-Caveat Lector-
>From the Irish Times
{{<Begin>}}
Saturday, October 9, 1999
Anger over Clinton's
'drunks' remarks
By Joe Carroll, in Washington
President Clinton has compared the unionist and nationalist parties in Northern
Ireland to "a couple of drunks". Reaction was swift and strong but a White
House source said "no offence" was intended. His comments appear to be a sign
of his increasing frustration over the impasse in the peace process.
Last night, Mr Clinton apologised for the comment.
"Earlier today, in the discussion of the Irish peace process, I used a metaphor
that was inappropriate," he said in a statement read by his press secretary, Mr
Joe Lockhart. "I want to express my regret for any offence my remarks caused."
Mr Clinton, who was opening a new US embassy in Canada, cited Ireland as one of
the troubled areas of the world where he has been trying to make peace between
different religious and ethnic groups.
"I spent an enormous amount of time trying to help the people in the land of my
forebears, in Northern Ireland, get over 600 years of religious fights," Mr
Clinton told several hundred people at the embassy ceremony. "And every time
they make an agreement to do it, they're like a couple of drunks walking out of
the bar for the last time. When they get to the swinging door, they turn right
around and go back in and say, `I just can't quite get there'. "
The Democratic Unionist Party leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, called on Mr Clinton
to withdraw his remarks.
"I would like to repudiate the insult that he bestowed on the people of
Northern Ireland . . . Maybe the people from Ulster he associates with like too
much drink but the ordinary decent and long-suffering people of Northern
Ireland will see Bill Clinton for the fraud that he is. He has never really
cared for the people of Northern Ireland. He is patronising and he is in no
position to hand out any advice on morality to anyone."
Comparing the present situation to a "couple of drunks" is a heightening of the
language which Mr Clinton has been using to describe the impasse in the peace
process. Last August, at a fundraising function for Northern Ireland, he said
the two communities there were like "two kids standing on a big old diving
board, holding hands . . . and daring each other to go first".
In July, when talks broke down, Mr Clinton said "the idea that this whole thing
could fall apart over an argument about who goes first sounds more reminiscent
of something that might happen to these young people in their school careers
six or seven years earlier in their lives".
Whatever the image used, it is clear the President finds the impasse in the
peace process extremely frustrating. Following the Belfast Agreement last year,
Mr Clinton frequently cited it as an example of a successful peacemaking effort
by himself.
The SDLP said it could well understand the frustration betrayed in Mr Clinton's
remark. An Assembly member for the party, Mr Se�n Farren, said: "Despite the
manner of the remarks, they underline the frustration and impatience which
exist in the United States and elsewhere. In making them, Mr Clinton has
emphasised the need for all the pro-agreement parties to be aware of the extent
to which the international community has invested time, effort and personnel in
the peace process here.
"I can well understand Mr Clinton's frustration. While the manner in which he
expressed it might be described as whimsical, the message itself has been
received."
{{<End>}}
And, then, and, then ... along came:
>From Insight Magazine
{{<Begin>}}
Vol. 15, No. 40 -- November 1, 1999
Published Date October 8, 1999, in Washington, D.C.
www.insightmag.com
A Sad Connection for the Clintons
By Jennifer G. Hickey
hen Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on Sept. 2 their decision to
purchase a five-bedroom Dutch colonial mansion in Chappaqua, N.Y., the press
focused immediately on how they were going to pay for it. Although the Clintons
have assets worth an estimated $1.5 million, the couple's seemingly unending
need for legal representation has left them with nearly $5.5 million in legal
bills. So, a financial SOS was sent out to their rich friends.
. . . . Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former treasury
secretary Robert Rubin both were capable of financing the little palace on Old
House Lane but thought better of getting involved in a land deal with the
Clintons. Then Terence McAuliffe, neck deep in fund-raising for the scandalous
1996 Clinton-Gore campaign, volunteered to put up $1.35 million with Bankers
Trust as collateral for the Clinton loan.
. . . . After a month of listening to industry experts, public-interest groups
and the press wax suspicious about "conflicts of interest" and "ethical
improprieties," the McAuliffe offer was called off but Bankers Trust went ahead
with the Clinton loan under still-secret arrangements.
. . . . Lost in the smoke (and mirrors) of McAuliffe's involvement was the June
acquisition of Bankers Trust by Germany's Deutsche Bank -- a takeover that
almost did not come to fruition as a result of the German bank's less-than-
reputable past.
. . . . After the dissolution of the Communist Bloc, many of the secrets of
World War II were revealed, namely the role of certain banks in minding the
profits made by Nazis during Hitler's rule. This year has seen class-action
lawsuits filed against a handful of German companies with Nazi-era ties.
Documents obtained in the discovery period of a lawsuit involving Austrian
banks revealed that Deutsche Bank financed the construction of Auschwitz
concentration camp in Poland, as well as other Nazi projects.
. . . . At the time, the Clinton State Department said the takeover of Bankers
Trust by Deutsche Bank should be considered on its merits "and not burdened by
other issues." (You know, like financing Auschwitz.) The objections of New York
officials were overcome when the bank joined other German companies in the
establishment of a $1.7 billion fund to make reparations and finance future
education programs concerning the Holocaust.
. . . . But the issue of Deutsche Bank and its Nazi-era past should have made
news again and not slipped under the radar screen of Washington's politically
correct reporters when it started doing favors for the Clintons. Meanwhile the
State Department this week has been hosting negotiations between Jewish
organizations and the German Enterprise Foundation, a corporate consortium that
includes Deutsche Bank. The consortium has offered a $3 billion settlement --
not enough according to the claimants' lawyers.
. . . . As recently as Oct. 5, Deutsche Bank again made the news without
raising the eyebrow of a single media outlet concerning that Clinton "loan,"
not even one in New York where Hillary Clinton is listening for senator. The
World Council of Orthodox Jewish Communities filed a class-action lawsuit in
federal court in New York solely against Deutsche Bank. Rabbi Morris Shmidman,
executive director of the World Council, called for Deutsche Bank to "take
responsibility for its participation in Nazi atrocities." But he is not calling
for a boycott and tells Insight he does not see the Clinton loan "as a
particular issue" nor does he want "to open the political floodgates."
. . . . B'nai B'rith took a public role by buying ads during the week of Oct. 4
drawing attention to businesses with Nazi skeletons in their closets. And one
attorney, New York lawyer Mel Weiss, charged the companies with using stall
tactics to delay payment to the former slave laborers, whose average age is 80.
"Soon there will be no one alive to apologize to," he said at the State
Department conference. That $1.7 billion fund for reparations has been
established by 12 German companies, including Deutsche Bank, but some reject
the notion that they should have to pay more for U.S. court cases.
. . . . Meanwhile, the preferred bank of the Clintons also has some less-
controversial legal problems. Bankers Trust pleaded guilty in March in U.S.
District Court to three felony counts of making false entries in the bank
records and was fined $60 million. Between 1994 and 1995, former Bankers Trust
senior-ranking officials diverted an estimated $19.1 million in unclaimed
assets into income.
. . . . The Clinton administration became involved when it was determined that
some of the funds originated from employee-benefit plans. In an agreement
reached with the Labor Department, Deutsche Bank will hire a "special master"
to ensure that executives of the former Bankers Trust are thoroughly
investigated concerning the illegal transfers. How reassuring!
. . . . Sometimes we in the press are so focused on beating our competitors to
the punch that we fail to see the forest for the trees. Can that be the reason
why the business and political press have all but completely missed that the
Clintons' secret deal on their New York mortgage is with an institution in
trouble with the government and owned by a Nazi-tainted German bank that
financed the building of the Auschwitz death camp?
Copyright � 1999 News World Communications, Inc.
{{<End>}}
A<>E<>R
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