Year of the Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash [Hardcover]

Edward Timperlake (Author), William C. Triplett II (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

In this explosive book, two veteran congressional investigators deliver detailed evidence of the most shocking Clinton scandal expose to date: How Bill Clinton compromised American security for Chinese money.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

While many political journalists largely considered the second term of Bill Clinton's presidency in terms of his romantic interludes, Edward Timperlake and William C. Triplett II follow up on one of the more controversial scandals of the 1996 reelection campaign. The Democratic National Committee was eventually forced to return $2.8 million in illegal contributions, much of it from foreign nationals, and much of it brought to the party by fundraising executive John Huang.

Huang originally represented U.S. interests for the Riady family, a powerful family of Indonesian businessmen with close ties to the Communist Chinese government. James Riady had been a "Friend of Bill" since 1977, and the two authors all but insinuate that the Riadys "scouted" Clinton--whether as an unwitting dupe, a sleeper agent, or merely an exploitable opportunist is never quite clear--and helped underwrite his bid for the White House. Why? So they could get John Huang a Commerce Department appointment... one that came with a top-secret security clearance.

Timperlake and Triplett gather together an astonishing--and largely convincing--mass of evidence that the Clinton-Gore administration "has made a series of Faustian bargains and policy blunders that have allowed a hostile power to further its aims in Washington." In addition to the potential security breach represented by Huang, they document numerous policy decisions that risk strengthening the technological and military power of Communist China, power that might well be used against the United States in the future.

Review

Year of the Rat is a sharp polemic that does what Sen. Fred Thompson's hearings failed to do: show Chinese penetration of the American political elite. -- The Wall Street Journal, Michael Ledeen

America's survival in the coming Century in the shadow of China's rapid nuclear and space-based weapons modernization program, built largely with Western technology and know-how, has yet to be fully understood by American policy-makers and the general public. A clarion call to action is clearly documented in the YEAR OF THE RAT, a thoroughly documented and important new book by Congressional investigators and former Defense Department officials, Edward Timperlake and William Triplett. They describe in painstaking detail how members of the American business community and foreign agents of the Chinese military-industrial vanguard have used massive political donations to facilitate the build-up China's first-strike capabilities through influencing White House policies on export controls and other national security safeguards.

While Capitol Hill and the American media was transfixed on the Presiden t's dalliances with young women, Timperlake and Triplett, who have a combined fifty years of service in American national security agencies, collected information from recently declassified U.S. Government documents and traveled to China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, combing through records and documents related to key Donor-Gate personalities. In colorful description, they describe how they used undercover techniques to interview numerous sources with first-hand knowledge of illegal links between the Chinese military- industrial establishment and the Clinton-Gore political campaigns. The tragic consequence is the rapid escalation of China's military into a world-class nuclear, space and information-warfare power.

The influence of the President's Chinese friends on American foreign policy is illustrated by an incident involving the down-and-out "Little Rock restauranteur" Charlie Trie during the March, 1996 crisis involving Chinese communist missiles fired toward Taiwan. Following the deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers to the region, Trie showed up in Washington, delivering $460,000 to the President Clinton's Legal Defense Fund -- and a letter, delivered to the White House, regarding the Taiwan crisis. The provocative letter stated, in part [verbatim], "Any negative outcomes of the U.S. decision in the China issue will affect your administration position, especially in the campaign year... If the U.S. recognizes "one China" policy, don't such conduct will cause a conflict for intervening in China's internal affairs?..."

In response, the Clinton National Security Council drafted a letter to Trie, assuring the communist Chinese that the aircraft carriers were simply a "redeploymnet," and "not intended as a threat to the PRC."

Charlie Trie, as the authors found in Asia, is member of a Chinese Tria d crime gang that has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Trie's money contact in Macau, who wired more than $1 million to Trie's U.S. account, most of which is believed to have ended up in Clinton Defense Fund and Democratic Party campaign coffers, is Ng Lapseng, a Triad mobster and Chinese communist official. In fact, Ng visited the White House and attended a number of Democratic Party fund-raisers in Washington, sitting next to President Clinton at some events.

In some respects, Clinton owes his presidency to his closest Asian frien ds, ethic-Chinese

Indonesian bankers Mokthar and James Riady have billions of dollars in investments in China. In 1992, with the Clinton campaign broke and reeling from the Jennifer Flowers scandal, the Riady's persuaded the Arkansas-based Worthen Bank, of which their Lippo Bank was a part owner, to issue a $3.5 million letter of credit to the Clinton campaign. In addition, James Riady and his wife donated $450,000 that year, making them the largest private donors to the Clinton-Gore campaign.

Who are the Riady's? The authors cite a CIA report to the U.S. Senate , that states, in part: "James and Mochtar Riady have a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency. The relationship is based on mutual benefit... the Chinese intelligence agency seeks to locate and develop relationships with information collectors particularly those with close association to the U.S. government." Within months of Clinton's election, a Riady executive and Democratic party fund-raiser, John Huang, had a Top Secret security clearance, with access to the most sensitive CIA information on China. Huang was issued the security clearance five months before working for Ron Brown at the Commerce Department. Incredibly, Huang maintained the clearance after he left the Administration to do full time fund-raising at the Democratic National Committee.

Timperlake and Triplett further describe how other influential American and foreign corporate donors to the Democratic Party, some of whom are directly or indirectly linked to Chinese military and intelligence networks, have influenced Clinton-Gore policies that decimated national security export controls -- despite protests by Pentagon arms-control experts. Citing testimony by highly respected American aeronautical experts, the improvement of Chinese missile performance is shown to be a direct product of negligent Administration oversight of joint U.S.-China high technology programs and satellite launches, that have dramatically improved Chinese nuclear missile accuracy and reliability.

The critical premise of the authors has been validated by the recent rel ease of an explicit Pentagon report to the Congress illustrating how the China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is developing a range of high technology weapons to destroy American satellites and establish "capability to establish control of space and to deny access and use of military and commercial space systems in times of crises or war." Equally troubling, the Chinese are ready to test fire a new generation of mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles that can hit the entire Western area of the United States. According to the U.S. National Air Intelligence Center the new DF-31 missiles give China a major first-strike capability, "that will be difficult to counterattack at any stage of its operation, through terminal flight phases." The rocket-motor of the DF-31 was first tested in July 1998, while President Clinton was visiting Beijing. Although U.S. intelligence was fully aware of incident, citing it as a "political test," the Clinton Administration failed to raise the issue. YEAR OF THE RAT is must-reading to understand why the betrayal of American national security is the most dangerous and tragic legacy of the Clinton-Gore era. -- Al Santoli, Author of Everything We Had and Leading The Way. Editor of the weekly "China Reform Monitor," for the American Foreign Policy Council

Product Details

• Hardcover: 275 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895263335
• ISBN-13: 978-0895263339
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,216,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clinton is a Traitor, November 28, 1999

By 

Bryan Carey "Bryan Carey" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Year of the Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash (Hardcover)

In "Year of the Rat", Edward Timperlake and William Triplett present quite an incriminating case against Clinton and Gore. The authors simply state the facts. When they do not have all the facts, they make mention of it. They do not try to directly persuade the reader, they let the facts speak for themselves. They show how Clinton has betrayed the American people on numerous occasions, from his early days as a young Arkansas politician, all the way to the 1996 election and beyond.

Why hasn't this incident received the coverage from the media that it rightfully deserves? Why haven't more individuals been brought to justice? While it is true that nearly all potential witnesses have either died, fled the country, or pleaded the 5th, I still feel that much more effort should be made to prosecute and punish the guilty parties.

Americans have become immune to the dishonesty of politicians. Manipulation and deceit have become so commonplace that people just don't seem to care anymore. The popular view is that it is ok to tell a lie as long as you are not caught. If the means justify the ends, then telling a lie is ok. I am not a fan of William Bennett, but maybe he does have a good point when he describes the present- day situation as "the death of outrage".

Mr. Clinton now rivals Richard Nixon as the most dishonest man to ever occupy the White House. The only difference between the two is that Nixon was caught. Clinton has not been formally accused and brought to trial for his treasonous conduct, but that doesn't make his crimes any less serious.

Chinagate is a serious matter that deserves more attention that it has received. Forget the Monica Lewinsky debacle. This is the scandal that really matters.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Clinton Administration Is Guilty Of Treason, November 26, 2001

By 

L. Bruno "dy-dx" (Friedens, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Year of the Rat (Paperback)

Timperlake and Triplett tell us clearly and conclusively why Bill Clinton is absolutely guilty of treason. Forget the myriad of other "gates", this is the mother of all scandals: treason by the President of the United States. To find out that Clinton and his minions are responsible for possibly endangering the very existence of this nation by allowing security secrets to be given and sold to communist China is beyond belief. If someone proposed this as a Hollywood script, he would be laughed out of town. But once again with this administration, truth is stranger than fiction. Just as complicit are the mainstream media and Democratic leaders who have helped cover-up, obstruct, and spin this story so as to absolve the Clinton administration from blame.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched and convincing, May 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Year of the Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash (Hardcover)

By trying to prove everything, the authors of this book did get a little too detailed and (by the end)almost dull. However, their major points are really irrefutable - it is impossible to deny the plain facts presented in the book that major foreign donors to the Clinton campaign later got incredible access to our national secrets. The evidence is all there - well-documented and painstakingly footnoted. I am not an anti-Clinton fanatic (voted for him first time around), and find a lot of the "conspiracy theories" ridiculous, however I could not help being convinced by this book. I think that anyone who reads it with an open mind will not be able to avoid coming to the conclusion that our national secrets are dangerously open to access by foreign powers (whether these powers are overtly hostile to us, or merely taking advantage of our secrets for business purposes is kind of irrelavent).