Clinton Defends Strikes Against Somali Warlord
PRESIDENT Clinton defended the use of American air power against a Somali warlord despite civilian casualties, and warned the United States also "would take action" if United Nations peacekeepers were attacked in the former Yugoslavia. "Obviously we're going to protect our own soldiers," the president declared at a news conference Tuesday.
Mr. Clinton also said he hasn't backed away from wanting to arm Bosnian Muslims and use air strikes against Bosnian Serbs to force a settlement in the Balkan war, although Britain, France, and Russia have balked at his strategy. He said these US allies may be "compelled to do that or something very near like it if they want to get anything done over there." Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty stay
Declaring that "freedom's work is not completed," President Clinton proposes keeping Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty on the air by consolidating them with Voice of America. The administration has also decided to start up a new "Asian Democracy Radio" to inform Asians, "whose governments still suppress the truth," Mr. Clinton said. ADR was expected to broadcast mainly to the Chinese mainland.
The Clinton administration earlier had planned to phase out Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, the US overseas broadcasting operations to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union spawned by the cold war, by 1994 or 1995. The bipartisan Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy had advised the president to scrap RFE and RL, but Clinton chose to follow the recommendations of a presidential task force. The new democracies are encountering difficulties and "still need a source of news that is reliably free
from manipulation" at home, the president said. White House may be shredding data illegally
District of Columbia US District Judge Royce Lamberth said there is "sufficiently credible" evidence to believe the White House is violating his March 10 and April 16 orders to preserve all documents generated and gathered by Hillary Rodham Clinton's health the task force and the 500-member working group that supported it. He issued an order directing the first lady to "gather and hold" the thousands of "records, reports, transcripts, appendixes, working papers, drafts, studies, agenda, or other document s" of the task force and its working group the past four months.
"I want a name and address of who's going to be accountable, who's going to be held in contempt if there are documents destroyed," he told Justice Department and White House lawyers Tuesday. The order was sought by two health-care organizations and a public interest group that tried earlier this year to remove a shroud of secrecy surrounding the health-care proposals. Reprimand for a general
A two-star Air Force general who reportedly ridiculed President Clinton in public is likely to receive a written reprimand that will effectively end his career, according to published reports. The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that an investigation of the incident has been completed, and two newspapers said it confirmed that Maj. Gen. Harold Campbell called Clinton a "pot-smoking," "womanizing" and "draft-dodging" commander in chief at a service awards dinner in the Netherlands on May 24.
Lt. Gen. Dale Thompson, vice commander of the Air Force Materiel Command, reportedly confirmed the essence of the reports while on an investigative trip to the Netherlands that ended last Friday.
