DATE=3/14/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-HILLARY-PAKISTAN (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260189
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The White House says President Clinton's
decision to visit Pakistan later this month was not
influenced by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton and her
fund raising among Pakistani-Americans for her
campaign for the U-S Senate. VOA's David Gollust
reports from the White House.
TEXT: Administration officials do not contest reports
that Mrs. Clinton spoke in favor of a Presidential
visit to Pakistan at a fund-raising event last month
with Pakistani-Americans. But they are angrily
dismissing suggestions that she played a role in the
subsequent decision by the President to visit Pakistan
on his upcoming South Asia trip.
The comments followed a New York Times report Tuesday
that Mrs. Clinton raised at least 50-thousand dollars
for her Senate campaign at a February 22nd fund-raising
dinner with Pakistani-American doctors, businessmen
and others who were pressing for an Islamabad visit by
Mr. Clinton.
The White House announced the Presidential visit to
India and Bangladesh some time ago. But the decision
to pay a brief stop in Islamabad at the close of the
South Asia journey March 25th came only last week - a
reflection of, among other things, U-S disapproval of
the military coup in Islamabad last October.
Briefing reporters here, Clinton spokesman Joe
Lockhart said it was decided - on balance - that
making the stop was the best way to influence Pakistan
in a positive way, on a return to democracy and other
issues. But he said it was a determination made
exclusively by the President and his foreign policy
team, and that it is "grossly unfair" to say that Mrs.
Clinton or her political interests were considered:
///Lochhart actuality///
We have real concerns about the lack of
democracy and the suspension of the constitution
in Pakistan. But it is ludicrous - absolutely
ludicrous - for someone to make the claim that
it had something to do with politics. And
there's no basis for it.
///end act///
A campaign spokesman for Mrs. Clinton said there was
nothing illegal about her Pakistani fund-raiser and
that Indian-American groups had also contributed to
her Senate campaign. He said her endorsement of a
Pakistan visit was a view widely held by other U-S
political figures.
The fund-raising issue again highlights the
sensitivity of,and problems associated, with Mrs.
Clinton's campaign, the first quest for elected office
ever by the wife of a sitting President.
A decision by the President last August to commute the
prison terms of Puerto Rican nationalists convicted of
a 1970's bombing campaign came under attack as a move
to help his wife's then-undeclared Senate campaign in
New York, which has a large Puerto Rican population.
Mrs. Clinton denied playing a role in the clemency
move and later - amid a major controvery over the
pardons -- came out against them. (Signed)
NEB/DAG/PT
14-Mar-2000 17:11 PM EDT (14-Mar-2000 2211 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
