Deadline for Commerce

By Charles Smith

Things aren’t going so well at the Commerce Department. On June 29,
1999, Federal Judge Robert Payne ruled against the agency in the
Chinagate scandal, ordering the Commerce Department to release documents
on meetings between Clinton officials and Chinese army officers.
Additionally, Payne found the Commerce Department had not completely
released all the required documents as per his original court order,
issued in March 1999. According to Payne, the agency submitted a request
to withhold certain documents, “yet no copies were provided to the
Court.”

Payne ordered the Commerce Department to deliver the withheld
documents for his personal inspection behind closed doors “not later
than 5:00 p.m., July 12, 1999.” According to Payne, Commerce must
“provide copies of the foregoing documents to the Court for in camera
review.”

Payne also found that the Clinton administration had attempted to
classify a 1996 Defense Department report that had previously been
released to the public. “According to the plaintiff, the following
documents have previously been provided and, accordingly, the
defendant’s current claim of exemption is denied as moot,” Payne
explained.

The 1996 DOD report that Commerce wanted to keep secret is actually a
detailed series of questions and answers from House National Security
Chairman Rep. Floyd Spence, R-S.C., who was concerned over reports
detailing the transfer of an advanced, AT&T, secure communications
system to the Chinese army by Clinton officials.

The DOD replies to Spence’s questions show the conflict of interest
between Defense Secretary William Perry and PLA Gen. Ding Henggao.
According to the report, Perry’s “civilian” DOD consultant, Dr. John
Lewis, was in business with Ding’s wife, Lt. Gen. Nie Li. Lewis, a close
friend of Perry and a fellow professor at Stanford University,
accompanied Perry on trips to China as a “civilian consultant” to the
secretary of defense.

Lewis and Nie Li were paid executives in a joint venture between
Lewis’ U.S. firm, SCM/Brooks Telecommunications and a PLA-owned firm
called Galaxy New Technology. The result was the transfer of an
advanced, AT&T, secure fiber-optic communications system directly to the
PLA General Logistics Division. That system was obtained by the Chinese
army through Lewis and Perry.

According to another document forced from the Commerce Department,
Perry and Lewis met on official U.S. government business with Ding in
October 1994, at the same time Lewis was in business with Ding’s wife.
Thus, Lewis was being paid by the U.S. and Chinese military — at the
same time.

Lewis and Perry, accompanied by Commerce official Barry Carter, met
with the top of the communist army elite in China. The list of PLA
attendees at the 1994 “Joint Defense Conversion
Commission” includes Gen. Ding, Gen. Huai, Maj. Gen. Deng and Maj. Gen.
Hou Gang, deputy director of Chinese army intelligence HQ.

Clearly, the Commerce Department did not inspect the original
Softwar lawsuit over Chinagate. The entire
1996 DOD document that Commerce refused to release was provided as
evidence to the court in the original lawsuit filed in November 1998. In
fact, the entire DOD document has been on the Softwar internet website
since September 1998 and is available for public viewing by clicking
here.

In addition, Payne noted that the Commerce Department had not
completed the appropriate clearances for some of the documents submitted
for his “in camera” review. According to Payne,
one document states, “all ‘[r]equests for this document from outside the
U.S. Government must be referred to the Defense Intelligence Agency,
Washington D.C. 20340-0001.'”

“Not later than 5:00 p.m., July 12, 1999,” wrote Payne. “The
defendant shall file a statement with the Court indicating on what date
the plaintiff’s request was referred to the Defense Intelligence Agency
and what that agency’s response was, or if none has been received, the
expected response date.”

The contacts between Commerce officials, major Democratic National
Committee (DNC) donors and Chinese generals included detailed
information provided by the CIA, DIA and NSA. For example, Commerce
released a letter showing that the White House provided information from
a U.S. “intelligence agency” to DNC donors, detailing the bios of
China’s leadership for a Ron Brown trade trip. These documents were to
be released to this reporter.

The released documents included detailed photos and descriptions of
every communist official from President Jiang Zemin to the mayor of
Shanghai. The documents were provided to DNC million-dollar donors —
Sanford Robertson and Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz — just prior to the
August 1994 trade trip to China.

The bios include Chinese billionaire Li Ka Shing, who is not publicly
considered part of the Chinese communist leadership. Li, however, is
deeply in business with the Chinese army. Several of Li’s companies have
been reported to act as a front for Chinese espionage. Li’s Hutcheson
Whampoa lost a contract bid to take over the former Navy port in Long
Beach, Calif., based primarily on espionage allegations leveled during
closed hearings inside Capitol Hill.

According to the “intelligence” bio, the links between Li and the
communist government of China are so strong that the billionaire is
properly included with President Jiang as part of the Red leadership.
The U.S. intelligence community knew of Li’s power inside Red China
before 1994, before Long Beach, before trade trips and before they
supplied detailed information to fat cat corporate executives,
determined to sell U.S. military technology to the Chinese army.

Clearly, intelligence data acquired for defense purposes was supplied
to Ron Brown and the Commerce Department via the White House. This
information was then passed on to million-dollar DNC donors who signed
multi-million dollar deals with the communist Chinese.

Loral CEO Schwartz and Ron Brown met with Chinese Gen. Shen during
the August 1994 trade trip to China. As a result, Schwartz was able to
sell satellites directly to companies owned by the PLA.

This is not the first case of the Clinton administration abusing
intelligence materials for domestic political purposes. For example, CIA
operative “Bob” provided secret information on Libyan oil millionaire
Roger Tamaraz to DNC Chairman Fowler. The CIA directly pressured White
House National Security Council (NSC) officials that had turned the
Libyan oil millionaire away because they knew he was trouble.

The Chinagate lawsuit has demonstrated that Clinton Commerce
officials deliberately engaged with Chinese army generals to sell
American “military” technology. The so-called “civilian” Commerce
Department acquired a vast array of military intelligence materials from
the DIA, CIA, and NSA — not to enforce laws nor prevent illegal exports
but in a cold blooded effort to obtain campaign donations for Bill
Clinton.

The Clinton Commerce Department, according to Payne, has until 5 P.M.
on July 12, 1999, to come clean with America. A federal court has
ordered the administration to pull away the cloak of
false secrecy, to end the lies and finally reveal the truth.

Judge Payne is quite popular in Virginia for jailing lawyers who have
elected to ignore his court orders. If dawn comes on July 13, and the
Clinton administration would prefer to continue the
web of lies and deceptions, then the Commerce Department can expect to
lose their secretary and perhaps the entire agency to the criminal
charges that will surely follow.


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Charles Smith

Charles R. Smith is a noted investigative journalist. For over 20 years, Smith has covered areas of national security and information warfare. He frequently appears on national television for the Fox network and is a popular guest on radio shows all over America. Read more of Charles Smith's articles here.