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A woman identified by the FBI as a Communist Chinese agent has been shaking down members of a controversial Buddhist temple on Vice President Al Gore's behalf for far longer than recent mainstream press reports indicate, NewsMax.com has learned.
Maria Hsia, who was convicted ten days ago on five felony counts for her involvement in an illegal 1996 Buddhist temple fund-raiser, "acted to conceal temple political donations as early as 1993, according to records and testimony that reveal a more extensive history of temple money laundering than was previously known," according to the Los Angeles Times.
Under a 1997 immunity agreement with Senate investigators, nuns at California's Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple testified that Hsia had been shaking down the temple for donations "since at least 1993."
Brian Sun, a lawyer representing several temple members, told the Times, "The temple never intended to skirt the law. There was no evil venality here. Had they been made aware of the rules, they would have never engaged in this kind of conduct."
According to a Senate investigator who wished to remain anonymous, "Hsia's modus operandi seemed to be to select a politician, approach the temple for money and the temple would funnel that money through straw donors to that politician's campaign." Hsia would typically stop by to collect the donations in person from Hsi Lai's treasurer, the prober added.
But despite the immunity grant, Yi Chu, Hsi Lai treasuer at the time of Gore's 1996 fundraiser, fled the country and was not available to testify at Hsia's trial -- making the Gore fund-raiser's conviction all the more remarkable.
In fact, Hsia singled out Gore as a primary beneficiary of her illegal fund-raising even before 1993, according to what Ed Timperlake and William Triplett report in their 1998 book on the Asian money connection, Year of the Rat.
They say Hsia started shaking down Buddhists for Gore more than ten years ago:
"Right after the 1988 election, Al Gore, Maria Hsia, John Huang, James Riady, and the Hsi Lai Temple organization began what was to be an eight-year relationship. Riady began by providing $10,000 in seed money, and the temple picked up the rest for a January 1989 visit to Asia by Gore and others..."
"Hsia organized numerous fundraisers for Gore using laundered temple money as a partial source. For example, a May 1989 event raised nearly $20,000 for Gore with active participation from the temple's monks and nuns."
Both The New York Times and The Washington Times now report that on the eve of the 1996 election, Clinton Justice Department officials moved swiftly and aggressively to halt a local United States Attorney's investigation into Gore's relationship with Hsia and the money she laundered on his behalf.
Why do they just mention Gore? He was the front man for the whole corrupt Democrat machine. Let's burn them all while we're at it.
Gore must have consumed at least 8,567,322 gallons of tea in that time.....the results of which would have to be sent into the environment. NOT a good thing and boy did he miss a lot of meeting information! LOL
Something is wrong with this story. Why was the temple forced to comply with Hsia's requests? How did she "shake them down"? Where did the cash originate, given the temple memners' vows of poverty?
We're missing a piece here.
Al Gore--Addressing Buddhists at the Hsi Lai('See Lie') Temple
You might be interested in this: Is a Man Who Misses Important Parts of His Meetings Qualified to be President?
bump
I noticed the use of the word controversial to describe the temple. Was it controversial before the money laundering scam?
I keep thinking about the famed 'tea ceremony' which evolved from Japanese Zen Buddhism. Maybe Gore's penchant for iced tea has Buddhist origins--although I don't think gulping down mass quantities of tea is very ceremonial! On Sunday Mary Matlin referred to this as the 'tinkle defense'.
Good Post..I missed this article..I will append some relevant background to this thread to add to the story..I will try to be as brief as possible.
Gore and Hsia got to know each other in the late 1980s, when Gore was worried about raising enough money for his 1990 Senate reelection. Hsia, an immigration consultant, was eager to contribute to politicians who could help her clients and associates. One associate was John Huang, who became notorious as an Asian fundraiser for the Democratic Party in 1996. Her clients would later include the Hsi Lai Temple, whose parent was the Fo Kuang Shan Buddhist order. In 1989, Gore was the sole U.S. Senator to accept Hsia's entreaty to visit the temple's Taiwan headquarters on a trip partly paid for by the order.
Prior to that journey, Hsia had donated money to Gore's campaign, and Gore had written to Hsia, "My involvement in the presidential race over the past two years has delayed my efforts to raise money for the 1990 [Senate] campaign and left our coffers empty for the upcoming race.... I appreciate your generosity and hope we can get together sometime soon." And before Gore accepted Hsia's entreaty to go to Taiwan, she wrote to him: "If you decide to join this trip, I will persuave [sic] all my colleagues in the future to play a leader [sic] role in your future presidential race."
Hsia also collected donations for Gore in California, helped organize Asian-American giving in Tennessee, and directed other contributions to his campaign through the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. In appreciation, Gore wrote to Hsia in January 1989: "You are a wonderful friend." In December the next year, he hand-wrote "Thanks!" over his signature on a letter to Hsia that said, "You helped make this campaign season an overwhelming success." In a more personal note that same month, he wrote, "Your friendship and your personal commitment to my political endeavors mean a great deal to me."
Gore and Hsia stayed in touch through the years. He co-sponsored part of an immigration bill she favored. She and her partner gave his son an electronic submarine game. She sent material for Gore's book, Earth in the Balance. ("Perfect," Gore aide Peter Knight wrote back.) And, as ever, she raised money. The true test of her fund-gathering skills came in 1995 and 1996 when the Clinton-Gore ticket was battling for reelection and having some difficulty raising money......
First: Election 2000:
Al Gore's Clinton Moment
His protests of innocence about the Buddhist temple fundraiser look very squishy.
Fortune Magazine - Jeffrey H. Birnbaum; 02-07-2000
Michael, do you know when Maria Hsia's sentencing hearing will take place?
If Clinton's hand picked "go to" Judge, Paul Friedman lets her off with a wrist slap,
I would be motivated to make a first ever trip to D.C. to PROTEST CORRUPT
CLINTON JUDGES . You bring the tar.....I'll bring the feathers.
More on Riady/Lippo/China connection...
MARIA HSIA HAS BEEN AN ACTIVE FUNDRAISER FOR THE DEMOCRATS SINCE 1983 AND TEAMED WITH HUANG AND RIADY IN THE LATE EIGHTIES.
MARIA HSIA HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED BY GOVERNMENT SOURCES AS AN AGENT FOR THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT.
A report by Senate Republican investigators, based on classified information provided by the FBI and CIA, said that the Governmental Affairs Committee "has learned that Hsia has been an agent of the Chinese government" and "acted knowingly in support of it." "Democratic fund-raiser Maria Hsia is indicted", Minneapolis Star Tribune, 02-19-1998, pp 04A. |
Hsia, 46, set up an Asian-American fund-raising group called the Pacific Leadership Council (PLC) with Riady and John Huang, later a fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The two largest recipients of PLC money in the 1990 election cycle were then-Sens. Al Gore, D-Tenn., and Paul Simon, D-Ill.
(Bob Woodward, Campaign finance // An FBI oversight adds fuel to the fire // Investigators
think newly discovered files show further Chinese efforts to influence U.S. elections.. , Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11-15-1997, pp 13A.
Nice post & head's up Alamo-Girl!
This makes me sick. I guess I had forgotten that even Riady and Gore went back a long way...this just gets dirtier and dirtier. Did foreign money win the election for bill and al?
This is the last one for now...I promise..Again, thanks for the post. I have been bothered by the fact that the mainstream media, when they have mentioned Hsia, have refused to acknowledge her ties to the Chinese Government...Kudos to Limbacher for his excellent reporting on this subject....
(Bob Woodward, Campaign finance // An FBI oversight adds fuel to the fire // Investigators think newly discovered files show further Chinese efforts to influence U.S. elections.. , Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11-15-1997, pp 13A.)
And all this time I thought it was BILL CLINTON'S IDEA to shake down the Chinese! So much for "Mr. Clean Gore!!" Sounds like he had this scam down to a science. I wonder who taught what to whom?
Thanks for calling in Alamo-Girl....I told Kattracks I was finished..but I must break my promise with one more piece of relevant data......Is this a cover-up or "snafu"???
NEWSWEEK has learned that four months after she arranged Gore's appearance at the temple, immigration consultant Maria Hsia approached him at a fund-raiser in San Francisco. It appears that Hsia wanted Gore's help getting the temple designated as a federally sanctioned testing center for Asian immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship. A day later, Hsia sent a letter to Elaine Kamarck, a top Gore aide, citing a conversation with the vice president. Another Gore aide then faxed the letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service with a note reading, "Please have the right people get in touch" with Hsia.
Hsia's letter was not part of the record when a Senate committee investigated Gore's dealings with Hsia and the Buddhist temple. The reason, says a Gore staffer, is that it was misfiled with documents pertaining to a presidential panel, chaired by Gore, on aviation security. Only when Victoria Cummock, a panel member whose husband died in the Pan Am 103 explosion over Lockerbie, sued for access to the aviation commission's full records did Hsia's letter reappear, along with other DNC-related papers.
Yes...A complicit Gore is being protected by the liberal media...His ties to Hsia and Huang are extensive, while Clinton's roots can be traced to Trie and Riady during his Arkansas governorship..I believe that at some point before the 92 election they decided to coordinate their efforts...I would not be surprised if Riady helped persuade Clinton to chose Gore as his running mate, since their is an obvious parallel relationship at work dating back to the late 80s....
Also note that Huang had numerous private meetings with Gore in the White House during the 96 election cycle. This all needs to be discussed at length in the media, but they refuse to ask the key questions...I hope GW makes this an issue in the upcoming debates because there is much that the public is not being told...
In addition to Hsia, Huang, Glicken, Shen Juaren, Nathan Landow, Jose Cabrera, Peter Knight, Franklin Haney (Molten Metals) and Gore's notorious meeting with Li Peng, there are other serious campaign scandals involving Gore that the media refuses to discuss...If you get a chance scan this recent post..It will open your eyes to how Gore worked the system to his campaign's advantage and rewarded his friends and the Chinese government in the process...
Gore and Hsia went on a Riady-Huang trip to Hong Kong in January 1989 to meet with PRC officials of the Xinhua News Agency and China Resources a known front for Chinese intelligence. Seated at Gore's left elbow at the Temple fundraiser in 1996 is Ted Sioeng of Chinese Red Pagoda Mountain cigarettes, world's largest producer. Gore is not merely a liar, a crook, a traitor and a fool--he's helping kill the world's children with the dangers of cigarettes, in direct contradiction of his passionate vow. Has he at last no shame? Has he perhaps a sack or two of sequentially-numbered money orders left in a bus station locker by General Xiong Guangkai on his Washington, DC visit January 24-26 of this year? Neil Young up slow "ain't it hard to make arrangements with yourself, when you're old enough to repay but Gore enough to sell. . . ."
What is the date of this Newsweek report?
Al Gore with Maria Hsia, Venerable Master Hsing Yun, and Ted Sioeng at Hsi Lai Temple,
Hacienda heights, California. John Huang is in the background.
Here's the latest Lefty line of 'defense' from another discussion group. The Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple is a tax exempt 501(c) organization, and it is illegal for such a non-profit group to engage in political fundraising, which constitutes part of the illegality of such fundraising. (The other part is the funneling of campaign cash from a foreign government.)
What these Lefties are arguing, if you can believe this, is that the Temple *itself* was not involved, even though the fundraiser was on Temple property and organized through the Temple officials using Temple resources from Temple members.
That is patently ridiculous, yet this is the current dodge that Lefties are using to try to exculpate Pinocchio Bore.
It is from the Newsweek issue dated December 20, 1999, Titled: More Temple Trouble for Al? by: Gregory Vistica and Michael Isikoff
Re the Red Pagoda cigaret man Ted Sioeng-- Does anyone know how much money he donated?
Gore Seeks to CEO the Federal Extortion Racket [realaudio]
The Federal Government is a Protection Racket - we finance our politicians in an attempt to get big government out of our lives, the problem is not campaign finance - the problem is the Fed is a criminal enterprise. Only RealAudio is able to convey the sense of OUTRAGE here folks!
Thanks for the heads up!!!
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Great Pic Ohmlaw.....just perfect! Thanks
Yup...good old "Prince Albert in the can" as I call him these days. I hope they nail Reno on those e-mails and expose Gore for the liar he is!
"The temple never intended to skirt the law. There was no evil venality here. Had they been made aware of the rules, they would have never engaged in this kind of conduct."
Giving money for someone else? Surely they must have realized there was a reason that their "benefactor" wasn't making the donations themselves. Maybe they didn't know of the law, but surely they must have known something was unethical.
Taking A+Berts today. bump
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