Republicans May Force Release of Cox Report
By Jim VandeHei
Republican leaders may call a Members-only House meeting to declassify secret evidence showing the Clinton administration jeopardized national security by allowing China to buy U.S. military technology.
The session would be held only if President Clinton refuses to declassify the report himself.
Rep. Norm Dicks (Wash.), the top Democrat on the select committee that compiled the secret report, believes the White House will voluntarily declassify the report within the next few weeks, but GOP leaders predicted Clinton may stonewall Congress and force the House to demand its release. "We are beginning a process now looking at the information, being sensitive to national security implications and its impact on any ongoing criminal investigations," said White House spokesman David Leavy. "We will consult with Congress and the relevant agencies as we move forward."
Top Republican leaders, except for Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.), were privately briefed on the classified details last week by the report's lead investigator, Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), chairman of the Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, several sources confirmed.
There was virtual unanimity among the leaders, which included Majority Leader RichardArmey (R-Texas) and Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), that the material is potentially damaging to the Clinton administration and that it should be declassified, leadership sources said. In an interview Friday, DeLay said leadership was briefed by Cox last week and told that the House may have to "vote to declassify the report without the administration's approval" if the White House fails to do so in the next 90 days. DeLay refused to elaborate.
GOP Conference Vice Chairwoman Tillie Fowler (R), who attended the briefing and leadership meeting, said she believes the administration most likely will not cooperate, which would provoke the House to assert its authority.
But Dicks said Republican leaders will be sorely disappointed if they think the report, which was approved unanimously by the nine-member committee in December, can be used against the Clinton administration.
"I disagree with that," said Dicks when told some GOP leaders believe the report is damaging to this administration. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) "and his people were talking about impeachment" over the China report last year, Dicks added. "There will be no referral to the Judiciary Committee or the Justice Department. ... If one looks at the entire report, I personally do not believe it is damaging [to this White House]."
Based on their hour-plus briefing, many GOP leaders disagree.
Fowler, a defense expert from the National Security Committee who was at the briefing, said the China report is more disturbing than the allegations that led to Clinton's impeachment, but that it was more of an indictment on the administration than on Clinton himself. Fowler and others said the evidence will prompt new legislation as well as Congressional hearings to discuss the China report's findings.
"These are very serious national security concerns, and we the Congress need to be aware of these so we can address them," said Fowler.
"I think there will be a lot of Congressional oversight here," added Dicks.
Late last December, Cox said the report makes 38 recommendations for legislation and executive action, and GOP leaders predict numerous, high-profile hearings to discuss China's purchase of U.S. technology and other issues. "It will be embarrassing to the administration," said one Republican leadership adviser familiar with the report.
Members were particularly concerned with what sources described as convincing proof that the administration withheld sensitive material from the defense committees. "It does appear the administration has not been forthcoming," said Fowler.
While Members are forbidden from discussing the details of classified information, allegations of a Chinese plot to influence U.S. elections with campaign money, an accusation made in 1997 by Senate Governmental Affairs Chairman Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), are not proved in the report. Fowler confirmed that the campaign finance scandal is not a major element of the top-secret documents.
An informed Democrat said very little time was spent investigating campaign finance-related allegations and that there is little, if anything, in the classified documents to justify punitive action against the White House for illegal fundraising. He said the most alarming material deals with exports and transactions first authorized under former President Ronald Reagan and continued through former President George Bush's administration.
"Republicans may by surprised, when this thing is declassified, when most of the problems did occur," confirmed Dicks, who refused to discuss specific details.
Regardless of the report's content, Republicans and Democrats alike predicted the material will be made public by spring. Only designated national security staff at the White House have the authority to release classified material, and, according to Dicks, they are reviewing the report and making those decisions already.
If the White House balks, or refuses to release specific material that the House wants declassified, Hastert could schedule a vote, either in private or public, to force the administration to cooperate. With only a simple majority and no Senate approval needed to declassify the report, Republican leaders could easily deliver enough votes to expose any evidence that would not put national security at risk.
Cox has said he wants Clinton's national security advisers to make a decision within the next few weeks, a spokesman said. "We hope it would be a matter of weeks to declassify the report. Beyond that it is difficult to say what the new Congress will do," said the select committee spokesman, Brent Bahler.
The 700-page report is locked in an alarmed room in the Longworth House Office Building, the only place where Members are allowed to read it.
As part of legislation passed last week, the select committee was authorized for another 90 days so Cox and his panel can declassify the information.
It is unlikely that the life of the select committee will be extended beyond 90 days to hold any public hearings. Instead, the defense and intelligence committees in both chambers are expected to host the explosive sessions.
"If [Republicans] want to get into name calling, we can remind them of some of the people who were arguing for the changes," warned Dicks in a not-so-veiled reference to evidence of culpability for past Republican administrations. |
