Henry C.K. Liu
May 17, 1999 New York Times
ESSAY / By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Cut the Apologies
After a week of whipping up hatred of Americans by accusing us of deliberately murdering Chinese journalists in Belgrade, President Jiang Zemin deigned to accept a call from The Great Apologizer.
For the fifth time, President Clinton apologized, expressed
regrets, sent condolences, kowtowed and groveled, begging
to be believed that we did not bomb China's embassy on
purpose.
But it is America that is owed an apology. After an accident
of war, we have been falsely accused of killing Chinese with
malice aforethought. That is a great insult, compounded by
the calculated trashing of our embassy by a bused-in mob
encouraged by police.
The truth is that Beijing's leaders, worried about
demonstrations on the 10th anniversary next month of their
Tiananmen massacre, are milking this mistake for all it is
worth.
By lying about our intent and suppressing coverage of our
prompt admission of error, the nervous rulers are diverting
their people's anger toward us and away from themselves.
By demanding we investigate the accident, they seek to
water down the current Congressional investigations of their
nuclear spying -- a series of penetrations of our laboratories
and political campaigns that was no accident.
By making Clinton beg forgiveness, they are able to cancel
human rights talks while extracting new trade concessions.
The deal: they will accept Clinton's apologies when he caves
in on their application to the World Trade Organization.
No wonder that no reputable diplomat would accept the
President's pleas to replace our fed-up ambassador in
Beijing. Clinton is now trying to appoint an admiral whose
amiable association with the Chinese military and U.S. arms
contractors will be closely examined by the Senate.
Though Clinton is softer than ever on China, he's taken a
hard line in resisting Congress's investigations into Beijing's
penetration of our nuclear labs and our political process. His
latest trick: the improper use of documents submitted for
intelligence declassification to prepare advance refutations of
evidence of security lapses.
The White House has delayed for four months the
three-volume report on security laxity by the House select
committee headed by Representative Chris Cox. Clinton
spinners are already distributing a packet of reprints of
derogations by offended scientists, China-defenders and
favorite journalists.
Cox has used the "clearance" delay to rewrite the turgid
prose and to enliven the report with photographs and
diagrams showing what missiles and satellites were stolen;
that might even awaken television interest.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by Richard
Shelby and Robert Kerrey, is not about to hold still for the
abuse of clearance.
After it submitted one of its reports on nuclear lab laxity for
review to protect intelligence sources, it learned of a
refutation of that bipartisan report in work by the National
Security Council response machine.
The White House was told that the submission of documents
was for security clearance only. It was not to be used for (a)
advance policy review so that "rapid response" would occur
in the same news cycle as the reports' release, or for (b)
leakage of portions to the press for "inoculation" to later
reduce its impact as "old news."
The intelligence business is not the publicity business.
National security reports are not to be equated with the Starr
report about hanky-panky. The Shelby committee made
plain to the Berger Rapid-Apology Center that if this
undermining of inter-branch comity did not stop forthwith,
"we're going to zero out the N.S.C. staff budget." (By
withholding some $15 million, Congress could force the
spinners onto the Department of Defense payroll or cause
agonizing layoffs in the White House basement.)
In both House and Senate, bipartisan committees are
discovering serious intelligence weaknesses: too little analysis
of too much collection. "If there's a flare-up in Iraq, North
Korea or the Andes," worries an investigator, "we could not
handle it and Kosovo, too."
The most troubling breakdown is in counterespionage. The
F.B.I. and C.I.A., which are not blameless, are telling
Congress the weakest link is the Department of Justice.
What began as corrupt political protection became dangerous
national security laxity. Who will apologize for that?