GOP Lawmakers Say Bosnia Arms Inquiries Rebuffed

Republican leaders in the House and Senate on Wednesday charged that the White House is trying to block inquiries into President Clinton’s role in approving secret Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia, but said they are launching a major investigation into the issue anyway.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) accused the administration of trying to stop the congressional inquiries and added: “One of the things that almost never works is secrecy, particularly secrecy in the defense of dumbness.” Gingrich and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) complained that the White House has refused to give them a report on the Iranian arms decision by the Intelligence Oversight Board, which investigated the issue in 1994.

“They’re now trying to stop the investigation,” Gingrich complained.

White House officials confirmed that they have refused to hand over the report, which found that officials did not break the law when they gave a green light for the Iranian shipments to the Bosnian Muslims.

But an administration official said Wednesday night that the administration is nonetheless “actively trying to get documents and information to Congress. We are committed to getting them a complete understanding of what the U.S. policy was. We are not trying to keep information from Congress.”

Turning over the document would raise grave concerns about a breach of confidentiality, the official said. “It is vitally important that this president and future presidents be able to count on the frankness and candor they get from people like the chairman of the IOB. If we routinely turn materials like this over, we would soon find that the people on whom the president relies for candor are very self-concious about where their remarks might later be heard. That is not in the public’s interest.”

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said that the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees will hold separate hearings on the Iranian arms pipeline, which began in 1994 after Clinton sent word to the president of Croatia that he would not object to the flow of aid into neighboring Bosnia.

Clinton agreed to the Iranian arms shipments--even though the United States did not want the radical Islamic regime to expand its influence in Bosnia--because the Bosnian government needed the weapons and would probably ignore U.S. opposition to the shipments, aides said.

Dole, who is likely set to face Clinton in November’s presidential election, said that an investigation was needed because the 1994 decision allowed Iran to send troops and intelligence officers into Bosnia.

“While we read and heard reports that Iran was smuggling arms to the Bosnians, we did not know the president and his advisors made a conscious decision to give a green light for Iran to provide arms,” Dole said in a speech on the Senate floor. “Indeed, those of us who advocated lifting the arms embargo--Republicans and Democrats--argued that if America did not provide Bosnia with assistance, Iran would be Bosnia’s only option.

“This duplicitous policy has seriously damaged our credibility with our allies,” Dole said. “It has also produced one of the most serious threats to our military forces in Bosnia and, according to the administration, the main obstacle to the ‘arm and train’ program for the Bosnians. I am talking about the presence of Iranian military forces and intelligence officials in Bosnia.”

In addition to the Senate hearings, which have not yet been scheduled, the House International Affairs Committee plans to question Undersecretary of State Peter Tarnoff about the issue next week.

The administration official noted Wednesday that the White House has not yet invoked executive privilege in the case. Rather, the White House has made it clear that it is not willing to hand over the report and that it is subject to executive privilege.

The GOP leaders appear intent on pursuing the issue partly because they had long urged Clinton to send U.S. weapons to Bosnia--only to be told that Britain and France objected to any arms flow--and partly because they are eager to remind voters that Clinton’s Bosnia policy has not always looked as successful as it does today.