-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 "His lies were not few or isolated but pervaded his whole testimony." THE prosecution of Bill Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice opened yesterday in the august and sombre precincts of the US Senate. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, head of the Supreme Court, rapped his gavel and called Henry Hyde, lead "manager" of the prosecution team, to the well of the upper chamber. Mr Hyde told the 100 senators hanging on his words that they were now the custodians for generations of future Americans of the sanctity of sworn oaths and the simple words "I do", spoken by the President when he promised to protect the law, and spoken by themselves when they promised to do impartial justice. As Mr Clinton's jurors, they would decide whether those two words would be preserved in the future, "or go the way of so much of our moral infrastructure . . . full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". For the first time in 131 years America's top politicians sat as a jury and weighed evidence presented by the House of Representatives that the sitting president is an incubus on the government - a scoundrel who must be removed from office. Mr Hyde handed over to James Sensenbrenner, a fellow prosecutor and hardline conservative, to outline the case against Mr Clinton and to explain the need to call witnesses. He told the Senate that Mr Clinton's lying to friends and family about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, was a betrayal, but his lying in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit and to the grand jury, made it a public matter. Mr Sensenbrenner said: "That is an offence against the public," and said that it was a vital national issue that "a poor and powerless person" should be able to claim the protection of the law against a man at the pinnacle of power. "What he did was criminal, time and time again," he insisted. He warned the Senate that if it decided that Mr Clinton should be acquitted on the grounds that his lies were excusable efforts to conceal nothing more serious than an embarrassing affair, it would make harassment law and all laws relating to sex unenforceable. Mr Sensenbrenner listed a catalogue of alleged lies in the grand jury evidence of Aug 17, saying the President's falsehoods "were neither few in number nor isolated but, rather, pervaded his entire testimony. "He has not owned up to the false testimony, the stonewalling and legal hair-splitting and obstructing the courts from finding the truth. He must be held accountable to the only constitutional means the country has available: the difficult and painful process of impeachment." Every leading political figure in America bar one - the defendant - was on hand for an event which no one now alive has seen before. Rather than staying holed up in the White House while his fate was being decided, the President left Washington, first for Virginia to talk about community policing, then for New York for a get-together with his quasi-confessor Jesse Jackson. But Mr Hyde suggested that it would be a good idea for Mr Clinton to come back to the Capitol and testify personally at his trial. He said: "We're all interested in hearing from the President as a witness. Under Senate rules, we don't have any right to call him, but we can request the Senate invite the President over, so we may do that." This drew a hostile response from Joe Lockhart, the chief White House spokesman, who said Mr Clinton had already testified to the grand jury. He said: "This late hour request from Henry Hyde once again illustrates that this is really about politics." The prosecution, he said, "bent, shaped and twisted the rules" to suit itself. But several Senators believe that Mr Clinton should appear in the well of the upper chamber. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, said: "It may be that the President will have to testify. That depends on whether he feels he has to come here to make his case because he may be having a more difficult time than he currently anticipates." This sort of comment, hinting that things may unravel for Mr Clinton, intensified tension, amid clear signs that last week's vaunted "bipartisanship" is disintegrating. Tom Daschle, the minority leader, and more than a dozen other Senate Democrats, met Abbe Lowell and other anti-impeachment lawyers from the House for a briefing on the best answers to prosecution allegations. It heightened suspicions among Republicans that despite lofty talk of "duty" and "impartiality", many Democrats have already made up their minds to acquit Mr Clinton and are intent mainly on assembling justifications for doing so. Mr Daschle said the meeting was "simply to be better briefed on the House proceedings", but Lindsey Graham, a prosecutor, hoped that the Democrats would similarly seek out David Schippers, the majority counsel, to get a balanced view. The London Telegraph, Jan. 15, 1999 Crisis in Brazil Currency Fallout Sinks Brazil Stocks In U.S., Dow drops 220 points SAO PAULO - Brazil's stock market plunged Thursday, pulling down markets across Latin America and in the United States, as fears grew that the country's currency would further depreciate after its effective 8 percent devaluation on Wednesday. The Bovespa index closed 9.97 percent lower, after a loss of 5.05 percent on Wednesday. The renewed weakness put pressure on the Argentine market, where the benchmark Merval index finished down 4.64 percent, and was felt on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average erased its gains for the year. ''The real danger is that Brazil is just the first shoe to drop,'' said Peter Coolidge, a senior equity trader at Brean Murray & Co., fearing for the rest of Latin America. Brazil's currency, the real, actually strengthened a bit, but the feeling in the stock market was that the currency would soon resume its decline. ''There could be a deeper devaluation, and investors are trying to cut their Brazil risk before then,'' said Paulo de Sa, a fund manager at Lloyds Asset Management in Sao Paulo. ''The game has begun, now we have to see who wins.'' The dollar fell to 1.3189 reals from 1.3200 late Wednesday, in part because of aggressive intervention by Brazil's central bank to try to stabilize the currency. In Europe, officials were trying to minimize the crisis on Thursday. Hans Tietmeyer, the head of the Bundesbank, told a banking forum, ''I think the internal situation is better than some believe.'' Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn of France said that economic problems that led to the effective devaluation of the Brazilian real on Wednesday were not comparable to the crises that swept through Asia and Russia last year. ''The situation in Brazil is not good,'' he said. ''However, I do not think that we are facing something similar to that which we saw either in Asia or in Russia last August.'' But other members of the Group of Seven industrialized countries stressed that it was vital for Brazil to push forward with the reforms despite political opposition at home. Italy's Treasury minister, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, described the Brazilian situation as a ''crisis,'' although he said it would be overcome as the ''crisis in Asia and the crisis in Russia'' had been overcome. Brazil's central bank chief resigned on Wednesday, and his replacement widened the band in which the real was allowed to fluctuate against the dollar, amounting to a de facto devaluation of about 8 percent. Finance ministers of the G-7 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - have been in close contact since then. Although they have not so far issued any joint statement on the Brazilian situation, their individual comments suggested they were in agreement on the attitude to take. The Brazilian authorities ''know that they have the support of international organizations which were at their side in October,'' said Mr. Ciampi, who is also chairman of the IMF's policy-making interim committee. Robert Rubin, the U.S. Treasury secretary, stressed late Wednesday that it was important for Brazil to continue with ''the implementation of a strong, credible economic program,'' a view that was repeated Thursday by Mr. Strauss-Kahn. Analysts have repeatedly expressed fears that an economic upheaval in Brazil would cause a Latin American meltdown that would then spark a new round of turbulence in Asia and spill over into the U.S. and European economies. This was the reasoning behind the IMF's decision to put together a $41.5 billion international support package for Brazil's economy in November on condition of stringent economic reforms. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned in December that a ''sharp depreciation'' of the Brazilian currency could affect other economies in the region and in Asia. It also warned that if several negative events such as a Brazilian problem, a further downturn in Japan, a plunge on stock markets in industrial countries or sharp fluctuations in foreign exchange markets happened in close sequence it could have a serious effect on the global economy. Martine Durand, OECD senior economist, said Thursday that ''the probability of the downside scenario has increased'' with the latest events in Brazil, but ''we should not panic.'' About $346 million of capital left Brazil on Thursday, less than the $1.2 billion that reportedly was transferred abroad on Wednesday, but sufficient to cause concern. ''This is really worrying,'' said Rafael Pagano, a money-market trader at Banco Real. ''The central bank will do everything it can to fight off another devaluation, but it looks like they won't be able to.'' More than $2.5 billion has left Brazil in the past three days. Felipe Garcia Ascencio, an analyst at Independent Economic Analysis (Holdings) Ltd., said few foreign investors have held reals since the summer, so the money now leaving the country belonged to Brazilians. He estimated that Brazil had about $43 billion in foreign-currency reserves and said the country would ''be better off floating the real very soon'' than if it tried to defend the currency. The country could call upon about $30 billion of additional aid pledged by the International Monetary Fund and other foreign lenders. Mr. Asencio said, however, that ''it is not wise to float when reserves have been depleted,'' and that Brazil, the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury ''are all aware of this.'' International Herald Tribune, Jan. 15, 1999 Crisis in Brazil IMF Sends Crisis Team to Brazil But didn't they just get through "rescuing" the country? The International Monetary Fund is poised to send a delegation to Brazil after the country's unexpected devaluation on Wednesday threw into doubt a $41bn international rescue package agreed by the fund in November. Scepticism is growing about Brazil's ability to meet the tough budgetary targets that are the basis for the package. The agreement with the IMF ruled out a devaluation, and the Fund was not consulted before Wednesday's decision. Its mission, due to arrive in the next few days, will be led by Teresa Ter-Minassian, deputy director for the western hemisphere. Investors yesterday continued to take a pessimistic view of the new Brazilian currency policy, pushing shares in Brazil down sharply and prompting weakness in markets in the US and Europe. However, analysts said foreign investors were taking a much more negative view than domestic investors. The IMF and Brazil would not confirm whether the country's economic targets would need to be revised as a result of the devaluation. "I don't know if the change will make a complete revision necessary," said Altamir Lopes, chief economist at the Brazilian central bank. On Wednesday Brazil, in the face of a new attack on its currency and a growing recession, abandoned its foreign exchange policy, moving from a narrow trading band, which allowed the Real to depreciate gradually against the dollar, to a widened band, which permitted an immediate devaluation of 8.3 per cent and 12-15 per cent over the next year. After a strong start yesterday, the Real weakened slightly to trade at R$1.32 to the dollar, the upper limit of the new band. Shares on the São Paulo stock exchange were suspended yesterday afternoon after a fall of 10 per cent in share prices triggered a circuit-breaker. Interest rates shot up to 60 per cent in the futures market on fears of a new rate rise. Investors had been initially encouraged by the news that $1.1bn had left the country on Wednesday, following predictions of a capital outflow of $2bn. However, markets turned negative after Standard & Poor's, the US ratings agency, downgraded Brazil's long-term foreign currency debt from B+ to BB-. Foreign investors continued to be concerned about heavy capital flight and predicted that the government would be unable to control the devaluation. "The chances of the devaluation being successful are limited, without, at the very least, follow-up on the fiscal front," said Paulo Leme, economist at Goldman Sachs in New York. "Other developing countries have shown that, by itself, devaluation does not work." In its statement on Brazil, Standard & Poor's said the devaluation had increased the risks for the economy and cast doubt on the government's ability to meet the targets set by the IMF. The agency also cut its ratings on a string of Latin American banks. Economists said if the government could not keep the currency within the new band, it might be forced into adopting tougher capital controls or, as a last resort, a rescheduling of domestic debt. Meanwhile, Alexandre Dupeyrat, finance secretary of Minas Gerais, the Brazilian state which last week declared a moratorium on its debts to the federal government, said he could not guarantee the full repayment of a $100m international bond that matures in February. His statement was immediately contradicted by the state's deputy governor, Newton Cardoso. The Financial Times, Jan. 15, 1999 Year 2000 China's Airline Chiefs Must Take Y2K Flight If the problem ain't fixed, they're dead China has given its airline bosses the ultimate incentive to solve the "millennium bomb" computer problem by ordering them to take a flight on New Year's day 2000. "All the heads of the airlines have got to be in the air on January 1, 2000," said Zhao Bo, in charge of dealing with the problem at the Chinese ministry of information industries. "We have to make sure there are no problems in aviation." The directive coincides with a push by Beijing to minimise the risk of chaos if computer systems and electronics fail to recognise the date change from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000, also known as the Y2K problem. A particular difficulty lies in the amount of pirated software in China, which analysts say represents over 90 per cent of the software in use. Technicians cannot consult the manufacturers and must work out how to defuse the bomb, Mr Zhao said. Small regional airlines in China - under pressure because of fierce ticket price wars and insufficient flight frequencies - may not be able to afford to upgrade computers, which are vital for air traffic control and avionics systems. Mr Zhao's ministry has trained more than 5,000 computer technicians to fan out across China to fix computers, and the government is about to publish a list of emergency procedures which include saving and backing up information days before the new millennium. The Chinese government's order follows the decision by Jane Garvey, head of the US Federal Aviation Administration, to fly across America on New Year's eve to demonstrate the safety of the country's systems. However, aviation experts warn that aircraft are not the principal problem. The world's leading manufacturers, Boeing of the US and Airbus Industrie, the European consortium, have worked hard to ensure aircraft onboard systems are safe. "There's no question whatsoever of aircraft falling out of the sky," says Peter Cooke, head of year 2000 steering committee of the International Air Transport Association. Mr Cooke says if problems do occur, it will be because airport and air traffic control systems have not been brought up to date or because telecommunications or electricity fail. The Financial Times, Jan. 15, 1999 Espionage Jonathan Pollard Was No Jewish Patriot by Eric Margolis The case of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Jay Pollard has again reared its ugly head. American Jewish groups, Hollywood celebrities and Israel have renewed pressure on the besieged Clinton administration to free the man they call "the Jewish Dreyfus." Pollard has served 13 years of a life sentence. President Bill Clinton is loath to antagonize America's politically powerful Jewish community, which strongly supports the Democratic party. But the president is also under intense pressure from the national security community not to free the Israeli spy. CIA director George Tenet has threatened to resign if Pollard is pardoned. Seven former U.S. secretaries of defence, some of whom are Jewish, also demanded Pollard remain in prison for life. After years of denials, Israel finally admitted Pollard, a U.S. Navy civilian analyst, was not a "rogue agent," as it originally claimed, but a spy for Israeli intelligence. Pollard caused enormous damage to U.S. national security. He gave Israel top-secret U.S. military intelligence and diplomatic codes; names of nearly 100 U.S. agents in the Mideast, who were then "turned" by Israel; NSA code-breaking techniques and targets; intercepts of foreign communications; and U.S. war-fighting plans for the Mideast. According to CIA sources, Pollard provided Israeli intelligence with names of important American agents inside the former Soviet Union and Russia who had supplied information on East Bloc weapons and war plans. How the agents' names were linked to the secrets they supplied - a major breach of basic intelligence security - remains a mystery. Some of the enormously sensitive secrets stolen by Pollard may have been either sold, or bartered, by Israel to the Soviet Union. A number of key CIA agents in the East Bloc were allegedly executed as a result of Pollard's spying. The KGB likely gained access to top-secret U.S. codes - either directly from Israel, or through spies in Israel's government. In short, Pollard's treachery caused one of the worst security disasters in modern U.S. history. FBI investigators discovered Pollard was being directed to steal specific secret data by a senior administration official, known as "Mr. X." But the White House, unwilling to stir up a domestic political storm, quashed the investigation. To my knowledge, three previous cases of high-ranking U.S. government officials caught passing top-secret information to Israel have been similarly hushed up. Two were senior defence department officials under Ronald Reagan, one a top state department official in a previous administration. None was prosecuted. Pollard's defenders claim he, like French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus in 1894, is a victim of anti-Semitism in the military. They maintain Pollard was "only" spying for a friendly country, motivated solely by concern for Israel's security. These assertions are patently false. Pollard was suspected for some time of spying. Investigation was held off precisely because of fears of raising cries of anti-Semitism. Pollard took large sums of money and jewelry from Israeli agents in payment for spying. With remarkable chutzpah, Israel, which receives up to $5 billion in U.S. aid annually, refuses to return documents stolen by Pollard, or allow U.S. intelligence to debrief Mossad agents who ran Pollard in order to learn the full extent of the disaster. While Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu kept calling for Pollard's release on "humanitarian" grounds, he refused to free prisoner of conscience Mordechai Vanunu, now serving 18 years in solitary confinement in Israel for telling a British newspaper about Israel's nuclear arsenal. Pollard is no Jewish patriot. He is a traitor who sold out his country, and fellow intelligence officers, for money, then claimed he was being persecuted by anti-Semites. Victim he is not. To the contrary, Pollard is a poster boy for anti-Semitism. His treason unfairly exposes all American Jews to hate, and accusations of doubtful loyalty. Jonathan Pollard is a traitor of the worst kind - not a second Dreyfus - and should stay in prison. The Toronto Sun, Jan. 14, 1999 ----- 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. 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