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Former AIT head rebuts allegations over Ma green card

Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairwoman Therese Shaheen issued a statement yesterday rebutting allegations by some local media outlets and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that she would speak publicly about president-elect Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) green card status prior to last Saturday's presidential election.

In her statement, in English and Chinese, Shaheen said she was "never involved in any matters" regarding the green card issue during the presidential campaign.

"Fantastic rumors about my alleged involvement, my plans to make public statements about it, and the allegation that I was doing so because I favored one party over the other were 100 percent false," she said.

Shaheen was referring to KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih's (吳敦義) claim on March 20 that Shaheen, who arrived in Taipei a few days prior to the presidential election, would attend Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) election-eve rally and lend support to Hsieh's accusations that Ma's green card was still valid.

Several media outlets, including TVBS, made the same allegation.

However, in the statement Shaheen said that during two interviews with CTI TV and SET TV on March 16 and 17, she had made it clear that "the green card issue was irrelevant to me and not something I intended to comment on."

She also dismissed media speculation that she did not show up at Hsieh's election-eve rally because the US government had asked her not to publicly comment on the green card issue.

"At no time did anyone in the American government ask me not to make public statements about the green card issue or any other issues," her statement read. "I traveled to Taiwan as a private citizen, to speak to a private sector conference, the 2008 Taiwan Global Technology and Industry Summit Forum."
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