In this section, you'll find excerpts from Dan Rather's coverage of the "Chinagate" scandal which involved the transfer, through both theft and illicit commerce, of top-secret U. S. nuclear missile technologies to the People's Republic of China. Rather and CBS failed to report much on the issue prior to the release of a report from a special House sub-committee which detailed many of the security breeches. The report--on which CBS did very little original follow-up reporting, a marked contrast to its treatment of a report issued by the Democratic congressional officials during the Iran-contra scandal--blamed incompetence and lax security policies.

According to the report, eight of the eleven incidents occurred during the Clinton years and two of the others only became known in 1995 and 1997. Rather, however, insisted that blame for the spying should be shared equally by the "Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton" administrations. His coverage of the "Cox Report," as it became known, focused on the politics of the scandal, another sharp contrast to his treatment of the "Iran-contra report."

"With twenty years worth of blame for both Republicans and Democrats to go around, some in Congress are now singling out Attorney General Janet Reno for what they see as her failure to investigate the long-leaked nuclear secrets."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 24, 1999.

"Politically motivated leaks, furious spin control and the blame game are underway over how China got its hands on this country's most sensitive nuclear weapons secrets in the Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton years."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 24, 1999.

"[Y]ou know we talk about the Chinese stealing these nuclear secrets and it is, I still think it's still . . . an extremely important story even if the findings of this most recent committee paper maybe are overstated."
--Dan Rather with syndicated radio host Don Imus on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, June 7, 1999.

"Some of the stealing goes back at least as far as the Carter presidency. The bulk of the actual thefts appear to have been done during the Reagan and Bush presidencies. Some of it lapped over into the Clinton years.... So far, most of the questions center on the Clinton administration. Which is fine. But there are a lot of questions to be answered about this, covering many years and several administrations."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 25, 1999.

"U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced several new layers of nuclear security. This was done after China got stolen U.S. nuclear weapons secrets amid lax security and bungling at U.S. weapons laboratories. This goes back all the way into the Bush and Reagan years but possibly has gotten worse during the Clinton administration."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 11, 1999.

"A new round of trading shots and political spin today to go with the official release of the already-leaked-well-in-advance investigation into how China got at least some stolen U.S. nuclear weapons secrets."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 25, 1999.
Note: Rather says China only got "at least some" U.S. nuclear weapons, but according to the Cox Report, China got "every weapon in the U.S. arsenal."

"Now congressional Republicans and others have put a large share of blame on President Clinton for all of this. In response, top Clinton members dispute that, they say much of the stealing was done during the Reagan and Bush years; and the claim that secrets are still spilling out of U.S. weapons labs, well, they say that simply isn't true. They also question some of the report's other findings and criticisms. The President himself today emphasized the importance of good U.S.-China relations."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, My 25, 1999.

"The U.S. Energy Department plans to give lie detector tests, starting later this summer, to as many as five thousand scientists at U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories. This comes in the wake of disclosures that stolen U.S. nuclear weapons secrets leaked out of the labs to China for twenty years."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 21, 1999.

"There's new twists today in the investigation of sleazy political campaign fund-raising, an alleged China connection and FBI bungling of evidence, if that's what is was. Confirming today's top story by Bob Woodward in the Washington Post, the FBI said it just discovered more counter-intelligence files that were previously overlooked, some going all the way back to 1991. The raw files -- never analyzed -- relate to accusations that communist China sought to buy political influence with U.S. campaign donations."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 14, 1997.

"Against the backdrop of U.S.-China relations, and beyond the blame game, CBS News National Security correspondent David Martin has been investigating the possible impact and damage to U.S. security."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 25, 1999.

"There is more information tonight about stolen U.S. nuclear weapons secrets getting into the hands of China's building military and how the U.S. government's ultra slow-mo investigation did little or nothing about it for years."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 9, 1999.

"CBS News has been told that Justice Department prosecutors now are urging Attorney General Reno to investigate Hazel O'Leary, President Clinton's former Energy Secretary. At issue, whether O'Leary met with an Energy official from China in return for a donation to her favorite charity. It's important to note that O'Leary denies any wrongdoing."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, September 18, 1997.
Note: When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was accused of ethics violations, Rather never said, "It's important to note that Gingrich denies any wrong doing." Gingrich was later cleared by the IRS of all charges, although Rather did not report it.

"Democratic fund-raiser Jon Huang told Congress today he regrets his own illegal fund-raising activities in the Clinton presidential campaigns. Huang testified that the President and Vice-President were not in any way involved and that he was never, as some have claimed, a spy for communist China. Huang took a thinly-veiled swipe at Republicans in congress who compelled him to testify and at others for what he called, quote, 'demonizing me and other Asian-Americans,' unquote."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, December 15, 1999.

"There's an update tonight and a fairness check in the story about stolen U.S. nuclear weapons secrets, possibly going to communist China for twenty years or more,"
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 2, 1999.

"The U.S. Senate voted tonight to create a new agency to oversee nuclear weapons lab security. It would report directly to U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. This follows disclosures of lax security that allowed nuclear weapons secrets to spill to China, it is said, in the Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton years."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, July 21, 1999. print_file('footer'); ?>