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XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1999 17:22:08 UTC XXXXX

JUSTICE DEPT CONSIDERS PROSECUTING GERTZ FOR UNLAWFUL POSSESSION OF CLASSIFIED MATERIAL PUBLISHED IN NEW BOOK

**Exclusive**

The Justice Department has considered prosecuting WASHINGTON TIMES reporter Bill Gertz for unlawful possession of classified material, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned -- material that is set to be published in a new blockbuster book!

Coming next week from every spooks' favorite reporter: BETRAYAL.

NY TIMES nuke and spy writer Jeff Gerth may have just won the Pulitzer, but the project Bill Gertz has been working on in secret for over a year has now been activated and lands in bookstores on Monday.

-- Gertz offers intelligence, also featured in the upcoming Cox Report, including this nugget: After stealing secrets from the U.S., China has tested a neutron warhead seven times!

[America, which designed it, never tested it.]

-- The First detailed interview with Navy Lt. Jack Daly, the officer who was lazed [shot by a laser] from a Russian merchant ship in 1997 off of Washington State's Puget Sound. Gertz, for the first time, has the officer's whole story of how he was hung out to dry. The State Department tipped off the Russians in advance of a search of the ship.

-- A top-secret CIA memo exposes how China and Pakistan collaborated secretly to fool the United States about illicit nuclear sales. The document is included in the appendix.

-- The secret Executive Order signed by Clinton on missile defense. That and another document [both reprinted] show that the administration has no plans to deploy a national missile defense outside the ABM treaty. And since the ABM treaty prohibits defending national territory or even preparing to do so, any claims to be considering it are bogus. The missile d chapter also has lots of inside stuff on why we're defenseless. Interesting in light of China's recent threat to take unspecified action against us for the Belgrade Embassy bombing.

-- The North Korea chapter reveals how Madeleine Albright lied to Congress about Pyongyang's continuing development of nuclear weapons in order to protect its much-vaunted Agreed Framework, that was supposed to have halted the program back in the early 1990s.

-- Secret documents reveal how Russia's nuclear weapons control is weakening.

And much more...

Gertz's access to highly classified State Department and Pentagon documents has completely unnerved the White House. But for those who feel the government is keeping too many secrets from the taxpaying public, Gertz has become an underground hero.

"The Justice Department will never file charges against Bill," predicted one WASHINGTON TIMES editor on Thursday.

"They are scared of what he knows, and what he will report next."

In any other era, many of the Gertz revelations presented in BETRAYAL would have become solo news cycles that would have rocked a nation.

But citizens have turned numb - glazing over the details of a world turned hot and dangerous.

In the past few days my life has been revolving around the mile markers along Route 1 in the Florida Keys. Been swimming with the fish, talking back to the thunder storms, sharing dinner with parrots in this paradise, dodging the incoming missiles from China, counting down the minutes until I get lazed by a ship hanging off shore that I just know is Russian.

Thanks for the nightmares, Bill Gertz.

-- a (a@a.a), May 13, 1999

Answers

There were several stunning ariel photos of one of those tests posted on the Web last month. From the photo, it appeared that the fireball was quite small in relation to trees and buildings. It's possible that the Free Republic Archives may have a link.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@herewegoagain.com), May 13, 1999.

If the true extent of the Treason commited against this country by Bill Clinton ever becomes public knowledge his life won't be worth spit.

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), May 13, 1999.

Nik,

IMO....it's not worth spit now!!!!! I'd just like to have the opportunity to vomit on the SOB!!!!!!

-- Sandy (Patches96@worldnet.att.net), May 13, 1999.

Nik,

It's slowly coming out. First an article on how the son's of bitches are still trying to continue their traitoreous(word?) actions, then how the sh#t is slowly hitting the fan, to the tune of 80, count em, 80 5th pleas.

http://www.wileytoons.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?1999+05+11

-- R. Wright just sitting here watching at the (blaklodg@aol.com), May 14, 1999.

Well we can see where I was just at. Now this

US Energy Department opposes curbing scientist visits

REUTERS Updated at 3.32pm: US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Wednesday urged scientists to fight congressional efforts to clamp down on foreign scientific exchanges and cautioned against an overreaction to the China spying scandal. ''I need your help in fighting some very unguided efforts in the Congress to curb the foreign scientist programme,'' Mr Richardson said at the National Academy of Sciences. Congress has criticised security at US nuclear weapons research laboratories after scientist Wen Ho Lee was fired in March under suspicion of passing secrets to China. In Congress, Senate Intelligence Committee legislation to fund intelligence programmes includes a provision that would prevent foreign scientists of countries deemed ''sensitive'' from visiting US nuclear research laboratories unless the energy secretary certified it was necessary. The presidents of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine planned to have a joint statement in the next few days on the ''critical importance of these international scientific exchanges'', a spokesman at the NAS said. Calling scientific exchange the ''bedrock'' of national security, Mr Richardson said stopping foreign visits would isolate US scientists, dampen innovation and hurt non-proliferation efforts with other countries. ''Scientific genius is not a monopoly held by any one country,'' Mr Richardson said. The Energy Department oversees the nuclear weapons research laboratories and is restructuring its security functions so they all fall under a newly created ''security tzar''. Closing the laboratories to foreign visitors would also close the door to US government scientists going overseas to work on such projects as helping in Russia to secure plutonium and uranium from theft by rogue states or terrorists, Mr Richardson said. US scientists are also securing and stabilising spent nuclear fuel in North Korea to prevent that country from restarting its nuclear weapons programme, he said. ''If we follow those who propose that we isolate our labs from the world, we will weaken our national defence,'' Mr Richardson added. ''The Department of Energy and the laboratories make plausible arguments that the visitors programme is not without its compensating benefits,'' said Representative Chris Cox who led an investigation into the transfer of US technology to China. ''But until we see a more serious attitude toward the fundamental downside risk, a moratorium is a serious option,'' he said. The special committee on China that he chaired will have a ''suite of bills to introduce after the release of our unclassified report'', Mr Cox said. The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency have asked to review the report again and it was expected to be released by the end of the month, Mr Cox said. Mr Richardson called congressional efforts to clamp down on the foreign scientist programme ''an overreaction''. ''I think it would hurt our national security if there were restrictions on sensitive countries like Russia and China. I don't want those restrictions. We have put on background checks. We have put on other screening procedures. That is sufficient

Burton continues to probe Clinton-Gore campaign finances May 12, 1999 Web posted at: 5:54 p.m. EDT (2154 GMT) WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 12) -- Now that Rep. Dan Burton has heard the testimony of Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung, the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, according to congressional staffers, only has 120 more witnesses to call in his nearly two-year-old investigation of the 1996 Clinton-Gore re- election campaign. The Indiana Republican has been frustrated in his campaign finance probe by uncooperative witnesses, commenting Tuesday "eighty people have taken the Fifth (Amendment); a lot of people have left the country or stayed overseas." Along with Chung, Burton has been eager to question another Democratic fund-raiser, Charlie Trie. Trie goes on trial in Arkansas Monday for obstructing a Senate probe into fund-raising abuses by allegedly ordering the destruction of subpoenaed documents. Trie owned a restaurant near the state capitol in Little Rock that Clinton often went to when he was Arkansas governor. In 1996, Trie tried to give $600,000 from questionable sources to Clinton's legal defense fund, which rejected the donations. On Wednesday, Chung publicly detailed his involvement in the campaign fund-raising scandal surrounding the 1996 election, including the allegation that the head of the Chinese military intelligence gave him $300,000 intended to help re-elect President Bill Clinton. For Burton and other Republicans, Chung is the main example of what they contend was a Chinese effort to influence the 1996 presidential elections, including a donation of $300,000 by General Ji Shengde, the head of the Chinese military intelligence. In his statement, Chung gave a detailed recounting of his meeting with Ji and his activity surrounding the donation. He said that acting under advice of the woman who arranged the payment from the general, he kept the money for other purposes, including to help take care of the general's son, Alex, who was attending college in Los Angeles. Chung said none of the $300,000 that he said Li gave him was used as political donations. A recently prepared bipartisan report of the Senate Intelligence Committee said "most of the remaining funds went for his personal use, including mortgage payments." The report also said that Chung's allegation that he'd been given the money to assist in the election of Clinton "is contrary to his previous statements." The White House had no public reaction to Chung's testimony. White House officials tell CNN privately that the less said about Chung's testimony the better and that there is no proof anyone at the White House knew of the Chinese connections to the funds. Last year, he pleaded guilty to election law violations and began cooperating with the Justice Department's investigation into alleged 1996 fund-raising irregularities. Chung could have been imprisoned for 37 years and fined $1.45 million. He was sentenced to five years probation and 3,000 hours of community service, which was noted during the hearing as a sentence the government asks for witnesses who have been cooperative. Several congressional and Justice Department probes have yet to produce any formal charges that either Clinton, Vice President Al Gore or any of their top aides violated campaign finance law.

-- R. Wright (blaklodg@aol.com), May 14, 1999.

NK:

I wish you were right, BUT isn't enough of Clintons treason known already? And the people and congress still kiss his ***!

I don't mean to be hopeless, but we are in such deep do-do. And Bill is still getting every thing he wants. Look at that Gun Show thing --- amazingly defeated yeaterday, but today supposedly comes back to pass because Bill bit his lip and said he was upset.

And we shouldn't put anything beneath the Injustice Department.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), May 14, 1999.

I am reminded of a psychology experiment in which the test subject is asked to wait in a room with a number of other people, all of whom are in on the experiment. Smoke starts coming in under the door. As long as everyone else ignores it, the test subject ignores it too.

The inertia needs to be broken somehow. We should be descending on Washington in the millions, but we're yakking away on this forum.

-- z (justalittle@paranoid.com), May 14, 1999.