Scrapbook
Scrapbook Traficant'sJam Since we last spoke with James Trafi-cant in September, when the Ohio congressman told us he was at "the zenith of my jackasshood," he's had a tough go of it. Before last...
...Secretary of Defense William cohen hung Schwalier by his thumbs, ignoring the recommendations of Air Force chief of staff Ron Fogleman (who resigned in protest), and suppressing two comprehensive military reports that exonerated Schwalier—all in the name of accountability...
...Vengeful Democrats have seen to it that Traficant is the only congressman since 1905 not to get a committee assignment...
...Khobar Revisited In our November 24, 1997, issue, Matt Labash told the harrowing saga of Air Force general Terry Schwalier, commander of the base in Saudi Arabia where terrorists killed 19 of Schwalier's airmen in the Khobar Towers bombing...
...Brent Scowcroft, the first President Bush's national security adviser and mentor to the current President Bush's NSC adviser, argued in Friday's Washington Post that the time is ripe to lift U.S...
...government...
...Everyone, apparently, except outgoing FBI chief Louis Freeh...
...While Freeh was trying to pry evidence out of the always circumspect Saudis, Clinton was making overtures to a new Iranian government, leaving doubts about American resolve...
...sanctions against Iran...
...Instead of pressing for indictments under Clinton, he waited for a change of administrations, and even asked for a new federal prosecutor to be assigned to the case...
...Freeh was finally permitted to ask questions of suspects being held in Saudi custody, who not only admitted their involvement, but described how the Iranians had ordered and financed the attack...
...While Schwalier had a star revoked, and his military career was ruined, everyone seemed to forget about holding accountable those who'd caused the deaths: namely, the terrorists...
...The Scrap-book is no lawyer, but we offer the congressman some helpful advice: Go with the insanity defense...
...For over a year, Traficant has claimed he had a "bullseye on my back," and that the Justice Department, which he calls a "f—ing whorehouse," was out to get him...
...Traficant did this in high style, munching cough drops, cursing his way across the courtroom in short sleeves, and asking the judge to help him muddle through the procedures for getting her removed...
...In fact, Freeh's low regard for clinton, according to the New Yorker's account, was exacerbated by the administration's handling of the Khobar affair...
...But Freeh decided not to take any chances...
...And to really complicate his life, the feds are now implying that he's no better than Bob Torricelli...
...But despite clinton's own vow that "the cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished," his administration, in the interest of diplomacy, seemed to hang back...
...Let's hope this is just a trial balloon...
...Warming Up to Iran...
...airmen in Saudi Arabia in 1996, maybe he'd better try to hurry things along...
...As a public corruption aficionado, The Scrapbook believes this could be the best show since former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards told prosecutors, when they asked if he was lying, "No, and if I were, you've got to assume I wouldn't be telling you...
...Iran has done nothing to deserve what even Scowcroft thinks would be an "unrequited gesture...
...Before last fall's election, when Democrats still had hopes of gaining a majority in the House, Trafi-cant swore allegiance to GOP speaker Denny Hastert over Dick Gephardt, prompting one Democrat to speculate that Traficant would be made "chairman of the sub-subcommittee on public restrooms...
...He will, I trust, be a marked improvement over his predecessor as publisher (me), strengthening an already strong business team...
...His reasoning is less than compelling...
...Last fall, he told us he had consulted with "my client," and had again elected to go pro se...
...Walsh reports that Freeh's obsessive pursuit of the Khobar killers bordered on being "theological" and almost led him to urge indicting Iranian government officials, widely believed to be behind the bombing...
...Eastland is a former Reagan administration official, a constitutional scholar, and an experienced magazine publisher—as well as a Weekly Standard contributor...
...Eastland aboard...
...In Elsa Walsh's exhaustive account in last week's New Yorker, largely told from Freeh's point of view, it's clear that as was customary in the Clinton administration, there was plenty of cowardice to go around...
...But as Walsh writes, in some of the piece's most damning language, "Berger, Freeh later thought, was not a national-security adviser...
...Yeah, and it might just as readily encourage the forces of despotic extremism...
...By last fall, the Saudis finally consented to allow suspects to testify if the United States brought indictments against Iranian officials...
...After more than two years, Freeh had concluded that the administration did not really want to resolve the Khobar bombing...
...We've saved our interview notes, and we think you can make your case...
...William Kristol...
...A federal grand jury last week handed down a 10-count indictment, accusing Traficant of everything from taking bribes to demanding kickbacks from his congressional staff...
...Sure, this would bring "economic benefit to Iran," but it "might encourage the forces of moderation...
...During Traficant's first trial in the early 1980s, when he became the only defendant ever to win his own acquittal in a RIcO case, he convinced a jury that he had not accepted bribes from the mob but, rather, was taking their money "out of circulation" in a secret one-man sting operation...
...Though Traficant is not a lawyer, he is famous for representing himself in his periodic tangles with the feds...
...But the Clinton administration was unen-thusiastic about the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, and European companies are therefore being allowed to make money pumping Iranian oil under a waiver from the U.S...
...During that trial, Traficant declared, "I am prepared to present a statement certifying I am not insane...
...While Freeh is hopeful that the Bush administration will not oppose the indictments, he may have done the families of the Khobar victims a valuable service with his elegantly simple policy: When it comes to trusting Clin-tonites to do the right thing instead of the politically expedient one, don't...
...If Louis Freeh (see item above) wants to get Iranian officials indicted for the murder of the 19 U.S...
...Careful readers will note on this issue's masthead the addition of Terry Eastland as publisher...
...he was a public-relations hack, interested in how something would play in the press...
...In which case, this is just a trial hatpin...
...My colleagues and I heartily welcome Mr...
...The news is hardly unexpected...
...Freeh took these reports to national security adviser Sandy Berger, who seemed primarily concerned with heading off press attention, while casting aspersions on statements linking the bombing to the Iranian government...
...Eastland Ho...
...Americans, he argues, should be allowed to do the same...
...The State Department, meanwhile, was making it harder for FBI agents to travel for the investigation...
...And when Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah arrived in Washington for a meeting with Clinton, in which he was warned there would be some "very important questions" about Khobar, a self-pitying Clinton, mired at the time in the Monica Lewinsky affair, failed to press the case (prompting Freeh to appeal covertly to former president Bush to intervene with the Saudi royal family...
...Republicans also no longer court him...
...In fact, the congressman whose hair defies gravity and whose wardrobe just defies, didn't fare so well...
...Berger claims he just wanted to make sure the suspects' statements were admissible...
Vol. 6 • May 2001 • No. 34
