GOP Silent Over Their Own Hot Pants Chinese Commie Spy
James Chamblee
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39210-2003May25.html?nav=hpto
c_eo
By Fred Hiatt
Monday, May 26, 2003; Page A29
The last time we had a China spy scandal, you probably heard something
about it.
Republicans in Congress assailed President Bill Clinton for his
laxity.
Members of both parties conducted investigations, demanded an end to
trade talks and warned of the danger of China as a rising power.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush was promising, as a candidate, not to cozy
up to Beijing's dictators the way Clinton had.
Now Katrina Leung, alleged Chinese spy, alleged seducer of FBI agents
and confirmed generous donor to California Republicans, has joined
Johnny Chung (donor to Democrats) and Wen Ho Lee (nuclear scientist)
in the pantheon of accused malefactors in the complex U.S.-China
relationship.
But you don't hear many politicians -- certainly not many Republicans
-- sounding dire warnings about her, nor about any other aspect of the
Bush administration's increasingly collegial relationship with China.
The Leung case seems serious enough, you'd think, to attract sustained
congressional attention.
She was an FBI "asset" who, it is now alleged, was also a Communist
Chinese "asset."
Her FBI handler, James J. Smith, allegedly gave her access to
classified materials during their 20-year-long affair (both were
married to others).
Another agent, William Cleveland Jr., resigned last month as director
of security for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; he has been
reported also to have been sleeping with Leung, who if nothing else
seems to have been a wizard at time management.
FBI officials have told members of Congress, as The Post reported last
month, that the Leung debacle may have compromised every Chinese
counterintelligence case of the past decade.
She and her husband also gave $27,000 to Republican causes during that
time.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut Democrat who is running for
president, called for an investigation, noting that "the prospect of a
foreign government illegally influencing our political campaigns is a
truly troubling one."
But he doesn't have much company.
No surprise, you might say, if it were just a matter of this scandal.
You might not expect Republicans to demand investigations of Bush
administration laxity, particularly involving a spy who gave mostly to
Republicans.
____________________________________________________
Shhhhh. She's a Republican fundraiser so we're not supposed
investigate it or even talk about it.
Harry