European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 31, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday december 31, 1992 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 now Ira Gate can get attention it deserves William Safire we have been treating president Bush a Quot Christmas eve massacre a of the Iran Contra prosecution As a single event motivated either by compassion for presidential loyalists or a need to shut Down deeper inquiry. That a a mistake. The pardons rounded out a Trio of decisions about Independent counsel made in the last two weeks. The key figure in each was c. Boyden Gray the White House Legal counsel. To deduce the pattern we must grasp three relationships. First George Bush treats Boyden Gray like a son and trusts him totally. No person has been As close in the final Days. Second Gray has had a four year feud with James Baker a competing confidant. It was Gray to distract attention from his own conflict of interest who exposed Jim bakery a Bank holdings and forced him to sell. In the recent Campaign Gray was irked at bakery a slowness to take charge and quickness to distance himself from looming defeat. Third William Barr the 42-year-old attorney general became acquainted with Bush in his �?T20s, when he served As one of his aides in the Cia he was then taken under Boyden Gray swing. With that background consider the three interrelated decisions on Independent counsel first despite demands from both judiciary committees and an obvious conflict of cover ups Between the Justice department and the Cia Barr broke precedent and refused to seek Independent counsel in the Ira Gate scandal. Instead he handpicked a whitewashed who dutifully filibustered past the elec Tion ultimate for e lately condemning Congress the arms buildup of Saddam Hussein. Just before the special prosecutor act expired Barr insisted that such an appointment would undermine career officers in the departments criminal division. Second on the Day before the act was to end under no pressure from press or Congress Barr suddenly reversed Field about his criminal divisions capacity he found evidence of sufficient credibility i suspect at Gray a Behest to seek genuinely Independent counsel in the Case of the state departments search of Bill Clinton a passport files. States tawdry invasion of privacy was not in the same league of criminality As Iraq Gate a sustained lying to Congress and obstruction of Justice yet it rated the hated special prosecutor. The court panel was ready with Joseph Degenova because it had screened him for the expected Ira Gate appointment. He had a conflict third As the old arms for hostages scandal threatened to involve Bush More deeply at the Weinberger trial Gray took Barros Justice Pardon dossier to the president on Christmas eve the Independent counsels Iran Contra Case was effectively shut Down. Follow the Barr Gray Zigzag a a not to investigating major Ira Gate lying a a yes to investigating minor passport file lying a a not to further investigating arms for hostages lying. Why the inconsistency answer Only James Baker not George Bush or Boyden Gray or William Barr is vulnerable on the passport file Case. Bakery a longtime left Arm Janet Mullins is the designated fall Guy in the suspected lying Margaret Tutwiler his right Arm will be targeted for complicity. Both women Are Likely to be granted immunity and squeezed to rat on their Boss before a grand jury because they Are unlikely to perjure themselves Baker is Likely to be embarrassed at guilty knowledge of the Misdemeanour of snooping but not prosecutable for lying to officials. Barr excluded a More serious invasion of privacy a the widespread operations Center Telephone eavesdropping by Lawless bureaucrats a in his Surprise request for Independent counsel. That is set to be quashed the purpose of the passport Case appointment is to Settle Boyden Gray a score with James Baker while trying to draw attention away from the two scandals touching Bush. I have not been among James bakery a ardent acolytes in the past dozen years but he deserves the respect of a serious inquiry into major crimes of state rather than a Light pop on a dirty trick. The ability of Congress to take truthful testimony has been challenged by the pardons. The reaction to the shutdown of Iran Contra should be the opening up of Ira Gate. C the now York time world appears headed Down same grisly path the Berlin Wall has been smashed into Asbestos bearing souvenirs. The Warsaw pact nations have packed it up and surrendered in the cold War. Our once nightmarish enemy the soviet Union is dismembered and in turmoil. So Why am i about to enter an unhappy new year in which i shiver when i read my newspapers or turn on the television news because i learn of hundreds of Nile being stabbed chopped turned to death in hindu Muslim riots in India a throwback to the ghastly religious massacres that were occurring in the first years of indians and pakistanis Independence. Carl t. I note that while we Ameri Rowan ans Are applauding our a Mission of mercy to Somalia serbian forces have moved beyond their a ethnic cleansing by using starvation disease and freezing to banish some 2 million non serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I took special note of the Call by Ronald Reagan for intervention by nato and by the Call for military action m Bosnia to rein in the serbian murderers. I look at South Africa where promises of racial Justice have for so Long gone unfulfilled and i see a burgeoning Campaign of outraged Blacks murdering members of the dominant White minority a a throwback to the Mau Mau actions through which Jomo Kenyatta and his forces won the Independence of Kenya. I am stunned to read that the palestinian Intifada marked its fifth anniversary with hit and run murder shootings of israeli soldiers a grim warning that despite Middle East peace negotiations that area will remain explosive. And who would have imagined that Russia and the w the menu otpo�mi4m a weft ethnic 1 former soviet Union would now rival the Middle East for the title of a most volatile area i have tried to find in 44 earlier years of reporting and now in our Mission to Somalia some convincing evidence that Man has in enlightenment moved Light years away from the Jungle. But i read today a ugly sometimes horrifying head lines and know that something far worse than any Caveman mentality has Humankind in its grip. So sad to say in my late years i can to see any reason to believe that we will in this millennium Rise above dark human impulses toward both destruction and self destruction. North America Syndicate