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Thursday, January 14,1999_ , _Page 2
Clinton: Focus on issi
_: ' VI- - V - -.1
President says his job takes priority over impeachment
WASHINGTON (AP) - On the eve of opening
arguments in his trial, President Clinton said
Wednesday he intends “to spend as little time
thinking about” his impeachment as possible and
fdtus instead on issues facing Americans.
House prosecutors made their first contact with
Monica Lewinsky’s lawyers, The Associated Press
learned. (
Two sources familiar with the situation, speak
ing on condition of anonymity, said a member of
the House prosecution team made the contact with
ip the previous 24 hours. They described it as an
“initial inquiry.”
One of the sources works in the House.
Lewinsky spokeswoman Judy Smith declined to
comment.
House prosecutors have made clear they would
like to call Lewinsky as a witness, but the senators
must give their permission first. The issue will be
resolved after both sides make their opening argu
ments.
The prosecution team also contacted Kathleen
Willey about a possible appearance as a witness.
A legal source, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said the conversation touched on her
allegation that Clinton made an unwanted sexual
advance, but mostly was about any possible intim
idation to get her to change her story.
Meanwhile, Clinton’s lawyers told senators in a
legal brief that they had an “obligation to turn away
an unwise and unwarranted” House impeachment
that threatens the American democracy.
“The vote die American people rendered ... is
hanging in the balance,” presidential lawyers said
in their trial brief, arguing that there are no legal,
constitutional or factual grounds for removal of the
president
“There is strong agreement among constitu
tional and legal scholars and historians that the
substance of the articles does not amount to
impeachable offenses,” die attorneys wrote:
They said the allegations “do not begin to satis
fy the stringent showing required by our Founding
Fathers to remove a duly elected president from
office, either as a matter of fact or law.”
Clinton spoke for the first time about the crisis
since his impeachment last month: “I think the
Senate has to deal with that. We filed our brief
today. It makes our case. The important thing for
me is to spend as little time thinking about that as
possible and as much time working on the issues
we are here to discuss.
“They have their job to do in the Senate and I
have mine and I intend to do it,” he said.
The president indicated he has no plans to
address the impeachment matter in his State of the
Union speech Jan. 19.
“I think the American people have heard about
that quite extensively, and my understanding is that
I should do their business,” he said.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., suggested
today that Clinton should delay his State of the
Union speech “because of the awkwardness” of the
timing.
A number of Republicans also have asked him
to postpone the speech, but White House officials
have said repeatedly it will go on as scheduled.
Haitian president
denies democracy
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -
With the stroke of a pen, Haiti’s presi
dent has swept aside a democracy only
recently restored by a U.S. invasion
and imposed one-man rule, defenders
of Haiti’s constitution charged
Wednesday.
President Rene Preval also may
have ushered in another era of instabil
ity for Haiti, a fear underscored by a
brazen attack Tuesday on his sister.
Preval said late Monday that he
will create a new government by
decree. The next afternoon, motorcy
cle gunmen shot his sister and killed
her driver.
The motive for the shooting was
unknown, and there have been no
arrests. Marie-Claude Calvin was in
stable condition Wednesday after
surgery for gunshots.
Preval’s announcement aimed to
break a 17-month stalemate that has
left the impoverished Caribbean
nation without a budget or a function
ing government. Preval’s foes in par
liament have spumed four successive
nominees for premier since Rosny
Smarth resigned in June 1997.
“Preval has staged a coup d’etat to
establish a dictatorship,” said
Myrlande Manigat, an expert in con
stitutional law. “There are many kinds
of coups - not only military.”
Lawmakers protested Preval’s
decision, but most Haitians are so dis
illusioned with their dysfunctional
system that few rallied to the cause.
After months of squabbling, par
liament lost the support of Haitians
since it did not lift them out of poverty
- and even earned their enmity by
passing an internationally backed eco
nomic program that has put 5,000 state
employees out of work.
Also, Preval can count on die loy
alty of the 6,000-member police force.
Preval’s choice for premier -
Education Minister Jacques-Edouard
Alexis - will lead the National Police
Commission that controls die force.
Lawmakers balked at approving
Alexis as premier because he refused a
demand by the Struggling People’s
Organization, the majority party in
parliament, for six of 15 Cabinet posts.
Now, the majority party fears that
Preval will politicize the police, Denis
said, noting that Alexis’ Cabinet will
be dominated by sympathizers for for
mer president Jean-Bertrand Aristide
and that Aristide is running for presi
dent again in 2000 elections.
“Preval has implemented his plan
to clear the road to the dictatorship of
his mentor, Aristide,” Denis said
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Clinton, Russians clash
over weapons aid to Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) - Raising
the ante, the Clinton administration
Wednesday threatened to cut back or
even eliminate Russian launches of
American-made satellites as punish
ment for aiding Iran’s missile and
nuclear weapons programs.
When Russia’s quota for launches is
reviewed, “we will take into account
very seriously progress, if any, that we
have made in getting Russia to stop its
entities from supporting Iran’s missile
program,” State Department spokes
man James P. Rubin said.
The administration on Tuesday
imposed economic penalties on a
Russian university and two scientific
research institutes after concluding they
had assisted Iran in developing ballistic
missiles and nuclear weapons.
In response, Prime Minister
Yevgeny Primakov criticized the
Clinton administration on Wednesday,
saying, “Using force and exerting sanc
tions against our organizations is coun
terproductive for Russian-American
relations, which we consider very
important.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry
issued a statement that the sanctions
“can only complicate Russian
American relations.”
“Any attempts to speak tp us in the
language of sanctions and pressure are
absolutely unacceptable,” the ministry
said. “We intend to raise this issue ...
during Secretary of State Madeleine
«
Using force and
exerting sanctions
against our
organizations is
counterproductive for
Russian-American
relations.”
Yevgeny Primakov
Russian prime minister
Albright’s upcoming visit to Moscow,”
set for Jan. 25-27.
White House officials said Tuesday
that the administration intended to Keep
working with Russia to strengthen con
trols on exports. But on Wednesday, an
irritated State Department fired back an
accusation that die Kremlin turned its
bade on the problem.
Accusing die Russian government
of ignoring information provided by the
United States for months, Rubin said
“any suggestion on their part of surprise
or diplomatic precedent being some
how affected is simply untrue.”
In all, 12 Russian corporations and
institutions have been penalized for sell
ing materials and equipment to Iran.
Irish teen-ager creates new codes
to make e-mailing 10 times faster
BLARNEY, Ireland (AP) - A 16
year-old Irish schoolgirl may have mart*
e-mail even faster.
Sarah Flannery from Blarney, in
Ireland’s Cork County, is being hailed as
a mathematical genius for devising a
new code for sending electronic mail -
and is being flooded by job offers from
computer firms, the limes of London
said Wednesday.
Her new code is 10 times faster than
the current data protection code used for
e-mails, created by three students at the
Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology
in 1977, die paper said. Flannery’s code
is equally secure as well. f
Flannery, who unveiled the code to
amazed judges at the Irish Youngs
Scientists and Technology Exhibition
last weekend, said she is considering
publishing her discovery rather than
patenting it because she does not want
people to have to pay to use it
“1 had to go through a lot of stuff
before I finalized the theory,” said
Flannery, whose father, David, teaches
mathematics at Cork Institute of
Technology. “I reached critical points
where I would get stuck for three weeks
or so. I just kept thinking about it and
then the whole thing slipped into place.”
She will now represent Ireland in
the European Union Science Contest in
Greece in September.
The Times did not state whether she
would accept any of die job offers or any
of the numerous scholarships also
offered by universities. _
to Yugoslavia
Hostages released
LIKOVAC (AP) - Kosovo
rebels freed eight Yugoslav sol
diers Wednesday after getting pri
vate incentives from international
officials who were determined to
head off a return to war in the trou
bled Serbian p—"—
William Walker, ad
of international monitors in
Kosovo Announced the release -
ending a five-day showdown -
after a final flurry of talks with
Kosovo Liberation Army leaders
at the rebel stronghold of Likovac
in the hills of central Kosovo.
■ Washington, D.C.
Iraq attacked again
The Associated Press - For the
third straight day, American war
planes attacked air defense sites in
northern Iraq on Wednesday, and
the Clinton administration said
military pressure would continue
as long as Iraq kept threatening
U.S. pilots.
The string of confrontations in
Iraq - which began after a mid
December bombing campaign by
British and American forces and
has accelerated this week - is rais
ing speculation that President
Clinton might order a new bomb
ing campaign to silence fraq’s air
defenses.
■ England
Chilean input allowed
LONDON (AP) - The Chilean
government won permission
. Wednesday from the House of
Lords to participate in next week’s
hearing to determine whether Gen. -
Augusto Pinochet can be arrested
for crimes against humanity.
Three senior Law Lords took
only five minutes to decide it
would be wrong to exclude the
Chilean government from the new
legal proceedings, scheduled to
start Monday.
■China
Pirates seize ship
HONG KONG (AP) - Pirates
with submachine guns killed 23
sailors aboard a Panamanian-reg
istered ship bound for China,
dumped their bodies into the sea
and stole a cargo of mineral ore, a
newspaper reported Wednesday.
The 20,000-ton ship was en
route last month from Malaysia to
the southern Chinese city of
Guangzhou when its crew was
massacred by pirates who arrived
in a stolen high-speed boat, the
Oriental Daily reported.
■ Washington, D.C.
NSA finds Furbys risky
The Associated Press - The
National Security Agency has
banned Furbys from its Fort
Meade premises in Maryland. In
an internal message to workers,
the NSA issued a warning:
“Personally owned photo
graphic, video and audio record
ing equipment are prohibited
items. This includes toys, such as
‘Furbys,’ with built-in recorders
that repeat the audio with synthe
sized sound to mimic the original
signal,” the Furby Alert read,
according to today’s editions of
The Washington Post.