UNDERNEWS
Sam Smith
August 2, 1999
The Progressive Review
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THE TRIPP INDICTMENT
The malicious indictment of Clinton scandal whistleblower Linda Tripp may
not work out quite like its perpetrators have planned. Here are a few things
to keep in mind:
-- The indictment could be found to be illegal for two reasons: (1) Tripp
had been granted immunity by Kenneth Starr and (2) the Federal Civil Rights
Act of l871 prohibits states from enforcing laws in a way that interferes
with a federal witness.
-- Jeff Stein of Salon points out that Maryland's wiretap statute is
routinely violated and rarely prosecuted.
-- Tripp's lawyers are considering filing suit against Maryland officials
who helped the Clinton machine in its jihad against those who attempt to
tell the truth about it.
-- Tripp's life was considered in enough danger at one point that the FBI
put her in a safe house.
-- Tripp claims she taped Lewinsky to protect herself allegedly after Bruce
Lindsey threatened to "destroy" her and after Lewinsky transmitted veiled
threats.
-- Arriving at her White House desk one day, Tripp found that someone had
left her a list of those around Clinton who had died in an unexplained or
violent manner. A cover note suggested she would be interested in the
information.
-- A number of women could be called to testify that they too had received
threats or harassment because of their involvement with Clinton.
-- During a Tripp trial, White House officials, including Clinton, could be
called to testify by the defense reviving public interest in aspects of the
scandal the Clintonistas thought were buried. Potential other witnesses
include Vernon Jordan, Monica Lewinsky, and Sidney Blumenthal.
-- Tripp has testified under oath that she caw confidential FBI files piled
on tables and floors in the offices of Vince Foster, Bernard Nussbaum,
Williams Kennedy and Craig Livingstone.
-- While working at the White House, Tripp received a phone call from
someone who mentioned the "tainted blood issue." The phrase meant nothing to
Tripp and when she tried to find out more from a White House computer, the
database denied her access. Testifying in a Judicial Watch deposition, Tripp
said, "It had been alarming to me that when I tried to enter data from a
caller that I was working with on a tainted blood issue, that every time I
entered a word that had to do with this particular issue, it would flash up
either the word 'encrypted' or 'password required' or something to indicate
the file was locked." At the time, Tripp was working as executive assistant
to Bernard Nussbaum, chief White House counsel. Also on the staff: deputy
counsel Vince Foster. The Ottawa Citizen subsequently learned that Foster
had tried to protect the Arkansas firm shipping tainted blood from prison
inmates in a lawsuit.
-- Here is what has happened to a few of the other Clinton scandal
whistleblowers, as compiled by Carl Limbacher of Newsmax:
Energy Department officials Notra Trulock and Edward McCallum suffered
bureaucratic reprisals after they tried to warn about the nuclear secret
giveaway.
Chief Petty Officer Kathleen Janoski, Lt. Col. Stephen Cogswell, Lt. Col.
David Hause, and Major Thomas Parsons were sanctioned by the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology after going public with reports of anomalies in Ron
Brown death.
David Hale, foreshadowing of the Tripp case, was targeted for harassing
state prosecution while a federal witness.
Key Whitewater witness Jim McDougal is dead after being tossed into solitary
confinement and denied his heart.
-- While Linda Tripp is facing trial, Matt Drudge points out, Maureen Dowd
is enjoying her Pulitzer, Michael Isikoff has a best-selling book, and cable
news networks have enjoyed a year of high ratings -- all thanks to the
information Tripp provided from these tapes.
LINDA TRIPP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND 626 Admiral Drive Suite 319 Annapolis, MD
21401
MONICA-LINDA TAPE
YOU DIDN'T HEAR ON TV
[Monica talks with Linda about filing a false affidavit in the Paula Jones
case, January 13, 1998]:
TRIPP: You - you are - are you positive in your heart that you want to do
that? I mean -
LEWINSKY: Uh-huh.
TRIPP: I'm only saying - I'm only saying that in case you should change your
mind.
LEWINSKY: No. I - I - I - first of all, for fear of my life. I would not - I
would not cross these - these people for fear of my life, number one.
[And from a November 20,1997 tape in which Monica is talking about telling
Clinton she wants to break up with him]:
TRIPP: Well, let me put it to you this way. By hanging up and saying you're
telling your parents and then hanging up the phone, you're saying a whole
hell of a lot more than you could ever do in a 20 minute conversation.
LEWINSKY: I know (tape skip) (inaudible) my mom will kill me if I don't tell
him - make it clear at some point that I'm not going to hurt him, because -
see, my mom's big fear is that he's going to send somebody out to kill me.
TRIPP: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
LEWINSKY: So --
TRIPP: Shut up.
LEWINSKY: Well, that's what she thinks.
TRIPP: Oh, my God. Don't even say such an asinine thing. He's not that
stupid. He's an arrogant....but he's not that stupid.
LEWINSKY: Well, you know, accidents happen.
STUDENTS TAKE ON WHITE HOUSE
OVER SWEATSHOPS
Representatives of United Students Against Sweatshops took their message to
the White House recently, conferring with economic advisor Gene Sperling
who was unwilling to meet their concerns. The students called on the
administration to press companies to disclose the location of their
factories and to permit independent monitoring for sweatshop conditions.
The students' invitation to the White House meeting came days after a July
9th USAS protest in front of the Department of Labor. At the protest,
students demanded full public disclosure of factory locations and living
wage provisions in the Administration-initiated Fair Labor Association.
"This meeting was an Administration attempt to mollify our concerns about
our universities' involvement with the FLA," said Miriam Joffe-Block, a
senior at the University of Pennsylvania.
Anti-sweatshop activism gained momentum after sit-ins on campuses across the
country earlier this spring. Students' actions forced more than 15
universities to require that their licensees publicly disclose the name and
location of their factories. These moves have brought students into conflict
with the so-called Fair Labor Association, a group formed with the
encouragement of the Clinton Administration.
"We have taken a strong position against the FLA because we disapprove of
our universities' lending legitimacy to any institution which gives cover to
sweatshop abuses," said Maria Roper, a senior at Haverford College.
"Unless the White House is more forthcoming, expect renewed anti-sweatshop
activities at universities this fall. Student consciousness is growing about
the contradictions between President Clinton's labor-friendly rhetoric and
his actions," said Peter Romer-Friedman, a junior at the University of
Michigan.
THE UNDERNEWS: USAS now has affiliated groups on 125 campuses. Nothing like
this has happened since the anti-apartheid movement, which was, in some
ways, less sophisticated than the current effort. For example, the
anti-apartheid movement targeted stock ownership by universities, a tactic
which did not necessarily have impact on a company's stock. The
anti-sweatshop movement has not only affected sales of companies like Nike,
but has taken their cause directly to the White House.
USAS http://home.sprintmail.com/~jeffnkari/USAS/
HILLARY WATCH
Those wondering what Tina Brown has been up need to wonder no more. It's the
same thing she was up to before: heavy spinning for the Clinton machine. At
best, the HRC interview in the new Talk magazine recalls a point I made
during the Marion Barry era, namely that while I had nothing against
redemption, I didn't see why it had to be carried out in high public office.
If Clinton was such a screwed-up, abused little kid, he should never have
run for president and HRC should not have so wantonly concealed the facts of
the matter for so long.
In fact, as TPR has pointed out, Clinton was abused but not because of
fights between his mother and grandmother -- but by his alcoholic stepfather:
"Clinton's stepfather is a gun-brandishing, alcoholic who loses his Buick
franchise through mismanagement and his own pilfering. He physically abuses
his family, including the young Bill. His mother is a heavy gambler with mob
ties. According to FBI and local police officials, his Uncle Raymond -- to
whom young Bill turns for wisdom and support -- is a colorful car dealer,
slot machine owner and gambling operator, who thrives on the fault line of
criminality (except when his house is firebombed). Uncle Raymond's gambling
operations are franchised by the Marcello organization of New Orleans."
HRC has a number of other problems with her tall tale:
-- She is reported to have hired a detective to find out just what could be
used against her husband in the 1992 campaign. '
-- A long string of women were involved with Clinton after Gennifer Flowers.
If HRC didn't know about them, she is too dumb to be a senator.
In short, HRC seems much better at predicting the future of cattle than she
is at recounting the past of her own family.
WHERE TO RAISE YOUR KID
Maine is the best state in which to raise a child, according to the most
recent ranking compiled by the Children's Rights Council. The 50 states and
the District of Columbia were measured by ten criteria. Here's the rest of
the top ten: 2. Massachusetts 3. Connecticut 4. Vermont 5. New Hampshire
6. North Dakota 7. Maryland 8. Kansas 9. Wisconsin 10. Iowa
The worst state: 42. Mississippi 43. Arkansas 44. Nevada 45. 46.
California 47. Arizona 48. Texas 49. New Mexico 50. Louisiana 51.
Washington D.C.
JFK JR
The Navy has had to reassign more than ten ships to catch up with a backlog
of 49 scheduled burials at sea following complaints from relatives about the
recent use of a Navy vessel to bury non-military personnel.
NEWS FROM THE COLONIES
TELEGRAPH, LONDON: NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia had almost no
military effect on the regime of President Milosevic, which gave in only
after Russia withdrew its diplomatic backing. This is the gloomy assessment
of a private, preliminary review by NATO experts of the alliance's 78-day
Operation Allied Force bombing campaign against Yugoslavia over Kosovo. At
the same time, British diplomats have concluded that Milosevic had no
intention of honoring any diplomatic agreement which reduced his hold on
Kosovo - despite his vaunted willingness to enter the negotiations at
Rambouillet and the peace talks in Paris which preceded the bombing
campaign. The experts nevertheless judge that, diplomatically and
politically, the operation was a success because the 19-member alliance
remained united throughout and left Belgrade so isolated that it was forced
to submit to NATO's terms.
TELEGRAPH:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000157475629455&rtmo=Vw6q6kfK&atmo=rrrrrY3s
&pg=/et/99/7/22/wkos22.html
FEEDBACK
Noting our recent report on the high percentage of women in certain
legislatures around the world, Dan Johnson-Weinberger of the Midwest
Democracy Center writes "Of course, all these nations use proportional
representation for their elections, so that political minorities get their
fair share of representation. The best way to increase the number of women
in elected offices is to change our voting system from winner-take-all to
proportional representation."
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