US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI3568

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, Finance, Transportation 
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