Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2000 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washtimes.com/
Author: Martin Edwin Andersen
Note: Martin Edwin Andersen, a former senior adviser for policy planning 
with the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, is the pioneer 
whistleblower in the ongoing inspector general's investigation.

AID TO CORRUPTION?

President Clinton's trip today to Colombia, designed to show U.S. support 
for that country's beleaguered democracy, also points to the harm his 
administration's corruption scandals are doing to vital American foreign 
policy interests.

Given that public corruption is a major issue in Colombia, the U.S. example 
does little to further respect for the rule of law there and is likely to 
add to the cynicism of its war-weary citizens.

Mr. Clinton is anxious to showcase the $1.3 billion his administration has 
succeeded in wrangling from the U.S. Congress to the government of 
President Andres Pastrana, which is currently embroiled in a frontier-less 
war against insurgency, paramilitary terror and drug trafficking. An 
important part of the aid package is $91.5 million allocated to the 
international training programs of the U.S. Department of Justice, of which 
the lion's share is to be administered by the Criminal Division's 
scandal-ridden International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance 
Program (ICITAP).

Since 1997 ICITAP has been the target of one of the most extensive criminal 
investigations ever conducted by the Department's Office of the Inspector 
General (IG), which has carried out hundreds of interviews on three 
continents. Justice Department sources say that ICITAP, a program that is 
supposed to train foreign law enforcement officers in issues running from 
human rights to ethics and anti-corruption, is about to be rocked by the 
findings of the inspector general.

Among the allegations being looked into are financial corruption, including 
sweetheart contracts for friends and political associates of Attorney 
General Janet Reno; sexual misconduct; visa fraud, and a shocking disregard 
for basic rules governing the protection of national security information. 
Justice officials say the long-awaited report should be out in the next few 
weeks.

Three senior Justice Department officials have already been stripped of 
their security clearances in the probe.

A senior Criminal Division manager and adviser to Miss Reno under 
investigation by the IG's office was last month allowed to quietly resign.

His boss, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark M. Richard, was 
demoted late last year and sent into exile in a cubbyhole office in dank 
Brussels, Belgium - supposedly for his health. Department whispers about 
the relatively kid-glove treatment Mr. Richard received after his 
stewardship at the helm of a sinking bureaucratic ship are based on an 
uncomfortable fact. Mr. Richard was one of the senior Justice officials - 
together with Lee Radek - who advised Miss Reno on whether to appoint 
special prosecutors for, you guessed it, Mr. Clinton and his candidate 
wife, as well as Vice President Gore. Little wonder that the word from 
inside the department is that Brussels is a good place to be stashed away 
if you want to avoid inopportune questions from inquiring U.S. reporters.

The scandal has already taken its toll on U.S. foreign policy in concrete 
ways. A few weeks ago the Justice Department announced, without saying why, 
that it was pulling ICITAP out of Haiti. The once ballyhooed program spent 
more than $72 million in the last five years trying - unsuccessfully - to 
create a Haitian justice system.

What happened during that time is a direct reflection of the ethical and 
moral lapses permitted in Miss Reno's Department - all the more so given 
the fact that the same senior ICITAP managers now under investigation were 
given special performance awards by Miss Reno herself.

ICITAP's Haiti program is one of the centerpieces of the IG's investigation 
- - its former Washington manager is one of the three senior officials who 
had his security clearances yanked.

Allegations involving Justice Department staff and contractors run from 
having helped accused embezzlers escape from jail, to gross financial 
irregularities, to widespread security breaches, and even that program 
personnel slept with 14-year-old girls in housing provided by ICITAP. This 
latter issue reportedly sparked an anguished meeting in the Criminal 
Division where a modest proposal that consultants working overseas sign a 
binding code of conduct agreement was overruled by Department lawyers 
worried that the existence of such documents would make the DOJ legally, 
and financially, liable for their behavior.

Today Department officials are preparing to unleash ICITAP on Colombia in a 
major administration of justice effort there, apparently in the hope that 
the dismal news already being reported about the ongoing scandal in the 
U.S. media won't reach Bogota. It is a foolish hope. Colombians are likely 
to be unimpressed by administration spinmeisters and for good reason -it's 
their country that is involved in a life-or-death struggle, and it is their 
children's future that is at stake.

More generally, it is important to note that administration of justice 
reform is a major component of international peacekeeping, a role that the 
Clinton administration has embraced with gusto.

By sending U.S. agencies abroad that are suffering from the continuing 
ethical rot of this administration, we share our shame with already 
overburdened allies while at the same time we are prevented from exporting 
what is good and decent about the American system of justice.

Martin Edwin Andersen, a former senior adviser for policy planning with the 
Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, is the pioneer 
whistleblower in the ongoing inspector general's investigation.
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