-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Impeached POTUS The Perils of Losing Justice Opens Case Against Starr The Justice Department has opened a formal inquiry to determine whether Kenneth Starr's prosecutors misled Attorney General Janet Reno about possible conflicts of interest, the NEW YORK TIMES reports in Wednesday editions. "The inquiry will focus on whether the prosecutors were truthful when they asserted that there had been no contacts between Starr's office and Paula Jones' legal team in the weeks leading up to Starr's decision to ask Reno to expand his inquiry beyond the Whitewater matter," the paper's David Johnston and Don Van Natta report. "A series of newly disclosed notes taken at the initial meetings on Jan.15 and Jan. 16, 1998, between Starr's prosecutors and Justice Department officials shows that the prosecutors flatly asserted that there were no contacts with the Jones team." But Johnston and Van Natta report that documentation has been discovered that indicates there were conversations between a prosecutor in Starr's office and a lawyer working behind the scenes with the Jones legal team. The notes have become crucial evidence in the Justice Department inquiry, reports the TIMES. Justice also intents to investigate whether Starr "abused his authority to convene grand juries, or improperly pressed witnesses, like Ms. Lewinsky, and disclosed secret grand jury information to the news media." RENO WANTED TO PUNISH STARR LAST SPRING At one point last spring, Attorney General Janet Reno asked her senior aides to research whether she had the authority to discipline Starr in some way, one source tells the paper. Reno has been troubled by what she believes are possible violations of Justice Department guidelines. Also, Starr's prosecutors and Justice Department officials have feuded privately, according to the report. The Drudge Report, Feb. 9, 1999 Impeached POTUS Clinton's Calls to Monica Taped? Lott Wants Starr to Investigate WASHINGTON - In an 11th-hour surprise, Senate GOP leader Trent Lott has drafted a letter asking Sexgate prober Kenneth Starr to check if there's a White House taping system that picked up Sexgate chats, sources say. "Based on press reports about an alleged White House taping system, it has been proposed to Lott that the proper authorities be engaged in finding the truth," Lott spokesman John Czwartacki told The Post last night. Czwartacki declined to give details, but sources said as of last night, Lott hadn't yet sent the letter. The latest twist comes as the Senate is racing toward an impeachment vote on President Clinton by Friday, with senators dead-set against any delay - and so far well short of the 67 votes needed to convict him. One source insisted, "this isn't a fishing expedition," and said there might be specific names for Starr to contact. "There's no certainty that [tapes] exist," Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said on Fox News last night, adding it would be "good news for everyone" if tapes do exist because they'd reveal the truth. Asked if there are any Sexgate-linked tapes of President Clinton's phone calls, White House spokesman Jim Kennedy last night said: "Not that the lawyers are aware of." A central issue in Clinton's impeachment trial has been whether, in phone conversations, he explicitly urged Monica Lewinsky to lie (both of them deny it) and what he told his pal Vernon Jordan about her. Any hint of a White House taping system would inevitably spark memories of Watergate, when Richard Nixon's tapes of conversations in the Oval Office destroyed him. But Nixon's system was a voice-activated bug in the room - at issue here is whether the Clinton White House tapes phone calls. When Fox News reported rumors of a White House taping system last week, Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart said "there's no system that I'm aware of." Lockhart added that "we certainly have the ability to tape some phone calls. We do this when we do a phone interview where we provide [reporters] with a transcript" but, by contrast, he said, phone calls with foreign leaders aren't routinely taped. The White House telephone system is run by a military agency known as the White House Communications Agency, which is under the Pentagon. Kennedy, the White House spokesman, was unable to say last night whether the taping used for Clinton phone interviews is always in place or must be specially set up. In summations yesterday, Rep. Henry Hyde urged senators to convict Clinton of impeachment charges and shun the most appealing alternative - a censure vote that leaves him in office - as a coward's way out. In an unexpected attack, Hyde called censure "a way of avoiding the harsh constitutional option - and it's the only one you have - of up or down on impeachment." Senators begin deliberations today on a verdict. Unless 67 senators vote otherwise, that debate will be behind closed doors. During closing arguments in the five-week trial, Hyde defended himself against White House claims that the House prosecutors are trying too hard to win the case. "None of the [prosecutors] has committed perjury, nor obstructed justice nor claimed false privileges. None has hidden evidence under anyone's bed, nor encouraged false testimony before the grand jury. That's what you do if you want to win too badly," said Hyde, the Illinois Republican who heads the House Judiciary Committee. White House lawyers countered by saying GOPers were "more focused on retribution, more designed to achieve partisan ends." "I believe their vision to be too dark," said Charles Ruff, the lead White House lawyer, who charged prosecutors with taking testimony from Monica Lewinsky and others out of context. The closing arguments came as senators duked it out over censure - the most- favored alternative to removing Clinton from office. Privately, top GOP aides say censure is dead, noting the enormous gap separating competing versions, and firm resistance from some powerful senators. Democrats want censure considered after the impeachment vote, but Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) has vowed a filibuster to prevent it, claiming "it's people trying to have it both ways." The New York Post, Feb. 9, 1999 Central Command is Breaking Down China Aims More Missiles at Taiwan Rapid build-up of M-9s and M-11s China has sharply increased its deployment of missiles aimed at Taiwan in a move likely to raise tensions in the region and strengthen calls in Washington for Taiwan's inclusion in a US-backed regional missile defence system. The Chinese military has stationed 150 to 200 M-9 and M-11 missiles in its southern regions aimed at Taiwan. It plans to increase the number to 650 missiles over the next several years, according to military analysts in Washington privy to a classified Pentagon report. A senior administration official said the build-up risked heightening tensions in the region. China "couldn't assume that a continued missile build-up in south-east China will go unanswered". China had 30 to 50 short-range ballistic missiles in its southern areas in 1995-96 when it launched the M-9 missiles into waters off Taiwan, prompting President Bill Clinton to send two US aircraft carrier task forces to the area. The reported escalation of China's missile capability, coming before a planned visit to Washington in the spring by Zhu Rongji, the Chinese premier, is emerging as a serious foreign policy headache for the Clinton administration. It is causing sharp differences within the US government over an appropriate response. The Department of Defence is said to favour a stronger show of support for Taiwan, but the State Department and National Security fear risks to Washington's growing "co-operative strategic partnership" with Beijing. The Pentagon and Mr Clinton's foreign policy advisers are wrangling over the wording of separate Pentagon reports due to be sent to Congress. One deals with issues raised by missile defence systems in Asia to defend Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and the other looks at the cross-strait military balance. Bates Gill, a proliferation expert at the Brookings Institution, said the Pentagon studies would mark the "first round of what is going to be a very lengthy and sensitive confrontation with China about theatre missile defence", adding: "The US side is trying to be extra cautious about how this first salvo is handled. The administration wants to avoid at all costs the broader relationship being held hostage and undermined by a single issue." Congress is already sensitive to the issue of Chinese missile proliferation following the report of a congressional committee chaired by Representative Christopher Cox. It found that China systematically over many years had stolen US military secrets, including those relating to guidance systems for rockets. A declassified version of the Cox report is due to be released in late March, but the administration has been seeking to blunt its more damaging assertions by disclosing some of the report's conclusions. A Pentagon study in October noted that China was pouring resources into missile development to improve its ability to prevail in a local conflict on its south-eastern flank "especially in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea". The report said that China's development of its M-9 and M-11 missiles enabled "Chinese forces to attack with conventional firepower areas which previously were unreachable, even by air platforms." The M-9 is capable of delivering a 500-kilogram payload over a range of 600 kilometres. The M-11 has shorter range, but can deliver a larger payload. Both are capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The Financial Times, Feb. 10, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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