Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues,americast.usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Mon, Oct 19 1992 Date: Mon, 19 Oct 92 04:38:13 EDT Message-ID: 10-19 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update Oct. 19, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Monday morning in USA TODAY: Justice, Debates. TODAY'S DEBATE - INDEPENDENT PROSECUTORS: USA TODAY'S OPINION: Just the facts was what Dragnet's Sgt. Friday used to ask for. But sorting fact from politics when one public official accuses another of misconduct isn't easy. That's what the independent prosecutor law, passed after Watergate, is for and why Congress should renew it. Consider the current controversy over billions in illegal bank loans to Saddam Hussein. The money, loaned by the Atlanta branch of Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, may have bought technology for nuclear and biological weapons. Democrats have dubbed it "Iraqgate," saying Justice Department officials, the CIA and FBI are covering up for Bush administration support of Saddam before the gulf war. Republicans say the Democrats are spouting politics to cover up their own House Bank and postal scandals. CIA and Justice officials, meanwhile, are blaming each other for mismanaging evidence in the case. All can gain by distorting the facts. The public can only have faith in an independent investigation. Fourteen cases investigated by independent counsels since 1978 show that neutral investigators can cut through politics and hold officials accountable. Attorney General William Barr grudgingly conceded that fact last week when he appointed a special counsel - former federal Judge Frederick Lacey - to look into the Iraqi loan case. Lacey has a reputation for integrity. But by making the appointment himself rather than turning it over to a panel of federal judges, Barr leaves the investigation open to political sniping. And while Barr says that such a counsel may yet be appointed if Lacey finds anything, Lacey would have to act superfast. The law allowing such appointments expires Dec. 15. The law must be renewed. People today need the same assurance they did 14 years ago - that their leaders are not crooks and that their laws are administered fairly. They need the facts. OTHER VIEW: BRUCE FEIN, a former associate deputy attorney general: Attorney General William Barr wisely rebuffed the braying of congressional Democrats to appoint an uncontrollable independent counsel to investigate alleged executive branch mishandling of an international bank-fraud prosecution. Instead, Barr employed the process that successfully ferreted out past executive wrongdoing: He appointed retired federal judge Frederick Lacey as special counsel. Allegations charge a partial cover-up of the BNL fraud to avoid embarrassing the Italian government and the Bush administration because of billion-dollar loans to Iraq preceding its Kuwaiti aggression. But neither Lacey, the grand jury, nor career Justice Department investigators have incentives to compromise the investigation; none has loyalties to President Bush. And history discredits skeptics who insist the executive branch cannot be trusted to investigate itself. The 1978 law creating independent counsels came on the heels of untarnished investigations of president Jimmy Carter's close friend and Office of Management and Budget Director Bert Lance, and alleged irregularities regarding Carter's peanut business. The law's authors were unable to cite a single case in more than 200 years corrupted because of an executive branch political conflict of interest. Independent counsels are instruments of injustice. They attract zealots seeking fame and book royalties through the prosecution of celebrated figures. And, their blind passions are wont to boomerang, shown by the flawed prosecutions of Oliver North and John Poindexter. USA TODAY's exhortation to reinstate the independent counsel law after its expiration in December reminds of George Santayana's warning: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON QUESTIONS FOR A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: LAS VEGAS, Nev., Frank Doherty, 57, arbitrator, mediator: I would ask why the homeless and hungry issues are being completely ignored. It's still a problem in America. No one in Richmond brought it up. There are 10 million vacant houses in America they could use for the homeless. You can solve it if someone just addresses it. FISHKILL, N.Y., Marvin Myszka, 52, senior lab specialist: I would ask what they would do to get Republicans and Democrats to work for the economy. That's the problem. They are both trying to make each other look bad, and nobody is trying to solve the problems by working together. MONROE, Miss., Loretta LaPointe, 33, youth organization dir.: Do you see a correlation between our belief in God as a nation and our success and security as a country? I don't see recognizing homosexual unions, abortion and prayer in school as scattered topics. I'd like to know if they see following Christian beliefs as related to our success. MILWAUKEE, Wis., Rayford Drake, 41, business assoc. dir.: I want some specifics regarding jobs and housing in our country. I don't think anyone is really putting together a solid housing program. Shelters should be temporary. There should be programs to give the homeless a jump start to bring them back into the community. GLENDALE, Ariz., Donna Guess, 28, graduate student: I would ask, by what criteria would you determine which, if any, foreign conflicts America should involve itself in? Then I would ask them to please give current examples of a conflict America should have been involved in, one it should have stayed out of, and why. Issues & Debate Editor: Kate Coughlin. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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