[Prev][Next][Index]

Letters to EVERY CCR commissioners sent this morning





Letters are sent to each CCR Commissioners this morning, around 2am.

US CCR is holding a meeting tomorow, Friday, 10/14/94. It is once a month
meeting. Last time CCR failed to issue  a letter regarding the CBS incident
to CBS, and they are putting this topic on the table tomorow.

Please flood their phone numbers and faxes to voice our strongest concerns,
and urge them to take strong actions against CBS. 

Your support is very essential to us all.


Mi Mi Sr.

==========================================================================



Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 23:21:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: XIAO@scri.fsu.edu
To: hua7291@xld2s0.engr.ccny.cuny.edu
Subject: revised letter to CCR (two parts)


Mi Mi,

	Finished and felt better on this one.  

                                    Dong



************************************************************************


Mr. Lin Huang 
National Coordinator 
CBS Incident Committee (CBSIC) 
3044 Albany Crescent 1G 
Bronx, NY 10463 
(718)-548-9114 
Oct. 12, 1994 


Honorable Mary Frances Berry 
US Commission on Civil Rights 
624 Ninth Street NW 
Room 737 
Washington, DC 20425 


Dear Commissioner Berry: 

I am writing to you as National Coordinator of the CBS 
Incident Committee and as Chair of the Civil Rights 
Committee of the Independent Federation of Chinese 
Students and Scholars (IFCSS), regarding the CBS News 
segment aired on May 19 alleging every ordinary ethnic 
Chinese in the US as potential spies.

IFCSS is the national organization of Chinese students and 
scholars in the United States, and CBSIC is a nationwide 
assembly of 80 working volunteers and more than 6,000 
members who have joined together to protest against this 
apparent racial attack on ethnic Chinese.

On May 19, CBS Evening News announced that China runs the 
"biggest spy network in America", and that "ordinary" 
Chinese in the US were routinely being recruited by 
Ministry of State Security as spies or "future spies, who 
a few year down the road, will be activated to steal 
America's military and technological secrets." In a letter 
to the Vice President of the IFCSS, the Vice President of 
CBS News declared that their accusations are valid 
"according to the Defense Information [sic] Agency." 

Over the last five months several thousands protest 
letters have been sent to CBS from this community. Our 
committee also has written to Commissioner Charles Rivera
on this issue. However, there is no positive response from 
the CBS so far. 

To many ethnic Chinese, the CBS report is not just another 
tabloid news piece which can be simply ignored. This 
report jeopardizes our livelihood, our careers and our future.
In the ensuing paragraph I would like to 
cite a few instances to show how innocent people have been 
hurt in this spy witch hunt and why people have fears and 
nightmares after this CBS report has been aired. 

Case number I, a Chinese American working for an US 
government agency was reported by an informant as a 
possible Chinese spy. His office was searched, computer 
files were scanned and private communications compromised, 
but he was found innocent. However his employer, scared to 
death of the so-called biggest Chinese spy network in 
America, fired him on the ground that he has used his 
computing equipment for private e-mail files that were not 
related to his work. 

Case number II, a Chinese national was employed by a 
private U.S. firm. He was working there for just a few 
month when CBS aired that report. 
Within days his employment was terminated, and the only 
obvious reason is that his company just received a 
military contract. 

Although stories like these involve only a few people,  they cause 
immense fears
of repression and racial discrimination  within the Chinese community.
The incident happened at the  time many schools of higher education
proceeding commencement. The report hits many college graduates hard. 
Since the CBS incident, Ms.  Li Yingying, a student councilor at MIT,
has received many students of Chinese origin expressing their fears
of  being suspected as foreign spies simply because they are  born into
Chinese!  People expressed their worries to her are not just students who
are currently looking for jobs, but also
some recent graduates who has been working.  The report is not only
totally an unaccountable and irresponsible, but really hurting people
psychologically and socially.

Many organizations and individuals, on assumption that there must be
Chinese spies in the world, become careful and cautions in their social
activities.  As the National Coordinator on the CBS Incident, I have been
advised not to uncover the lies and to fight the injustice, but to keep
quiet.  In a Chinese saying, keep the tails between our legs.  This is not
something that is supposed to happen in a free country!!! 


The logic CBS report used for its witch hunt goes like 
this: since most Chinese have relatives in Mainland China 
who can be held as hostage by the government, they have to 
spy for China. And even if they are not spies now, they 
will be spies in the future, thus subjecting virtually 
every Chinese and indeed every Asian looking person to 
brutal speculation. In doing so, the CBS not only has 
attacked the personal integrity of every ethnic Chinese by 
questioning their motives of coming to this country, but 
also insulted many of us who have fought hard for freedom 
and democracy under extremely dangerous conditions. 
 
After extensive research by our committee members, we have 
found many serious cases of inaccuracy, exaggeration and 
outright lies in the CBS report. As you can see, and I 
hope you will also agree, the way this particular report 
is done in constructing the whole spy theory are flawed to 
say the least, and their attitude toward the original 
source of data is hardly professional. Once the distorted 
pictures presented are accepted by the general public and 
become deeply rooted through the news media they will 
bring nothing but racial tensions to this society. They 
will create prejudice, stir fear, arouse suspicion and 
generate resentment and even hatred toward ordinary 
Chinese, be they employees, job applicants, business 
partners, next door neighbors or even oriental looking 
strangers walking down the street! 

The news organizations are entitled to their opinions on 
the Chinese community. We recognize that and we respect 
their assessment of the espionage situation based on the 
information they think they have, so long as the 
information is true and the assessment unbiased. However, 
we feel that it is irresponsible and professionally 
unethical on the part of CBS to express opinions to the 
public without any justification and without considering 
the possible damages those opinions may cause. 

Recently our committee has compiled a comprehensive report 
on this incident, based upon our several month's research, 
which is totally contradictory to the CBS report. However, 
our report has been turned down by even some local Chinese 
newspapers on the ground that our results are not 
consistent with the CBS! This highlights the profound 
damage which has been done by CBS, which has been regarded 
as a reliable source of information, and the anchorwoman, 
Ms. Connie Chung, who aired the program, has been 
perceived as a knowledgeable insider of China!

We support Ms. Chung as a minority individual who has achieved
celebrity status by her hard work.  However, protecting one 
person's achievement should not victimize tens of thousands of people's
lives.  And Ms. Chung is not the only one who is responsible
for this incident.  Ms. Chung has apologized on a Chinese
publication with very limited circulation, which is far from
enough to comfort people's fears and to stop their nightmares. 
 

There are many possible remedies from the CBS that we look 
for which may let our members feel more secure for their 
civil rights.  For instance: 
 
1. Apologize on air about the May 19 program, for 
 
 a. being unbalanced; 
 b. wrong choice of words like "ordinary"; 
 c. wrongfully targeting ONLY the ethnic Chinese; 
 d. the paranoid views about "Chinese spy network". 
 
2. Apologize on printed media 
 
 We can even offer making connections to reporters, 
including the Chinese media. Many of them are interested. 
 
3. Produce and broadcast a balanced report about 
 
 a. those ethnic Chinese who work hard for the United States 
 b. those authoritative opinions, including the US government 
 and prominent scholars, against the Chinese "spy threat". 
 c. those opinions that are clearly racist, anti-immigrant 
 in the name of anti-spy. 
 
4. Arrange an interview with Connie Chung, Dan Rather and 
our members and other concerned organizations to address 
this and related issues. 

 
5. Release a written statement addressing all of our concerns 
in our official letter to Mr. Venardos, the Vice President of
the CBS News Division. 
 

Dear Commissioner, thank you for your attention. 
I am looking forward to your kind response. 
 
 
 
Sincerely, 
 
 
 
 
Lin Huang 
 
National Coordinator, CBS Incident Committee 
 
Chair, Committee on Civil Rights 
The Independent Federation of Chinese Student and Scholars 
in the U.S. 



*****************************************************************

 
 Mr. Lin Huang 
 National Coordinator 
 CBS Incident Committee (CBSIC) 
 3044 Albany Crescent 1G 
 Bronx, NY 10463 
 (718)-548-9114 
 Oct. 12, 1994 
 

Honorable Mary Frances Berry 
 
US Commission on Civil Rights 
624 Ninth Street NW 
Room 737 
Washington, DC 20425 
 
 
 
Dear Commissioner: 
 
 
This is a accompanying letter further regarding the CBS Incident. 
 
The sole source of the CBS information is a Mr. Eftimiades, a 
self-proclaimed agent of Defence Intelligence Agency.  However, in a 
response to our inquiry, the agency openly declared that  Mr. Eftimiades 
was acting as a private individual, and he is not even employed in the
Defence Intelligence Agency in the capacity of a China
expert.  When he wrote his little black book, he was working
on MIA task force, which has nothing to do with Chinese intelligence.
Therefore,  We are questioning the
appropriateness on the  part of Mr. Eftimiades to seek personal gains by
posing as a credible agent from a government agency which has authority
on the subject matter that his personal profit venture is based on.

We understand that the DIA can not possibly authorize Mr.  Eftimiades' 
book and his public appearances, but the public will perceive Mr. 
Eftimiades as an  "insider" of the agency in the name of an active
agent,  and having access  to internal top secret information which led
him to reach  his  unsubstantiated conclusions. 

Mr. Eftimiades obtained clearance for public release of the 
manuscript of his book in 1992 from the Department of Defense.
However it is only a security clearance and there has been no
public report on whether ethic codes are violated.
 
We hope the Commission on Civil Rights will look into this matter, too. 
 
 

Sincerely, 
 
 
 
 
Lin Huang 
 
National Coordinator, CBS Incident Committee 
 
Chair, Committee on Civil Rights 
The Independent Federation of Chinese Student and Scholars in the U.S.