Clinton Will Refuse To Turn Over Report On Secret Arms Shipments
The White House will assert executive privilege and refuse to give Congress a secret internal report on President Clinton’s 1994 decision to do nothing about weapons shipments from Iran to Bosnian Muslims, senior administration officials said on Tuesday.
At least six congressional committees are contemplating hearings on the president’s decision. The claim of executive privilege appears likely to anger Congress and provide ammunition for Clinton’s opponents in the 1996 presidential election.
Every American president since Jimmy Carter has been bedeviled by Iran. Now it is Clinton’s turn.
Congressional Republicans say they received detailed CIA reports on arms shipments to the badly outgunned Bosnian Muslims in the spring and summer of 1994. Many wanted to help the Muslims, despite a United Nations arms embargo that the administration publicly supported at the time.
But they say Clinton deceived them by not telling them that he tacitly approved the shipments.
“There was no secret that the shipments were taking place,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“The secret was the U.S. involvement, the secret conduct that was different from the open policy.”
Throughout 1994, newspapers reported that Iran was shipping arms by air and sea to the Bosnian Muslims through Croatia.
The Bosnians publicly acknowledged it, the CIA confirmed it to Congress, and administration officials told reporters that they tacitly accepted but did not support or assist the flights.
But an article in The Los Angeles Times on April 5 said that Clinton “directly participated” in the decision to tell Croatia that the United States would stand by as Iran defied the embargo.
In an election year, the issue took on a political life of its own. Sen. Bob Dole, who had sponsored legislation to lift the embargo, has called the President’s conduct as bad as the Reagan administration’s secret arms shipments to Iran.
xxxx THE REPORT The internal investigation by the presidential Intelligence Oversight Board found no violations of law, but it criticized excessive secrecy, which kept the CIA and Congress in the dark.