Europeans Smell A Rat In Attack On Clinton

In comments to this author on Jan. 26, Prof. John Erickson, of the Defence Studies department of Edinburgh University and one of Europe's leading experts on military affairs, stated that ``this move against Clinton was obviously very carefully orchestrated, it was carefully timed and carefully coordinated, everything was in the right place, at the right time, it took a lot of organizing, to pull this off. It has all the air of a destabilization.'' Erickson underlined the role of the Defense Department's Linda Tripp in the set-up of Clinton, affirming that she is a ``real practitioner, she knows how to work the system. She's further evidence, that this was all built up and organized, systematically.''

On Jan. 28, EIR spoke to a specialist in psychological warfare, formerly linked to the center of such activity in Britain, the Tavistock Institute. This individual, who chose to remain anonymous, also pointed to Tripp's classified assignments with U.S. military intelligence units, including the elite counter-terror Delta Force, and affirmed, ``Usually, a military intelligence operative like this works undercover, in a sensitive way. Now, she's broken cover, which must mean, she's working on behalf of a broader operation, against the President.''

Several European newspapers have highlighted the diabolical activities of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, in articles that convey suspicion that what is involved in this case, is not a ``sex scandal.'' On Jan. 27, Gianni Riotta, writing in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, likened Starr to Markus Wolf, the ``superspy'' head of intelligence in the former East Germany, and compared the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Stasi, the ``watchful East German secret police.'' Wrote Riotta: ``Today, millions of Americans are asking themselves, how is it possible that the Commissar who spent $40 million in an investigation on an alleged $40,000 real estate speculation, the Whitewater case, ended up investigating the sexual life of Clinton.''

The next day's Corriere, in an article by a staff writer, added that Starr works ``for the foundation which finances the right-wing magazine American Spectator, the one that launched the Paula Jones scandal.'' This is a reference to anti-Clinton financier Richard Mellon Scaife and his Landmark Legal Foundation.

On Jan. 29, the London Guardian's Jonathan Freedland went further, and named names. Freedland said that new evidence had emerged, ``apparently confirming a network of anti-Clinton plotters--with the special prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, at its center.'' Freedland documented Starr's involvement in the Landmark Legal Foundation, and commented: ``Animating all this activity is the enigmatic figure of Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking dynasty. Mr. Scaife has funded numerous anti-Clinton ventures fought by the Landmark group and backs a range of right-wing fringe groups--including those whose mission is to destroy the Clinton Presidency.''

A conspiracy to paralyze the President

The paper detailed the key role of Linda Tripp, noting that she ``had top security clearance from the Pentagon, and had worked as a secretary in the Army intelligence command and in the elite forces, the Delta Force. She was hired by the Bush administration in the White House, where she was known as an effective assistant, and was recommended to the Clinton administration.''

An accompanying editorial made the following key points: ``The heavy focussing on Clinton's alleged lack of sexual self-control, is removing the attention from the urgent international problems which can only be solved through American participation.

``Thus, during this week, Clinton ought to have concentrated on getting the Middle East peace process back on track, by having separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The provocations from Saddam Hussein continue, while Indonesia is balancing on the edge of the first state bankruptcy in Southeast Asia.

``Instead, the President and his White House staff have been paralyzed by the so-called sex scandal.

``The same principle applies to the U.S. President, as for everybody else, that he is innocent until proven otherwise.

``Nevertheless, this fact does not prevent the ever so politically correct Washington from staging an absurd theater production called `the people's court.'...

``Bill Clinton has so many enemies and political adversaries in Washington, that there are reasons to suspect a conspiracy. In any case, one has to wonder why an investigation into the Clintons' failed real estate speculation has developed into a comprehensive investigation of the virility of the President.

``It is noteworthy, if not alarming that nobody in the U.S. seems to be offended by the fact, that the latest information has been gathered through secret tape recordings, the sole purpose of which have been to get `something' on the leader of the country....

``The worst thing though, is the fact that the leading nation in the world goes into coma, just because a woman claims to have had an affair with the President and [claims] to have been asked to deny it....

``In today's Washington, the political debate has been replaced by a dirty witch-hunt, which has even gotten a few to call for the resignation of the President.''

Bush Leaguers in Moscow

He reported that, sometime during December 1997, Moscow was visited by certain figures from the Bush and Reagan White Houses. While in Moscow, they ``expressed so much passion against Clinton, it was strange to hear, there was real hatred against the whole Clinton administration.'' Felgenauer said it was astonishing, ``to hear their anti-Clinton zeal.''

What Felgenauer found most strange, was the state of extreme rage they were in against Clinton, for not having bombed Iraq, and for having chosen, instead, to bring the Russians in, to play a prominent role in trying to bring about a diplomatic solution. Clearly, such officials were trying to put pressure on the administration, whereby such a bombing would be carried out.

Felgenauer stressed that ``from a professional military point of view, which is what concerns me, this pressure on Clinton to bomb Iraq is idiocy. You can't neutralize nerve gas or biological agents, or bring about the downfall of Saddam Hussein, through bombing. It makes no sense! It's illogical, and these are normally logical people. So, I was forced to believe something else was involved, and now, since then, this Clinton scandal breaks out.... My only sense of it, is that there is another agenda involved, probably the politics of oil, although what you say about the broader financial crisis must be taken into consideration.''

"To take our eyes off the main game"

Washington columnist Pierre-Yves Dugua wrote: ``Without American leadership to manage the response of the international community to the problems of Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, and, perhaps tomorrow, China, the risk of contagion grows. It is clear, that without the strong pressure exercised by Washington on Jakarta and Seoul, the IMF, by itself, would not have been able to negotiate such consequential assistance plans with the governments concerned.

``The project of Bill Clinton to modernize, in the context of the Group of Seven, the international financial rules, and the mechanisms of intervention, to prevent the crises of the Indonesian and Korean type, is equally doomed to failure, if Washington continues to be enmired in this political crisis, unprecedented since Watergate.

``In effect, for the moment, no European country suggests the slightest reforms. French Minister of Finance Dominique Strauss-Kahn has even expressed his skepticism, in respect to a mobilization of the G7, on this theme.''

The aforementioned former Tavistock figure told EIR, that the purpose of the attack on Clinton, was, most likely, to get the attention of the American government and population away from the global financial crisis. ``In my view, the aim of such an operation is to take our eyes off the main game, namely, what is happening in the Far East, with the economic upheavals,'' he said. ``The way such things are done, it drives people to concentrate on the inside world, and to divorce, psychologically, from the outside world. Everything else is supposed to fall by the wayside, and reality is to be replaced by a focus on all these sordid affairs.'' Hence, a prime feature of the launching of such a ``sex scandal,'' is to carry out psychological warfare against the American and other populations, he said.