[Prev][Next][Index]

US CCR upcoming meeting this Friday - Need our campaign push




Hi, everyone, US CCR failed to issue a letter to CBS in the last two 
monthly meetings, due to some commissioners's variouse concerns and positions.
This coming Friday all the commissioners are getting together and our 
complain is on their table. CBS Incident Committee believes that US CCR
commissioners need some extra push to look at this issue more seriously,
and start to issue the strongest letter possible to exert pressure upon
CBS. Although US CCR is sympathetic to us, but we need their strong action
more than anything else. We CBS-IC has drafted letters to address each and
everyone one of the commissioners, and all of the letters have been faxed
to them this morning aroun 2:30AM EDT. Now, please moblize as many people 
as possible to call the following numbers to express our concerns, and urge
them to take actions.

You may call (202)-376-8177 switch board; or 800-552-6843 complain hotline.
Then ask to speak to the commissioners at the meeting, get their fax numbers,
voice our concerns, fax them your version of the complain letters. Together we
can make another difference!

The following are the numbers you may want to try as well (CBS-IC official 
letter is attached at the endof this message)

Here the list goes:

Honorable Mary Frances Berry		O (202)-376-7417
                                        F (202)-376-7558
Assistant Krishna Toolsie     		O (202)-376-7419

Honorable Cruz Reynoso			O (310)-206-5624
					F (310)-206-6489
                      			H (209)-748-2719
Assistant Tom Gray			O (310)-206-3653

Honorable Carl A.Anderson		O (202)-628-2355
					F (202)-628-1243
					H (703)-534-9114
Assistant: Prof. Joseph Broadus		O (703)-993-8031
					H (703)-972-1954

Honorable Arthur A. Fletcher		O (303)-871-2441
Secretary Judy Miller			O (303)-871-4171
					O (202)-547-7890
					F (202)-547-7966
Assistant: Renata Anderson		O (202)-376-7572
					F (202)-376-7577

Honorable Robert P. George		O (609)-258-3270
					F (609)-258-6837
					H (609)-683-1304
Assistant: Dennis Teti			O (202)-376-7676
                                        F (202)-376-8315
                                        H (202)-484-8181

Honorable Constance Horner              O (202)-797-6053
                                        F (202)-362-3069
Assistant: Ron Brown			O (202)-376-7628
                                        H (202)-965-0429

Honorable Russell G. Redenbaugh         O (215)-988-0352
					O (415)-521-6190
                                        F (215)-567-1681
                                        H (215)-238-8894
Assistant: Rachel Budd                  O (215)-988-0353
                                        H (215)-627-1368

Honorable Charlse Pei Wang              O (212)-385-1697
                                        F (212)-383-1702
                                        H (201)-299-0779
Assistant: Laurie Kitazono		O (202)-725-3840


Mr. Lin Huang 
National Coordinator 
CBS Incident Committee (CBSIC) 
3044 Albany Crescent, 1G 
Bronx, NY 10463 
(718)-548-9114 
October 13, 1994 

US Commission on Civil Rights 

Honorable Charles Rivera:

I am writing to you as National Coordinator of the CBS Incident 
Committee (CBSIC) 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 are routinely being recruited by Ministry of State 
Security as spies or "future spies" when they are applying 
passports to go to the United States, who "a few years 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 fraction of the 
Chinese population, 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 Graduate Student Advisor 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 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! 

Recently our committee has compiled a comprehensive report on 
this incident, based upon our several month's research, which is 
totally in 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!

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. 

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 

 
P.S.

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 Defense 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 Defense 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.