-Caveat Lector- December 29, 1998 With No Decency By ANTHONY LEWIS BOSTON -- In 1994, when Bosnia was nearly crushed by the attacking Serbs, President Clinton decided to make no objection if Croatia violated a U.N. embargo by letting arms go through to the Bosnians. Our Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, was told to say -- if President Franjo Tudjman asked whether we objected -- that he had "no instructions" on the point. Mr. Tudjman asked, got the answer and let the arms through. They made a crucial difference in saving Sarajevo and Bosnia. Two years later The Los Angeles Times told the story, emphasizing that some of the arms had come from Iran. Senator Bob Dole, the prospective Republican candidate for President, demanded an investigation. Speaker Newt Gingrich appointed a special subcommittee with a $1 million budget. He named as chairman Representative Henry Hyde. There was in fact no mystery to investigate, and no failure. Ambassador Galbraith and others involved testified freely about what they had done -- without regrets, because the policy had been a great success. Bosnia survived. So did the new Muslim-Croat Federation brought into being by the United States. The military balance shifted against the Serbs, making possible the Dayton Accords. They paved the way for the expulsion of Iranian agents from Bosnia. But Henry Hyde was determined to find something that could be called wrongdoing. So the committee pursued, among other things, a report that Ambassador Galbraith had dated an American journalist while he and she were in Croatia. Both were single, so the most prurient bluenose could not have objected. But committee investigators deposed Mr. Galbraith's secretary and a member of his staff to get details of the relationship -- until a lawyer objected. Mr. Galbraith was also questioned about how he had been told what to say to Mr. Tudjman. A White House assistant had telephoned, he said, passing on word from Anthony Lake, the President's national security adviser, to say that he had "no instructions." The assistant added that Mr. Lake had said it with a smile and a raised eyebrow, Mr. Galbraith testified, saying that he had made a note of that. The committee then questioned Mr. Lake and his assistant, and they said they could not remember the smile and raised eyebrow. Mr. Hyde and his committee, implying that Mr. Galbraith had made that up, referred his testimony to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. Why mention that two-year-old investigation now? Because it shows how petty, nasty and partisan Henry Hyde was in a situation where no wrong had been done. His purpose was to find something -- anything -- to discredit the Clinton Administration in an election year. If individuals were hurt, their reputations damaged for no reason, so be it. Casual McCarthyism. When the House Judiciary Committee started its impeachment inquiry, the Washington press corps trotted out its usual adjectives for chairman Hyde: grandfatherly, nonpartisan. In reality, Mr. Hyde performed exactly as he had in 1996: as a relentless partisan. When Salon, an Internet magazine, broke the news that Mr. Hyde had had a five- year affair with a married woman starting when he was 41, Republican leaders reacted with outrage, demanding an F.B.I. investigation of how the truth had been told. They can dish it out, but they think they should be immune to such attacks themselves. The press made little of Mr. Hyde's hypocrisy in that episode. Nor has it done much with the discovery that Representative Bob Barr, a leading advocate of impeachment, and Trent Lott, the Senate majority leader, spoke to a virulent racist group: something more deplorable than anything President Clinton has done. But the public understands. I think that is one large reason why an overwhelming majority continues to support President Clinton. Most Americans did not like the vengeful partisan tone of the impeachment process. They did not like Kenneth Starr's bullying of Monica Lewinsky and her mother, or his prying into the most private side of their lives, or his publishing of gratuitous sexual detail. They understood that breaking down the wall between private and public life is the hallmark of tyranny. In all of this the American sense of fair play was offended. And as Joe McCarthy learned, you offend that at your peril. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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