Clicking on banner ads keeps JWR alive
Jewish World Review May 28, 1999 /13 Sivan 5759

Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase


Tony Snow
Dr. Laura
Michael Kelly
Bob Greene
Paul Greenberg
MUGGER
David Corn
Sam Schulman
Philip Weiss
Mort Zuckerman
Richard Chesnoff
Larry Elder
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Don Feder
Linda Chavez
Mona Charen
Thomas Sowell
Walter Williams
Ben Wattenberg

Econophone

The Cox Committee Report

(JWR) ---- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com)
HOW BAD IS THE DAMAGE caused to America's defenses by "the largest espionage success against the United States since the Soviet Union in the 1940s,'' in the words of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich? It was Gingrich who launched the Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, chaired by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) before leaving Congress. So bad, said former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, "it renders us immediately a great deal more vulnerable than we have ever been in our history.''

In conversations following the release of the Cox report, Gingrich and Kirkpatrick spoke in somber terms about the potential injury to American interests and American security by the Clinton administration's failure to stop the export of our best nuclear technology. Not only will we suffer because of what the Chinese now possess, said Kirkpatrick, but "proliferation proceeds geometrically. What China has, China sells.'' Indeed, China is a top proliferator of weapons of mass destruction, and some of its customers are North Korea, Iraq and Iran.

Both Kirkpatrick and Gingrich believe the Chinese are capable of launching a missile at American troops, allied targets and even American cities. Kirkpatrick said the Chinese do not value human life and might be willing to suffer retaliatory consequences for the psychological benefit of striking American soil with a missile. Gingrich worried that our military and intelligence capabilities are in disarray because of Clinton administration policies.

"I see a country with a president who has overused the military while under-investing in it. We're losing a lot of our best people, who are leaving. Our equipment is wearing out. The intelligence community is over-extended and under-funded. They missed the Chinese embassy bombing in Belgrade and the Indian nuclear tests, among other things, because they don't have enough analysts to look at all the photographs.''

The Cox report not only reveals laxness on the administration's part, it suggests corruption that allowed the secrets to continue flowing to China long after a lid should have been put on the source of the problem.

Gingrich said, "It further exposes the Janet Reno Justice Department as probably the most disgraceful Justice Department since the Teapot Dome scandal of 1923 when the attorney general had to resign because of corruption.''

While Congress should fully investigate all of the issues raised by the Cox committee, the likelihood of President Clinton being held accountable while still in office is remote. That is why the public should make Vice President Gore the target of any moral retribution.

"If you want political accountability, defeat Gore,'' said Gingrich, and added: "Any citizen who cares about America's survival knows you cannot have eight more years of this administration. You have a president who is totally mendacious. You have a vice president who can't even recognize monks when they're wearing saffron robes. Gore succeeding Clinton would be a commitment to the decay of America. You've never had 16 years in a row that would be as bad as Clinton followed by Gore, undermining American defenses and allowing the Chinese to become a genuine threat.''

The Clinton administration's response to the Cox report is wholly inadequate. The administration admits to no mistakes and certainly no wrongdoing. In a familiar exercise of hubris and spin, it claims to have already been working on security concerns long before the Cox committee began its investigation. And it asserts that Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is "aggressively implementing'' a presidential directive to strengthen security and counterintelligence at U.S. National Laboratories. Why is it, then, that Chairman Cox says security breaches continue and probably will not be fixed until next year? The nuclear horses are gone, and only now does the president express interest in closing the barn door.

The administration's claims are as credible as Beijing's assertion that China stole nothing. The Clinton legacy may be that he helped begin a new cold war for the sake of his preservation in office. The spying may have started 20 years ago, but it was discovered and ignored on this president's watch. The Chinese now have everything they need to make the world an unsafer place.


Up

05/26/99: 'A turning point for our country'
05/24/99: Barak is not Israel's savior
05/19/99: It takes a leader
05/17/99: Questions for Gov. Bush and the others
05/12/99: OAF-ish behavior explains U.S. mistakes
05/07/99: Israel's high-stakes election
05/04/99: Jeb Bush chooses to save kids, not institutions
04/26/99: Surrendering our civilization
04/26/99: War abroad, war at home
04/22/99: Those wild and crazy (Democrat) tax-cutters
04/16/99: Bubba’s contemptible behavior
04/14/99:Elizabeth Dole's choice
04/09/99: The taxman cometh
04/05/99: MEMO: MAKE LOVE AND WAR -- AND KEEP IT SIMPLE
03/30/99: Human-rights terror in China
03/25/99: Yasser Arafat:
bad cop, worse cop
03/23/99: Bubba’s multiplied lies
03/18/99: Reinventing AlGore
03/16/99:Americans get bull while China shops
03/12/99: Bill Lan Lee: Flouting the law
03/09/99: Don't worry about your child, be happy
03/08/99:The ‘lady' is a tramp
03/04/99: Proving myself to President Clinton
02/24/99: New slaves to a new slavery
02/22/99: Character-plus
02/19/99: GOP losers tell winner how to win
02/17/99: The Clinton legacy
02/10/99: More a man, less a president

©1999, LA TimesSyndicate