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 | THE CIA TESTIFIES
July 16, 1997Transcript |
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 The Online Explainers take your question on the investigation.  The NewsHour's coverage of the Congressional Investigation.  The inside stories on the political fight behind the public investigation.  The investigation is big news in Washington, but how's it playing around the country.  A closer look at the issues really under scrutiny by the Congress.
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KWAME HOLMAN: The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee continued to hone in today on former Democratic party fund-raiser John Huang and his ties to another former employer, the multi-billion dollar Asian conglomerate called the Lippo Group. SEN. FRED THOMPSON, Chairman, Governmental Affairs Committee: It seems apparent that Mr. Huang was involved and served as a conduit for several illegal campaigns during the last election cycle. We learned yesterday that Mr. Huang arranged for illegal contributions to be made from Lippo. KWAME HOLMAN: In the early 1990's John Huang was a Democratic Party supporter while working as a top U.S. executive of the Lippo Group based in Indonesia. In 1994, Huang was hired for a job at the Commerce Department. Gary Christopherson handled legions of recommendations to fill such so-called political positions in President Clinton's first administration. GARY CHRISTOPHERSON, Former White House Official: To fill these many positions I and other associate directors relied heavily on various constituencies to recommend candidates. For example, outreach groups from the Hispanic, Native American, Asian American, African American, disability, women's, and many other ethnic communities would bring to my attention--qualified--many of them highly qualified candidates. John Huang was one of those candidates. I was not aware of John Huang until he was brought to my attention by the Asian outreach effort. Our Asian outreach effort advised me that he was a qualified candidate, and that he was an important symbol to the Asian community. KWAME HOLMAN: But Huang also was recommended for the Commerce job by his former employer, the Lippo Group, founded by Mochtar Riady. The Jakarta, Indonesia-based conglomerate is heavily involved in joint ventures with state-run companies in China. Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran quoted a letter from a Lippo consultant urging Huang be hired at Commerce. SEN. THAD COCHRAN, (R) Mississippi: This letter talks about John Huang being the Riady family's top priority for placement, and in that letter on page 7, I think, is the part where John Huang--or page 6--John Huang is discussed. And it describes his qualifications. GARY CHRISTOPHERSON: I see that. SEN. THAD COCHRAN: Mentions that he's a good friend of Ron Brown; John's appointment would be highly endorsed by the Chinese business community, which has made heavy contributions to the campaign, as well as the grassroots political activists. Did these factors come to your attention when you were reviewing his qualifications in your effort to try to match him to a particular job? Is this one of the reasons why the Department of Commerce came to your mind as a possible place where John Huang would fit in? GARY CHRISTOPHERSON: There are two parts t that response. One is this is not familiar to me, and it would be not unusual for me not to see these kinds of things. It's important to understand John Huang's interest and value to me and the reason why I pursued him was because I was trying to put an Asian candidate in, and so John Huang's interest was really not his political connections; it was the fact of his Asian background and his potential fit in Commerce. KWAME HOLMAN: Paul Buskirk was in charge in checking the backgrounds of Commerce employees like Huang, who were cleared to receive briefings on classified material. Committee Republicans wanted to know if Huang's background check, conducted by the Office of Personnel Management, included checks with people Huang knew overseas. SEN. THAD COCHRAN: You mentioned that OPM did a full field investigation prior to the Department granting a final top secret clearance. My question is: Do you know whether OPM conducted an overseas background check on John Huang, and, if not, why not? PAUL BUSKIRK, Commerce Security Director: Senator, I know that they did not conduct an overseas investigation because I've read the report. I do not know why they didn't conduct an overseas investigation. SEN. THAD COCHRAN: Did this trouble you at all? Were you concerned about it? Is this something that bothered you in any way? PAUL BUSKIRK: At that time, no, sir. SEN. THAD COCHRAN: You mentioned in your deposition on page 60, you specifically said because now we have an issue that if we had gone to Hong Kong and done the neighborhood checks, we probably would have picked up or possibly would have picked up some issues that we didn't pick up in the investigation. Is that something that you think should have been done, now in retrospect? PAUL BUSKIRK: Senator, in hindsight, there was a rock that was not turned over. KWAME HOLMAN: The committee next heard from Former Commerce Undersecretary Jeffrey Garten. Garten was overall head of international trade and superior to John Huang's boss, Charles Meissner. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: Is it accurate to state you had reservations about Mr. Huang's ability to handle substantive matters? JEFFREY GARTEN, Former Commerce Undersecretary: In the Commerce Department, under Sec. Brown, we set a very fast pace. It was extremely dynamic. We were extremely focused, and I felt that Mr. Huang did not have the requisite experience for policy matters. That's not to say that he didn't have it for other--for other issues, but in terms of the most important policy issues, I did not feel he had the right background. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: Was it your feeling that Mr. Huang could adequately serve as, more or less, and administrative assistant to Mr. Mizener? Is that a fair characterization of the nature of the duties? JEFFREY GARTEN: That is a fair characterization, yes, of the nature of the duties. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: What did you understand would have been his permissible involvement with any issues regarding China? JEFFREY GARTEN: Well, as I said in the disposition, in my view, he should not have been involved with China in any way at all. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: You told Mr. Garten--I mean, you told Mr. Mizener that Huang was to have nothing to do with China, didn't you? JEFFREY GARTEN: Yes. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: There is evidence demonstrating that even though Mr. Huang was walled off from China, China policy by you, that he visited the Chinese embassy at least six times and received a number of calls from Chinese embassy officials. Does that surprise you? JEFFREY GARTEN: Yes, it does. SEN. CARL LEVIN, (D) Michigan: You decided that neither Mr. Mizener nor Mr. Huang should have jurisdiction over the China desk, is that correct? JEFFREY GARTEN: Yes, that is. SEN. CARL LEVIN: And the reason relative to Huang had to do with his--what you considered to be his personal experience--did that have anything to do with any connections with Lippo? JEFFREY GARTEN: No. The issue-- SEN. CARL LEVIN: What was--he wasn't aggressive enough--what was the-- JEFFREY GARTEN: We created a real high performance team. The only people that, in my view, were qualified to deal especially with China, given its enormous significance and sensitivity, were people that had a lot of experience in the policy arena. KWAME HOLMAN: Today's afternoon session featured Central Intelligence Agency officials responsible for giving classified economic briefings to John Huang and other Commerce Department officials. Two of the officials sat behind a screen to protect the identity of one of them. Under questioning by Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, CIA Officer John Dickerson said John Huang temporarily kept possession of a dozen intelligence reports, among hundreds of intelligence documents the two men reviewed together. SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) Pennsylvania: And obviously you don't know what he did with those 12 finished intelligence reports, which he had in his possession at that time? JOHN DICKERSON, CIA: He--Mr. Huang had a secret clearance, so he--and he had a need to know, and he had a certified safe for storage of those classified documents. My assumption is that he kept them there, and that he used them properly. I have no reason to believe otherwise. SEN. ARLEN SPECTER: Well, you say he had a need to know. Did you make independent determination that he had a need to know? JOHN DICKERSON: Well, he--according to his boss, Charles Mizener--was Mr. Mizener's Asian specialist, and Mr. Mizener specifically requested that I provide him with foreign intelligence on Asian countries, so that he would be aware of what was going on in those countries. SEN. ARLEN SPECTER: But once he had possession of those finished intelligence reports, you had no knowledge as to what he did with them from the time you gave them to him, he signed the receipt till the time you got them back. JOHN DICKERSON: I'm assuming that he used the information properly and that he kept them locked up in the safe. SEN. ARLEN SPECTER: Well, then I repeat my question. You had no way of knowing whether he-- JOHN DICKERSON: But I had no way of knowing. SEN. ARLEN SPECTER: --did that or not. JOHN DICKERSON: I have no way of knowing, no. KWAME HOLMAN: The committee adjourned its public session late today in order to hear more from the CIA in closed session. The committee's open hearings resume in the morning. |
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