-Caveat Lector-
Thursday, 15 February 2001 20:39 (ET)
Rabbi: 'Marc Rich pardon was bought'
NEW YORK, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- The head of the largest Jewish
denomination in the United States Thursday criticized Jewish
leaders who lobbied in favor of a pardon for Marc Rich calling it
a "moral stain" for Jews.
"Charged with massive tax evasion and breaking an embargo on
trading with Iran, Rich is a multimillionaire fugitive from
justice who lives in luxury in Switzerland," Rabbi Eric Yoffie,
president of Reform Judaism's Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, wrote in an op-ed piece in the New York-based
Jewish Week. "I am in no position to judge Rich's legal claims,
but neither are the many Jewish leaders and luminaries who
contacted President Clinton in support of the pardon."
"Why their interest in a man who appears to have traded
illegally not only with Iran but with Iraq and Libya, rogue
states devoted to Israel's destruction? The answer is simple:
They were bought," added Yoffie. "Rich contributed generously to
Jewish causes and charities around the world, and then, in a
carefully orchestrated campaign, called in favors to put pressure
on the president."
A last-minute presidential pardon was given by Bill Clinton on
the day he left office last month to fugitive financier Marc Rich
who fled the country in the 1980s before he was charged with 51
counts of tax evasion and fraud.
"President Clinton was a good friend of the Jews, but many of
his last-minute pardons were simply outrageous," Yoffie said.
"Among the most indefensible were those granted to Jews, but
scarcely a voice of Jewish protest has been heard."
In a terse statement released Thursday, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo
White in Manhattan, who was appointed by Clinton in 1993, said
her office and the FBI "have opened an investigation to determine
whether there have been any violations of federal law" in the
pardons of Rich and his partner, Pincus Green.
Clinton denied any wrongdoing in a statement issued through his
transition office spokeswoman, Julia Payne, late Wednesday.
"As I have said repeatedly, I made the decision to pardon Marc
Rich based on what I thought was the right thing to do," Clinton
said. "Any suggestion that improper factors, including
fund-raising for the party (Democratic National Committee) or my
library, had anything to do with the decision are absolutely
false. I look forward to cooperating with any appropriate
inquiry."
According to press reports, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak called President Clinton twice, Jerusalem's Mayor Ehud
Olmert wrote the president, and dozens of Jewish and Israeli
philanthropists added their support to the Rich pardon.
Rich donated about $200 million to causes in Israel in the last
15 years, a source who did not want to be identified, told United
Press International.
Rabbi Irving Greenberg, chairman of the Holocaust Memorial
Council, the governing board of the Holocaust Museum in
Washington, D.C., made a serious error when he sent a letter to
President Clinton on council stationery, according to Yoffie.
"Rabbi Greenberg is giving no interviews," museum spokesman,
Arthur Berger, told UPI. "But on Jan. 31, he went to the
governing council and took full responsibility for writing the
letter on council stationery, and apologized to the council."
-- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights
reserved.
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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