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Politics : Clinton's Scandals: Is this corruption the worst ever? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (1136)	8/14/1998 1:44:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13994

Hacker fear as President prepares for jury hearing By Hugh Davies in Washington WHITE House engineers began installing "foolproof" technology yesterday, aimed at thwarting would-be eavesdroppers on Monday's live video link between President Clinton and a grand jury. Mr Clinton will be questioned about what - if anything - he did with Monica Lewinsky in a study beside the Oval Office. Officials fear that hackers will try to break into the closed-circuit relay of his testimony from the White House Map Room to the 23-member panel at the federal courthouse half a mile away. Aides are worried that a clandestine video tape will emerge of what may be a confession to adultery. Government electronic surveillance experts have decided to use a fibre-optic cable - encrypted with the latest digital technology - along which the signal is transmitted as light waves. Experts believe that if, somehow, the codes are broken, the screens at either end of the link-up will register a loss of light, and this will trigger alarms. Hackers are already thought to have the means to unscramble transmissions, but experts say that for about œ120,000, virtually complete security can be attained. Mr Clinton is receiving daily coaching sessions from his lawyer and public-relations aides, with assistants posing as his interrogators, asking hard questions. The President will be cross-examined by Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel, and his fellow prosecutors, but jurors can interrupt to request information. One camera is expected to be used. Mr Clinton will face the lens directly. Technical experts say the technology will be to his advantage, with the video-imagery probably omitting telling details such as whether he is sweating or fidgeting nervously. He looked frightened when first asked by one interviewer, Jim Lehrer, if he and the former White House assistant Miss Lewinsky had had sex. He tried to duck behind the present tense, saying: "There is not a sexual relationship." Since then, Harry Thomason, a Hollywood producer friend, has instructed him on how to seem more firm in his denial. Mr Thomason is again on hand this weekend for last-minute rehearsals. Last night, a startling suggestion was being mooted in Washington that Mr Clinton might - against legal advice - abandon the video link and show up in person before the grand jury, in an effort to turn his blue-eyed charm directly on the panel. Harold Ickes, former White House deputy chief of staff, is reported to have told friends that he is worried about half-a-dozen middle-aged women on the jury, who seemed quite sympathetic to Miss Lewinsky. Linda Tripp, who made recordings of Miss Lewinsky speaking of an alleged sexual relationship with Mr Clinton, told a friend that there were more women than men on the jury, more blacks than whites, and all were "very attentive and asked a lot of intelligent questions". A strategist from the President's Democratic Party said: "I've always thought Bill Clinton would try to turn the grand jury into a kind of town hall. He's wonderful in that kind of format. He knows how to reach out and touch people. Hillary appeared in person, and apparently impressed jurors. Why not her husband?" The question of camera angles is also causing some anxiety. David Kendall, the President's lawyer, who is being allowed to sit next to him as an unprecedented concession in such a hearing, has been permitted by a judge in Little Rock, Arkansas, to view Mr Clinton's video-taped deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. The tape, along with his video testimony to a Whitewater trial, had been placed under official wraps after a conservative activist, Floyd Brown, tried to get his hands on it. Mr Kendall, in gaining access to the Jones deposition, obviously wanted to study his client's mannerisms and possible embarrassment as Mr Clinton, time after time in his testimony, was vague and evasive about Miss Lewinsky. He maintained that the relationship was casual, and that they "never had an affair". Asked if he gave her any gifts, he said: "I don't remember". It now appears that he gave her several presents, including a book and a T-shirt, and Miss Lewinsky told the grand jury that he also had sex with her more than a dozen times inside the White House.