CHINA'S THEFT OF NUCLEAR SECRETS

(Senate - March 15, 1999)
[Page: S2613]

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I want you to listen. I am going to tell you a story of espionage, conspiracy, deception, and coverup, a story with life and death implications for millions of Americans, a story about national security, and a President and an administration that deliberately chose to put national security at risk, while telling everyone that everything was fine.

If it was written in a book, Mr. President, it wouldn't sell, because no one would believe it. If it was fictionalized in a novel, few could conceive it. But it is true.

For the sake of my statement today, I am stating that the President withheld information and covered up the Chinese theft of our technology. But I am realistic enough to know that a person with the history of deception this President has will have provided himself with some cover in case he got caught. So I am sure there is a paper trail that he can allege. The way the President probably covered himself was to include tidbits about this theft buried in briefings of 40 or 50 other items so the significance of it would not be noticed. But a paper trail would be established.
Anticipating that, I, over the weekend, talked to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Porter Goss, and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time of the discovery of this secret, this information, Senator Arlen Specter. Neither chairman was notified of the W-88 nuclear warhead technology theft. And these would have been the first to be notified, Mr. President.

There can be no doubt that President Clinton engaged in a coverup scheme.

Let me read three paragraphs from last week's op-ed article by Michael Kelly in the Washington Post, entitled `Lies About China.' I am quoting now, Mr. President:
In April 1996, Energy Department officials informed Samuel Berger, then Clinton's deputy national security advisor, that Notra Trulock, the department's chief of intelligence, had uncovered evidence that showed China had learned how to miniaturize nuclear bombs, allowing for smaller, more lethal warheads . . .

Further quoting:

The Times reports that the House Intelligence Committee asked Trulock for a briefing in July 1998. Trulock asked for permission from Elizabeth Moler, then acting energy secretary. According to Trulock, Moler told him not to brief the committee because the information might be used against Clinton's China policy. . .
Further quoting:

The White House's secret would have remained secrethad it not been for a select investigative committee headed by Republican [Representative] Christopher Cox. . .
But even using the President's fictitious paper trail, the earliest either chairman could have known about it would have been late in the spring of 1997, years after the Clinton administration learned of it and, of course, after the 1996 election.

I start, Mr. President, by listing a few things which we now know to be true, factual, incontrovertible, and nonclassified.

For years, the Clinton administration covered up China's interest of top secret U.S. nuclear weapons data. They never informed the Congress or the American people about what had happened or its significance to our national security.

Let me tell you what President Clinton did during this period of time.
During this period of time, the President misled the American people on numerous occasions about the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles in the post-cold-war era.

During this period of time, President Clinton made statements on over 130 separate occasions, such as the following:--and I am quoting--

For the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, there is not a single solitary nuclear missile pointed at an American child tonight. Not one. Not a single one.

During this period of time, he knew that China was targeting up to 18 intercontinental ballistic missiles at American children.

During this period of time, President Clinton signed export control waivers which allowed his top campaign fundraisers' aerospace company to transfer sensitive U.S. missile guidance technology to China.

During this period of time, he shifted the prime satellite export responsibility from the State Department, where it had always been to maintain security, to the Commerce Department so that it would be easier to share sensitive information with the Chinese and others.

During this period of time, President Clinton hosted over 100 White House fundraisers as a part of a larger aggressive scheme to raise campaign contributions, many from illegal foreign sources primarily, including sources in China. Among guests permitted to attend these White House fundraisers were a convicted felon and a Chinese arms dealer.

During this period of time, John Huang, Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung, James Riady, and others with strong ties to China, were deeply involved, with the President's knowledge, in raising Chinese-tainted campaign cash for the Clinton campaign.
During this period of time, John Huang, who had been given a security clearance without a background check, was permitted to receive numerous classified CIA briefings, both during and after his stay at the Commerce Department.

And during this period of time, President Clinton was successfully stopping the deployment of a national missile defense system--exposing every American life to a missile attack, leaving us with no defense whatsoever against an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Mr. President, China's theft of secret data on the so-called W-88 nuclear warhead may be one of the most serious breaches of national security in the history of our Nation, more serious than Aldrich Ames; perhaps more serious than the Rosenbergs.
The public needs to understand that this story is true. This is not about partisanship. It is not about some ancient history of some long gone cold war.
This is about the real world here and now. It is about national security in its most important aspects. It is about protecting our freedom and our existence as a Nation.
This is ultimately a matter which concerns the life and death of every American citizen.
[end excerpt]

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IMHO, this is one of the greatest speeches made on the floor of the United States Senate and why Senator Inhofe needs to be reelected. Not often do we have the opportunity to be represented by a man who will stand up and be counted like this. Our military know they can count on him 100% and so can we. He doesn't shirk from doing the right thing.