Slick and the Socialists keep marching on:
THE MYSTERY MAN IN SOUTH AFRICA
Accuracy in Media
Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid
Media Monitor
THE MYSTERY MAN IN SOUTH AFRICA
By Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid
4/07/98
President Clinton's trip to Africa was widely perceived to be a diversion from his problems at home. This reached a ridiculous extreme when he was asked whether he had invoked executive privilege for his aides in the Monica Lewinsky affair and he replied that the press would have to talk to officials back in Washington, D.C. The truth is that executive privilege would have to be invoked with the knowledge and consent of the president. But while Clinton was practicing the art of confusion and diversion, journalists neglected to focus on the dangers of the African trip itself. Here, too, Clinton was playing fast and loose with the truth.
His visit to South Africa, touted by the press as an emerging "multiracial democracy," was a case in point. Last December, South Africa President Nelson Mandela delivered a blistering attack on white opposition parties and the white media, claiming they were frustrating needed reforms in South Africa. Alec Russell of the Daily Telegraph said Mandela had "dropped his usual reconciliatory tone for the rhetoric of a Marxist revolutionary..." To those familiar with Mandela's background, including his imprisonment as a Marxist revolutionary implicated in planning a terrorist bombing campaign, this wasn't a surprise.
But some reporters prefer to play down or ignore completely this aspect of Mandela's past. In a story about Clinton's trip to South Africa, R.W. Apple of The New York Times insisted that Mandela had served time for being a "political prisoner."
Apple also noted that Mandela has remained "friendly" with nations the United States considers rogues, such as Libya, Iran and Cuba, because they had supported Mandela's campaign to replace the old white-controlled South African government. A more accurate explanation would be that those governments supported Mandela because they are anti-American. In any event, Mandela, who is 79 years old, is widely believed to be on his way out, to be replaced by his top aide, the deputy president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki. We searched in vain for mentions of Mbeki in the media and found very few. Yet he is destined to be the next president of the country, and he is reported to be a hard-core Marxist, a longtime member of the South African Communist Party.
That's the view of Dr. William Stearman, formerly of the National Security Council. Stearman was in charge of briefing then-President Bush about Mandela's organization, the African National Congress, and how it was manipulated by the South African Communist Party. He says Mbeki and his fellow communists are moving to take control of South Africa by putting their agents in charge of all the important government ministries, including the military and police.
During his trip, President Clinton announced several steps to increase trade with South Africa, including pledging $770 million in U.S. Government backing for private investment there. Clinton claimed investment in South Africa was a great deal. But Dr. Stearman warns American businessmen: "Don't invest in South Africa unless you can get your money back in three or four years." After that, he predicts South Africa will become a full-fledged socialist state with all major industries nationalized.
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