-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- US vs. China Leading Senators Vow to Block China's WTO Bid "a poisonous issue" WASHINGTON -- Influential senators threatened Monday to block the Clinton administration's leading diplomatic effort to improve fast-deteriorating relations with China, and they urged the suspension of some scientific exchange programs. Sens. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., said they would move to stop any effort by the White House to help China become a member of the World Trade Organization this year, reflecting congressional anger over President Clinton's response to suspicions that China stole nuclear secrets. And the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Shelby of Alabama, urged the president or Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to put a moratorium on visits by scientists from countries like China and Iran to American national weapons laboratories, and on reciprocal visits by American scientists to foreign installations. "Our labs are not as secure as they should be," Shelby told reporters after an hourlong, closed meeting with CIA Director George Tenet. "This perhaps is just the tip of an iceberg." The Energy Department last week fired a Taiwan-born scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory for security breaches, after the FBI questioned him in connection with the suspected theft of nuclear weapons designs. Investigators say they believe the scientist, Wen Ho Lee, gave the Chinese sensitive information on nuclear detonations during a visit there for a 1988 seminar. Lee has not been charged with any crime, but is the prime suspect in the case. China denies any theft and has called the allegations of nuclear espionage outlandish. Members of the House and Senate have criticized the administration for not tightening security quickly enough and failing to keep Congress adequately informed about the seriousness of the possible breaches at Los Alamos. David Leavy, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Monday night the administration would work with Congress to resolve the WTO issue, but the official rejected Shelby's proposal. "There's no evidence the visitors program has contributed to any damage to national security," Leavy said. The double-barreled attack from Capitol Hill came as Richardson and Tenet, in separate closed briefings, tried to contain the political fallout from the administration's handling of the spy case by explaining steps the administration has taken to prevent any more thefts. Tenet announced that a retired four-star admiral, David Jeremiah, will head an independent panel of experts to review the possible harm to national security resulting from suspected thefts that took place in the 1980s and that were discovered by nuclear arms experts at Los Alamos in 1995. Jeremiah is expected to report by early next month. But even as the administration stepped up its defense of its response to the spy case, the White House took a blow on its trade policy with China. The warning from Helms, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Hollings, the ranking Democrat on the Commerce Committee, was issued in a letter sent to all senators. "The continuing problems with Chinese human rights violations, espionage and possible technology transfers," they wrote, "suggest that this is not the appropriate time for China to enter the WTO." Only two weeks ago, in Beijing, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright assured China's leaders that the question of whether China was ready to enter the WTO -- a decade-long aspiration for China and a move that could prove enormously beneficial to the country's economy -- would be decided solely on commercial grounds. It would not hinge, she said, on China's human rights record or other issues. But in recent weeks it has become increasingly clear that even if that is the administration's plan, the atmosphere in Congress is rapidly changing. And congressional approval will be necessary, because China's entry would require a major amendment of the law that allows Congress to review, each year, whether to extend "most favored nation" trading status to Beijing. "This has become a poisonous issue," one of the president's top economic advisers said the other day. "And it could blow up the whole deal, if there is a deal." The letter from Sens. Helms and Hollings, which was reported in Monday's Wall Street Journal, mirrors conditions that the House Democratic leader, Dick Gephardt of Missouri, has made and portends a tough fight for China to join the WTO this year. Even as anger in Congress grows on the trade front, there is greater anxiety over security at Los Alamos and other national weapons labs. The labs had long resisted FBI and congressional pressure to tighten their security policies. The Energy Department, which oversees the labs, has been lax in its supervision. The department, for example, never filed a congressionally required annual report in 1998 on the status of security at the labs. Shortly after taking over as Energy secretary last fall, Richardson learned of the urgency of the spy case and reinstated background checks on all foreign visitors, but it was a move the FBI had recommended 17 months earlier. Shelby was unmoved Monday, saying, "The president or the Energy Secretary should put a moratorium on the exchange of people coming into our labs, and our scientists going to their labs, and perhaps giving them information." Sen. Bob Kerrey, of Nebraska, the Intelligence Committee's ranking Democrat, distanced himself Monday from Shelby's suggestion of a moratorium noting that "it's not a situation where foreign visitors are the problems, it's the employees." The Energy Department, in a statement Monday night, said rigorous screening and security measures were in place to insure foreign visitors could not gain access to classified material. But Kerrey expressed concern over security at the laboratories, even with the improvements Richardson has put in place, including doubling the counterintelligence budget. "I no longer have any sense of security that we're doing the right thing," Kerrey told reporters after meeting with Tenet. "What I have right now is a considerable amount of nervousness over our counterintelligence efforts and their effectiveness." As Senate Republicans pounced on the spy case as evidence that the administration's policy of engaging China turned a blind eye to national security, a top Republican analyst, William Kristol, accused congressional Republicans of hypocrisy. "Republicans have largely supported the president and Sandy Berger on engagement and trade above all else in China," Kristol said Monday, referring to the president's national security adviser, Samuel Berger. "Ultimately, it looks like, hey, something hit the headlines and let's take advantage of it." The New York Times, March 16, 1999 European Union EU Commission Executive Resigns En Masse This would never happen in the US The European Commission's 20-member executive last night resigned en masse after a damning report criticised several commissioners, including Jacques Santer, the president, over allegations of fraud, nepotism and mismanagement. The decision, which plunged the European Union's executive body into its worst crisis, came at about 1am Brussels time after an emergency meeting to discuss the specially commissioned report by five independent experts. Edith Cresson, the former French prime minister who is the research and education commissioner, came in for particular criticism. Answering a key point in the report, Mr Santer said the commission "assumed its responsibility" for the malpractices through its collective resignation. The mass resignation was welcomed this morning by members of the European Parliament, across the political spectrum. Wilfried Martens, leader of the parliament's Christian Democrat group, said he would urge the European Council to hold an emergency meeting to nominate a new commission executive as soon as possible. Sir Leon Brittan of the UK, who stepped down as European trade commissioner, also recognised that the report had identified problems in the commission that needed to be dealt with with "ruthless determination". One note of dissent came from Belgium's Karel Van Miert, who resigned as European competition commissioner. He said the report had unfairly given the impression that the commission was riddled with problems. "The departments that worked well have not been discussed," he said. The commission's resignation marked a further dramatic increase in the power and influence of the European Parliament just three months before EU citizens vote for a new assembly. Parliamentary groups led by the Socialists, the largest, had called for the commissioners to quit and threatened to put forward a motion of censure if they did not step down. At the same time, Pauline Green, leader of the Socialist MEPs, indicated that at least some commissioners might be returned to office provided they were approved by public hearings in the parliament. "We believe some of the commissioners have done a very good job," she said. Downing Street last night said the government would press for the immediate reappointment of Britain's two commissioners, Sir Leon Brittan and transport commissioner and former Labour leader Neil Kinnock. A spokesman said: "While we have said all along that fraud must be tackled there is no evidence that [they] were involved in this in any way." The report revealed widespread malfunctioning inside the European Union's executive. The five-person committee of independent experts criticised the Commission administration "up to the highest level of command" and said there was growing reluctance among senior Commission officials to acknowledge responsibility. "It is becoming difficult to find anyone who has even the slightest sense of responsibility," said the committee, set up six weeks ago after the Commission survived a censure vote in the European parliament. The 144-page report said it encountered no cases where a commissioner was "directly and personally involved in fraudulent activities". But it was the most serious blow to the credibility of the EU's executive since it was formed in 1958. It accused the body of failings at every level. Mrs Cresson was singled out for "a clear-cut case of favouritism" in which she awarded a contract to a friend, Ren� Berthelot, even though his qualifications "did not correspond to the various posts to which he was recruited". It said: "The work performed was manifestly deficient in terms of quantity, quality and relevance." The committee also said it was "unacceptable" that Mrs Cresson had failed to respond to "known, serious and continuing irregularities over several years" in the administration of the EU's E620m (�415.4m) Leonardo youth training programme. The report included an attack on Mr Santer for allowing the Commission's security services to develop into a "state within a state" with devastating consequences. Other commissioners, including Monika Wolf-Mathies, one of two German commissioners, were singled out for bending staff rules to employ family and friends. The Financial Times, March 16, 1999 ----- 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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