Inside the Ring

Taiwan envoy

Douglas Paal, the U.S. government representative to Taiwan, is under fire from the State Department for misrepresenting Taiwan’s policies to his bosses.

A State inspector general report said Mr. Paal’s leadership style caused low morale among employees of the American Institute in Taiwan, the official U.S. office in Taiwan.

The most serious IG charge, however, is that Mr. Paal falsely reported on Taiwanese issues to senior State Department officials, a cardinal sin for envoys.

Officials familiar with the details of the IG report said Mr. Paal refused to allow dissenting views and was guilty of suppressing reports from U.S. officials who disagreed with his pro-China views.

As a result, the IG concluded that the U.S. government had an inaccurate picture of the situation in Taiwan.

Mr. Paal also angered the Pentagon by blocking for several years the appointment of an active duty military officer to help Taiwan with arms purchases. Army Col. Al Willner, the new Pentagon liaison in Taiwan, is the first U.S. military officer posted in Taiwan since 1979, when diplomatic relations were downgraded.

The report bolsters the views of conservative critics of Mr. Paal in Washington, who have said that he has pro-China views and has not dealt fairly with Taiwan.

As we reported in this column in 2001, Mr. Paal was picked for the Taiwan post even though he gave a speech falsely asserting President Bush had “misspoke” in saying the United States would do whatever it takes to help Taiwan defend itself from a mainland attack.

The U.S. officials discussed the unpublished details in the IG report after they were first disclosed in Taiwan’s China Times and Taipei Times newspapers.

Mr. Paal, who is in Washington, could not be reached for comment. A spokesman in Taiwan declined to comment on the IG report.

Detective work

The Army has compiled a list of more than 450 criminal cases whose DNA was tested by a laboratory where an examiner has admitted to making a false entry in one case.

The list includes defendants from military installations across the country and around the world, from the Air Force Academy to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. The blood testing dates back to 1995.

Story Continues →