Missile strikes kept secretive
Officials confirm that most
of theJoint Chiefs were
not consulted before the
Aug. 20 bombings
By John Diamond
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Most mem
bers of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
were unaware of the planning for
the Aug. 20 cruise missile strike
on suspected terrorist strongholds
in Afghanistan and Sudan until
days before the weapons were
launched, defense officials con
firmed Monday.
The Pentagon defended its
highly secretive approach to the
raid as appropriate to the sensitiv
ity of the mission and in confor
mance with the military chain of
command. Last-minute recom
mendations by the service chiefs
resulted in one proposed target
being deleted as too risky. And af
ter the raid, service chiefs have
voiced no objections to the short
notice, said senior defense offi
cials who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
The Aug. 20 Tomahawk missile
strikes hit a purported terrorist
training camp in Afghanistan and
the A1 Shi fa pharmaceutical fac
tory in Khartoum, Sudan. Presi
dent Clinton said the Khartoum
raid was justified because evi
dence of a nerve gas component
had been found at the plant. Su
danese officials have questioned
the validity of the evidence link
ing the plant to terrorist activity.
An article in this week’s New
Yorker magazine by writer Sey
mour Hersh said the White House
overruled Attorney General Janet
Reno when she questioned
whether evidence linking Islamic
extremist Osama bin Laden to the
bombings of two U.S. embassies
in Africa was strong enough to
justify retaliatory attacks.
It also said the White House
kept planning for raids so secret
that only the chairman of the five
member Joint Chiefs of Staff and
FBI Director Louis Freeh learned
of the strikes a matter of days be
fore the missiles were launched.
Elements of Hersh’s article had
been published before, including
the small circle of officials who
were in on the strike planning —
Secretary of State Madeleine Al
bright, national security adviser
Sandy Berger, Defense Secretary
William Cohen, Army Gen. Hen
ry H. Shelton, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs; CIA Director George
Tenet and Marine Gen. Anthony
Zinni, head of the U.S. Central
Command, which is responsible
for military operations in the
Mideast.
"As is appropriate for any sen
sitive military operation, plan
ning was limited to those who
needed to be involved,” Pentagon
spokesman Kenneth Bacon said
in a statement.
committee debates impeachment
Republicans are set to pass
an impeachment resolution
and begin an inquiry>
By Larry Margasak
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — In a blend
of constitutional solemnity and
partisan tension, the House Judi
ciary Committee met today to
consider whether to open an im
peachment inquiry. The Republi
cans’ chief investigator laid out 15
alleged offenses by President
Clinton.
Chairman Henry Hyde opened
the hearing with a call for “an
honest effort to do what is best for
the country.”
But Democrats were quick to
criticize the Republicans’ plan for
an open-ended inquiry that could
go beyond Independent Counsel
Kenneth Starr’s report on the
Monica Lewinsky affair and al
leged cover-up.
The committee Republicans’
top investigator, David Schippers,
laid out four more grounds for im
peachment based on the Lewin
sky case than Starr offered in his
referral. Democratic counsel Abbe
Lowell said the Republican staff
had simply “subdivided” Starr’s
11 charges without adding signifi
cant new allegations.
Schippers concluded that Clin
ton and Monica Lewinsky were
“part of a conspiracy” to obstruct
justice by providing false testimo
ny, withholding evidence and
tampering with witnesses.
Schippers also said the presi
dent may have tried to obstruct
justice “in attempting to coach
and influence the testimony”.gf
his secretary Betty Currie by go
ing over with her his own testi
mony in the Paula Jones sexual
harassment case.
But he dropped Starr’s allega
tion that Clinton abused his con
stitutional authority by invoking
executive privilege to shield some
of his aides from testifying to
Starr’s grand jury.
Lowell countered that the Re
publican conclusions were over
stated, unsupported, and “the
product of zeal to make a case
rather than to state the law.”
“The president was engaged in
an improper relationship that he
did not want exposed,” Lowell
said. “That sparked this Constitu
tional crisis.”
Impeachment, he said, takes “a
far higher threshold."
The Republicans’ investigator,
Schippers, said there was evi
dence that Clinton lied both in his
deposition for the Jones lawsuit
and before Starr’s grand jury.
“The president and Ms. Lewinsky
had developed a ‘cover story’ to
conceal their activities,” Schip
pers said.
It’s wrong for a party to a law
suit to lie under oath, he said, and
the president is “by virtue of his
office, held to a higher standard
than any other American.”
As the panel began its opening
statements, Hyde, R-Ill., said,
“This will be an emotional
process, a strenuous process, be
cause feelings are high on all
sides of this question.”
The committee’s resolution
would next go to the House floor,
probably late this week. With the
Republican majority on the panel
supporting a resolution to move
ahead with the inquiry, there ap
peared little chance the Democ
rats could shape the outcome. De
mocrats expressed their
frustration repeatedly.
Rep. John Conyers of Michigan,
the committee’s ranking Democ
rat, said the nation’s founding fa
thers “might shake their heads” at
the process as it has unfolded.
“This is not Watergate. It is an
extramarital affair,” Conyers said.
At the White House, press sec
retary Joe Lockhart said nothing
Clinton had done was an im
peachable offense and called for
“a process that’s fair, nonpartisan,
focused and proceeds in a prompt
manner.".
Before a full hearing room,
Hyde kept members’ opening
statements witliin the five-minute
limit. Republicans stressed the se
riousness of the president’s con
duct and the need to uncover the
truth; Democrats decried the Re
publicans’ decision to move
ahead before even agreeing on the
standards for impeachment.
Conyers launched a sharp at
tack against Starr, accusing him of
seeking to embarrass the presi
dent and dismissing most of the
allegations in Starr’s report to
Congress.
“There is no support for any
suggestion that the president ob
structed justice or tampered with
witnesses or abused the power of
his office,” Conyers said.
But Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla.,
said it didn’t matter whether the
other offenses could be proved —
perjury would be enough. “Even
if it were only shown to us that
the president lied under oath ...
that is enough to impeach and for
him to be thrown out of office,”
McCollum said.
Republicans, with their 21-16
committee majority, said they
were primed to approve a Water
gate-style resolution that includes
neither a timetable nor subject
limits — even though Indepen
dent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s evi
dence was solely related to Clin
ton’s relationship with Ms.
Lewinsky.
The hearing opens a path to
an impeachment inquiry that
will enter the history books,
along with Watergate and the
impeachment case against post
Civil War President Andrew
Johnson.
“This is a matter that will de
fine us,” said Rep. Bob Inglis, R
S.C. “As a culture are we going to
declare, as we go into the next
century, that truth matters?"
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.,
said some Republicans feared the
charges were not enough to justify
impeachment proceedings and
therefore wanted to “adopt a reso
lution that says let’s look around,
let’s see what we can find.”
“What we have to do is resist
an effort to keep going to try to
move public opinion,” Frank
said.
The GOP resolution asks the
committee to investigate
“whether sufficient grounds exist
for the House of Representatives
to exercise its constitutional pow
er to impeach William Jefferson
Clinton, president of the United
States of America.”
Democrats countered with a
proposal that is doomed to lose in
committee but designed to win
points among voters. It would
first set the standards for im
peachment, determine whether
Starr’s evidence met that criteria
and — if the answer was affirma
tive — begin an inquiry that
would end the day before
Thanksgiving. It also would pro
vide the option for a censure of
Clinton.
Starr, acting under the inde
pendent counsel law, referred
what he considered substantial
and credible information on po
tentially impeachable offenses
committed by Clinton.
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