Political Economics Reports - Page A1
March 17, 1997 CLINTON ADMIMNISTRATION FINGERED
IN NATIONAL SECURITY BREACH!
By Howard Hobbs, JD, PhD Economics & Legal Editor
WASHINGTON DESK - Following the fervor of a request for a House Judiciary Committee impeachment inquiry of president Clinton and vice president Al Gore on campaign fund accusations it was learned Monday that president Clinton has been implicated in ordering a National Security advisor Anthony Lake to release secret intelligence information to the Democratic National Committee for political purposes.
These charges, if proved, represent a serious breach of security safeguards that could undermine national security and permanently side-track the president's nomination of NSC Adviser Anthony Lake to head the CIA.
When the Democratic National Committee wanted to get controversial Democratic donor Roger Tamraz into the White House, it wouldn't take no for an answer.
In a highly unusual move, then-party Chairman Donald Fowler called a National Security Council official in late 1995 to try to overturn her recommendation that Tamraz not attend high-level White House meetings. Administration officials believe Fowler arranged for a Central Intelligence Agency report on Tamraz to be sent to the NSC. Fowler says he 'can't recall' doing so.
Never the less, Tamraz attended four more White House events with President Clinton including a June 22, 1996, reception, dinner and premiere of the blockbuster movie 'Independence Day.'
Tamraz and his company Tamoil Inc. contributed at least $177,000 to the national and state Democratic parties in 1995 and 1996.
The sordid story of Tamraz access to the White House is currently under investigation by Congress and the White House and could take the Democratic fund-raising controversy to a new level. President Clinton and the Democrat Party have been severely criticized for using presidential perks, like sleep-overs in the Lincoln bedroom and coffees with the president, to loosen the wallets of big donors.
On Monday The Wall Street Journal broke the news story that president Clinton, had gone about as far as he could go to help Tamraz by defying the president's national security advisers and even deploying secret intelligence information in order to facilitate big-money contributions to the Clinton-Gore Campaign.
Congressional investigators believe president Clinton's conduct represents a serious breach of security safeguards. At the center of this national security debacle, is Tamraz, a Lebanese naturalized U.S. citizen.
Tamraz says he was unaware of the behind-the-scenes efforts to get him into the White House and says his visits didn't yield anything of value in return. 'People expect things, but you don't get anything, at least as far as I am concerned,' he told reporters in a telephone interview.
Tamraz has been negotiating to build a multibillion-dollar oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, cutting through the territory of bitter enemies, Armenia and Azerbaijan. With some crucial financial commitments from Chinese businessmen, he continues to push his project. He has had dealings with both Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the government of Libya. The government of Lebanon is seeking him for questioning in the investigation of alleged mishandling of funds in that country's second-largest bank.
With the assistance of State Department officials and U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Harry Gilmore, Tamraz managed to arrange a meeting with Sheila Heslin, the National Security Council's Central Asian and Caspian Sea specialist, on June 2, 1995. He outlined his pipeline plan and asked for the administration's support, or at least assurances the Clinton administration wouldn't oppose it.
Heslin offered neither. 'I was very clear with him that the NSC, the White House, the U.S. could not endorse his project,' she recalled in an interview. Later, she heard rumors from the oil industry that Mr. Tamraz was suggesting some level of support in the administration for his project. Such a characterization could have enhanced his negotiations with foreign figures.
At that time, Heslin says, 'I recommended [to NSC superiors] that Tamraz have no further meetings because there was no compelling foreign-policy reason for such meetings.' She concluded his pipeline plan was unlikely to be successful and believed her recommendation would prevent him from gaining future access to the White House.
Later that fall, an attempt was made to arrange a meeting between Tamraz and vice president Al Gore. At about the same time he made a donation to the Clinton-Gore Campaign of $50,000. The vice president's office asked Heslin her opinion of the meeting request, and she said it should be denied. White House officials said Sunday that, to their knowledge, the meeting with Mr. Gore never took place.
Then, in December 1995, two months after Tamraz and Tamoil Inc. , at the request of DNC chairman, Fowler, donated $100,000 to the Virginia Democrat Party, Heslin received a telephone call from Fowler. She refuses to discuss the details of that call.
Clinton administration officials have told reporters Fowler asked her to drop her opposition to the oil financier's meeting with the president. And they say Heslin told associates that Fowler said '...Tamraz had helped the U.S. in the past and that the CIA would send her a paper on him.'
The Journal story reports that only a short time later, Clinton officials say Heslin received the CIA document on Tamraz. She reported the incident to the NSC legal counsel as 'highly irregular' and re-emphasized her advice to NSA superiors that Tamraz not be allowed to meet with the president.
As a result of her protest, the NSC's deputy director, Nancy Sodeberg, telephoned Fowler, and in the words of officials, told him to 'Knock it off and stop pestering...' NSC workers.
None the less, the businessman was allowed to attend four more meetings with the president in the White House, according to administration officials. In addition to dropping at least $177,000 into Democrat Party coffers, he raised funds for the party from other wealthy individuals.
Reached Sunday, Fowler said he only recalled telephoning the White House to get Tamraz in, but that his memory is 'foggy' on whom he talked with and on mentioning the CIA. He said he did recall that the DNC's finance office requested help in the matter. 'I'm not saying this lady is incorrect,' Fowler said of Heslin.
'I'm just saying that I don't remember anything. It is possible, although I truly do not remember it, that as part of the information I was given ... something about if there is any information needed about him, you might check with the CIA. But I do not remember that.'
Public disclosure of the facts in the Tamraz national Security breach by the Clinton administration set off hurried internal investigations inside the CIA and the White House over ther weekend to determine how to explain to the American people and Congressional investigations just how a political official could gain deep access into the nation's secrets and pull out information to that could be used by a Democrat Party contributor as leverage to obtain support for a private business deal.
Chief among the questions: What roles did president Clinton and DNC chairman Fowler play in getting and releasing the CIA information on Tamraz to Heslin, and who was contacted inside the intelligence agency? The Journal story ties Tamraz affiliation with an Arlington, Va., company that has hired some former CIA officials.
NSC spokesman David Johnson said the White House 'has been and is continuing to investigate the matter.' However, administration officials say they believe, that Fowler may have contacted the CIA directly.
In January of this year, White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis released information disclosing that Tamraz had come to an April 1996 coffee with the president. At that same time, Interpol the international police agency, was seeking him for questioning related to his activities in Lebanon.
Fowler, the chair of the Democrat Party had no CIA clearance, and many officials say it was highly improper for him to call the NSC, much less the CIA, on behalf of a donor. Clinton administration officials say the intelligence information appears to have traveled from the CIA's operations wing to the NSC without anyone informing top officials in the intelligence agency. Intelligence officials describe the debacle as a 'mess' and 'unbelievable.'
Tamraz acknowledged in a telephone interview this weekend that after his meeting with Heslin ended badly, he went to the DNC to try to get a hearing for his plans. 'I thought, you know, through the DNC I could make a policy heard,' he said.
Former CIA agent Wilbur Crane Eveland cited Tamraz in the credits of his 1980 book 'Ropes of Sand, America's Failure in the Middle East.' the author wrote: 'Few things could please me more than being able to thank in peaceful surroundings two valued friends who facilitated my departure from embattled Lebanon: Abu Said Aby Rish and Roger Tamraz.'
In 1989, Yamraz has said he was kidnapped during the collapse of his bank, Bank al-Mashrek in Lebanon. However, Lebanese officials have said he is wanted for questioning regarding $200 million that is allegedly missing from the bank and a warrant in Lebanon has been issued against him for doing business with Israelis.
In the United States his main business, Oil Capital Ltd. is located in New York, but he also maintains a residence in Paris. He graduated from Harvard University and once worked at Kidder Peabody.
What Tamraz has been doing in the Middle East is of more than passing interest to the Clinton administration. He is trying to build an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea that involves U.S. trade policy abroad. The U.S. would like to find a route that minimizes the pipeline's exposure to Iranian and Russian politics.
Tamraz's route through Armenia and Turkey might accomplish this. However, tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan are presently high. Turkey has also been cool to Tamraz's involvement.
Curiously, Tamraz' big-money donations to the Clinton-Gore Campaign in the fall of 1995 coincided with industry news reports of an unsuccessful meeting with Turkish officials in September that year.
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