Posted on 07/07/2004 3:51:50 PM PDT by Maria S
Loral Space and Communications has hit hard times in recent years. On June 28, a Sea Launch Russian Zenit-3SL rocket failed to put the Loral Telstar 18 satellite into a proper orbit.
Loral officials stated the big telecommunications satellite had enough on-board fuel to reach a proper orbit but the failure typifies a long series of wrong turns for the ailing satellite firm.
In 2002, Loral Space reached a settlement with the State Department over charges of passing advanced military technology to the Chinese Army. Loral agreed to pay $20 million in fines, but did not admit nor deny wrongdoing.
In 2003, Loral declared bankruptcy. The aerospace giant that sold for $72 a share in 1996 watched as its shares tumbled to less than 20 cents a share.
Yet, despite hard times for its investors, Loral's CEO Bernard Schwartz has managed to cough up over $4 million in political donations for the Democrats and non-profit 527 organizations opposed to President Bush.
Schwartz has recently donated money in huge chunks exceeding $100,000 a pop to the DNC and its political committees. Schwartz has also donated money to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. In addition, Schwartz has pumped thousands of dollars into liberal non-profit organizations such as Americans for Jobs, the New Democrat Network, and Joint Victory Campaign 2004.
No Special Treatment
Despite the recent and frequent donations to Democrats, Loral's CEO says that his company never sought special treatment. Yet, documented history speaks differently about Schwartz and Loral.
During the first years of the Clinton administration, Bernard Schwartz was mentioned as a candidate for Secretary of Defense. In June of 1994, presidential aide and Democrat Party fund-raiser Mark Middleton received a letter from Loral Chairman Bernard Schwartz. The letter thanked Middleton for a 1994 meeting at the White House with another top Clinton aide "Mr. McLarty." This reporter obtained by the letter from the U.S. Commerce Department by using the Freedom of Information Act.
The White House meeting, according to a Loral attachment, was to ask Russia to change their "GLONASS" navigation satellite system to another radio frequency. According to Loral, "international aviation interests are considering using GLONASS for position-location, navigation and precision landing of civil aircraft, either alone or in conjunction with the U.S. GPS system."
The "problem" was that the U.S. GPS system "could interfere with the receipt of GLONASS signals used by aircraft for precision landings.... The Russian administration is very interested in the use of GLONASS by the aviation community as part of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) which would utilize both the U.S. GPS system and GLONASS."
"Russia has stated it is willing to consider such a frequency shift over the next few years. It is critical that the Russians make a commitment that the frequency shift will occur, and provide a timetable for implementation of this change," states the letter from Schwartz.
Trips to China
In August 1994, Schwartz flew to China only two months after writing Middleton. Schwartz traveled to China under a "Presidential Business Development Mission" with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. Schwartz met with Chinese General Shen Rougjun - a key member of the PLA - with the personal approval of President Bill Clinton.
Chinese Army Lieutenant General Shen Rougjun was second in command at COSTIND - the Chinese Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. According to a November, 1997 report, written for the Commerce Department by "think-tank" company SAIC, COSTIND was neither civilian nor engaged in purely commercial activities.
"COSTIND supervises virtually all of China's military research, development and production. It is a military organization, staffed largely by active duty officers... COSTIND also coordinates certain activities with the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), which produces, stores, and controls all fissile material for civilian as well as military applications. COSTIND approves licenses for the use of nuclear materials for military purposes."
In August 1994, Lt. General Shen and Minister Liu of China Aerospace consummated a series of multi-million dollar satellite deals with Loral. The technology obtained from Loral included advanced missile guidance systems and encrypted satellite telemetry systems.
Ickes Memo
In a September 1994 memo to Clinton, Harold Ickes, then White House chief of staff, informed him that Schwartz could be used to raise campaign donations "in order to raise an additional $3,000,000 to permit the Democratic National Committee to produce and air generic TV/radio spots as soon as Congress adjourns."
Ickes then urged Clinton to invite Schwartz to the White House "to impress [him] with the need to raise $3,000,000 within the next two weeks." In another memo, Ickes informed Clinton that Schwartz "is prepared to do anything he can for the administration."
Between October 1995 and March 1996, as Clinton mulled over whether to ignore the State, Justice, and Defense Departments' reasons against granting Loral waivers to export advanced technology to China, Loral Chairman Bernard Schwartz injected more than $150,000 into the DNC's coffers.
In 1996, President Clinton moved the oversight of satellite exports from the State and Defense Departments to the Commerce Department. After Clinton's decision to lift the ban in Loral's case and to allow the exportation of the company's technology to the Chinese military, Loral CEO Schwartz handed over an additional $300,000 to the DNC. In a May 3, 1996 letter signed by the CEOs of Hughes, Lockheed and Loral, the three executives expressed their thanks directly to Bill Clinton.
"In October of last year we wrote to you asking you to complete the transfer of responsibility for commercial satellite export licensing to the Department of Commerce. Your administration recently announced it intention to do just that."
"We greatly appreciate this action which demonstrates again your strong commitment to reforming the U.S. export control system," states a letter signed by Hughes CEO Armstrong, Lockheed CEO Norman Augustine and Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz.
The Commerce Department was ill equipped to deal with satellite exports to China. The resulting fiasco at Commerce allowed the Chinese Army to obtain a vast array of advanced missile, satellite and space technology. In fact, in 1998 the Defense Department charged that the Commerce Department exceeded its legal authority by authorizing export transfers to a foreign military. The result was Congress stripped the Commerce Department of its satellite export authority and returned it back to the State and Defense Departments.
In the end Hughes and Loral were charged with violating national security. Both Hughes and Loral have since paid record fines. For some strange reason in Clinton's latest 900-page book, "My Life," Schwartz and Loral are never mentioned. Despite the meetings, the money, and the close-knit relationship between Bill Clinton and Bernard Schwartz, the ex-President saw fit to leave these little facts out of his memoirs.
Money to Kerry
Current Presidential candidate John Kerry began accepting donations from Schwartz at about the same time he took money from China-gate figure Johnny Chung. By this time, however, the Loral CEO was already very familiar with China Aerospace and its PLA connections.
During the August 1994 trade trip to China, Schwartz also met with Liu Ju-Yuan the minister of China Aerospace Corporation. Minister Liu was the official boss of Chinese Army Lt. Colonel Liu Chao Ying.
Lt. Col. Liu was well known in military and intelligence circles. Lt. Col. Liu's father, a retired PLA general, was until 1997 vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
According to stories published in the New York Times, Newsweek and the New York Post, Chung came to Kerry's office in July 1996 to seek help in getting Lt. Colonel Liu Chao Ying in to meet with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lt. Colonel Liu was then an executive of China Aerospace, a PLA military owned company that produces nuclear tipped missiles. Liu's sponsor Johnny Chung made it clear during a meeting in Senator Kerry's office that she was interested in getting China Aerospace listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange.
In response, Kerry ordered his aides to contact the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to Newsweek, "the next day Liu and Chung were ushered into a private briefing with a senior SEC official." Within a week of the SEC meeting, Kerry's staff wrote Chung asking him to host a Sept. 9 fund-raiser.
China-gate figure Johnny Chung pled guilty to funneling $10,000 to Kerry and $18,000 to Clinton's 1996 reelection on orders from Chinese General Ji, then the head of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) military intelligence. The money donated to Kerry came directly from cash provided by the Chinese Army General.
Ironically, a Freedom of Information request for the SEC documents of the meetings with Chung and Lt. Col. Liu revealed that the Commission could not find any responsive materials. Somehow, the request from a leading U.S. Senator - John Kerry - to the SEC has been lost.
During the 1996 election, Loral CEO, Bernard L. Schwartz, was the single largest individual donor to the Democrats. Schwartz and his wife Irene contributed $1,122,000 to federal campaigns, of which $1,089,750 went to Democratic candidates and party committees.
In 2004, John Kerry is getting loads of cash from Schwartz. Both Kerry and his running mate John Edwards are from the "engagement" school on export policy with China. It would appear on the surface of the checkbook that Schwartz expects a Kerry/Edwards administration will shift satellite authority back to the Commerce Department.
Of course, Schwartz still expects no favorable treatment from Kerry in return for his cash donations.
Sometimes the stories do get told. They just don't get disseminated too well. Here is an unbelievably great book on Hillary covering the murders and all the worst stuff in a completely factual way.
Hillary’s Secret War, The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists, by Richard Poe, WND Books, 2004
with hillary down in the dumps (poll) kerry must be having a few thoughts this evening/ review time huh backhoe
Almost forgot about that song.
Yes, and wasn't the 'singer' - Johnny Chung?
bttt
Not rumors -it's so obvious- the 'stories' have been quashed. (by e)
Can anyone post why the link in #14 doesn't work?
Can you repost this link please. It isn't working, thank you.
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