Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Clinton defends pardon in New York Times op-ed Associated Press NEW YORK—It’s “utterly false” to suggest fugitive financier Marc Rich was pardoned in return for donations to the Clinton library, former President Clinton wrote in an op-ed piece in Sunday editions of The New York Times. Clinton said he pardoned Rich, who allegedly evaded $48 million in U.S. taxes, for a number of reasons after concluding the case should’ve been handled in civil rather than criminal court. “The suggestion that I granted the pardons because Mr. Rich’s former wife, Denise, made political contributions and contributed to the Clinton library foundation is utterly false,” Clinton wiuie. The former president said he specifically fashioned the pardon to allow for the pursuit of possible civil charges against Rich. “There was absolutely no quid pro quo. Indeed, other friends and financial supporters sought pardons in cases, which, after careful consideration based on the information available to me, I determined I could not grant,” he wrote. Furthermore, Clinton noted Rich was required, under the terms of the pardon, to waive all legal defenses he might have planned to use in the event of civil litigation brought by the government after the pardon. Clinton also wrote that “the case for the pardons was reviewed and advocated” by former White House counsel Jack Quinn and three Republican attorneys: Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff; Leonard Garment, a fomier Nixon White House official; and William Bradford Reynolds, a former official in the Reagan Justice Department. All three of the Republican attorneys denied the claim. “It is absolutely false that I knew about and endorsed the idea of a pardon,” Garment said in a separate article in The New York Times. Reynolds, a Washing ton lawyer who repre sented Rich in the early 1990s, told The Associat ed Press on Sunday he didn’t think the pardon was “appropriate,” adding, “1 was as surprised as everybody else was.” Reynolds said of Clin ton’s column: “I was as tounded. I have had no communications with the Clinton administration or the president or Jack Quinn having to do with the effort to obtain the pardon at any time.” He said that while Pete Souza/College Press Exchange Sen. Allen Specter, R-Pa., questions Roger Adams, a pardon attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill. The committee is investigating former President Clinton’s controversial pardon of financier Marc Rich. mnUncr lnrtrp mnfrihntinnc hr\th tn T-Tillarv ne was representing Kicn, ne naa sougnt to have the chaiges reduced. “I do agree that the indictment was improperly brought and the chaiges were not well founded. There was a good reason to seek some type of a plea baigain.” “When that failed, I had no more to do with it,” Reynolds added. Juleanna Glover Weiss, spokeswoman for Cheney, told the AP that Libby was no longer Rich’s attorney by spring 2000. “The assertion that Mr. Libby had anything to do with President Clinton’s pardon is nonsense,” she said. Clinton’s last-minute pardon of the billionaire financier, who has lived in Switzerland since fleeing a 1983 indictment on tax evasion and other chaiges, has prompted an investigation by federal prosecutors in New York and congressional hearings in Washington. Investigators want to know whether Rich bought his pardon by passing money through his ex-wife, Manhattan socialite and Democratic fund-raiser Denise Rich, who has acknowledged Rodham Clinton’s Senate race and to the presidential library. Democratic Party sources have estimated the library donation at $450,000. In total, Clinton cited eight reasons for his decision, five of which he said were directly related to his conclusion that the case was improperly handled when criminal chaiges were filed in 1983. “Fmally, and importantly,” Clinton wrote, “many present and former high-ranking Israeli officials of both major political parties and leaders of Jewish communities in America and Europe urged the pardon of Mr. Rich because of his contributions and services to Israeli charitable causes.” In concluding, Clinton said he was used to the “rough and tumble of politics, but the accusations made against me in this case have been particularly painful because for eight years I worked hard to make good decisions for the American people.” Turkish, Iraqi gangs responsible I for smuggling refugees to France by Mike McDonough Associated Press FREJUS, France—Criminal gangs operating in Turkey and Iraq were behind the sm uggling of hundreds of Iraqi Kurds who landed in France after a weeklong journey in a decrepit freighter without toilets or provisions, border police said Sunday. The burgeoning trade of immigrant smuggling hit French shores in an unprecedented way Saturday, when hundreds of Kurds desperate to leave Iraq successfully slipped into France on the “East Sea,” a decrepit ship that ran ^ground off the country’s posh Riviera. “It’s an Iraqi-Turkish mafia ring that brought 910 people on the boat that ran aground,” said Daniel Chaze, deputy central director of the French border police. “We know the captain’s name. Police are working with Interpol to find him and the ship owner.” Gangs specializing in people smuggling recruited the Kurds from their homes in northern Iraq, Chaze said. Those willing to pay between $200 and $300 were brought to the Turkish border. A Turkish smuggling ring then loaded the refugees onto an aging, Cambodian registered freighter for the weeklong sea voyage. The refugees were charged up to $2,000 each for the trip. They had no idea where they were going. About 150 Red Cross officials were dispatched to a military camp where the refugees were given temporary shelter. Eric Painsec, head of aid operations for the French Red Cross, said most were in satisfactory health, though many suffered from fatigue. “Some of them are very weak because they have not eaten for several days,” he said. Many of the immigrants were hesitant to speak about the difficult voyage. Magjid Salah, 65, said he paid $10,000 for his family of nine, including his 100-year-old mother, to make the voyage. Ismail, a 30-year-old Iraqi Kurd who traveled with his wife and three children, said the refugees were kicked and threatened while onboard. He declined to give his last name. “I want to go where there is democracy,” he said, cradling his 2-year old daughter, Nadia. “I would rather die than go back there.” Former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, a conservative, called for the refugees to be immediately repatriated. “If we accept them on our territory, we will open the floodgates,” he said. But Patrick Devedjian, spokesman for the conservative Rally for the Republic party of President Jacques Chirac, said the refugees should be given a humanitarian welcome. “They were rejected by countries that don’t accept minorities,” he said. “You don’t want to throw them jnto the sea, do you?” A number of Frejus residents were moved by the refugees’ plight and started showing up Sunday with donations of clothing and toys. “It can happen to anyone. It happened to me, too,” said Mario Rossi, a truck driver who came to France from Italy 20 years ago. “They came because they were in need. Perhaps tomorrow, we will be in need, too.” Strikes pose trouble for U.N.-Iraqi talks by Edith M. Lederer Associated Press UNITED NATIONS — The latest allied airstrikes near Baghdad are likely to complicate upcoming U.N. Iraqi talks aimed at breaking a stalemate over U.N. sanctions and getting weapons inspectors back into the country. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf on Feb. 26-27 for talks that had been seen as a chance to start a dialogue on the intertwined issues of sanctions and weapons inspections. Iraq wants the U.N. to lift crippling economic sanctions imposed after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. The United Nations says Iraq must first let inspectors back in to make sure President Saddam Hussein isn’t developing weapons of mass destruction. Though a major breakthrough hadn’t been expected from the meeting, the fact that Baghdad requested it and sent such a high-level delegation was seen as positive. Iraq’s supporters on the Security Council — Russia, China and France — had been hoping the United States and Britain would help their-efforts to nudge Iraq into cooperation with weapons inspections. Instead, U:S. and British warplanes launched their most serious attack on Iraq in two years, hitting air defense and radar sites south of Baghdad Friday night. The Pentagon said the attack was meant to thwart Iraq’s improving capability to target U.S. and British planes that patrol a no-fly zone set up over southern Iraq after the Persian Gulf War. But the raid drew widespread condemnation, some of it from key U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe who said it was time for Washington to reconsider its policies toward Iraq. Russia, France and China all said the airstrikes were unprovoked and would damage international efforts to resolve the sanctions issue. All three countries want the sanctions lifted. China called on the United States and Britain on Saturday to stop military action in Iraq immediately to create a favorable atmosphere for the upcoming talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan hopes the meetings will go ahead as scheduled “because all the major issues remain unresolved, and unless we talk out these differences, we don’t think they can be resolved.” Under Security Council resolutions, the sanctions can’t be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been destroyed. The inspectors left Iraq in December 199§, just ahead of allied airstrikes launched to punish Iraq for blocking inspections. In December 1999, the Security Council formed a new inspection agency to replace the old one, which had been tainted by allegations that its inspectors spied on Iraq on behalf of the United States. The new inspectors are “ready to go whenever Iraq might give the signal,” Eckhard said. But Iraq continues to bar them, insisting its weapons of mass destruction have been eliminated and sanctions should be lifted immediately. •* a r. . • • .1 i rvuci meeting wim /Ainidii un Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell challenged Iraq to agree to resume inspections during the upcoming talks. In return, he held out the possibility of Iraq becoming “a progressive member of the world community again.” But U.S. and British patrols of the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq — and the bombing raids — have also become an issue in the sanctions debate. “It is inadmissible to call upon Iraq to cooperate and at the same time continue to bomb Iraq’s territory,” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Seigey Lavrov told the Security Council this past year. Iraq claims the flights are illegal and a violation of its sovereignty, and both Russia and China insist there’s no Security Council authorization for them. The United States and Britain say the patrols were authorized under resolutions calling for the protection of Iraqi minorities. World Briefs ■ Iraq vows to retaliate for U.S. British airstrike BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Iraq threatened to retaliate for a major U.S.-British airstrike on its air defense system, while Iraqis insisted on Satur day that the raids only stiffened their support for leader Saddam Hussein. Two people were killed and 20 were wounded in Friday night’s missile at tack on air defense and radar sites south of Baghdad, the official Iraqi News Agency reported. The first fatal ity, a woman, Ghayda Atshaan Abdullah, died hours after the 9 p.m. attack. The second, a man, Khalil Hameed Alwash, died early Saturday. Anti-aircraft guns began firing minutes after sirens wailed across Baghdad, alerting the city of more than 5 million people to the attack by 24 U.S. and British warplanes. Their missiles targeted sites to the south of the capital. ■ Black Panther Party leader dead, spokesman says MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a black militant known for his harsh rhetoric about Jews and whites, died Saturday morning, a spokesman for the New Black Panther Party said. “Minister and Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad has made his transition to the ancestors,” Malik Zulu Shabazz said at a news conference outside Wellstar Kenne stone Hospital, where Muhammad was taken earlier this week. He declined to reveal how the 53-year-old Muham mad died, saying only that it was of “very serious and natural causes.” The leader had shown no prior signs of ill ness, Shabazz said. .** Destined for a -* i Stellar Day? » % Check tfie / “oroscopesl • * * * vip.sc.edu View candidate information at www.sg.sc.edu Vote: February20 - 21, 2001 Run-off Elections (if necessary) Feb. 28 & Mar. 1 Introducing Dorm Insurance.com Your answer to insuring your dorm contents for as low as $29.00 per year!! Go to Dorminsurance.com to enroll. Insure the contents in your Dorm/Apartment against crime and other disasters. Visa, MasterCard and Amex accepted. dorminsurance.com INCOME TAX SPECIAL for all USC students! Come on by and have your 1040 EZ and State forms prepared and filed electronically for ONLY $35! 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