The KMT's Diane Lee, the Ways of the Weasel Part II

Sunday December 28, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Fabrication, fabrication, who will do the fabrication? The case of Diane Lee becomes more complex and more devious. Below follows some expert advice from someone well versed in the ins and outs of the US consular service. There is a formal process that is gone through and with such a process, the magical way that Diane Lee claims her US passport has disappeared becomes less and less credible. In the meantime, however though it becomes more evident that Diane Lee has ripped off the government and people of more than US$3 million, and violated Taiwan's Constitutional law, Diane Lee is allowed to roam free and collude with whomever she wants to develop her strategy for exit. She has not even been sought for questioning, let alone handcuffed etc. before indictments. Would that Chen Shui-bian had friends in high places. It will be interesting to see what evidence Diane Lee provides in the coming month and how it was fabricated, or shall we say mysteriously found.

Taking an oath of office and allegiance to a foreign power is an expatriating act under U.S. law, but it does not automatically expatriate the oath-taker. Before expatriation of U.S. citizenship can take place, a U.S. consular officer must report the facts to the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of State must affirm the expatriation . . . under normal circumstances, the consular officer would request the individual involved to appear and answer questions about his/her intent in taking the oath of allegiance, and the explanations would be included in the report to the state department.

The State Department will review the facts of the case, including the intent of the person involved, and if satisfied that the intent was expatriation, will issue a certificate of expatriation, and transmit it to the person via the consular officer.

But until the certificate is issued, the person is considered a U.S. citizen. Generally, IF A CONSULAR OFFICER KNOWS THAT A U.S. CITIZEN HAS APPLIED FOR A VISA TO THE UNITED STATES, the application must be denied pending resolution of citizenship status.

IF DIANE LEE has a U.S. visa, and has visited the U.S. as a ROC citizen, then one may assume either 1) that AIT has resolved the citizenship issue and determined that she lost U.S. citizenship and that a certificate has been issued, or 2) that AIT was unaware of her U.S. citizenship.

The first question to ask Ms. Lee is if she has a U.S. visa, and whether she informed AIT at the time of her application for a visa that she had once been a U.S. citizen. Ah yes, the plot thickens. Fabrication, fabrication, who will do the fabrication?