WASHINGTON (AP)—Huddling
in the White House Situation Room
with his top foreign policy team,
President Clinton was briefed today on
the embassy' bombings investigation as
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
undertook the sad mission of returning
the remains of U.S. victims.
A White House spokesman said
American investigators expected to ques
tion suspects newly arrested in Kenya.
The president would ask Congress for
emergency supplemental funds to rebuild
the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and
beef up embassy security worldwide,
added spokesman PJ. Crowley.
“It’s a clear statement we want to
make, both to the perpetrators of this
attack and to the world that we’re not
going to create a fortress America.
We’re not going to retreat from the
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ing Clinton’s private meetings.
He spoke as Kenyan officials
announced that a number of people
were arrested in Kenya for questioning.
“If this is true, these are not the first
suspects that have been detained. We
have had and would expect to have
access to all of die suspects that have
been detained,” Crowley said.
Albright arrived at Ramstein Air
Base in Germany this afternoon and
planned to visit 10 hospitalized
Americans and Kenyans injured in the
bombing of the U.S. Embassy in
Nairobi. She was then to fly directly
home today with the remains of 10 of
the 12 Americans who were killed.
Three Americans injured in Tanzania
were sent to South Africa and London
foi treatment.
“I go secure in the knowledge that
America will never be intimidated or
back down in die face of terrorists,” she
declared just before leaving Andrews
Air Force Base, Md.
She said those she will escort home
today represent “the very best of
Americans. They were typical of the extra
ordinary people who protect our interests
and promote our values in American
diplomatic outposts around the word”
Albright said Tuesday she planned
to go to Kenya and Tanzania as soon as
she could be sure her presence would
not hamper rescue and recovery efforts.
President and Mrs. Clinton will
attend a ceremony at Andrews today
honoring the victims.
On die eve of Albright’s departure,
the State Department announced "there
may be a threat to U.S. interests in
Egypt, Malaysia and Yemen that could
include attacks on buildings.”
Americans in the three countries were
advisedto be careful A seniorUS. official
told The Associated Press the statement
was based on “credible information,” but
declined to provide father details.
Diplomats working in outlying
buildings were moved into the fortified
embassy in Cairo, Egypt In Kuwait, the
U.S. Embassy closed for a day for a
review of security. And there was evi
dence of heightened security at other
posts around the globe.
Operations at the embassies in Yemen
and Cape Verde were reduced to provide
only emergency services, a U.S. official
said Wednesday. The official said the aim
was to lower the U.S. profile temporarily.
Nearly simultaneous attacks Friday at
die US. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
claimed at least 250 lives and injured
nearly 5,000. Investigators suspect the
powerful explosive Semtex was used in
the attacks, but no link has been found to
any particular group, another senior U.S.
official toldThe Associated Press.
Responding to increased threats,
American ambassadors have temporari
ly suspended operations at about half a
dozen embassies, and Undersecretary
of State Thomas Pickering said Tuesday
some embassies would have to be relo
cated to guard against terrorist attacks.
“We have to make sure all our
embassies can meet an adequate stan
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Press. After going to Ccaigress for the nec
essary money, “This is going to require
relocating sane embassies right away, arid
putting the rest in appropriate locations.”
The embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania, which sustained massive
damage in Friday’s attacks, will have to
be rebuilt as well.
Pickering said he had no “clear
insight” into what FBI and other inves
tigators may have turned up. “They
aren’t telling us,” he said. T don’t think
at this stage they are ruling anything in
or out”
The veteran diplomat, who has
served as U.S. ambassador to Russia,
India and the United Nations, said the
United States intended “to stay open for
business and to protect its people.”
He likened die struggle with terror
ists to “a kind^fbatfle, a kind of war. It’s
like battling wilh cancer.”
Assistant Secretary of State Patrick
Kennedy said, meanwhile, that about
half a dozen embassies had suspended
operations after the attacks in Kenya
and Tanzania. American ambassadors
are authorized to suspend embassy
operations, based on their judgment.
“We are not shutting the embassies
down in a permanent sense,” Kennedy
said. “We are not leaving. We are taking,
in effect, a brief time-out in order to
make the security adjustments that are
necessary to be responsive to a threat”
Kennedy did not identify any of the
closed embassies, but it is known that
the U.S. Embassy in Swaziland was
evacuated for several hours Tuesday
morning alter a caller phoned in a bomb
threat A subsequent search found noth
ing, an official said.
The U.S. Embassy in Kampala,
Uganda, remained closed for a second
day Tuesday, and Ugandan and U.S.
security personnel were on high alert
In Malaysia, the U.S. Embassy
closed its iron gates for all but emer
gency services for U.S. citizens, and
armed guards on 24-hour watch circled
die U.S. diplomatic compound in Kuala
Lumpur.
Press leaks
defended
by Starr
WASHINGTON (AP)—Trying to
halt a judge’s investigation into whether,
he leaked grand jury evidence to th|
news media, Independent Counsel
Kenneth Starr suggested that his cojai-.
tacts with reporters be treated the same
as those with confidential informers. /
Starr argued that he could not dis- *
close evidence of his office’s contacts
with reporters “without revealing con
fidential investigative information,”
court documents now made public
show.
To bolster the argument, die prose
cutor cited a 1981 court case that estab
lished an “informers privilege” that
allows the government to keep secret
the identity of a person who furnished
information about criminal activities to
protect them from possible retribution.
“Long recognized at common law,
the informer’s privilege serves impor
tant individual and societal interests in
protecting the anonymity of citizens
who cooperate in law enforcement,”
Starr wrote in quoting the 17-year-old
case.
He was seeking to block a judge’s
order that he turn over evidence of his
office’s contacts with reporters.
Sections of Starr’s arguments were
redacted in the court papers released
last week that detail die secretly fought
battle over alleged leaks. Charles
Bakaly, Starr’s spokesman, declined
comment Wednesday.
But legal sources outside the prose
cutor^ office familiar with the proceed
ings said Starr specifically applied the
argument to reporters, saying he want
ed to keep confidential the information
received from reporters and their identi
ties. The legal sources demanded
anonymity.
Starrs suggestion was criticized by
two former independent counsels. It
also raised concerns among news
media experts.
* President Clinton’s lawyer, who is
battling Starr in the leaks case, scoffed
at the argument in his own reply to the
court. Attorney David Kendall said
most of the examples that Johnson
found were evidence of improper leaks
occurred at a time early in the Lewinsky
investigation when prosecutors, not
reporters, possessed the most informa
tion
“A number of the most egregious
apparent violations occurred in the very
early days of the investigation and sug
gests little prospect hat the press was
providing to” Starr’s office, Kendall
wrote.
Starr has denied violating court
rules hat prohibit prosecutors from dis
closing the evidence and proceedings
of a grand jury investigation. He said
while he did not violate hose rules, his
office needed to talk to reporters at
times to correct misinformation that
could affect the investigation.
But Johnson ruled hat there was
evidence of “serious and repetitive”
disclosures of secret grand jury infor
mation from his investigation and
ordered Starr to fiice a hearing to argue
why he shouldn’t be found in contempt
ofcourt