GOOD HUNTING: CENTER APPLAUDS CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY INTO CLINTON’S ‘CHICKEN DIPLOMACY’

(Washington, D.C.): In recent days, confidential U.S. and
Russian official documents have come to light that call into
question the propriety as well as the prudence of President
Clinton’s decision to commit billions in American taxpayer
dollars to bolster Boris Yeltsin’s reelection campaign. These
documents — which have been the subject of numerous press
articles and a recent Center for Security Policy Decision
Brief⁽¹⁾—
have now prompted three influential House committee chairmen to
request a full disclosure by the White House of information
bearing on this decision.

Specifically, Representatives Benjamin Gilman, Henry
Hyde and William Clinger (the chairmen,
respectively, of the House International Relations, Judiciary and
Government Reform and Oversight Committees) have asked President
Clinton in writing for materials that would establish whether, as
appears to be the case, “your policy toward the
Russian elections may be tainted by domestic partisan political
considerations.” In a letter dated 1 April 1996,
the legislators express concern that “vital U.S.
foreign policy priorities…may be compromised as part of an
arrangement to enhance your reelection prospects.”

Among the materials sought by 19 April are:

• All documents “reporting, reflecting, summarizing or
  describing” Clinton-Yeltsin discussions held
  on 13 March in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, together
  with those produced preparatory to that meeting. Excerpts
  of a classified memorandum of conversation of that
  meeting published last week by the Washington Times
  suggest that President Clinton used this occasion to
  signal a willingness to work for the mutual benefit of
  the two presidents’ reelection bids and, in that
  connection, to seek relief from Russian red-tape for his
  long-time supporters among Arkansas poultry interests.
• Comparable documents bearing on a 13 January
  telephone conversation between Messrs. Clinton and
  Yeltsin. According to a purported transcript of
  this conversation published in the Russian press,
  President Clinton used the call to signal his
  determination to work for approval of a then-pending
  $10.2 billion International Monetary Fund loan to provide
  Yeltsin with up to $1 billion in ready cash before the
  June elections in Russia.

The Center for Security Policy notes that, according to the
Associated Press, President Clinton today told a White
House news conference that “his administration would not try
to get involved in Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s reelection
campaign” saying “[The United States] should not take
any position on the elections in another country.”
As the attached column published in
today’s Washington Times by Center director Frank J.
Gaffney, Jr. makes clear, such a statement is — to
put it charitably — misleading.

The Center commends Reps. Gilman, Hyde and Clinger for their
leadership in trying to establish the truth concerning President
Clinton’s “chicken diplomacy” and other efforts on Mr.
Yeltsin’s behalf. It encourages them to seek relevant
information in addition from the IMF, specifically concerning the
circumstances under which the latest $10.2 billion loan was made
to Russia. According to today’s New York Times,
the Fund’s director, “[Michel] Camdessus had cleared the way
[for making this massive donation to Yeltsin’s campaign⁽²⁾] by rewriting Fund
rules in 1994 to ease credit to Russia.” Before the
Congress is asked to renew the annual U.S. quota — let alone
double it to roughly $80 billion — it is entitled to know
the answers to such questions as: What were these rule changes?
Who approved them? And what are their implications for
disciplining future disbursements to Russia and IMF lending to
other nations?

1. See ‘Chicken Diplomacy’ and
Other Clinton-Yeltsin Campaign Scams Are Bad for Democracy, Bad
for U.S. Taxpayers (No. 96-D
32, 28 March 1996).

2. Lest there be any doubt about the
political purpose of this loan, the Times notes that
“Mr. Camdessus went on Russian television [after the IMF
Board approved it] to announce the largesse that Mr. Yeltsin’s
economic reforms had won.”