Ron Brown files sealed

The Clinton administration claims they have nothing to hide.
Yet, the White House is resisting the release of documents
hidden inside the files of the late Ron Brown. The documents
are being sought by the House National Security Committee. The
documents involve a 1996 presidential waiver written by Clinton
for the troubled Loral Aerospace Corporation. Congressional
officials are concerned because the 1996 Clinton waiver for
Loral included the transfer of an advanced satellite encryption
telemetry ground station to China.

“Dozens of documents the House National Security Committee was
promised have not been delivered,” said Congressman Gibbons of
Nevada in a recent interview for Congressional Daily. “That is
typical of someone who has something to hide.”

In the fall of 1995, Undersecretary of Commerce William Reinsch
and Commerce legal counsel Betty Baca exchanged a series of
highly classified memos on granting a “National Interest Waiver”
for a U.S. satellite company. The Reinsch memos were removed
from the Commerce Department by former DNC fundraiser, and close
friend of John Huang, Ira Sockowitz. Those files were found in
1996, along with over 2,000 pages of classified documents,
hidden in the personal safe of Mr. Sockowitz at the Small
Business Administration.

In early July, 1998, during a session of the House National
Security Committee, Rep. Gibbons asked Reinsch to produce
the 1995 satellite waiver documents. Gibbons, a
ranking member of the National Security Committee, made direct
reference to the Reinsch 1995 memos, citing the Commerce
Department worked on the waiver for a satellite launch from
Kazakhstan in the former Soviet Union. Reinsch promised during
the hearing that he would produce the hidden waiver documents.

Curiously, the company involved in this particular transfer is
being withheld from the public by the Clinton administration.
The company name is also blacked out in the official Sockowitz
inventory list.

In July of 1996, Loral obtained President Clinton’s approval to
orbit a chain of 48 Globalstar satellites from Kazakhstan. The
first satellites are scheduled to be launched on top of the
Russian built Zenit and Soyuz boosters in 1999. Loral’s CEO,
Bernard Schwartz, also donated over one million dollars to the
DNC.

In response to the House request for the Sockowitz documents, on
July 6, 1998, Reinsch wrote a confused reply to Chairman Floyd
Spence of the House National Security Committee. Curiously,
Reinsch ignores the Kazakhstan request and claims in his letter
that the memos he exchanged with Ms. Baca were not for the
Chinese Loral satellite launch that failed in February, 1996.

“The waiver recommendations I signed were for different
satellite exports,” wrote Reinsch. “Copies of those
recommendations are attached. All three are classified and
contain information subject to Section 12 (c) of the Export
Administration Act, and may not be included in the printed
report.”

If anyone is confused (or stalling) here it is Reinsch and the
administration. Chairman Spence and Rep. Gibbons clearly noted
the documents they wanted to see were the 1995 Kazakhstan launch
waivers. President Clinton and Mr. Reinsch both claim executive
orders transferring oversight for space exports from State to
Commerce were not issued until 1996. Yet, Reinsch’s 1995 waiver
memos clearly shows that the Brown’s Commerce Department had a
much larger role than previously admitted.

In addition, President Clinton signed a SECOND part to the
waiver for Loral’s Globalstar system in July of 1996. The
second part of the Clinton waiver was not for satellites to
Russia but allowed Loral to sell an encrypted telemetry control
ground station to China for the Loral Globalstar satellites.
The station has already been built and has opened just outside
of Beijing.

Each of Loral’s Globalstar satellites sends data back to earth
stations in the form of encrypted telemetry. This information
can be best described as the electronic heartbeat of the
satellite. The information is scrambled so that no one else can
control or monitor the satellite in operation. Encrypted
telemetry is a highly valuable military technology that can be
directly applied to Chinese army satellites and missiles.

“In March 1996,” wrote Reinsch in his recent letter to Spence.
“The export of a ground station which contained encryption would
have been under the jurisdiction of the State Department.”

In 1996, encrypted telemetry was a separate item — not
controlled by the Commerce Department. The only way to dodge
the State Department sanctions on the export of satellite
encryption to China was by obtaining Bill Clinton’s signature.
On July 9, 1996, Bill Clinton signed the waiver for Loral.

In November, 1996, right after the election, President Clinton
removed all encryption technology oversight from the State
Department and the Department of Defense by executive order.
Today, both satellite and encryption technology are under the
control of the Commerce Department. In fact, President Clinton
transferred to Commerce nine space technologies previously
controlled by the State Department.

The nine items formerly on the U.S. Munitions List are: anti-jam
systems; antennas with apertures greater than 30 ft.;
inter-satellite links; spaceborne regenerative baseband
processing; radiation hardened chips; propulsion systems with
accelerations of in-orbit satellites greater than .1 g; attitude
and control systems with accuracy greater than .02 degree per
axis; kick motors and satellite encryption.

In addition, the Clinton administration is also resisting the
release of documents on secret meetings held in the White House.
Information on the secret meetings was obtained from the U.S.
Commerce Department using the Freedom of Information Act and
from inside the hidden files of Ira Sockowitz.

Commerce Undersecretary Reinsch has refused to turn over files
linking secret Clinton administration meetings with a powerful
lobby group of computer companies, called the Computer Systems
Policy Project (CSPP). At the July, 1998, House National
Security hearing, Rep. Gibbons asked Reinsch to produce all
documentation on secret meetings and classified briefings given
to the CSPP. Reinsch has not complied.

“The Department of Commerce does not have all of this
information and must obtain it from OTHER SOURCES,” wrote
Reinsch in his July 6, 1998 reply letter to Chairman Spence.
“We are assembling the information and will provide it to the
Committees once we have it.”

Interestingly, starting in 1994 the CSPP was represented by the
brother of Clinton adviser John Podesta. Moreover, John Podesta
was then charged with the Clinton administration oversight on
super-computers and encryption policy — the same policy his
brother’s company was responsible for lobbying.

Documents obtained from the U.S. Commerce Department and from
the CSPP shows that on June 6, 1995 the CSPP had a secret
meeting in the White House on super-computer and encryption
export policy. One such document, a briefing memo prepared for
Ron Brown by William Reinsch, notes the CSPP was interested in
“computer” and “encryption” exports.

CSPP executive director Ken Kay in 1994 and 1995 was also an
employee of Podesta Associates, a lobbying firm owned by Tony
Podesta. In fact, the official CSPP reports issues in Jan.
1995, also found in Ron Brown’s files, note that Podesta
Associates was running the CSPP lobby effort.

Mr. Kay, and the CSPP lawyer, Charles Levy from the D.C. law
firm of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering, both attended the secret
White House meeting in June, 1995. Both Levy and Kay also
donated thousands of dollars to DNC candidates according to
Federal Election Commission records.

In fact, the June 6, 1995 secret meeting at the White House
included a State Department specialist on super computers and
nuclear proliferation. CSPP member Silicon Graphics sold five
super-computers to the Russian Ministry of Atomics (MINATOM)
just after the June meeting in late 1995. The Silicon Graphics
computers are now being used by the Russians to improve their
nuclear warheads.

On June 6, 1995, John Podesta, was employed at the White House
to oversee computer and encryption policy. John Podesta was
executive secretary and assistant to the president until July
1995 when he left to work for his brother at Podesta Associates.

Documentation obtained from the Clinton National Security
Council (NSC) shows that starting in 1993 John Podesta was
charged with oversight of U.S. computer and encryption policy.
A series of White House 1993 email messages from George Tenet,
the current CIA Director, clearly details meetings and reports
prepared for John Podesta. John Podesta was charged with the
very same policy that Ken Kay, Tony Podesta’s employee, was
lobbying for inside the White House — at the same time.

Furthermore, CSPP members Tandem, Digital, Compaq, Unisys, AT&T
and Cray Super computers were all invited to travel with Ron
Brown on his now infamous trade trip to Beijing in August 1994
by President Clinton. Tandem computers (now part of Digital –
Compaq) sold over $100 million dollars of computers to China
Aerospace for the Long March rocket mission control. China
Aerospace is also accused of passing illegal donation money from
the Chinese army to Clinton’s 1996 campaign.

And the secret meetings continue to this day. The CSPP was
selected by President Clinton to lead the Next Generation
Internet project. The CSPP is providing direct input (behind
closed doors) to the Clinton administration on both the
structure, and system design of the future information highway.
Just by coincidence — the same CSPP members also stand to sell
loads of high speed computers for the taxpayer funded operation.

Ken Kay, the CSPP and the Podesta brothers have all denied any
wrongdoing. However, in 1997, John Podesta also obtained a
waiver to resolve the potential legal conflict of interest he
shared with his brother from the White House counsel, two years
after the secret meetings began and three years after the
computer exports. Podesta has so far refused to produce that
legal document.

It requires at least as much to tell the truth as it does to
conceal it. The Clinton web of secrecy is woven with thousands
of documents hidden from view or removed without clearance. The
dark cover of money, power and national security fell from the
President hand’s when he signed the orders to transfer
technology to the Chinese Army. The web of deceit is built on a
thousand lies. The hidden truth holds the deceiver up as a
traitor, selling his country for the sheer pleasure of power and
money.

Source Documents:

– William Reinsch July 6, 1998 to House National Security
Committee.
– Reinsch documents in Sockowitz files on satellite waivers.
– List of Presidential waivers for China satellite exports since
1992.
http://www.us.net/softwar/reinsch.html

– 1995 Secret meeting memo by William Reinsch for Ron Brown on
CSPP in .GIF format.
http://www.us.net/softwar/cspp.html

– 11/15/96 Clinton Executive Order – Encryption tranfer to
Commerce Dept.
http://www.us.net/softwar/feo.html

– March 1998 White House letter to Softwar on John Podesta.
http://www.us.net/softwar/podhit.html

– C. Boyden Gray – CSPP Attorney letter to Softwar on CSPP
http://www.us.net/softwar/gray.html

– Encryption Company President cc’s John Podesta in Sept. 1993
http://www.us.net/softwar/nist.html

– Admiral McConnell Interview Nov. 1997 – Former NSA Director
says Podesta was contact in White House.
http://www.us.net/softwar/mcc.html

– Secret White House Email on Podesta & Encryption Dec. 1993
http://www.us.net/softwar/comint1.html

– More Secret White House Email on Podesta & Encryption
http://www.us.net/softwar/comint4.html