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FISHRGAME
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Feature
Stories -
012005-01
010105-01
NEWS
CONVERGENCE
Katrina
Leung U.S. China Spy Case Tossed
Out
-----January
7, 2005 Yes90-LAtimes Federal judge scolds
prosecutors in her dismissal of criminal charges
against a woman accused of working as a Chinese
double agent. Charging prosecutors with willful and
deliberate misconduct, a federal judge on Thursday
dismissed all criminal charges against a former FBI
informant accused of serving as a Chinese double
agent.
-----In a sharply worded
ruling, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper
blasted the U.S. attorney's office for "conduct
unbecoming a prosecutorial
agency."
-----Attorneys for Chinese
American businesswoman Katrina Leung had accused
the government of illegally and unethically
exacting a commitment from her former FBI handler
that barred him from talking to the
defense.
-----The pledge was
contained in an agreement that retired agent James
J. Smith reached with the government last year,
allowing him to plead guilty to a reduced charge of
failing to report his 20-year-long sexual affair
with
Leung.
-----Under long-established
rules, prosecutors are prohibited from obstructing
a defendant's access to
witnesses.
-----At a hearing before
Cooper last month, Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael
Emmick disavowed any intent to prevent Smith from
speaking to Leung's defense team. He blamed
"inartful" language in Smith's plea
agreement.
-----But Cooper cited a Nov.
18 e-mail message to Emmick from Robert Wallace,
senior trial counsel in the Justice Department's
counterintelligence section in Washington, saying
that the wording was aimed at "preventing Smith
from being interviewed by Leung's counsel because
he is a repository of classified
information."
-----"In the face of that
e-mail," Cooper wrote, "anything short of an
admission and apology on the part of the government
is hard to imagine. Mr. Emmick did neither. Rather,
he chose to ignore the
e-mail."
-----The plea agreement
clause in dispute specified that Smith would engage
in "no further sharing of information relating to
this case with Leung, counsel for Leung or the
employees of counsel for
Leung."
-----Cooper said the
evidence was abundantly clear that the clause was
intentionally placed in the agreement to prevent
Smith from talking to the defense. And to make
matters worse, she said, the prosecution
subsequently engaged in a series of explanations
and denials that "compounds the problem by
undermining the court's confidence in the integrity
of the
process."
-----She accused the
prosecution of misrepresenting to the court its
true intentions in drafting the
"no-further-sharing"
clause.
-----"While a certain amount
of shading of the truth may be tolerated, even in
judicial proceedings, prosecutors are subject to
constraints and responsibilities beyond those which
apply to other lawyers," the judge
wrote.
-----"In this case, the
government decided to make sure that Leung and her
lawyers would not have access to Smith. When
confronted with what they had done, they engaged in
a pattern of stonewalling entirely unbecoming a
prosecutorial
agency."
-----U.S. Atty. Debra W.
Yang issued a statement denying any prosecutorial
misconduct. "I stand behind the work of the
prosecutors of this case and I know that they have
conducted themselves ethically," she
said.
Yang said her staff was
analyzing the ruling and would consider an
appeal.
-----Leung's
lawyers, John D. Vandevelde and Janet I. Levine,
said in a statement that they were gratified by the
dismissal.
-----"Katrina Leung's
nightmare is over," they said. "The courts have
again made sure that truth and justice are not mere
platitudes."
-----They described their
client as a loyal American who dedicated her life
to serving her adopted country for 20 years. "She
looks forward to moving on with her life as a loyal
and patriotic
citizen."
-----Leung, a naturalized
citizen, was recruited by Smith during the early
1980s to gather intelligence for the FBI during her
frequent business trips to China, where she
ingratiated herself with high-ranking government
officials.
-----But starting about
1990, prosecutors said, she began working for the
Chinese as well, feeding sensitive, unauthorized
information about the FBI to her handler at the
Chinese Ministry of State
Security.
-----Smith, who had an
extramarital affair with Leung for two decades,
learned about her activities but covered it up and
continued to vouch for her reliability, he admitted
in his plea
deal.
-----Leung was not charged
with espionage but with illegally copying and
possessing classified documents that she could have
used to harm the interests of the U.S. government.
The documents were seized during a search of
Leung's San Marino
home.
-----According to an FBI
affidavit, Leung allegedly lifted the papers from
Smith's briefcase during his many visits to her
house.
-----Through her attorneys,
Leung denied any wrongdoing and insisted she had
acted at all times at the direction of Smith and
other members of the FBI's counterintelligence
squad.
An FBI spokesperson
declined to comment on the ruling
Thursday.
-----Smith,
who retired from the FBI in 2000, was initially
charged with gross negligence in handling
classified documents and faced a possible 10-year
prison term. Under terms of his plea agreement, the
prosecution could recommend that he receive no time
in jail.
-----In her ruling Thursday,
Cooper said that Smith still has "everything to
lose" by talking to the
defense.
-----"Suspended over his
head, like the proverbial Sword of Damocles, is the
sure knowledge that if he violates any of the terms
of his plea agreement, the deal is canceled and his
future returns to its former bleak
state."
-----Consequently, the judge
said, Leung has suffered substantial prejudice as a
result of the prosecution's due-process
violation.
-----Reaction to the
dismissal among leaders in the Chinese American
community was marked by a mixture of relief and
continuing
concern.
-----Assemblywoman Judy Chu
(D-Monterey Park), who knew Leung well and had
worked with her, said: "I am glad for Katrina,
certainly. But I am terribly disturbed by the
prosecutorial misconduct involved in the case.
Katrina's life has been turned upside down. And I
fear that the outcome was anticlimactic, compared
to the charges that were leveled against
her."
-----"The community asked
for a fair trial and restrained its judgment when
this case first broke," Chu said. "I am glad that
the justice system worked in responding to that
request."
-----David Ma, chairman of
the Chinese American Rights Organization in
Monterey Park and a sometime critic of Leung, said
the case had damaged the image of Chinese Americans
regardless of the
dismissal.
-----"The legal part is one
thing, because you need to prove 100% that she is
guilty," he said. "From the point of the view of a
loyal Chinese American, I feel very painful about
this incident, because people like Katrina are
taking advantage of this
country."
-----Stewart Kwoh, president
of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of
Southern California, said: "This is a very
unfortunate matter that really required a fair
trial to find out the truth." With the dismissal,
he said, "we may never know what really
happened."
-----Lily Lee Chen, former
mayor of Monterey Park, said: "It would have been
better if we knew exactly what had happened. The
damage has been done not only to herself, in terms
of her reputation, but for the Asian American
community."
-----Loyola University law
professor Laurie Levenson said Cooper's decision
contained a clear message for prosecutors: "Candor
to the court is Job
1."
-----Levenson, a former
federal prosecutor, noted that Cooper dismissed the
case on two grounds -- that there was a
constitutional violation, and under the court's
inherent supervisory
powers.
Given that, she said, the
government will face "an uphill battle" if it
appeals.
/// ///
Center
Page /
NEWS
CONVERGENCE
TIMELINE: Top Stories To
Start The Week With: 032005-03
IBM
to Free 500
Patents
-----
Yes90/ Reuters January 12,
2005-U.S.
patent leader IBM Corp. plans to donate 500 patents
for free use by software developers, marking a
shift in intellectual property strategy for the
world's top computer maker and a challenge to the
high-tech industry.
-----Jim
Stallings, IBM's vice president in charge of
intellectual property, said Tuesday that the move
was meant to encourage other companies to unlock
patent portfolios to spur technological
innovation.
-----As
the leading provider of computer services, IBM also
stands to benefit from helping other companies make
use of new technology developed under the open
licensing program.
-----The
500 patents cover areas such as storage management,
simultaneous multiprocessing, image processing,
database management and e-commerce.
-----IBM,
which over the last decade has stood out as a
leader among companies seeking to reap greater
profit from its patent portfolio, will continue to
receive royalties from thousands of patents it
holds on chips, supercomputers and other
products.
-----The
donation coincides with an announcement by the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office that IBM topped the
list of annual patent recipients for the 12th
straight year in 2004, with 3,248 patents -- 1,314
more than No. 2-ranked Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co. of Japan.
-----IBM's
policy change puts it at the vanguard of a movement
to redefine patent laws in less restrictive
ways.
-----But
Florian Mueller, campaign manager of a group
lobbying to prevent software patents from becoming
legal in the European Union, dismissed IBM's move
as insubstantial.
-----
"In Europe, IBM is a driving
force behind the extension of the scope of
patentability with respect to software," Mueller
wrote on NoSoftwarePatents.com's website.
-----
IBM was not available for
comment on Mueller's remarks.
-----Shares
of Armonk-N.Y.-based IBM fell 68 cents to $95 on
the New York Stock Exchange.
///
China's
Trade Surplus in '04 Hits 6-Year
High
-----
Yes90/AP January 12, 2005 -
Surging exports helped push China's trade surplus
to a six-year high of $32 billion in 2004, the
Chinese government reported Tuesday.
-----
December's trade surplus of
$11.1 billion, the eighth straight month of
surplus, was up 92.7% compared with the same month
in 2003, the Ministry of Commerce said.
-----
China's exports rose 35.4%
in 2004 from a year earlier to $593.4 billion,
while imports climbed 36% to $561.4 billion, the
ministry said, citing customs statistics.
-----
The $32-billion surplus was
up 25.6% from that recorded in 2003 and the largest
surplus since 1998, when the trade balance hit
$43.4 billion.
-----
The resurgence in China's
trade surplus may revive pressure on Beijing from
trading partners, especially the United States, to
relax controls on its currency, the yuan.
-----China's
exchange rate policies restrict the value of the
yuan to a narrow band around 8.28 yuan per $1.
Critics argue that the yuan is undervalued, making
China's exports cheaper overseas and giving its
manufacturers an unfair advantage.
-----Despite
the surge in December's trade surplus, growth in
both exports and imports slowed in December from
the previous month and from the same month in 2003,
the figures show.
-----Exports
grew 32.7% in December from the same month a year
earlier to $63.8 billion, outpacing a 24.6%
increase in imports to $52.7 billion.
////
ByLines:
Editors Note
Quincy
Jones
Bylines
TVI
Magazine ONLINE / IS YOUR INDUSTRY WEB SITE Ready
for the future?
-----
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-----It
just goes to show you, says Troy about the TV and
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take some advice from a dinner-time chat with
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