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by William Safire
The New York Times, May 18, 1992
Americans now know that the war in
the Persian Gulf was brought about by a colossal foreign-policy blunder:
George Bush's decision, after the Iran-Iraq war ended, to entrust regional
security to Saddam Hussein.
What is not yet widely understood
is how that benighted policy led to the Bush Administration's fraudulent
use of public funds, its sustained deception of Congress and its
obstruction of justice.
As the Saudi Ambassador, Prince
Bandar, was urging Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker to buy the friendship of the
Iraqi dictator in August 1989, the FBI uncovered a huge scam at the
Atlanta branch of the Lavoro Bank to finance the buildup of Iraq's war
machine by diverting U.S.-guaranteed grain loans.
Instead of pressing the
investigation or curbing the appeasement, the President turned a blind eye
to lawbreaking and directed another billion dollars to Iraq. Our State and
Agriculture Departments' complicity in Iraq's duplicity transformed what
could have been dealt with as "Saddam's Lavoro scandal" into George Bush's
Iraqgate.
The first element of corruption is
the wrongful application of U.S. credit guarantees. Neither the Commodity
Credit Corporation nor the Export-Import Bank runs a foreign-aid program;
their purpose is to stimulate U.S. exports. High-risk loan guarantees to
achieve foreign-policy goals unlawfully endanger that purpose.
Yet we now know that George Bush
personally leaned on Ex-Im to subvert its charter -- not to promote our
exports but to promote relations with the dictator. And we have evidence
that James Baker overrode worries in Agriculture and O.M.B. that the law
was being perverted: Mr. Baker's closest aide, Robert Kimmett, wrote
triumphantly, "your call to...Yeutter...paid off." Former Agriculture
Secretary Clayton Yeutter is now under White House protection.
Second element of corruption is the
misleading of Congress. When the charge was made two years ago in this
space that State was improperly intervening in this case, Mr. Baker's top
Middle East aide denied it to Senate Foreign Relations; meanwhile, Yeutter
aides deceived Senator Leahy's Agriculture Committee about the real
foreign-policy purpose of the C.C.C. guarantees. To carry out Mr. Bush's
infamous National Security Directive 26, lawful oversight was
systematically blinded.
Third area of Iraqgate corruption
is the obstruction of justice. Atlanta's assistant U.S. Attorney Gail
McKenzie, long blamed here for foot-dragging, would not withhold from a
grand jury what she has already told friends: that indictment of Lavoro
officials was held up for nearly a year by the Bush Criminal Division. The
long delay in prosecution enabled James Baker to shake credits for Saddam
out of malfeasant Agriculture appointees.
When House Banking Chairman Henry
Gonzalez gathered documents marked "secret" showing this pattern of
corruption, he put them in the Congressional Record. Two months later, as
the media awakened, Mr. Bush gave the familiar "-gate" order: stonewall.
"Public disclosure of classified
information harms the national security," Attorney General William Barr
instructed the House Banking Committee last week. "...in light of your
recent disclosures, the executive branch will not provide any more
classified information" -- unless the wrongdoing is kept secret.
"Your threat to withhold
documents," responded Chairman Gonzalez, "has all the earmarks of a
classic effort to obstruct a proper and legitimate investigation...none of
the documents compromise, in any fashion whatsoever, the national security
or intelligence sources and methods."
Mr. Barr, in personal jeopardy, has
flung down the gauntlet. Chairman Gonzalez tells me he plans to present
his obstruction case this week to House Judiciary Chairman Jack Brooks,
probably flanked by Representatives Charles Schumer and Barney Frank,
members of both committees.
"I will recommend that Judiciary
consider requiring the appointment of an independent counsel," says Mr.
Gonzalez, who has been given reason to believe that Judiciary -- capable
of triggering the Ethics in Government Act -- will be persuaded to act.
Policy blunders are not crimes. But
perverting the purpose of appropriated funds is a crime; lying to Congress
compounds that crime; and obstructing justice to cover up the original
crimes is a criminal conspiracy.
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