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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.
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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.