White House Guests ‘Didn’t Impact Policy’

President Clinton’s national security adviser said Thursday his staff was infrequently consulted about unsavory foreign visitors who met with Clinton and Vice President Al Gore during the last presidential campaign.

The failure to check the backgrounds of a Chinese arms merchant, a Russian businessman with alleged mob ties and other visitors - admitted at the request of Democratic Party officials - never influenced foreign policy, Samuel R. Berger told a Senate committee.

The problem doesn’t exist in Clinton’s second term, Berger asserted, because new procedures are in place that require intelligence checks with the State Department and CIA before foreign visitors are admitted to the White House.

Clinton insisted on tightening the controls, Berger told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

At a hearing on campaign finance abuse, Berger was forced to defend not only administration policy but his own activities, when he was deputy national security adviser during Clinton’s first term.

Republicans chided Berger for allowing his photo to be taken with a Democratic contributor in October 1995, and his attendance at weekly campaign strategy meetings in 1996.