Selling America's Secrets

March 11, 1999
WINSTON MIDEAST ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East analyst & commentator

No, I'm not referring to Wen Ho Lee, presently under investigation for allegedly stealing nuclear secrets for China from the laboratory where he worked at Los Alamos, New Mexico.

I'm talking about American officials involved in initiating those technology transfers, in effect, betraying America by subverting national security.

I am speaking about Presidents, Vice Presidents, Secretaries of Defense, the State Department, Intelligence Agencies and, of course, the research and manufacturing companies who actually handled the innumerable transfers of technology.(1)

President Clinton is once again stonewalling by refusing to release a 700 page report prepared by Rep. Christopher Cox and his bi-partisan Investigative Congressional Committee. In a prior article I opined that it was unlikely the truth would come out but, if it did, it would be deeply censored or redacted by the White House to protect the guilty.

If Clinton and other Presidents bought political gain and cash for their betrayal of the nation, then they surely must be brought to trial. Never mind that Congress and the nation is exhausted from the recent impeachment hearings and the year's media feeding frenzy run-up to those hearings. This is not about zippers and sexual satisfaction, this is about living and dying. It's about miniature nuclear bombs (so-called "suitcase nukes") three feet long that can be hand-carried into your city. This is about government officials deciding on their own to buy favor with radical nations who want extended range missiles capable of carrying NBC (Nuclear, Biological, and/or Chemical) warheads. This is about research facilities that virtually invite spying with the knowledge and benign overview of a truly corrupt President.

The investigation should start at three points:

1. the beginning (approval of technology transfer by high Government officials);

2. at the middle (use of Government bureaucrats to set up transfer with the purchasing nations);

3. and the end (where US manufacturers and their research staffs actually trained foreign personnel in addition to assisting to set up production facilities in these foreign nations).

Think of how many US technicians would have to go to these other nations to insure manufacturing quality and the set up of test procedures. Then, there would be the foreign scientists and technicians who would have to come to the US in order to be pre-trained. Here the State Department would have to arrange with Customs for entry into the US and then on to the restricted factories.

Presently, the media is concentrating on Wen Ho Lee, the Taiwanese born scientist at Los Alamos. But, there are dozens, if not hundreds of Lees, from lots of different countries, easily sponging up US developed weapons' technology. In the early 1980's, I wrote about a highly probable transfer of missile technology to China - who then sold Saudi Arabia a nuclear-capable missile system. It was clear that, without sophisticated outside help, China could not deliver a high quality, debugged system acceptable to Saudi Arabia. At that time in the ‘80s, Caspar Weinberger was Secretary of Defense and George Bush was Vice President (formerly DCIA, Director of the CIA). Here such bodies as the House Intelligence Committee never bothered to even look into the matter.

For many years Congress has been warned that a Shadow Government had firmly established itself in Washington - and that it continued to operate and grow, regardless of successive changes in the Administration, and without the oversight of Congress.

Certain agencies always remained constant, such as the State Department, Intelligence Agencies, to include, the CIA, NSA (National Security Agency), NI (Naval Intelligence), and more. While Presidents appointed new heads of these agencies and departments, the working (and controlling) staff remained, as did the status quo pro-Arab, pro-selling weapons-for-profit mind-set. In effect, the bureau's bureaucrat's recommended and often created America's foreign policy. If a particular President or Defense Secretary agreed with the philosophy of this Shadow Government, they became part of the scheme. If they did not, they were by-passed or tricked through conveniently manipulated intelligence reports or skewed political advice.

This is why today we are seeing signs of increased political decay and corruption in the highest office of Government. They have been able to keep a lid on the stink for years but, finally, it's beginning to leak out. There will, of course, be every effort to deny; destroy evidence; threaten potential witnesses. Each scheme first starts with the planning of "Credible Deniability" should the illegal operation become public.

Congress will be pressured to either drop the matter (too hot) or create a facade of superficial hearings to protect their own. This should be a bi-partisan, very public investigation but one can already see some Congressmen circling the wagons to protect the President and their own political future.

Do not be too surprised to see the guilty begin to hide their activities by blaming other interests and/or nations. Who could forget the plan to blame Israel when US officials were illegally shipping weapons during the Iran-Contra affair. This was exposed by Col. Oliver North during the hearings.

I anticipate some false accusations to surface to take the heat off the President. The White House was well-aware that an investigation by the bi-partisan House Committee chaired by Christopher Cox was well underway. Now was the time to start erasing the trail by floating stories that: It wasn't our government but rather other nations who were to blame.

There was the usual running accusation floated in the WASHINGTON TIMES Jan. 27 and the WASHINGTON POST Jan. 29 that Israel was involved in the development of the Nautilus defensive weapons systems - which employs lasers in the intercept of Katyusha missiles and that Israel had transferred this secret anti-missile technology to China. Israel denied the accusation but the NEW YORK TIMES had already made it a front page crusade. The US frequently uses Israel's innovative skills in joint development projects.

This is the usual State Department pressuring Israel and Israel's supporters, especially in Congress, just to soften them up prior to a major push to get Israel to agree to some self-destructive action. But, this accusation appeared exactly 13 weeks before May 4 - the expected date of Arafat's announcement that Palestine is a State.

Clearly, this was a typical State Department/CIA media manipulation, designed to blur the trail leading back to the White House, while concurrently putting israel on the defensive. There are lots of rocks to turn over.

China is, of course, only the most recent, but what about our assisting transfer of catastrophic weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein before the Gulf War. What about our covert assistance to Syria? America's entire Middle East foreign policy and weapons' transfers have never, I repeat, never been seriously studied by Congress - with the exception of Rep. Christopher Cox's bi-partisan Congressional Committee - whose mandate will soon expire. And they seems to have dealt with only the China syndrome leaks of technology. (Possibly, more, but because the 700 page report is still classified and probably will never see daylight, who really knows?)

What about our policy to provide the Russians and China with Super Computers we knew were to be transferred to their military research facilities? Even now, Madame Albright, speaking for Clinton, demands US policies on China ignore its espionage and reward China with Free Trade. (2)

These transfers were approved by Presidents and assisted by our researchers and cloaked over by our Intelligence Agencies. It would appear that everyone was in on the deal, except Congress and the American people. It seems obvious that money coming from China, Asia, and the Middle East to a political slush fund called: campaign contributions, plays a role in this hustle. Clearly, we Americans has been betrayed by our own. Perhaps Congress will for once do its job thoroughly...but, I doubt it. There are too many forces arrayed against individuals who are at risk. If Presidents and former Presidents, CEO's of corporations must go to jail for treason, then, so be it. We must clean up the White House and all the Agencies connected to its power supply. Belief in the Government has sunk so low that decent men find they are out of place in Washington. For once, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congress, do your job vigorously. Clean house and, above all, scrub the White House from its dirty gray to a once sparkling white. We have the right to be proud of our Government.

Please forward this to your own lists.

Also, send it to your Senators and Representatives.

Footnotes

2. "Albright Defends Policies on China as GOP Attacks" by Eric Schmitt NEW YORK TIMES 3/11/99