Thursday, June 3, 1999 --- New York (APJP) -- I can still recall the now-famous words ringing in my ears. I can also remember almost busting a gut.

I was listening to a speech by then-President Ronald Reagan: "Facts are stupid things."

That sentiment is shared today by the shrill enemies of the Clinton Administration, seeking to blame them for the (shock! horror!) espionage committed by China, the (shudder!) penetration of our defense labs!

Don't let those stupid facts get in the way of President Clinton being a traitor -- all so he could get about $20,000 of campaign contributions from the Yellow Peril incarnate (cue dramatic bad-guy music) -- Commy'nist China!!

It's as if the hard right wing has decided to stuff industrial-strength Kevlar earplugs into their auditory canals to avoid the truth that has emerged in the last three news cycles.

Fact One: The Cox Report wouldn't get a "D" in freshman research class.

That's right -- the Cox Report is filled with more gaffes, errors and outright bloopers than an Ed Wood Film Festival.

In a lengthy report on the abcnews.com web site, James Oberg details some of the more gaping flubs, including:

The Cox report states that an upcoming manned Chinese space mission "will use Soyuz capsules purchased during Yeltsin's visit" to Beijing in 1996.

WRONG! China is building its own manned module, with some parts purchased from Russia.

In a key historical backgrounder within the report, it is claimed that rocket scientist Qian Xuesen, who worked in the U.S. rocket program in the 1940s but had his security clearance revoked in 1950 and returned to mainland China in 1955(where he managed the Chinese space effort in the following decades), tried to bring "classified documents" with him to China, including data on the Titan missile program he had been working on.

WRONG AGAIN! According to Oberg, "Space historians laugh at the allegation he 'copied' the Titan missile for China. 'The contract for the Titan was not even let until October 1955,' noted space historian Matthew Bille, citing the Encyclopedia Astronautica, the authoritative Internet space history reference."

And a German amateur space historian, Jens Lerch, posted his own set of criticisms the Internet, including half a dozen cases in which key missile and spacecraft designations were incorrect. Oberg quoted Lerch commenting that "[i]t's quite disturbing that such a report contains dozens of factual errors, which are easy to spot by amateurs."

One paragraph refers to the Challenger shuttle disaster "in 1987." Even I could tell you it happened in 1986.

Another gaffe turned up in yesterday's issue of The Hill. The report claims China went from having "virtually no [supercomputers] in 1996" to over 600 in 1998. But that number was disputed by Commerce Undersecretary William Reinsch, who said the number is closer to 450 and that "[t]wo-thirds of those go to the financial industry, telecommunications companies and geophysical agencies," Reinsch said. "In other words, banks, phones and oil."

it is amazing that a report so full of fundamental mistakes is being taken seriously.

Fact Two: As if all the egregious errors were not enough, it turns out that Cox co-sponsored two bills in 1993 which would have increased the quota thresholds on computer exports and urged relaxation of export controls and licensing restrictions on so-called supercomputers. Among those joining Cox in his quest: then-Majority Leader Dick Gephardt and then-Minority Whip Newt Gingrich.

A report in yesterday's issue of The Hill outlines Cox's actions back in the early months of the Clinton Administration, describing them as "part of a campaign waged by many members of Congress to help the high-tech industry and the foundering California economy in the early 1990s."

In other words, this was an effort to prop up Silicon Valley's economy -- and at a time when the very real possibility of a future boom fueled by opening the Internet to the public was just a gleam in the eye of high-stakes high-tech entrepreneurs and a "quick fix" was needed!

And as if that were not bad enough for Cox, the same article points out that " as recently as May 5, a group of 79 members of Congress - including Select Committee members Doug Bereuter (R-NE) and John Spratt (D-SC) - signed a letter urging President Clinton to relax computer export control thresholds to reflect 'current technological and market realities.' "

" 'We believe that the export control thresholds for computers can be updated in a manner fully consistent with U.S. national security needs,' the letter states."

Gee -- it sounds to this writer like an number of our more erudite representatives are at odds with the Chicken-Little-type cries emanating from certain quarters of Congress, mostly those eager to try to pin another scandal on Bill Clinton.

And one has to laugh out loud at Cox's earnest and vigorous effort to stimulate high-tech exports being so at odds with a report so critical of Clinton Administration policies that relaxed export restrictions on supercomputers.

Those stupid, stupid facts reveal the Cox Report for what it is -- a sloppy, partisan attack on the Clinton Administration overseen by the arguably hypocritical "born-again" protectionist Chris Cox.