(from 4-2000) Secret memo on Loral deal (here is how Clinton treated national security)

world net daily.com ^ | orig 4-2000 | Charles Smith

[doug from upland]

CHINAGATE Secret memo on Loral deal Clinton approved satellite sale to Beijing as in national interest

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: April 21, 2000 1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Charles Smith © 2000 WorldNetDaily.com

Despite an ongoing FBI investigation into the unauthorized transfer of advanced missile-guidance technology to China, Loral Space & Communications Corp. requested and received Clinton administration approval to sell communications satellites to Beijing in 1996, a secret National Security Council memo obtained by WorldNetDaily shows.

Congressional investigators have raised concerns that the satellite technology shared with the Chinese may have allowed them to improve their capability of launching intercontinental ballistic missiles. China currently targets 13 such nuclear-tipped missiles at the United States.

Loral Chairman Bernard Schwartz donated more than $1 million to the Democratic National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records, and has recently made contributions to Hillary Clinton's campaign for the U.S. Senate in New York. The $1 million contribution was the single largest individual donation to the DNC that year.

The July 1, 1996, action memo to National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, obtained through an intelligence agency source, reveals Loral requested that President Clinton delay a pending waiver for a satellite export.

"In mid-June, Globalstar's parent company, Loral requested that we temporarily delay evaluation of their request for a national interest waiver for this project," the memo explains. "The company has now asked us to resume processing of their application, and State has confirmed its support for approval of the license.

"The Dept. of State, with the concurrence of the Departments of Commerce and Defense and the Officer of Science and Technology Policy, recommends that the President report to Congress that it is in the national interest to waive the Tiananmen Square sanctions in order to allow the licensing of communications satellites and related equipment for export to China," states the memo.

President Clinton signed the waiver for Loral later that month. Loral was then under investigation for the loss of an encryption control board from a Loral Intelsat satellite that crashed in China. The missing board prompted an investigation by the FBI.

According to documents obtained from the U.S. Commerce Department, Loral was aware that the exported satellite systems were developed from American military equipment. Loral documents obtained from the files of the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown included a folder labeled "for Secy. Brown" with a page titled "Commercial Applications Of DoD Technology." The Loral document lists "Intelsat," "Cellular -- Globalstar" and "Direct Broadcast Satellite" technology along with a variety of other products developed from Department of Defense projects.

In addition, a 1996 State Department report contradicts Clinton administration claims that advanced communications exports to China were "civilian" projects. The report states that the Chinese army was keenly interested in obtaining Loral Globalstar satellite technology and the Loral purchase was possibly being financed by Chinese billionaire, Li Ka-Shing. The 1996 Department report was written by then-Ambassador to China James Sasser, a former U.S. Senator from Tennessee. The 1996 State Department report was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

The report states: "The PLA (People's Liberation Army) has for some time been discussing with the MPT (Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications) the possibility of using frequencies allocated to the PLA for establishing a mobile phone network based on CODE DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS (CDMA) technology."

The 1996 report written by Sasser alleges that the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and Li Ka-Shing were both directly involved with the People's Liberation Army in financing the Loral export to China.

"Already, foreign companies are interested in the new PLA-backed entity that is likely to emerge over the next year," states the report. "Recent press reports indicate that Hutchison Whampoa may be involved with the PLA about possible funding options."

Li Ka-Shing owns Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and is reportedly the sixth richest man in the world. Hutchison Whampoa is the shipping company awarded the contract to control the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal.

Li Ka-Shing has been described by intelligence sources as a "Howard Hughes" for the Chinese Military Intelligence Department, or MID. U.S. Army Southern Command documents on the Panama transfer noted that Li Ka-Shing was an "indirect" threat to the United States.

Loral Globalstar satellite cellular phones use a unique communications technology originally built for the U.S. military called Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The July 1996 waiver signed by Clinton allowed Loral to export Globalstar CDMA technology to China.

The Clinton waiver also allowed for China to acquire a secure telemetry control ground station for the Loral Globalstar satellites. The station is currently operating just outside of Beijing.

Loral's Globalstar is not the only satellite system under fire for alleged illegal transfers to the Chinese army. The State Department recently accused Motorola's Iridium system of passing significant missile technology to China.

However, neither satellite system seems to be a big hit with consumers or Wall Street investors. The ill-fated Iridium satellite phone system declared bankruptcy last year and now plans to write off the entire $5 billion space-based system. The extraordinary process of de-orbiting and destroying the array of 66 satellites is under way as Iridium operations shut down.

"Iridium was one of the more colossal screw-ups in history," says Douglas Humphrey, head of Cidera Inc., a satellite-based Internet routing company. "The magnitude of the damage is not yet fully realized. Wait a year or two. Iridium seriously damaged Wall Street perceptions of satellites."

According to an article, "Iridium, Overcapacity Worry Space Industry," published in Aviation Week & Space Technology, Humphrey noted the big winners would be Loral and Schwartz.

"There's not room for three to five Iridium-like systems, only one or two," the article noted. "... Bernie Schwartz built the cheap one (Globalstar) and he will win."

According to Hoyt Davidson, managing director at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Investment Banking, Schwartz is always looking for investment in his space systems.

"Bernie Schwartz always has a prospectus ready in his back pocket," noted Davidson in the Aviation Week article.

WorldNetDaily reported in 1998 that Globalstar, the Loral subsidiary, accepted full partnerships and a $37.5 million investment by two Chinese government-front companies.

That year, Loral's Globalstar Limited Partnership division finalized a deal with China Telecom and CHINASAT, both wholly owned by Beijing's Ministry of Information Industry.

"The addition of China Telecom as a full partner solidifies Globalstar's commitment to bringing the promise of mobile satellite communications to China's 1.2 billion people," said Schwartz in a public statement in 1998.

The deal specified that Beijing's government companies would manage all Globalstar operations in China, according to Schwartz. With the world's largest population and one of the fastest-growing economies, the deal was estimated to increase Loral's revenues by $250 million annually.

The telecommunications deal was the result of a meeting between Schwartz and top Chinese officials made possible by a trade mission coordinated by then-Commerce Secretary Brown in August 1994. Schwartz met with People's Liberation Army Gen. Shen Roujun.

Besides construction, operation and maintenance of a Chinese telecommunications infrastructure, China Telecom lists among its specific responsibilities "emergency communication during wartime"; the construction and operation of government communications networks; ensuring security in communication; exercising "centralized control over public satellite communication" and "any duty that may be entrusted by MPT" (Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications) or the new Ministry of Information Industry.

"Allegations that Space Systems/Loral provided missile guidance technology to the Chinese are false," said Schwartz back in 1998. "SS/L makes commercial communications satellites, not launch vehicles. The company did not advise the Chinese on how to fix any problems with the Long March rocket. All company employees were specifically instructed not to provide any such assistance, and the company believes that its employees acted in good faith to comply with the strict and complex requirements of the export control laws."

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Charles Smith is a national security and defense reporter for WorldNetDaily. Visit his site, Softwar.

[doug from upland]

THE PATH TO 911 will not tell nearly enough of the story.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Ping for later

[sgtbono2002]

All of these things coming out on the eve of a tell tale movie coming out on TV. of course we republicans kn ow all of these things to be true, well so do democrats , but they have been avoiding speaking of them. Now it seems its about to come out again and I can hear the wailing 90 miles down south of Washington. The wailing and gnashing of teeth is a beautiful thing to behold.

[Recovering_Democrat]

CLINTON ENABLED AND ENCOURAGED TERRORISTS

Not only was he negligent in not chasing down terrorists, the IMPEACHED JACKASS also went out of his way to enable and encourage terrorists and despots. To wit:

Clinton negotiates and drinks with terrorists and despots.


Clinton negotiates and dines with terrorists and despots.


Hillary Clinton kisses terrorists' wives after she makes anti-Israel remarks.


FALN members pose threat, FBI official says (Clinton pardons ELEVEN convicted terrorists.)
"I think they're criminals and terrorists and represent a threat to the United States," Assistant FBI Director Neal Gallagher told Congress Tuesday, in the FBI's first public statement on the president's decision to grant clemency to 16 Puerto Rican nationalists.

[Kimmers]

I wish we could take those pictures along with the captions and put them on billboards....

[NewCenturions]

Bump

[mass55th]

"THE PATH TO 911 will not tell nearly enough of the story."

Thanks for posting this. Rush mentioned today that the movie won't discuss the Black Hawk Down incident either. I guess in order to include every single Clinton security "snafu", we'd end up having a weekly series instead of a two-part movie.

[processing please hold]

The Clinton Scandals

How Chinagate Led To 9-11

[kitkat]

BUMP

[processing please hold]

[snip]

- The NY Times reported in 1998 that the Defense Technology Security Administration said Loral's unauthorized release of sensitive technology to the Chinese gave rise to at least three "major" violations of US national security, three medium violations and twelve "minor" infractions.

- Throughout these dealings, the CEO of Loral, Bernard Schwartz, contributed at least $1.5 million to the Democrats, making him the single largest contributor to these groups during the period in question.

- Softwar newsletter reported that that some of the radios and cell phones being used by Chinese police in their campaign against dissidents were those sold the Chinese by Motorola after Clinton overrode human rights objections by the State Department.

- In the end, the brunt of the evidence was that the Chinese had obtained more American military secrets over the past two decades than all the previous spies in American history put together. They had basic information on all nuclear weapons systems, they got our most advanced supercomputers, they gained extraordinarily important information about satellite systems. Some of this knowledge they used for themselves; some they retrofitted and repackaged and sold to other countries like Iraq, where it was used against our own fighter planes. While the problem occurred under both Republican and Democratic administrations, it got completely out of hand under Clinton. Some of the information was stolen, some was given to China in the classic manner of spies, but a stunning proportion was obtained either as a direct result of political and economic decisions by the Clinton administration or as a result of what can best be described as premeditated indifference.

[AmeriBrit]

Doug, just out of curiosity, has anyone to your knowledge done a report on how many of GW Bush's friend's/ acquaintances have met sudden death i.e. accident/suicide in the 5½ yrs he's been President, in comparison to clinton's presidency?

I was recently reading an update on clinton's list and amazingly they're still dropping like flies, yet still no-one seems to think it's odd.

[doug from upland]

I don't know of a list, but it wouldn't surprise me if some Bush-haters have one.

[doug from upland]

The crazies think Bush killed Wellstone.

[AmeriBrit]

I hadn't come across that one YET.

Karl Rove can do amazing things with his weather machine...LOL. Wish he'd play with it and give us a couple of hours of rain to settle the dust here.

[Suzy Quzy]

Wonder if the movie will tell ANY of this???