-Caveat Lector-
GAO Probes Vandalism by Clinton White House
Wednesday, June 6, 2001
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The General Accounting Office is opening an
investigation into reports of White House vandalism by the departing
Clinton administration, officials from the agency said Tuesday.
GAO officials said they planned to look at a newly disclosed list of
damages and conduct interviews with aides to the former and present
presidents to substantiate reports by Bush officials that Clinton
staffers trashed the White House grounds as they left in January.
"It's probably going to be a laborious, time-consuming process," said
Bernard Ungar, GAO's director of physical infrastructure, who pointed to
a list of alleged damages the White House aired over the weekend, which
the GAO has the task of proving at the request of Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga.
Ungar, whose agency acts as the investigative arm of Congress, told
Barr last week that the congressman's initial request for an
investigation into reports of White House vandalism was a dead letter
because the White House could provide no written record of damages.
Then, over the weekend, as former Clinton officials demanded an apology
from the Bush administration in the absence of proof of vandalism, White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer offered a list to the Washington Post.
Ungar said the White House was preparing an official list of damages
for his office, which could begin looking over the claims as soon as
late Tuesday.
"Now there's a list, that kind of changed our approach," Ungar said.
"At least now there's a place to start."
Ungar said the first step would be to compare the list of damages with
White House maintenance logs, which the GAO previously ruled out as
sources of evidence because the White House said they lacked detail.
Ungar said GAO investigators would use interviews to try to fill any
gaps in evidence between the maintenance logs and the list of damages.
He also opened the possibility of subpoenas, but said so far the White
House had promised to cooperate openly.
The inquiry would be the first congressional investigation ordered
during Bush's tenure as president.
Ungar also said his team would look into the previous transition in
1992, when former President George Bush lost the White House to Clinton,
to provide a "balanced presentation" of any findings.
Reports of "pranks" and crimes by staffers of the outgoing White House
circulated widely in the media shortly after Bush took office in
January. Fleischer and other White House officials suggested that
Clinton staffers were responsible for a wide array of damages they said
they found upon coming into the White House. They did not offer concrete
proof of vandalism, however, because they said Bush wanted to put the
matter to rest.
The story fizzled when Clinton called for a list of damages and the
costs, and offered to pay for any needed repairs. The Bush White House
then began dampening media speculation about the report.
Meanwhile, acting on Barr's initial request, the GAO looked into the
allegations, asking the White House administrative offices and the
General Services Administration for any records of the alleged damages.
Neither office offered any written proof, and Fleischer said the White
House's efforts to catalogue the damages stopped at mental notes made by
White House administrative staff.
Those mental notes, made by an individual who the White House has
refused to name, became the basis for Fleischer's list, which was
apparently drafted Friday for the first time. The list of vandalism,
which reportedly occurred mostly in the Eisenhower Executive Office
Building, includes a presidential seal torn from a wall, vulgar graffiti
in six offices, profane voice mail recordings on 15 phone lines, 10
phone lines cut and 100 broken computer keyboards.
Claire Buchan, a Bush administration spokeswoman, said the White House
counsel's office had photographs of the vandalism, but did not explain
why they were not offered to the GAO when the agency first requested
proof of vandalism.
"If the GAO would like more information, we would be happy to complete
a list and be helpful," Buchan said. "We stand by that list as provided
to us by those involved in cleaning up and preparing the offices."
Ungar said he had seen the White House photographs, which surfaced on
Internet sites Tuesday. But he said the images showed only messy
conditions, not vandalism.
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
=======================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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