Clinton Calls for Senate to Vote on CIA Nominee Lake

President Clinton, reacting to growing reservations among Republicans, on Thursday gave an unsolicited defense of his nominee for CIA director, Anthony Lake, and called on the Senate to move ahead with confirmation hearings.

“We’ve now answered all the questions that we’ve been asked” about Lake’s qualifications, Clinton volunteered at the end of a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I think he ought to be given a hearing and a vote.”

Clinton was referring to 25 questions about Lake posed by Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee that has jurisdiction over the confirmation process for Lake.

At the time Clinton spoke, however, the answers had not yet been delivered to the committee. But White House officials said they would be sent to Capitol Hill late Thursday.

Although several members of Clinton’s Cabinet already have been confirmed, the Senate has twice delayed hearings on Lake’s nomination because of questions about his activities as national security advisor to Clinton during his first term.

Last week, the Justice Department cleared Lake of any potential criminal charges stemming from his personal stock dealings and his testimony to Congress about Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia.

Nonetheless, Shelby again postponed Lake’s hearing Tuesday, saying that the Justice Department ruling did not satisfy his questions on those issues and complaining that the White House still owed answers on an array of other issues. Some questions concern contacts between a senior member of Lake’s National Security Council staff and a Thai businesswoman enmeshed in the Democratic campaign donations scandal.

Clinton’s comments about Lake were part of a White House campaign to show continued and enthusiastic support for his nomination.

The president said he wanted “to remind everybody it was Tony Lake who came up with the strategy that we implemented to end the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II [in Bosnia]. He was a terrific success as the national security advisor to the president. . . . He fully understands intelligence operations. He is superbly qualified. If someone has some reason to oppose him, let them oppose him in a hearing and in a vote on the floor.”

Netanyahu was the first foreign visitor of Clinton’s second term and the first of a parade of Middle East leaders to travel to Washington in the next six weeks. U.S. officials hope the president’s talks with Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Hussein will reinvigorate the Middle East peace process.

Neither Clinton nor Netanyahu provided any details of Israel’s plans for talks with Syria, which are stalled over the future of the Golan Heights. Israeli officials have said the prime minister hopes to develop a territorial compromise that would allow Israel to retain at least part of that strategic area, which Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 Middle East war. Syrian President Hafez Assad has said that he will not agree to any peace settlement that does not return the entire plateau to Syrian sovereignty.

“I do feel encouraged by the discussions we’ve had, that there are things worth working on, working through,” Clinton said. “I’m hopeful that we can get the Syrian track going again.”

Clinton called on Israel and the Palestinians to “build on the new momentum” resulting from last month’s agreement to turn most of the West Bank city of Hebron over to Palestinian administration. But neither man gave any hint of how that will be accomplished.

But even if the Clinton-Netanyahu talks produced very little regarding Israel’s relations with either Syria or the Palestinians, the meeting was of profound importance in solidifying Netanyahu’s place in his relationship with Clinton.

The White House made no secret of its preference for Netanyahu’s opponent, former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, in the last Israeli election. The president and the prime minister smoothed over their disagreements in each of Netanyahu’s three previous visits to Washington. But this time, the two men projected a genuine friendship.

“I think you’ve shown yourself to be a great champion of peace and an exceptional friend of Israel,” Netanyahu told Clinton. The president responded by reiterating his “unshakable” support for Israel’s security.

On another subject, Clinton acknowledged concerns that stock prices have risen too high, which could indicate stocks are overvalued. But he insisted the stock market’s continuing surge largely reflects the economy’s strength. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 7,000 mark Thursday for the first time.

Clinton said there was an obvious concern over whether the rapid rise was justified. “But if you look at the stability and the growth that we’ve enjoyed and the prospects we have for stable growth with no inflation, it’s hard to say that it’s completely out of the question,” he said.