Mr. President, Face Up to
the Truth!!

After the White House's five month "security review" of The Report of the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns With the People's Republic of China, named the Cox Report after its chairman Christopher Cox (R-CA), a declassified version was finally released on May 25. 

The report's findings unanimously endorsed by the bipartisan commitee's nine members detail irrefutable U.S. national security lapses and counterintelligence failures.  The resulting damage is extremely grave.  As concluded by the Cox Report, the secrets stolen by the People's Republic of China (PRC)  jeopardize U.S. national security interests and pose a direct threat to the U.S., its forces, its allies and its friends.   

The sanitized version of the Cox Report agreed to by the White House paints a disturbing picture of a systematic and pervasive espionage campaign spanning four presidencies from the late 1970's to the present.  The damage to our national security is too frightening to even comprehend.     

In response to the grave security breaches chronicled in the Cox Report,  President Clinton has adopted his tried and proven strategy of deflecting responsibility to others by denying culpability.  Thus, once again, the White House is resorting to a  pervasive spin campaign aimed at absolving President Clinton of any responsibility for one of the worst counterintelligence failures in our nation's history.

Contrary to the White House's spin, however, the Cox Report's findings cry out in a loud and clear voice, "Mr. President, face up to the truth!"  Even the sanitized version of the Cox Report clearly establishes that the Clinton Administration bears significant responsibility for the theft of America's most prized military and military-related technologies. 

Three findings, in particular, place many of the stolen secrets on President Clinton's watch. 

First, the report affirms that "The U.S. did not become fully aware of the magnitude of the counterintelligence problem at Department of  Energy national weapons laboratories until 1995".  Secondly, the report confirms that "Some of the most significant thefts have occurred in the last four years".  Lastly, the report asserts that the unprecedented scope and depth of Chinese espionage discovered four years earlier "almost certainly continues to this day".   

Even a quick reading of the Cox Report makes President Clinton's deniability implausible.  The following "incontrovertible reasons", selected from numerous instances documented in the Cox Report, unequivocally illustrate President Clinton's denial of the truth. 

Reason 8.  In 1996, the CEOs of Loral Space and Communications Limited and Hughes Electronics, successfully lobbied President Clinton to relax export controls on  militarily useful technology.  As cited in the Cox Report, these two companies committed  egregious technology transfers at the expense of U.S. national security.  Hmmm!   

Reason 7.  The Cox Report identified Liu Chaoying Wang and Wang Ju as the PRC's top two operatives in its espionage campaign against the U.S.  Liu, a colonel in the People's Liberation Army and the daughter of a top Communist Party military official, funneled $300,000 to Clinton's re-election campaign.  Wang, the son of the late PRC President Wang Zehen, attended a 1996 White House coffee hosted by President Clinton and is linked to more than $600,000 in illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee.  Politics make strange bedfellows!

.  .   Reason 6.  U.S. and PRC lab-to-lab exchange visits, which were halted in the late 1980's, were resumed in 1993.  These exchange visits provided opportunities for the PRC to target U.S. weapons scientists.  Nonetheless, despite considerable debate in Congress and several critical General Accounting Office reports, the Clinton Administration failed to make a definitive risks and benefits assessment of exchange visits involving our national weapons labs.  Duh! 

Reason 5.  Lax U.S. export controls on the sale of high performance computers have enabled the PRC's supercomputer inventory to grow from zero, in 1996, to over 600 by the end of 1998.  This geometric increase has given the PRC the capability to develop, modify and maintain nuclear weapons through two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer modeling.  Hellooo!

Reason 4.  In 1997,  the PRC stole classified U.S. development research concerning very sensitive detection techniques.  This technology, if  successfully employed, could be used to find and attack U.S. satellites and submarines.  With strategic partners like this, who needs enemies!

Reason 3.  In 1994 and 1995, highly classified computer codes, known as "legacy codes", were transferred to a non-secure computer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.  These legacy codes are the culmination of 50 years of U.S. nuclear experimentation.  Highly classified weapons specifications were also transferred.  Together, the legacy codes and weapons specifications provide the blueprints for the most advanced and destructive nuclear weapons in America's arsenal.  Is anyone minding the store?

Reason 2.  The Cox Report identified Taiwan-born scientist Wen Ho Lee as the one who stole the legacy codes and other highly compromising technological data.  Lee came under FBI scrutiny in 1996.  In 1997, the FBI alerted the White House and requested the Justice Department authorize a wiretap to monitor his activities.  Despite receiving and approving all but a few of 700 wiretap requests annually, top Justice Department officials inexplicably did not pursue the request.  How convenient!

And, the number one incontrovertible reason that establishes the Clinton administration's culpability, contrary to the White House spin: 

  Reason 1.  On March 19th of this year, President Clinton publicly declared, "To the best of my knowledge, no one has said anything to me about espionage which occurred by the Chinese against the labs during my presidency".  The report documents otherwise.  The Secretary of Energy was briefed in 1995 and early 1996.  National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, was briefed in April 1996 and again in August 1997.  And, President Clinton was personally briefed by Sandy Berger about the serious security problems at the labs, in July 1997.  Father, I cannot tell a lie; yeah right! 

Mr. President, the facts established and unanimously endorsed by the bipartisan Cox Committee make your denials of culpability for the PRC's wholesale stealing of our most sensitive defense secrets hollow.  Mr. President, there is an old expression that says, "bad news doesn't get better with age."  Mr. President, accept rather than deflect responsibility for the bad news. 

Face up to the truth!