January 1993

1/1/93

Jan. 1 the Eur Mkt is one, Czechoslovakia is 2

Salvador fails to purge military by deadline

Papers under 30-yr rule show Harold Macmillan disagreed w/JFK’s approach to Cuban Missile Crisis, considered the blockade illegal. And Br forces on the highest state of readiness

Israel offers to let the 10 cases of mistaken identity return, but its friends mined the road to Israel, and Lebanon won’t let them in

Boutros-Ghali, in Bosnia, suggests that Bosnia would disrupt the peace process if they tried to break the siege of Sarajevo. Also rejected demands for UN to defend the city or lift arms embargo for them


1/2/93

Kenya: Daniel apar Moi rigs elections & still doesn’t do well, getting only 40% & most of his Cabinet losing. This w/a severely-divided opposition, kidnappings, ballot-stuffing, control of media & bans on rallies

Candidates spent $313.7m for House elections, up from $220m 1990. Winner = Michael Huffington, R CA at $5.4m. In Senate, Boxer spent over $10m, D’Amato & Specter squeaked through w/$8.9m & 8.7m. Senate candidates spent $190m


1/4/93

Israel shells right near the deportees’ camp, possibly to discourage nearly villages bringing them food

The added voting rights to (5) reps of D.C., Puerto Rico, etc watered down – they can’t cast deciding vote


1/5/93

The mystery is over. Clinton will put Chelsea in a priv school. Carter sent Amy to public school – but of course look what happened to her.

Russian PM reimposes price controls on basic foods inc vodka

After 1st denying that it failed to purge officers, El Salvador now says it only purged 23 – supposed to be 100+, wants another 18 mos, and added some “addendum” to orders on the purge, which is secret

Guernsey officials WW2 did help Gers track down 5 Jewish women who died in Auschwitz


1/6/93

A Ch. dissident says cannibalism practiced during Cult. Revo. Gov supporters of course. Students killing & eating their teachers to prove their ideological purity, that sort of thing

Reagan denies voting for Clinton

Salvador also says it will keep on defense sec & his deputy, who were on the pure list


1/7/93

US to compensation 4,000 soldiers & sailors exposed WW2 to poison gas experiments, then ordered never to tell their family or dr on pain of jail

Iraq is ordered by Sec Council to remove surface-to-air missiles newly moved to the S., in 48 hrs

Clinton says Bush disguised even more of the budget deficit that he knew. Bush’s last budget for fy94 shows $292b & $305b by 1997, while July’s figures were $274 & 236. Clinton backing off pledge to halve deficit by 1997

Milosevic, under US pressure, “promised” to reopen primary schools for Albanians in Kosovo, allow an ind census

Salvador Prez Cristiani says he’s not purging because the commission didn’t give them right to answer charges

Some hard-line Russians fighting for Serbs

Audit by Comptroller-Gen on Clinton’s behalf finds gov has lost 10s of $bs through faulty bookkeeping. 1/3 of loans to farmers are delinquent & defaulters can get new ones. No supervision of priv firms processing Medicare. Comps that operate nuclear labs have contracts where gov reimburses them for thefts by employees, fines for violating environmental laws


1/8/93

Poland passes most restrictive abortion law in ex-E Bloc. Allows for rape, incest, genetic abnormalities, threats to life of mother. Not as far as Church wants, but did accede to Church’s demand that there be no referendum, as a petition of 1m demands. There are criminal penalties (2 yrs) for drs, but not ♀. And gov required to resume sex ed., distrib contraceptives

D’s & R’s at Sen. hearings seem willing to let Ron Brown get away w/more lax conflict of interest standards than R’s had. His law firm, which is giving him a $1m golden handshake, represents Japanese comps & god knows what else. Brown won’t recuse himself from all their matters & wants to limit recusals to 1 yr

The deadline for Iraq has passed. They may have moved the missiles w/in the zone, not out of it, but weather prevents certainty. They certainly say they won’t. Iraq now keeping weapons inspectors out, says they can’t use non-Iraqi planes


1/9/93

Evidently they have climbed down

In a last assertion of questionable presidential authority, Bush defies injunction & replaces some governors of PO

Serbs in a clearly-planned operation, kill the Bosnian Deputy PM while under UN protection
-EC investigators say 20,000 Muslim ♀ have been raped in deliberate attempt to frighten Muslims out

Heads of Hungary’s state radio & tv resign, saying can’t protect ind of news from gov. PM’s office took dir control of their budgets after trying to fire them

2 of the deportees get out, 1 for med treatment, 1 who shouldn’t have been there – a 16-yr old


1/10/93

Fr says rape camps in Bosnia must be opened up and Fr will do it alone if necessary


1/11/93

Tajikistan arrests relig & demo leaders for treason. There are also death squads.

US says we need give no further warnings to Iraq before taking military action. Today, Iraq makes a raid on what-the-UN-says-is-now-Kuwait’s side of the border & grabs 4 of its missiles, the 2nd such incursion. And now moving surface-to-air missiles into the other, northern, exclusion zone

Fr jails a Gambian woman for circumcising her female babies

Erich Honecker urged 1980 invasion of Poland

Br gov proposes a Press Complaints Tribunal to make a code of conduct statutory

A Br couple get a refund on their Caribbean cruise, which turned out to be 2 weeks listening to a Swiss folk music society – yodeling


1/12/93

House freshmen were asked by Spy magazine about American policy towards Freedonia. Corrine Brown (D-Fla) did approve, Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) also, saying it’s a different situation than the Middle East, Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) admitted not knowing much about it, but turning a blind eye for the next 10 yrs is not the answer

A July68 memo to Warren Christopher, then depy atty gen, indicates he was aware of army surveillance of VN protesters, which he denied in 1977 hearings

Serbs found to skim ¼ of aid sent to Bosnia & UN gave Serbs right to dictate convoy routes, ethnicity of drivers, as if they were the gov.
-UN has forced even Bosnian Serbs to accept a ludicrous plan to divide Bosnia into 10 autonomous cantons w/various mixes of ethnic groups & 10 new names to ensure Bosnia becomes so obscure it will command as much news attention as Tajikistan

Clinton thinking of having the revocation of military ban on gays issued by Defense Sec instead of himself. This right after Navy admits a gay-bashing murder of a sailor by his shipmate

Ron Brown invites corps (Pepsi, Anhauser Busch, JC Penney, Sony) to come to a “Friends of Ron Brown” pre-inauguration party, and to pay at least $10,000 for the privilege. Also, his son just got a well-paid job for a lobbying firm w/Japanese clients

Zoe Baird, atty gen-designate, lobbied Congress to shield GE, her boss, from suits brought by whistleblowers under old law allowing priv suits for submitting false claims to gov – said it discouraged them reporting wrongdoing to their employers. And she praised Quayle’s Leadership Council for proposal to limit damage awards for corporate negligence


1/13/93

US, Br, Fr restart the war w/Iraq w/punitive bombings & troops stationed in Kuwait (1,250). Hit missile sites

Ron Brown cancels his party & may be forced to undertake stricter ethics rules than he wants

Roger Altman, Depy Treasury Sec-designate, favors consumption tax, maybe VAT, gas tax

Ger parties agree on amend to const to allow troops in UN peacekeeping ops, if Parl agrees in advance. Won’t ever sent to Yugoslavia

Zoe Baird’s baby sitter & driver were an illegal alien Peruvian couple, for whom she didn’t pay Soc Sec for 2 yrs, until this month (she fired them last mo). She says she thought she was acting legally because she was sponsoring 1 for citizenship, but neither had visa or work permit

Cal. Coastal Commission permits return of tankers, only double-hulled, after a decade to CA coasts

Sup Court 5+1 to 3 rules anti-KKK law of 1871 can’t be used against abortion blockades. State, not fed laws on trespass, harassment still useful, but the fed law allowed injunctions over wide areas. Scalia, in majority, thinks anti-abortionists not only aren’t trying to violate women’s rights, they don’t even take notice of them: “petitioners define their ‘rescues’ not with reference to women, but as physical intervention ‘between abortionists and the innocent victims’”. He says it’s not discrimination against women as a class because there are other reasons to oppose abortion, and there are ♀ on both sides. It doesn’t matter that it only works against the rights of ♀; must be consciously aimed at ♀

MIA Senate panel says RR Admin funneled donations from POW-MIA groups to anti-CP Laotian rebels, not authorized by Congress

Yuli Khanton, who built 1st Soviet A-bomb, says they used complete plans of US bomb supplied by Klaus Fuchs

Bombing of Iraq came just as Iraq announced would resume allowing UN aircraft & would stop weapons raids on the bits UN added to Kuwait
-Clinton suggests relations could improve if Hussein changes: “I’m a Baptist; I believe in deathbed conversions.” Says not “obsessed” by Hussein

Honecker trial stopped. Const court says it’s cruel to try someone dying


1/14/93

Bush plans to defy a court order & begin tomorrow to destroy White House & NSC computer tapes. They claim computers will crash if data isn’t purged. John Poindexter was convicted for, among other things, this very crime. This is 1st time a judge has applied the Records Act to electronic messages

13 of 18 Cabinet appointees are lawyers

Clinton breaks another pledge – will cont. forcibly returning Haitian boat people

While doing the “Lord’s work” (Bush) in bombing Iraq, managed to bomb only 1 of 4 missile batteries. Bush was so desperate to do this before leaving office, it was done in bad weather, making targeting difficult. They hit something they weren’t aiming at, but won’t tell us what. But calling it a success


1/15/93

Bush tells all pol appointees, 650 of them, must leave office by inauguration day. Just to help the transition along, mind you

The Civ War whistleblower law Zoe Baird criticized recovered more money last yr than did Justice suits inc $110m for Nat Health Labs for unnecessary medical tests under Medicaid/care, $60m GE for conspiracy to charge for goods & services never provided, $55.9m from Singer Corp for overbilling on $1b of flight simulators. But Justice often tries to get whistleblowers thrown off cases, limit recoveries, keep them in dark

Today, Bush gov gave Hussein a several-hour deadline on allowing UN planes in. By Jan. 20, he’ll be giving Hussein a 3-minute deadline to stand on his head & whistle the Star Spangled Banner. Iraq said it would allow them in, but might shoot them down, mistaking them for another US attack. US admits having hit a house

US dispatches flotilla to block Haitians

Bush releases transcripts of his taped diaries, which exonerate him of knowing about Iran-Contra, and were by pure coincidence begun 11/4/86. No wonder they never came up over the last 6 yrs – they didn’t fucking exist.

Fed appeals panel said White House & NSC must back up computer files if it purges them. RR was also so ordered 4 yrs ago. 2 dozen backup tapes “mysteriously disappeared”

Bush commutes sentence of INS agent who conducted illegal searches & filed false reports & generally harassed aliens. This is right after finding out that material submitted in favor of this was fabricated. He served 8 mos of 37

Czech expelling Gypsies to Slovakia


1/17/93

US shoots down Iraqi jet. Hussein gives speech restating claim to Kuwait. Well, if they didn’t want their planes shot down, they’d them over Bosnia like everyone else.


1/18/93

And 2 new attacks, 1st a launch of 40 cruise missiles on an alleged nuclear weapons plan which UN inspected 5 or 6 times, and sealed. And an errant or shot-down cruise missile hit a hotel in Baghdad. 2nd on air defense facilities in both N & S no-fly zones. Iraq has been dismantling police posts along old border w/Kuwait. UN rejects Iraq’s suggestion that UN planes not go over no-fly zones at same time as US planes, or Iraq wouldn’t guarantee their safety. And if they turn on radar to find out what’s up there, we’d call that aggression too.
-36 or 37 Tomahawks of 45 hit the target. That’s at $1m each

The inauguration will cost $25m, $2.m from gifts from corps, $17m interest-free loans. The entertainment carried exclusively by HBO


1/19/93

Russia tells US no to bomb Iraq again w/out explicit UN permission
-Arabs esp unhappy w/the double standard of nat enforcing UN resolutions against Israel & the genocide of Muslims in Bosnia – esp when permission for force by UN is evidently mandatory before action in Bosnia but not Iraq
-The factory hit was filled w/equipment made by Matrix Churchill

The acting asst sec State, demoted for involvement in searching Clinton’s passport file, has been hired by Jesse Helms, for the R. staff of Foreign Relations Cmte, whose director finds nothing wrong w/his actions

Iraq dec unilateral cease-fire in the no-fly zone. This after various firings on US planes & responses by missile & cluster bombs

Israel Parl repeals ban on contact w/PLO


1/20/93

Fr also says US overstepped bounds

Zoe Baird admits knowingly violating law in hiring illegals, but dammit, she was a mother. Well that’s ok then.

Justice Dept report on FBI Director Sessions says he took advantage of gov often for petty gain. He evaded taxes on use of official limos, used FBI planes for personal trips, abused power to assign agents to his security. Ordered reimbursals, inc $10,000 for what Sessions called a security fence but which was actually made of wood. Also had the FBI technical staff build a $22,000 cabinet in his office, was reimbursed for touring Fr countryside on way to a police conf, used agents to transport his dog, haul furniture, etc

CIA internal investigation takes blame for not helping Lavoro investigation

Justice Dept rushes out a legal brief to Sup Court that Alabama, which just elected 1st black since Reconstruction, need not create a 2nd black district. And brief in GA says blacks have no basis to challenge at-large cty commissioners with all exec & leg power. Justice over-rides its Civil Rights division in both cases

Who keeps inviting Billy Graham to these things?

In 47 states, a single ♀ can’t be artificially inseminated by a sperm bank. But if the donor is then known, informal, he can be designated the legal father, and no earlier contract can stop him. The law recognizes only parents or strangers, nothing in between

1988 Lloyd Bentsen bought $100,000 of stock in a comp started by owner of a Texas S&L on whose behalf he had met w/fed regulators 4 mos before. 3 yrs later, it was worth at least $600,000-$1.2m. The comp was created by looting the S&L, which failed. The owner had to pay $2.4m in restitution to the gov last mo. The money was siphoned out by selling the S&L’s data-processing business, other assets real cheap & selling it services real expensively ($50m/yr for $31m in value). The S&L spent $100m (inc assets) to get 50% of stock (inc preferred stock which doesn’t appreciate), while the other ½ bought by 28 investors inc Bentsen who paid $2.5m. In addition to repayment, Bentsen’s friends agreed never to work for a fed-insured bank


1/21/93

Virginia executes the guy in the wheelchair

Nancy Reagan called up ABC during inauguration to complain that they weren’t invited. And that Bushes never invited them back for a state dinner

Iraq maintains cease-fire, though US planes shoot missiles & cluster bombs at a radar center which locked onto them. 1st Clinton military action!

Les Aspin supported the pardon of Weinberger, presumably reserving the right to lie to Congress himself (like Warren Christopher did 1977 over spying on VN protesters)

In Gulf War, we used radioactive artillery shells (they pierce tanks & set the air on fire), leaving 40 tons of depleted uranium in the area. Kids playing w/the shells may explain the increase of cancer & stomach ailments in kids, increased deaths

Though most nominees have already snuck through, Zoe Baird is surely dead, over the illegals. Clinton is standing behind her, by about 3 time zones


1/22/93

Zoe withdraws

Clinton abolishes Competitiveness Council

Kohl wants to cut benefits to E & raise taxes


1/23/93

17 of the deportees back in Israel, 4 for med care, 13 because of mistaken identity, which doesn’t stop them putting 11 in prison

Croatian civ war resumes after 1 yr w/Croatian offensive to take back the land UN cease-fire said should be returned. Croatian Serbs have dec state of war & gen mobilization & raiding UN arms depots

2nd day of Clinton’s war on Iraq, an attack on antiaircraft missile site. This time w/no excuse at all of Iraq activity

Clinton admin on Zoe Baird: “Mistakes were made.” Clinton’s people knew about the illegals & the avoidance of Soc Sec & didn’t think it was important. Nobody stood by Baird because she stood for nothing but herself, all she’s been is a corporate hired gun

Clinton reverses the ban on abortion counseling, the ban on fetal tissue research, on abortions in military hospitals & for internat family-planning programs, & a review of RU-486
-Also last-minute Bush moves to end permits for outdoor experiments of genetically engineered pesticides, exempt doctors from penalties for kickbacks in Medicaid & Medicare, & to reduce mandatory rest for truckers who have worked 60 hrs in 7 days or 70 in 8 from 3-day rest to 1-day

Clinton thinking of making James Covey, Bush’s State Dept person in charge of getting loans & aid to Iraq, as Asst Secy Defense for Regional Conflicts


1/26/93

Clinton’s 1st battle death, in Somalia (3rd dead in Somalia all told)

Though Clinton’s people are talking about an energy tax or a VAT, he promised in campaign no middle class taxes – and the loophole – “to pay for my programs”

Clinton names Hillary to head cmte on health care. She can’t be paid, under the anti-RFK law

The military is getting uppity about gays, and there’s some suggestion it couldn’t carry Congress, esp w/Sam Nunn leading the charge. There is a suggestion of waiting 6 mos.
-1916 was 1st mention of sodomy, narrowly defined, in military law. 1949-51 became more specific. 1966 army required psych exam before a discharge for homosexuality. The ban for simply being gay only came in 1982, w/out a homo. act

A compromise is being worked out whereby Macedonia would enter UN as “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”

Sup Court 6-3 says that those convicted by a jury no longer have 8th & 14th Amend protection. The question is whether fed courts can overturn a conviction based on actual innocence, proved by new evidence. This is the case the Court decided to hear, but not to halt the execution. [In other cases yesterday, Court decided that Fed courts had no jurisdiction in a case of a 17-yr old person wherein jury not given enough opportunity to consider it as mitigating]. Basically, fed courts are out of it exc for const issues. Rehnquist says the assertion of innocence if a mere “claim” w/out legal weight (evidence now points at his dead brother), new evidence that in Texas would only be allowed w/in 30 days of conviction (and similar in 13 other states). Rehnquist says 30 days if fair, and seems to suggest that the evidence is less good because it took 10 yrs to come to light. Thomas, in a gratuitous concurrence, suggests mandatory death penalty instead of unltd mitigating circumstances. Rehnquist suggests as the only remedy for innocence clemency, what Blackmun calls in the dissent “the unreviewable discretion of an executive official.” Certainly not enough for Const rights Steven & Souter also dissented


1/27/93

R’s intend to put amend against gays in military on the 1st bill to come along (which probably is family leave). Sam Nunn says Congress has equal responsibility

Army, during Gulf War, turned down a doctor’s application for CO status because he kills things as a doctor – viruses & stuff


1/28/93

When Bush became the Education President, promised to learn the computer. He had one lesson. Now he’s trying again


1/29/93

Israeli Sup Court says mass deportations illegal, but 415 indiv deportations at the same time are ok. Appeals after the fact are ok, though court doesn’t say how that’s possible. The Sup Court Chief Justice was deported by the British 1940s

John Major suing New Statesman & Scallywag for reporting on long-standing existence of rumors of an affair
-2 weeks ago, gov proposed banning photography w/out permission on priv prop

The outgoing White House doctor was fired after refusing to give him what some aide said was an allergy shot, w/out medical records. Why is the man always hoarse? 1st it was the campaign, then he was allergic to his Xmas tree...

Jap. gov & fishing industry to begin campaigns to encourage more whale eating

Clinton “compromises” on gays in military. Had he been in any sort of control, this would have been Stage 1, but it is now a compromise. A 6-mo “cooling off” period, as if Sam Nunn will change his mind in 6 mos. New recruits won’t be asked. Gays won’t be discharged, just moved to standby reserve, w/out pay or benefits or duties, but not fired. In the 6 mos, field commanders can transfer gays anywhere they like. This is after a fed judge says the ban unconst


1/31/93

Justice last yr allowed 1 JOA newspaper to pay another to go out of business, illegal under both JOA & antitrust laws

The EPA has never asked for funds to locate waste dumps & won’t allow states to use Superfund money to discover sites