Bill Clinton can stop worrying about his place in history; he's already secured it -- as the first American President ever to jeopardize national security for his own personal and political profit.
"The many questionable contributions to the Democratic Party and President Clinton's legal defense fund are as much about U.S. national security as they are about White House influence peddling," charges Peter Schweizer, co-author, with former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, of a new book called The Next War. "Questions swirling around former Deputy Assistant Commerce Secretary John Huang, the Lippo Group of Indonesia, and the fundraising activities of Charles Yah Lin Trie may well be linked by the shadow efforts of the Chinese military to influence U.S. foreign and military policy."
Writing in a recent issue of The Shield, a bi-monthly newsletter published by the National Intelligence and Counterintelligence Association, Schweizer recalls that Charlie Trie "arranged for President Clinton to meet with Wang Jun, a Chinese arms merchant, at a February 6, 1996 White House coffee social. Mr. Wang," he notes, "is chairman of Poly Technologies, which is owned and run by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA)."
The PLA has used front organizations such as Poly Technologies to negotiate arms sales to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, and to serve as "conduits for intelligence operations." It has also used these phony fronts to acquire "advanced dual-use technologies to assist in modernizing the PLA."
Schweizer explains that dual-use technologies are those that have "both civilian and military applications. The Commerce Department, where Mr. Huang worked, is responsible for licensing exports of U.S. dual-use items," he observes, adding that "the Clinton administration has been very willing to grant the PLA access to such critical technologies."
Peter Schweizer emphasizes that "possible links between PLA-managed companies and the White House and Democratic Party fundraising occur alongside the Clinton administration's inaction in the face of dangerous activities by the Chinese military. In addition to passing sensitive ballistic-missile and nuclear-weapons-related technologies to rogue states," Schweizer warns, "the PLA is operating under the assumption that the U.S. is a rival, not a friend."
Congressman Floyd Spence, chairman of the House National Security Committee, also worries that the United States is "selling our edge in military technology to a nation that may well be our adversary someday." He charges that the Clinton administration "has placed commercial interests above U.S. national security interests." Though agreeing that "we should continue to encourage the development of international trade," Spence emphasizes that "we must not compromise our national security by giving the Chinese the means to increase their military effectiveness."
Spence is particularly concerned about "the recent expansion of sensitive military technology exports to China. China already has the largest military in the world," he observes, "and has now embarked on a sustained and ambitious modernization effort." Where does Bill Clinton figure in all of this? Is he determined to go down in history as the President who betrayed U.S. security to our most dangerous potential enemy?
