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 | Thursday, April 27, 2000, updated at 16:16(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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CIA staff Punished Over Embassy BombingThe Central Intelligence Agency said on Sunday that one employee was fired and several others disciplined because of errors that led to the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during last year's Kosovo war.A CIA official, who asked not to be identified, said a mid-level official was dismissed and sanctions were imposed against six others including a senior official. In addition, counselling was recommended for another CIA representative who was serving with another agency at the time of the targeting mistake, the CIA official said. The CIA released no names. The punishments were imposed by CIA Director George Tenet within the past few days following an investigation into the bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade in May last year. Three Chinese citizens were killed in the attack. "The sanctions range from oral reprimands to letters of reprimand that contain prohibitions on promotion and rewards for periods of time," the CIA official said. One CIA employee was praised for trying unsuccessfully to intervene to prevent the bombing after recognising that the wrong target had been selected, the CIA official said. The incident strained US-Chinese relations, leading to massive protests of angry Chinese who surrounded US embassy in Beijing and other consular offices in China's other big cities.
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