China’s theft of nuclear secrets

March 17, 1999

Mr. President, I want you to listen. I am going to tell you a story
of espionage, conspiracy, deception and cover-up — a story with life
and death implications for millions of Americans — a story about
national security and a President and an administration that
deliberately chose to put national security at risk, while telling the
people everything was fine.

If it was written in a book, it wouldn’t sell, because no one would
believe it. If it was fictionalized in a novel, few could conceive it.
But it is true.

Now for the sake of my statement today, I am stating that the
President withheld information and covered up the Chinese theft of our
technology. But I’m realistic enough to know that a person with the
history of deception this president has will have provided himself with
some cover in case he gets caught. So I’m sure there is a paper trail
that he can allege. The way the President probably covered himself was
to include tidbits about this theft buried in briefings on 40 or 50
other items, so the significance of it would not be noticed. But a paper
trail would be established.

Anticipating that, I talked to the chairman of the House Intelligence
Committee, Rep. Porter Goss, and the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee at the time of the discovery of this information, Sen. Arlen
Specter. Neither chairman was notified of the “W-88” nuclear warhead
technology theft. And these would have been the first to be notified.
There can be no doubt that President Clinton engaged in a cover up
scheme.

Let me read three paragraphs from last week’s op-ed article by
Michael Kelly in the Washington Post, entitled “Lies About China.”

The Times reports that the House Intelligence Committee asked Trulock
for a briefing in July 1998. Trulock asked for permission from Elizabeth
Moler, then acting energy secretary. According to Trulock, Moler told
him not to brief the committee because the information might be used
against Clinton’s China policy. …

The White House’s secret would have remained secret had it not been
for a select investigative committee headed by Republican Christopher
Cox. …

But even using the President’s fictitious paper trail, the
earliest either chairman could have known about it would have been late
spring of 1997, years after the Clinton administration learned of it
and, of course, after the 1996 elections.

I start, Mr. President, by listing a few things which we now know to
be true, factual, incontrovertible — and not classified.

For years, the Clinton administration covered up China’s theft of top
secret U.S. nuclear weapons data. They never informed the Congress or
American people about what had happened or its significance to our
national security.

Let me tell you what President Clinton did during this period of
time:

During this period of time, the President misled the American
people on numerous occasions about the threat posed by strategic nuclear
missiles in the post cold war era.
During this period of time, President Clinton made statements on
over 130 separate occasions, such as the following: “For the first time
since the dawn of the nuclear age, there is not a single solitary
nuclear missile pointed at an American child tonight. Not one. Not a
single one.”
During this period of time, he knew that China was targeting up to
18 intercontinental ballistic missiles at American children.
During this period of time, President Clinton signed export control
waivers which allowed his top campaign fundraisers’ aerospace company to
transfer sensitive U.S. missile guidance technology to China.
During this period of time, he shifted the prime satellite export
responsibility from the State Department to the Commerce Department,
making it easier for China and others to get sensitive military-related
U.S. technology.
During this period of time, President Clinton hosted over 100 White
House fundraisers as part of a larger aggressive scheme to raise
campaign contributions, many from illegal foreign sources, primarily
including sources in China. Among guests permitted to attend these White
House fundraisers were a convicted felon and a Chinese arms dealer.
During this period of time, John Huang, Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung,
James Riady and others with strong ties to China were deeply involved,
with the President’s knowledge, in raising Chinese-tainted campaign cash
for the Clinton campaign.
During this period of time, John Huang, who had been given a
security clearance without a background check, was permitted to receive
numerous classified CIA briefings, both during and after his stay at the
Commerce Department.
And during this period of time, President Clinton was successfully
stopping the deployment of a national missile defense system, exposing
every American life to a missile attack, leaving us with no defense
against an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Mr. President, China’s theft of secret data on the so-called “W-88”
nuclear warhead may be one of the most serious breaches of national
security in our lifetimes. … More serious than Aldrich Ames. Perhaps
more serious than the Rosenbergs.

The public needs to understand that this story is true. This is not
about partisanship. This is not about some ancient history of some
long-gone Cold War.

This is about the real world here and now. This is about national
security in its most important aspects. This is about protecting our
freedom and our existence as a nation. This is ultimately a matter which
concerns the life and death of every citizen.

The W-88 is the most advanced nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal and
is carried on top of Trident SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic
missiles).

This is the cornerstone weapon of our nation’s nuclear deterrent. As
many as eight of them can fit atop our submarine-launched missiles. As
many as ten can be put atop our largest land-based missiles … or on
China’s land based missiles.

We are talking about a miniaturized warhead — much smaller in size
than the Hiroshima atom bomb but ten times more powerful.

As you can see from the chart, which appeared in The New York Times,
March 6, 1999, the Hiroshima bomb was huge and unwieldy. It was 10 and a
half feet long and weighed over 4 tons — 8,900 pounds.

By contrast, the modern W-88 warhead is compact. It is only 2 and a
half feet long and weighs only 300 pounds, but is at least 10 times more
powerful.

The technology on which it is built is super top secret and
represents billions of dollars and years, if not decades, of investment
on the part of dedicated scientists and engineers working in the supreme
American national interest.

Some might ask why does America have this weapon? Because it is part
of our responsibility as a world superpower to have the most advanced,
efficient and credible nuclear deterrent, not only to protect our own
freedom, but that of our allies as well.

It is part of our policy of “peace through strength.” While we do not
intend to ever use nuclear weapons, it is a fact of life in a dangerous
world that we must be prepared to deter any potential adversary and any
potential weapon any adversary may have.

The W-88 allows for multiple warheads to be placed on one missile.
With this technology, China will now be able to put up to ten warheads
on a single long-range missile. Each warhead targeted at a different
city. Each city subject to an explosion 10 times as great as that which
destroyed Hiroshima at the end of WWII.

You know, Mr. President, I’m from Oklahoma. In 1995, a 4,800-pound
truck bomb exploded outside the Murrah Federal Office Building in
Oklahoma City. The building was destroyed, 168 people were killed, and
674 were wounded. This was a horrible event, the worst act of terrorism
ever on American soil. That bomb had a force of 1,000 pounds (one-half
of one ton) of TNT.

By way of contrast, the Hiroshima atom bomb had an explosive force of
15 kilotons (or 30,000 times as large as the Oklahoma City bomb). The
W-88, while smaller in physical size, has a force of 150 kilotons (or
300,000 times as large as the Oklahoma City bomb). And by carrying 10 of
these on one missile, 3 million times the force of the Oklahoma City
bomb.

The more compact W-88 warhead makes possible what is called MIRV
(multiple independent reentry vehicle) technology, something China was
thought to be many, many years away from developing on its own. And they
stole this technology and President Clinton covered it up.

We also used to think North Korea was many years away from building
long range multiple-stage rockets.

Listen, Mr. President: On August 24 last year, the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry Shelton, wrote me a letter saying he
was confident we would have 3 years’ warning of any new long range
missile threat. Seven days later, on August 31, North Korea launched a
three-stage Taepo Dong I missile, that scattered a small payload off the
coast of Alaska.

All of this only confirms what the Rumsfeld Report explained to us
last year. We remember the Rumsfeld Commission which was chaired by
former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. This bipartisan commission,
appointed jointly by Republicans and Democrats, included nine of the
nation’s most distinguished, qualified and informed experts in the field
of assessing foreign missile threats. They concluded unanimously that
when it comes to advanced missiles and weapons, with countries willing
to buy, sell and steal technology, “we live in an environment of little
or no warning.” Which means we must immediately be prepared.

Last year, you may remember how it was revealed that the Clinton
Administration had changed the approval process for high technology
satellite transfers — and how waivers were granted for American
companies so they could launch satellites in China. This ultimately
resulted in China acquiring advanced U.S. missile guidance technology,
making their missiles more accurate and more reliable. President Clinton
personally signed the waiver allowing China to acquire this missile
technology. Let me repeat: President Clinton personally signed the
waiver allowing China to acquire this missile technology.

Executives of these two corporations that benefited — Loral and
Hughes — were among the largest financial contributors to President
Clinton’s campaign effort. But this is not important, Mr. President,
because the motive for aiding and abetting our adversaries could be
money, or it could be some kind of perverted allegiance to these
countries, or it could be a total indifference to the security of the
lives of Americans. The motive is not important. The fact is President
Clinton did it and he knew exactly what he was doing.

Now coupling the transferred missile guidance technology with the
stolen nuclear weapon technology, China can threaten U.S. cities with
accurate, reliable and horribly destructive multiple warhead nuclear
missiles.

This is not science fiction fantasy, Mr. President. Two years ago, a
high ranking Chinese official actually said that China was prepared to
hit Los Angeles if the U.S. would take steps to defend Taiwan. No
American should assume these are idle or impossible threats.

Now by helping China develop their long-range missile program,
President Clinton was also helping North Korea and other rogue nations
with theirs. Let me read three paragraphs from last week’s Washington
Times article entitled, “China Assists North Korea Space Launches.”

Another Pentagon report on a 1996 Chinese booster that failed to
launch a U.S. satellite concluded that “U.S. national security was
harmed” by the improper sharing of technology with China by Hughes and
another satellite maker, Loral Space & Communications Ltd. …

Keep in mind, President Clinton signed the waiver to give the
Chinese this technology. The article concludes:

So it is factual to say that President Clinton knew he was
giving our missile technology to North Korea as well as China.

I take this moment to remind my colleagues once again that America
today has no defense whatsoever against such a threat. The Clinton
administration today — despite its rhetoric — opposes the deployment
of any national missile defense system.

It was 16 years ago this month, on March 23, 1983, that President
Reagan announced his intention to develop a national missile defense
system to protect America. We have come a long way since then. Our
technology has improved; we know what to do to meet this challenge.

Had we kept steadily on the course that President Reagan set, we
would have a missile defense system deployed right now. Instead, we have
an Administration which killed the Reagan-Bush Strategic Defense
Initiative program, which vetoed missile defense bills passed by
Congress and which is wedded to the outdated ABM Treaty, which
Henry Kissinger, the architect of the treaty says has outlived its
usefulness.

Clinton today is obsessed with maintaining the philosophy of the old
ABM Treaty at all costs. He is locked into the mentality of a world with
two lone superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union.

The theory is that if both sides keep their populations defenseless,
then neither side would dare attack out of fear of a devastating
retaliation. This is what they call mutual assured destruction (MAD). It
is a theory that Dr. Kissinger believes makes no sense in the modern
world where many countries are getting their hands on long-range
missiles and weapons of mass destruction.

President Clinton is solely responsible for the fact that we are
totally defenseless against an incoming ICBM from China or anywhere
else.

From news reports, this is some of what we know about China’s theft
of our nuclear secrets:

Apparently a spy at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos weapons lab
succeeded in transferring data on this highly classified W-88 warhead
technology to China in the mid-1980s.

But our government did not find out about it until April 1995. (This
is a critical date. We did not know about the theft until April 1995.)
Detection came when experts analyzed data from then-recent Chinese
underground nuclear tests and saw remarkable similarities to the W-88
U.S. warhead. Later in 1995, secret Chinese government documents
confirmed that there had been a security breach at Los Alamos.

Deputy National Security Advisor Sandy Berger was first briefed about
it in 1996. President Clinton did not respond then because he was
obviously a little preoccupied with what he considered more important
matters at that time.

After all, there were White House fundraisers to host, foreign
campaign contributions, satellite transfers to approve, high technology
trade with China to promote, and — of course — an election to be won
… at all costs. Mr. Berger was well aware of all this. We know he sat
in on all the key campaign strategy meetings in 1996.

This was also the time when President Clinton was running around the
country telling audiences that “for the first time since the dawn of the
nuclear age, there is not a single, solitary nuclear missile pointed at
an American child tonight. Not one. Not a single one.”

Of course, everyone cheered, believing it to be true.

Of all the lies this president has told, this is the most egregious
of all.

He repeated this misleading, deceptive lie over 130 times between
1995 and 1997, right at the very time he and his national security
advisors knew that this horrible breach of nuclear security had occurred
and was under investigation. It was also at that very time that he knew
that up to 18 American cities were being targeted by Chinese long range
missiles — missiles that had and have the potential of killing millions
of Americans.

And during this time he said it 130 times: “For the first time since
the dawn of the nuclear age, there is not a single, solitary nuclear
missile pointed at an American child tonight. Not one. Not a single
one.”

So while the American people consumed his misleading and dishonest
public statements — helping to secure his reelection — nothing was
done for over a year about the security breach at Los Alamos.

The likely suspect spy was identified in early 1997, and the FBI
urged that he at least be transferred to a less sensitive position.

But inexplicably, he was allowed to keep his sensitive job at Los
Alamos for another year and a half. This was the spy responsible for the
theft and President Clinton kept him in that sensitive job for another
year and half. Finally, he was fired by Energy Secretary Richardson last
Monday, March 8, 1999, but only after he was publicly identified in news
reports as having failed two previous lie detector tests.

In all of this, was Congress ever informed? No. As a member of the
Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, I certainly was not. And as
I said earlier, I talked to the chairman of both the House Intelligence
Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee and they were not
informed.

Did the President ever take the appropriately aggressive and timely
steps which should have been taken to protect the national security
interest, in the wake of this matter? He did not.

Why? Why the delays? Why the lack of consultation and communication?
Why the seeming indifference to this very, very serious breach of
national security?

We will be asking some tough questions about this in the days ahead,
and I note that the Armed Services Committee will be holding hearings on
this issue soon. The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a closed
hearing on Wednesday, March 17.

The American people need to know what is going on here.

The President’s National Security Advisor, Mr. Berger, has a lot to
answer for here. He had better be prepared to answer questions from
members of Congress honestly, forthrightly and without intention to
deceive, mislead, or change the meaning of words. Otherwise, he should
resign now and take the rap for President Clinton.

I am convinced we have not yet scratched the surface of this national
security scandal exposed by these most recent revelations.

This administration obviously wanted nothing to interfere with
developing good relations with China. While it was soliciting and
accepting campaign contributions from China, it was dragging its feet on
investigating the most egregious espionage operation China had ever
succeeded in pulling off in the U.S., a breach of security which could
potentially put the lives of millions of Americans at great risk.

This is without doubt the worst example yet of how this
administration has put its own selfish motives above the national
security interest of the country and above the protection of American
lives.

The American people and the Congress must demand the President be
held accountable for this gross dereliction of duty.

I guess the question is, what can we do? I’m not sure there is
anything we can do except inform the American people and let public
outrage solve the problem. And why are we in Congress so limited in what
we can do?

The Founding Fathers never envisioned we would have a president who
would do these kinds of things and act in these ways. This is why the
Constitution gives the president great latitude of action in carrying
out his duties and why he is protected from the other branches of
government by the separation of powers.

John Adams, on his first night in the newly constructed White House,
wrote to his wife, and spoke of the expectations of all the founders
during that time: “May none but honest and wise men rule under this
roof,” he wrote.

There was an assumption the American people would always elect
presidents with a basic level of morality, honesty and integrity, who
out of patriotism would always put the welfare of the country above any
personal ambitions for power or glory.

This president knew he was covering up information vital to the
safety and well-being of every American — that China had stolen from us
the advanced technology which would give them the capability to kill
millions of Americans in multiple cities with just one missile. He knew
it.

In 1945, World War II was ended when atomic bombs were dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Each explosion destroyed an entire city, killing
tens of thousands. The death toll at Hiroshima was about 75,000 from
that 15-kiloton nuclear bomb.

Just think: that with the technology that the President has
transferred to China and what China has stolen and the President has
covered up, China is now capable of producing a 150 kiloton bomb small
enough to fit ten of them on top of one missile, each bomb targeted at a
different American city with accuracy and reliability. Just
extrapolating the numbers, that — in theory — is enough destructive
power to kill as many as 7,500,000 Americans — with just one missile.

And, due to this president who stopped our national missile defense
effort, we have no defense. We have a president who acts as if he
doesn’t care … about us.

So finally, Mr. President, let me repeat the six proven
incontrovertible facts:

President Clinton hosted over 100 campaign fundraisers in the
White House, many with Chinese connections.
President Clinton used John Huang, Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung,
James Riady, and others with strong Chinese ties to raise campaign
money.
President Clinton signed waivers to allow his top campaign
fundraiser’s aerospace company to transfer U.S. missile guidance
technology to China.
President Clinton covered up the theft of our most valuable
nuclear weapons technology.
President Clinton lied to the American people over 130 times about
our nation’s security while he knew Chinese missiles were aimed at
American children.
President Clinton single-handedly stopped the deployment of a
national missile defense system, exposing every American life to a
missile attack, leaving America with no defense whatsoever against an
intercontinental ballistic missile.

Again, it doesn’t matter whether President Clinton did these things
for Chinese campaign contributions because the motive for aiding and
abetting our adversaries is not important. The fact is President Clinton
did it and he knew exactly what he was doing.

I’m not a lawyer, Mr. President, but I have to ask, could President
Clinton have been tried for impeachment for the wrong crime?

Why am I here telling the truth about the President? Because no one
else will. They know this president will lie with such conviction that
the American people will continue to believe him and they don’t want to
take the risk.

Yesterday at the McLean Bible Church, the sermon was about risk. They
all came back from Canaan with reports of certain defeat … except for
Caleb who said we could win. God left the Israelites to languish in the
desert and sent Caleb to the Promised Land. But with all these lessons
we just don’t learn.

Henry Ward Beecher said it a different way. He said, “I don’t like
those cold precise people who in order not to say wrong, say nothing …
and in order not to do wrong, do nothing.” So somebody has to tell the
truth about this President. We can’t all be appeasers. An appeaser is a
guy who throws his friends to the alligator in hopes that the alligator
will eat him last.

Hiram Mann said, “No man survives when freedom fails, the best men
rot in filthy jails, and those who cry ‘Appease, appease’ are hanged by
those they tried to please.”

Truth will ultimately prevail … it’s just stubborn. Winston
Churchill said, “Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it,
panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is.”

Mr. President, everything I have said during the course of the last
30 minutes is absolutely true. I hope America is listening. We’ve got a
nation to save.

U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe is a Republican from Oklahoma.

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China’s theft of nuclear secrets

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