FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 14, 1992 TELL THE TRUTH, MR. PRESIDENT [Statement of George Stephanopoulos, Communications Director] "The American people should demand that their President tell the truth." -- Dan Quayle October 13, 1992 We couldn't agree more. It took a while but we finally uncovered something that Dan Quayle said last night that rings of the truth. His boss, George Bush, should tell the truth. Mr. Quayle added: "You cannot lead this great country of ours by misleading the people." Right again. So in the interest of uncovering the truth and setting the record straight before the American people vote, here are a few topics and questions that George Bush ought to tell the truth about. #1. "Stategate": Who Asked for What? Today's Washington Post reveals that, in a last-ditch attempt to smear Bill Clinton's character, the Bush Administration has been acting like the Nixon Administration. The Post reports that a Bush Administration political appointee directed the U.S. embassies in London and Oslo to search their files on Bill Clinton. The Post characterized the requests, by Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Elizabeth Tamposi, as "unusual," and said that they received "extraordinarily high-level attention." Passport files are -- as the State Department's own director of its Freedom of Information Office, Frank Machak maintains -- "covered by the Privacy Act." [Washington Post, 10/14/92] The State Department, in a policy statement sent to the National Security Archive in Washington D.C., notes that FOI requests are expedited only in "truly exceptional circumstances." These circumstances include: "(1) whenever it is demonstrated that an individual's life or personal safety would be jeopardized by the failure to process requests immediately, and (2) whenever it is shown that substantial due process rights of the requester would be impaired by the failure to process immediately, and that the information sought is not otherwise available." [Letter to National Security Archive, 11/22/91; attached.] The questions: * Who approved these approve "unusual" searches of Bill Clinton's passport files? * Were the searches reported to Tamposi's superiors in the State Department and if so, who? Were the searches reported to anyone in the White House or the Bush/Quayle campaign? * How will Bush determine who is responsible, and what actions will he take against them? * Is this search connected to Bush's secret White House meeting with extreme right wing Republican Congressmen like Bob Dornan to plan political attacks on Bill Clinton's trips to Eastern Bloc countries? * Which of the State Department's two FOI criteria for expedited search did this request meet? * Will the Administration come clean and immediately release all material related to the FOIA requests and State Department searches? #2. Iran-Contra: The Truth About Arms for Hostages For six years, George Bush has said he did not know the U.S. was trading arms for hostages with Iran. He claims he was "out of the loop" and unaware of the ill-fated deal -- and gave testimony to the Tower Commission and Iran-contra investigators to that effect. "I sensed that we were sending arms. And I sensed that we were trying to get hostages out. But not arms for hostages." [UPI, 1/8/88] And yet when asked on October 13th by Katie Couric whether he knew about the arms for hostages, George Bush replied, "Yes, and I've said so all along, given speeches on it." [NBC "Today," 10/13/92] When asked about his boss' role in the scandal this morning, the Administration's attack puppy, Dan Quayle replied: "Well, he said it all along. That's no news." [NBC "Today," 10/14/92] The questions: * Did he or did he not know about the arms for hostages deal with Iran? * If he knew, did George Bush mislead the investigators or has he misled the American people? Or both? * How could he have sat through three dozen briefings on the issue, been in the room when President Reagan signed the order for the arms-for-hostage deal, sat in the meeting where Shultz and Weinberger voiced their strong opposition, sat through briefings on the issue with National Security Advisor McFarland, his aide Howard Teicher and Israeli intelligence officer Amiram Nir -- and yet still not catch on to the deal? * George Bush has testified twice on his role in the scandal. Once to the Tower Commission and once to the Iran-contra investigators. Will he now make public his testimony to those two bodies? #3. Iraq-gate: Just how much did we help Saddam? George Bush likes to pretend we "did not enhance Saddam Hussein's nuclear, biological or chemical weapons capability," despite mounting evidence that dual-use American technology helped him in his bid to acquire weapons of mass destruction. George Bush maintains he was unaware of any diversion of loans to Iraq -- and yet we now learn that his Administration had direct evidence of diversions of loans made through the Atlanta based branch of BNL but tried to cover them up. Marvin Shoob, the US District Judge in the BNL case said, "Certainly, either the CIA or the Justice Department or both have misled me." [LAT, 10/13/92] It is time George Bush came clean with the American people on his role in Iraqgate. The questions: * What's he hiding? What are we going to find out after November 3? * Why won't George Bush release the key documents that would reveal just who was doing what with Saddam up to the eve of the invasion of Kuwait? These documents include: - The transcript of the cables between the Administration and US Ambassador April Glaspie revealing U.S. messages to Saddam; - The text of National Security Directive 26 ordering closer political and economic ties with Iraq. - The text of George Bush's personal communique to Saddam Hussein on July 28, 1990 five days before the invasion. * If George Bush thought he was doing the right thing by trying to bring Saddam Hussein into "the family of nations," why won't he come clean? -- 30 --