The motive was certainly there.
It certainly was.
At his death, Ron Brown was under investigation by the FDIC, the Congressional Reform and Oversight Committee, the FBI, the Energy Department, the Senate Judiciary Committee and even his own Commerce Department Inspector General. He was scheduled to be deposed by Judicial Watch regarding the illegal sale of trade mission seats for campaign contributions. The Justice Department asked that the deposition be postponed until he returned from the ill-fated trade mission.
He was also about to be indicted by an independent council named Daniel Pearson. Brown's wife and son had already been indicted on related charges. Pearson had plenty of documentary evidence and testimony on over a dozen serious crimes (like ending the trade embargo against North Vietnam for $700,000 dollars in bribes). The situation was so serious that Brown had retained a $750 an hour attorney. He spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal and matters only got worse. Only days before Brown's death, another 20 witnesses were subpoenaed focusing on Brown's dealings. It seems that an Oklahoma gas company called Dynamic Energy Resources (DER) gave Brown's son Michael $500,000 in stock, a $160,000 cash payment, and exclusive country club memberships. Former DER president Stewart Price told a Tulsa grand jury that the money was to be routed to Ron Brown, who was expected to "fix" a big lawsuit for DER.
Almost immediately after Brown's death, the Pearson probe was shut down. However, Judicial Watch continued its efforts by questioning Nolanda Hill, a democrat fund raiser and one of Brown's key business partners, in court under oath. Nolanda Hill testified that she paid Brown $500,000 for his interest in First International, Inc., a company that never made any profits. That company, which owned Corridor Broadcasting, defaulted on government loans totalling $40 million. The loans were passed to the FDIC, which was unsuccessful in collecting anything from Hill, even though at that time the firm was making large contributions to the Democratic Party and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to Brown through shell corporations. These payments to Brown (three checks for $45,000 each, for instance) were the core of the evidence used to force Reno to hire Daniel Pearson. They were cashier checks, all cut on the same day in 1993 with sequential numbers even though the money supposedly came from three contributors acting independently. Brown never disclosed or paid any taxes on these amounts.
Just one week before Nolanda's testimony, the Whitehouse had her charged with a crime. Judge Lamberth, who provided over the Judicial Watch case, revealed that Hill testified that Brown told her he was ordered by Leon Panetta and John Podesta, two of Clinton's Whitehouse Chiefs Of Staff, to "slow down" the effort to comply with Judicial Watch's request (subpoena) for documents. Lamberth said there was ample evidence that department officials did just that.
Nolanda Hill also testified that shortly before the crash Brown met with Panetta and turned over a stack of documents that would have proven he sold seats on trade missions for very large, illegal, contributions to the DNC. These documents were withheld in violation of the Judicial Watch subpoena. Nolanda swore under oath that Brown told Panetta "if I go down, so will everyone else".
Nolanda Hill also testified that shortly before he died, Brown went to see Clinton and told him that he intended to enter a plea agreement and testify against the Administration. She then testified that prior to making this threat, Brown wasn't scheduled to be on the trade mission flight that crashed. She says at the last minute the White House told Brown to go.
It is worth noting that much of Hill's testimony has been proven true or cooberated by other witnesses. There was nothing ever presented by the Clinton Whitehouse to suggest she was making up the allegations. They tried to smear her but they never proved that what she claimed was untrue ... for example by proving that Brown had no meeting with Clinton shortly before the flight.
Now consider this ... Ron Brown was at the focus of much of the campaign finance illegalities that occurred during Clinton's tenure and was the conduit for much of the technology passed to the Chinese during the early Clinton years. Clinton personally changed long established rules so that the export of such technology could be approved by Ron Brown without oversight ... with just his signature. The agencies who previously did that oversight were all on record as being against the exports that occurred.
According to sworn testimony from Nolanda Hill, many millions of dollars in illegal DNC and Clinton campaign contributions were received through the sale of trade mission seats and in exchange for authorization by Ron Brown's Commerce Department to sell what in previous administrations was considered highly restricted missile, computer, radar, satellite, manufacturing and encryption technology. Others have testified to brown bags full of illegal campaign cash coming from the Chinese. Riady, who gave millions is thought to have been a conduit for other Chinese contributions.
Brown worked closely with Huang, Riady, Chung, Middleton, and dozens of other people connected with criminal activities by the Clinton's and DNC. Keep in mind that well over a hundred people took the 5th or fled the country in connection with the Chinagate and campaign finance scandals ... and that is with Reno and the Justice Department seemingly trying to coverup, rather than seriously investigate the matters. If Brown had talked (and sworn testimony says he was threatening to talk), he'd have caused a really serious problem for a lot of these people. For instance ...
John Huang, who by all accounts was one of Clinton's close friends, worked side by side with Ron Brown after working in the Whitehouse. He was an employee of James Riady at one time. After leaving Commerce, Huang went to work for the DNC. His involvement in campaign finance violations was uncovered by Judicial Watch. He falsely represented under oath that he was "a budget clerk," "participated in no fundraising," and "kept no records at the Commerce Department." He invoked the 5th Amendment over 2000 times in depositions. He was labeled a "Chinese agent" by people in the CIA, FBI and Congress. Yet, he was given a Top Secret clearance by the Whitehouse without a background check and attended over 100 Top Secret briefings. The Clinton Justice Department failed to pursue the allegations of spying and never even deposed him. He received only a "wrist slap" for admitted campaign finance violations. He was given a grant of immunity in the Judicial Watch case to force him to testify ... yet he still invoked the 5th!
Ira Sockowitz (remember ... he's the one who reported to Commerce that two people survived the Brown crash) not only worked for Commerce but knew John Huang. In May 1996, he and his boss moved to the Small Business Administration (SBA). Three days later, Commerce approved a SCI clearance (above Top Secret) for him. Sockowitz visited Commerce and removed 136 secret documents (many of them dealing with China) from his old safe. He told his old secretary that he was gathering personal items. Commerce said he violated his clearance by not returning the files. He claims he needed them for his SBA job but the SBA disputed that. Sockowitz left the SBA in Nov 1996 and the Justice Department stopped investigating in Dec 1996 ... without ever interviewing Sockowitz, his boss or his replacement.
Johnny Chung, who participated in trade missions to China in 1994, is one of the few to actually turn state's evidence (after Waxman, the top Democrat on the Committee before which he testified, blatantly tried to get him to plead the 5th). Among other things, Chung testified that in 1996 the head of China's military intelligence, General Gee Shengdi, gave him $300,000 for the president's campaign. He says he was told by the General that other people were also receiving money "to do good things for China". The FBI assigned dozens of agents to protect him (in fact, they arrested an armed man who tried to kill Chung at his office). Investigators say that many aspects of his testimony check out. Chung participated in a FBI wiretape that clearly suggests there was an agreement between Clinton and the Premier of China on how to coverup Chinagate. All told, Chung gave the Clintons $366,000. You'll see why that amount is important in a moment.
Charlie Trie participated in trade missions to China and admitted to illegally funneling foreign money to the Democrats. Charlie appears to have had lots of "friends". One of them, Wang Jun, met with Brown shortly after attending a "coffee" with Clinton. The same day, Clinton signed a waiver allowing Loral to transfer formerly restricted information to the Chinese. Remember in 1996 when one of China's rockets crashed, destroying a $200 million Loral satellite? Well, a commission headed by Loral reviewed the rocket crash and determined it was caused by a flaw in the rocket's flight-control system. Without approval, they shared their 200 page report with the Chinese. In 1997, the Pentagon issued a classified report in May analyzing the effect of the Loral-led review commission's unauthorized release to China of its report. "United States national security has been harmed," the Pentagon concluded. Note that Loral's CEO, Bernard Schwartz, was the single largest legal contributor to the DNC in 1996 (giving over $500,000 ... 400,000 more than he'd given in any previous year). In 1997, even as Loral was being investigated by a federal grand jury, Schwartz gave another $366,000 to the DNC. What a coincidence that $366,000 was the amount that the DNC had to return to Chung a little earlier when his contribution source turned out to be the Chinese government.
Another player in this saga was Ng Lapseng. You may not have heard of him. Ng was the owner of the Macao-based Hotel Fortuna. According to charges filed against Hughes Satellite Corporation by the State Department, the Sino-Canada Telecommunications Company, which is incorporated in Macao and has it's principal place of business at the Hotel Fortuna, had a contracted with Hughes for a satellite destined for China in 1995. As noted in the December 2002 State Department charge letter, "Sino-Canada's managing director, Suen Yan Kwong, was the founder of Chung Kiu Telecommunication, which had invested in cellular telecommunications for use under special network by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) in military districts along the coastal provinces." What a coincidence then, that Ng came into the US in June of 1994 and two days later met at the White House with Mark Middleton. After that meeting, Ng went to a DNC dinner with Bill and Hillary. He was seated at the No. 1 table where he gave the Clintons $175,000 in cash. In July of 1994, he returned to the United States. Two days later, he met with Mark Middleton at the Whitehouse and attended the DNC birthday party for President Clinton. At the party he gave Clinton his birthday present ... $42,000 in cash. It is recorded that Ng visited the White House 12 times. He was often in the company of Charlie Trie. Trie received $1.4 million in wire transfers from Ng, wire transfers that became Trie’s main source of income. The funds enabled Trie, his wife, and two of Trie’s corporations, Daihatsu International Trading and San Kin Yip International Trading, to contribute $215,000 to the DNC. And by the way, Ng Lapseng also ran a prostitution ring that trafficked in women. Hillary had her picture taken with him in front of the DNC symbol.
Speaking of Hillary, note that Charles Labella, former head prosecutor for the Justice Department's campaign finance task force (who it was revealed in 2000 had recommended to Janet Reno that she appoint a Independent Counsel to investigate the dealings of Clinton and Bernard Schwartz ... which Reno refused to do) concluded that Hillary Clinton had ample reason to know illegal Chinese campaign cash was flowing into the Whitehouse because of her evidently close association with Trie, Chung, and Huang. Trie was a longtime friend and even got tours of their personal residence. Nolanda Hill told ABC News it was Hillary and not Brown who pushed for Huang's recruitment into Commerce. After he presented Maggie Williams (Hillary's Chief of Staff) with a check for $50,000, Chung met with the first lady, whose first words to him were "Welcome to the White House, my good friend." Chung was in the Whitehouse on 57 different occasions. How could Hillary not have known what was going on?
John Podesta, mentioned earlier, was also in the thick of things (besides stopping by to collect incriminating evidence from Brown before he died). In 1998, the House National Security Committee asked the Undersecretary of Commerce William Reinsch to produce the 1995 satellite waiver memos he'd written on the Loral waiver, mentioned earlier. These memos were among the documents found in Sockowitz's safe at SBA. Reinsch promised during the hearing that he would produce them, but never did. Reinsch was also asked to turn over all documentation on secret meetings and classified briefings given to the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP). CSPP members Tandem, Digital, Compaq, Unisys, AT&T and Cray Super computers were all invited to travel with Ron Brown on his trade trip to Beijing. Now the CSSP had ties to Podesta. Starting in 1994, the CSPP was represented by the brother of John. And John was at the time in charge of Clinton administration oversight of super-computer and encryption policy. How convenient. One document found in Brown's files (through the FOIA) after he died is a briefing memo prepared for Ron Brown by William Reinsch that notes the CSPP was interested in "computer" and "encryption" exports. The CSPP executive director in 1994 and 1995 was Ken Kay, who was an employee of Podesta Associates. In fact, the official CSPP reports issued in January 1995, also found in Brown's files, note that Podesta Associates was running the CSPP lobby effort. Mr Kay and the CSPP lawyer, Charles Levy, donated thousands of dollars to DNC candidates according to Federal Election Commission records. Talk about a conflict of interest. One, unfortunately, involving national security at the highest levels. And Ron Brown. Note that Ken Kay, the CSPP and the Podesta brothers all denied any wrongdoing. However, in 1997, John Podesta obtained a presidential waiver to resolve the potential legal conflict of interest.
Mark Middleton, a former high- level White House aide, was, according to Chung, one of those identified by General Gee Shengdi as receiving money ... $500,000 dollars. Middleton took the 5th when questioned about this and the Reno DOJ let him skate. He was the highest Clinton Administration official to plead the 5th in Chinagate. In 1999, the Washington Times reported that "Mr. Middleton, a longtime Clinton confidant who raised more than $4 million during the 1992 election, was called to appear before the House Government Reform Committee". In his opening statement, Chairman Dan Burton of the Committee on Government Reform noted that "We checked Mark Middleton's bank records. They show that he received over $1.75 million from Asian businesses." According to committee documents, Middleton received at least $275,000 in retainer fees for unspecified work from July 1995 to April 1997. The money came from the Riady family. In 2001, Burton still wanted to review the Janet Reno DOJ documents explaining why she chose to not prosecute Middleton. President Bush invoked executive privilege to prevent that. You have to wonder why.
James and Mochtar Riady, Indonesians and ex-employers of John Huang, were longtime friends and financial supporters of Clinton. James Riady visited the White House well over a dozen times. His visits were scheduled through Mark Middleton. Moctar's gardener managed to contribute $450,000 directly to Bill Clinton in a single check. And that was only the tip of the iceberg. Authorities said they had a long relationship with Chinese intelligence. Clinton, while out of the country, met privately with them ... at a time when they were avoiding US authorities that sought to question them. Clinton tried to arrange a "Justice" Department deal for James Riady, Mochtar's son, to protect him from prosecution but it didn't go through before Bush took over. Nevertheless, Riady still got a "deal" from Bush. One where he agreed to tell the truth in all matters. In a California courtroom, during his sentencing, he stated for the record that his millions in illegal contributions were never returned even though the DNC and Clinton had publically claimed they were. When the judge asked the prosecutor if this was true, the prosecutor said "yes, to the best of our knowledge". Yet, we never heard another word about it. Bush was "moving-on".
The bottom line is this. Clinton and the DNC stole 2 presidential elections using millions of dollars in money obtained illegally from the military in Communist China, a country whose defense minister once said he sees war with the United States as inevitable. Chinese spies were given access to classified nuclear, radar, missile, encryption and submarine secrets. There is sworn testimony by individuals in our counter intelligence community that they were ordered by their superiors during the Clinton years not to pursue these espionage cases. The connection with Ron Brown is that the technology Brown approved (for example, 10 billion dollars worth of super computers), during a time when the Administration knew of the spying, made it possible for the Chinese to use the secrets they stole or were given. And some of that technology the Chinese then gave to Pakistan. Surely this is a treason worth killing someone in order to keep it from coming out in court back in 1996. Someone named Ron Brown.
