-Caveat Lector- from alt.conspiracy ----- As always, Caveat Lector. Om K ----- <A HREF="aol://5863:126/alt.conspiracy:514153">Robertson Avoiding Media Scrutiny In Lippo - "Chinagate" Soft Money Probe </A> ----- Subject: Robertson Avoiding Media Scrutiny In Lippo - "Chinagate" Soft Money Probe From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Randall Gorman) Date: Mon, Apr 12, 1999 7:25 AM Message-id: <7ero2l$7r7$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Now on the American Atheists web site... ROBERTSON AVOIDING MEDIA SCRUTINY IN LIPPO - 'CHINAGATE' SOFT MONEY PROBE Congress and the news media are looking into scandals involving everything from Chinese espionage to improper campaign contributions. But despite his business and personal ties to several major names in this story, televangelist Pat Robertson has more "Teflon" than Bill Clinton! And Robertson's curious position on China is dividing the religious right. Visit us on the world wide web at http://www.atheists.org/flash.line for news, analysis and commentary. ====================== Randall Gorman AMERICAN ATHEISTS --------------------------------------- Contact our Internet Representative at [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------- Subscribe to AANEWS: Info at http://www.atheists.org/aanews.html or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------- ** Visit us. http://www.atheists.org ** http://www.americanatheist.org ===== from: http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/roberts3.htm <A HREF="http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/roberts3.htm">ROBERTSON "OFF THE RADAR SCREEN" IN MIDST OF </A> ----- AMERICAN ATHEISTS [EMAIL PROTECTED] ROBERTSON "OFF THE RADAR SCREEN" IN MIDST OF CHINAGATE SOFT-MONEY SCANDAL Congress and the newsmedia are investigating charges of Chinese espionage and improper campaign financing. Despite his ties to many players in the story, though, televangelist Pat Robertson seems to have more "teflon" than Bill Clinton. Web Posted: April 11, 1999 t is a serpentine trail of corporations, government and intelligence agencies, political operatives, business tycoons and influence peddlers. And some insist that it is one linking the Chinese government to illegal contributions poured into American political campaigns, including the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. Today's Washington Times purports to tell some of the story, in an article which charges that "Chinese military intelligence officers diverted illegal campaign donations to the Clinton-Gore Reelection Committee" through a bank in Hong Kong, and the powerful Riady family of Indonesia which controls the giant Lippo Group conglomerate. A host of other names are mentioned, including Mochtar and James Riady, Democratic Party operatives John Huang and Charlie Trie, and even former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell. Believe the Times, or the others hot on the trail of "soft money" -- the kind which comes from sources prohibited from contributing to American political campaigns, but is funneled through legitimate contributors -- and this is all about folks doing business with the Peoples' Republic of China, and trying to influence U.S. policy in the process. One name is conspicuously absent, though, from the Washington Times report on Lippo Group involvement with the "Chinagate" controversy -- televangelist Pat Robertson. Once again, Robertson seems to have fallen through the media cracks in stories which go to excruciating lengths to link the ruling Chinese elite with the Democratic political machine. Robertson, of course, is no Democrat, and is much more at home on the religious right fringes of the Republican Party which his Christian Coalition courts so assiduously. Most Americans know Robertson for his involvement with the CC, which he founded in 1989 before handing the group over to political boy-wonder Ralph Reed, or as the avuncular host of the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club" program. When Robertson appears on camera, he's often talking about the need for prayer, more donations, or issuing warnings about the "New World Order" of godless international financiers and political leaders bent on eroding American sovereignty. Behind the scenes, though, Robertson is a different man. In fact, both Robertson and his son, Timothy, are believed to maintain extensive, high-level contacts within the Chinese government. Pat Robertson is also emerging as a financial player on the world scene; he recently struck a deal with the Bank of Scotland to provide "virtual" or "officeless" financial services, and he moved on to the Board of the Directors of the once-trendy Laura Ashley company. He is a partner in a "no news, no sex, no violence" cable-satellite television venture which covers much of Asia and, yes, an intricate network of media outlets in China. Robertson is also a close friend and business partner of the same Riady family whose Lippo Group conglomerate is frequently mentioned in connection with the soft-money scandal. Topping this off is Robertson's venture to reopen the old Powerine oil refinery in the Huntington Beach, California area. The refinery, considered one of the most out-of-date and polluting facilities in the state, would require as much as $30 million to bring it up to current environmental and safety codes. After earlier reports that Robertson was backing out of the deal, it has now been learned that CENCO Refining -- a private Robertson venture -- is attempting to launch a $100 million junk bond offering through a prestigious financial house. But why, with oil prices still relatively depressed, would Robertson be spending huge chunks of money bringing a creaky old refinery back on line? One answer may rest with the battle which has been played out in Long Beach, California, where Chinese firms -- some reputedly linked to China's Army and intelligence services -- are attempting to lease a U.S. military base and use it as a major trading and commercial center. Could the action there include oil tankers from Asia? None of this, of course, implicates Robertson in any illegal activity or wrongdoing. But the televangelist's cozy relationship with Chinese officials, as well as some of the insiders being mentioned in the Lippo "soft money" flap, has raised eyebrows in conservative circles; it is also dividing the religious and political right, which for so long has advocated a tough line on dealing with the Peoples' Republic of China. And Robertson's name seems to rarely, if ever, be raised in connection with the Lippo Group, although many of the players in the soft-money scandal have been tied to Mochtar Riady, Lippo patriarch, and his family. Unraveling the threads of this story means starting with Lippo, and the 1996 campaign. ¶ Lippo is a multibillion dollar industrial, real estate and building conglomerate owned by the Riady family of Indonesia. Robertson is good friends with the Riadys, and both Riady and Robertson teamed up to invest $10 million each in China Entertainment Broadcast Television, Ltd., a Hong-Kong firm which streams "no news, no sex, no violence" broadcasting throughout Asia, including the PRC. Riady money also appears through the Arkansas Worthen National Bank of Little Rock. The bank lent Bill Clinton's campaign several million dollars in the early stages of the 1992 presidential election. Other names associated with Lippo include John Huang and Charles Yah Lin Trie, Democratic fund raisers and political operatives. Trie was a member of a "supreme master" Buddhist cult that campaigned and helped to funnel cash to the Clinton effort. Four days after Clinton's 1992 election victory, Lippo sold a 15% interest in a Hong Kong bank it controlled -- the Hong Kong Chinese Bank -- to China Resources, a huge holding company with ties to the Peoples' Liberation Army and the intelligence service. Also part of this story is Johnny Chung, a California businessman who has told federal investigators that he was a "bagman" for Chinese intelligence. Money was allegedly funneled through China Resources Holding Company; according to investigators and published reports, including a story in the London Sunday Times, CRHC's vice-president has "traditionally been a military case officer" who "coordinates the collection activities of other intelligence personnel operating under (China Resources) cover." ¶ Another character in the alphabet soup of companies linked to China and rumors of espionage and improper behavior is COSCO, the Chinese Ocean Shipping Company, which is mostly owned by the PRC and joint venture partners. The firm is one of the main players in a controversial plan to develop part of a former U.S. Navy shipyard and base in Long Beach, California, as a deep-water port and container shipping operation. Running interference for COSCO inside the Washington, D.C. beltway is former Republican Secretary of State Alexander Haig, who also sits on the COSCO Board. But the prospect of China setting up shop on the west coast has raised concerns, especially in light of reports of widespread technical espionage. Other allegations cite COSCOS involvement with a heroin distribution ring in 1993, and possible ties to a gunrunning operation which peddled 2,000 or more Chinese AK-47's for sale to California street gangs in 1996. A subsidiary company linked to the gun scandal was China International Trust & Investment Co., CITIC which is a prime investment agency for the Chinese government. American board members include former Secretary of State George Schultz and former Chairman of the N.Y. Federal Reserve Bank Maurice Greenberg. ¶ All of this has divided not only the religious right but many Republican conservatives. One one side are the international free-traders such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. Looking across this great ideological divide are other groups like the Family Research Council headed by Gary Bauer, who denounces any engagement with China due to its alleged policies of repressing religious groups. Bauer charges that Christian conservatives "have paid too much attention to the foreign policy elites and the corporate suites." He also raised eyebrows at a Heritage Foundation gathering when he declared, "I think the day is over when a few Washington think tanks should be allowed to make economic policy for the Republican Party." But not weighing into the fray is Christian Coalition and Pat Robertson. According to a report by the Campaign for Working Families, under Ralph Reed the Christian Coalition was "mute on the subject of U.S. policy toward China," a situation that "may have been influenced by the interest of its founder, Rev. Pat Robertson, who in 1995 entered into a major joint investment in China television with Lippo (sound familiar) and Malaysian real-estate interests..." MONEY VS. BELIEF Robertson is considered "bullish" on China, even at the cost of doing business with that country's government which is regularly denounced by other fundamentalist Christians for its role in repressing the practice of religion. And Robertson's media diet of "no sex, no violence, no news" is sure to blunt the impact of western ideology, and not cause the sorts of cultural conflicts and strains which the regime in Beijing wants desperately to avoid. This wouldn't be the first time that Robertson has allied himself with dictators, even those with a shabby record on human rights and religious freedom. One former associate was Zaire's autocrat Mobutu Sese Seko, who granted Robertson's African Development Company extensive timber and mineral concessions, including a diamond mining operation. Mobutu, though, was widely denounced by international human rights organizations and even church groups for his suppression of religious movements which he considered to be a threat to his regime. When Mobutu was declared persona non grata by the U.S. State Department, Robertson went to work in Washington lobbying key government officials to grant the aging dictator a visa for a public relations visit. Robertson's position on China, however, increasingly puts him at odds with Gary Bauer, James Dobson and other religious right luminaries, including Pat Buchanan. Bauer's Family Research Council is now working to stop the entry of China into the World Trade Organization, and business deals such as $500 million partnership with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), a telecommunications firm half-owned by the Chinese military. Also under attack is a Great Wall program which launches commercial as well as military satellites. Engagement with China -- a major goal of the Clinton administration, and certainly a policy rooted as far back as the presidency of Richard Nixon -- may become the basis of a serious fragmentation on the religious right. Unlike his brethren in the pulpit, Pat Robertson appears to have few, if any scruples about doing business with Beijing; and he has thus far managed to avoid the spotlight of media scrutiny now focused on the soft-money scandal, and a number of his close business and personal associates. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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