20 Feb 98: The Lewinsky Affair drags on with Bruce Lindsey testifying for a second day before a grand jury attempting to discover whether President Clinton filed a false affidavit in the Paula Jones case and asked Ms. Lewinsky to do the same. The President's lawyers continue to attempt to seek limits in what the president's advisors will be questioned on regarding the case. These advisors are paid by the people and are not paid to give advise on the President's personal life. If the president has possibly committed crimes then his advisors should be answerable to the people and not be expected to defend unethical behavior. This notion was confirmed when an attempt to forestall evidence by Nixon during the Watergate scandal was quashed by the courts.
Larry Wayne Harris and William Leavitt appeared before a federal magistrate yesterday charged with "possession of a biological agent for use as a weapon." It is suspected that they had collected enough anthrax to wipe out a large city and had planned to use it in New York. It has not yet been determined whether the materials confiscated by the government were indeed the harmful substance suspected. Neither has it yet been determined the reasons these two men would put together such a weapon. Whatever their reasons, such acts cannot be tolerated and should the men be found guilty, they should suffer the ultimate punishment for their crime.
Kofi Annan, UN General Secretary, is headed to Iraq in attempt to negotiate a settlement between Iraq and the US/UN regarding inspections of Iraqi weapons facilities. It is suspected that Iraq is putting together weapons of mass destruction far greater than those assembled by Mr. Harris and Mr. Leavitt noted in the story above. Just as the US should have no mercy on internal terrorists we should have no mercy on external ones . The US should, indeed, use military force should Saddam not live up to the terms he agreed to at the end of the Gulf War. However, the handling by the Clinton Administration of this crisis is questionable in the extreme. The president has been inept in his handling of US allies in the region, and US forces have been allowed to deteriorate to the point that a war in the region will likely not be as swift and effective as the last one. Like the bully in a school yard, Saddam is only bold and naughty because he knows the US with this weak president has only limited capacity to bloody his nose.
19 Feb 98: At a town hall meeting in Columbus Ohio yesterday, administration officials were greeted by shouts of "1 - 2 -3 - 4, we don't want your stinking war!" Madeleine Albright and Defense Secretary William Cohen attempted to defend the president's policy on use of military force in Iraq. However, the crowd gathered for the event seemed to scoff at their arguments that use of force was necessary to prevent use of weapons of mass destruction by a mad dictator.
Democratic fund-raiser Maria Hsia yesterday was indicted by a federal grand jury looking into fund raising violations. She was intimately involved with funneling possibly illegal contributions through the Hsi Lai Temple. Three fund raisers at the temple attended by Vice President Al Gore are mentioned in the indictment because political contributions through a non-profit organization is illegal. Gore protests that he did not know that they were fund raising event even though he initialed internal memos prior to the events that indicated that they were, indeed, fund raisers.
The White House is challenging the questioning of government lawyers before a grand jury with regard to the Monica Lewinsky Affair, saying that the communications between the president and his advisors is covered by executive privilege. Bruce Lindsey one of the president's top advisors spent five hours testifying before the grand jury yesterday. His lawyers plan to argue today that questioning should be limited. Prosecutors are expected to counter that the Lewinsky Affair was a personal matter and that communications with government paid lawyers and advisors are not protected in this case.
18 Feb 98: Evidence recently revealed by American officials indicates that Iraq struck a deal with Russian companies in an effort to build a massive plant with the capacity to produce biological weapons. Other sources point out that if the Iraqis are willing to use Russian technology they must really be desperate.
President Clinton said yesterday that the US must stand firm against Saddam Hussein. The President indicated that without US action, "He will conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction." Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister said that none of Iraq's neighbors is sanctioning the US action and Iraq would not give in to US demands. His unconcern for the president's blustery stance may be derived from the President's failure to build a viable coalition in the region and because of the relative scarcity of effective and available US forces degraded by years of cuts by Vice President Gore.
Lucianne Goldberg, Linda Tripps former book agent, said yesterday that Ms. Tripp had been worried about the legality of her taping of conversations with Monica Lewinksy (the President's alleged lover). For this reason she went to a lawyer who would bargain with Ken Starr to get her immunity from prosecution in exchange for her help.
17 Feb 98: President Clinton's lawyers have dredged up a woman who says she was asked to lie about a friend's allegation that Clinton made a sexual advance in the White House. President Clinton's defense team is hoping Julie Hiatt Steele's claims will discredit Kathleen Willey's accusation that President Clinton tried to take advantage of her in November of 1993 when she came to him seeking help and a job.
The Rocky Mountain Media Watch group in Denver is asking the Federal Communications Commission to force the Denver TV stations to tone down the violence and sex on their news shows. Another media group, the Socialist Brainwashing Committee for Public Safety is requesting that all references to industrialists, stockholders or anyone who works for a living be prefaced with the word, "greedy".
A court case brought before the Supreme Court of Canada is questioning the right of a province (in this case Quebec) to secede from the Dominion. Quebec's separatist government has indicated a desire to put a referendum before the people posing just this question. They feel they have the constitutional right of secession with a majority vote of the people. Officials in the Republic of Texas are watching the case closely.
16 Feb 98: Senator Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said that Ken Starr should not have been appointed to look into to the Monica Lewinsky affair because of "public perception, which is adverse to Starr." He fails to understand that the President's lawyers would tar the image of ANY prosecutor who made progress in the case.
The White House continues to fret publicly over leaks from Ken Starr's office when many of the leaks are considered to have come from sources close to the President's defense. William Ginsburg, the attorney for Monica Lewinsky, is complaining about a leak of a supposed e-mail to a friend that may have called the President "the Big Creep" and his wife "Babba".
The possibility of life on Mars has NASA running scared. They are devising a method whereby rocks returned to Earth from the Red Planet in future space missions would be severely quarantined until it is determined that no microbes hazardous to the Earth's biosphere are attached. Suggestions for methods to seal the Mars rocks include school grade condoms and sandwich baggies.
