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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (60701)	9/25/1999 1:58:00 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 67261

Senate Task Force To Look At Justice Department Corruption 01:11 a.m. Sep 24, 1999 Eastern By John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate task force will conduct a broad investigation of the Justice Department's handling of probes into the Waco siege, campaign finance and alleged Chinese spying, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said Thursday. The task force, headed by Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, will look into whether the department bungled aspects of the investigations. ``We would be derelict in our duty if we did not go forward with these matters,' Lott, a Mississippi Republican, told reporters. ``Why don't we have justice at the Justice Department? Why can't we get answers to our questions?' Some Senate Democrats have complained that the panel's mandate would be too broad and would be used to attack Attorney General Janet Reno, who has angered many in Congress with what they say is foot-dragging and outright obstruction. Lott and Specter said the task force's focus was expanded beyond the disastrous 1993 assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, because each of the controversies raised questions about Justice Department oversight. ``There are a great many questions left unanswered,' Specter said at a news conference. Specter said he has promised former Sen. John Danforth, appointed by Reno to lead an independent investigation into the Waco siege, that his investigators would not interview witnesses for 30 days ``in the interest of avoiding even the appearance of a turf battle.' But investigators from his office have been in Texas since earlier this month combing through evidence from the Branch Davidian compound, Specter said. The new Waco investigations were prompted by the FBI's recent admission, after six years of denials, that its agents fired potentially flammable tear gas canisters at a concrete bunker hours before the compound went up in flames, killing cult leader David Koresh and about 80 followers. But the task force -- Specter and Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, along with two Democrats who have not yet been named -- also will look at the decision to offer plea bargain deals to several key figures in the 1996 Democratic fund-raising scandal. Specter said the department's handling of possible Chinese spying at the Los Alamos, New Mexico, nuclear laboratories and questions surrounding possible high-technology transfers to Beijing by U.S. companies also will be investigated. He said he has explored the possibility of naming Charles LaBella, former head of the Justice Department campaign finance task force, as a chief investigator. ``He would hit the ground at a sprint,' Specter said. The House Government Reform Committee headed by Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican, also is looking into the Waco incident. Specter and Lott said they did not expect their probe to conflict with Danforth or to wade through old territory already covered by other congressional probes into the Chinese spying and campaign finance allegations.