Posted by ? on September 29, 19100 at 01:18:16:
In Reply to: Clinton EXPOSED as IRANIAN AGENT posted by !!! on September 28, 19100 at 02:28:51:
: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_repack/20000928_xrpkg_clinton_sh.shtml
: OCTOBER SURPRISE, Part 4
: Clinton shields Iran
: from U.S. justice
: Blocks restitution to families of
: victims
: murdered by state-sponsored
: terrorists
: A Special Investigative Report from
: the Western Journalism Center with
: the assistance of the Iran Brief
: Editor's note: The Clinton
: administration is hoping to conclude a
: "package deal" with the government
: of Iran in time for the November
: elections that would resolve 20 years
: of hostility between the United States
: and Iran, lead to renewed diplomatic
: relations, and give President Clinton a
: much-sought-after "legacy" in foreign
: affairs, according to intermediaries
: directly involved in the negotiations
: and former U.S. officials.
: As reported in WorldNetDaily the
: deal, if successful, would restore
: complete commercial ties between the
: two countries, allowing U.S. oil
: companies to invest in Iran and to buy
: Iranian crude oil while allowing
: President Clinton and Vice President
: Gore to claim credit for "resolving" the
: current oil crisis, all in time for the
: elections.
: Today's report documents how, in
: pursuing this mega-backroom deal,
: Clinton has become Iran's best
: advocate in the United States,
: protecting Iran's assets and shielding
: Iran's leaders from prosecution -- even
: at the expense of betraying the
: American family of a terrorism victim
: he once promised personally to help.
: By Kenneth R. Timmerman
: © 2000, Western Journalism Center
: On April 9, 1995, a suicide bomber
: drove a van packed with explosives
: into an Israeli bus traveling from the
: Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon to a
: resort community in the Gaza Strip,
: killing 8 persons and wounding 50
: more.
: One of the victims was a 20-year-old
: junior from Brandeis University, Alisa
: Michelle Flatow, who hailed from
: West Orange, N.J.
: Like many young Americans, Alisa
: Flatow was taking part of her junior
: year abroad. She telephoned her
: father, Stephen Flatow, shortly before
: boarding the #36 bus to Gaza, to ask
: whether he thought it would be safe
: for her to travel to a Jewish settlement
: that abutted Palestinian territories.
: After listening to her plans, he said he
: believed that the Israeli government
: would not provide civilian bus service
: unless it were safe to do so, and
: encouraged her to join her friends at
: the Gaza resort.
: The bomb hit Alisa's bus at 12:05 pm
: local time. Her father heard on the
: radio back in New Jersey a scant 30
: minutes later that an Israeli bus had
: been attacked in Gaza, and
: immediately began trying to reach his
: daughter.
: When the hospital where she was
: being treated for severe head injuries
: confirmed that was she one of the
: victims, he took the first plane to
: Israel. Stephen Flatow watched his
: daughter die at the Soroka Medical
: Center in Israel the next day.
: Alisa's murderer was a member of
: Palestinian Islamic Jihad-Shiqaqi
: faction, a terrorist organization that
: was funded and directed by the
: government of the Islamic Republic of
: Iran.
: In a public statement issued hours
: after the bus bombing in Gaza, the
: Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed
: responsibility for the killings.
: Ambassador Philip Wilcox, the State
: Department coordinator for
: counterterrorism, told Flatow in July
: 1996 that the government of Iran
: provided approximately $2 million
: annually to the PIJ in support of its
: terrorist activities.
: In fact, independent Iran expert
: Patrick Clawson pointed out that the
: Iranian government had a line item in
: its publicly-approved budget that
: provided $100 million each year to a
: variety of terrorist organizations
: seeking to "liberate Palestine" and
: "struggle against Zionist occupation."
: Among the groups were Palestinian
: Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the
: Lebanese Hezbollah group.
: The Palestinian Islamic Jihad was led
: by a Gaza physician, Fathi al-Shiqaqi,
: whom the Israelis knew well. He was
: among a group of several hundred
: Palestinian activists expelled by the
: Israelis to the no-man's land between
: the Israeli and Lebanese borders in
: 1984. Shiqaqi subsequently gravitated
: to South Florida, then disappeared.
: In October 1993, an Arabic-language
: weekly published in London, Al
: Sharq al-Awsat, reported that Shiqaqi
: had met in Tehran with Ayatollah Ali
: Khamene'i, the supreme leader of the
: Islamic Republic of Iran, who
: promised to increase funding for his
: group if he would launch terrorist
: attacks against Israel.
: Quoting "informed sources in
: Tehran," the paper alleged that
: Ayatollah Khamene'i had "decided to
: personally take over responsibility for
: the issue," and had urged Shiqaqi to
: launch a "violent struggle" against
: Israel with Iran's support.
: Israel has earned a reputation for
: refusing to take terrorist attacks
: against Jews lying down. After a PLO
: hit squad murdered Israeli athletes at
: the1972 Munich Olympics, Israel's
: intelligence service, Mossad, set up a
: special unit that tracked down the
: killers until every one of them had
: been found -- and assassinated.
: Six months after the fatal suicide
: attack against Alisa Flatow's bus, a
: mysterious 43-year man carrying a
: Libyan passport in the name Ibrahim
: Shawesh was gunned down outside
: his hotel in Valetta, the capital of the
: Mediterranean island nation of Malta.
: Three days later, on Oct. 29, 1995, the
: Palestinian Islamic Jihad issued a
: statement in Gaza acknowledging
: that the victim was actually Fathi
: al-Shiqaqi, who had been traveling
: under an assumed identity.
: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
: could scarcely conceal his satisfaction
: when the news leaked out. Shiqaqi
: "was at the head of a murderous
: terror organization," he told reporters,
: and "is not a man whose existence any
: civilized system could tolerate." Rabin
: added: "He had many enemies, and if
: in fact he is the man who was killed, I
: certainly will not be sorry about it."
: But Iran's rampage of terror did not
: stop at Shiqaqi's death.
: Early on the morning of Feb. 25, 1996,
: two American graduate students,
: 25-year-old Matthew Eisenfeld and
: 22-year-old Sarah Rachel Duker,
: boarded the #18 bus in Jerusalem,
: setting off for a day trip to visit the
: spectacular desert temples in Petra,
: Jordan.
: Also on the bus was a young
: Palestinian, Majid Wardah, who was
: carrying a travel bag packed with
: explosives.
: At approximately 6:45 am, the bus
: came to a stop on Yafo Street in
: Jerusalem and the explosives in
: Wardah's bag went off, killing Sarah
: Duker, Matthew Eisenfeld, the young
: Palestinian and many Israelis on
: board.
: The Palestinian group Hamas
: immediately claimed responsibility
: for the attack, which it said was aimed
: at sabotaging the Arab-Israeli peace
: process.
: Hamas acknowledged in public
: statements that it received $15 million
: per month from the government of
: the Islamic Republic of Iran, money it
: used to support terrorist operations as
: well as social welfare activities in
: Gaza.
: Wardah's cousin, Mohammad
: Wardah, was subsequently arrested by
: PLO security officers in Gaza and
: condemned to a life sentence. In an
: interview with U.S. television
: reporters for CBS' 60 Minutes, he
: bragged that he was responsible for
: enticing Majid Wardah to carry out
: the suicide bombing on the #18 bus.
: "I took his pulse. I asked him how
: much he loved his land. How much
: he believed in paradise. His answers
: were positive. So I asked him whether
: he wanted to be involved in an
: operation," Wardah said.
: Hamas and PIJ carried out more
: suicide attacks as the Israeli elections
: approached, including a second strike
: against a #18 bus in Jerusalem on
: March 3, 1996 that killed 18 persons,
: and an attack in Tel Aviv the
: following day that killed 12 and
: wounded 105 others. Altogether,
: some 57 persons were murdered in
: the suicide attacks that spring.
: An official statement carried by Iran's
: state-run news agency on March 4,
: 1996, called the blasts divine
: retribution.
: "Israel, the only state in the world to
: be created by terrorism and brutal use
: of force, is now tasting its own
: medicine. The divine retribution on
: those who spread corruption and
: injustice on the earth will be severe,"
: the statement read.
: The IRNA comment, and other
: statements in support of the bombings
: from Iranian government officials and
: leading clerics, prompted Israeli
: Prime Minister Shimon Peres to
: accuse Iran of seeking to sabotage
: Israel's elections.
: In an oft-quoted speech at the
: anti-terrorism conference at the
: Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh on
: March 13, 1996, Peres said: "This
: terrorism is not anonymous. It has a
: name, it has an address. It has a bank
: account, it has an infrastructure, it has
: networks camouflaged as charity
: organizations. It is spearheaded by a
: country -- Iran."
: After the elections, which Peres lost to
: Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu,
: the Israeli security forces arrested a
: Palestinian named Hassan Salameh,
: who confessed to being the
: mastermind behind the March 1996
: series of suicide bombings.
: In an interview with 60 Minutes,
: portions of which aired on Oct. 5,
: 1997, Salameh described how after
: joining Hamas he went to Sudan for
: indoctrination, then to Syria, where
: he met Iranian handlers who flew
: him to an Iranian airbase near Tehran
: for special training in intelligence
: methods and the use of explosives.
: Following his training, he was sent
: back to Gaza with orders from Iran to
: carry out a series of suicide bombings
: in Israel.
: Striking back in the courts
: That second wave of terrorist
: bombings in Israel, where other
: young Americans like his daughter
: were killed, sparked Stephen Flatow
: into action.
: No longer alone in his grief, Flatow
: contacted his representatives in
: Congress, Democratic Sen. Frank
: Lautenberg and Republican Rep. Jim
: Saxton. As evidence of Iran's
: involvement in the attacks began to
: emerge, they helped push through an
: amendment to the 1996 Antiterrorism
: and Effective Death Penalty Act,
: which allowed victims of
: state-sponsored terrorist acts to seek
: redress in U.S. courts.
: The new measure lifted the immunity
: of foreign governments proven to be
: state sponsors of terrorist acts that
: killed Americans. It allowed families
: of the victims to sue them in U.S.
: courts and to attach their assets in
: compensation. Not only were the
: recent attacks fresh in everyone's
: mind, but it was an election year. The
: bill passed without a hitch in April
: 1996 and was signed into law by
: President Clinton.
: Not long after the signing, Clinton
: appeared in public with Flatow at a
: fund-raiser at the Plaza Hotel in New
: York. Flatow still recalls Clinton's
: body language, which oozed
: sympathy and support.
: "I got the right hand in a handshake,
: with the left hand at shoulder level on
: my arm. I figured that was pretty
: good," Flatow recalls. "I had the
: distinct impression that I had the full
: weight of the United States behind
: me."
: Armed with Public Law 104-132 and
: Clinton's personal benediction, the
: Flatow family filed suit in U.S. District
: court in Washington, D.C., against the
: Islamic Republic of Iran.
: At first, they received excellent
: cooperation from the administration.
: On June 8, 1997, the State Department
: agreed to serve process on the Iranian
: government through the Swiss
: embassy in Tehran, which has
: represented U.S. interests in Iran since
: the hostage crisis.
: By all accounts, the administration
: was expecting the Iranians to respond.
: But when three months went by
: without a word from Tehran, District
: Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth
: entered a default judgement against
: the Iranian government.
: On March 11, 1998, he condemned the
: Iranian government to pay the
: Flatows $247.5 million in penalties
: and damages. It was the largest
: damage award against a foreign
: government in history.
: Stephen Flatow remembers that he
: was floored.
: "In 1996, when we started, we thought
: it would take anywhere from seven to
: ten years to get through the courts,"
: he said in an interview. "Instead, the
: Iranians defaulted. It surprised the
: hell out of the United States, and it
: surprised the hell out of us."
: Flatow even began planning how he
: could use the money to set up
: charities to sponsor young people
: wanting to study in Israel, his fondest
: dream.
: Not really knowing where to begin in
: collecting on the settlement, Flatow
: and his lawyers asked Lautenberg to
: write a letter to the State Department
: on April 24, 1998, requesting
: assistance in locating Iranian
: government assets in the United
: States. The June 10, 1998, reply they
: received from Assistant Secretary of
: State Barbara Larkin was baffling. But
: they had not counted on the duplicity
: of Bill Clinton.
: "[T]here are currently no Iranian
: assets held by or under the control of
: the United States Government which
: could be used to pay claims against
: Iran," Larkin wrote. "Frozen Iranian
: assets in the United States, with the
: exception of a small amount of assets
: that are at issue in arbitration before
: the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, were
: released at the time the hostages were
: freed in 1981, pursuant to the Algiers
: Accords."
: As Flatow and his attorneys would
: learn subsequently, this was simply
: not true. Larkin went on to note that
: the Iranian government was
: expressing second thoughts about its
: refusal to take part in the court
: proceedings.
: "The Iranian Government's Agent to
: the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The
: Hague recently approached the
: United States to ask about the status
: of the Flatow litigation, and Iran's
: options," she wrote. "We informed
: Iran ... that the United States cannot
: represent a foreign government in
: U.S. courts and that Iran should
: obtain counsel and enter an
: appearance in the case."
: Contrary to Larkin's written
: statement, however, the Clinton
: administration began to represent the
: Iranian government before Judge
: Lamberth's court, in an increasingly
: brazen and inexplicable manner.
: On June 26, 1998, the Justice
: Department appeared in Judge
: Lamberth's court to oppose subpoenas
: from the Flatow family lawyers to the
: Treasury and State Departments,
: seeking information on Iranian
: diplomatic properties in the United
: States. Under the Shah, Iran's embassy
: parties in Washington were
: legendary.
: Following the break in diplomatic
: relations in 1980, the ambassador's
: mansion on Massachusetts Avenue as
: well as several consular properties in
: Bethesda, Md., were rented out by the
: State Department, with the proceeds
: going into a blocked account with the
: Nations Bank in Washington, D.C.
: Justice Department lawyers objected
: when the Flatow lawyers sought
: information on how much money was
: in that account.
: Ten days later, Judge Lamberth
: attached those properties and
: instructed the U.S. Marshall to notify
: the occupants that ownership was
: being transferred to the Flatow family
: as a result of the court's decision. But
: before the U.S. Marshall could execute
: the order, the State Department legal
: adviser ordered him by phone not to
: serve the writ of attachment, claiming
: the properties were on an "exempt
: list" kept secret by the Department of
: State.
: "This is when the government began
: to defend the Islamic Republic," says
: Flatow family attorney Thomas
: Fortune Fay. "We were naive. We
: thought they might avoid a question
: or two, but not that they would lie.
: We were wrong."
: At the next court hearing, in early
: July 1998, the Justice Department
: showed up with 14 lawyers.
: "They filled up one whole side of the
: courtroom," Fay recalls. "Clearly,
: protecting the assets of the
: government of the Islamic Republic of
: Iran had become more important to
: the administration than defending the
: rights of American citizens to justice."
: On July 28, Justice Department
: attorney Jay Bhambhani cried foul:
: "Your unfounded accusation that we
: are lying to protect the assets of a
: terrorist government is far from [the
: truth] ... We are trying to protect U.S.
: national interests ... including U.S.
: treaty obligations" and U.S. foreign
: policy interests, he said.
: The legal wrangling had just begun.
: In court hearings and in negotiating
: sessions at the State Department,
: Treasury and Justice, the Flatow
: attorneys pressed the administration
: to produce documents that would
: help them identify Iranian assets in
: the United States. After all, that is
: what the president had promised
: Stephen Flatow during the 1996
: election campaign.
: Eventually, the Flatows went back to
: Congress, and in October 1998 got an
: amendment added to the
: appropriations bill that required the
: State Department and the Treasury to
: assist in locating the assets of foreign
: nations found guilty of
: state-sponsored terrorist acts that
: killed Americans.
: To ensure passage, they included
: standard language allowing the
: president to waive the requirements
: of the bill "in the interest of national
: security."
: In an extraordinary move, Clinton
: exercised that waiver on Oct. 21, 1998,
: in Presidential Determination No.
: 99-1, "Determination to Waive
: Requirements Related to Blocked
: Property of Terrorist-List States."
: In that document, President Clinton
: acknowledged for the first time in
: writing that his administration was
: engaged in a secret diplomatic
: overture to the Islamic Republic of
: Iran, which required him to protect
: Iran's assets in the United States.
: It was a stunning admission, which
: until now has gone virtually
: unnoticed in the press.
: Next: Iran claims the U.S. is sitting on
: $20 billion of its money, and it wants
: that money back. While surely an
: exaggeration, the Iranian government
: has extensive financial and real estate
: holdings in the United States, which
: have become the subject of intense
: political wrangling.
: Read Part 1: Clinton, Iran plan
: election-eve coup.
: Read Part 2: Secret spy deal: U.S.,
: Iran, Israel.
: Read Part 3: Clinton sought dirt
: on W's dad.
: Editor's note: The Western Journalism
: Center is a non-profit, tax-exempt
: organization that sponsors
: independent investigative reporting
: projects into government fraud,
: waste, corruption and abuse. The
: charity was founded by Joseph Farah,
: now editor and chief executive officer
: of WorldNetDaily.com, but is an
: entirely autonomous company.
: If you would like to support more
: journalism like Kenneth
: Timmerman's "October Surprise"
: series with tax-deductible
: contributions, you can do so by calling
: 1-800-952-5595, by writing to the
: center at P.O. Box 2450, Fair Oaks, CA
: 95628, or by making your donation
: online.