[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 40 (Monday, March 15, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2613-S2617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CHINA'S THEFT OF NUCLEAR SECRETS

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I want you to listen. I am going to tell 
you a story of espionage, conspiracy, deception, and coverup, a story 
with life and death implications for millions of Americans, a story 
about national security, and a President and an administration that 
deliberately chose to put national security at risk, while telling 
everyone that everything was fine.
  If it was written in a book, Mr. President, it wouldn't sell, because 
no one would believe it. If it was fictionalized in a novel, few could 
conceive it. But it is true.
  For the sake of my statement today, I am stating that the President 
withheld information and covered up the Chinese theft of our 
technology. But I am realistic enough to know that a person with the 
history of deception this President has will have provided himself with 
some cover in case he got caught. So I am sure there is a paper trail 
that he can allege. The way the President probably covered himself was 
to include tidbits about this theft buried in briefings of 40 or 50 
other items so the significance of it would not be noticed. But a paper 
trail would be established.
  Anticipating that, I, over the weekend, talked to the chairman of the 
House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Porter Goss, and the chairman 
of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time of the discovery of 
this secret, this information, Senator Arlen Specter. Neither chairman 
was notified of the W-88 nuclear warhead technology theft. And these 
would have been the first to be notified, Mr. President.
  There can be no doubt that President Clinton engaged in a coverup 
scheme.
  Let me read three paragraphs from last week's op-ed article by 
Michael Kelly in the Washington Post, entitled ``Lies About China.'' I 
am quoting now, Mr. President:

       In April 1996, Energy Department officials informed Samuel 
     Berger, then Clinton's deputy national security advisor, that 
     Notra Trulock, the department's chief of intelligence, had 
     uncovered evidence that showed China had learned how to 
     miniaturize nuclear bombs, allowing for smaller, more lethal 
     warheads . . . 

  Further quoting:

       The Times reports that the House Intelligence Committee 
     asked Trulock for a briefing in July 1998. Trulock asked for 
     permission from Elizabeth Moler, then acting energy 
     secretary. According to Trulock, Moler

[[Page S2614]]

     told him not to brief the committee because the information 
     might be used against Clinton's China policy. . .

  Further quoting:

       The White House's secret would have remained secret had it 
     not been for a select investigative committee headed by 
     Republican [Representative] Christopher Cox. . .

  But even using the President's fictitious paper trail, the earliest 
either chairman could have known about it would have been late in the 
spring of 1997, years after the Clinton administration learned of it 
and, of course, after the 1996 election.
  I start, Mr. President, by listing a few things which we now know to 
be true, factual, incontrovertible, and nonclassified.
  For years, the Clinton administration covered up China's interest of 
top secret U.S. nuclear weapons data. They never informed the Congress 
or the American people about what had happened or its significance to 
our national security.
  Let me tell you what President Clinton did during this period of 
time.
  During this period of time, the President misled the American people 
on numerous occasions about the threat posed by strategic nuclear 
missiles in the post-cold-war era.
  During this period of time, President Clinton made statements on over 
130 separate occasions, such as the following:--and I am quoting--

       For the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, there 
     is not a single solitary nuclear missile pointed at an 
     American child tonight. Not one. Not a single one.

  During this period of time, he knew that China was targeting up to 18 
intercontinental ballistic missiles at American children.
  During this period of time, President Clinton signed export control 
waivers which allowed his top campaign fundraisers' aerospace company 
to transfer sensitive U.S. missile guidance technology to China.
  During this period of time, he shifted the prime satellite export 
responsibility from the State Department, where it had always been to 
maintain security, to the Commerce Department so that it would be 
easier to share sensitive information with the Chinese and others.
  During this period of time, President Clinton hosted over 100 White 
House fundraisers as a part of a larger aggressive scheme to raise 
campaign contributions, many from illegal foreign sources primarily, 
including sources in China. Among guests permitted to attend these 
White House fundraisers were a convicted felon and a Chinese arms 
dealer.
  During this period of time, John Huang, Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung, 
James Riady, and others with strong ties to China, were deeply 
involved, with the President's knowledge, in raising Chinese-tainted 
campaign cash for the Clinton campaign.
  During this period of time, John Huang, who had been given a security 
clearance without a background check, was permitted to receive numerous 
classified CIA briefings, both during and after his stay at the 
Commerce Department.
  And during this period of time, President Clinton was successfully 
stopping the deployment of a national missile defense system--exposing 
every American life to a missile attack, leaving us with no defense 
whatsoever against an intercontinental ballistic missile.
  Mr. President, China's theft of secret data on the so-called W-88 
nuclear warhead may be one of the most serious breaches of national 
security in the history of our Nation, more serious than Aldrich Ames; 
perhaps more serious than the Rosenbergs.
  The public needs to understand that this story is true. This is not 
about partisanship. It is not about some ancient history of some long 
gone cold war.
  This is about the real world here and now. It is about national 
security in its most important aspects. It is about protecting our 
freedom and our existence as a Nation. This is ultimately a matter 
which concerns the life and death of every American citizen.

  The W-88 is the most advanced nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal and 
is carried on top of a Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile. 
This is the cornerstone weapon of our Nation's nuclear deterrent. As 
many as 8 can fit on top of a submarine-launched missile; as many as 10 
can fit on top of a land-based missile--either ours or China's. We are 
talking about a miniaturized warhead much smaller in size than the 
Hiroshima atomic bomb but 10 times more powerful.
  This chart appeared in the New York Times on March 6 of this year. 
The first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima weighed almost 9,000 pounds, 
yielded 15 kilotons and was dropped from a plane. By contrast, the 
modern W-88 is more powerful than this. It is 2.6 feet in length and 
weighs about 300 pounds and yields up to 150 kilotons. Several fit into 
the head of one missile. The technology on which it is built is super 
top secret and represents billions of dollars and years, if not 
decades, of investment on the part of dedicated scientists and 
engineers working in the supreme American national interest.
  Some ask, why does America have such a weapon? Because it is part of 
our responsibility as a world superpower to have the most advanced, 
efficient, and credible nuclear deterrent, not only to protect our own 
freedom but the freedom of our allies. It is part of our policy of 
peace through strength.
  I think about my friend from Texas, the Senator who is always talking 
about how we want to see the day when the lion and the lamb lie down 
together. But when that happens, we want to make sure we are the lion 
and not the lamb. We don't intend to use any of these nuclear weapons. 
It is a fact of life, in the most dangerous world we live in, we have 
to be prepared to deter any potential adversary.
  The W-88 allows for multiple warheads to be placed on one missile. 
With this technology, China will now be able to put up to 10 warheads 
on a single long-range missile. Each warhead is targeted at a different 
city, each city subject to an explosion 10 times as great as that which 
destroyed Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
  Mr. President, I am from Oklahoma. I can remember in 1995 when the 
bomb went off. It was a truck bomb. A 4,800-pound truck bomb destroyed 
the Murrah Office Building, maiming and killing 168 Oklahomans. I 
remember standing out there and watching the police and the firemen 
enter the building where there was no security and pulling out parts of 
bodies and bodies. It was the most devastating thing I have ever 
experienced. It was the worst act of terrorism ever recorded on 
American soil. That bomb had a force of 1,000 pounds of TNT, half of 1 
ton. By contrast, the Hiroshima bomb had an explosive force of 15 tons, 
or 30,000 times as large as the Oklahoma City bomb. The W-88, while 
smaller in physical size, had a force of 150 kilotons, or 300,000 times 
the explosion power of the Oklahoma City bomb. By carrying 10 of these, 
it would be 3 million times the force of the Oklahoma City bomb.
  The more compact W-88 warhead makes possible what is called MIRV 
technology, or multiple independent reentry vehicle, which allows the 
missile to reenter and then go to various targets. This is technology 
that we thought China was many, many years away from developing on its 
own, and they stole this technology, and President Clinton covered it 
up.
  We also used to think North Korea was many years away from building a 
long-range multiple stage rocket. I got a phone call and a letter from 
Henry Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on August 24. In 
this letter he said he was confident we would have 3 years warning of 
any new long-range missile threat--that is, any new country that we 
already didn't know about. Seven days later, on August 31, a multiple-
stage rocket was launched in North Korea. Part of it reached the coast 
of Alaska.
  Because of the disparity over what our nuclear threat is, in the 
wisdom of the House and the Senate, the Democrats and the Republicans 
commissioned the Rumsfeld Committee. We were charged with the 
responsibility of finding the nine most informed scientists and 
authorities on missile technology, who formed a committee for assessing 
the threat that we have in this country. This was a bipartisan 
committee, appointed jointly by Democrats and Republicans. Of the nine, 
five were Republican appointments and four were Democrat appointments. 
They concluded unanimously that when it comes to advanced missiles and 
weapons, with countries willing to buy, sell, and steal technology, 
``We live in

[[Page S2615]]

an environment of little or no warning.'' That means we must 
immediately be prepared.
  Last year, you may remember it was revealed that the Clinton 
administration had changed the approval process for high-technology 
satellite transfers, how waivers were granted for American companies so 
they could launch satellites in China. This ultimately resulted in 
China acquiring advanced United States missile guidance technology, 
making their missiles more accurate and more reliable. President 
Clinton personally signed the waiver allowing China to acquire this 
missile technology. Let me repeat, President Clinton personally signed 
the waiver allowing China to achieve this missile technology.

  Executives of these two corporations which benefited, Loral and 
Hughes, were among the largest financial creditors to President 
Clinton's campaign ever but this is not important. The motive for 
aiding and abetting our adversaries could be money, or it could be some 
kind of perverted allegiance to some of these countries, or it could be 
just a callous disregard for the lives of American citizens. The motive 
is not important. The fact is, President Clinton did it and he knew 
exactly what he was doing.
  Accompanying the transferred missile guidance technology with the 
stolen nuclear weapon technology, China can threaten United States 
cities with accurate, reliable, and horribly destructive multiple-
warhead nuclear missiles. This is not science fiction. Two years ago, a 
high-ranking Chinese official made a statement. Two years ago, when the 
Chinese were trying to intimidate the elections of the Taiwanese and 
they were launching missiles at the Taiwan Straits, it was suggested to 
this high-ranking military official in China that it could be that 
America would come to Taiwan's defense and would intervene. His 
response was, ``No, they are not going to do that because America would 
rather defend Los Angeles than defend Taipei.'' At the very least, that 
is an indirect threat to use missiles on the United States of America.
  By helping China develop their long-range missiles, President Clinton 
also helped North Korea and other rogue nations with theirs--nations 
like Iran. Let me read three paragraphs from last week's Washington 
Times article entitled ``China Assists North Korea Space Launches.''

       China is sharing space technology with North Korea, a move 
     that could boost P'yongyang's long-range missile program, 
     White House and Pentagon officials told the Washington Times. 
     . . .
       Another Pentagon report on the 1996 Chinese booster that 
     failed to launch a U.S. satellite concluded that ``U.S. 
     national security was harmed'' by the improper sharing of 
     technology with China by Hughes and other satellite maker 
     Loral Space & Communications Ltd. . . .

  Keep in mind, it was President Clinton who signed the waiver to give 
the Chinese this technology.

       In 1994, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency 
     reported that it believed China had helped design the Taepo 
     Dong 2 missile (this is the North Korea missile) because its 
     first stage diameter is very close in size to the Chinese 
     CSS-2 immediate range missile.

  It is factual to say that President Clinton knew he was giving our 
missile technology to North Korea as well as China.
  I take this moment to remind my colleagues once again that America 
today has no defense whatever against such a threat. The Clinton 
administration today, despite its rhetoric, opposes the deployment of 
any national missile defense system. Someone who is pretty smart, back 
in 1983 when they determined that we would have to have a defense 
against an incoming missile by fiscal year 1998--that is, last year--so 
during the Reagan administration, then the Bush Administration, they 
embarked on this thing called SDI, Strategic Defense Initiative, to 
make sure that by 1998 we would have something to defend ourselves in 
the event an ICBM came over from China, from Russia, from Iran, from 
North Korea, from anywhere. So we were on schedule to have this 
deployed by fiscal year 1998.
  Well, in 1993, that came to a screeching halt when President Clinton 
vetoed the defense authorization bill and vetoed all further efforts, 
including the bills that were introduced to put us on line with the 
national missile defense system. As an excuse for this, he said he had 
to protect the integrity of the 1972 ABM Treaty. Let me remind you that 
treaty was not a Democrat-inspired treaty. That was Republican-
inspired; it was President Nixon and Henry Kissinger. The idea was that 
we had two superpowers, the U.S.S.R. and the United States of America. 
So we made a deal with them. Under the ABM Treaty, we said we won't 
defend ourselves, and you don't defend yourselves, and that way, if 
they launch a missile that goes to us, we launch one that goes back to 
them and everybody dies. I didn't like that theory back then, but it 
made sense when there were two superpowers. That is not true today.
  Today, virtually every country has a weapon of mass destruction. We 
have missiles that we are finding that now even North Korea has. China 
is exchanging technology and systems with Iran and other countries like 
that. So there is a proliferation of missiles as well as weapons of 
mass destruction. I have to say that the mutual assured destruction 
concept which was adopted at that time has no relevance today. Even 
Henry Kissinger, who was the architect of the ABM Treaty of 1972 said, 
``It's nuts to make a virtue out of our vulnerability.'' He said we 
should not be looking at that. Besides, somebody should remind the 
President that was a treaty that was made in 1972, and it was made 
between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union no 
longer exists. So I have to say that President Clinton is solely 
responsible for the fact that we are totally defenseless against an 
incoming ICBM from China or any other place in the world.
  Now, Mr. President, from news reports, this is some of what we know 
about China's theft of our nuclear secrets. Apparently, a spy at the 
Los Alamos weapons lab succeeded in transferring data on this highly 
classified W-88 warhead technology to China in the mid-1980s. That was 
not during the current administration; nobody refutes that. But our 
Government did not find out about it until April of 1995. That is 3 
years into the Clinton administration.
  This is a critical date, Mr. President. We did not know about the 
theft until April of 1995. Detection came when experts analyzed data 
from then-recent Chinese underground nuclear tests and saw remarkable 
similarities to the W-88 U.S. warhead to what they were experimenting 
with. Later in 1995, secret Chinese Government documents confirmed that 
there had been a security breach at Los Alamos. That was in 1995.
  Deputy National Security Advisor Sandy Berger was first briefed about 
it. President Clinton did not respond then because he was obviously a 
little preoccupied with what he considered to be more important matters 
at that time. After all, there were White House fundraisers to host, 
foreign campaign contributions, satellite transfers to approve, high 
technology trade with China to promote and, of course, an election to 
be won--at all costs. Mr. Berger was well aware of all this. We know 
that he sat in on strategy sessions for the campaign for 1996.
  So this was also the time when President Clinton was running around 
the country telling audiences that ``for the first time since the dawn 
of the nuclear age, there is not a single, solitary nuclear missile 
pointed at an American child tonight. Not one. Not a single one.'' Of 
course everybody cheered, wanting to believe he was telling the truth.
  Of all the lies this President has told, this is the most egregious 
of all.
  He repeated this misleading, deceptive lie over 130 times between 
1995 and 1997, right at the very time he and his national security 
advisors knew that this horrible breach of nuclear security had 
occurred and was under investigation. It was also at that very time 
that he knew that up to 18 American cities were being targeted by 
Chinese long-range missiles, missiles that had and have the potential 
of killing millions of Americans. During this time, he said 130 times: 
``For the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, there is not a 
single, solitary nuclear missile pointed at an American child tonight. 
Not one. Not a single one.''
  So while the American people consume his misleading and dishonest 
public statements--helping to secure his reelection --nothing was done 
for over

[[Page S2616]]

a year about the security breach at Los Alamos.
  The likely suspect spy was identified in early 1997, and the FBI 
urged that he at least be transferred to a less sensitive position. But 
inexplicably, he was allowed to keep his sensitive job at Los Alamos 
for a another year and a half. This was the spy who was responsible for 
the theft, and President Clinton kept him in that sensitive job for 
another year and a half. Finally, he was fired by Energy Secretary 
Richardson last Monday--a week ago today, March 8, 1999--but only after 
he was publicly identified in news reports as having failed two 
previous lie detector tests.
  In all of this, was Congress ever informed? As a Member of the Senate 
Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, I 
certainly was not. As I said earlier, I talked to the chairmen of both 
the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee 
and they weren't informed either.

  Did the President ever take the appropriate aggressive and timely 
steps that should have been taken in order to protect the national 
security interest in the wake of this matter? No, he did not.
  Why? Why the delays? Why the lack of consultation and communication? 
Why the seeming indifference to this very, very serious breach of 
national security? We will be asking some tough questions about this in 
the days to come. I note that the Armed Services Committee will have a 
hearing on this, and the Intelligence Committee will have a hearing the 
day after tomorrow, Wednesday. We will have a lot of questions. The 
American people need to know what is going on here.
  The President's National Security Advisor, Mr. Berger, has a lot to 
answer for here. He had better be prepared to answer questions from 
Members of Congress honestly, forthrightly, and without intention to 
deceive, mislead, or change the meaning of words. Otherwise, he should 
resign now and take the rap for President Clinton.
  I am convinced that we have not yet scratched the surface of the 
national security scandal exposed by these most recent revelations.
  This administration obviously wanted nothing to interfere with 
developing good relations with China. While it was soliciting and 
accepting campaign contributions from China, it was dragging its feet 
on investigating the most egregious espionage operation China had ever 
succeeded in pulling off in the U.S., a breach of security which could 
potentially put the lives of millions of Americans at great risk.
  This is, without doubt, the worst example yet of how this 
administration has put its own selfish motives above the national 
security interests of this country and above the protection of American 
lives.
  The American people and the Congress must demand that the President 
be held accountable for this gross dereliction of duty. I guess the 
question is, What can we do? We are Members of Congress and what can we 
do? I am not sure there is anything we can do except inform the 
American people and let public outrage solve the problem. And why are 
we in Congress so limited in what we can do?
  Our Founding Fathers never envisioned we would have a President who 
would do these kinds of things and act in these ways. This is why the 
Constitution gives the President great latitude of action in carrying 
out his duties and why he is protected from the other branches of 
Government under the separation of powers.
  When John Adams wrote to his wife after the first night he spent in 
the White House in 1799, he spoke of the expectations of all the 
founders during that time: ``May only honest and wise men rule under 
this roof.'' The White House.
  There was an assumption that the American people would always elect 
Presidents with a basic level of morality, honesty and integrity, who 
out of patriotism would always put the welfare of the country above any 
personal ambitions for power or glory.
  This President knew he was covering up information vital to the 
safety and well-being of every American--that China had stolen from us 
the advanced technology which would give them the capability to kill 
millions of Americans in multiple cities with just one missile, and he 
knew it.
  In 1945, World War II was ended when the atomic bombs were dropped in 
Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Each explosion destroyed an entire city, 
killing tens of thousands. The death toll in Hiroshima was about 75,000 
lives from that 15-ton nuclear bomb.
  Just think, that with the technology that this President has 
transferred to China and what China has stolen and the President has 
covered up, China is now capable of producing a 150-kiloton bomb small 
enough to fit ten of them on top of one missile, each bomb targeted at 
a different American city with accuracy and reliability.
  Just extrapolating the numbers, that--in theory--is enough 
destructive power to kill as many as 7,500,000 Americans--with just one 
missile.
  And, due to this President who stopped our national missile defense 
effort, we have no defense. We have a President who acts as if he 
doesn't care about us.
  So finally, Mr. President, let me repeat the six proven 
incontrovertible facts:
  1. President Clinton hosted over 100 campaign fundraisers in the 
White House, many with Chinese connections.
  2. President Clinton used John Huang, Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung, 
James Riady, and others with strong Chinese ties to raise campaign 
money.
  3. President Clinton signed waivers to allow his top campaign 
fundraiser's aerospace company to transfer United States missile 
guidance technology to China.
  4. President Clinton covered up the theft of our most valuable 
nuclear weapons technology.
  5. President Clinton lied to the American people over 130 times about 
our Nation's security while he knew Chinese missiles were aimed at 
American children.
  6. President Clinton single-handedly stopped the deployment of a 
national missile defense system, exposing every American life to a 
missile attack, leaving America with no defense whatsoever against an 
intercontinental ballistic missile.
  Again, it doesn't matter whether President Clinton did these things 
for Chinese campaign contributions because the motive for aiding and 
abetting our adversaries is not important. The fact is President 
Clinton did it and he knew exactly what he was doing.
  I'm not a lawyer, Mr. President, but I have to ask, could President 
Clinton have been tried for impeachment for the wrong crime?
  Why am I here telling the truth about the President?
  I think it is because I haven't heard anyone else do it. They know 
this President will lie with such conviction that the American people 
will continue to believe him, and they don't want to take the risk.
  I happened to go yesterday to the McLean Bible Church, and the sermon 
was about taking risks--being willing to take a risk. They talked about 
the Israelites who were in the desert, and they sent a team up to 
Canaan to look to see what the risk was up there. They came back, and 
they said: There are giants up there. We don't have a chance. We are 
like mosquitoes next to them, except for Caleb.'' Caleb came back, and 
he said, ``We should take the risks. We can win. We can fight and 
win.''
  What happened? The rest of the story you know. You know what that is. 
God left the Israelites out in the desert, and he sent Caleb to the 
Promised Land. With all these blessings, we just do not seem to learn. 
I think Henry Ward Beecher said it in a different way. He said, ``I 
don't like those cold, precise, perfect people who, in order not to say 
wrong, say nothing . . . and in order not to do wrong, do nothing.''
  We have a lot of people around here who are more concerned about 
their jobs that they would go ahead and do nothing. So somebody has to 
tell the truth about this President. We can't all be appeasers. An 
appeaser is a guy who throws his friends to the alligators hoping they 
will eat him last.
  Hiram Mann said, ``No man survives when freedom fails, the best men 
rot in filthy jails, and those who cry appease, appease are hanged by 
those they tried to please.''
  I believe that truth will ultimately prevail. It is just stubborn. 
Winston Churchill said, ``Truth is incontrovertible. Ignorance may 
deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it 
is.''

[[Page S2617]]

  Mr. President, everything I have said during the course of the last 
30 minutes is absolutely proven and true. I hope America is listening. 
We have a nation to save from this President.
  Mr. HATCH addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The distinguished Senator from Utah is 
recognized.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted 
to speak for 15 minutes and that immediately following my remarks 
Senator Hollings be recognized.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator is recognized.
  Mr. HATCH. I thank the Chair.

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