The 1996 U.S. campaign finance scandal refers to alleged efforts by
the People's Republic of China to influence domestic United States
politics prior to and during the Bill Clinton Administration as well
as the fundraising practices of the administration itself. While
questions regarding the U.S. Democratic Party's fundraising activities
first arose in October 1996, China's alleged role in the affair first
gained public attention after Bob Woodward and Brian Duffy of the
Washington Post published a story stating that a U.S. Department of
Justice investigation into the fundraising activities had discovered
evidence that agents of China sought to direct contributions from
foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee before the 1996
presidential campaign. The journalists wrote that intelligence
information had showed the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. was
used for coordinating contributions to the DNC in violation of U.S.
law forbidding non-American citizens from giving monetary donations to
U.S. politicians and political parties. Seventeen people were
eventually convicted for fraud or for funneling Asian funds into the
U.S. elections. A number of the convictions came against long-time
Clinton-Gore friends and political appointees.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_U.S._campaign_finance_scandal
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1521:
Filipino natives led by Lapu-Lapu killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand
Magellan in the Battle of Mactan.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan)
1565:
Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and 500 armed soldiers arrived
at Cebu and established the first Spanish settlement in the
Philippines.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_L%C3%83%C2%B3pez_de_Legazpi)
1667:
John Milton, blind and impoverished, sold the copyright of Paradise
Lost for £10.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton)
1865:
An explosion destroyed the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River,
killing 1,700 passengers.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_%28steamboat%29)
1994:
Apartheid in South Africa: The African National Congress had a
landslide victory in the first non-racial elections in the history of
South Africa.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa_in_the_apartheid_era)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators."
-- Edward Gibbon
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon)