DEATH ON THE RADIO

A MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER AND CEO -

During his term in office, President Clinton issued special export waivers to insiders, friends and major donors. His use of a pen for personal profit became almost a joke of quid pro quo. However, one insider example involves Motorola and a waiver to export encrypted radios to China. The details of the export, Clinton's signature and how Motorola obtained it is a clear sample of how insiders - not political parties - control our government.

Dr. Richard Barth was an appointee of the George Bush administration who served as National Security Council (NSC) Director of Nonproliferation and Export Controls. Barth made the transition from the Bush to Clinton administration with the slick ease of inside the beltway power. Many such members of the Bush camp served under Clinton and Barth was no exception.

Barth's job covered the top secret and often complex world of dual-use technology that could be employed by foreign militaries hostile to the U.S. By 1993, Barth’s Clinton connections included George Tenet, former NSC Presidential Advisor Tony Lake and a host of high ranking officials in the Commerce Dept. Please note - Tenet later became CIA Director under Clinton in 1997 and served under George W. Bush through 2004.

In June 1993 Barth became restless and decided to leave his top secret White House job for industry. Barth's decision to leave distressed his good buddy Tenet.

"Can you shoot me a copy of the paper going to principals regarding telecommunications sales and the Russkies," requested then NSC top dog George Tenet in a June 29 email to Barth. It is this email that illustrates the close knit nature of beltway insiders.

"When can I take you to lunch by the way?" noted Tenet. "When can you spare an hour to debrief me on exports/encryption? Why are you leaving me? Do you want my job? My wife? My 1974 Camaro? This place will suck eggs without you to keep me sane."

Barth did stay on a few months more, writing special and classified materials on encryption exports with Tenet, the White House and the NSA. However, despite the offer of Tenet's wife and Camaro, Barth left the White House and went to Motorola to lobby for the same technology he was charged with during his top secret stay.

In November 1994, Barth wrote a detailed letter to the State Department for his new employer Motorola.

"This is to request that your office initiate action to obtain a waiver from requirement for individual export license notifications to Congress for wireless mobile communications systems containing encryption for China. Such a waiver was issued by the President in September of this year for civilian satellite systems and encrypted products for use by American firms operating in China," wrote Barth.

It is worth noting that Barth’s request to export also included his knowledge that Clinton had already signed a waiver to sell encrypted satellite systems to China - in this particular case for the Loral Corporation, whose CEO was also a million dollar donor to the DNC.

Encryption for satellites is used to secure the radio commands sent to move, or change functions. Secure satellite controls are considered an even more sensitive technology than hand held encrypted radios because they are also very useful for military applications - such as nuclear tipped missiles.

Barth stated in his letter that Motorola wanted the Presidential waiver because the UK had decided to allow exports of encrypted radios to China. The move by the British intelligence agency GCHQ, according to Barth, gave London an unfair advantage.

"I understand that our National Security Agency is aware of this change in GCHQ's position and would support our request for a change in US requirements for export licenses for China. The NSA has agreed that there should be a "level playing field" in regard to China," wrote Barth.

What ordinary citizen can write to the US government citing quotes from the NSA about “level playing fields” for exports to China?

Yet, Barth's appeal to the State Department met with little success so by March 1995 he appealed for a waiver directly to the White House with a fax to several top Clinton advisors including his old boss, George Tenet.

“Such a waiver would not reduce NSA’s oversight over all encryption containing exports to China,” noted Barth in the fax addressed to Tenet.

“Current controls remain, only the need to notify Congress of each sale is removed. We currently have about $100 million worth of two way radio business tied up by the lack of a waiver for China and face losing a market of about $500 million... Finally, while we now are not yet applying for licenses for encrypted systems for satellite positioning, we may within months be applying for such licenses for our IRIDIUM systems.”

“Please forgive the informality of this note, but I want to move the process along here and not stand on formalities," wrote Barth to Tenet.

"I urge you to get in writing to the State Department asap language that seeks a waiver for ‘cellular, PCS and two way radio systems,’ as recently agreed.”

The root cause of Barth's frustration was the State Department had refused to allow the export based not on the technology but on who would get the radios. It turned out the end user in China was the People's Armed Police (PAP).

The State Department had good reason to distrust the red Gestapo with advanced US technology. The Chinese Police run the “Lao Gai” prison camps - slave labor factories where beating, torture and starvation are a matter of policy. The Chinese Police also execute dissidents. The most gruesome PAP policy is to sell the organs of executed prisoners for hard cash. Some of those executed were guilty of no more than speaking out against the Communists.

Why would human rights stop a little sale of $100 million in secure radios? The answer - it didn't.

In July 1995, Motorola got the waiver. Clinton over-rode the objections of his diplomats and okayed the export with his signature. The CEO of Motorola, Gary Tooker, wrote a personal note to Clinton's Commerce Secretary, Ron Brown, expressing his gratitude for Clinton’s signature.

“Dear RON,” wrote Tooker to Brown. “I am writing to thank you and some key members of the Commerce Department for your assistance in obtaining the Presidential waiver for encryption export sales to China.”







CHARLES R. SMITH

CEO FOUNDER OF SOFTWAR INC.





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