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Joe Lieberman cover his ass

Congressman asks FBI to see whether Chinese agent funneled money to campaigns

(04-27) 12:51 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Joe Lieberman is asking for a federal investigation into whether an alleged double agent illegally funneled Chinese money into U.S. political campaigns.

Katrina Leung, a Southern California businesswoman who was paid $1.7 million as an FBI informant, also was a Republican activist and donor to candidates and the Republican Party. And she was arrested on April 9 as a suspected spy for China.

Court documents accuse Leung, 49, of a long list of security breaches including tipping off Chinese authorities to a search by U.S. agents for nuclear secrets in China and revealing names of FBI agents investigating Chinese spying in this country.

Lieberman, ranking Democrat on the Senate Government Affairs Committee, wrote a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller demanding an investigation into whether any of the money she gave was from the Chinese government. Under U.S. election laws, such donations are illegal.

Justice Department officials did not return calls for comment left Sunday.

Lieberman's Republican-controlled committee conducted an investigation in 1997 into whether Chinese government officials tried to influence the 1996 election with donations to Democratic candidates.

In the end, Lieberman said, the evidence was too blurred to determine what had happened. Evidence was presented, however, of contributions from people or businesses with close links to the Chinese government to the presidential campaigns, particularly that of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

"The committee majority chose to focus its investigation almost exclusively on individuals who had raised or contributed money to the Democratic presidential campaign of 1996," Lieberman wrote in his letter, dated Monday.

"The FBI apparently believes that Ms. Leung acted as a spy for the Chinese government, including during the period PRC officials apparently were trying to influence American political campaigns," the letter said. The PRC is the People's Republic of China.

Letters: Congress should block expansion of Patriot Act

Sunday, April 27, 2003

Congress should block expansion of Patriot Act powers

It is disgraceful that Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, seeks to repeal the sunset provisions of the so-called USA Patriot Act I ("Expand the Patriot Act? Instead, order a review," April 15 editorial). This act was passed in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, when Congress was running for cover. In fact, it was passed so quickly that most members of Congress failed even to read it.

Indeed, former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia admits that he voted for it without reading it. He also admits that the act went too far in invading the privacy of citizens. Mr. Barr now has joined with ex-Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, and an unlikely ally, the ACLU, in an attempt to roll back some of the provisions, such as the one that gives the FBI the right to obtain from libraries and bookstores a list of customers and what they are reading.

As The Post indicated in its editorial, Patriot II goes even further. Why would President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft seek to obtain DNA from every person arrested in this country? In essence, they gain the DNA for not only one person but a connection to all of that person's blood relatives. Why?

It is mind-boggling that our representatives would seek to give more power to the FBI, which has a history of spying and blackmailing politicians, of spying on civil rights leaders, of attempting to frame Richard Jewell for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing and of giving a free pass to Whitey Bulger, who ordered the murders of dozens of people while acting as an FBI informant.