Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Computers no help on timing of disputed release Date: Sat, 14 Nov 92 16:22:11 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Computers no help on timing of disputed release \BY J. Jennings Moss and Michael Hedges \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT LITTLE ROCK, Ark. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Computers at Clinton-Gore headquarters do not show conclusively when the campaign wrote a news release, just four days before the presidential election, to point out that new charges had been filed against Caspar Weinberger in the Iran-Contra case. The indictment was announced Oct. 30, just four days before the presidential election, but the Clinton-Gore news release was dated Oct. 29. The timing of the news release was called into question by Republicans who charged that the Clinton-Gore campaign knew ahead of time that former Secretary of Defense Weinberger was to be re-indicted by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh for concealing information about the scandal. Republicans, including Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas and four members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, say the timing of the Oct. 30 indictment was politically motivated to stem President Bush's comeback bid. A memo included in the indictment suggested that Mr. Bush was aware of the arms-for-hostages plans much earlier than he has said and that he was not "out of the loop." The Republicans, led by Mr. Dole, have called for an independent counsel to investigate Mr. Walsh. The Clinton-Gore news release was dated Oct. 29 - the day before the indictment was announced. "I do plead guilty to a typographical error in the press release," George Stephanopoulos, the Clinton campaign's communications director, said Monday. "But anybody is welcome to go up and check our computers and see when it was produced. . . . There is no basis for this charge." One computer at the Clinton-Gore campaign headquarters showed that the disputed news release was produced after the Weinberger indictment was announced. The Washington Times asked to check the computer. A computer in the campaign's press office showed the document was created at 4:09 p.m. on Oct. 30, but campaign spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers said yesterday that the computer was not the same one that originated the news release. Miss Myers said someone wrote the release on another computer in the communications office shortly before it was brought to the press office. She said she could not locate the first computer, partly because the campaign is closing its offices and moving to a new location for the transition. Within about two to three hours of the Oct. 30 announcement of the indictment, Clinton-Gore headquarters issued a news release headlined, "New Iran-Contra Evidence Released by Prosecutor Shows Bush Flatly Lied About his Role in Arms-For-Hostages." It was dated Oct. 29. "That was just a mistake," said Max Parker, a spokeswoman for Mr. Clinton, when first asked about the discrepancy last week. "It is not the first time we made an error and put the wrong date on a press release." Ms. Parker said the Clinton-Gore "quick response team" was reacting to a wire story on the indictment when the campaign issued its news release. And a spokesman for Mr. Walsh suggested the Clinton-Gore staff used "voodoo" in divining the timing of the indictment a day early, as he was denying any leak from the independent counsel's office. But the press release put out by the Clinton-Gore campaign had more information than the initial wire service accounts. It quotes in its entirety a memo by Mr. Weinberger that was first publicized in the Oct. 30 indictment. That memo was not fully quoted in the first wire stories announcing the indictment. The release included a three-page analysis of the indictment that explained how Mr. Bush was misrepresenting his knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair. At the same time, Sen. Al Gore, now the vice president-elect, issued his own statement calling the indictment "a smoking gun." That changed the momentum of the election in the last four days, GOP officials said. "You could feel this thing slipping away in the last days of the campaign," Vice President Dan Quayle said last week. He called the indictment "the last nail in the coffin." After the election, Mr. Dole and others, contending that the timing of the indictment was meant to influence the race, called for an investigation of Mr. Walsh's office. Attorney General William P. Barr is weighing whether to appoint an independent counsel to investigate Mr. Walsh and his staff and the timing of the Weinberger indictment. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM