-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Assassination Politics Four Killed in Plot to Murder Osama bin Laden Washington believed to be involved ISLAMABAD: The Taleban militia kept silent at the weekend on media reports that its fighters killed four men hired to assassinate its 'guest,' alleged terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden. The reports said that the four 'hired agents' were intercepted two kilometres from Osama bin Laden's hideout in southern Afghanistan two weeks ago and were killed. "The Taleban are convinced that the effort was masterminded and financed by Washington, which has been trying to get bin Laden since he was implicated in the Khobar bombing case in Saudi Arabia," the English-language Friday Times reported. The militia was also silent on a report in the London-based Al-Hyat newspaper which said bin Laden was ready to leave Afghanistan for refuge in Chechnya, the breakaway Russian region. By its account, a Chechen foreign ministry official, Abdul Wahid Ibrahim, arrived in the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar several days ago to discuss opening diplomatic relations and the status of the man the Taleban calls a guest. Other reports said a delegation from Yemen, where bin Laden had lived before, was in Afghanistan for talks on bin Laden. There was no reaction from the Taleban, either from its capital of Kandahar or the battered administrative capital of Kabul, to the reports. Al-Hyat's story coincided with stories in the Pakistani media and in the exiled Afghan community that Washington's public enemy number one survived an assassination bid at the hands of four exiled Afghans, including an ex-opposition faction commander. The Friday Times named the 'hired agents' as Humayun Taqi, a former commander of the Hezb-i-Islami anti-Taleban group, Ali Gul Paiwand, Khawar Malyar and Engineer Zaman. "The plan was detected by KHAD, the Afghan secret service, which informed the Taleban leadership. The road leading to the residence of Osama was secretly cordoned-off and all the four assassins were ambushed in an armed encounter," it said. The reports underlined the Taleban's deepening international isolation because of friction with the Western powers over its refusal to hand over bin Laden or move him to another country. The News International Pakistan, Dec. 7, 1998 Impeachment Watch Reno Refuses to Appoint Independent Counsel on Campaign Finance Declares that Clinton is clearly innocent WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Janet Reno declined Monday to order an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing. She concluded there is ``clear and convincing evidence'' that he and Vice President Al Gore lacked criminal intent to violate federal spending limits. Following a 90-day preliminary investigation, Reno advised a special court that ``there are no reasonable grounds to believe that further investigation is warranted'' into the involvement of Clinton and Gore in Democratic Party-financed issue advertisements run during the 1996 election. ``I find by clear and convincing evidence a lack of knowing and willful criminal intent required for criminal prosecution,'' Reno wrote. She based that on the fact that Clinton and Gore were advised by legal counsel that the advertising campaign complied with the law. ``As we have said all along, the president and the Clinton-Gore campaign complied with the spirit and the letter of the law,'' said Amy Weiss, deputy White House press secretary. ``We are gratified by this decision.'' Reno noted that, in addition to the legal advice, party lawyers screened every ad before it was broadcast and occasionally ordered script changes to ensure the ads met legal requirements. ``The lawyers had absolute veto power over every proposed advertisement,'' Reno concluded. Under established law, good faith reliance on the advice of counsel negates criminal intent, she said. Further, Reno said, established department policy requires the department to defer to the bipartisan Federal Election Commission for the interpretation of ambiguous election laws. Reno noted that in a hearing last week on the party-financed issue ads that both Democrats and Republicans ran in 1996, FEC commissioners expressed the view that the legal standard at the time was ``fuzzy'' and ``hardly clear.'' At this time, Reno made no finding on whether the issue advertisements complied with election laws. The FEC is still considering, at meetings later this week, whether the ads amounted to a civil violation of election law. Reno's inquiry was triggered by draft versions of FEC staff audits that concluded both Clinton and his 1996 Republican opponent, Bob Dole, committed civil violations of federal spending limits. The audits recommended Clinton repay the government $7 million and Dole repay $17.7 million. The FEC auditors argued that the issue ads, which both Clinton and Dole personally helped coordinate, went too far and amounted to advocating the candidate's election. If so, the advertising costs should have fallen under spending limits Clinton and Dole agreed to when they accepted public campaign funds, the auditors argued. At an FEC meetings last Thursday, four of the six FEC commissioners, including two Democrats and two Republicans, challenged the legal basis for the auditors recommendation. ``Today's determination only ends our probe into whether issue ads paid for by the Democratic National Committee violated federal criminal statutes,'' Reno said. ``It does not end our vigorous investigation into allegations of illegal activity surrounding the 1996 elections.'' Reno's 120-person campaign finance task force has charged 14 people over the past two years, including prominent Democratic donors, but Republicans in Congress have demanded that she turn the case over to an independent counsel. GOP lawmakers remained dissatisfied Monday. ``Janet Reno is failing in her responsibility to investigate the biggest scandal in Washington, the ongoing bipartisan sale of influence in return for unlimited campaign contributions,'' said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn. ``Janet Reno has sliced this broad scandal into narrower issues so that common threads, patterns and facts are not considered when weighing each decision whether to seek an independent counsel,'' said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. ``I intend to renew my efforts to examine her handling of this and to compel the appointment of someone who is independent and objective to investigate this matter.'' Reno emphasized that she made no findings about whether political parties should be able to go outside spending limits to finance so-called issue ads that do not specifically urge a vote for a particular candidate. Don Simon, executive vice president of Common Cause, a private self-styled citizens' lobby that first questioned the issue ads two years ago, said that because of Reno's decision, ``the kind of money-raising and spending we are going to see in the future will make 1996 seem quaint. ... The attorney general has signaled that there really are no effective laws to control our campaigns.'' Senior Justice officials were far more in agreement in their recommendation on Clinton than they had been on two other campaign finance decisions Reno made in the last two weeks, Justice officials said. In those cases, she rejected an outside counsel to scrutinize Gore and requested and received up to 60 more days to study the case of former White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes. The FBI, however, renewed its year-old recommendation that an outside counsel take over the entire campaign funding probe to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest. The Associated Press, Dec. 7, 1998 Peace in the Middle East Israelis Tell Clinton to Stay Home Don't like his plan to visit Palestinian territory JERUSALEM - He is the leader of the free world, of Israel's most important ally, of the nation that forks over $2.9 billion annually to the Jewish state. So as President Bill Clinton prepares for a three-day visit starting this weekend, what message are some ranking Israelis sending him? Stay home. What has whipped up emotions here is Mr. Clinton's plan to spend a day in the Gaza Strip, headquarters of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, plus a few hours in the Palestinian-governed portion of the West Bank. In the view of many Israelis, the very fact that Mr. Clinton is setting foot on Palestinian-controlled soil is a major diplomatic defeat and can only advance Mr. Arafat's hopes for a Palestinian state. ''They hate the idea that the Palestinians could have any dignity,'' said a U.S. official who describes himself as pro-Israel. ''I hate to say it, but it's true.'' Naturally, the Palestinians are thrilled. What could be better for their aspirations for statehood than the potent visual impact of Mr. Clinton landing at the new Yasser Arafat International Airport, to be greeted by a blizzard of Palestinian and American flags? ''If Air Force One lands at Gaza airport, it's a sure sign of a state,'' said Jihad Wazeer, a key Palestinian organizer of Mr. Clinton's trip to Gaza. ''The Israelis know that and we know that. He'll have a Palestinian honor guard, the whole works.'' The speaker of Israel's Parliament is boycotting all of Mr. Clinton's scheduled events. The minister of agriculture has advised him publicly not to come. The minister of education, scorning the trip, declared Mr. Clinton a dupe. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who supported the visit six weeks ago, is not exactly bubbling with hospitality. ''If he wants to come, he should come,'' he said flatly Monday. ''If he does not want to come, he should not come.'' That Mr. Clinton is spending the bulk of his time in Israel, not territory governed by the Palestinians, matters little. Symbolism is the name of the game in Mr. Clinton's trip here, a fact not lost on either side. Mindful of its role as mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the White House has given the impression of trying to balance the schedule. True, Mr. Clinton is going to Masada, the great plateau on the Dead Sea that symbolizes Jewish courage and defiance. But he is also going to Bethlehem, the Palestinian-governed town where Jesus was born. Publicly, U.S. officials dismiss the notion of balance, saying that the American commitment to Israel is as strong as ever, unshakable, strategic. But the superficial parity in scheduling - one day in Israel, one day in Gaza and one half-day split between Israeli and Palestinian hosts - has infuriated some Israelis and worried Jewish-American groups as well. They see evidence of a new tilt toward the Palestinians in U.S. policy. Moreover, perhaps worried about hecklers from rightists opposed to the peace process, Mr. Clinton will not be speaking to the Knesset. That prompted the Parliament's speaker, Dan Tichon, to say that he would boycott Mr. Clinton's schedule in Israel. ''I personally find it distasteful that when the president has an occasion to come to visit Israel on its 50th anniversary that there is a weighing and measuring of where he will be and what he will do,'' said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish-American group. ''The special relationship for the last 50 years and special feelings President Clinton has evidenced for Israel deserve special attention during his visit here to the Jewish state.'' Gleeful Palestinians have suddenly become history buffs, quick to point out that it was not until 1979, or 31 years after Israel's founding, that an American president came to Israel. That was Jimmy Carter, who came to secure the peace between Israel and Egypt. Now, the Palestinians say, Mr. Clinton is paying a visit to Palestinian-controlled territory just four years after the establishment of Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Authority. ''There is a growing recognition in the U.S. administration of the need for a Palestinian state,'' Mr. Wazeer said. ''They wouldn't say that, but it's there. That's why his coming is a ray of hope.'' International Herald Tribune, Dec. 8, 1998 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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