Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (48760)	10/18/2000 9:18:42 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

MCCAIN BLASTS AL ON RUSSIAN ARMS SALES TO IRANIANS Saturday,October 14,2000 By DEBORAH ORIN and DAVID K. LI The Mideast kept haunting the presidential race yesterday as Sen. John McCain accused Democrat Al Gore of breaking the law and showing "indefensibly bad judgment" in letting Russia sell arms to Iran. The Arizona Republican backs George W. Bush, but his remarks could have special clout because he's seen as a top military expert, he's popular with swing independent voters, and he co-authored the law in question with then-Sen. Gore. McCain's slam came amid a flurry of Mideast crisis developments that could affect the super-tight race in which several polls show Bush with a slight edge. Gore, for the second consecutive day, cut short campaigning to fly back to Washington for national security meetings. One result of his return to Washington - after an Iowa rally where he blasted Bush on health care - was to cancel plans for a high-profile meeting with Arab-American leaders in Detroit, although he was to meet some of the community's leaders in Washington. Bush, campaigning at a General Motors facility in Pontiac, Mich., pointed to the photo of a bloody-handed Palestinian exulting in the murder of an Israeli reservist, and said it must be condemned as he put the onus on PLO chairman Yasser Arafat to move for peace. "The picture of that young man with blood on his hands celebrating the death of an Israeli soldier, that kind of action must be condemned," Bush said. Bush also blasted the Clinton-Gore administration's energy policy and said Gore's push to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has done nothing to restrain oil prices and some of the oil to be sold went to companies with no experience in energy. "Every barrel released today is one less barrel available to protect us against threats to our security - threats that are becoming more vivid with this week's turmoil and violence in the Middle East," he said. Meanwhile, McCain hit the roof over a New York Times report that Gore signed a secret 1995 deal with Russia's Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin to let Russia keep selling weapons to a Mideast state seen as a terrorism sponsor. "Making exceptions to a relevant law to permit Russia to sell advanced weapons to a country that meets, in every point, the definition of rogue state shows indefensibly bad judgment," McCain said. The Gore-Chernomyrdin deal allowed Russia to keep selling the weapons through last December without suffering the normal sanctions - as long as it didn't make any new weapons deals. Gore spokesman Jim Kennedy insisted the deal didn't violate the law, and said a former State Department official briefed congressional staffers on the deal, but was unable to name anyone who was briefed. The presidential race is a dead heat in the latest CNN poll. Bush leads by one point in a Zogby-Reuters poll, and 4 points in the bipartisan Voter.com "Battleground" poll. nypost.com