-Caveat Lector- http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001020/wl/us_turkey_armenia_2 .html Friday October 20 9:35 AM ET Hastert Shelves Genocide Measure By SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton (news - web sites)'s intercession scuttled a House resolution that would have labelled a nearly century-old mass killing of Armenians in Turkey as genocide. House Speaker Dennis Hastert shelved the measure Thursday - just hours before a scheduled House vote - after a letter arrived from Clinton cautioning that it could affect national security. Clinton said a vote on the resolution ``could have far-reaching negative consequences for the United States.'' ``The president believes that passage of this resolution may adversely impact the situation in the Middle East and risk the lives of Americans,'' Hastert, R-Ill., said in a statement. ``Every patriotic American should heed the president's request.'' After the decision, Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem told private TV news channel: ``It is the correction of an error, it is the prevention of a situation which would have overshadowed Turkish- American relations.'' Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered as part of the Ottoman Empire's campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923. Turkey, a key U.S. military ally and NATO (news - web sites) member, says the death count is inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell civil unrest. The Ottoman Empire became Turkey in 1923. Turkish officials have said U.S. adoption of the resolution could harm the close relationship between the two nations. Some repercussions already have been felt since the House International Relations Committee approved the resolution earlier this month: -Turkish legislators threatened not to renew the mandate for U.S. forces patrolling northern Iraq. -Turkey's top general, Huseyin Kivrikoglu, cancelled a trip to the United States to meet with Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. -Turkey stopped issuing tourist visas to Armenians trying to cross the border between the countries. The United States uses the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey to patrol the no-fly zone in northern Iraq, and Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has called Clinton to express concern over the measure. ``I think it's outrageous that the Clinton administration has bowed to these threats from Turkey. ... It sets a very dangerous precedent,'' said Ross Vartian, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America. Heightened tensions in the Middle East over the terrorist bombing in Yemen of the USS Cole, in which 17 sailors were killed,and violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians have made the situation even more sensitive. Clinton's letter urged the speaker ``in the strongest possible terms'' not to bring the legislation to the floor. He cited America's interest in containing Saddam Hussein, working for peace and stability in the Middle East, stabilizing the Balkans, and other concerns. American interests could be harmed if the measure were brought to a vote, the president said. Though nonbinding, the measure would have put the House on record as siding with the Armenians in the long-running dispute. House Republicans had advanced the bill toward the floor in large measure to help GOP Rep. Jim Rogan, whose district's voters are nearly 8 percent of Armenian ethnicity, in his difficult re-election contest after serving as a House manager in Clinton's impeachment. - ### The press is the hired agent of a monied system and set up for no other purpose than to tell lies wherever its interests are involved. -The Letters of Henry Adams, Vol. II, p. 99. p244 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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