DUer "AndyA" asked about "Clinton selling America to Chinese"- truth below

[papau]

AndyA asked about Bill Clinton giving away the gyroscope technology to China, which was described to him as "the beginning of the selling of America" - which as usual is right wing bull - albetit some media went along with the GOP smear back in 98 -Clinton said re his signing national security waivers to allow four US commercial satellites to be launched in China:.... the deal to launch U.S. satellites on rockets owned by other nations was "correct" and "based on what I thought was in the national interest and supportive of our national security....There was absolutely nothing done to transfer any technology inappropriately to the Chinese as a result of this decision....I believe it was in the national interest and I can assure you it was handled in the routine course of business, consistent with the 10-year-old policy."

I believe the Federal Grand Jury review of the Loral written report/analysis of the cause of the earlier Chinese rocket failure being given without official Pentagon clearance was concluded with no action - certainly no action that involved saying Clinton did anything wrong - but one will need to check to be certain.



http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/05/22/china.money/

Clinton Defends China Satellite Waiver
White House delivers papers to Congress in support of the deal
WASHINGTON (May 22) -- President Bill Clinton on Friday defended a controversial satellite deal with China, even as White House officials delivered documents to the House International Relations Committee about the arrangement.<snip>

Congressional critics, both Democrats and Republicans, say the Chinese may have had access to sophisticated U.S. satellite and missile technology during an investigation into a failed launch attempt on a Chinese rocket in 1996. <snip>

It's a fact Loral Space and Communications hired the Chinese to launch one of their satellites two years ago because Chinese rocket launches are relatively cheap. Technically, that is an export of a U.S. satellite to China.

But Loral says the Chinese never got their hands on the satellite itself. And Pentagon officials confirm sensitive technology was encased in a metal "black box" and watched over from factory to launch pad by Department of Defense employees.

There has been bipartisan support for such launches. President Ronald Reagan first initiated the policy 10 years ago. And President George Bush approved nine while Clinton has approved 11, according to the Congressional Research Service. <snip>

Loral's chairman Bernard Schwartz denies Loral did anything illegal. In its own defense, Loral says Chinese engineers found the problem -- the rocket failure was caused by bad solder joints -- without Loral's help. And they say "no 'secret' or 'classified' information was ever discussed with the Chinese or included in any reports provided to the Chinese."

Privately, Pentagon officials minimize the affair. One told CNN that the alleged harm to national security was "not significant or substantial ... about a one or two on a scale of ten."

[chaumont58]

1. The French site was down at the time

An Arrianne(sp?) booster had blown up in flight, and they had stopped al launches. The US had gotten out of the booster business with the birth of the shuttle. Some serious US business satelites was near and at the end of their life, and replacements had to sent up. The first attempt at using a Chinese booster ended in failure.

Of course, China used the technology to attack and defeat the US in a thermonuclear war. Witness the disappearance of the city of New Orleans.

At the time, some braindead wingers were complaining about the threat of Chinese nuclear tipped missles. China was estimated, at the time, to have 13, count them, 13 missles. The US had 13,000. Thirteen thousand!

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Why would the chinese need gyroscopes to destroy america when

they can use walmart instead?

[calimary]

3. No kidding. And didn't bush also do his share about this, when that

US fighter jet got into trouble with a Chinese pilot - early-on in bush's first term, and the asshole let the Chinese keep the jet for awhile? Heaven knows how many people they sent to comb through it before we got it back.