European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 30, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday May 30,1987 James Kilpatrick ethics act should be abolished William French Smith in califor Nian who was Ronald Reagan s firs attorney general hurried up in Washington last week to Tell a House subcommittee thai it s time so get rid of Independent counsels who arc appointed under the ethics in government act of j97s. He is also Julely right. The 1978 act was adopted during the spasms of morality thai Shook Congress in the Wake of the watergate affair. Among the act s provisions is a Section requiring the appointment Ota special prosecutor later Clit cd an Independent counsel whenever allegations of criminal wrongdoing Ore Mode against a government official. The act Cipres next year. Let it go Smith says. In one sweeping sentence he set Forth his objections in my opinion this legislation has not served the ends of Justice is cruel and devastating in its application to individuals falsely destroying reputations and requiring the incur ring of great personal costs has applied artificial standards often unrelated to culpability and to that Emoni has prevented the use. Of Normal Stan-1 Dartis of prosecutor Al discretion has been used More for political purposes and Media appetite than to achieve Justice has been a Nightmare to administer and has caused a needless and sub Stantial waste of taxpayers  every word of that is True. The first invocation of the Law if memory serves was against Hamilton Jordan a top ranking aide to president Carter. This was in november 1979, when a Flimsy charge was made that a year earlier that Jordan tried a snort of cocaine at a new York discotheque. Under sensible procedures i dubious allegation would have been turned Over to the department of Justice. The department would have looked into the matter found it baseless and gone about its business but no under this portentous act a special prosecutor Arthur h. Crisis had to be appointed. It was t until the following May that crispy s investigation cleared Jordan. Meanwhile Jordan had endured six months of undeserved hell. A few months later in september 1980, a similar allegation was raised against while House aide Tim Kraft. He was to manage car Ter s 1980 Campaign but the unfounded charge Pui him on the sidelines. A special prosecutor cleared him in March 1981. Edwin Melesc while he was still at Reagan s White House before he became attorney general succeeding Smith went through an languishing or Deal. He was accused of using his influence to get Federal jobs for people who had provided financial assistance o him. Of the charges had been Rue he would have been subject to indictment. But the charges were manifestly untrue. Special counsel Jacob a. Stein came to that obvious conclusion after months of investigation. The probe Cost the taxpayers $ 721,000 in Melesc s Legal Lees alone. By my inexact count we Are now in the midst of the ninth costly investigation by an inde pendent counsel in addition to the charges against Jordan Kraft and metre allegations against Michael Deaver and Ray Donovan have been probed. Nonhof these found any violation of Federal Law. Special counsel Lawrence Walsh now holds a Brief for the whole of the Iran Centra affair. An investigation of Lyn Nofziger s lobbying is in Complete. Two other investigations involve unidentified persons in the jul Isicc department. Smith told the House subcommittee this cumbersome and expensive process so far has damaged reputations but produced Little  the i acid pro visions of the Law require that special investigations take precedence Over any other matters that might occupy the Fri and the department of Justice. The a makes no distinction Between trivial allegations and serious allegations. As Smith said the Independent counsel provision is just Plain bad Law. I ought to be abandoned. Sen. Henry m. Jackson emvash., of surrounded by reporters while in the Campaign Trail in 1976. A photo George will Henry Jackson of Washington Best president . Never had this weekend in Seattle a gathering will Eom Mcm orate the 75th anniversary of the birth of Henry Jackson the Best president the United states never had. As the democratic party prepares for Ilie problematic presentation of itself in 1988 As suitable Custo Dian of the nation s Security it should consider sen Jackson s career As it is recalled in a new collection of essays staying the course Henry m. Jackson and National Security edited by Dorothy Fosdick. The great period of foreign policy creativity after the War was primarily he product of Liberal democratic internationalists whose tradition Jackson continued. But in the 1960s and 1970s, As she democratic party lurched leftward Jackson came to be called a conservative a strange Fate for a progressive elected from a state so Liberal thai James Farley once said there were -17 Stales and the soviet of  in april 1945, Days after american soldiers Liber ated Buchenwald congressman Jackson walked into the concentration Camp. He walked out a changed Man stunned by the sight of he stakes of politics in the age of totalitarian. Twenty three years later he read Robert Conquest s the great terror Stafin s purge of the  he concluded that the soviet regime s assault on human rights expresses an internal dynamism inseparable from external adventurism. Therefore human rights must be a focus of . At tempts to tame the soviet Union. In 1972, the Kremlin imposed its education tax ostensibly 10 require emigrants to compensate the state for blessings received from it. Actually the tax was designed to deter emigration. The Ninon administration drunk on detente was pushing legislation to extend credits and most favored nation Tariff treat ment to the soviet Union. Jackson drafted Legisa Jioji thai said Man status could be granted to non Market countries Only if hey respect the right to emigrate. This enraged the Soviel Union and american business interests. In a two year fight Jackson prevailed. Today presidents still can not give communists All the favors that Many capitalists advocate and the same unholy Alliance still Hopes to unravel Jackson s Handiwork in Ilie name of Sci enc in August 1972, while the Senate was debating ratification of the abm treaty and approval of the Salt i interim agreement Jackson proposed approval Lan Guage that said in effect the interim agreement is unsatisfactory and the abm treaty is tolerable Only if Salt ii is much better. Jackson s language said that a subsequent agreement must Correct the inequalities of Salt i by providing for Equality in the carrying Capac Ity of missile forces warheads and  the soviets were allowed advantages in every category of weapons Salt 1 covered Jackson s language said that if such an agreement protecting the survivability of . Land based missiles were not achieved by the end of 1977, when the interim agreement expired thai failure could jeopardize our supreme National interests and be grounds for withdrawal from the abm treaty. Jackson started with few supporters and was fiercely opposed by Many including Many republicans who sought to prolong the election year euphoria produced by the Moscow Summit. But Jackson prevailed and seven Yean later the Senate stipulation that Jackson had engineered was one reason Why Salt ii was Noi ratified in 1986 Al Reykjavik Iceland Paul Nilze cited Jackson s language to  Fakhro Meyer chief of the soviet armed forces As a reason the United states could 1191 accept As it did in Salt i and Salt ii unequal ceilings on strategic fared. Today Jackson s party is making a Felish of the abm treaty although compensating strategic anus limitations Are a decade overdue. And Jackson s Patty is making a mockery of the Constitution s treaty ratification procedures by trying to ratify Salt Al with an appropriation Bill. It would forbid the expenditure of any funds for strategic systems that would exceed the limits of Salt ii an agreement that the soviet Union is violating in various ways the bipartisan commission on Central America appointed by president Reagan was Jackson s last important initiative. It recommended some military Aid and much More economic Aid and was instantly denounced by the democratic parly s chosen spokesman As a War  Jackson is not to blame for the fact thai the commission s report failed to achieve he re sult he had hoped for. It did not raise he debate above the puerile to of the categories largely set by Liberal democrats who say there is a Choice Between Politi Caf and military solutions. Still Jackson s record is a Banner to which Denro crafts could repair. He served 42 years tinder nine presi dents not one of whom was a better president than he would have been. C Wash Oglor Post Wal try group