Cablegate: Media Reports On Seizure of Counterfeit Us Dollars

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UNCLAS TAIPEI 003568

SIPDIS

STATE PASS AIT/W AND USTR
STATE FOR EAP/RSP/TC AND EB/TRA
DHS FOR R. STEVE DUNCAN
HONG KONG PASS CUSTOMS

FROM AIT KAOHSIUNG BRANCH OFFICE

E.O. 12958:N/A
TAGS: EWWT ETRD ECON TW ASEC AMGT
SUBJECT: Media Reports on Seizure of Counterfeit US Dollars
at Port of Kaohsiung

1. Summary. Taiwan's television and print media reported
extensively on the seizure of counterfeit US dollars at the
port of Kaohsiung on August 23. Most press reports
portrayed on August 23 (TV) and August 24 (print) the
seizure as a cooperative effort between Kaohsiung Customs
and US CSI Team deployed at Kaohsiung Harbor with initial
information provided by relevant U.S. authorities. Pictures
of the counterfeit dollars in their original packaging were
printed along with the news articles in the papers and
broadcast on TV throughout Taiwan. The press reports
appeared in Taiwan's leading print press, which includes
Liberty Times, Apple Daily, China Times, United Daily,
Taiwan Times and The Commons Daily, as well as on Taiwan's
major TV networks, which include, CTS, TTV, CTS, TVBS, ETTV,
Formosa TV, CTV, and Sanlih TV Station. End Summary.

2. The press reports credited CSI cooperation between the
Kaohsiung Customs and US CSI Team as the key to breaking the
local manifestation of the larger Department of Justice case
in which 87 persons had been arrested on August 22, 2005, in
the U.S. The press reports also mentioned the use of the
U.S.-provided portable X-ray machines by US CSI Team to
screen the container and make this ever-first high profile
smuggling case since CSI became operational at the port of
Kaohsiung.

3. AIT/K found that most of the press reports were based
mainly a Taiwan Customs Headquarters press release issued in
the afternoon of August 23, 2005. Reporting on how US CSI
officers in a joint effort with the Kaohsiung Customs made
this seizure was accurate, although details were not
extensive. The press reports, both TV and print, tended to
frame the Kaohsiung seizure as a component of a larger case
involving an international smuggling and counterfeiting
group that is under investigation by FBI.

4. Most press reports were positive toward the cooperation
between Taiwan and the U.S. in terms of counterterrorism and
drug trafficking. Nevertheless, one of the articles that
portrayed CSI Program from its initial stage mentioned that
CSI implementation at the port of Kaohsiung had been put off
because of political interference from PRC. (Note: That
reporter had mentioned the same presumption in his previous
articles about CSI.)

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