The Monica Missiles were no "mistake". They worked exactly as the Liar wanted.
U.S. OKs payout for Sudan bombing 'mistake'
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Clinton administration will not challenge a lawsuit filed by a Saudi businessman who said the bombing last year of his pharmaceutical plant in Sudan was a "mistake" based on faulty intelligence data.
The administration also agreed to release $24 million in assets that the businessman, Saleh Idris, had deposited in U.S. banks.
The Aug. 20, 1998, cruise missile attack, which the White House claimed was in retaliation for terrorist attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa, came three days after President Clinton's appearance before a federal grand jury investigating his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Hours after his grand jury testimony, Mr. Clinton
made a dramatic address to the nation admitting an "inappropriate relationship" with the former White House intern.
The White House insisted at the time it bombed the plant, located near Khartoum, Sudan, because it was tied to international terrorist Osama bin Laden and was producing precursors to VX nerve gas. Sudan countered that the plant manufactured only pharmaceuticals and offered inspection tours for U.S. officials and reporters.
Facing a deadline to respond to the suit, filed Feb. 26, the Justice Department told Mr. Idris' attorneys on Monday that the administration had ordered that the freeze placed on his U.S. bank accounts be lifted immediately.
An administration official said yesterday the plant was targeted based on "physical and circumstantial evidence" and those involved were "totally confident" the information was correct. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the decision not to pursue the case was based on concerns that classified intelligence data and methods used to gather it would have been compromised in a court proceeding.
"We have a number of concerns about the actions and the background of Mr. Idris," the official said. "He has associated himself with people that I think that every American would find reprehensible. And we will continue to protect our national security."
But Mr. Idris' attorney, George Salem, said the government backed out because it could not prove its case.
"Faced with the need to answer a legal challenge to its actions freezing Mr. Idris' . . . accounts, the government chose not to make any attempt to justify its actions against Mr. Idris," he said. "Instead, today's order . . . effectively removes any suggestion that Mr. Idris has, at any time, maintained a relationship with Osama bin Laden or any terrorist group or organization."
White House spokesman James Kennedy did not return calls for comment.
In the suit, Mr. Idris said the government froze deposits he had at the Bank of America despite having no evidence to support accusations that the plant was tied to bin Laden or had produced precursors to nerve gas. The suit said the government wrongly portrayed Mr. Idris as an associate of bin Laden's and a supporter of terrorism.
Bin Laden is the exiled Saudi Arabian who has vowed a reign of terror to rid the Persian Gulf region of Americans.
"I am grateful that the United States has taken the honorable course and has corrected, in part, the serious harm that has been done to my family and our good name," Mr. Idris said in a statement, adding that while he understood the United States' desire to "wage a vigorous fight against terrorism," it had made a "mistake" in targeting his plant.
Mr. Salem, partner at the Washington law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, said the decision to bomb the plant was "based on very circumstantial evidence, all of which we have been able to refute."
He said the United States had poor intelligence from Sudan and relied on operatives from other countries, whose data was wrong.
"Fortunately, we live in a country where we have a system of justice that requires that people produce evidence when someone is accused of being a terrorist," Mr. Salem said.
"But I am concerned about the awesome power of a few individuals to make these kinds of decisions in a vacuum," he said. "Because of the unique circumstances of the White House at the time, which was under political siege, hawks were able to convince otherwise cautious people to act."
After backing down on claims that the plant produced precursors to VX nerve gas and was connected to bin Laden, Mr. Clinton's aides later said precursors were found in soil tested at the site. But Mr. Salem noted that independent experts hired to conduct chemical examinations of the soil at the plant found no trace of substances used in chemical weapons.
U.S. cruise missiles launched from Navy ships struck the Sudanese plant and also hit terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. The attacks were the most significant military retaliation for terrorism since President Reagan sent warplanes against Libya in response to the 1986 Berlin disco bombing.
In his suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Mr. Idris demanded the release of $24 million in deposits that had been frozen by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. He filed a similar suit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against the Bank of America.
With the full and unconditional release of Mr. Idris' bank accounts, Mr. Salem said both actions would be dismissed.
Two days before the Sudan attack, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr had pressed his case against Mr. Clinton, calling Miss Lewinsky for a return grand jury appearance to testify on gifts from Mr. Clinton that later were retrieved and to further clarify specifics of what he called an inappropriate sexual relationship. Mr. Starr also was considering subpoenaing Mr. Clinton for questions he refused to answer before the grand jury. |
