SIGHTINGS


 
Drudge: White House Panics
Over Giant Leak Of
National Security Docs
Matt Drudge
The Drudge Report
11-24-98
 
** World Exclusive **
 
WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration is facing the most massive leak of classified foreign policy documents since the publication of the Pentagon papers more than two decades ago during the Vietnam war, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
 
"The impeachment proceedings are going to have seemed like a picnic, before we get though with this," said one White House official.
 
The papers, totaling more than 20,000 pages, according to sources who have read them, include a history of the secret negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea, describing the failed policy of trying to buy off North Korea to forego its nuclear weapons policy. They describe in great detail the intelligence and policy failures that led to the detonations of nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan this year.
 
Most embarrassing, the papers appear to corroborate, according to sources who have read them, allegations by a former U.N. arms inspector that the Clinton administration concealed from Congress and the public details regarding Saddam Hussein's ambitious program to develop nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
 
The papers also reveal new details on the Clinton policy towards China in which the White House allowed ballistic missile technology exports to China at the behest of wealthy Democratic campaign contributors.
 
News of the massive leak of classified foreign policy documents caught senior White House officials by surprise on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend... MORE
 
Two Washington newspaper editors have reviewed the papers, which have been obtained by left-wing reporter Murray Waas.
 
Waas has been holding the documents close, according to one media insider. Some in Washington speculate that Waas does not want to write a major expose about the Clinton administration in the midst of the impeachment hearings, fueling the flames for conservatives.
 
The new leaks appear to be indicative of deep dissatisfaction within the foreign policy establishment regarding Clinton policies.
 
There have been other unprecedented leaks as well: most notably, a James Risen story in the NEW YORK TIMES earlier this week about the disregarding of a CIA assessment of Russian corruption by Vice President Al Gore. Some see an organized attempt by dissidents to discredit the Clinton foreign policy.
 
Ironically, the Clinton White House might have a hard time attacking one of their favorite reporters: During the 1992 presidential campaign, both Clinton and Gore often praised Waas exclusives exposing the Bush administration's Iraq policy, which involved the leaks of thousands of pages of classified papers regarding the Gulf war.
 
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