-Caveat Lector-
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 23:02:10 -0700 (MST)
From: MICHAEL SPITZER <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Copies to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: IUFO: OT: THIS is Wild: CIA Says Pres a Security Risk
Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-> IUFO Mailing List
Who runs this friggin country? THAT'S THE QUESTION!
--forwardes msg--
Wed Mar 10 15:14:18 1999
Intelligence pros consider Clinton a "security risk," and don't
give him classified material
By DOUG THOMPSON
Capitol Hill Blue
[Associated Press Writer H. Josef Hubert contributed to this
report]
Many career intelligence officers consider President Clinton and
the White House a security risk and withhold sensitive
information whenever possible to prevent it falling into enemy
hands, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.
Often, information is also withheld from Clinton appointees at
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of
Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), veteran
intelligence operatives say.
"The White House is not secure when it comes to matters of
national security," says one recently-retired intelligence
analyst. "Career operatives realize this and place the security
of their country above politics."
Revelations over the weekend that a Taiwanese-born scientist at
Los Alamos National Labs in New Mexico has been under
investigation for the last three years for passing secrets to
Communist China is but one example of the lax security, analysts
say.
Capitol Hill Blue has spoken to a half-dozen current and former
intelligence operatives who agreed to speak on condition that
their identities be protected.
They tell a story of poor morale at both the CIA and the National
Security Agency (NSA), where political infighting threatens
national security.
The White House, they say, has little use for career
professionals, preferring to put political hacks into
high-security positions.
"Intelligence is not something that a political appointee can
learn quickly and there is always a question of his loyalty to
the elected official who put him in his job," one current career
operative says. "You have to depend on the career professional to
put all this into perspective."
But the White House ignores the warnings of intelligence
professionals and opts to listen to political appointees put into
place by the administration.
Capitol Hill Blue has obtained a 1996 memo written by White House
Counsel Charles Ruff advising Clinton to ignore warnings from
intelligence professionals about the transfer of sensitive
technology to China and listen instead to the Presidential
appointees.
"The department had every opportunity to weigh in against the
waiver at the highest levels and elected not to do so,'' Ruff
wrote.
"This is typical," one retired operative says. "If you don't get
an analysis that supports your position from the pro you turn to
the political appointee who will tell you anything you want to
hear."
Because of this, career intelligence professionals decided among
themselves to withhold, whenever possible, classified information
from the White House.
"We've learned in the China debacle that U.S. secrets are for
sale to the highest campaign contributor," one retired
intelligence officer said. "So it helps to make sure that the
information that is passed on is never complete. It's something
you have to do if you love your country."
Unlike many federal agencies where whistleblower laws protect
career professionals who come forward, career intelligence
officers risk violating the National Security Act if they go
public with their concerns.
"You can't go public. It's not allowed," says another career
officer. "So you do what you can. I'll be damned if I give the
Clinton administration information that will hurt our country. I
don't trust the man. None of us do."
Richard Banff, a retired intelligence operative who now runs his
own security firm, says a career intelligence officer would lose
a security clearance if he or she were caught in an affair like
the one between the President and Monica Lewinsky.
"Sexual weakness is a red flag when conducting a background
investigation," Banff says. "Anyone with Clinton's background
would have been denied a security clearance in the first place."
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are questioning security at US
nuclear weapons laboratories and whether Clinton administration
efforts to boost ties with China delayed a long-standing
espionage investigation at one of the research facilities.
But Vice President Al Gore led a counterattack Tuesday, defending
the administration's policies toward China and its investigation
of a nuclear weapons espionage case that he said the
administration inherited from the 1980s.
``Keep in mind that happened in the previous administration,''
Gore said in an interview on CNN's Late Edition program. He said
``law enforcement agencies pressed it and pursued it aggressively
with our full support'' once the concerns were raised in 1995.
However, Gore and other administration officials left unanswered
why the FBI investigation continued for nearly three years before
action was taken this week.
National security adviser Sandy Berger, traveling with President
Clinton in Central America, said Tuesday night: ``I reject the
notion there was any dragging of feet.''
The growing national security controversy erupted after the
Energy Department fired a Chinese-American computer scientist at
the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he had been under FBI
investigation since 1996.
The scientist, Wen Ho Lee, quickly went into hiding. He has not
been charged with a crime, although federal officials said the
FBI investigation was continuing.
But the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and other
lawmakers on Tuesday questioned why the investigation had taken
so long before any action was taken.
``That makes no sense, especially where he'd been suspected of
espionage and they would keep letting him work there, (with) ...
all the security clearances,'' Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the
Intelligence panel's chairman, said in an interview.
Shelby said his committee would question Energy Secretary Bill
Richardson and FBI Director Louis Freeh at a closed-door hearing
next week about the delay and whether the administration
downplayed the incident when it first surfaced.
Richardson, in a telephone interview Tuesday night, defended the
investigation as ``extremely thorough and vigorous'' and said he
had no choice but to wait before taking action against the
scientist.
``The moment the FBI gave me the green light to terminate this
individual, I did,'' said Richardson. He said he had been advised
not to pursue the dismissal until ``a thorough investigation and
questioning took place.''
A native of Taiwan, Lee, whom associates describe as being in his
50s, had worked at the prestigious weapons research laboratory in
New Mexico for about 20 years. According to U.S. officials, he
became a prime suspect of an espionage investigation as early as
1996.
The investigation was triggered by concerns by U.S. intelligence
agents that China in the 1980s had obtained top secret
information on nuclear warhead technology that allowed the
Chinese to develop miniaturized nuclear warheads so that more
than one warhead coul
With the administration under sharp attack from congressional
Republicans, Gore sought to contain the damage and also defend
the administration's broader efforts to work with China.
``China is the most populous country in the world. Its economy is
growing and its role in the world is going to continue to grow
whether we want that or not,'' Gore said. ``And so, obviously,
having a relationship with them within which we can try to affect
their behavior ... (is) in our best interest. We do that without
compromising our interests in any way.''
Clinton issued a presidential directive in February 1998 ordering
stepped up security at the weapons labs and there hasn't been any
allegations of ``leakage of technology'' since those safeguards
were imposed, said a senior administration official, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
Richardson said ``there's no evidence of any more (espionage)
cases'' at the weapons labs and that counterintelligence
activities had been increased to ferret out any problems.
``We believe with the measures in place and the
counterintelligence presence that we have at the labs now, the
polygraphs, the increased scrutiny ... we believe the problem is
addressed,'' Richardson insisted in the AP interview.
The flap over China's alleged theft of nuclear weapons secrets
and questions about the speed of the investigation fueled what
already had been long-standing criticism from Republican
lawmakers about U.S. technology transfers to China. GOP-led
congressional committees in 1997 also investigated but were
unable to prove whether China had tried to buy influence in the
1996 Clinton-Gore campaign.
Several foreign-born business owners, including some with
connections to China, have been charged as part of the Justice
Department's investigation into campaign finance abuses.
A senior administration official, traveling with Clinton in Latin
America, acknowledged that it was clear before 1998 that the
weapons labs ``were enormously porous.'' He said other countries,
not just China, ``had access that was troublesome'' because
scientists from around the world did nuclear work at the
facilities.
--Associated Press Writer H. Josef Hubert contributed to this
report
=================================================================
Kaddish, Kaddish, Kaddish, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
-> Send "subscribe iufo " to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-> Posted by: MICHAEL SPITZER <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Wingate
California Director
SKYWATCH INTERNATIONAL
TODAY'S MP3: The Bureau: Take to the Sky
http://www.mp3.com/music/Jazz/11448.html
ANOMALOUS IMAGES AND UFO FILES
http://www.anomalous-images.com
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
