Subj: ABC 20/20 Story: Can China NUKE US??? Date: 98-12-24 13:35:10 EST From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Hammell) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) In addition to pressure from Armstrong, other aerospace executives gave big campaign contributions to the Democrats. Over time, the White House made it easier than ever for satellite companies to do business in China. And guess who the President put in charge of his export advisory council? Hughes’ Michael Armstrong. IAHF LIST: The above was excerpted from the following transcript of an ABC News "20/20" program about Clinton's treasonous actions in providing the Chinese with missile technology that they could use to destroy America with. Here is the whole transcript. Why aren't we hearing MORE about this stuff? Why all the talk about Monica Lewinsky? It's because the news is manipulated in such a way as to distract us from what REALLY bears close scrutiny, issues like THIS, and like Y2K!!! Here is the whole news transcript- this story aired on December 2 on ABC's 20/20. Please join me in contacting 20/20 to request MORE coverage on this. (On their website they have a form you can write a message in and email to them.) If you live near any military targets, eg: San Diego, Abileen Texas, etc, or near any big city, you better MOVE! I downloaded this from http://abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/transcripts/2020_981202wallace_trans.ht ml: ============================= Wednesday, December 2, 1998 [This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript.] DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS Good evening, and welcome to 20/20 Wednesday. Tonight, we have a story about how a top U.S. defense contractor may have given away secrets of American rocket technology and at the expense of American national security. SAM DONALDSON, ABC NEWS Giving the secrets away to China is the charge, Diane, and China this month is expected to test a nuclear missile with enough range to strike the United States. And remember, the Chinese supply weapons to many other countries far more hostile to the U.S. Chief correspondent Chris Wallace joins us now with an exclusive report. Chris? CHRIS WALLACE, ABCNEWS Sam, tonight, you’re going to meet a man named Al Coates, who was the government’s top cop to protect U.S. secrets during American satellite launches in China. And Coates says some American aerospace companies released sensitive information which helped the Chinese. Now, the companies deny giving China technology secrets. But independent military experts say when someone like Al Coates makes these charges, it’s significant. (V.O.) February 1996. An American satellite is launched on a Chinese rocket. Just after lift-off, the rocket veers out of control. Seconds later, it explodes, and the $126 million satellite onboard is destroyed. But what’s most notable about the accident is that, afterwards, Chinese rockets stopped exploding. Tonight, you’ll hear a story you’ve never heard before — how U.S. aerospace companies may have helped China build better rockets at the expense of America’s national security. (O.C.) As a routine matter, are American companies giving sensitive information to the Chinese? AL COATES I believe they are. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) It was Al Coates’s job to protect American technology. As a senior monitor of overseas launches, Coates has been warning the government for years about what American companies have been doing in China. Last month, frustrated by the lack of response, Lieutenant Colonel Coates quit, after 29 years in the Air Force. Tonight, he’s going public about the aerospace industry for the first time. AL COATES They want to get the job done. They don’t consider it helping the Chinese. They consider it getting their payload and getting their job accomplished. CHRIS WALLACE (on camera) What has the effect of all this been on U.S. national security? AL COATES They have a better capability at striking us. CHRIS WALLACE You mean we’re less safe? AL COATES We’re less safe. CHRIS WALLACE How seriously do you take Al Coates? SEN FRED THOMPSON, (R) TENNESSEE I take it very seriously. This is very important, troubling new information. CHRIS WALLACE Republican senator Fred Thompson heads a Senate committee that’s been investigating U.S. satellite companies. He says what Coates saw firsthand provides important new leads. FRED THOMPSON We used to have a system whereby national security was paramount in our considerations. CHRIS WALLACE (on camera) If national security used to be paramount, what’s paramount now? FRED THOMPSON: Commercial interests. CHRIS WALLACE: Profits? FRED THOMPSON: Yes. CHRIS WALLACE: Making a buck? FRED THOMPSON: Yes. CHRIS WALLACE: At the expense of U.S. national security? FRED THOMPSON: I think so. LAUNCH CONTROLLER: Challenger, go with throttle up. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) It all started back in 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up, and American companies began looking for faster, cheaper ways to launch their satellites. Many went to China, where the price of a launch was half what it was in the U.S. But the danger was, in doing business with the Chinese, they would gain access to American secrets. That’s why the U.S. government sends monitors like Al Coates to oversee every mission. AL COATES You’re kind of the eyes and ears of the security aspect of it. You turn out to be the supercop. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) As the supercop on the beat, Coates kept watch over Hughes Electronics, the corporation that paved the way into China. Since 1990, he monitored three Hughes launches there. And he says problems could begin on the plane ride over from the U.S., such as the time a Hughes scientist was looking at designs of a satellite fuel tank. AL COATES I asked him what he was using the data for and why he had it, and he said, “Well, it’s just my reference material.” I informed him, you know, it’s illegal to export that data out of the United States. And he had two choices — one, to hand me the document or eat it. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) Once they got to China, American companies were supposed to protect their satellites. This summer, former Hughes chairman Michael Armstrong (ph) assured Congress the Chinese get no chance to steal technology. MICHAEL ARMSTRONG, FORMER HUGHES CHAIRMAN It’s under surveillance. It goes into a building that is under lock. It has television cameras on it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) But that’s not how Al Coates remembers it. He was so worried about Hughes security at this facility in Xichang (ph), China, he decided to conduct his own test to see if he could sneak by the guards and cameras watching the company’s satellite. AL COATES I went in and told them to lock me outside of the building. I went to a door that had a very bad lock and seal and walked inside, walked around the edges of the camera, tapped the security guy on the shoulder and said, “Call your manager. I just broke into your building.” CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) It wasn’t just physical security. Coates says at almost every meeting with the Chinese, Hughes personnel would start discussing technical information that was supposed to be off limits. AL COATES: Several times it did occur where you had to physically stop the meeting. CHRIS WALLACE (on camera): Literally, you mean? AL COATES: And take them outside. CHRIS WALLACE: And say? AL COATES “You’ve gone too far. I mean, I’ve already told you about this. Why are you getting into this level of detail?” CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) And though Coates says he never saw Hughes personnel hand over unauthorized material, he says security lapses kept happening. In this area, Coates reported finding sensitive papers left out in the open. And he cited Hughes for sending information across unsecured phone lines, where the Chinese could intercept it. AL COATES They were serious infractions. Anytime you have the unauthorized release of technical data, it’s serous. PETER LEITNER (PH), PENTAGON OFFICIAL The Chinese intelligence services have penetrated almost every aspect of joint ventures and other things that — business operations in China. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) Peter Leitner, a current pentagon official who screens what information U.S. companies are allowed to take overseas, says maintaining security in China is especially tough. PETER LEITNER Anything that is left unattended for even a few minutes, any classified information, any technical information that is left unattended will be compromised immediately. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) And that’s exactly what Coates and others are so worried about — that the information the Chinese got from Hughes and other companies on propulsion and guidance to put satellites in space has also been used by the Chinese military. HENRY SOKOLSKI, FORMER DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL Our technology has helped the Chinese perfect missiles that are more reliable, more accurate and more difficult to monitor or track as we try to prevent them from ever penetrating our air space. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) Henry Sokolski, a Defense Department official in the Bush administration, says that 1996 accident we showed you earlier may have been the turning point. A classified Pentagon study last year reportedly found that scientists from Hughes and another U.S. company, Loral, gave the Chinese expertise about what went wrong. The reported conclusion — national security has been harmed. HENRY SOKOLSKI From 1990 to 1996, the Chinese reliability was at 75 percent. That meant one out of four times something exploded or didn’t get on station. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.): But since that 1996 accident ... HENRY SOKOLSKI They’ve had 100 percent reliability, 12 successes, and these successes are successes involving the most sophisticated launchers with the most sophisticated payloads. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) Hughes refused to talk with us but sent this letter, stating the U.S. government never told the company of any violations. “We can only assume that if Mr Coates communicated these incidents to his superiors, they were deemed unworthy of passing on to us.” And Hughes cited Pentagon officials who say the Chinese have gained little from U.S. companies. This summer, before Congress, Hughes vice chairman Steven Dorfman (ph) denied any wrongdoing. STEVEN DORFMAN, HUGHES VICE CHAIRMAN We have found no, underscore, no evidence that Hughes employees have transferred any missile technology to the Chinese. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) But Al Coates has no doubts the Chinese benefited from their partnership with U.S. companies. He watched Hughes personnel work closely with the Chinese and says their top priority was a successful launch, with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. AL COATES: I would call it the end justified the means. CHRIS WALLACE (on camera): Meaning? AL COATES Meaning that a successful launch that cost as little money as possible, you have to take certain risks, and some of those risks may include releasing data that you shouldn’t. CHRIS WALLACE: Did Hughes put American national security at risk? AL COATES: I believe they did. And I think they put them at risk for profit. CHRIS WALLACE: It’s a pretty tough thing to say about an American corporation? AL COATES But if you accept the mentality that you’re doing it strictly for commercial nature of launching communication satellites, then I guess you could have a clear conscience. CHRIS WALLACE Al Coates wasn’t the only one raising red flags about Hughes. 20/20 has talked to other government monitors and to private guards on Hughes projects who tell us they, too, reported security problems. And it wasn’t just Hughes. Other satellite companies were also written up. So where was the U.S. government during all this? What was done to tighten security? To answer that, you have to understand what was happening back in Washington. PRES BILL CLINTON: I, William Jefferson Clinton ... CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.): President Clinton came into office, promising to stop satellite exports, which started under George Bush, to punish China for selling missiles to countries like Iran. But the satellite industry fought back. In this letter, Michael Armstrong, then head of Hughes, reminded the President of his backing. “You asked me to support your economic package. I did.” And there was this blunt warning. “This will be public and political shortly.” FRED THOMPSON I think it was inappropriate for the chairman of a domestic company to really put that kind of pressure to make this all — out effort to get sanctions lifted on a country that’s distributing weapons of mass destruction all over the world. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) In addition to pressure from Armstrong, other aerospace executives gave big campaign contributions to the Democrats. Over time, the White House made it easier than ever for satellite companies to do business in China. And guess who the President put in charge of his export advisory council? Hughes’ Michael Armstrong. MICHAEL ARMSTRONG This is not about us trying to in any way jeopardize or put at risk national security. This is about a commercial product. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) Armstrong, who now runs AT&T, declined to be interviewed. Administration officials also would not talk to 20/20 because of an ABC labor dispute. But in June, Commerce Undersecretary William Reinsch told Nightline current controls are working. WILLIAM REINSCH, UNDERSECRETARY OF COMMERCE I don’t have any doubt in my mind that the procedures that we have in place to protect these things are clear and strict and very aggressive. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) But Al Coates disagrees. Throughout the ’90s, he was sending infraction reports back to Washington, reports made public here for the first time. AL COATES Unauthorized release of technical data. Failure to comply with agreements. Failure to control access. Meeting quickly gets out of control. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.): Coates says he got no response. AL COATES I’m telling them what’s going on, please respond back to me. Nothing ever came back. CHRIS WALLACE Peter Leitner, who works in the Pentagon office that handled Coates’s reports, says concerns about U.S. companies are not taken seriously. PETER LEITNER There’s an air of resignation to the whole thing that just pervades the organization. CHRIS WALLACE (on camera) That’s the message that they have gotten from the administration? Business has won, don’t make waves? PETER LEITNER: Time and time again. CHRIS WALLACE (V.O.) So Al Coates finally decided to get out. Now, this technology supercop spends his days at home in Florida, reviewing what tried to say in his reports and still wondering why no one seemed to be listening. (on camera) How tough was this for you? AL COATES Very. It was to the point that where, when your blood pressure is 158 over 106, it’s time to do something different before you explode. FRED THOMPSON Very sad, very disturbing. It’s our responsibility to get to the bottom of a system that would cause that. I think that they’ve done a very bad job with regard to protecting technology that I think may some day come back to haunt us. CHRIS WALLACE Al Coates has met with investigators from the Justice Department and Congress. Much of what they have learned about U.S. satellite companies remains classified. But a special House committee is planning to hold hearings in two weeks about what the Chinese have gained from American technology. Sam? SAM DONALDSON: Thank you, Chris.
