. In the main, Bill Clinton and Al Gore did it for money."…. "

The New Australian No. 116, 19-25 4/99 Peter Zhang "...Those who go along with Zhu's self-serving argument overlook how pathological Clinton is. Now let us consider what Zhu has really said: Clinton, the nation's commander-in-chief, compromised, for a lousy $300,000, the country's national security, gave Chinese intelligence access to highly classified work and nuclear-weapons labs, including neutron bomb technology, gave it free-reign to plant agents and encouraged the transfer of high-tech equipment with military applications. I believe that is what you Americans call a bargain-basement deal, which only proves what a bargain Beijing got and just how venal Clinton really is. But Zhu and General Ji know that the actual bribes, and that is what they are, came to much more than $300,000. The real truth is that millions of dollars were pumped into Clinton's coffers by various means. One less obvious method was to get companies to heavily donate to the Clintons for the financial privilege of dealing with the PLA and its holding companies. What Americans must ask themselves is why was Beijing so anxious to see Clinton elected? Why was it prepared to spend any amount to see him in the White House? In other words, what was in it for them? Though the exact amounts are known to only a few, of whom Zhu is one, I doubt if American intelligence will ever find out how much Beijing really spent, one way or another - but the amount is irrelevant. What counts is the act. In China, it is called treason and the penalty is death. How does Beijing feel about the exposure? Comfortable, is the answer. No one saw Zhu break out in a sweat. And why should he? Beijing has assessed, and correctly I think, that the scandal is so bad that both parties are prepared to suppress most of the details to protect the presidential office from acute embarrassment, which unfortunately means Clinton ...."

Freeper Jolly reports on Reuters; American Investigator 4/15/99; 04/97 Jennifer Genevieve; China By Any Other "...Wang Jun and Li Ka Shing always seem to end up on top. Here is an interesting article show who stands to benifit the most when Chian gets WTO...China's entry into the World Trade Organisation may not be a done deal yet but investors in the Hong Kong stock market are already looking forward to the gains that lie ahead, particularly for ports and telecoms firms.... The question for investors is now ``when'' rather than ``if,'' analysts said. .....Goldman Sachs is predicting a jump in China trade flows to US$600 billion in five years from US$324 billion in 1998. ``Obvious beneficiaries are exporters and port companies,'' it said in a recent research report. ....Targeting that growth, analysts have singled out COSCO Pacific Ltd , China Merchants Holdings (International) Co Ltd , Wharf (Holdings) Ltd and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd as the main beneficiaries....China-backed banks such as CITIC Ka Wah Bank Ltd and Union Bank of Hong Kong Ltd would benefit through joint ventures with financial service subsidiaries of their China shareholders, DBS said in a report. ``Union Bank and CITIC Ka Wah are likely to accelerate their merger plans with their mainland sister banks,'' it added...."

Reuters 4/22/99 "...Chinese and US trade negotiators reopened talks on Thursday in a drive to put the finishing touches on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal that Premier Zhu Rongji narrowly missed clinching in Washington. US Assistant Trade Representative Robert Cassidy and China's top WTO negotiator, Long Yongtu, opened what were expected to be lengthy talks at 10.30am in Beijing. ''We are following the joint statement of President [Bill] Clinton and Premier Zhu,'' Mr Cassidy told reporters, referring to the two leaders' pledge in Washington to conclude talks on China's 13-year-old WTO bid this year...... The People's Daily made it clear Beijing expected Washington to deliver on its promise to support China's entry to the WTO. ''The US government has clearly pledged to firmly support China's entry to the WTO in 1999,'' the newspaper said in a front page editorial hailing Mr Zhu's North American tour. ''Both sides agreed to begin talks before the end of April to settle remaining issues to China's entry to the WTO.'' ...."

AP 4/23/99 James Jefferson "...FBI agents investigating Democratic Party fund-raiser Yah Lin ``Charlie'' Trie sought evidence that Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown met with a Chinese arms dealer the same day that the dealer attended a White House coffee with President Clinton, according to court documents unsealed today. Trie faces federal charges in the campaign fund-raising probe. Agents searched his Little Rock home in October 1997 after obtaining a search warrant that alluded to a Feb. 6, 1996, meeting attended by Brown and Wang Jun just weeks before Brown's death. Trie, a central figure in the controversy over foreign-linked campaign donations to Democrats, arranged for Wang to attend a White House coffee with President Clinton the same day. Wang's company, Poly Technologies, has been implicated in smuggling of arms into the United States. He is identified as an adviser to the Chinese government in the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's report on its investigation into illegal campaign fund raising in the 1996 election. Wang's visit to the White House was previously reported and Clinton has said it was inappropriate. Previous reports, however, did not mention a meeting the same day between Brown and Wang...."

 

Washington Weekly 5/2/99 RICKI MAGNUSSEN AND MARVIN LEE "...TIMPERLAKE: The PRC issue is breaking very quickly and there's a lot more to come. It took about 3 months to get to this point where the American Investigator ran an expose on network television this week. It took a while, but we found a home video of Charlie Trie going off shore in 1992 before Clinton was elected president. At that time Clinton had been nominated as the Democratic candidate for President. And Trie goes off shore to China, identifies himself as Clinton's key guy, he's meeting with Chinese officials -- we have tape of this -- and the Arkansas crowd attending the meeting says that Bill Clinton's policy for China could be affected by Chinese officials.

 

Washington Weekly 5/2/99 RICKI MAGNUSSEN AND MARVIN LEE "...QUESTION: Considering that Johnny Chung has identified several channels of communication between the Chinese military and president Clinton, how close do you think that Clinton is to the Chinese military? TIMPERLAKE: Very close. Here's the reason why. Johnny Chung, who is a hustler, was picked because he figured out that the administration would take money for access. By our analysis, it looks like Chinese military intelligence saw that Johnny Chung was a clever fellow who knew how to work Bill Clinton. So Lieut. Col. Liu was assigned his case officer to recruit him. Her trade craft broke down, however, because in order to recruit Chung she brought him offshore and introduced Chung to Major General, I believe, Ji. And Ji is the famous fellow reported in the paper as saying: "We like your president" and he indicated that they had other individuals or channels of money. That happened several times. Now, General Ji reports to the deputy chief of staff for intelligence, a four star, who got there by providing agent provocateurs and discrediting the students who were at Tiananmen in 1989. That's what his job was, to get those poor kids. He's the gentleman who threatened to nuke Los Angeles over the Taiwan issue, that's the guy who did that. He is the ultimate spy master. His major general is general Ji, who met personally with Johnny Chung and Lieut. Col. Liu--by our count three times. They created a shell corporation called Marchwell to buy Lieut. Col. Liu access to President Clinton twice. And through a contribution to Senator Kerry of Massachusetts, she managed to meet the senior executive of the Securities and Exchange Commission about placing offerings on the American stock market of PRC companies. Now, I always thought that it was just about money, but it turns out that it was more than that. Apparently, the goal was to create a lot of shell companies in the import/export business and high-tech business so they could accomplish the goal of buying American high-tech equipment across the board, equipment like gyroscopes, computers and high tech communications equipment and flood them out of the country thereby overwhelming our safeguards, our Customs, the FBI and counter intelligence operations. So that was the goal and we don't know how successful she was because Chung is the only person of 122 people who has actually gone in front of the grand jury and (in our opinion) told the truth. That's a very powerful statement because the rest of them, if there were a strong law enforcement operation from the Justice Department, the conspiracy would have been broken by now and we would know how bad the damage was that was done to America. It's very apparent that the Attorney General of The United States has chosen to keep her job and sacrifice America at this point. The country is in great jeopardy, because as long as the conspiracy stands we don't know bad the damage was and we can't bring people to justice and until we bring people to justice we don't know how to rebuild the military because we don't know our total vulnerability. Prudence dictates that we should at this point assume a worst case scenario. Everything is gone! I was director of mobilization for the Department of Defense and we looked to the fact that our technology would save us. The great strength of America is our high-tech labs and our high-tech imperative to always be on the cutting edge and that is now compromised and sold out because of Bill Clinton accepting bribes from the People's Republic of China. ..."

NewsMax.com 5/11/99 Inside Cover "...Rep. Norm Dicks, the ranking Democrat on the Cox Committee, calls Chinagate espionage the worst breach of U.S. security since CIA master-spy Aldrich Ames was caught selling secrets to the KGB in the early 90's. ...According to Federal Election Commission documents, Aldrich Ames made his first $1,500 donation to the Democratic National Committee in Sept. 1991, the same month Bill Clinton announced his candidacy for president. The super-spy followed with another $1,000 the month after Clinton placed second in the New Hampshire primary. And in July 1992, the month the Democrats actually nominated the Arkansas governor for president, Ames kicked in another $2,500 to the cause. The super-spy's history of financial support for Clinton was first uncovered by NewsMax.com's Carl Limbacher in 1997 at the height of the DNC's mad scramble to give back illegal contributions from their foriegn donors...."

Political Insights 4/30/99 Justin Valente "....Madeleine Albright has been quoted as saying that the administration does not wish for us to be the only superpower in the world. Their position has always been that the more countries that have nuclear capability, the less likely it is that anyone will use it. In effect, this says that we would trust the Communist Chinese or Saddam Hussein enough to place them on the same moral ground with the U.S., leaving our fate in their hands, so to speak. Can you see how inconsistent this is? Perhaps this helps to explain the administration's cavalier attitude toward the China situation. The story that hardly makes the news, but won't go away, is heating up again..... Over 2 thousand wire taps requested by the FBI and only one was rejected by Janet Reno's Justice Department. Can you guess who that was for? ....Even without the Cox report, there is enough information available on our sale of dual use technology to China to raise a few eyebrows. Major donations were made by Loral and Hughes to the DNC, closely followed by waivers, allowing them to sell their products to China. White House "coffees," attended by many Chinese "players," (with help from John Huang, Charlie Trie, and Johnny Chung,) who came to line the pockets of the Clinton / Gore campaign. An election year - 1996, the same year the wire tap of Dr. Lee was not approved, the same time the Clinton administration was informed of espionage at Los Alamos (actually it was 1995, but you get the picture), the same year Bill Clinton won his second term as President of the Unites States. Recently, John Huang, in a Judicial Watch deposition, was asked if he was ever promised a presidential pardon in exchange for his silence on these matters. Huang pleaded the fifth to this, along with 2 hundred or so other questions. This failed to make the headlines, much the same as it did when 100 others took the fifth in front of Senator Fred Thompson's Senate committee....."

Drudgereport 5/6/99 "...Friday's redhot LOS ANGELES TIMES unloads its Chung File. Reporters Alan Miller and Bill Rempel reveal details that Chung is expected to provide in testimony scheduled to begin Tuesday: Chung says he was told by an associate of Beijing's military intelligence leader that "China had funneled $500,000 to an international trading company established by a former Clinton White House aide and Arkansas attorney Mark Middleton." The TIMES also reports that Chung escorted the wife and son of the Chinese military intelligence chief to a political fund-raiser in Los Angeles in '96 -- fund-raiser where Democratic officials insisted on a $25,000 campaign contribution for the opportunity to introduce his guests to the president...."

Los Angeles Times 5/7/99 WILLIAM C. REMPEL and ALAN C. MILLER ".....Chung's accounts, gathered from a series of recent interviews with The Times, also are expected to shed new light on a possible China strategy to build relations with individuals who had special access to the White House and U.S. political leaders.... Among the new information that Chung is expected to provide in testimony scheduled to begin Tuesday: He was told by an associate of Beijing's military intelligence leader that China had funneled $500,000 to an international trading firm established by a former Clinton White House aide. A Beijing banker told Chung that a former Arkansas restaurateur who was a longtime friend of President Clinton approached the Chinese government sometime prior to February 1996 asking for $1 million to help support Clinton and the Democratic Party..... Now, Chung is poised to become the first prominent figure in the 1996 campaign finance scandal with ties to China to testify publicly before Congress..... Chung says he met Ji at a restaurant in Hong Kong, where Chung was introduced as "a good friend of President Clinton" by Liu Chaoying, the daughter of China's retired top general and a vice president of China Aerospace Corp. Ji, who used the false name "Xu" for their first meeting, told Chung: "We like your president. I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to the president and the Democratic Party. We hope he will be reelected," Chung recalled. Later, in front of Chung, Ji informed Liu that he would wire $300,000 to her and she was to transfer it to Chung. Chung said that Ji also told Liu that he required a receipt "in order for me to report [the expenditure] to the [intelligence] agency." According to Chung, he told Liu, with whom he had an independent business relationship, that he objected. "She said, 'Take it. It makes no sense to spend your own money. Use ours,' " Chung recalled. And, in an apparent effort to further reassure Chung, Liu said, "We've done this before." According to Chung, Liu cited others with American political ties who she said also received support from China. Chung said Liu told him that China steered business to a Hong Kong aerospace executive with controversial links to the Republican Party. She also said that "we gave a Singapore group $500,000" intended for former Clinton aide and Arkansas attorney Mark E. Middleton "to do good things for China." Chung testified before the grand jury that Liu also mentioned the involvement of a "Mr. Wong.".....Middleton, who raised funds for Clinton's 1992 campaign, came to the White House as an assistant to Thomas F. (Mack) McLarty, Clinton's first chief of staff. He left the White House in early 1995 to set up an international trading company. Financial documents show that in 1996 Middleton received a wire transfer of $499,985 from a bank in Asia. And congressional investigators have obtained a note written by Middleton to Singapore billionaire Yip Yan Wong in which the former White House aide thanks Wong for "the update on Ms. Liu."..... Chung, in interviews and statements to FBI investigators, said Liu identified the Hong Kong aerospace executive as Ambrose Tung Young, a major Republican backer who has written pro-China articles for a GOP think tank. In 1994, Young worked with then-Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour to help arrange a loan of $2.1 million to the Republican National Policy Forum. Shortly thereafter, that group repaid $1.6 million to the Republican National Committee before the GOP's sweep of Congress. ...."

Reuters 5/6/99 "...The committee concluded technical information transferred during satellite launches enabled China to improve its space launch vehicles and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. "Because such analyses and methodologies are also applicable to the development of other missile systems, the committee believes that, where practicable, the PRC (China) will use the transferred information to improve its short range ballistic missiles, intermediate range ballistic missiles, and related technology,'' the report said. "These missiles could threaten U.S. forces stationed in Japan and Korea, as well as allies in the region,'' it added. Since 1990, the United States has approved 33 satellite launches in China. Former President George Bush, a Republican, authorized 14 of those launches, and President Clinton, a Democrat, authorized 19. Each launch is accompanied by a series of technical meetings between U.S. satellite engineers and the Chinese launch service provider in which detailed information is exchanged. "Such interactions between American and PRC (Chinese) engineers provided the PRC (China) with the opportunity to obtain technology and know-how applicable to both civilian and military space programs,'' the report said. Investigations into satellite launches that failed provided China with technical information from U.S. firms, it said. The report cited the explosion in 1995 of the rocket attempting to launch the Apstar-2 satellite built by Hughes Electronics Corp. and the rocket launching the Loral Space Communications Ltd. Intelsat 708 satellite veering off course and crashing into a nearby village in 1996. "The decision to launch U.S. commercial satellites on PRC (Chinese) space launch vehicles created a tension between U.S. national security interests and U.S. commercial interests,'' the report said. The committee said it believed its findings justified a ''reappraisal'' of the policy allowing the export of U.S. commercial satellites to China for launch and recommended a congressional review of the pros and cons of phasing it out. The 45-page report also looked into China's efforts to influence U.S. policy and said intelligence information showed that China undertook a "covert program'' to influence the U.S. political process through donations in the 1996 elections. ..."

The New York Times 5/8/99 David Johnston "....But for all Chung's activities, the most explosive subject Chung is expected to address in his testimony is the source of the payment he received from the People's Liberation Army through Liu Chaoying, a lieutenant colonel and aerospace executive whose father was a top military commander and member of the Communist Party's ruling leadership. In recent weeks, Government officials have said that Ms. Liu was an intermediary for the funds, provided to her by General Ji, the intelligence chief, whose involvement was first reported by The Los Angeles Times...... Chung is also expected to testify about conversations with Ms. Liu that mentioned Mark E. Middleton, a former aide to Clinton and lawyer from Arkansas. Chung said she told him Chinese officials entered into a business arrangement with Middleton. But Robert D. Luskin, Middleton's lawyer, said Middleton had never worked for Chinese clients...."

NY Post 5/10/99 Vincent Morris "....Key senators investigating espionage at American nuke labs said yesterday they've uncovered new evidence that the Chinese military funneled money through U.S. banks to buy influence in Congress. "There are very suspicious banking relationships here," said Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into security breaches at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, the top Democrat on the committee, agreed. "The effort was to influence not only the presidential elections, but ... congressional elections," said Kerrey, who appeared with Shelby yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press." Both lawmakers refused to provide additional details but said upcoming reports would shed more light on the charges. Their allegations came as the Energy Secretary Bill Richardson - for the first time - conceded that the Chinese government stole America's nuclear secrets during President Clinton's administration. "There have been damaging security leaks," Richardson said on the same show. "The Chinese have obtained damaging information ... during past administrations and [the] present administration." In the past, senior White House officials, from Clinton on down, have denied that any nuclear secrets were stolen - or in the case of Clinton, denied being told about stolen atomic blueprints...."

NewsMax.com 5/9/99 "....Now that it's clear America's nuclear security has gone up in smoke, it may be time to borrow a phrase from the Great Chicago Fire and ponder the role of former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary and her onetime cash cow, Johnny Chung. Recent media reports have focused on the $300,000 Chung received from Chinese military intelligence and the $35,000 of that sum (at least) that found its way into Democratic National Committee coffers. But the press seems to be suffering a bout of collective amnesia regarding information on Chung it reported two years ago, which points to a much more direct financial connection to Mrs. O'Leary -- and even a member of the First Family. O'Leary was in charge of security policy at U.S. nuclear labs where Newsweek, for instance, has now described the Chinese penetration as "total". Here's what's been on the record about the Chung-O'Leary money trail for nearly two years: "No less startling was Mr. Chung's allegation that the Democratic Party was not the only player with a ravenous appetite for money. He also described how he was, in effect, shaken down for a $25,000 donation to Africare, a charitable organization supported by the Energy Secretary at the time, Hazel O'Leary." (New York Times -- Aug. 22, 1997) Here's how Chung himself put it, in an exchange with NBC's Tom Brokaw days before the Times report: BROKAW: Were you surprised when someone could get you in to see Hazel O'Leary if you would write a check to her favorite charity? CHUNG: I begin to understand a little bit, but I am still a little bit suprised. BROKAW: Yeah. Who picked up the check? CHUNG: There's one gentleman, present himself as the Energy Department official, and said I'm here to pick it up, the $25,000 check... BROKAW: To Africare? CHUNG: To Africare. BROKAW: A charity that the Energy Secretary supports, she sends over somebody from the Energy Department to pick it up, and you get a meeting with her with a very prominent Chinese petrochemical official? CHUNG: Yes. (Investor's Business Daily -- Aug. 26, 1997.....

Washington Post 5/11/99 Pete Yost "...Testifying publicly for the first time, Johnny Chung said today he used campaign contributions to buy his Chinese clients access to President Clinton and other politicians, but ``never acted as an agent for the Chinese government.'' ...In all, Chung contributed $360,000 to the Democratic Party and visited the White House more than 50 times from 1994 to 1996, when the controversy over foreign campaign donations erupted. Chinese business executives frequently accompanied him..... And he criticized officials of the Democratic National Committee for attacking him in court ``when they were fully aware that I was doing a lot of business and cultivating friendships with people from the People's Republic of China.'' .....Chung said he took in more than $2 million from his foreign clients, and some of that money he used to make contributions to gain access to fund-raisers and White House events...... Chung said he accepted $300,000 from Gen. Ji Shengde, the head of Chinese military intelligence, who told him to use it to help Clinton and the Democratic Party..... In addition, according to congressional sources, Chung also will say he was told by Ji associate Liu Chaoying, the daughter of China's retired top general, that: --China steered business to a Hong Kong aerospace executive with links to the Republican Party. --China had funneled $500,000 to an international trading firm of former Clinton White House aide Mark Middleton, who worked for presidential chief of staff Mack McLarty. Middleton's lawyer, Robert Luskin, has denied that Middleton worked for China...."

5/11/99 Chung testimony observations by ohmlaw98 "...Although it appears Chung was out of the main loop, he appears to implicate others such as Trie amd Middleton, and paints a clear picture that there is a Chinese connection to the Clinton crime machine. Chung has also detailed the framework and methods used by Clinton and the DNC to evade federal campaign laws and conceal the proceeds from their PLA benefactors by routing cash from Hong Kong banks into US holding ("straw")companies. From there it is transferred into the general election accounts at the DNC, and finally to the Clinton/Gore campaign. The "blockbuster" I see developing out of reports is the testimony of the relationship between Charlie Trie and Liu Chao-Ying. Trie possesed several holding companies in the US. Some were backed by the Riady Family and infused with capital from their Lippo co-owned Hong Kong China Bank. Others from Macau and Ng Lap Seng. And now we know that this is the bank that routed money from Liu and Gen. Ji to Johnny Chung in California. With Trie in the picture, we now have the Arkansas connection, Ron Brown, the Riady's, Ernie Green, Mark Middleton....Webb Hubbell? Now that Chung has connected Trie to Liu, the picture is very clear. As others here at FR have already concluded the Chinese benefactors are not only PLA intelligence officers, they are executives and directors for the intelligence gathering arm of Aerospace companies like "China Resources Co." and "Great Wall". The same companies that have worked with Hughes and Loral to perfect delivery systems for their growing arsenal of new and improved nuclear warheads......"

Fox News Channel Website 5/11/99 "...Testifying before a congressional committee, Johnny Chung admitted Tuesday to making illegal campaign contributions to President Clinton, but he also implicated others - including the Democratic National Committee - in the scandal....In his testimony, Chung criticized DNC officials for attacking him in court "when they were fully aware that I was doing a lot of business and cultivating friendships with people from the People's Republic of China." Chung made more than $360,000 in political contributions from 1994 to 1996. Much of that sum originally came from a Chinese general who wanted Chung to aid Clinton's re-election..... After he pleaded guilty, Johnny Chung told the panel Tuesday, he was threatened and offered money from Beijing "to take care of" his legal expenses and family if he refused to cooperate with the FBI. Chung said the threat - and an introduction to a defense attorney who claimed to have Justice Department connections - came from a man who indicated he was connected to a Chinese general who had earlier given Chung $300,000 to contribute to Clinton's re-election and the Democratic Party..... In his prepared statement, Chung said that after he pleaded guilty and was cooperating with the FBI, he was contacted by Robert Luu, a U.S. citizen in Beijing, who said he was helping Liu Chao Ying, the Chinese woman who introduced him to Ji. Luu "starting talking about a Commander Lee, who wanted to take care of me," Chung said. "The message was as follows: 'If you keep your mouth shut, you and your family will be safe.'" Chung said Luu also introduced him to a well-connected former Watergate lawyer, whom Chung didn't name. Chung said he met at least a dozen times with Luu, who never gave him any money. .... Chung also was expected to testify that he was told by a Beijing banker that former Little Rock, Ark., restaurateur Charlie Trie approached the Chinese government sometime before February 1996 asking for $1 million to support Clinton and the Democratic Party..... "

AP 5/11/99 Pete Yost "...But he [Chung] testified he had extensive contacts with Chinese officials -- one who went by a code name -- who were eager to win political influence with Clinton. And he detailed how a 2 1/2-year political giving spree won him access to the White House for his well-heeled Chinese clients.....Chung said Luu then introduced him to an attorney in San Gabriel, identified during the hearing as David Brockway, promising that the lawyer would take care of his legal problems and that Luu would pay his legal bills if he kept quiet. Some of the conversations with Luu were photographed and recorded by FBI agents, who at one point placed Chung and his family in protective custody, Chung said. ``When I met with the attorney and Mr. Luu, there were FBI agents throughout the building,'' Chung said. ``I was told the attorney was connected and knew the No. 3 person'' at the Justice Department ``and that he was familiar with the judge that was presiding over my case.'' ``The lawyer gave me an example of someone who did not cooperate and how everyone around him was taken care of. He said that this client was sentenced to a country club jail,'' Chung said. Neither Brockway nor Luu could be reached for comment......They spoke about Clinton, Chung said, and Ji told him: ``We hope to see him re-elected. I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to the president and the Democratic Party.'' .....Chung criticized DNC officials for attacking him publicly ``when they were fully aware that I was doing a lot of business and cultivating friendships with people from the People's Republic of China.'' The DNC ``should be ashamed of themselves for attempting to jump on me and hide from the fact that they aggressively solicited me for money,'' Chung said. ``I now realize that they took my money with a smile and made fun of me when I turned my back.'' ..."

Judicial Watch Press Release 5/12/99 ".... In addition to Johnny Chung, Judicial Watch has many more depositions planned in the weeks ahead, including past officials of the DNC, such as Marvin Rosen - who worked closely with John Huang and other Asian-American fundraisers. Judicial Watch continues to uncover documents concerning the DNC's involvement in trade missions, which it has failed to produce to the Court, despite Court orders to do so. As Johnny Chung confirmed yesterday, the DNC is deeply involved in the Chinagate scandal. No matter how much the DNC seeks to blame others, it will be held accountable for its outrageous violation of law and its sellout of the interests of the American people to Communist China...."

Insight Jennifer G. Hickey "....The Chung testimony resurrected concern that contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign from China's intelligence services were to buy influence for the Beijing government. His detailed account of his role in the 1996 campaign-finance scandal was, scandal watchers are saying, a smoking gun....Although repeatedly delayed, the testimony of the former busboy and Democratic Party fund-raiser who visited the Clinton White House on more than 50 occasions began on a political note when Chung lit into the reluctance of the congressional panel to approve campaign-finance reform. According to a Capitol Hill staffer, it was as if Al Capone had been brought to Washington to lecture congressmen on the need for better laws against bootlegging...... And the DNC's need of Chung is eloquently evidenced in a Nov. 10, 1995, memo from the DNC's Ari Swiller, asking DNC chairman Don Fowler to call Chung concerning a donation he was to make. "Johnny committed to contribute $75,000 to the DNC at the 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," said the memo. It looked like an offer Chung couldn't refuse..... Perhaps it was summarized best by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real of Los Angeles in his sentencing of Chung: "If Mr. [former DNC chairman Don] Fowler and Mr. [DNC finance chairman Richard] Sullivan didn't know what was going on, I think they are the dumbest politicians I've ever seen.".....From the get-go, however, ranking member Waxman tried to make the issue Chung's character rather than corruption of the DNC and the Clinton-Gore campaign. Democrats on the committee were shocked, shocked, that bribery was afoot and took Chung to the woodshed..... A final footnote involves the case of James Parish, a 16-year veteran of the State Department who worked at the American Embassy in Beijing from 1994 to 1996. Parish met Chung when the latter brought a Mr. He, the head of Haomen Beer, to the embassy to assist in getting He's visa renewed. Chung swears Parish arranged visas for dozens of individuals for whom Chung was getting invitations to the United States and, in return, Chung got Parish into a VIP reception with Clinton, trained Parish's secretary in computer skills and spent $7,000 to $8,000 on seven students Parish knew who wanted to be educated in the United States. Chung says this relationship ended when He asked Chung to take a "shopping bag full of money and visas" to Parish....."

Reuters 5/18/99 "...A U.S. appeals court Tuesday reinstated criminal charges against a Democratic fund-raiser accused of soliciting illegal political contributions from a Buddhist temple for the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign. The court said a federal judge was wrong in dismissing five of the six counts charging Maria Hsia with causing false statements to be filed with regulators in a scheme to solicit illegal contributions and disguise them as lawful. The ruling, which sent the case back for trial, was a major victory for the Justice Department campaign finance task force and its investigation of alleged Democratic fund-raising abuses during the 1996 election...... The appeals court ruled that Friedman was wrong in citing the First Amendment's broad protections of religious expression and free speech in dropping five of the charges. "We see no constitutional difficulty in use of the statutes against the conduct alleged here,'' Judge Stephen Williams wrote in the ruling....The appeals court also ruled that Friedman was wrong in requiring that prosecutors show that Hsia knew her conduct was unlawful...."

Associated Press 5/18/99 James Jefferson "...The trial's star witness was expected to take the stand later today. Dia Mapili, who was Trie's bookkeeper, was expected to testify under an immunity deal that her longtime boss ordered her to destroy documents subpoenaed by a Senate committee investigating political fund raising. In opening statements Monday, defense attorneys said Mrs. Mapili lied about Trie before a grand jury after becoming "utterly confused'' under Justice Department pressure...."

Washington Times 5/18/99 Bill Gertz "...A Senate investigation into illegal foreign political payments could not make a direct connection between them and Mr. Clinton's conciliatory policies toward China. Both the White House and the Chinese government deny that Chinese cash influenced policies. But a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee report in 1998 concluded: "It is clear that illegal foreign contributions were made to the DNC and that these contributions were facilitated by individuals with extensive ties to the PRC [People's Republic of China]. It is also clear that well before the 1996 elections, officials at the highest levels of the Chinese government approved of efforts to increase the PRC's involvement in the U.S. political process." ..."

Investor's Business Daily 5/19/99 "...There's no good reason for a child to own an AK-47,'' President Clinton said last week while pushing his kiddie gun control bill. Just as there's no good reason for a U.S. president to entertain the head of a communist entity that sells AK-47s to kids, right? Don't expect an answer from Clinton. He did just that on Feb. 6, 1996. ..... In May 1996, agents of Wang's dealership and another Chinese arms company, Norinco, were arrested for trying to smuggle AK- 47s into the U.S. for sale to drug gangs..... Wang was escorted by one of Clinton's old Arkansas pals. Among other things, Trie was the top donor to the Clintons' legal defense fund - that is, until trustees deemed his cash too dirty to keep. But here's what makes the idea that Wang was just a random guest really hard to swallow. Shortly after the White House meeting with Clinton, Trie escorted Wang across 14th Street to the Commerce Department. There, he met with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown - and John Huang, as we now know from court-ordered depositions.....Clinton's never been pressed on his ties to Wang. Of the 103 so-called coffees, Clinton told the press they were just ''respectful hearings'' for citizens. First off, Wang's not a citizen. Second, what could the president possibly hear and respect from the chief dealer for the world's No. 1 arms proliferator? Unless it's the sound of money dropping into his campaign coffers..... Last week, he held a White House summit called ''Youth, Violence and Responsibility,'' which capped Clinton's multi-city campaign in the wake of the Colorado school shootings to raise our consciousness about the perils of youth violence and guns. Oh, now he cares...."

Reuters 5/19/99 "...Documents allegedly destroyed by a former Democratic fund raiser would have been valuable to a congressional inquiry into President Clinton's 1996 campaign financing, an FBI agent testified on Wednesday. Agent Jerome Campane testified on the third day of the trial of Yah Lin "Charlie'' Trie on federal charges of obstructing a U.S. Senate investigation into alleged campaign spending abuses during Clinton's reelection race...."

Freeper Sockdolagre observes 5/17/99 "... The day after the DNC returned 600k in donations because they were revealed to be from illegal chinese sources, loral/schwartz donated the exact figure to the DNC...."

Koenig's International News 5/19/99 Charles Smith "... As Lawrence DiRita, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, reported three years ago, Galaxy officials approached several large U.S. telecommunications companies prior to 1994 in the hope of involving them in their partnership with SC&M Brooks. U.S. executives who spoke to the Galaxy representatives said that the Chinese side was counting on the influence SC&M brought to the partnership. Some of those U.S. executives, who declined to participate because of the obvious national security implications, asked out of curiosity how Galaxy intended to get U.S. government approval to transfer to China dual-use (civilian/military) technology. "In response, the Chinese spoke quite openly about the relationships they had already established with senior Democrats, mentioning Mr. Stevenson by name," DiRita explained....."

AP 5/21/99 James Jefferson "...Presidential friend Yah Lin ``Charlie'' Trie today reached a plea agreement on an obstruction of justice charge against him, but details were withheld pending an announcement in court, a prosecutor said..... U.S. District Judge George Howard Jr. sent the jury home for the day after the lawyers sought time to resolve differences over defense documents. ... "

Drudge 5/21/99 "...The Justice Department has obtained a note from the Little Rock office of Charlie Trie that suggests he was aware of a bribery, Jeff Gerth of the NY TIMES is planning to report in Saturday editions... The note, handwritten in Mandarin on stationery from a Hong Kong hotel, lists "Hughes" and the U.S. government, export licenses and a bribery problem, Gerth reports... Developing... "

MSNBC 5/21/99 Brokaw and Cox "... Brokaw: "This comes at a time when Charlie Trie, one of the president's friends, a fund raiser, is on trial in Little Rock... Is there a connection between this espionage and political donations that the administration got from Chinese officials?" Cox: "Recently, it has been learned that some of the money that came into the United States apparently for political purposes was in fact directed by the MID, the Military Intelligence Division of the People's Liberation Army. And in fact, directed by the head of that agency, essentially the counterpart to our director of Central Intelligence, General Leeds. The fact that the MID is engaged in the collection of military technology suggests that one of the aims, if not the principle aim, of putting that money in the United States was to make connections to facilitate setting up front companies which would be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, that can be used to buy technology inside the United States that wouldn't require an export license." ...."

Judicial Watch Press Release 5/21/99 "...By allowing Trie to escape punishment for obstructing a Senate investigation and funneling illegal donations to the Democratic National Committee in exchange for favors from Bill Clinton, Janet Reno and her corrupt Justice Department have saved Bill Clinton and the DNC from further damaging revelations about their illegal fundraising practices that would have surely come out during upcoming trials of Trie. Judicial Watch also announced today that it will seek Court permission to question Charlie Trie about his participation in the 1994 Commerce Department trade mission trip to China and related matters...."

The Boston Globe 5/26/99 Michael Kranish "...When a Senate panel two years ago investigated allegations that foreign money was given to the Democratic Party, it hoped to nail down the specifics with testimony from three fund-raisers with connections to the Chinese government. But all three men refused to testify without being granted immunity. Now, the same three men, John Huang, Yah Lin ``Charlie'' Trie and Johnny Chung, are secretly telling what they know to the Justice Department in exchange for guilty pleas to relatively minor offenses..... ``It looks bad,'' said Senator Fred Thompson, the Tennessee Republican who headed the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee investigation in 1997. He noted Huang reportedly has not implicated ``higher-ups.'' ``If this is the kind of cooperation they are getting for a probation sentence, it heightens our concern,'' he said in an interview. Thompson said he plans to launch a new investigation focusing on why the Justice Department decided to plea bargain. Thompson often has said an independent counsel should be appointed to examine the campaign finance matter because the administration has a vested interest in closing the probe...."

Washington Weekly 11/17/97 "...Friday's leak through the Washington Post that the FBI has known since 1991 that the Democrat Party is infiltrated by Chinese agents is a seminal event. For it offers sufficient detail to complete the picture of how the entire Chinese intelligence penetration succeeded. When combining it with other leaks, intelligence reports, and congressional investigation results, the following picture can be put together: In the 1980s, the People's Republic of China made a decision to build the most powerful military force in the world. In less than a decade, China's annual military spending tripled. In terms of manpower, it already had the largest army in the world. But to project force, it needed a modern Navy as well. To rival the U.S. military, it needed advanced U.S. military technology, and it needed U.S. dollars to purchase such technology. Republican administrations had permitted trade with China that produced hard currency, but had employed tight export controls to prevent advanced U.S. military technology from falling into the hands of Communists. So the Chinese government bet its money on two Southern Democrats with an expressed and desperate desire to ascend to the U.S. Presidency...."

Washington Weekly 11/17/97 "...Mainland China used its archrival Taiwan, as well as Hong Kong, as conduits for the funds paid to Clinton and Gore. Democratic Taiwan and Hong Kong are the last places you would look for Communist agents, and the many U.S. subsidiaries of Taiwanese, Hong Kong, and Indonesian companies and organizations offered convenient footholds through which to launder money and buy influence with U.S. politicians. China Resources bought into Lippo Bank of Hong Kong and Indonesia and placed its officers John Huang and James Riady in Arkansas. John Huang was born in Mainland China, but had served in the Taiwanese air force. Ya Long Economic Trading of the Chinese Hainan province sought influence and legitimacy through the Hsi Lai temple of Taiwan, through its representative Maria Hsia, born in Taiwan. Both John Huang and Maria Hsia are known by the FBI to be agents of Communist China. Together with James Riady, they formed the Pacific Leadership Council, and invited none other than then-Senator Al Gore to the Hsi Lai temple headquarters in Taiwan in 1989. On behalf of the Chinese government, Maria Hsia promised Al Gore that she would persuade all her colleagues "in the future to play a leader role in your presidential race." ..."

WorldNetDaily 5/27/99 Joseph Farah "....n 1992, the largest single interest to contribute to the Clinton-Gore campaign was not Hollywood. It was not even big labor. Believe it or not, it was the Riady family of Indonesia, ethnic Chinese billionaires who, according to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence, are active agents of Beijing's intelligence apparatus. The Riadys were back again as major contributors in 1996. They were there to provide hush money to an indicted Webster Hubbell when he was ready to blow the whistle on his buddy, the president. And that's just the Riady family. That doesn't even begin to take into consideration all the other funny money funneled into the country through Charlie Trie and a host of others on the take from the Chinese military. What's worse is the fact that the Riadys owned Clinton long before he ever ran for president. The Chinese agents discovered young Bill Clinton in the 1970s when he first ran for attorney general in the state of Arkansas. There's history here -- ugly, soul-selling history....."

Washington Weekly 5/31/99 RICKI MAGNUSSEN ".... TIMPERLAKE: Basically, the Cox report is a definitive bipartisan statement that the U.S. national security is tremendously compromised. I was one of the staff members that established the Cox committee and I want to say what it isn't. The Cox committee was not empowered--nor did it have the scope--to look into campaign finance. A different committee took care of that. Chairman Cox and his team were basically looking into technology transfers. Because of that, individuals who are trying to spin it are trying to make exonerations of the president out of it and that is wrong, this is not a time for spin. Accept it for the reality and fix the problem, that's kind of the bottom line to the Cox report. It's got very useful documents, it highlights the vulnerability....But it is not an exoneration of the campaign finance issue. The Cox report has not investigated linkages to campaign finances, it was not designed to, that was not their scope.....So the point now is what should be done about it. The Cox report starts the process but we are going to have to rebuild our national security with a lot of money and identify the fact that we have lost literally hundreds of billions of dollars. More importantly, as the director of mobilization in the Reagan years, to me the most important issue is that we have lost our technology edge, that's the big deal with us. Americans tend to look at warfare as an issue of trading fire power for man power, that's how we tend to do it, and because of that we have always kept the technology edge and that has given us time to respond to crises by staying ahead and always making sure that we had sufficient quality and that we had sufficient quantity of high-tech quality. That was our goal and that is now all compromised and that's the problem, because with the loss of this technology we have lost our most precious asset: time....."

WorldNetDaily 6/1/99 Charles Smith "...The Cox report notes some very interesting parties helped John Huang stay in touch with his boss. According to the Cox report, "Huang maintained contact with representatives of the Lippo Group while he was at the Department of Commerce." "During the 18 months that he was at Commerce," states the report, "Huang called Lippo Bank 232 times, in addition to 29 calls or faxes to Lippo Headquarters in Indonesia. Huang also contacted Lippo consultant Maeley Tom on 61 occasions during the same period. Huang's records show 72 calls to Lippo joint venture partner C. Joseph Giroir." The one key fact missing from the Cox report is that "Maeley Tom" is also an employee of the powerful beltway lobbyist company, Cassidy Associates. In 1994, Cassidy Associates sent Democratic National Committee donor Maeley Tom to Indonesia on a Ron Brown trade mission. The same mission included DNC donors Charlie Trie, Pauline Kanchanalak and Nora Lum. Why no mention of the D.C. lobbyists? The answer may be that Cassidy Associates also made hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to both Republicans and Democrats. In fact, Cassidy Associates made a total of over 2,500 political contributions between 1991 and 1998, nearly one donation every two days...."

Fox News 6/3/99 "...In late spring of 1998, Johnny Chung, the former Democratic fund-raiser who pleaded guilty last year to charges of breaking campaign finance laws, was approached by Robert Luu, a suspected Chinese operative. Over the course of many conversations, Luu essentially asked Chung to engage in a cover-up, to hide the sources of the money he'd funneled to Democratic causes in the 1996 campaign season. Much of that cash had come from Gen. Ji Shengde, head of Chinese military intelligence, and had been arranged by Liu Chaoying, a lieutenant colonel in China's People's Liberation Army and a senior manager at China Aerospace International, a firm that launches American satellites into space on Chinese rockets. Robert Luu wanted these names kept out of Chung's upcoming grand jury testimony, and he told Chung that if Luu cooperated, he and his family would be taken care of. What Luu didn't know was that Chung, already under observation by the FBI, had agreed to wear a wire and that every word they spoke, every fax and note they exchanged was being recorded by American law enforcement authorities. Fox News has obtained transcripts of the FBI wiretaps, and now presents an exclusive look at excerpts from the hundreds of pages of secret communications...."

Freeper Helen from Insight 9/9/97 "..."There were bugs placed in over 300 locations," says a high-level source with detailed knowledge about the extraordinary top-secret operation run by the FBI in conjunction with intelligence personnel from the National Security Agency, or NSA, and the Office of Naval Intelligence, among many others. . . . . "Just about every single room was bugged," according to the high-level source who spoke to "Insight" on condition of anonymity. "Vehicles were bugged," as were telephones and conference centers. Even a charter-boat trip arranged by the president to Blake Island, a 475-acre state park in the Puget Sound, was monitored by agents with electronic-listening devices...."

Freeper Helen from Insight 5/26/97 "..."The ex-Russian intelligence agent's allegation of Chinese penetration has been confirmed by Randolph Quon, a former Hong Kong investment banker for two decades. Quon is close to several of the Chinese princelings - the sons and nephews of China's ruling leaders who head the major Red Chinese trading companies. He says China had a "guan-xi," or connection to get access, for its U.S. political operation. "Li Peng was told the Lippo Group had a back channel to the White House, to Bill Clinton," Quon says, through "dealmaker" John Huang, the former Commerce official and ex-vice president of the Indonesia-based Lippo Group, which had extensive joint ventures with Chinese power companies. All utility companies in China are operated by the People's Liberation Army, or PLA, say defense-intelligence specialists." ..."

Freeper Helen from NY Post 6/12/97 "...A key Republican last night said there's electronic eavesdropping evidence that Democratic funny-money man John Huang passed classified spy data to a China-linked company. "We believe that the intercepts that we have show that Mr. Huang was passing on classified information ... dealing with the economy, espionage and breaches of national security," House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.) told CBS. ..."

Freeper Helen from BTOnline 7/11/97" ..."US President Bill Clinton admitted on Wednesday that he intervened personally in hiring a political fund-raiser now under scrutiny by Congress for soliciting illegal campaign donations from Asian sources."..."

NY Times 6/7/99 AP "...A federal judge Monday declared a mistrial in the tax evasion trial of Democratic fundraiser who is also accused of funneling money through Buddhist nuns at a 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign fund-raiser. The jury had reported it was unable to reach a verdict Friday on the tax evasion charges, which are separate from the Buddhist nuns case. U.S. District Judge Richard A. Paez told the panel to resume deliberations, but the jury again reported it was divided on all four counts but leaning toward acquittal Monday. Outside the courtroom, Maria S. Hsia pledged to repair her reputation. ``I think Asian-Americans have to work together and support each other, and they have to stand up and fight for justice, not just for ourselves but for our children,'' she said.

Curt Weldon Website 6/8/99 "... Now, I can tell my colleagues my constituents cannot ever get in the White House. We cannot even get White House tour tickets which are available for schools because we only allow four a year. These are American schoolchildren. Let me read you, Mr. Speaker. John Huang; he visited the White House four times in March of 1993, four times in April of 1993, two times in May, one time in June, one time in November, all in 1993. Now my constituents cannot do that. Yet this White House opened the floodgates to welcome selected people in who were a part of this network, Mr. Speaker...."

Curt Weldon Website 6/8/99 "...What is this document, Mr. Speaker? These are the FBI wiretap transcripts of conversations between Chung and Robert Lu, the FBI wire tapped transcripts that took place from May 6 of 1998 all the way through August of 98. In these transcripts in the words of these key players in this process, the American people, Mr. Speaker, for themselves can see what was going on and can read with their own eyes about the discussions that were taking place....Before I yield to my good friend, Mr. Speaker, I want to say what the rallying cry of this Member, and I would ask for, if I could, a price for that for the next day so I can decide whether or not to put it in the Congressional Record, but I would tell the American people it is available. It was given to me by Carl Cameron from Fox News. It is running nationwide, and I would encourage every American person, every colleague of mine, to read the transcripts contained in here of conversations as documented by the FBI....."

newsmax.com 6/9/99 Carl Limbacher and Caron Grich "....Some suspect that the Clinton administration staunchly supports the Baku-Ceyhan route, not so much out of concern over pipeline security -- but because the Turkish route was initially favored by a major contributor to the Democratic National Committee, Lebanese oilman Roger Tamraz. As recently as May 1995, the U.S. took no official position supporting either the Black Sea, Turkish or other pipeline plans. That month, Tamraz met with NSC official Shelia Heslin but failed to sell her on his plan to pump oil from Baku to the Turkish port city of Yumurtalik. Afterwards, Heslin tried to keep Tamraz out of the White House and away from Clinton. But throughout the summer and fall of 1995, $195,000 of Tamraz's money made its way into DNC coffers. That September, the persistent oilman attended two White House coffees with Clinton on hand. Afterwards, former Clinton Chief of Staff Mack McLarty arranged for Tamraz to meet with Energy Department officials. By October, Tamraz's project had the backing of the Clinton State Department. The pressure brought to bear on Tamraz's behalf was quite impressive, considering that even with his subsequent donations, he had given a only $300,000. But for that amount, spare change really for someone in Tamraz's league, DNC chairman Don Fowler personally chatted up Ms. Heslin on Tamraz's behalf. Around the same time, even the Clinton CIA began sending Heslin favorable reports on the Lebanese oilman. But just as Tamraz seemed to be making headway, the Azerbaijani oil consortium began to move away from the Turkish route, seeing projects like Tamraz's as too costly. Falling crude prices throughout the late 90's cooled other larger oil companies on a Turkish pipeline as well. Still the Turkish route, Baku-Ceyhan in particular, continued to enjoy strong American support, despite the fact that by October 1998 the major oil companies had flat out rejected the plan...."

newsmax.com 6/9/99 Carl Limbacher and Caron Grich "...Writing for Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty in May, Michael Lelyveld explained it this way: "For several months, the gap between the U.S. government and the oil industry appeared to be widening....the (Clinton) administration has refused to accept the industry's rejection and has mounted a determined diplomatic effort to keep the Baku-Ceyhan scheme alive....The result has been increasing friction and loss of (U.S.) credibility on the pipeline issue." One possible reason the U.S. stubbornly clings to the now rejected Turkish pipeline may be Turkey's ever increasing value as a strategic ally.....

Chicago Sun Times 6/10/99 Robert Novak "...In the first week of July 1997, the Justice Department dispatched a lawyer from its campaign-finance task force and an FBI agent to Little Rock, Ark., in quest of a warrant to search the home and offices of restaurateur and Clinton fund-raiser Charlie Trie. But they were called back to Washington before any warrant could be issued. Not until 3 1/2 months later was the search made. By that time, as court testimony has shown, material subpoenaed by Senate investigators was destroyed by Trie's order. After the story of the aborted search warrant was confirmed last week by Justice in briefing the House Government Reform Committee staff, Chairman Dan Burton subpoenaed records of what transpired two years ago. Typically, the department missed the subpoena's due date. Such stonewalling by Attorney General Janet Reno long ago cooled the investigative fervor of the Republican-controlled Congress. But not Burton's. Dogged despite intense abuse, the chairman still targets illegal foreign financing for President Clinton's re-election in 1996. What's more, Burton has cited new evidence in asking Reno to reconsider something she has steadfastly refused: naming an independent counsel. This effort to breathe life into Burton's inquiry comes as Reno's lieutenants are putting a lid on the scandal that once threatened the Clinton presidency. Trie and fund-raiser John Huang both have entered guilty pleas for lenient sentences, with the Clinton White House and the Democratic National Committee off the hook. The Justice Department's deadly delay in executing the Trie search warrant bears an eerie resemblance to its refusal to wiretap a scientist suspected of giving nuclear weapons secrets to China. In Trie's Little Rock trial last month, his office manager, Maria Mapli, testified under a grant of immunity that she followed Trie's orders to destroy information sought by Sen. Fred Thompson's investigation beginning in mid-1997. According to committee sources, the FBI pressed for the search warrant, only to be forestalled by Justice Department orders from Washington. "It is troubling to wonder what additional records that we will never know about may have been destroyed in this time frame," Burton said in a June 4 letter to Reno accompanying the subpoena...."

Chicago Sun Times 6/10/99 Robert Novak "...The Burton committee's open-ended investigation still is seeking testimony from Trie and Huang. But, as usual, the Justice Department is insisting on delays..... In again calling for an independent counsel, Burton in a May 26 letter to Reno cited two pieces of evidence that "coffees" at the White House were, in fact, fund-raisers. The first was the assertion in former White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis' new book that the "coffees were held to raise money during a political campaign. That's a fact." The second, retrieved from the computer of March Fong Eu, former U.S. ambassador to Micronesia, describes the coffees as fund-raisers presided over by the "man"--presumably Bill Clinton. Reno, guided by her highly political aides, has been impervious to new evidence when she has refused to invoke the independent-counsel statute. That was made clear in a chilling interview on ABC's "Nightline" May 26 with former Justice Department campaign-finance task-force chief Charles LaBella. His 94-page memo recommending an independent counsel, he indicated, was ignored last year because Reno already had made up her mind. "Nobody talked to me about that [report]," LaBella said. "Nobody ever debriefed me on my report." He was soon shuffled out of government service. LaBella also revealed that he had been ordered by the deputy attorney general's office: "Don't talk to Congressman Burton." Complaining to me that "we have been blocked by the Justice Department," at every turn, Burton is one member of Congress who argues that an independent counsel mechanism is essential...."

Chicago Sun-Times 6/10/99 Robert Novak "...n the first week of July 1997, the Justice Department dispatched a lawyer from its campaign-finance task force and an FBI agent to Little Rock, Ark., in quest of a warrant to search the home and offices of restaurateur and Clinton fund-raiser Charlie Trie. But they were called back to Washington before any warrant could be issued. Not until 3 1/2 months later was the search made. By that time, as court testimony has shown, material subpoenaed by Senate investigators was destroyed by Trie's order. After the story of the aborted search warrant was confirmed last week by Justice in briefing the House Government Reform Committee staff, Chairman Dan Burton subpoenaed records of what transpired two years ago. Typically, the department missed the subpoena's due date. Such stonewalling by Attorney General Janet Reno long ago cooled the investigative fervor of the Republican-controlled Congress.... This effort to breathe life into Burton's inquiry comes as Reno's lieutenants are putting a lid on the scandal that once threatened the Clinton presidency. Trie and fund-raiser John Huang both have entered guilty pleas for lenient sentences, with the Clinton White House and the Democratic National Committee off the hook..... According to committee sources, the FBI pressed for the search warrant, only to be forestalled by Justice Department orders from Washington. "It is troubling to wonder what additional records that we will never know about may have been destroyed in this time frame," Burton said in a June 4 letter to Reno accompanying the subpoena. The Burton committee's open-ended investigation still is seeking testimony from Trie and Huang. But, as usual, the Justice Department is insisting on delays. Expressing concern that in return for their light sentences, the cooperation by the two fund-raisers might be "very limited," Burton wrote Reno: "The American people have a right to know what role these individuals played in the campaign fund-raising scandal and whether they are providing full and honest cooperation with the U.S. government."..."

6/14/99 AP "...Democratic Party fund-raiser John Huang was arraigned Monday on a conspiracy charge as part of a plea bargain that was reached after he helped the government's campaign finance investigation. He is expected to plead guilty in federal court next Monday. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of a year's probation, 500 hours of community service, a $10,000 fine and a requirement that he continue cooperating with the government. Huang's plea agreement specifies that he has already participated in 21 interviews with prosecutors and agents....."

 

CHUNG AND SASSER

On December 9, 1995 Chairwoman and co-founder of the Back to Business Committee solicited a donation from Johnny Chien Chuen Chung and afterwards not only arranged a private meeting for him with Ambassador James R. Sasser in China but also arranged a meeting for Chung with a Commerce Department official in Washington. Chung said that Cutler indicated Maggie Williams, the First Lady's chief of staff, suggested she contact him. Chung made a $25,000 donation to Back to Business Committee, a private committee that publicly defended the President and Hillary Clinton against Whitewater attacks. Less than a year earlier, Maggie Williams had accepted a $50,000 donation from Chung in the White House, which he said she solicited. Back to Business arranged for a network of volunteer speakers to counter Clinton critics and disseminate pro-Clinton information through the media between 1994 and the summer of 1996. Ann Lewis was Cutler's Back to Business partner, both are now White House aids. Cutler was vice chairwoman of the DNC from 1981 to 1992. Lewis served as deputy manager of the 1996 Clinton/Gore campaign.

Investigators are looking into Ambassador to China Jim Sasser, a lease agreement between a federal agency, the Federal Communications Commission, and a longtime friend of Vice President Al Gore, Chattanooga developer Franklin Haney. Sasser, former Democratic senator from Tennessee, was Haney's lawyer in 1995 and 1996 after he lost his Senate seat and before he was appointed ambassador to China. Haney is a longtime Gore ally and loyal Democratic supporter, Peter Knight, Haney's attorney, is a former Gore aide who ran the Clinton/Gore campaign in 1996. Haney is part owner of the Portals, a cluster of buildings in southwest Washington. He joined the partnership in 1996. The FCC has resisted moving to the Portals for more than a decade. The empty building has cost the federal government almost $ 14 million. A $1 million payment was made in 1996 from Haney to Knight on the same day the lease was signed. It is not known whether Sasser received a similar payment from Haney. Sasser and Knight met separately with top officials of the FCC and the General Services Administration about the lease. Haney, Sasser and Knight are all refusing to cooperate with the Congressional investigation.

DNC Richard Sullivan's attorney, Robert Bauer, is from the Perkins Coie law firm which also represents the interests of the People's Republic of China in the U.S. Robert Bauer, Judith Corley and Holly Shadler, also of Perkins Coie, helped set up the "Back to Business" committee Robert Bauer, Judith Corley and Holly Shadler helped set up James Carville's Education and Information project devoted to investigating and attacking enemies of the White House.

Government Reform and Oversight Interim Report ". Chung's relationship with Liu Chao- Ying followed a familiar pattern. He wrote a letter of invitation to facilitate the acquisition of a visa. He formed a company with her that never appeared to do any business. He made contributions to open doors. He escorted her to fundraisers and meetings with Federal officials. .It is instructive, but not conclusive, that Chung received a $190,000 wire from Hong Kong three days before the event, and contributed $45,000 to the DNC one week after the event. Until the Committee is able to interview Chung and Liu, it will be unable to determine conclusively if the wire from Hong Kong was intended for political contributions. During the July trip, Chung also arranged for Liu, as part of a larger group of people, to have lunch in New York with the Executive Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York -- Israel Sendrovic. Sendrovic said that Chung introduced Liu as the daughter of "the head of" the People's Liberation Army, but did not recall discussing business matters with her.."I would like to invite you to visit the United States again regarding a couple of issues that we discussed before. First, I've made arrangement with the Federal Stock Exchange Commission and a professional investment broker to discuss the promotion of your company in the U.S. stock exchange. Since your last meeting with Mr. Sendrovic, Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, I had several follow up conversations with him. He had also mentioned that he wished to meet with you again." "Second, I have contacted Boeing and McDonald (sic) Douglas regarding your interest of purchasing aircraft miscellaneous parts. They have agreed to meet with you and as soon as you inform me of your schedule, I will be able to make the appointment. Looking forward to seeing you again." ..Shortly thereafter, Chung and Liu traveled to Washington and met with Senator John Kerry. Senator Kerry had contacted Chung "numerous times that summer because they were nearing the end of a tough campaign." According to press reports, Chung "was interested in learning how to clear the way for Chinese companies to get listed on U.S. stock exchanges." Chung visited Kerry's office in late August and met the Senator with "businessmen and several associates." Chung asked for Kerry's assistance in setting up a meeting at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Chung claims that a letter was faxed to the SEC from Kerry's office while Chung was present. That afternoon, he and his guests met with Brian Lane, Director of the SEC's Corporation Finance Division, and his deputy, Meredith Cross. ..

Capitol Hill Blue 5/24/99 Doug Thompson "...James Sasser, President Bill Clinton's appointed ambassador to China, has a long history of helping enemies of the United States. As a Senator from Tennessee, Sasser voted more than 100 times to approve US aid to Communist Cuba, Marxist Angola, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, China and Russia, an examination of Senate voting records reveals. Shortly after losing an reelection bid in the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, Clinton appointed Sasser as Ambassador to China, even though the Tennessee Senator was considered to be a lightweight in foreign affairs issues..... But, as more and more details emerge about China's overt spying in the US and the Clinton administration's complicity in the growing scandal, intelligence professionals say Sasser's appointment fits into the pattern. "Sasser had a long record of support for China," says intelligence analyst Sander Owen. "As a political appointee, he would support the administration's approval of sensitive technology transfers to China where a career diplomat might question such a policy. It's obvious the administration wanted a 'yes man' in place." ..."

Washington Times 5/7/99 Helle Bering "....In effect, while China was actively engaged in nuclear espionage, Bill Clinton's political sugar daddy was engaging in the unauthorized transfer of the technology to launch from the same missile several of the smaller, improved warheads at different targets. A few months later, the chief of Chinese military intelligence personally directed $300,000 from Beijing to Democratic fat cat Johnny Chung's Hong Kong bank account for the sole purpose of helping to finance Mr. Clinton's 1996 re-election, telling Chung, "We like your president."..."

NBC NEWS Mike Viqueira Robert Windrem "…The biggest issue, says committee sources, is the matter of how much information will be released on the relationship between Democratic fund-raiser John Chung and Liu Chaoying, a lieutenant colonel in the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. Most of the media attention has been focused on Chung’s $400,000 in contributions to the Democratic National Committee, much of which came from Chinese sources. Sources told NBC News that what Liu was after is using political connections to steal U.S. secrets. But the Cox Committee found a larger issue: Chung’s facilitation of contacts between Liu and U.S. officials. Sources told NBC News that what Liu really was seeking was political connections in order to steal U.S. secrets. One congressional source says that the two committees that investigated the campaign contributions missed the point if they concluded the contributions were an attempt to influence the election. "It wasn’t even a thumb on the scale," the source said….The sources said Liu was working in conjunction with her father, who was then the Chinese equivalent of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a man with enormous influence in China. Sources said the two wanted to set up phony companies and register them in the United States, so they could circumvent the need for some export licenses. This would have allowed stolen technology to be shipped to China with no questions asked….When asked if Hughes and Loral violated the law intentionally, one key congressional source would only refer to Cox’s comments that the companies "have harmed national security." ….While the Chinese were unable to glean sensitive material from the Loral Corp.’s analysis of a Chinese rocket failure, the hotel rooms where the Loral employees stayed were bugged and the Chinese were privy to their conversations, sources told NBC…. He said that Hughes gave the Chinese information that helped the accuracy and reliability of their rockets, while Loral helped with guidance. Hughes also helped with the design and shape of the Chinese rocket nose cone and atmospheric problems, the sources said. They said Hughes gave the Chinese information on how to build a "shroud" to cover satellites during launch, while knowing full well that the shroud is essentially the same thing as a "faring," used to cover nuclear warheads during flight…. "

Investors Business Daily 3/30/99 Paul Sperry "…In auditing former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's bloated travel budget in June 1996, House Commerce Committee investigators didn't really focus on her China trip any more than her other three overseas ''trade missions.'' ….Fast forward to 1999. Committee investigators now know that: Chinese spies stole the U.S.' latest nuclear missile secrets from Los Alamos and possibly other labs that Energy owns, thanks in part to the security cuts O'Leary made in February 1995 - the same month she went to China….. Beijing bagmen -including John Huang, Charlie Trie and Johnny Chung - beat a path to the White House during the 1996 campaign, raising millions in illegal cash. Chung claims to have bribed O'Leary into meeting with a Chinese petrochemical industry official in October 1995. Former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown allegedly ''sold'' tax-paid seats on his own China trip to big Democratic Party donors like Loral Corp. CEO Bernard Schwartz, who cut a controversial satellite export deal with Beijing officials. All told, Brown's trade junkets raised an estimated $17 million for Democrats. Against that backdrop, O'Leary's China trip takes on new weight, sources say. ''Now we have a clearer picture of all this Chinese chicanery in the 1996 (election) cycle,'' said a House aide familiar with the O'Leary probe. ''And it (O'Leary's China trip) looks like it was just a shakedown operation following the Ron Brown model.''….. The Energy chief led her China mission about six months after Brown's. She took at least 45 ''business delegates,'' while Brown took at least 24. (The agencies still haven't fully disclosed all the participants.) Some showed up on both trips. One, Westinghouse Electric Co., has managed to tag along on yet another tax-backed junket to China - this one led by Commerce Secretary William Daley. He and 18 executives are in China this week. Like Brown's delegation, which boasted 15 major Democratic Party givers, O'Leary's was packed with Democratic donors. An Investor's Business Daily analysis of Federal Election Commission records from 1994 to 1998 shows that, among Energy's China delegation, Democratic donors outnumbered GOP donors by more than 2-to-1. And big Democratic donors dwarfed big GOP donors by 4-to-1. Democratic donors tended to open their wallets wider after the trip. For instance, AES Corp. Chairman Roger Sant gave $30,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 1996 and 1997, but nothing in 1994 or 1995. He also gave his thanks to O'Leary, who now sits on the AES board. The Arlington, Va.-based contractor builds and runs coal-fired power plants and is working on projects in China. Or take Entergy Corp., which owns Arkansas Power & Light. It kicked in $100,000 in soft money to the DNC about four months after the China trip. Entergy President and CEO Terry Ogletree, who rode on the plane, gave $1,000 (the maximum individual gift to candidates) to the Clinton- Gore campaign at the same time, records show. Entergy was also represented on Brown's August-September 1994 trip to China. There, it signed a $1.3 billion deal with Indonesia-based Lippo Group to expand and run a coal- fired power plant in northern China….. Schwartz, for one, joined Brown's key China mission just two months after writing a check to the DNC for $100,000…… In Brown's mission to China, Klayman only recently discovered that fund-raiser Chung tagged along as an ''unofficial'' delegate. While there, Chung met with People's Liberation Army officers. In 1996, Chung funneled at least $100,000 in PLA money to Democratic causes. In auditing O'Leary's trip to China, even the inspector general couldn't make a firm head count…… While there's no direct proof of a pay-to-play scheme at Energy, the department did work closely with Commerce on its trips. For example, O'Leary testified that she and Ron Brown '' convened (with a team from the White House) to conduct trade missions to China.''….. At the same time Energy officials were exchanging information with communist leaders in early 1995, they were dismantling the security system at the nation's top-secret nuclear-weapons research labs. It was also in 1995 that intelligence officers learned that China had stolen from Los Alamos critical data for building miniature nuclear warheads…….. Some experts fear there might be a link between recent Chinese espionage and the administration's trade trips to China. Computer encryption, satellite and energy secrets would be the three most likely things compromised on the trips, they say. Officials with both Commerce and Energy assert that business delegates got ''counterintelligence briefings'' at the airport before takeoff. But according to Layton's report, the China group wasn't briefed until ''the secretary met (them) in Shanghai,'' their first stop, on Feb. 19, 1995. In her statement to Congress, O'Leary said, ''the National Security Council approved our foreign travel in advance.'' That would be the same NSC that gave Chinese espionage at Los Alamos low priority for three years after its discovery. Another troubling aspect to O'Leary's China mission is what happened about eight months later. On Oct. 19, 1995, O'Leary met here with a Chinese petrochemical industry official in what she says was a routine meeting. But Chung claims he arranged the meeting -after giving O'Leary a $25,000 donation. The charge, made on NBC News in August 1997, triggered a review by Attorney General Janet Reno to see if it was probative enough to name an independent counsel to investigate. On Dec. 2, 1997, she announced that it was not…."

Los Angeles Times 4/4/99 William Rempel, Henry Weinstein, Alan Miller "...About a month after press accounts reported his deal with federal investigators, Chung was approached by a San Gabriel Valley businessman, who said he was an associate of Liu. That session was secretly recorded by the FBI and videotaped with a camera hidden in a clock. In a conversation conducted in Chinese, the businessman offered Chung a carrot and a stick. According to sources familiar with the investigation, the businessman advised Chung to keep silent about his contacts with Ji. In return, Chung would receive funds sufficient "to live very comfortably." But the businessman suggested that Chung and his family could have safety concerns if the offer was ignored, the sources said. The threats were veiled but ominous, the sources said, declining to provide details. Furthermore, the businessman advised Chung to go to jail if necessary, assuring Chung that friends in high places would support him. The businessman even suggested that Chung could expect to be pardoned by the president...."

ConservativeNews.org 4/13/99 Ben Anderson "...House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R-IL) has written letters to President Bill Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno and Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, in another attempt to win their cooperation to determine the extent of Chinese influence in the 1996 elections. Burton's latest attempt is rekindling flames in a campaign finance investigation launched two years ago, but delayed by 121 witnesses fleeing the country or refusing to testify and by White House assertions of executive privilege. Following-up on Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's commitment last week to "cooperate" with an investigation of illegal campaign contributions, Burton wrote to the Premier asking for the Chinese government's cooperation on two levels: Interviews with would-be witnesses and bank records of wire transfers to Charlie Trie and Johnny Chung, both Democratic National Committee donors. When committee investigators applied for visas in January 1998, to interview witnesses in China, Embassy officials in Washington said they were under orders from the Chinese Foreign Ministry to deny visas pertaining to a congressional investigation. "My staff was further informed that anyone who attempted to travel to China or Hong Kong to conduct interviews in this investigation would be arrested," Burton wrote in his letter to Zhu. According to Burton, the committee has "received little or no cooperation" in obtaining "information about wire transfers from the Bank of China to key figures" in the fundraising investigation....With media reports of Chung's testimony before Federal investigators and Zhu's visit as a backdrop, Burton asked Reno for help in making Chung available to testify before the Committee. Despite reaching a plea agreement with Chung more than one year ago, the Justice Department has failed to bring about one indictment, Burton notes. "Recent media reports have suggested that the Task Force's work has ground to a halt," Burton said, referring to Fox News Channel's report that Reno had essentially approved of keeping the case open simply for political expediency, but allowing the work of the investigation to stall...."

NewsMax 4/7/99 Debra Saunders "... According to Chung, Liu told him that she and Ji were using other people to launder money to Clinton's re-election campaigns. "We like your president," Ji reportedly said. In the last few months, Americans have learned that U.S. national security is weaker and China is stronger because of Clintonia's feckless China policies. Ji should like Clinton. The New York Times reported that the Chinese government stole U.S. nuclear secrets from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, thereby gaining vital intelligence that beefed up its nuclear capabilities. A bipartisan House committee headed by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., reportedly determined that Hughes Electronics Corp. and Loral Space & Communications Ltd. shared sensitive U.S. technologies with Chinese entities. Cox doesn't believe that Chinese biggies funneled money through Chung because they wanted to assure Clinton's re- election. No matter how much they like him. Cox sees a wilier motive. "General Ji runs the People's Liberation Army's military intelligence department, which is responsible for collecting science and technology info with military applications. Colonel Liu is quite evidently in the same business," Cox said yesterday. "There is reason to conclude that the PLA was more interested in using their U.S. political connections for technology acquisition than they were in influencing the outcome of an election with campaign contributions." Put another way: It's the military secrets, stupid. And stupidly, greedily, Team Clinton got cozy with the bad guys...."

United States House of Representatives 4/29/99 The Honorable Dan Burton (R. In) "....Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, my committee, the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, of which I am chairman over the past 2 1/2 years, has been investigating illegal campaign contributions that came in from a variety of countries around the world...During the past 2 1/2 years we have been trying, day and night, to get to the bottom of this. We have tried to get people to come forward and testify, we tried to get cooperation from the Justice Department, the White House, but we have been very, very unsuccessful because there seems to have been a stone wall erected by the White House and the Justice Department and other agencies to keep us from getting to the bottom of this. We have had 121 people, 121 people take the Fifth Amendment or flee the country. That is unparalleled in American history...Now today I rise on a different subject, but it may be related, and that is why it is so troubling to me. The Chinese communists, through people in their government, the head of their military intelligence and the head of their Chinese aerospace industry gave a man named Johnny Chung $300,000 to give, at least in large part, to the Clinton Reelection Committee, and they were not doing it in my opinion for Mr. Clinton's good looks. They obviously had some kind of an agenda. The head of the Chinese military intelligence and the head of the Chinese aerospace industry giving campaign contributions to a candidate for President in this country would lead almost anyone to say there is something amiss here, there is something wrong, and it should be thoroughly investigated. Mr. Speaker, we just recently found out that at Los Alamos, one of our nuclear research facilities, that they had a man there named Wen Ho Lee who had been there for a long time who is believed to have been involved in espionage. I am very concerned about some of the statements that have come out of the administration with respect to China's thefts of these U.S. nuclear secrets. Again and again we have seen administration officials all the way up to the President make misleading statements about what they knew and when they knew it. Let me provide you with some examples...."

United States House of Representatives 4/29/99 The Honorable Dan Burton (R. In) "....One good example is on March 19, 1999, President Clinton was asked by a reporter, `Can you assure the American people that under your watch, no valuable secrets were lost?' The President responded, `Can I tell you there has been no espionage at the lab since I have been President? I can tell you that no one,'--listen to this--`I can tell you that no one has reported to me that they suspect such a thing has occurred.' So the President was saying he was totally uninformed. He did not know anything about it. Well, Mr. Speaker, the President's response about his knowledge of Chinese spying is not only troubling and disingenuous, it is just hard to believe. The Clinton administration, his administration, knew about the full extent of Chinese spying at Los Alamos and Livermore and other laboratories as far back as 1996, over 3 years ago. Then the National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, head of the NSC, was briefed about the Chinese spying by the Energy Department's chief of intelligence, a Mr. Notra Trulock. Berger was told that China had stolen W-88 nuclear warhead designs and neutron bomb technology. He was told that a spy might still be passing secrets to China at Los Alamos, our nuclear research facility. He was even told that the theft of neutron bomb data occurred in 1995 under the President's administration..."

United States House of Representatives 4/29/99 The Honorable Dan Burton (R. In) "....Mr. Speaker, in August of 1997, Gary Samore, the senior National Security Council official assigned to the China spy case, received a briefing from Mr. Notra Trulock, who is the head of intelligence security over at the Department of Energy, and immediately after the briefing about this spying, he went to the CIA director and asked the CIA director to seek an alternative analysis about how the Chinese had developed these small nuclear warheads. So after he had been told they stole this nuclear technology and that spying was going on, he went to the CIA and said, `Can't you give us a different way they got this technology?' Why would he do that? Why, when presented with such overwhelming evidence of Chinese espionage, did Gary Samore seek to downplay the significance of the information, asking the CIA to come up with another explanation, other than espionage, about China's advances? We had already gotten some of this information from our intelligence sources over in China...."

United States House of Representatives 4/29/99 The Honorable Dan Burton (R. In) "....This has been going on for some time. Norris's colleague, physicist Matthew G. McKenzie said that `unauthorized access to those programs, so-called legacy codes, used to simulate warhead detonation, would represent an unprecedented act of espionage in his scope. Get this. The espionage in the Manhattan Project, that was right after we discovered the nuclear bomb that ended World War II, the espionage in the Manhattan Project would pale, would pale, in comparison.' This is so much more damaging. We are focusing everything right now in the media almost on Kosovo, and our heart goes out to the people who are suffering over there. But this espionage endangers every man, woman and child in this country if we ever go to war with Communist China. And they have made threats in the Taiwan Straits. They have made overt threats about we would not go into Taiwan to protect them because we value Los Angeles more than we do Taiwan, which was an implied threat. So you do not know what might happen. They are a Communist dictatorship. Yet they got all this, and we keep working with them and dealing with them as if nothing happened...."

United States House of Representatives 4/29/99 The Honorable Dan Burton (R. In) "...My committee will continue to investigate the illegal campaign contributions. The Cox report which looked into this espionage should be made public. The White House has blocked, according to the information I have, the White House has continued to block the Cox report from being made public. Much of it has been leaked to the American people through the media, but not all, and that information needs to be made known to every man, woman and child. Because if this administration has been derelict in its responsibilities and endangered every man, woman and child, it is more important than Kosovo. It is more important than anything. And we need to get to the bottom of it and those who let this happen, for whatever reason, campaign contributions or because they like the Chinese or whatever reason. They need to be held accountable and brought to justice...."

Labella on NightLine Freeper kristinn reports 5/26/99 "...Labella says Reno not interested in his memo--her mind already made up. His report was ridiculed as "emotional". He was never debriefed on it by Justice. Says he managed to alienate the power establishment and was run out of town. Points to two phone messages, one right after the other. First is a "call me" message from Rep. Dan Burton. Second one is from a Justice Dept. official, "Don't talk to Burton." LaBella shipped out to San Diego, then passed over for appointment as U.S. Attorney. Questions raised about the motivations of nominator, Sen. Boxer about why she nominated LaBella's underling for the post...."

Roll Call 7/20/98 Amy Keller "The Democratic National Committee is planning to return more than $105,000 in tainted contributions this week in the wake of the recent indictment of Democratic contributor Duangnet Kronenberg, and House Government Reform and Oversight Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind) is digging to find even more questionable money still sitting in the DNC's coffers. The DNC has already returned more than $3 million in suspected foreign contributions since the last election. With the party still mired in $3.24 million worth of net debt, GOP sources are crowing that the DNC can ill afford to start refunding more money.GOP investigators are also wondering why the DNC has kept at least $100,000 in contributions from Jessica Elnitiarta, the daughter of Indonesian businessman Ted Sioeng, who is believed to have funneled at least $400,000 in donations from Hong Kong-based companies..Last week, committee lawyers were slated to conduct depositions of the two witnesses, but the witnesses hired a new lawyer on the night before the scheduled depositions -- thereby causing another delay. The pair is now being represented by Brian Sun, who represented the Buddhist nuns that testified before Sen. Fred Thompson's (R- Tenn) campaign finance panel last year. A witness related to Sioeng could not be deposed because of problems in obtaining a translator. "Everything is like pulling teeth," the GOP source lamented."

Washington Times 8/10/98 Editorial "At the rate the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is refunding illegal donations that arrived from Indonesia during the 1996 presidential campaign, the International Monetary Fund will soon have to include the DNC among the organizations involved in the international economic bailout of Indonesia. Last year the Democratic Party was forced to refund $450,000 to Arief and Soraya Wiriadinata, whose father was a major investor in the Lippo Group, an Indonesia-based conglomerate controlled by the Riady family. Lippo's initial U.S. base of operations was established in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the Riady clan and their employees befriended Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and later became major contributors to his campaigns. The DNC seems to have more refunds to make. Last week, investigators for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee revealed that another $200,000, which originated in Indonesia in the form of travelers checks issued by a bank formerly controlled by the Riady family, made its way stateside in 1996, where much of the money was laundered into illegal contributions to the DNC or used as payments and "gifts" to party contributors and fund-raisers. Former Little Rock restaurateur Charles Yah Lin Trie, President Clinton's longtime friend who was indicted earlier this year and charged with illegal fund-raising activities, controlled much of the money. Also involved was Mr. Trie's business associate, Antonio Pan, a former Lippo executive, who was also indicted earlier.It should be noted that the matter involving the $25,000 laundered through Mr. Ho came to light only because a committee investigator, not the Justice Department's task force, initiated contact with Mr. Ho last month, though the Justice Department knew of the travelers checks for several months. After interviewing Mr. Ho in New York on July 15, the committee investigator, Tim Griffin, told a Democratic committee staffer on July 21 that the Republicans wanted to publicize the checks. Alerted by the committee's minority staff, the Justice Department dispatched an FBI agent and a lawyer the next day to interview Mr. Ho in New York. Subsequently threatened with a subpoena by Mr. Griffin, Mr. Ho became more forthcoming and implicated Mr. Pan. This is a significant development because for the first time it links Mr. Trie with Indonesian money. Given that Mr. Pan, the former Lippo executive, seems to have been intimately involved, it raises more questions about the extent to which Lippo itself may have sought to subvert the election here.."

Washington Weekly 9/6/98 Wesley Phelan Marvin Lee "Two weeks ago Roger Clinton went on live television to issue warning from his brother, the president, to "politicians who live in glass houses..." Rep. Dan Burton, Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee did not heed the warning.. The reaction was swift. A whispering campaign in Washington alleged that Vanity Fair had investigated the sex life of Dan Burton and was set to publish the story. Press reports indicated that Vanity Fair writer Russ Baker had spent six weeks digging through Burton's trash and sexual history..The timing of the Vanity Fair leak makes it unlikely that it was made independent of the White House, whose modus operandi it is to gather dirt on critics by illegally obtaining their FBI file or by having private investigators like Terry Lenzner or Jack Palladino investigate them. In order to launder such illegally obtained information, however, the White House needs the cooperation of a friendly journalist willing to act as a fence and put his name on dirt provided by the White House.Past attacks on Clinton critics have been funded, in part, by the People's Republic of China. Johnny Chung has admitted that he donated $25,000 to the "Back to Business" committee that distributed the White House "Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce" report that laid out the "vast right-wing conspiracy" of Clinton critics. The "Back to Business" committee was incorporated by the Perkins Coie law firm which represents the interests of the People's Republic of China in the United States. Perkins Coie also incorporated James Carville's "Education and Information Project" that has sponsored attacks on Dan Burton in the past. U.S. intelligence has intercepted claims from the Chinese equivalent of the CIA that it had been successful in "thwarting" the Thompson Committee's investigation of Chinagate last year. If these claims are more than mere bravado and exaggeration, Chinese intelligence could only have done so through allied Senators or journalists. Kim Kessler of Vanity Fair denied that Russ Baker had received any funding from Chinese sources or that the investigation of Dan Burton was an attempt to derail the Burton Committee's investigation into the Chinagate matter. Russ Baker was not available for comment."

Charles Smith WorldNetDaily 9/15/98 "According to Chinese General Sun Tzu "All war is based on deception." Tzu wrote those words over 2,000 years ago and his first rule of war still applies today. For example, a hidden November 1994 letter written by Democratic National Committee donor Sanford Robertson to President Clinton that clearly details the sale of Commerce trade trips for campaign donations. Robertson was so bold as to include a telling "P.S." where he notes for Clinton that "Bob Rubin" turned out the "Silicon Valley" at a Robertson sponsored fund-raiser that took in "$100,000" for California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Of course, neither Robertson nor current Treasury Secretary Rubin expected that letter to be revealed. In November 1995, Vice President Al Gore called Sanford Robertson from the White House and asked for a $100,000 donation. In January 1996 Robertson obliged and kicked in $80,000 soft and $20,000 in so-called "hard" donations to the Clinton/Gore campaign. The fact that Gore made the call from inside the White House is the least of his legal problems. In 1993 Clinton named Gore to head U.S. export policy for encryption technology in a TOP SECRET order written by National Security advisor Anthony Lake. A 1996 secret memo on a secret meeting of DCIA Deutch, FBI Director Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno states: "The Vice President chairs the senior group that set the Administration's encryption policy; since February 1994 it has been supported by a working group co-chaired by NSC, and OMB, composed of NSA, CIA, FBI, State, Commerce (BXA, NIST), and Justice." ."

An analysis by Freeper Stillman 9/14/98 "On March 12, 1997, The New York Post published an article entitled "Bill's Big Switch on China $yndrome," by Deborah Orin, Washington Bureau Chief. That article contains the following lead: The White House yesterday conceded two National Security Council staffers could have briefed President Clinton on charges China was meddling in U.S. elections -- but didn't. That acknowledgment came a day after Clinton complained "the president should know" and suggested the FBI briefed two NSC staffers but told them not to tell anyone else. The FBI believes China was trying to funnel illegal campaign funds into the United States. In Monica Lewinsky's testimony before the Starr Grand Jury, she stated the President Bill Clinton ended their sexual relationship on March 29, 1997, because he had found out that a "foreign embassy" had monitored their phone sex calls. All of those calls took place over unsecure telephone lines..It is possible those briefings concerned the fact that President Clinton's phone sex was being monitored by a foreign embassy. This would have led to Clinton's breaking off his relationship with Lewinsky at their next tryst. The NY Post article goes on to say: The FBI also briefed several lawmakers, mostly Democrats, about Chinagate.... Also briefed were Sens. Daniel P. Moynihan (D-N.Y.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). So, members of the President's own National Security Council were briefed, as were an odd assortment of liberal Democrats in Congress. But this information was not passed on to the President of the United States. Moreover, the FBI took specific steps to ensure that the President would not be notified.."

Freeper Garland F 5/17/99 observed "...I pressured Henry Hyde to go forward with the China evidence from the Burton and Thompson committees at a fund raiser for Bob Barr last week. He claimed that the Burton and Thompson committees must develop the evidence further. I told him that it was already developed and documented by the Congressional investigators in the Year of the Rat and got basically no reply. Even without the Cox report we already know that Clinton / Gore campaigns and the DNC had seven sources of revenue tracable through 11 streams to organizations and individuals directly connected to the Communist Chinese government. We also know that Bill Clinton is the only president in history to give sophisticated American military use technology to a Communist government over the objections of his own government agencies. He did it four times on four separate transfers over the objections of the DOD, NSA, State & Justice. This evidence is two years old and should have been included in the Articles of Impeachment. This is treason and bribery and it is hard to believe, but Newt and Henry Hyde were instrumental in keeping that evidence out of the Articles of Impeachment...."

5/25/99 Chairman Dan Burton (R-IN) today issued a subpoena to Democrat National Committee (DNC) fundraiser Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, to appear before the Government Reform Committee in June.... "Charlie Trie is one of the most important witnesses in the campaign finance scandal and we have many questions to ask him," Chairman Burton said. "We want to know about his contacts with the Chinese government and about the origins of the large amounts of foreign money that he funneled to the DNC. "I hope that the Justice Department and Mr. Trie will now cooperate with the Committee and that Mr. Trie will come in and resolve all of these unanswered questions. The American people have waited a long time for answers and they have a right to know the truth." More than 20 people associated with Trie have either fled the country or invoked their Fifth Amendment rights to avoid testifying. Antonio Pan, who was indicted with Trie for violating federal election laws, has fled the country. Macao developer Ng Lap Seng, Chinese executive Wang Jun, and most of Trie s foreign benefactors have refused to cooperate with Committee investigators. The Clinton Administration has provided no assistance in obtaining the cooperation of foreign governments...."

Softwar.com 5/25/99 "...Feinstein's financial ties to the communist Chinese and COSCO include her husband, Richard Blum. Blum is reported to be heavily tied to the PRC through his far east investment firm, Newbridge Capitol Corp. Blum's partner at Newbridge, Peter Kwok, also served as a consultant to COSCO, and COSCO Hong Kong Holdings, a company owned by Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing. In 1989, Kwok helped CITIC and Li Ka-Shing raise $120 million to buy a HUGHES built communications satellite for a company also part owned by Chinese Generals. Senator Feinstein is far closer to red China than a few business ties to her husband. The Los Angles Times reported in 1997 that Blum and Feinstein have visited with communist Chinese officials three times. Blum reportedly accompanied the Senator at his own expense and met with President Jiang Zemin and other top communist party officials. In January 1996, Feinstein and Blum were honored as the first foreigners to stay at Mao Tse-tung's former residence. One Feinstein document that screams out for further investigation is a letter dated Nov. 1, 1994, from a million dollar Democratic donor to President Clinton. Investment banker and Democratic fund-raiser Sanford R. Robertson wrote a "thank you" note to Clinton for a Ron Brown trade mission to China. Robertson complimented Brown's "diplomatic skills" in a meeting with Chinese dictator Li Peng. Robertson wrote that Secretary Brown "deftly navigated the human-rights issues by obtaining an agreement on further talks and then moved directly into the economic issues at hand: helping Chrysler, Sprint and others with their 'joint ventures.'" The Robertson letter closes with a smoking-gun postscript: "(Treasury Secretary) Bob Rubin came to our home on Thursday for a Dianne Feinstein dinner, which raised over $100,000 for her campaign. Bob, of course, turned out the financial community and Silicon Valley." The honorable Senator Feinstein was never asked by her colleagues on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee investigating the China connection about Robertson, her husband or the returned $12,000. There has never been any investigation of COSCO or Poly Tech. Bill Clinton has never answered detailed questions on Ron Brown, Wang Jun, Charlie Trie and John Huang. ..."

FoxNews 4/8/99 "...China's military intelligence official most likely to be interested in stealing U.S. secrets, sources say, also turns out to be the mastermind behind China's alleged plot to get the Clinton/Gore team re-elected in 1996 with illegal contributions. At the beginning of a complicated money trail is the head of Chinese military intelligence, General Ji. He pulls the strings at a massive Chinese conglomerate called China Resources Company. U.S. intelligence say some China Resources divisions in Hong Kong and worldwide are known fronts for China's Peoples Liberation Army and espionage. China Resources has joint ventures with an Indonesian-based international firm called the Lippo Group. Lippo is run by the ethnic Chinese Riady family. James Riady has visited the White House; his family has long supported the Clintons. The Riady family's chief advisor on U.S. political donations: John Huang. Huang left Lippo for a Commerce department job, then became a fundraiser, where mostly through connections to the Riadys, he collected nearly $2 million in illegal foreign contributions for the Democratic Party. Thus completes what investigators say was the Chinese military's circuitous route to funnel money to the president's re-election effort. Some checks to the Democratic Party were written from Hong Kong, drawn from accounts in the Lippo Bank, which is jointly owned by China Resources, Beijing's alleged front for spying. Johnny Chung, who has pleaded guilty to raising illegal foreign contributions, has told a grand jury that some of the money he contributed came from General Ji, the Chinese military intelligence chief. Chung has also said that Ji was coordinating efforts by John Huang and Charlie Trie, the president's old friend and fundraiser from Little Rock. Between the three of them, they raised over $3 million in illegal donations that have been linked back to China and its military...."

FoxNews 4/8/99 "... Vice President Al Gore, stung for attending a fundraiser at a Buddhist Temple where foreign contributions were laundered, has been connected, too. On September 23, 1993, Huang and Riady came to the White House to meet Gore, and introduce Zhen Zhur En (ph), head of Beijing's alleged espionage front, China Resources Company. Four days later Gore attended the California fundraiser with all of them, where over $100,000 in illegal contributions out of China were received. The vice president has denied doing or knowing about anything illegal. Evidence of Chinese spying and illegal campaign contributions have plagued president Clinton for the last three years. In addition to being a major foreign policy and national security problem right now, it's shaping up to be a campaign problem for Al Gore in 2000. On Capitol Hill, Carl Cameron, Fox News...."

USA Today 5/19/99 James Freeman "...What did the Chinese get for their money? The thugs who run the world's last communist empire aren't stupid. They didn't send a river of cash flowing toward Clinton/Gore without any expectations. So what was the return on their investment? We don't know yet. But China, currently the only country in the world with missiles targeted at the United States, apparently has acquired our most valuable nuclear technology. Rep. Christopher Cox, Chairman of the House Select Committee on China, says in an e-mail: "The compromise of our nuclear codes is exceptionally damaging, not only to U.S. national security but to the peace of the world for decades to come." ...."Something like this would have been a red flag. These were not low-level warnings," says Dov Zakheim, President of defense contractor SPC International. "If these reports are true, the Chinese now have our most modern capabilities," he says. Former top officials in the Clinton and Reagan Administrations, speaking on background, say they can't understand why the White House did not react aggressively to the threat of Chinese nuclear theft. U.S. secrets have been stolen before. What's new about this case is that once the government learned of the problem, U.S. officials did not act quickly to minimize the damage.... It's important to remember who these people are who run China's government. According to a 1997 report by the Department of Defense, their key objectives include "eventual recovery of claimed territories, and most important, preservation of the current communist political system." The report notes that China has sold nuclear and missile technology to Iran and Pakistan, among others, and there's more reassuring news: "China's current inventory of chemical agents includes the full range of traditional agents, and China is conducting research into more advanced agents." The report also reminds us that "China is the only country other than Russia whose land-based strategic missiles can strike the United States." That raises an interesting question. What are they going to do with the data they just stole from our labs? .....Now we have to count on Beijing's good sense and good will. When you see how this regime treats its own people, you might start to get nervous. ..."

USA Today 5/19/99 "...To date, there is no direct evidence linking Chinese money to changes in American defense policy. But if there's a reasonable explanation for the following list of coincidences, it's about time we heard it from the President. - Early in the Clinton Administration, China received America's "hot-section" technology, the key to building state-of-the-art fighter planes. The U.S. used this technology during the Cold War to gain a critical edge in creating metals used in jet engines. - "During the '80s, Soviet engines had a mean time between failures of 200 hours," says Steve Bryen, a former DOD official who directed the Pentagon's Defense Technology Security Agency during the 1980s. "For U.S. engines, the figure was about 10,000 hours. This was a huge advantage. China's engines were even less reliable than the Russian ones."..."

Worldnetdaily 6/15/99 Charles Smith "....In 1994, U.S. Commerce officials knew there was a crime in progress -- a crime that involved millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars being used to pay off corrupt foreign politicians. Did the Commerce Department attempt to stop this crime? No. As a matter of fact, the federal agency appears to have done its best to help the criminals succeed. On Nov. 16, 1994, Bill Clinton and the late Ron Brown traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, for the Asia Pacific Economic Conference, at which Clinton signed deals to supply Indonesia with electric power using U.S. taxpayer loans. The deals were worth billions to U.S. corporations such as Cal Energy, Mission Energy and General Electric....."

Worldnetdaily 6/15/99 Charles Smith "...In September 1994, long before Clinton signed the power deal, the Commerce Department documented that Indonesian dictator Suharto had cut himself in for a bribe. According to a 1994 Commerce document, 0.75 percent ownership of a $2 billion U.S.-backed power project was given -- at no cost -- to dictator Suharto's second daughter, Siti Hediati Prabowo. Prabowo's 0.75 percent ownership is equal to a free gift of $15 million from the U.S. taxpayers. The $15 million is part of a $50 million bribe split between Prabowo and other Suharto relatives. In return, the Indonesian dictator selected companies owned by major Clinton donors to build the Paiton power plant in east Java.....The Paiton power project consisted of two 600-million watt, coal-fired plants to provide electricity for east Java. The partners in the U.S.-led consortium included Mission Energy, Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan, General Electric Capital Corporation of the U.S., and P.T. Batu Hitam Perkasa, an Indonesian firm formed in 1989 to participate in the development of the country's private power industry. The leader of the U.S. project in the Paiton power plant, Mission Energy, is also a partner of Indonesia's Lippo Group, a consortium partly owned by Indonesian billionaire Mochtar Riady and the Chinese Army's CITIC (China International Trust and Investment Corporation) bank...."

Worldnetdaily 6/15/99 Charles Smith "...According to Federal Election Commission records, Mission Energy CEO, John Bryson, donated money to Clinton's campaigns and donated money to Clinton's legal defense fund. Riady, Bryson's partner in the Paiton project, is also accused of illegally donating money to Bill Clinton's political campaigns....On Sept. 30 1994, The Commerce Department, State Department, Mission Energy and several consultants met to review the Paiton project. According to hand written notes, "ADB is still considering this, b/c of very minimal involvement of Indo ruling family in the Mission project. ... ADB's delay revolves around concern for projects in Indonesia involving the first family. .75% ownership of the Mission project by daughter of Indo pres." ..."

Worldnetdaily 6/15/99 Charles Smith "...In another document dated, Nov. 1, 1994, only days before the Jakarta signing by Clinton, the Commerce Department noted, "Ambassador Barry stated that the project is facing two problems." Those two were "(i) the ADB financing may cave in and (ii) EXIM financing. Regarding ADB, technical questions have been satisfied, but ADB is skittish about involvement of Indonesia's first family (a minority shareholder is married to Pres. Suharto's daughter)." The Commerce Department documented that Indonesian dictator Suharto had cut his son-in-law into a kickback scheme. The documents show that Commerce was not only aware of Suharto's corrupt activities but quietly cooperated by seeking U.S.-backed financial aid for the project...."

Worldnetdaily 6/15/99 Charles Smith "...The Commerce documentation shows that U.S. Ambassador Barry worked directly with Linda Yang, executive director of the Asian Development Bank, to obtain financial support despite the concerns over kickbacks to Suharto.... However, after the signing by Clinton, in 1995, the ADB decided to not finance the Paiton deal due to their concerns. According to notes taken by Commerce Department officials at a Paiton meeting, "Mission Energy expecting default by March [1995] ... first project to go on bond market $180 M and will default also." In April 1995, Ron Brown came to the rescue and provided the U.S. Export-Import bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to substitute for the Asian Development Bank. Over $1.8 billion in limited recourse project debt was provided to Paiton by The Export-Import Bank of Japan, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the United States, and eight commercial banks...."

Worldnetdaily 6/15/99 Charles Smith "....Commerce documents show that Lippo business partner Mission Energy (now named Edison Mission Energy) received strong Clinton administration support for the Paiton project. In March 1995, Mission Energy CEO John Bryson wrote Commerce Secretary Brown: "Dear Ron -- Thank you once again for being so ready to support a successful completion of the Paiton Power Project. ... The U.S. Government, from the President on down, has put a high priority on the Paiton Project." Furthermore, the Paiton power plant was designed to burn "low-sulfur Indonesian coal." In 1996 President Clinton created the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, placing off-limits the world's largest deposit of low-sulfur coal. In the process, Clinton also greatly enriched Suharto. The coal for the Paiton plant is provided under a no bid contract from the global monopoly of "soft" environmental coal. Prabowo's brother-in-law, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, owns the Indonesian reserves of soft coal and is also another partner in the Mission Energy-General Electric partner at Paiton. Furthermore, Hashim is not only an old friend of Suharto, but Hashim's brother is Suharto's son-in-law and a general in the Indonesian army...."

Worldnetdaily 6/15/99 Charles Smith "...The Commerce Department has done its best to conceal evidence and hide the facts. On June 7, 1999, Commerce refused to release all the information on the Indonesian Paiton power plant, citing "commercial" privacy. Many of the documents released by the Commerce Department contained whole sections blacked out for "privacy" reasons...."

Washington Times National Weekly Edition 6/28-7/4/99 Jerry Seper "...The Democratic National Committee, which denies knowing the source of campaign contributions from Johnny Chung, actively targeted the California businessman for hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations shortly after his return from a 1994 trip to China. Just-obtained documents show the relationship between the DNC and Chung was far more significant than previously known and -- after a Republican victory in the 1994 general elections -- became even more intense over the next two years as the 1996 presidential election closed in. DNC records show that the organization made specific donation demands on Chung in exchange for giving him and several Chinese nationals, including members of China's military intelligence, access to President Clinton. Chung's ability to raise money became such an integral part of the DNC's fund-raising effort that the organization's finance director, Richard Sullivan, was formally assigned as his "contact."..."

Washington Times National Weekly Edition 6/28-7/4/99 Jerry Seper "...The records show that DNC officials did little to screen Chung's donations or to attempt to discover the identities of several Chinese officials and others Chung escorted to private meetings with the president. They portray a fund-raising effort bent solely on gathering hundreds of thousands of dollars for the 1996 race in exchange for access to the president. In October 1996, for example, the DNC insisted that Chung come up with a $25,000 donation so he could introduce Mr. Clinton to the wife and son of Gen. Ji Shengde, the chief military intelligence officer for the People's Liberation Army, during a political fund-raiser at Universal Studios in Los Angeles...."

Washington Times National Weekly Edition 6/28-7/4/99 Jerry Seper "...The DNC also solicited a $40,000 donation from Chung during a December 1994 fund-raiser in Los Angeles attended by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. That donation also helped Chung to attend a DNC leadership fund-raiser at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington for Vice President Al Gore and to the White House Christmas party, where he and two Chinese businessmen associated with the Haomen Beer Co. posed for pictures with the president and the first lady...."

Washington Weekly 6/20/99 ROBERT STOWE ENGLAND "...There are a few dots trailing between the transfer of missile technology by Hughes and Loral to China and President Clinton, his 1996 re-election campaign, and the Democratic Party. However, no one has ever successfully connected all these dots. Loral's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bernard Schwartz, for example, has given over $1.5 million to various Democratic Party funds in recent election cycles, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. He has become the single largest donor to the Democratic Party. Schwartz has also given $16,050 to the Republican Party..."

Washington Weekly 6/20/99 ROBERT STOWE ENGLAND "... Former Hughes Chairman C. Michael Armstrong, on the other hand, has given only a few $1,000 donations to both Democratic and Republican candidates. He's now the chairman of AT&T. Campaign contributions linked to Chinese military officials were also funneled into the Democratic Party -- many of which were returned -- and Republicans have suggested that the Clinton Administration relaxed controls on technology transfer to China to reward its campaign donors. Some of the money tied to Chinese military sources was funneled through Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, a Little Rock, Arkansas, restauranteur and long-time friend of President Clinton. Trie raised $1.5 million from foreign sources during the 1996 election, but only donated $220,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Among the donations received by Trie was a May 1996 transfer of $100,00 from CP Group, shareholders in the Chinese-government controlled Asia Pacific Telecommunications Satellite Company in Hong Kong. Asia Pacific Tel Sat was Hughes's satellite client on the 1995 rocket launch that failed to launch its Apstar 2 satellite. No one has successfully connected the dots from the CP Group contribution through Trie to the Commerce Department waiver a year earlier that granted Hughes permission to provide data to improve the very rocket that failed to launch Apstar 2...."

Washington Weekly 6/20/99 ROBERT STOWE ENGLAND "...The Cox Report's only allusion to campaign finance involves Hughes, not the big-time campaign donor Loral. Hughes's name surfaced in notes written in Mandarin on stationery from the Hong Kong International Hotel. The notes were found when Justice Department investigators searched Trie's Little Rock office. The handwriting on the Mandarin notes has not been analyzed to identify its author. Among 16 separate items in the notes are these three cryptic lines: Hughes U.S. Government Export Control Licenses Bribery Problem -- Government Official Cox committee investigators attempted to contact Trie through his attorney, the Cox Report states, but Trie refused to provide any information or testimony as he was facing trial on conspiracy charges to obtain benefits by circumventing election laws. ..."

The New Australian 6/99 Phyllis Schlafly "...The nuclear secrets stolen by Communist China are not inconsequential; they give the PRC "design information on thermonuclear weapons on a par with our own." The Cox Committee states that the PRC will surely "exploit this design information in its next generation of weapons." The hallmarks of the PRC's espionage strategy are the blurred lines between military and commercial technology. The Central Military Commission adopted Deng Xiaoping's "16-Character Policy," his command to combine the military and civil, combine peace and war, give priority to military products, and let the civil support the military. The Cox Report unravels the many ingenious Chinese techniques used to acquire U.S. military technologies. The Chinese constantly pressure U.S. commercial companies to transfer technology in joint ventures, and they extensively exploit dual-use products and services for military advantages. Nepotism is the name of the game in China's socio-political structure. The elite of the post-Deng ruling clique are the "princelings," the sons and daughters of Party officials who are credentialed with exalted business, military and political titles. Their status, as well as the cash bulging in their pockets,gave them extraordinary access to the Clinton White House. Among these specially anointed emissaries from China were Wang Jung, son of the late PRC President, and Liu Chaoying, daughter of the former most powerful PRC military boss. ..."

The New Australian 6/99 Phyllis Schlafly "...Wang, who attended one of the notorious Clinton coffees in the White House, was connected to $600,000 in illegal campaign contributions made by Charlie Trie to the Democratic National Committee, and also to the 1996 Chinese attempt to smuggle AK-47 assault rifles to Los Angeles street gangs.Liu, who was ostentatiously garbed with the titles Colonel in the People's Liberation Army as well as Vice President of a major missile and space corporation, attended a Clinton fundraiser in California. She gave $300,000 to Johnny Chung to use for Clinton's reelection in order "to better position her in the United States to acquire computer, missile, and satellite technologies." ..."

Nation 6/12/99 Christopher Hitchens "....It's always suspicious when Washingtonians start breaking into bad Latin. There may be a quid, you hear them say, and there seems to be a quo. But--aha--there's no smoking pro to connect the two. This pseudo-talk combines my least favorite styles: that of the overpaid attorney and that of the overpaid political obfuscator. Thus, it is not denied that Chinese military-industrial sources managed to transfer an awful lot of money to the Democratic National Committee. Nor is it denied that many tranches of valuable information made their way from American nuclear laboratories into the computer systems of the People's Republic of China. Nor is it denied that large American corporations were eager to share missile and satellite technology with the PRC, and that they, too, were generous to the DNC. All that is denied is that these things have anything to do with one another..."

Nation 6/12/99 Christopher Hitchens "....Here is Jeffrey Garten, formerly Clinton's Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade (and a onetime Nixon and Kissinger underling), recalling his work for Ron Brown in an incautious Newsweek essay in March 1997: John Huang, the suspicious DNC official, was a Commerce official first. You can't understand the 1996 money mess without grasping the environment in which commercial diplomacy was born. It is, after all, the major thrust of the President's foreign policy.... In our single-minded drive to help American companies, we dramatically expanded our commercial involvement in big emerging markets like China, India and Brazil. This push attracted a lot of foreigners who wanted to play in the new game.... There were people, like the Riadys or Charlie Trie or Johnny Chung, who may have thought they could gear this process to their own enrichment by buying special influence. If you open a wild bazaar, as we did, you have to expect the occasional pickpocket..... Here is another series of admissions in the guise of excuses. (The term "commercial diplomacy" is worth having, you must admit.) A former senior official affirms that there was a revolving door between the Commerce Department and a bunch of shady businessmen, all of whom are friends and backers of the President. And you notice (see my last "Minority Report") that all the "pickpockets" identified as polluting this otherwise noble enterprise have Asian names. How this squares with Clinton's indignation about "Asian-bashing" is more than I can say...."

Salon 6/21/99 David Horowitz "...The book [Year of the Rat] begins with the authors' observation that the No. 1 funder of the Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign was an Arkansas resident and Chinese banker named James Riady, who has been a friend of Clinton's for 20 years. Riady is the scion of a multibillion-dollar financial empire that is a working economic and political partnership with China's military and intelligence establishment. The Riadys gave $450,000 to Clinton's presidential campaign and another $600,000 to the Democratic National Committee and state Democratic parties. But the importance of the Riadys to Clinton's ascent is far greater than even these contributions suggest, and not merely because the Chinese network, in which the Riadys are only one important factor, extends through thousands of companies and individuals whose contributions no one has as yet attempted to track. Without the Riadys, Clinton would not have won the Democratic nomination in the first place, and would not have been in a position to benefit from their later largesse. In the presidential primaries of 1992, in fact, the Riadys were the absolutely crucial factor that stood between Clinton and defeat. After losing the New Hampshire primary, the candidate faced a crucial test in New York. But he had also run out of money. At this critical juncture, James Riady stepped in to arrange a $3.5 million loan to the Clinton campaign. New York proved to be the last real competition that Clinton faced on his path to victory. When the Arkansas governor stepped onto the national scene, Clinton and Riady were not new acquaintances. They had met in 1978, when Clinton was attorney general, and had not yet become governor of the state. They were introduced by Clinton's chief political backer, Jackson Stephens, the head of Stephens Inc., one of the largest private investment firms outside of Wall Street. "Thus began a friendship," in the words of Timperlake and Triplett, "that has lasted 20 years, and has spread a web of intrigue, financial corruption and foreign influence into American government." Riady had begun his American banking career earlier in the '70s as an intern at Stephens. Later, they became partners in the Worthen Bank of Little Rock, the very same institution that subsequently experienced a mysterious fire that destroyed records being sought by Kenneth Starr and other Whitewater investigators in their inquiries into Hillary Rodham Clinton's Rose law firm activities. It was through the Worthen bank that Riady arranged the $3.5 million credit to Clinton's failing primary campaign...."

Salon 6/21/99 David Horowitz "...The Riady relationship extended beyond the Clintons themselves to their friends and to Hillary's associates at Rose, including its head, Joe Giroir, and a White House aide named Mark Middleton, who later invoked the Fifth Amendment when he was called before a congressional committee. It was the Riadys who provided a $100,000 "job" for the indicted Web Hubbell, at the moment when he had indicated to the Starr prosecutors that he might be ready to talk. After the payment from Riady and others, Hubbell changed his mind and chose jail instead.

Salon 6/21/99 David Horowitz "...A central figure in the economic track of Chinese activities was the vice president and Far-East area manager for the Worthen Bank, a Chinese-born American named John Huang, who was a friend of Bill from Little Rock days. Triplett and Timperlake make a strong case that it was through the personal intervention of Hillary Clinton that in 1994 Huang was made a top official in the Commerce Department, where he had access to all the information an agent would need to strip America of the supercomputer technologies vital to the development of advanced weapons systems. Huang also inexplicably retained his top security clearance in the Commerce Department when he left the government. The decision to leave the government for a position at the Democratic National Committee was made for Huang at a meeting in the Oval Office attended by the president, Huang, Riady, Riady partner and former Rose law firm head Giroir and presidential aide Bruce Lindsey. This meeting took place three days after the president had decided on a strategy to rescue his failing political fortunes, which had reached a nadir following the Democrats' historic defeat in the congressional elections of 1994 and Newt Gingrich's ascension to the speakership of the House. It was the first Republican majority in the House in 48 years. Designed by the president's new political advisor, Dick Morris, the strategy involved a massive television dvertising campaign, directed against Gingrich and the Republican House. The campaign has been directly credited with turning the political tide and ensuring the reelection in 1996 of the Clinton team. The chief fund-raiser for this campaign was John Huang. It should be evident from these facts (and they could easily be amplified with many more) that the alliance Clinton has made with the Riadys and their China network is the pivot of his political career, and the absolute key to his survival. It has had consequences for American politics and security so vast that no brief summary can begin to describe them...."

 

AP Michael J Sniffen 8/3/98 "Democratic fund-raiser Gene K.H. Lum, who already has pleaded guilty to illegal contributions to 1994 congressional campaigns, was charged Monday with falsely claiming more than $7.1 million in deductions on tax returns for him and his wife."

Freeper Brian D. reports that "Freeh says president and core group of individuals may be involved in federal criminal activity" regarding the House Oversight Hearing 8/4/98

Drudge 8/4/98 ".New evidence surfaced on Tuesday of apparent of illegal foreign contributions to the Democratic Party in 1996. Congressional investigators provide details of $200,000 in travelers checks that were purchased from a bank in Indonesia, BANK CENTRAL ASIA in Jakarta, and later cashed or deposited in the United States by associates of Charlie Trie and Antonio Pan.One well-placed congressional source tells the DRUDGE REPORT that at least $50,000 of this laundered money was contributed to the Democratic National Committee! One stray travelers check, purchased in Indonesia, was cashed at the White House Federal Credit Union!."

AP Linda Deutsch 8/3/98 "Democratic fund-raiser Maria Hsia pleaded innocent to federal income tax charges today and her lawyer said they would seek to delay her trial until after a separate prosecution for allegedly disguising contributions to President Clinton's re-election.."

AP 12/22/98 Anne Gearan "…A longtime friend of President Clinton's tried to get a Taiwanese passport and may have planned to flee overseas to avoid charges related to his donations to Democrats, a prosecutor said today. Yah Lin ``Charlie'' Trie applied for the passport two weeks ago -- a day after he was last in court for a hearing on federal conspiracy, obstruction of justice and witness tampering charges related to his work for the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign… ."

NY Times 12/23/98 Steven Holmes ".A U.S. judge on Tuesday placed tighter restrictions on the movements of Yah Lin Trie, an Arkansas restaurateur who has been indicted on campaign fund-raising charges, after it was learned that Trie had applied for a Taiwanese passport. Judge Paul Friedman of U.S. District Court ordered that Trie, also known as Charlie, report twice a week in person to a court officer in Norfolk, Va., and that until his trial date he be subject to a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. The curfew will be enforced by random calls to the home in Virginia Beach, Va., where he is living with his sister.."

Washington Post 1/26/99 Bill Miller "…Saying he feared that former Democratic fund-raiser Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie was scheming to leave the country, a federal judge yesterday ordered Trie placed in a halfway house "24 hours a day," pending his trials on charges stemming from the Justice Department's campaign finance probe. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman acted at the request of prosecutors, who accused Trie of an elaborate ruse to get a new Taiwanese passport to replace one seized by the court. The FBI learned that Trie applied for the passport last month, even though he was barred from leaving the country as a condition of his pretrial release on personal recognizance.."

Boston Herald 7/3/99 "...Huang, who raised millions so illegally that most of it had to be returned, obviously can give answers to some very serious questions, such as: What was he telling Riady and what was he hearing from the CIA? Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) wants to bring him back before his investigating committee, after his sentencing next month, under a grant of immunity from further prosecution. Incredibly, Janet Reno objects because there's a ``continuing investigation'' still under way, and the Democrats on Thompson's committee will use that lame excuse to block immunity. We haven't seen the end of Reno's stonewalling, which saw the resignation of her special adviser on the fund-raising scandal and her rejection of the advice of the head of the FBI to seek an independent counsel. As we've said before, there are ample grounds for impeaching her and removing her from office. No Cabinet officer has ever been impeached, but the Constitution permits the impeachment of ``all civil officers of the United States,'' and she is one. What would be the grounds? Obstruction of justice for a start. No one in the House of Representatives has the stomach for another impeachment, so she skates. But honesty demands clarity about what she deserves....."

LA Times 7/3/99 Henry Chu, Jim Mann "...The chief of Chinese military intelligence has been reassigned in a move that government officials here insisted was unrelated to his role in the U.S. campaign donations scandal. Gen. Ji Shengde's apparent demotion--from directing intelligence for the vast People's Liberation Army (PLA) to running a department at a military research institute--was characterized as a lateral transfer by a spokesman for the National Defense Ministry. Ji's new assignment, effective in June, came two months after The Times disclosed secret grand jury testimony by Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung alleging that Ji gave him $300,000 in the summer of 1996 to help support President Clinton's reelection campaign. Chung's subsequent high-profile testimony before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee in May was particularly embarrassing for Ji. Chung testified that Ji told him in mid-1996: "We really like your president. We hope he will get reelected. . . . I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to . . . your president and Democrat Party."....Jonathan Pollack, a longtime specialist on Chinese military affairs at the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, said Ji's transfer was in no way routine. "It's a face-saving way to do this," Pollack said. "I don't see this as a normal rotation at all. "For someone who's been career military intelligence, it doesn't compute," he added, "They don't work that way. In [Chinese] military intelligence, they grow their own and they keep their own."...."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Jerry Seper 7/8/99 "…The phone conversations began May 6, 1998, after news of the inquiry first surfaced. Mr. Luu told Chung that Cmdr. Li Yuan, an intelligence officer for the People's Liberation Army, was concerned about Chung's plight and wanted to meet with him. But he said the plan was scrubbed because of Chung's high visibility and legal problems. Five days later, Mr. Luu and Chung met at the Hilton Hotel in Torrance, Calif., where Chung was handed the secret code to arrange future meetings and was reassured that his "friends" in China were concerned about his problems. At a May 13, 1998, meeting at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Mr. Luu introduced Chung to lawyer David Brockway, saying he could help with his case, although he privately told Chung in Chinese not to tell the lawyer about the Beijing connection. "Don't let him know about the Beijing matter. Don't discuss it with him," Mr. Luu said. "We don't want him to know too much. OK?" …"

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Jerry Seper 7/8/99 "…During that same meeting [6/24/98], Mr. Luu told Chung to gather all the "pictures, documents or letters" he had of Chinese officials so they could be returned to China. He said "the old gentleman" in Beijing --identifying the PLA's chief military intelligence officer, Gen. Ji Shengde -- "would like you to give these to him through me" before his court appearance. "Keep the documents sealed in an envelope. Even I am not to open it, understand?" Mr. Luu said….. Chung, who gave $366,000 to the Democratic Party between 1994 and 1996, told the House Government Reform Committee in May that Mr. Luu said he was in contact with "some people from Beijing." He said Mr. Luu told him he had received money from Chinese officials "to take care" of Chung's legal expenses……"

Judicial Watch 7/16/99 "…Johnny Chung, a Clinton fundraiser who admitted to funneling money from the China's military to the Democratic National Committee to help Bill Clinton, testified to Judicial Watch last week that the Reno Justice Department didn't want to hear all the information and evidence he had on Clinton Administration illegal fundraising and that he was abandoned by the Reno Justice Department despite repeated threats to his life from Chinese operatives. The complete text of Chung's testimony is now available on the Judicial Watch Internet site at www.judicialwatch.org. Mr. Chung also implicated an unnamed top official of the Justice Department, head of the Civil Division, in an effort to keep him quiet by fixing the case against him on campaign fundraising. In fact, Mr. Chung received no jail time. But Judicial Watch believes that the Eric Holder, the number two at the Justice Department, is the likely culprit here.
Another star witness in this case, Nolanda Hill, implicated Holder in similar activity -- accusing him of wanting to keep her quiet about what she knows about the illegal fundraising of her former confidante Ron Brown, the Clintons, and Al Gore. Chung also implicated President Clinton directly in a scheme to keep Chung quiet. Chung testified that he was told by a Chinese operative that President Clinton had a deal with the Chinese that Chung would be pardoned as long as he kept quiet. Chung also gave testimony indicating that Clinton and the Chinese President had agreed together on a cover story to explain away the Chinagate scandal….Chung also testified about threats to his life from at least two squads of Chinese operatives sent to the United States to harm him and his family. Despite these and other threats, Chung was recently told by the U.S. Attorney (appointed by Reno) overseeing his case that he should "call 911" if any future threats occurred… His latest testimony puts him at significant personal risk and is an act of patriotism. The fact that Reno, with Chung's testimony and other evidence, hasn't indicted one high-level official is absolute proof of a massive cover-up, one that Judicial Watch is committed to unraveling…"

Judicial Watch 7/16/99 "…Hillary Clinton, former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, the Commerce Department, and other government officials were also tied to illegal fundraising, bribery, and other crimes in Chung's sworn testimony. Chung's testimony came in Judicial Watch's Chinagate lawsuit against the Commerce Department over its sale of taxpayer-financed trade mission seats in exchange for campaign contributions and related issues…."

New York Times 7/16/99 William Safire "… The most dramatic clash between the F.B.I. and the heavily politicized Reno Department of Justice took place in February 1997. Stimulated by press reports of "the Asian connection" to the Clinton-Gore campaign, the Bureau teletyped all field offices for reports on foreign attempts to influence U.S. political campaigns. On Washington's Birthday the F.B.I.'s counterintelligence chief, John Lewis, delivered a packet of those top-secret reports to Janet Reno. "The Attorney General gave the packet of teletypes to then Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick," reports Michael Bromwich, the in-house Inspector General. At the same time, White House Counsel Charles Ruff made two calls to Justice seeking to find out what embarrassment was in store. Never told by Ms. Reno of F.B.I. restrictions on the documents, Ms. Gorelick bucked them to the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. They then blithely passed them on to Laura Ingersoll's Justice "task force," selected for its ineptitude. Nothing doing, said the F.B.I., which "retrieved the packet shortly after the Task Force received it," according to Bromwich. When I asked the F.B.I. Director, Louis Freeh, yesterday if he had been aware of the confrontation -- an unprecedented dispatch of agents to snatch back evidence from Main Justice -- he replied, "I knew about it and certainly approved of it." …Justice was passing the surveillance of messages to Ted Sieong and Maria Hsia -- both in direct contact with Al Gore in his fund-raising -- all over the building. And so the F.B.I. acted to prevent contacts with the White House officials under investigation, to avoid the sort of improper "heads up" given them in Whitewater….The name-no-names whitewash by Ms. Reno's I.G. admits that Congress was not given two pieces of espionage information it should have had until September 1997 -- after the Senate investigators had all but closed shop and Democrats happily declared the Asian penetration unproven…."

New York Times 7/16/99 William Safire "… Bromwich's 569-page report dumping on the F.B.I. and claiming innocent ineptitude on high is stamped "top secret" because it might jeopardize an ongoing failure at Justice. The two of its deep, dark secrets … are covered in Elizabeth Drew's new book that has a chapter about the successful obstruction of the Thompson committee investigation, "The Corruption of American Politics." One is the Hong Kong source of the $400,000 contribution of Indonesia's Sieong, most of it routed to the Democratic National Committee through his resident alien daughter…. Another secret was sent the committee only after its hearings were over. It alleged that Ms. Hsia had recruited someone in California's state government to be "an agent" for China. In the Bromwich sandwich, eight more bits of intelligence information concealed from Congressional oversight are deliciously embedded, but not for the public to see until after the next election…."

AP 7/14/99 "…Bromwich called on Justice and FBI officials to resolve a dispute over how much to tell the White House's National Security Council about this intelligence. The FBI and some Justice officials believed providing China intelligence to the White House ``was akin to briefing the subject of an investigation about that investigation.'' Other Justice officials believed the White House needed to receive national security information from the probe. As a result, the FBI has not attended NSC briefings on the Chinese intelligence or campaign finance investigations, Bromwich said. Finally, until Reno stepped in, FBI counterspies insisted on giving campaign finance investigators paraphrases of their data rather than direct access to the intelligence….."

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...New evidence shows conclusively for the first time that the Chinese government's effort to buy political influence in the United States led to concrete decisions by the Clinton administration that have harmed our national security. Uncovered by U.S. government investigators and aired publicly by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Penn.), the evidence includes bank transfer documents making it possible to trace specific campaign contributions back to Chinese military intelligence; corporate documents for Chinese front companies; and transcripts of secret conversations between a Chinese intelligence operative and campaign donor Johnny Chung, which detail a cover- up scheme allegedly agreed upon by President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. "This is the first time in U.S. history that an American president has been compromised by a foreign intelligence service," one U.S. government official involved in the investigation told TAS..... Unveiled at a press conference on May 27 that was ignored by the mainstream press, Weldon's charges were buttressed with new documents establishing key linkages between the Chinese companies used to funnel campaign contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign and China's Central Military Commission, the highest military authority in the PRC...."

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...The Chinese government became so concerned that its campaign contribution scheme would be exposed that it dispatched an undercover operative to Los Angeles last year to threaten Johnny Chung and his family with physical harm if Chung cooperated with federal prosecutors. The FBI wired Chung for the meetings with the Chinese agent, and eventually struck a deal with Chung allowing him to testify publicly this May before the House Committee on Government Reform.... The Chinese agent, Robert Luu, specifically told Chung never to reveal to U.S. investigators that two U.S. companies selling China critical technology--Hughes Electronics and Loral Space Systems--were tied to Liu Chaoying, who was Chung's link back to Chinese military intelligence. In one taped session, aired on the Fox News Network on May 24, the two discussed a cover-up scheme. "So blame it on the Princelings," Chung said, referring to the sons and daughters of top Chinese Communist Party officials. Replied Luu: "Yes. Chairman Jiang agreed to handle it like this. The president over here also agreed." ..."

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...Senate investigators have also begun looking into a 76-page confidential report, prepared by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which documents how the Chinese government transferred $92 million to front companies in California through the Far East National Bank in Los Angeles from 1994 to 1996. Government investigators told TAS that the money was used to buy political influence; to finance intelligence gathering and high-tech procurement operations; and more mundanely, to establish overseas investments for various Princelings. ..."

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "..."This was not some fluke or rogue operation," one U.S. government investigator told TAS. "This leads directly back to Jiang Zemin." Weldon says he had been helped in his investigation by individuals he calls "patriots," who continue to work inside the U.S. government bureaucracy despite attempts by the administration to destroy their careers. (Five such individuals testified before the House Armed Services Committee on June 24.) These officials have provided unclassified documents tying the campaign contributions to the high-technology giveaway, and provided insight as to how the technology transfers to Communist China have been organized...."

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...What Chung didn't know, however, was where General Ji got the $300,000. Documents obtained by the U.S. Department of Justice in late 1997, which were only turned over to Burton's committee the day that Chung testified in May, show that Chung received a transfer of HKD 2,318,850 ($300,000) from Liu Chaoying's Citibank account in Hong Kong on August 14, 1996. According to one of the U.S. government officials who helped Weldon compile his charts, that money and other contributions to the DNC sent by General Ji to other conduit donors were siphoned off from the Hong Kong accounts of J&A Securities (Hong Kong) Ltd., a subsidiary of the largest securities trading company in Communist China. J&A Securities, based in Shenzhen, was set up in 1992 by the PLA, corporate records examined by TAS show. Its original name, Jun An Securities, conflates the Mandarin characters for "Military" (Jun) and " Security" (An). If these investigators are right, then it is the PLA's secret money tree.

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...Justice Department investigators quizzed Chung on June 12, 1998, about his ties to General Ji and to J&A Securities, whose involvement in the money transfers Chung appears to have ignored. Unbeknownst to Chung, the Justice Department had been contacted by the Chinese government through Interpol, the international police liaison agency in France, in connection with the alleged embezzlement of COSTIND funds by J&A Securities Chairman Zhang Guoqing, a U.S. official said. Zhang was arrested in July 1998 in Hong Kong and taken to Beijing for questioning, according to press reports in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...As part of his plea bargain with the Justice Department, Chung agreed to wear a body wire in meetings with an emissary sent by General Ji, who went by the name of Robert Luu. Chung first met Luu in China in 1996. Luu resurfaced two years later in California, and warned Chung not to tell U.S. prosecutors about the involvement of General Ji or China Aerospace in the campaign donation scheme.."

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...In a conversation with Luu on June 11, Chung tried to draw him out on the subject of Zhang Guoqing. "Who is Mr. Zhang--mysterious person Mr. Zhang! I never met Mr. Zhang. I don't know who he is. I was well aware of whom I had meals with"--a reference to General Ji. "I'm very clear about where the facts are. Ji Shengde is Mr. Zhang," Chung said ...In fact, what Chung meant is that Ji Shengde's money came from Zhang, the elusive head of J&A Securities in Hong Kong. The same Zhang had recently been arrested by Chinese authorities in Hong Kong, because he knew too much. He disappeared last summer and has not been seen since. Indeed, in one account in a Hong Kong daily, Zhang reportedly told the Ministry of State Security officers who had come to arrest him that they had better consult Beijing before mistreating him. "I have a laser disk in the United States, and the disk data will affect the national image," he reportedly said..."

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...J&A Securities grew from a single brokerage house in Shenzhen in 1992, to more than 3,000 branches throughout China by 1998. It began as a classic PLA operation, with nominees sent to Hong Kong to buy up a shell company with a listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange--Massique Limited--then infusing it with mainland Chinese assets to attract foreign investment. J&A Securities took off with the booming Pacific Rim economy, floating bonds in Chinese state companies and making instruments available for foreign investors to gain a foothold in Chinese state industries. But by July 1995 another, more unusual plan for J&A Securities began to emerge when the Shenzhen parent company, which owned the majority share, transferred its stock to a new front company set up in the tiny South Pacific Island nation of West Samoa. The new company was called J&A Holdings, Ltd. ...West Samoa, which borders the America Pacific territory of Samoa, is the closest non-Western state to the United States, lying some 2,400 miles south of Hawaii..'"

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...The money trail shows there were two driving forces behind the Chinese government's campaign contributions in the United States: the PLA's Military Intelligence Department (Er Bu), and COSTIND, the State Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense. Er Bu reports directly to the General Staff Department, which is controlled by the Central Military Commission, chaired by Chinese President Jiang Zemin. COSTIND reports to the State Council, which is chaired by Prime Minister Zhu Rongji. COSTIND sets the technology requirements for the Chinese military; Er Bu collectors acquire those technologies from foreign sources. The two may be rivals in some ways, but they also work hand-in-hand.

The American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...The key role played by Liu Chaoying shows how this works. Liu's father, General Liu Huaqing, was vice chairman of the Central Military Commission before his retirement in October 1997. This gave Ms. Liu the Er Bu connection she so forcefully demonstrated to Johnny Chung by introducing him to Er Bu Director General Ji. But Ms. Liu also worked for CASIL, which was a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Corporation, which is controlled by COSTIND. Another China Aerospace Corporation with which Ms. Liu was associated, China Great Wall Industries Group, manufactures China's liquid fuel strategic rockets and space-launch vehicles. They have also become the main partner for U.S. aerospace firms seeking to launch satellites in China.

Drudge 7/26/99 "…The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that the NEW YORK TIMES is holding back a new blockbuster report that details how a New York City bank has been slow to cooperate with various federal investigations looking into money transfers from China to individuals suspected of passing cash to the Democratic National Committee…. One congressional committee investigating the cash transfers from China is now threatening to subpoena individuals from CITIBANK to explain the lack of cooperation. China's alleged money laundering scheme has been on Gerth's radar for months. "[Gerth] filed a solid story, that was very well sourced," one TIMES insider said of the Pulitzer Prize winner. "No one really knows why it hasn't run." Or if it will ever run? …"

New York Times 7/27/99 Jeff Gerth "...The investigations, led by lawmakers who rarely find common cause, are examining how Citibank -- and a handful of other institutions -- handle the private accounts of foreign officials and their relatives... More recently there was Liu Chaoying, the daughter of China's former top military official and the reported paymaster for $300,000 in Chinese military money intended for the Democratic Party in 1996, according to testimony from a participant in the payment.... Last week Burton, chairman of the House committee on government reform, complained in a letter to Citibank about "undue delays" and a "seeming lack of compliance" with a committee subpoena for records on the $300,000 wired to a Democratic fund-raiser. Bank records list the sender as Ms. Liu, a Chinese military officer and aerospace executive whose father was then China's senior military official..... In his letter last week, Burton also questioned the lack of authorized signatures for Citibank accounts held by the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank. Last year federal bank regulators had similar questions about these accounts as they tried to trace tens of millions of dollars from the central bank to an account at Citibank Private Bank that was controlled by the daughter of one of the Communist Party's old guard, government documents show. The woman is the sister-in-law of Ms. Liu and a former official at a small California bank that served the Chinese business community.... Money from the People's Bank of China flowed through a number of American financial institutions, but the comptroller pushed for more information about the Citibank accounts because that bank handled a significant part of the total. But Citibank gave the same explanation offered by Lahiff: Chinese law prohibited disclosure of much information.... By now, the China trail is cold or incomplete. But Burton continues to press the matter beyond where federal investigators have gone. He is trying to trace the $300,000 that Ms. Liu wired to Chung, a small fraction of which wound up with the Democratic National Committee. A select House committee concluded the payment was an attempt by Ms. Liu to "better her position in the United States to acquire computer, missile and satellite technologies." Burton's next stop will be Ms. Liu's account at Citibank Private Bank in Hong Kong...."

7/21/99 Letter to Citibank from Dan Burton "...July 21, 1999 Via Facsimile Thomas M. Lahiff, Jr. Vice President Citibank, N.A..... To date, your cooperation has been accompanied by what appears to be undue delays. In your conversation, you confirmed that you are pursuing the answers to the Committee's recent inquiries regarding the records of Liu Chao Ying. First, several numbers were listed on Citibank documentation of the August 14, 1996, wire transfer from Liu Chao Ying to Johnny Chung. These numbers include: XXXXX-XXX-XX-XX, XXX-XXX-XX-XXXXX or XXX-XXX-XX. You are determining whether any of those numbers identifies an account held at Citibank, N.A., Hong Kong or any other Citibank related entity. Second, you are attempting to locate the documentation that should have been generated as a result of Liu Chao Ying's exchange of USD 300,000 for HKD 2,318,850 on or about August 14, 1996. In your conversation, you also represented that you are having difficulty acquiring answers to the Committee's inquiries due to two main obstacles: (1) the "twelve hour time differen[tial]" between New York, New York and Hong Kong which has forced you to call Hong Kong at 1:30 a.m.; and (2) the "language barrier." which has made communications difficult.

I am confident that as a Vice President of an international bank with locations spanning the globe you and your company have developed efficient and effective ways of communicating across time zones. In the event that Citibank is not as sophisticated as I have been led to believe, e-mail would seem to be an available form of communication for a multi-national corporation. Furthermore, with regard to the "language barrier," I have a simple suggestion. Call the Citibank, N.A., Hong Kong, legal department. Mr. Griffin has spoken with individuals there. As I'm sure you are aware, they are fluent speakers of the English language. Whatever method you choose, it is evident to me that a number of employees in the Hong Kong office--from teller to counsel--should be able to determine the existence of the account in question....."

July 21, 1999 Via Facsimile Thomas M. Lahiff, Jr. Vice President Citibank, N.A..... In our initial conversations with Citibank employees, we provided a Citibank reference number obtained by the Committee from the Hong Kong Overseas Trust Bank, Ltd to assist in the identification and tracking of the wire transfer information. That same reference number was later included in the June 22, 1999, subpoena to Citibank. Repeatedly, Citibank personnel indicated that they were uncertain whether the reference number was a Citibank number and to what the number referred. On July 15, 1999, you produced part of the subpoenaed documentation of the Liu Chao Ying wire transfer. The reference number provided on the Citibank documentation identically matched the reference number provided to the Committee by the Hong Kong Overseas Trust Bank, Ltd. and subsequently to Citibank by the Committee. In light of this match, I am unclear as to the search capabilities of Citibank's record keeping system. Does Citibank have the capability to search for data on a wire transfer using a "TRN" reference number? If so, why was this documentation not provided sooner? ...."

July 21, 1999 Via Facsimile Thomas M. Lahiff, Jr. Vice President Citibank, N.A..... On July 13, 1999, you produced Customer Account Information Forms for several accounts held by the People's Bank of China: 36081826, 36981797, 36081818, 360802968, and 36081834. These forms appear to be incomplete. They do not include authorized signatures of signatories or contact and address information of the specificity one would expect. Is there additional contact information for these accounts that has yet to be located or is soon to be produced to the Committee? I am also interested in whether the United States Justice Department pursued the same information regarding Liu Chao Ying. Did the Justice Department and/or any other department or agency of the United States request or subpoena information regarding the wire transfer to Johnny Chung? If so, when was the request made or the subpoena served? When and how did you respond to that request or subpoena? ...Dan Burton Chairman ..."

Washington Times 7/26/99 Paul Craig Roberts "...The Clinton administration cannot stand up to Beijing, because Beijing used illegal campaign contributions to compromise the Clinton administration. The most striking feature of President Clinton's foreign policy is its lack of consistency. A different view would be that his policy is consistent only in its perversity. Compare Mr. Clinton's China policy with his Serbia policy. Mr. Clinton and his minions - for that is what they are - are hot and bothered because Taiwan referred to itself as an independent state. Mr. Clinton has cancelled or delayed various U.S.-Taiwan exchanges, and The Washington Times reports that Pentagon officials are "considering a cutoff of U.S. military assistance to show displeasure over Taipei's pro-independence comments." Taiwan has been an independent state for a half century. But Mr. Clinton cannot allow Taiwan to speak for itself as a state, because it makes China mad. We have a "one-China' policy, says the State Department. We do "not support Taiwan independence." China, whose human rights record is worse than Serbia's, has the Clinton administration by the short hairs. All the communist government in Beijing has to do is acknowledge that it made campaign contributions to Mr. Clinton and provide the evidence. That would blow Attorney General Janet Reno's cover-up of the illegal affair and send some Democrats off to prision...."

FOXNews.com 7/27/99 Carl Cameron "...A Justice Department task force investigating alleged illegal foreign contributions to the Democratic Party has possessed potentially incriminating documents since the fall of 1997, Fox News has learned. The documents - bank records from Citibank, which has branches in New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong - indicate that big-time Democratic donor Johnny Chung received $300,000 from Chinese government officials. Sources say Chung in 1997 turned over the records, which show he received a wire transfer from Citibank's Hong Kong branch from Liu Chaoying, a vice president at China Aerospace, a firm that helps loft satellites into orbit on Chinese rockets. China Aerospace has worked numerous times with U.S. satellite makers Hughes Electronics and Loral Space & Communications, whose chief executive, Bernard L. Schwartz, was the top donor to President Clinton's re-election campaign, contributing almost $1 million.... Sources say the Justice Dept. never bothered to pursue the bank records, a simple piece of evidence that would have revealed that the origin of Chung's cash was one of China's top spies. A senior DOJ task force source said investigators chose to concentrate on other leads ....Sources say Johnny Chung, too, is telling friends he offered the Justice Dept. new details of White House and DNC knowledge of foreign fund-raising impropriety, but investigators "did not want to hear it." One senior Justice Dept. prosecutor expressed his frustration to Fox News, saying there is "fertile ground" to till and that he is being pressed to ignore it. ...."

FOXNews.com 7/27/99 Carl Cameron "...There is also a battle raging within the Department of Justice campaign finance task force over how to proceed with the plea-bargained sentencing of long-time Clinton friend and fund-raiser Yah-Lin Charlie Trie, who has pleaded guilty to fund-raising violations. Sources familiar with Trie's DOJ cooperation say some FBI investigators want to hold off on Trie's sentencing in order to pursue his allegations that top Democratic National Committee and White House officials were aware of - and on at least two occasions encouraged - illegally funneled foreign contributions to the Democratic Party during the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign. Sources close to Trie say he has been trying to tell investigators about several alleged illegal contributions from a mysterious Macao businessman named Ng Lap Seng. Also known as Mr. Wu, Seng, who has ties to Asian organized crime, allegedly funneled several hundred thousand dollars to the DNC through various illegal means. Sources with knowledge of Trie's testimony say, however, that top-level Justice Dept. political appointees have expressed little interest in Trie's revelations and want the case wrapped up...."

 

Media Research Center 7/30/99 Brent Baker "...After outlining on Tuesday night how the Justice Department thwarted probes or failed to pursue leads involving Johnny Chung, John Huang and Charlie Trie, FNC's Carl Cameron returned Wednesday night with a look at how two others with names not uttered much recently will also escape charges. In a piece which led the July 28 Special Report with Brit Hume, but unlike the previous story did not also appear an hour later on the Fox Report, Cameron began: "Indonesian businessman Ted Sioeng funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal Chinese contributions to the Democratic Party in 1996. He dined with the President at one glitzy fundraiser and accompanied the Vice President to another at a Buddhist temple. And though FBI and congressional investigators say they have conclusive evidence that Sioeng worked for Chinese intelligence, Fox News has learned no charges of any kind will be brought against him. "Sioeng fled a year ago to the Central American nation of Belize, refusing to cooperate with U.S. investigators. Despite owning a Chinese-language newspaper and several import-export firms in California, investigators have no plans to freeze or leverage Sioeng's U.S. assets to bring him back."..."

Media Research Center 7/30/99 Brent Baker "...Cameron then moved to Sioeng's partner.... Hsia currently faces only minor tax and election fraud charges, although she was identified by Congress as a Chinese agent." Reporter in crowd outside courthouse: "Are you an agent for the Chinese government, Ms. Hsia?" Nancy Luque, Maria Hsia's attorney: "She's certainly not an agent of the Chinese government." Cameron countered: "But even before her lawyer's denials, the Justice Department had what sources tell Fox News was conclusive evidence that, indeed, Hsia was working for China. But like similar intelligence information in the Sioeng case, investigators mishandled it and both suspects are now about to slip through the net."..."

Media Research Center 7/30/99 Brent Baker "...But that's all part of a pattern, Cameron noted in again citing a report ignored by the other networks: "According to an inspector general's report, key facts in the Justice Department's China cash investigation and specific intelligence data on Maria Hsia and Ted Sioeng's China connections was, quote, 'supplied in a fashion that belied their significance' because it was, quote, 'serendipitously included in memoranda on other subjects, or buried amid documents.' That so downplayed the evidence that, quote, 'Some officials were unaware that they had received these pieces of information.' Cameron honed in on Reno and how the FBI was afraid to share information because they knew the White House would get it: "Some Justice Department investigators suspect their bosses deliberately dropped the ball to protect the President, though the inspector general concluded it was poor judgment and not intentional. But congressional critics think Attorney General Janet Reno and her closest advisers were playing pure politics. And according to the report, when Reno's top troops wanted to share evidence with the White House, the FBI protested, even boycotted meetings, to prevent the handing over of such information, saying it was, quote, 'akin to briefing the subject of an investigation about that investigation.' ..."

Media Research Center 7/30/99 Brent Baker "...Giving a clue about who is providing him with his information, Cameron observed: "Line-level investigators and prosecutors, disgruntled with the way Department of Justice management have handled, and some say botched, this entire case, almost daily now are disclosing more information. Last night Fox reported on how the initial investigation into the Buddhist temple fundraising event was thwarted by the attorney general's office. In fact, one specific individual, the head of the Office of Public Integrity, Lee Radick (sp?), has essentially been fingered as trying to close down that investigation. And as a result, Congress plans to subpoena Mr. Radick's documents to find out whether or not he tried in some way to close things down in order to protect the President." ..."

Fox News Channel 7/30/99 Freeper Cincinatus' wife reports "...Fox News had a long report today on Burton's investigation of the China campaign money connection. Carl Cameron's still on this story. Tony Snow's Sunday show will be doing an in depth story on Janet Reno's obstruction of this investigation. Carl Cameron reported about FBI investigators being pulled back from issuing a search warrant in Little Rock for Charlie Trie even as they were on the way to serve it. This order to desist, came from Reno's Justice Department even though investigators had told Justice that document shredding was going on. Cameron reported that investigators were told by someone in Washington (I didn't get his name), that the investigation should stop because Justice was going to have an independent council look into this and while at the same time, this same person was arguing against an independent council back in Washington. A woman who is on Dan Burton's committee looking into this, said Justice has blocked and given heads up to people who then had time to skip the country and shred evidence. She also said that the Buddhist monks were given time, by the Justice Dept., to shred documentation . This was quite a report and Tony Snow's Sunday Fox News program should be a block buster...."

Judicial Watch 8/2/99 Larry Klayman "... Republican leaders admitted on the weekend talk shows that, as far as the Republican-controlled Congress is concerned, Chinagate is, for now, a lesser-issue and must await a new Administration before any real action is contemplated. Congressman Chris Cox, when asked what he will now do about allegations of corruption at the Clinton Justice Department, admitted, AThis will have to await a new Justice Department and a new President....Most in Washington, D.C. know the Reno Justice Department is in full cover-up mode, yet Republicans sit on their hands. Whether it is Reno and other Justice officials looking the other way as Chinagate evidence was shredded, or Renos refusal to authorize a wiretap for a suspected Chinese spy, there is ample evidence that the Clinton Justice Department cant be trusted and is corrupt at the highest levels. Johnny Chung, one of the few Chinagate figures to testify truthfully and who was therefore targeted to be killed by Chinese agents, testified to Judicial Watch that he was recently told by the Reno Justice Department to call 911" if he and his family were threatened again...."

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 8/20/98 Robert Novak "...As it downsizes and gets ready to go out of business, the Justice Department's task force on campaign finance is acting strangely. It lists as "ongoing" long-dormant cases that could embarrass President Clinton. It has classified as "inactive" the probe of an inquiry into a major fixer of illegal Chinese campaign contributions. And it still lists as "active" an inquiry that appeared to surely be dead: targeting former Republican National Chairman Haley Barbour. This is the kind of information that closed-mouth Attorney General Janet Reno would not reveal to Congress, much less to the public, even under excruciating torture. The status of the task force's investigation is disclosed in a three-page memo dated June 4, which was not leaked by the zippered-up Justice Department but was inadvertently released. In the intervening two months, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder has been desperately trying to retrieve all copies. No wonder. The cryptic document tends to confirm suspected politicization at Justice. That is the interpretation of Reno's most severe congressional critic: Rep. Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee. Shown a copy of the task force document, Burton told me: "The attorney general was blocking for the president, to keep us from holding hearings."

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 8/20/98 Robert Novak "...Surprise No. 1: Listed among the "ongoing investigations" are former Democratic National Chairman Don Fowler and businessman Roger Tamraz....Surprise No. 2: Also in the "ongoing" category is the Lippo Group, the Asian conglomerate that poured big money into Clinton's 1996 campaign. The Burton committee last year cited $1.2 million in illegal contributions from Lippo, but here, too, it has been forestalled by a Justice proceeding that shows no progress. Surprise No. 3: Former Clinton White House aide Mark Middleton, accused of engineering campaign loans, was stricken off the task force's list of investigations "likely to be [closed] shortly" and added to the "ongoing" list with this notation: "reinvigorated in light of Trie debriefing." Just what the Justice Department learned from Clinton fund-raiser Charlie Trie, who has made a plea bargain, is a mystery. Surprise No. 4: Liu Chao Ying, the daughter of a highly influential Chinese general, is on the list of "pending inactive investigations"--a real eyebrow-raiser.... Surprise No. 5: After two years of facing gossamer charges involving 1996 Republican soft-money contributions from abroad, GOP insider Barbour--now a member of George W. Bush's "exploratory" committee--is still on the "ongoing" list.... Surprise No. 6: Nearly two years since Burton was accused of trying to shake down a lobbyist, Reno's archenemy is now listed in the "shortly-to-be-closed" category with this notation: "closing memo sent to Public Integrity section of Justice Department." Was this fruitless investigation kept open for so long, with no announcement of the "shortly" designation and without notifying Burton, in order to give the attorney general a club? ..."

Roll Call 8/2/99 Morton Kondracke "... It smells. Despite abundant evidence that Democratic fundraisers channeled Chinese government money into the U.S. election campaign in 1996, no one is going to jail. One by one, Attorney General Janet Reno's Justice Department has cut generous plea bargains with the money launderers and hasn't come near prosecuting any Democratic Party or White House officials. And if there is any connection between Chinese money and cozy Clinton policy toward China, it's unlikely to be discovered as Justice lets the fundraisers off and removes their incentive to talk. Today, one of the major figures in Chinagate, John Huang, is scheduled to be sentenced to a fine and community service after pleading guilty to minor charges having nothing to do with the $1.6 million he raised that the Democratic Party was forced to return. Instead, the Justice Department charged him with making two illegal donations worth $7,500 in two California campaigns in 1993 and 1994....In spite of all the tantalizing investigative leads Huang represents -- and in spite of his utter refusal to cooperate in Congressional Chinagate investigations -- Justice is closing out its probe of Huang with a slap on the wrist and a promise to bring no further charges against him. ...Later this month, Justice is scheduled to close the books, too, on President Clinton's friend, Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, who raised more than $1.3 million -- mainly from Asia -- that had to be returned. He, too, has refused to cooperate with Congress, yet was permitted to plead guilty to one felony count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. The charge carries a maximum sentence of up to six years in prison and fines of $350,000, but prosecutors recommended that Trie get a penalty of three years' probation. ..."

Roll Call 8/2/99 Morton Kondracke "... Cameron reported that Mansfield, who successfully prosecuted former Rep. Jay Kim (R-Calif.), was ordered to desist in a letter from Lee Radek, head of the public integrity section of the Justice Department, on grounds that it was a matter for an independent counsel to investigate. However, no independent counsel was ever appointed -- with Radek reportedly one of those most vociferously urging Reno not to take that step....Burton also has been chasing down evidence, also reported by Cameron, that in 1997 the Justice Department ordered the immediate return to Washington of an FBI agent and prosecutor sent to Little Rock, Ark., to stop documents from being shredded by Trie's secretary. And Burton charges that, for two years, the Justice Department failed to follow up on information it had about the wire transfer of $300,000 to Chung through a Citibank account of Liu Chaoying, a Chinese military officer, aerospace executive and daughter of China's former military chief. Burton has appealed to Reno and to federal judges in Little Rock and California to hold off the sentencing of Trie and Huang to give them an incentive to testify before his Government Reform Committee.

Chances are, the fundraisers will get off. The former chief counsel in Thompson's 1997 campaign finance probe, Michael Madigan, said the plea bargains have "all the earmarks of something being swept under the rug." Indeed, they do..."

Arizona Republic 7/29/99 Jeff Barker "...A House committee today will unveil evidence of new favors provided to a former visa official at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing by a Chinese government-owned conglomerate, including a free stay at a luxury Scottsdale suite. Charles M. Parish Jr., the embassy's former visa section chief, accepted a number of previously undisclosed gifts from Elizabeth Mann, operator of a Phoenix real estate company called BNU Corp., which is owned by the conglomerate, according to House Government Reform Committee investigators.

The committee is holding a hearing today with Parish expected to be the lead witness. The Arizona Republic reported in March that Parish, in violation of State Department rules, accepted free lodging at corporate apartments in Las Vegas and Norwalk, Calif., in 1995 and 1996 from China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Import and Export Corp. The committee says Parish, who has denied any quid pro quo relationship, was providing visa assistance at the request of Mann and others so that officials of the conglomerate, known as COFCO, could travel frequently to Phoenix and other U.S. destinations. State Department rules forbid embassy officials from accepting gifts from anyone seeking visas or other official action..... The Republic has learned that the new information includes: Mann gave Parish "a number of gifts," a former COFCO vice president, Jay Ding, has told the committee staff. Ding has told the panel's investigators that he saw Mann pass several wrapped boxes and an envelope to Parish while he was dining with COFCO and BNU officials in Beijing and Phoenix. Ding told the committee he didn't know what the gifts were. He said Mann mentioned a gold Rolex watch and $2,000 in casino chips in connection with Parish, but Ding is not sure she gave either to Parish. The committee said Parish stayed free of charge at a COFCO luxury suite in Scottsdale. The address could not be obtained from either the committee or Mann's office. Several e-mails in Parish's office suggest that Parish, at Mann's request, helped Fuli Lin, vice chairman of BNU, obtain a visa, according to the committee..... "The U.S. Embassy in Beijing is one of our most sensitive diplomatic posts in the world," Burton said in a prepared statement. "It is unfathomable that these kinds of activities could go on right under the noses of top embassy officials for a year and a half."..."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "... I first met Liu Chao Ying in a restaurant in Hong Kong in June 1996 at a dinner I attended with one of my business associates.. She explained that she was thinking of putting a company on the New York Stock Exchange. She said she would give me $300,000 that I was supposed to use to help her set up her business, which was supposed to be in telecommunications and commercial fishing in Southern China. I then set up Marswell Investments in late July/early August 1996 for this purpose. At the time, I used my own money to set up the company but I expected that these costs would ultimately come out of the $300,000 Liu Chao Ying had promised me. During the Washington, D.C. event with Liu and Mr. Yao, I introduced Liu to Don Fowler as the daughter of a powerful General. Fowler joked that he had a low rank in World War II. Also during that trip, I had a discussion with Liu Chao Ying at the Willard Hotel. Liu Chao Ying asked me if I had a Hong Kong bank account. I said yes and gave her my bank account number in Hong Kong by writing void across a blank check and giving the check to her....."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "...When General Ji arrived, he came through the kitchen and introduced himself as "Mr. Xu" - the Chinese equivalent of Mr. Smith. The general said, "You can call me Mr. Xu" and it was clear from the way he said this that this was a bogus name. I and Liu Chao Ying spoke with Ji about her recent trip - talking up the past times I was able to get meetings with politicians and dignitaries. Liu Chao Ying was very deferential to Ji in a way that it made me think he was her boss or superior. The key information relayed to me at this dinner from Ji was the following: -"We really like your President" -"We hope he will be re-elected" or ["We would like him to be re-elected"] -"I will give you $300,000 U.S. dollars" -"You can give it to [or use it for] your President and Democrat Party" ...Ji then left through the kitchen and then we left the way they came in. No one paid the bill..."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "... On August 13, 1996, I met again with Liu Chao Ying and General Ji back in Hong Kong. We met at a hotel lobby in the bar. The hotel is next to the Shangri La Hotel. I first was with Liu and then General Ji came in to join us. Ji said to me - "Now you know who I am." He told me that his name was so sensitive that he still wanted me to call him by an alias - Mr. Xu (equivalent of "Mr. Smith") Ji spoke in Chinese to Liu saying "I will wire $300,000 to your account and you wire it to him." Ji said he needed a "receipt" or "report" to give "to the organization"...."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "... In what I perceived as an effort to persuade me that it was okay to do it this way, she told me that Mark Middleton also "got half a million" from a Sinapore group from someone named Hwang, Huang or Wong and the purpose of the money was "to do good things for China," or to benefit China. She also mentioned a "Boeing Representative in Hong Kong," whom she said they gave a lot of business to. In conjunction with the "Boeing representative," the name Young was mentioned. She also said that "we gave him the business in order for him to do good things for China." I did not have a first name of this Mr. Young. My sense was that I was told this so I wouldn't be worried about taking this money from Ji and Liu Chao Ying. My impression of these other examples was that they were involved in developing relationships and access to help China...."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "... I next saw General Ji's wife when she came back to the United States with her son. I set up their attendance at a Presidential fundraiser - the "Back to the Future" event - at a California movie studio on October 17, 1996. I took my driver and secretary as well as the General's wife and Alex to meet the President. There was a mix-up with the DNC and my driver and secretary were given a private audience with the President while me and the General's wife and son were not included. While my driver and secretary were very appreciative, I was very upset. When the President came into the main event, I moved my way to the front and got in contact with the President and introduced the General's wife and son. The President spoke with Alex and asked him what he was majoring in at college. A picture was then taken by the General's wife or Alex, but I do not know what happened to it. ..."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "... In early 1995, Mr. He, the president of Haomen Beer, asked me to obtain a visa because his was expired. I had previously met Mr. He when I took he and a delegation around Washington, DC in December 1994 in order for them to promote their beer in the United States. I took Mr. He to the United States embassy where I was introduced to Charles Parish. I felt at that time that Mr. Parish and I sort of "hit it off" and was going to be friends. It was not until later that I became aware that Parish and Mr. He of Haomen Beer had developed a separate relationship. Charles Parish helped me get visas for dozens of people who asked me to provide them with invitations to the United States. I also socialized and did many favors for Mr. Parish. I took him as my guest to the September 1995 DNC fund raiser at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, to which he also brought his sister and his girlfriend. At the event I took Parish to a private VIP reception with President Bill Clinton. Mr. Parish insisted that Mr. He and Mr. He's girlfriend have the opportunity to have their picture taken with the president. This was a request that prompted the DNC to ask me for an additional $70,000 contribution. After the Century Plaza event, I arranged a private tour of First Lady Hillary Clinton's office for Mr. Parish when both he and I were in Washington D.C.... At Mr. Parish's request I gave invitations to the United States to at least two women who were girlfriends of his. In Beijing, Parish would occasionally stop by my office. On one of these visits he asked me to hire a computer tutor to train his secretary at the embassy. I spent $500 of my own money accommodating this request. He also asked me to pay the tuition for seven students who he knew, that wanted to be educated in the United States. Although I did not know these students, I spent between $7-8,000 of my own money doing this for Mr. Parish, including sending school supplies like computer programs and books directly to Beijing at his request. Charles Parish did help me out on many occasions. As I stated previously, he approved visa applications for business associates that I brought to him. However, by the end of 1995, I decided I did not want to continue my relationship with Parish. Part of the reason why I no longer wanted to deal with Parish was because he and Mr. He had entered into a relationship that I was not comfortable with. On at least one occasion, I was asked by Mr. He to give a shopping bag of money and visas to Parish. Several months later Mr. Parish asked me to have Mr. He call him. Parish said that he wanted to be sure that the people he provided visas for actually came back to China. Later, Parish told me that indeed, they did return to China. I became unhappy with the way I was being treated by my business associates in Beijing so I decided to close my office. Too many people were asking me for visas, rather than doing business with me...."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "... I was introduced to the people and one of the people in the room was Mr. Robert Luu who was a Chinese-American/U.S. citizen who was in Beijing and had not gone back to the States because of some legal problem. He asked me how to handle his case and I told him he should go back to the U.S. to work it out. I next met Luu in mid-1996. Luu came to the AISI office in Los Angeles, where I met him for approximately ten minutes. Luu discussed a business proposal. The next time I heard from Luu was before my plea. In February 1998, I received a call at my business office from Mr. Luu. A message was left that I had received a call from a Mr. Luu from Beijing. I didn't remember who Luu was and I did not call him back. I pled guilty in March 1998 and began being debriefed by the FBI. Luu called me again. At that time I had been told by the FBI to keep a recording device to record any suspicious conversations, so I did so with this man. In late April/early May 1998, Luu called me and asked how I was doing. He also spoke sympathetically about me being in a difficult situation. Luu asked to meet with me and I obtained specific instructions from the FBI about how to deal with Luu. Again, I was instructed to record all of their conversations. In their first meeting Luu started talking about a Commander Lee, who wanted to take care of me. The message was as follows: if you keep your mouth shut, you and your family will be safe. The Chinese are more polite and indirect than this so the words do not precisely translate. The Chinese communication was much subtler. Nevertheless, this was how I interpreted the meaning of the words. Essentially the message that I believed I was given was that me and my family would be safe if I didn't talk and if I did talk, I could not be certain what would happen. At a minimum, I believed I was being threatened. The FBI told me that they suspected Luu might have criminal connections. Luu also suggested he was in contact with some people from Beijing. Luu said they would give me money to take care of my legal expenses and my family and I could retire. Luu also asked if we could meet again and gave me an address. I was also given a code to use. This was in early May. Throughout this process, the FBI was monitoring communications. The FBI identified Luu as a San Gabriel businessman...."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "... When I met with the attorney and Mr. Luu, there were FBI agents throughout the building. I was told the attorney was connected and knew the number three person at DOJ and that he was familiar with the Judge that was presiding over my case. Luu and the attorney were pitching me to replace my lawyer, Mr. Sun. The lawyer gave me an example of someone who did not cooperate and how everyone around him was taken care of. He said that this client was sentenced to a country club jail...."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "... One of the things that the FBI encouraged me to ask Mr. Luu was - who's behind you? When I asked him, Luu responded by giving me the nickname that I given previously to Liu Chao Ying. The nickname was "gunyang" which means country girl. Luu said "gunyang" was happy that I was protecting her. Luu also mentioned General Ji. Luu also suggested they could plant newspaper stories and that I might be able to get a presidential pardon. Separately, Mr. Luu implied that they could ensure that the Judge would give me a light sentence. The attorney also said he had experience with Watergate. I asked him how he could help me. I was coached by the FBI to be skeptical and press for answers. In this meeting Mr. Luu said that they could take care of my attorneys fee. I was very nervous during this meeting and afterwards the FBI concluded that I had to be moved to a safer place. At that time they moved me to a hotel for 21 days with my family. My daughter who was graduating in this timeframe had to go to graduation with an FBI escort. I also had many phone calls and faxes with Mr. Luu both before and after these meetings. This was a period of great stress for me and my family...."

Johnny Chung's website, testimony to Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 5/11/99 "...By July, Mr. Luu started making self-serving statements on the tapes and tried to distance himself from previous statements. I was instructed by the FBI to tell Mr. Luu that I was going to be subpoenaed by the grand jury and that I had to tell the truth. Mr. Luu at that point had talked about how he thought he was being followed or taped and he told me to tell the truth. By the end of the summer, I told Mr. Luu that I was going to be subpoenaed and asked what I should do. By this time, Luu suspected something was going on - either he was under surveillance or he was being taped - and he began making self-serving statements and exculpatory statements. Luu said if he was ever caught he "would deny" everything and that he does not "know Liu Chao Ying; doesn't know anybody" Luu told me at this point that I should tell the truth. Luu also said at this point that he just wanted to get my case for the other lawyer. I also asked Luu if I should blame this on General Ji and Mr. Luu said sure - the "gunyang" would like that. My last question to Luu was "What should I tell them about you?" This question made Luu very uncomfortable and Luu said, "I know nobody, I'm nobody..." I told him I couldn't lie to the grand jury. I worked with the FBI throughout this entire effort and was coached on what to say to Luu...."

fox.com 8/2/99 Carl Cameron "...Just a few hours before former Democratic Party fund-raiser John Huang was to plea bargain to minor fund-raising violations and be sentenced to probation and a fine, a federal judge in California ordered a last-minute delay Monday to determine whether Huang should be forced to testify before Congress before his case is closed. At the same time, Clinton friend and fund-raiser Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie's scheduled plea bargain two weeks from now in Little Rock was postponed by top Justice Department officials. Attorney General Janet Reno's aides were persuaded by the FBI's Campaign Finance Task Force to further investigate what sources say is Trie's assertion that some White House and Democratic National Committee officials knew he was soliciting and receiving illegal foreign contributions...."

fox.com 8/2/99 Carl Cameron "...The chair of the House investigation into illegal foreign campaign contributions, Dan Burton, R-Ind., has for weeks been asking Justice to postpone Huang's and Trie's sentencing so he could question them. Justice declined. Under the plea deals Huang and Trie will not be charged for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal foreign donations - much of that from Chinese citizens and corporations - to help President Clinton get re-elected, but instead must cooperate with investigators. Burton complained that Huang and Trie are not being forced to testify against bigger fish and are being let off easy. "For them to not be prosecuted fully or get a plea bargain without then turning on some people higher up - it's just criminal," he said...."

NY Times 8/3/99 AP "...A hearing for John Huang was postponed when a Republican congressman demanded that the former Democratic Party fund-raiser testify before Congress before making a courtroom plea bargain. Huang, the Democrats' chief fund-raiser for the Asian-American community in 1996, brought in $1.6 million in questionable donations that later were returned. He has been cooperating with Justice Department investigators in their campaign finance probe......Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles, said Paez delayed the hearing until Aug. 12 and ordered attorneys in the case to begin submitting legal briefs on whether Huang's case should be postponed indefinitely...."

Press Release - House Committee on Government Reform Rep Dan Burton 8/3/99 "...Chairman Dan Burton today said that he hoped a federal judge's decision to postpone the sentencing of DNC fundraiser John Huang improved the chances that the Government Reform Committee and the American people would finally hear Huang's testimony. On July 15, Burton wrote to Judge Richard A. Paez, the Federal Judge presiding over the Huang case, to request that Huang's sentencing be postponed until he agreed to cooperate with Congress. Judge Paez referenced Burton's letter as the basis for his decision to postpone sentencing. Burton also wrote to the federal judge presiding over Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie's case and made the same request. Trie's sentencing has also been postponed. "Congress and the American people have waited for over two and a half years to hear from John Huang and Charlie Trie," Burton said. "I hope the judge's decision is a step in the right direction." ...."The one and only time that we got any cooperation from the Justice Department we were finally able to hear from Johnny Chung. His testimony laid to rest any doubts about whether the Communist Chinese Government tried to interfere with our elections," Burton said. "If John Huang and Charlie Trie are allowed to plead guilty without ever talking to anyone other than the Justice Department, there will always be doubts as to whether they got a sweetheart deal. I hope Judge Paez and Judge Howard will agree that John Huang and Charlie Trie should be required to cooperate with legitimate Congressional investigations." ..."

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 8/3/99 Linda Satter "...If a House committee looking into possible campaign fundraising allegations wants to talk to Charlie Trie, it can stop trying to take advantage of a plea agreement he made in Little Rock and instead grant him immunity, Trie's lawyer asserted Monday.....The plea agreement he made with the Justice Department "plainly does not cover statements made my Mr. Trie in any other forum, such as a Congressional hearing," noted the brief filed by Washington defense attorney Reid Weingarten. It's not as if Trie hasn't alread cooperated and thus hasn't earned a sentence reduction, Weingarten argued. He noted that since the plea, which ended Trie's Little Rock trial that had been under way for a week, Trie has been "debriefed by the government" 14 times for a total of 75-100 hours...."

American Spectator 8/99 Kenneth Timmerman "...Senate investigators have also begun looking into a 76-page confidential report, prepared by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which documents how the Chinese government transferred $92 million to front companies in California through the Far East National Bank in Los Angeles from 1994 to 1996. Government investigators told TAS that the money was used to buy political influence; to finance intelligence gathering and high-tech procurement operations; and more mundanely, to establish overseas investments for various Princelings. The OCC report was sent to the Senate Banking Committee on May 9 by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). In his letter of referral, Shelby said the money was wired to the California bank "either directly or through front companies, by the People's Bank of China," and wound up in accounts "created for the front companies by bank officers." Shelby noted he was "very concerned that some of the individuals and entities involved are reported to be, or believed to be associated with PRC intelligence activities in some manner."

 

Roll Call, www.rollcall.com 8/2/99 Morton Kondracke "...It smells. Despite abundant evidence that Democratic fundraisers channeled Chinese government money into the U.S. election campaign in 1996, no one is going to jail. One by one, Attorney General Janet Reno's Justice Department has cut generous plea bargains with the money launderers and hasn't come near prosecuting any Democratic Party or White House officials. And if there is any connection between Chinese money and cozy Clinton policy toward China, it's unlikely to be discovered as Justice lets the fundraisers off and removes their incentive to talk. Today, one of the major figures in Chinagate, John Huang, is scheduled to be sentenced to a fine and community service after pleading guilty to minor charges having nothing to do with the $1.6 million he raised that the Democratic Party was forced to return. Instead, the Justice Department charged him with making two illegal donations worth $7,500 in two California campaigns in 1993 and 1994..... In spite of all the tantalizing investigative leads Huang represents -- and in spite of his utter refusal to cooperate in Congressional Chinagate investigations -- Justice is closing out its probe of Huang with a slap on the wrist and a promise to bring no further charges against him. Later this month, Justice is scheduled to close the books, too, on President Clinton's friend, Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, who raised more than $1.3 million -- mainly from Asia -- that had to be returned. He, too, has refused to cooperate with Congress, yet was permitted to plead guilty to one felony count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. The charge carries a maximum sentence of up to six years in prison and fines of $350,000, but prosecutors recommended that Trie get a penalty of three years' probation. The third major Chinagate fundraiser, Johnny Chung, was sentenced in December 1998 to probation and community service. But at least Chung did cooperate with Congress...What's disturbing is that Thompson and other Republican leaders haven't kept energetically digging into the finance scandal, leaving the work to a few journalists, right-wing activists and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who's easily dismissed for hyper-partisanship..... Burton is pursuing some interesting avenues, such as a report by Carl Cameron of Fox News that a former crack federal prosecutor in California, Steven Mansfield, was ordered to halt a probe he started in 1996 into Vice President Al Gore's infamous fundraiser at a Buddhist temple. Cameron reported that Mansfield, who successfully prosecuted former Rep. Jay Kim (R-Calif.), was ordered to desist in a letter from Lee Radek, head of the public integrity section of the Justice Department, on grounds that it was a matter for an independent counsel to investigate. However, no independent counsel was ever appointed -- with Radek reportedly one of those most vociferously urging Reno not to take that step. Burton also has been chasing down evidence, also reported by Cameron, that in 1997 the Justice Department ordered the immediate return to Washington of an FBI agent and prosecutor sent to Little Rock, Ark., to stop documents from being shredded by Trie's secretary. ....The former chief counsel in Thompson's 1997 campaign finance probe, Michael Madigan, said the plea bargains have "all the earmarks of something being swept under the rug." Indeed, they do...."

The O'Reilly Factor 8/4/99 Freeper truthkeeper "...Bill O'Reilly said at the end of his show tonight that a MAJOR story was "just breaking:" Dan Burton's House Oversight & Reform Committee had issued a subpoena to Janet Reno regarding campaign finance. No details in yet, but I noticed there's a thread saying they'll be getting Mark Middleton's testimony, too...."

AP 8/5/99 "...Attorney General Janet Reno today denied that the Justice Department has kept open campaign finance investigations involving Democrats to block Republicans in Congress from conducting their own. A House committee investigating alleged fund-raising abuses in the 1996 presidential election is barred from questioning anyone who is a target of an active Justice Department investigation...."

Washington Times 8/5/99 Jerry Seper "...The House committee is expected to ask Mr. Middleton about $275,000 he received from the Riadys through the Arkansas International Development Corp.; whether he had any role in finding Huang at job in 1995 at the Democratic National Committee; his connections to Chinese financier Ng Lap Seng, who wired $1 million into Trie's bank account; and about meetings he arranged for the president and the first lady with would-be contributors, some of whom have since been indicted...."

Washington Times 8/5/99 Jerry Seper "...Mark Middleton, former confidant of Charles Yah Lin Trie, John Huang and Johnny Chung, all of whom confessed to making illegal donations during the 1996 presidential election, is the highest ranking administration official to refuse to cooperate in the campaign-finance probe. Mr. Middleton, a longtime Clinton confidant who raised more than $4 million during the 1992 election, was called to appear before the House Government Reform Committee, which will ask him about his ties to Trie, Huang and Chung and his financial connections with the Lippo Group, a $6 billion Indonesian real estate and banking conglomerate controlled by the Riady family -- also Clinton supporters...."

Washington Times 8/5/99 Jerry Seper "...Chung testified before the committee that Liu Chao-ying, a lieutenant colonel in the People's Liberation Army and a China Aerospace Co. executive with whom Chung had a business relationship, told him that Mr. Middleton received $50,000 in PLA funds to do "good things" for Mr. Clinton. Mr. Middleton has denied the accusation.

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...According to a [Presidential Legal Expense Fund] defense fund trustee, Harold Ickes and Hillary Clinton had knowledge of the corrupt money and did nothing to stop the flow of it until newspaper columns and stories triggered Ickes' tip-off to the DNC that maybe Trie's fundraising would be linked to John Huang and James Riady and, yes, Mr. McDougal...."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...A Justice Department investigation into improper political fundraising activities has uncovered evidence that representatives of the People's Republic of China sought direct contributions from foreign sources to the DNC, the Democratic National Committee, before the 1996 Presidential election. Mr. Speaker, our intelligence--the FBI and CIA--warned Janet Reno directly that China was attempting to influence the White House in policy decisions through campaign finance reports, much like they did in the port that we just talked about, by giving cash donations. The Justice Department task force has discovered that in early 1995, Chinese representatives developed a plan to spend nearly $2 million to buy influence in Congress, this body, and the Clinton administration, and investigators are apparently trying to determine if any of that money was received by John Huang, Charlie Trie, among others. So the FBI has given us warning and the CIA that the Chinese are trying to influence our Government to make decisions in their favor. And then the Clinton administration gives them a $50 million coal burning plant, gives them a $127 to $137 million loan to build Chinese Communist ships. Then they give them access to Long Beach Naval Shipyard and complete control of it. We think that there is a direct problem...."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...In 1992, Candidate Clinton described as unconscionable Indonesia's treatment of the East Timorese, 200,000 of whom had perished since Indonesia had annexed East Timor 20 years ago. The administration even supported the United Nations resolution criticizing Indonesia's East Timor policy. Around the same time, Mark Grobymer, an Arkansas lawyer who golfs with Mr. Clinton, joined Mr. Huang and Mr. Riady on a trip to East Timor. In April the three men visited Mr. Clinton, and, guess what? The President reversed his position. Human rights activists claimed the administration's concern for Timor would be looked into. John Huang helped raise $425,000 from an Indonesian couple whose primary bread earner was as a landscaper. When it was looked into, and that checks were made concurrently by the same source and it was brought up to the press, the DNC returned the money...."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...Mr. Huang's message slips from the Commerce Department also showed calls from one Chinese Embassy official in February 1995 and three calls from the Embassy's commercial minister in June and August of that year. Mr. Huang's desk calendar entries had three meetings scheduled with Chinese Government officials. He attended policy breakfasts at the Chinese Embassy in October 1995 and visited the Indonesian Embassy on October 11, 1995. In March, President Clinton, after this meeting in Indonesia by Mr. Huang, in March 1996, President Clinton reversed a key administrative policy on immigration following a $1.1 million Asian fund-raising dinner, the most successful Asian-American political fund-raiser in United States history. Held the previous month and organized by, who else? John Huang, a former employee of Lippo...."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...President Clinton had previously opposed the practice of allowing foreign-born siblings of naturalized U.S. citizens to come to the United States, based on recommendations of a commission he appointed himself, and affirmed his desire to halt immigration in an early 1996 letter to the Speaker of the House. But in March 1996, President Clinton made a last-minute about-face, after the Indonesian meeting with Mr. Huang and after the fund-raising of $1.1 million, and reversed his position and put top priority recommendations made in a strongly worded John Huang memorandum to Bill Clinton. And then, and now former, Senator Alan Simpson said: I never in 18 years in Congress, and I quote, saw an issue that shifted so fast and so hard...."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...After receiving $1.1 million from Indonesia, Mr. Huang began aggressively arguing for U.S. trade policy toward Vietnam only 1 day after joining the Commerce Department, and again with no security clearances whatsoever or background check, in July 1994, and pushed the idea for the next 17 months when Lippo Group sought to expand its investment empire into Vietnam itself. He also attended interagency meetings of an Indonesian working group. The next month, a United States trade mission to China resulted in a $1 billion power plant that Lippo would finance and benefit from. This is at the same time when the President agreed to give Communist China $50 million for a Chinese coal-burning plant...."

 

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...I feel it is very important that we bring up another subject. That is the subjugation of the United States by a Communist-owned company, and control of. What I would like to do tonight is talk on the facts. Those facts are based on when I served in the U.S. Navy, I served on 7th Fleet staff and was responsible for all Southeast Asia countries, the defense of, not only in the training exercises, but in the real world threat.... Cosco is a Communist-owned, Communist Chinese-owned company. Its purpose is ship containers in and out of major ports all over the world..... What I plan to show tonight is a direct link between the White House fundraising with China and assets that have gone in favor of Communist China that could pose as a national security threat to the United States. I have intelligence reports that state so. I have facts that also state so, and I would like to make that case this evening....."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...Last year, it was Cosco that delivered to the State of California 2,000 AK-47's. The company that builds the AK-47's, the company that negotiates the trade of AK-47's around the world, the company Cosco, all set up by the PRC, the People's Republic of China, owns. They do not report to department heads. Their CEO is Communist China, all owned and coordinated and controlled by Communist China. Yet, they delivered over 2,000 AK-47's into our country, with the intent of selling these arms to our inner cities to disrupt, to disrupt our inner cities, and disrupt our political environment within the United States of America. At the same time, the Clinton White House accepted both Cosco and the gunrunners themselves in a White House coffee..."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...Long Beach Naval Shipyard, the marines lost a bid for the site to a China Cosco firm, and I quote from the Washington Times: Several officers in the Marine Corps have raised questions about why the Clinton administration favored turning over a military base in Long Beach, CA to the Chinese ocean shipping company, Cosco, over the protest of marine reserve battalion made homeless by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Briefings on the firm fail to convince many of its members. The CIA, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Coast Guard reinforced the view that Cosco's strong link with the Chinese Government is a fatal flaw in its proposal to deliver the base to a company.... "

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...Johnny Chung, a Chinese American businessman from California, gave $366,000 to the Democrats, the DNC, that was later returned on suspicion it illegally came from foreign sources. Chung brought 6 Chinese officials to the White House last year to watch President Clinton make his weekly radio address. One of the 6 was the advisor from COSCO who was later given by the President access to Long Beach shipyard and also the actual gun runners that were there in the White House gave money to the DNC. The chairman of one of these two Chinese arms companies implicated in the scheme to smuggle the 2,000 illegal Chinese-made weapons into Oakland aboard COSCO's ship had coffee in the White House in an affair associated with D.C. fundraising. Officials of the weapons company were indicted for shipping those arms...."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...On the campaign trail last year and in a White House meeting in 1995, President Clinton endorsed the proposal to transfer land of the Long Beach Naval shipyard to COSCO, but it was this March, 1995, the White House radio address that had critics talking. A COSCO advisor was among the Chinese businessmen invited to hear the President in the oval office just two days after a California businessman, Johnny Chung, made a $50,000 donation to the DNC and hand-delivered it to Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff Margaret Williams, CBS Evening News, March 11, 1997...."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...Shortly after the Long Beach Naval shipyard land transfer was arranged, the Clinton administration helped arrange, listen to this, Mr. Speaker, in the President's budget that he submitted, he gave free, no strings, gave to Communist China $50 million to burn a coal burning plant, after these meetings and after these DNC fund-raisers from the Chinese. He can cut impact aid for education, but he can also give $50 million to Communist China in the name of trade and just give it. That is not fair trade...."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...He also gave a multimillion dollar loan to build 5 Communist Chinese ships, COSCO ships, in a nonrecourse loan. What that means, Mr. Speaker, this is a loan of some $137 million, which may not be much to many Members around this body, but you ask the American people, $137 million of their taxpayers' dollars back up a nonrecourse loan to Communist China, a state-controlled company by Communist China, and if they forfeit, who is left holding the bag? The United States taxpayers. Our own ship builders do not have access to this type of loan, Mr. Speaker. Incredible. But yet the administration gives Communist China.... "

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...COSCO was fined for paying kickbacks to shippers instead of abiding by tariffs. This is, again, a Chinese-operated company that was cited for giving kickbacks, payoffs for access.... Mr. Speaker, President Clinton took a personal role in promoting the interests of COSCO. At the same time he was cutting over 100 warships from the U.S. fleet, drawn up by the Bush administration, a 23 percent cut. The symbolism could not be anymore stark. ...."

Washington Weekly 8/9/99 Marvin Lee "...Burton asked Middleton about a statement attributed to Liu Chao-Ying, an agent of the Chinese intelligence, that Mark Middleton got a half-million dollars through a group in Singapore to "do good things for China." "We've received testimony that you were doing something clandestine with agents of the Chinese military -- the daughter of the PLA's most senior general. It was very cryptic. But since you haven't spoken to us, it's all we have to go on," Burton said. What is known is that Middleton was instrumental in buying the silence of Whitewater witness Webster Hubbell with money from China. James Riady and John Huang met repeatedly with Middleton in the White House before wiring $100,000 from a Hong Kong bank partly owned by Chinese intelligence to Webster Hubbell. And when Chinese Triad Mobster Ng Lap-seng entered the U.S. with a suitcase containing $175,000 in cash, he went to see Mark Middleton at the White House. Ng Lap-seng is a friend of Clinton crony Charlie Trie and has been suspected of carrying cash between the Chinese government and the White House. The White House has never accounted for the source of or the spending of these suitcases full of cash, and neither Ng Lap-seng nor Middleton are willing to talk...."

FoxNews O’Reilly Factor 8/16/99 Freeper go star go reports "…



Chung just said the DNC told him 'the bad thing will happen to you it you don't pay $70,000'!
" Freeper kristinn adds ".Chung tells of DNC memo, in Congressional committee records, that threatens that "bad things" will happen to Chung if he doesn't come up with $70,000 for a 2 person photo-op at a dinner for which he had already paid $25,000 for 25 people to attend with him (17 were Chinese nationals.) Chung says that when it came to the source of his contributions, the DNC position was, 'don't ask, don't tell.' …" Freeper Patriot adds "…Dec 94, Chung paid 40k to meet Gore....They are showing photos of Chung with Gore. He said that he was solicted at the WH. O'Leary would not meet with Chung until he gave 25k to Afro-Care her favorite charity...He keeps mentioning Sullivan...He seems to be involved in arranging the meetings... " Freeper kristinn adds "…
Chung says Gore asked for "support" from him and others during a meeting in Veep's office after a function. O'Reilly says that without a specific solicitation for campaign contributions, a crime cannot be charged. The $25,000 donation to Hazel O'Leary's 'favorite' charity, Africare, came from an aide who said it would get a meeting arranged for Chung. He says that the $25,000 bought him a table at a dinner which he was the only one sitting at. O'Leary came by to thank him and ask if the meeting went well. No mention by her of the donation…." Freeper Patriot adds "…Chung just called Maggie Williams a liar! She know what the $50K was for when he gave it to her for Hillary..... " Freeper Howlin adds "…Evan Ryan set up meeting with Maggie Williams. Chung hands her a check for $50,000.00. "That's correct." Williams says she didn't know what was in the envelope. Chung says, "That's wrong." Evan Ryan tells Chung in the WH that Hillary has HUGE debt to DNC for a Christmas party. Lightbulb time. He offers $50,000 on the spot…." Freeper Howlin adds "…Room Number 101, Old EOB......Williams opens envelop, looks at check, calls White House Mess to make reservations for them to eat. He is definitely calling Maggie a liar. "Is not" telling the truth. National Teachers Association awards at the White House. Hillary's office says come back at 3....they did. In Rose Garden.....everything all set up....... Goes to Map Room. He asked Ryan does HILLARY know about the $50,000 to DNC. Ryan says YES. …" Freeper Howlin "…
BTW, the name is Evelyn Ryan.......and she is HRC's secretary at the White House. …" Howlin adds "…
...I was simply amazed that the request was made in a government office!....I'm sure he said DOJ.......but why would he be talking to a DOJ person to try to get into the DOE? I may be wrong about the department, but he DEFINTELY said in the office! …." Freeper citizen ".....He keeps mentioning Sullivan. --- Richard Sullivan, DNC. He was the first so-called witness in the Fred Thompson campaign finance hearings. Sullivan lied his lying butt off. Conferred with his lawyer and stuttured out answers is a more apt discription. They even called Sullivan back to testify late in the Thompson hearings because his first testimony was already proven to be highly suspect. Sullivan did much better this time, he lied more convincingly with less speech impediments. Though his truculence at being recalled shone through at that last session. Congressional hearings are now a joke, no fault to those trying to do their job. Partisan hijinks and manuevers gaurantee a muddled no-bill. A compromised DOJ allows no reprisals for baldfaced liars…."

FoxNews 8/17/99 "…In an exclusive interview with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor Monday night, Johnny Chung, a key figure in the 1996 campaign finance scandal, said he had visited the White House 57 times. Chung also stated that he was on a first-name basis with President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton…. He also stated that the Democratic National Committee never asked him if he received money from foreign nationals — it is against the law for foreign nationals to contribute funds to candidates or political parties, so-called "hard" and "soft" money, respectively. Chung stated that he viewed the contributions from Chinese businessmen as his own money. Perhaps his most explosive comment during the interview was that executives of the Democratic National Committee threatened him in the aftermath of a fund-raiser in Los Angeles. Chung said that he donated $25,000 for a table at a Clinton-Gore fund raiser, which entitled his party to two photos with the president. Chung said he wanted four photos with the president and was told he would have to donate an additional $70,000 to secure the extra photos. He said that DNC executives noted that he had promised the additional $70,000 and that bad things would happen to him if he didn't pay. Chung went on to say that he never donated the additional $70,000. Chung also contradicted the claim of Maggie Williams, Mrs. Clinton's former chief of staff, that she did not know that an envelope he handed her in the White House contained a check for $50,000. Chung said that Williams looked in the envelope, which contained the check for the Democratic National Committee, and a note to Mrs. Clinton. Williams has said that she did not look in the envelope. Chung said he donated the money to help Mrs. Clinton pay off a debt to the DNC incurred in a Christmas party….. "At the very beginning of 1997, the Democrat side of the Government Reform Committee sent a package to my office, to my attorney's office," Chung said in the interview, adding that the package, "Tried to teach me how to plead — take the fifth." Chung testified before the congressional panel in a five-hour closed session in November 1997 and again in May 1999 after claims that his account differed from press reports of what he told federal investigators….."

NewsMax.com 8/16/99 "…In his exclusive interview with FOX News Channel (FNC) anchor Bill O'Reilly, host of FNC's highest rated show, Johnny Chung, the central figure in the campaign finance scandal, revealed he received a package on "how to plead the Fifth" from the chief counsel for the Democrats on The Government Reform and Oversight Committee….. CHUNG: Mr. O'Reilly, at the very beginning of 1997, the Democrat side of the Government Reform Committee sent a package to my office, to my attorney's office. O'REILLY: The Democratic side? CHUNG: The Democrat side. O'REILLY: Of the -- what committee? CHUNG: The Government Reform and Oversight…….CHUNG: I don't receive personal, but my attorney's office received the package. It say how you can plea -- how you can take a Fifth in the United States Congress. O'REILLY: Who sent you that package? CHUNG: Government Reform Committee, Democrat side…."

NewsMax.com 8/16/99 "…Chung also clarified for Bill O'Reilly that he had not been to the White House 49 times as has been widely reported, but had actually been there 57 times.: O'REILLY: So the DNC knew that you were giving them money and they made the calls to the right people in the White House to get you in to meet the president, the first lady, the vice president, and on and on. Fine. The president of the United States, Mr. Clinton, did he ever wonder why Johnny Chung was always in the White House, 49 times? CHUNG: First of all, I want to correct you. It's not 49 times, this is official. Fifty-seven times…."

NewsMax.com 8/16/99 "… O'Reilly asked Chung if the DNC knew the money being donated was from Chinese Nationals: CHUNG: DNC know I've been cultivated the business with those Chinese people all along. O'REILLY: They knew you were involved with the Chinese nationals. CHUNG: Even the documentation, we'll show it to you. They invite those people to come to certain event. O'REILLY: OK. But they never asked you point blank, "Johnny Chung, are they giving you money that you're handing us?" Did DNC ever ask you that Fowler… any of those guys ever ask you that? CHUNG: Don't ask, don't tell. Chung also explained how the DNC tried to get around scrutiny by having Chung cut 23 separate checks for $1000, instead of one large check: CHUNG: I used my employee -- after they told me that they cannot take that $25,000, I instruct my general manager to collect a 23 check, and I reimbursed him. O'REILLY: And you reimbursed him, OK. CHUNG: And that was... O'REILLY: There's one more loose end I want to tie up on this DNC fund-raiser in L.A. CHUNG: But I do want to point it out here is, they did know, on that two table there are Chinese national, they come to greet them. O'REILLY: Sure. CHUNG: And then, how come they don't take my $25,000 for DNC, and they insist to ask me to give them another 23 individual check, each one is $1,000…"

Washington Times 8/18/99 Jerry Seper "…Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee sought for two years to delay and obstruct the panel's campaign-finance investigation, even telling a top White House aide to make himself unavailable for a deposition to which he had been subpoenaed, according to congressional records. The documents, reviewed in the wake of accusations this week by former Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung that he was coached on how to plead the Fifth Amendment before a 1997 appearance before the committee, outline a suspected plan by Democrats to block the committee's ongoing probe. Republicans have begun an investigation to determine what role Democrats played in trying to protect the White House against accusations of campaign-finance abuses….."The Democratic minority counsel has acted as defense attorneys for a whole list of would-be witnesses, trying to scare them into not testifying," said the committee's spokesman, Mark Corallo. "They didn't have to come right out and blatantly tell the witnesses not to testify, but they certainly set a tone of fear and intimidation. "They made no effort to find out the truth of whether campaign-finance abuses during the 1996 election compromised our national-security system," he said…..But Republicans said yesterday that committee records, including depositions of key witnesses and numerous letters written concerning the panel's inquiry, document GOP concerns that committee Democrats and their attorneys sought to delay the depositions, intimidate would-be witnesses and obstruct the investigation. They said the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California, wrote in an April 3, 1998, letter to committee Chairman Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, that he was "disappointed" the deposition of White House Deputy Counsel Bruce Lindsey -- a key figure in the campaign-finance probe -- had been scheduled during the spring recess. Mr. Waxman told the chairman that he had advised Mr. Lindsey to "not be available for this deposition" -- a suggestion roundly criticized by Republicans as an example of what they said were delaying tactics utilized by Democrats throughout the probe….."

Washington Times 8/18/99 Jerry Seper "…The committee records, copies of which were obtained by The Washington Times, show that: … - During the deposition of one White House official, minority counsel raised objections on 49 occasions, and that during another deposition, the Democrats sought to prevent a witness from answering questions by the majority counsel despite the witnesses' willingness to do so. -At some depositions, objections were raised directly by Mr. Waxman and Rep. Tom Lantos, California Democrat, both of whom challenged with some regularity the validity of questions asked by the majority counsel. During the deposition of one White House aide, Republicans said Mr. Waxman tried to prevent questions concerning former Justice Department official Webster L. Hubbell, a longtime friend of President and Mrs. Clinton. -Democrats sought to block committee efforts to subpoena records from state Democratic Party organizations, through which suspected illegal campaign funds had been funneled. Mr. Waxman argued there was no evidence of wrongdoing. Investigators later discovered that illegal donations had been routed to the state organizations….."

Judicial Watch 8/18/99 Larry Klayman "…Today, Judicial Watch will file a complaint before the House Ethics Committee, alleging, based on information disclosed by Johnny Chung, and expanded upon by The Washington Times, that Democrats, led by Congressman Henry Waxman of California, have obstructed Congressional investigations into Chinagate. Based on recent reports, Congressman Waxman also may be linked to a scheme to use the Internal Revenue Service to audit, harass and harm critics of the Clinton Adminisration. Judicial Watch will also ask the House Ethics Committee to look into this as well. Judicial Watch takes a particular interest in Congressman Waxman because of its California office in San Marino. If Judicial Watch is to represent the interests of Californians and Westerners, as well as all Americans, it cannot turn a blind eye to the conduct of Congressman Waxman and his friends…."

Judicial Watch 8/18/99 Tom Fitton Letter to Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, US House of Representatives "… Re: Complaint Against Congressman Henry Waxman and Involved Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee. Dear Committee: On behalf of the American people and in the public interest, we hereby file a complaint against Congressman Henry Waxman of the 29th District of California. Judicial Watch is a public interest group dedicated to fighting government corruption.

In recent days there have been press reports on the Fox News Channel and in the Washington Times that Congressman Waxman and Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee have attempted to impede the free flow of testimony of a material witness, Johnny Chung, in the campaign finance/Chinagate scandals. Attached hereto as Exhibit 1, and incorporated by reference are the transcripts, a video clip, and press reports of these allegations.

Furthermore, recent press reports have suggested that Congressman Waxman may be one of the individuals, including, but not limited to, officials of the Democratic Party and the Clinton Administration, who have engaged in a scheme to use the Internal Revenue Service to audit, harass and harm critics of the Clinton Administration. Attached hereto as Exhibit 2, and incorporated by reference are press reports of these allegations.

If true, these reports on the campaign finance/Chinagate and IRS scandals would mean that Congressman Waxman has violated laws and rules that include, but are not limited to: 18 U.S.C.§§ 1505, 1502; House Rule XXIV, Code of Official Conduct, no.1; and The Code of Ethics for Government Employment, nos. 1, 2, 9 & 10. We therefore demand a full investigation on behalf of the American people.

In light of the fact that Chairman Dan Burton of the Government Reform Committee has continuously complained about Democrat obstruction of his investigation into the campaign finance/Chinagate scandals, and given his remarks yesterday evening on The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News (enclosed as part of Exhibit 1), it is clear that he should certify that he believes this information is submitted in good faith and warrants the review and consideration of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

Judicial Watch, Inc., certifies that it has provided an exact copy of this complaint and all attachments to Congressman Waxman and Chairman Burton.

Sincerely, JUDICIAL WATCH, INC. Larry Klayman…"

Investors Business Daily 8/19/99 "…The Washington Times is reporting that Democrats stalled a congressional investigation into White House fund- raising practices. We're not surprised. That's what happens when politicians forget principle and focus on holding on to power. Once the Democratic Party was a bastion of idealism. It was guided by principle. Its members held tight to deep convictions. Now, with Republicans in control of Congress, Democratic leaders have all but forgotten their party's ideological foundation. They will do whatever's necessary to stay in the White House, the only tie to power they still have. Their desperation caused them to ignore campaign finance laws to re-elect President Clinton. As one lie begets another, they later found they needed to block probes into the alleged violations if they were to keep the presidency and have any hope of regaining Congress. Wednesday's Washington Times reveals that Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee delayed - even obstructed - the panel's Chinagate probe to protect the White House. Congressional documents report that the Democrats went so far as to tell a White House aide to skip a deposition he had been subpoenaed for….. Congressional Democrats aren't alone in their zeal to foil probes into the campaign practices of their party and president. The Justice Department under Attorney General Janet Reno has been a graveyard for potential investigations. Despite pressure from Congress and the FBI, Reno refused to appoint an independent counsel to look into charges the Chinese military had funneled money into the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton- Gore 1996 re-election campaign. She said she saw no evidence that required an independent-counsel probe. Yet her hand-picked investigator, who called for a special prosecutor, said Reno misinterpreted the independent- counsel law in a way that protected Clinton and Vice President Al Gore…..The same mind-set was at work in the Senate, where Democrat John Glenn of Ohio blocked Republican Fred Thompson's investigation of influence-buying by China. Principle demanded that Glenn cooperate with the probe to root out corruption. But Glenn and the Democrats put party interest above national interest. …..Attaining power for the sake of power, and doing whatever's necessary to cling to it, leads to ignoring the law and, more importantly, what's right…."

http://www.mrc.org/news/cyberalert/1999/cyb19990730.html#4 7/30/99 "…Cameron honed in on Reno and how the FBI was afraid to share information because they knew the White House would get it: "Some Justice Department investigators suspect their bosses deliberately dropped the ball to protect the President, though the inspector general concluded it was poor judgment and not intentional. But congressional critics think Attorney General Janet Reno and her closest advisers were playing pure politics. And according to the report, when Reno's top troops wanted to share evidence with the White House, the FBI protested, even boycotted meetings, to prevent the handing over of such information, saying it was, quote, ‘akin to briefing the subject of an investigation about that investigation.’ Giving a clue about who is providing him with his information, Cameron observed: "Line-level investigators and prosecutors, disgruntled with the way Department of Justice management have handled, and some say botched, this entire case, almost daily now are disclosing more information. Last night Fox reported on how the initial investigation into the Buddhist temple fundraising event was thwarted by the attorney general's office. In fact, one specific individual, the head of the Office of Public Integrity, Lee Radek, has essentially been fingered as trying to close down that investigation. And as a result, Congress plans to subpoena Mr. Radek's documents to find out whether or not he tried in some way to close things down in order to protect the President." …."

NewsMax.com 8/16/99 "…Chung also revealed that the FBI and DOJ had him tape conversations with a Chinese National nicknamed "Fish Powder" who was an important contact person between the Chinese Government and Chung: O'REILLY: So what you're saying is that after you were caught and after all the heat came down on Johnny Chung, you were honest, you told the investigators -- Chuck LaBella, the FBI agents -- just as you're telling me today, what happened, here's what happened. But in Washington Janet Reno's staff sat on it and didn't do anything with it. Is that accurate? CHUNG: That's very accurate. I can say that in my part I told them everything I know in this ongoing investigation, and I didn't see any of them is really come out to the light yet. For example, I have the agreement with the Department of Justice, I'm not going to mention the name, but we gave him a nickname, we call Fish Powder. O'REILLY: Fish Powder? CHUNG: Yes. We gave a nickname. And this gentlemen of Fish Powders, he is very important witness and my prosecutors put him on watch list of the immigration office. Any time he comes to the United States, they want to question him. O'REILLY: Is he a Chinese national? CHUNG: That's correct. O'REILLY: And what happened is this guy call me out of the blue. And my prosecutor doesn't know that. The FBI who protect me doesn't know that. And then I was instructed by the FBI to record all of the conversation. I was instructed by my prosecutor to record all of the conversations. And I've been recording a lot under their instruction, the Department of Justice and FBI. And this guy comes in and out to our country freely, and nobody talked to him. And he's a very important witness. …"

Original Sources 8/18/99 Mary Mostert "…. If the Democrats on the Committee that was trying to investigate the irregularities of the 1996 Campaign finance contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign were blatantly blocking the investigation and trying to lead and/or block testimony of a key witness, that is, as O’Reilly bluntly pointed it, not merely a Campaign Finance problem - it’s major government corruption. Bill O’Reilly did an excellent job of trying to get to the bottom of this bombshell of a revelation in both his questions to Johnny Chung and in questions to Philip M. Schiliro, staff director for the Democrats on the Committee. In framing the questions to Schiliro, O’Reilly said: "The Democrats deny trying to impede Chung’s testimony and say that Chung’s attorney, Brian Sun, ASKED for the information about taking the Fifth and so it was sent. Counselor Sun’s office said that was ‘ludicrous.’" He then allowed Schiliro time to reply to "Johnny Chung’s accusation that the Democrats tried to convince him to take the 5th Amendment." …O'Reilly: To continue now with counselor Philip Schiliro, of the Democratic side- 122 people have either fled or pled (the 5th Amendment) in this Chinese Campaign Finance thing. That’s why it looks so bad, Counselor and I have to tell you as a journalist I’m trying to be fair here. I understand what you are saying and I not calling you a liar, and I’m not saying you are not telling the truth - I don’t know who is telling the truth. But, I do know that when 122 people either leave the country or refuse to testify, ANY APPEARANCE that the Democrats are helping people not testify is disturbing. Schiliro: There is absolutely no evidence at all other than Mr. Chung’s statement which is factually incorrect, that Democrats have done that. We haven’t done that. It’s been in our interest to get people to testify to resolve this matter as quickly as possible and we’ve done that. The other point that you should know is that in this investigation Democrats have virtually no influence or power. All the unilateral decisions get to be made by Chairman Burton.

Editor’s Note: No evidence? Schiliro ADMITTED they sent the materials - that makes it the testimony of TWO witnesses that the until now unknown incident of the Democrats having unilateral association with the witnesses they were voting immunity against took place. Schiliro is saying, "So what?" He is not denying it happened.

O'Reilly: Let’s go now to Chairman Dan Burton, Chairman of the House Reform and Oversight Committee. How do you react to Counselor Schiliro? You didn’t know anything about this, right? About the Chung - that the Democrats sent him the stuff about the 5th Amendment. What’s your feeling on it?

Chairman Dan Burton:My feeling is that Mr. Chung had adequate counsel. Mr. Sun is a very fine attorney out on the West Coast and he understands very clearly what Mr. Chung’s 5th Amendment rights were. And for the Minority of my Committee to be sending information, apparently unsolicited, to Mr. Chung and his attorney telling them how to take the 5th Amendment appears to me to be obstructing our investigation. I think that’s totally improper.

O'Reilly: Who do you believe in this? Do you believe the Democrats would be foolish enough to send Chung information about the 5th Amendment without telling you - unsolicited? That seems to be a bad political move.

Chairman Dan Burton:Well, Mr. Chung was doing a lot of contributing to the Democratic National Committee and the President’s Re-election Committee. And, I think they saw him as a Democrat ally, but this Justice Department and Janet Reno I believe has been working in concert with Mr. Waxman to try to keep us from getting witnesses before the Committee. We have to have a two-thirds majority vote to give immunity to a witness to be able to have them testify. We have not been able to get Henry Waxman and the Democrats to work with us except on one occasion and that was after we made some very strong concessions to them.

The fact of the matter is they have worked with the Justice Department to block us every step of the way and I think Johnny Chung is verifying that on your program.

O'Reilly:Do you believe Chung?

Chairman Dan Burton:I do believe him.

O'Reilly:Do you believe what he told us?

Chairman Dan Burton:I do believe him, because this is not the first time that we have had this kind of problem. I was having Louis Freeh, Chuck LaBella and the Chief FBI agent before my Committee. One hour before I was going to have them testify before my Committee, Janet Reno called me and said SHE wanted to testify. I said, "We’re not prepared, Madame Attorney General, to have you testify. If you’d let us know a little earlier, we might have worked that out." When the Committee Meeting started less than an hour later Henry Waxman had a letter from her that was addressed to ME! That I had not even received! And, he read it saying she was really upset because I wouldn’t let her testify. She had to have written that letter in 45 minutes and get it to him, and it was addressed to me.

So, once again, the Justice Department and the Attorney General were working in concert with Mr. Waxman to block our investigation. And that is the modus operandi that has been going on.

O'Reilly:So, basically what you are saying is: Mr. Chung’s statements are correct that federal laws were broken by the President, the Vice-President, the First Lady, and Hazel O’Leary. That there’s a massive cover-up going on and its a situation that is totally out of control right now.

Chairman Dan Burton:Oh, I think it IS out of control. I’ve said for three years now that Janet Reno has been blocking for the President. She was supposed to appoint an independent counsel to investigate Campaign Finance. Chuck LaBella said she should. Louis Freeh, the head of the FBI said she should. The head of the FBI investigative team said she should. And, she didn’t DO it! She’s been blocking for the President.

She has not allowed us to talk to witnesses because she hides behind what she says is Grand Jury or 6E material. And, Johnny Chung is right. She sits on information and keeps the cases open because once the cases are closed I can bring those people before my committee. And I know for a fact that she has kept case after case open so I can’t get to the witnesses.

O'Reilly:Unbelievable! ….Perhaps the most blatant thing that Chung told us last night was that he handed Maggie Williams, Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff $50,000 IN THE WHITE HOUSE! She took it, looked in the envelope, and called up the White House mess, made a reservation so Chung and his party could go down and eat, and then the money went to the DNC (Democratic National Committee.)

Now, that’s CLEARLY against the law! You can’t DO that! But I haven’t heard anything about that other than a cursory thing here!

Chairman Dan Burton:Bill, we’ve talked about all these things over the past three YEARS! This is not an isolated case. The President was going to fund-raisers where very few people even spoke English and he knew that they were fund-raisers. And, a lot of those people were not Chinese-Americans. They were Chinese nationals. And, he knew that. He also tried to circumvent the campaign laws by talking about how to get soft money into the campaign when the candidates are not supposed to be involved in that in any way…."