U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
June 23, 2008

12:49 p.m. EDT

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QUESTION: Henry Waxman sent another letter to the Secretary, this time about an apparent meeting that the U.S. Ambassador in Albania had regarding a cover-up of an investigation by the New York Times about China -- sales of Chinese ammunition from the '60s and '70s to Afghanistan. I was wondering if you had any particular comment on that.

MR. CASEY: Yeah, well, you know, I somehow think there needs to be a bit of an investigation of the mail service between that particular committee and this building, because it does seem that there's a lot of letters that seem to manage to get into your guys' hands before they ever make it here.

Look, we just received this letter an hour or so ago. And certainly, we'll take a look at it and provide a response to the chairman that's appropriate. I will say that, you know, certainly, we treat any allegations about the Department or its officials seriously and we'll be happy to look into it rather thoroughly.

Now, I will note that while, again, I think this letter got to you guys a little sooner than it got to us -- I know the chairman coincidentally has a hearing on this scheduled for tomorrow, I think -- you know, certainly we'll do our best to make sure that we look into these concerns and provide a response. I certainly can't speak to anything that is in these letters or some of these rather unusual allegations that have been made.

I will note that John Withers, who's our Ambassador, and the other people that are specifically -- I understand specifically mentioned in this letter are career Foreign Service officers. They're certainly not individuals who have any political connections or issues to speak of, nor are they individuals who -- if you look at the bank accounts of most Foreign Service officers, have any particular business interests with the company involved.

I also know that there is ongoing investigation that I believe the Department of Justice is working with the Department of Defense on into the activities of the company involved here. And certainly, as far as that goes, I'd refer you to the Department of Justice as to the status of that investigation.

QUESTION: Do you know if -- just as a general thing -- whether he actually had a meeting that the letter alleges he did with the defense minister?

MR. CASEY: You know, I have -- I certainly have no information that would support that. But certainly, you know, if the chairman of the committee is asking for information, we will certainly make sure that we provide the information requested.

QUESTION: Is this the first that Washington had -- the Department here had heard of this allegation or is this a question of whether he attended this meeting and agreed to or suggested marking change and then didn't report the meeting later?

MR. CASEY: You know --

QUESTION: Is that something that had been looked into by the Department in any other form?

MR. CASEY: Look, I will leave it to our folks to respond to this. I haven't even had a chance to read the letter through myself. What I can tell you is, certainly, we have no information that would support the idea that U.S. officials were involved in some kind of illicit activity. But obviously, again, any allegations made, certainly any questions raised by the chairman of a major committee in Congress is something that we will be happy to look into.

QUESTION: Just one other final --

MR. CASEY: Yeah.

QUESTION: The Department -- or the IG, rather -- will open up some (inaudible) investigation into these incidents?

MR. CASEY: You'd have to talk to the IG. I think in this instance, we'd like to first make sure we have a chance to actually read the letter and see what is being discussed here.

Yeah. Mr. Lambros.

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QUESTION: Just to follow up, Secretary Rice said last week that she hoped the declaration would come in by the end of the month, so that would be this week, wouldn't it? And also, the North Koreans have announced their intent to blow up their cooling tower this weekend and have invited news organizations already for this spectacle.

MR. CASEY: You got a seat in the grandstands?

QUESTION: Among other news organizations. But I'm just saying, I mean, it's -- they've already, kind of, publically said that this was happening this week.

MR. CASEY: Yeah, well, I'm, -- you know. I'm sorry I'm still playing Yogi Berra on this one, but it ain't over till it's over. And, you know, until someone -- until the Chinese come out and show you that they have a declaration in hand, I'm unwilling to say that it's going to happen today, tomorrow, this week or next week or beyond that. Soon is soon, and, you know, if you guys all wake up Thursday morning and there's a declaration that's turned in, I'll be the first to happily confirm it for you. But I think at this point we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:24 p.m.)