Another one like that, from a couple of years ago, from
http://thenewamerican.com/tna//1999/01-04-99/insider.htm.
The 20/20 report said at the time this guy was unable to get a job anywhere anywhere close to his line of work. Haven't heard of a followup since and don't know what finally happened to the guy.
THE NEW AMERICAN
January 4, 1999
Table of Contents
Insider Report
Belated Whistleblowing on Clinton’s Chinese Missiles.
ABC TV’s 20/20 broadcast of December 2nd proved that it is possible for network investigative programs to provide some bona fide hard-hitting segments. In a Chris Wallace offering entitled "Lost In Space: Did U.S. Companies Share Technology With China?," the ABC sleuths decided to get serious about one very important aspect of President Clinton’s Chinagate troubles: U.S. missile technology transfers to the Communist dictators in Beijing.
The dramatic centerpiece of the program was Lieutenant Colonel Al Coates, whom Wallace described as "the government’s top cop to protect U.S. secrets during American satellite launches in China." After 29 years in the Air Force, Coates quit to blow the whistle on what he says were ongoing and unchecked releases of sensitive information which have helped the Chinese and compromised American security.
In the past several years, U.S. aerospace companies have increasingly relied on China to launch their commercial satellites. It was Al Coates’ job to monitor these cooperative business arrangements to insure that sensitive information and technology was not leaked to China’s military-industrial complex. He took his job seriously. But his superiors in the Clinton Administration did not. His reports of repeated serious violations of security procedures fell on deaf ears.
"As a routine matter," asked Wallace, "are American companies giving sensitive information to the Chinese?" "I believe they are," said Coates. "They want to get the job done. They don’t consider it helping the Chinese. They consider it getting their payload [into space] and getting their job accomplished." How has this helped Red China? "They have a better capability at striking us," says Coates. "We’re less safe."
How much "less safe" are we? One indication was provided by former Defense Department official Henry Sokolski, who told 20/20, "Our technology has helped the Chinese perfect missiles that are more reliable, more accurate, and more difficult to monitor or track as we try to prevent them from ever penetrating our air space." Sokolski pointed out: "From 1990 to 1996, the Chinese reliability was at 75 percent. That meant one out of four times something exploded or didn’t get on station." But since 1996, he says, the Chinese have had "100 percent reliability, 12 successes, and these successes are successes involving the most sophisticated launchers with the most sophisticated payloads."
What happened in 1996 to spur this dramatic improvement? In February of that year, a Chinese rocket carrying a satellite for Hughes Electronics and Loral Space Technologies exploded after takeoff. A 1997 Defense Department classified report found that scientists from Loral and Hughes had violated security restrictions by giving the Chinese information about what went wrong. As a result, they appear to have solved their most serious launch problems. (See "Treasonous Tradeoff" in our July 6, 1998 issue.) Which means we have helped them immensely in achieving the capability of delivering missiles (with nuclear, biological, or chemical warheads) into our laps.
Commendably, ABC questioned President Clinton’s relationship with Hughes Chairman Michael Armstrong (now CEO at AT&T), a major Clinton donor and champion of the U.S.-China launch partnership. Too bad the network had to wait until the scope of the Clinton impeachment hearings had been limited to the Lewinsky sexcapades to air this important information.
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