Author: Bill Gertz
Publication: The Washington Times
Date: May 10, 2001
A U.S. surveillance plane flying
near China´s coast four years ago picked up secret communications
on a meeting between a senior Chinese Communist official and an Irish leftist
linked by U.S. intelligence to counterfeit U.S. currency, according to
a classified National Security Agency report.
The Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance
flight in late May 1997 revealed the meeting between Sean Garland, president
of the Dublin-based Workers´ Party, a communist political party,
and Cao Xiaobing. Miss Cao was described in the report as bureau director
of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party,
Beijing´s official office for supporting foreign communist parties.
The report, labeled "top secret,"
states that Mr. Garland was the managing director of GKG Comms International
Ltd., a Dublin company, and noted that Miss Cao and the Irish communist
discussed "unidentified business opportunities" during a meeting.
"Garland is suspected of being involved
with counterfeiting U.S. currency, specifically, the Supernote, a high-quality
counterfeit $100 bill," the report said.
Mr. Garland confirmed in a statement
issued last week in London´s Sunday Times that he met Miss Cao in
Beijing.
"This was in a public place in offices
of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China," Mr. Garland
stated. "Afterwards we had dinner in a hotel."
The statement did not say what was
discussed at the meeting, but a spokesman for the Workers´ Party
told the newspaper the discussions were "political" in nature.
According to the Sunday Times, Mr.
Garland was a leading member of the Irish Republican Army in the 1960s
and early 1970s. A 1986 Russian document made public by dissident writer
Vladimir Bukovsky stated that Mr. Garland wrote a "Dear Comrade" letter
to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev asking Moscow for the equivalent of $1.42
million to fund Workers´ Party activities.
"Ten years ago it was the KGB and
the Workers´ Party which were accused of plotting all kinds of subversion,"
Mr. Garland said in his statement last week.
He said the letter to Moscow "has
been going the rounds for many years now" and "it is well past its sell-
by date."
Mr. Garland also confirmed that
he was director of GKG Comms, a firm "involved in sourcing power projects
in China and Eastern European Companies." He said the company is "no longer
trading."
Miss Cao, a leading Communist official
involved in youth issues and arms control matters for decades, later visited
Ireland at the invitation of the Workers´ Party.
She headed a delegation of
Chinese Communist Party officials, Mr. Garland said.
According to the Sunday Times, the
Workers´ Party in the past was linked to forged currency, specifically
fake 5-pound notes. A party spokesman said Mr. Garland´s meeting
with Miss Cao did not include any discussions of counterfeiting. The spokesman
dismissed the claims of illegal activity, saying counterfeiting accusations
against the Workers´ Party have appeared "every so often."
Intelligence officials said the
report highlights China´s support for foreign communist parties,
a role once played by the now-defunct Soviet Union.
In addition to Ireland´s communists,
Beijing is also backing Japan´s Communist Party and other parties
once supported by Moscow, said officials who spoke on the condition of
anonymity.
