-Caveat Lector-
October 26, 2000
State admits details kept secret
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
State Department officials admitted yesterday that details of
secret deals between Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime
Minister Victor Chernomyrdin were kept from Congress.
But they insisted that the overall "understandings" with Moscow
helped curb weapons transfers to Iran despite an apparent
violation of a 1992 law sponsored by Mr. Gore himself.
"Of course certain sensitive documents were classified and were
closely held in the executive branch � that is before they were
published in the newspaper," said John P. Barker, deputy
assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation.
"This is the common practice for all administrations on very
sensitive diplomatic negotiations. But the thrust of these
documents was widely telegraphed to both the Congress and the
American people."
But Mr. Gore's secret Russian deals may not be "fully consistent
with U.S. law," said Sen. Gordon H. Smith, Oregon Republican,
referring to the Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act of 1992,
which he noted "the vice president himself introduced during his
years in the Senate."
Mr. Gore's secret deal with Russia to circumvent U.S. laws
requiring sanctions for sales of conventional arms to Iran was
reported Oct. 13 by the New York Times.
The Washington Times reported Oct. 17 that Mr. Gore had struck
a similar deal with Russia covering nuclear sales to Iran, and
published excerpts of a letter from Mr. Chernomyrdin stating that
terms of the agreement were "not to be conveyed to third parties,
including the U.S. Congress."
Mr. Barker and other State Department officials testified before
a joint hearing of two Senate Foreign Relations subcommittees
that disclosures of Mr. Gore's back-channel agreements with the
Russians had undermined diplomacy.
"Classified documents are appearing in the press as photo
inserts, and our negotiating strategy with Russia on sensitive
national security matters is being compromised by discussing
these matters in public," Mr. Barker said.
The "aide-memoire" of Mr. Gore's 1995 agreement with Mr.
Chernomyrdin, stamped "secret," states that Russia would end
conventional arms sales to Iran by Dec. 31, 1999. It also
obligates the United States not to impose penalties under
"domestic law" for the arms sales.
At yesterday's hearing of the subcommittees on Near East affairs
and European affairs, State Department officials said in a
prepared statement that provisions of the deals to keep details
secret from Congress "had no effect" and did not constitute a
secret pact kept from Congress.
The department notified the Russians before and after the letter
that Congress would be briefed and were told the Russians agreed.
However, the statement also noted that "we agreed that we would
do this in a confidential manner as we do for many negotiations."
"A partisan brawl that drags legitimately classified material
into the newspapers as photo insets can only benefit Iran and
those forces in Moscow most hostile to our objectives," said
Joseph DeThomas, a second State Department nonproliferation
official.
"If these arrangements are not in place, Iran will be in a
position to acquire new weapons and a wide array of sensitive
nuclear technology. That will not be in the interests of future
administrations of either party or the American people."
But former Secretary of State George P. Shultz said yesterday
the sales "upset the strategic balance" in the region and posed a
"real threat" to U.S. forces there.
In an interview with reporters arranged by the presidential
campaign of Republican George W. Bush, Mr. Shultz also said the
deal reflected poorly on Mr. Gore's supposed foreign policy
expertise.
"His foreign policy experience is experience with catastrophe,"
Mr. Shultz said of Mr. Gore. "Somehow the administration
decided to make the vice president sort of the point man [with
Russia]. I think the whole handling of our relationship with
Russia for the past six or seven years has been bad."
Mr. Smith, a subcommittee chairman, said the Gore-Chernomyrdin
agreement was not shared with Congress and "raises disquieting
questions about the administration's commitment to forging a
bipartisan foreign policy."
"Such bipartisanship cannot be achieved when the president
develops and implements an initiative in secret, and keeps hidden
crucial details from the American people and their
representatives in Congress," the Oregon Republican said. "When
congressmen and senators have to turn to newspapers as opposed to
the White House to be fully informed on U.S. foreign policy, this
is not right."
"What we do know about the Gore-Chernomyrdin agreement and its
implications for our interests abroad is disturbing," he said.
"This agreement reportedly may have limited our response to
Russia's arms sales to Iran, a country which is a significant
sponsor of international terrorism directed against the West and
its allies."
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, said he views the
disclosures about the deals as politically motivated because of
the timing so close to Election Day. "I hope this is not going
to turn into something that is more political than substantive,"
Mr. Biden said.
Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican, said a check of committee
records shows the panel never had a briefing "on the existence of
a legally binding international agreement with the Russians."
Since the 1995 agreement, Mr. Smith noted, Russia delivered an
advanced Kilo-class submarine and long-range torpedoes and
anti-ship mines.
"It is an understatement to say that the secrecy with which the
administration has handled the Gore-Chernomyrdin agreement, and
the legalisms employed to justify it over the last week, indeed
over the last five years, has fostered a measure of distrust
between the executive and legislative branches of government,"
Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Barker also denied that a January letter from Secretary of
State Madeleine K. Albright to Russian Foreign Minister Igor
Ivanov, first reported Oct. 17 in The Washington Times, was
evidence that U.S. sanctions would have been imposed under U.S.
law but for the 1995 deal.
"The fact is that Secretary Albright's letter was intended to
deliver a stern warning that failure to abide by the restrictions
embodied in the aide-memoire regarding arms sales to Iran could
have serious consequences, including the possibility of
sanctions," he said.
The State Department officials insisted that Russian arms sales
to Iran were not covered by the 1992 law that requires imposing
sanctions for transfers of destabilizing weapons to Iran, or a
1996 amendment to another law requiring sanctions for arms
transfers to terrorist states.
"It has always been the case that the transfers subject to the
aide-memoire do not trigger U.S. sanctions laws," Mr. Barker
said. "There were no sanctions to impose. So in fact we have
never taken any steps to avoid penalties against the Russians for
transfers in the pipeline. That was our conclusion in 1995; it
still stands today."
Mr. Barker said breaches of secrecy in the U.S.-Russian deals
have put "these understandings . . . at risk."
"Playing this out in public can only have a chilling effect of
the ability of any administration � this administration and any
future administrations � to continue this process, and could
seriously undermine U.S. national security," he said.
Mr. Smith criticized the officials for their failure to brief
Congress. "They've used the word that they 'telegraphed' to
Congress what it is we were supposed to know," Mr. Smith said.
"I hope there is a precedent that comes out of this that
'telegraphing' through the media isn't enough to comply with U.S.
law. There are other ways in which this is supposed to happen."
Mr. Brownback said he wants to see the documents that were kept
from Congress.
Regarding Mrs. Albright's letter, Mr. Brownback said: "I see no
other way to read [it] except as a blatant admission that this
administration concluded a secret agreement with Russia in which
it promised to ignore U.S. nonproliferation laws."
A law requiring all international agreements to be transmitted to
Congress also "appears to have been broken," Mr. Brownback said.
� Dave Boyer contributed to this report.
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