Media Reports on Seizure of Counterfeit US Dollars

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.) PAAL Paal