WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 5) -- A Senate committee's report on possibly illegal Chinese campaign contributions and the transfer of missile technology to China will contain a "candid evaluation" of President Bill Clinton's role in those controversies, according to the panel's senior Democrat.

Asked if the report will be critical of Clinton, Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Nebraska) said, "Well, it is certainly not a love letter."

He added that there was evidence of "poor oversight and poor policy."

The report, approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday, is expected to be released within the next day or two. Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) would not divulge details of the report, which is still being reviewed by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Kerrey, the intelligence panel's vice chairman, said the committee had produced a "bipartisan, non-partisan document."

The committee has been pursuing two separate, but intertwined, lines of inquiry:

• To what extent did agents of the Chinese government, working through Democratic fund-raisers, funnel campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee or the 1996 Clinton-Gore presidential campaign?
• Did Clinton administration policy allow for the transfer of missile technology to the Chinese -- in an effort to help improve the success of their commercial rocket launches -- that could be converted for use by China's military?

A central question of the probe has been whether there is any link between those technology transfers and the campaign contributions -- something the White House has strongly and steadfastly denied.

Kerrey described the committee's report as "relatively dull" on the issue of possible campaign fund-raising abuses.

Wednesday, May 5, 1999

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• Poll: New Hampshire voters support Bush over Gore
• Federal government prepares financial aid for tornado victims
• Willey: I told Steele "many many times" about Clinton incident
• Kerrey: Senate report on Clinton-China ties no 'love letter'
• Mob lawyer tops Vegas mayor's race
• Senators grill nuclear lab chiefs on security
• Consumer groups deride new bare-bones insurance plans
• Agencies don't track actual costs of Y2K, report says
• 'Kinetic' Kasich seeks presidency
• Holbrooke U.N. nomination clears another hurdle
• Kosovo money fight resurrects Central America aid bill
• Senate bill would increase supervision of class-action suits
• Sen. Specter targets baseball exemption

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