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.Cracks were now starting to appear in an otherwise solid adminis-tration stonewalling policy.On June4, 1990, officials at the CommerceDepartment admitted that they had deleted information on exportdocuments to obscure the fact that the department had in deed grantedthe export licences for shipments of military hardware andtechnologyto Iraq.Even larger cracks began to appear in July, when Stanley Moskowitz,the CIA's liaison to Congress, reported that the BNL bank officials inRome notonly were fully aware of what had transpired at the Atlantabranch long before the indictment of Drogoul was handed down, buthad in fact signed and approved the loans for Iraq.This was a directcontradiction of Ambassador Petrignani's statement to the JusticeDepartment that the BNL's Rome office knew nothing about the Iraqloans made by its Atlanta branch.53DR JOHN COLEMANIn May of 1992, in yet another a surprising turn, Attorney GeneralWilliam Barr wrote a letter to Gonzales in which he charged Gonzalezwith harming "national security interests" by revealing theadministration's policy toward Iraq.In spite of the serious charge,Barr provided no confirmation to back the allegation.Clearly, thepresident was rattled, and the November elections were just aroundthe corner.This point was not lost on Gonzalez, who called Barr'scharge "politically motivated."On June 2,1992, Drougal pleaded guilty to bank fraud.An unhappyJudge Marvin Shoobasked the Justice Department to appoint a specialprosecutor to investigate the BNL case in its entirety.But on July 24,1992, the attack on Gonzalez resumed with a letter from CIA DirectorRobert Gates.He criticized the chairman for disclosing the fact that theCIA and a number of other U.S.intelligence agencies knew about theBush administration's pre-Gulf War relationship with Iraq.Later thatmonth.Gates' letter was released by the House Banking Committeefor publication.By August, the former chief of the Atlanta office of the FBI openlyaccused the Justice Department of dragging its feet and delayingindictments for nearly a year in the BNL affair.And on Aug.10 1992,Barr refused to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bushadministration's pre-Gulf War relationship with Iraq, as requested bythe House Judiciary Committee.Then, on Sept 4, Barr wrote a letter to the House Banking Committeestating that he would not comply with the Committee's subpoenas forBNL documents and related information.It soon became evident thatBarr must have instructed all government departments to refuse tocooperate with the House Banking Committee, because four daysafter Barr's letterwas released, the CIA, the Defense IntelligenceAgency, the Customs Service, the Commerce Department and theNational Security Agency all stated that their intention was not tocomply with subpoenas for information and documents on the BNLissue.Gonzalez carried the battle to the floor of the House and disclosed that54DIPLOMACY BY DECEPTIONbased on the CIA's own July 1991 report it was clear that BNL's topmanagement in Rome knew of, and had approved the Atlanta-branchloans to Iraq.Federal prosecutors in Atlanta were floored by thehighly damaging information.On Sept.17,1991, in an obvious damage control measure, the CIA andthe Justice Department agreed to tell federal prosecutors in Atlantathat the only information they had on BNL had already been madepublicly available, which was a blatant and reckless falsehood withshattering ramifications.The scramble to exculpate themselves andtheir departments is what led to all the finger pointing and internalfighting that showered all the news stations just before the election.With the knowledge that he had spent most of his last 100 days in officedesperately trying to keep the lid on the scandals erupting all aroundhim, Bush got a life-line thrown to him: the media agreed not to reportthe details of the plot.The "national security" smokescreen had donethe job.In an ongoing effort to put distance between itself and the other partiesinvolved in the BNL-Iraqgate coverup, the Justice Department agreedthat it would soon release highly damaging documents showing theCIA's prior knowledge of the BNL's Rome office "green light" forloans for Iraq.The information was subsequently released to JudgeShoob, whose earlier doubts about the indictment of Drougal ap-peared to be vindicated.Then, on Sept 23, 1992, Gonzalez announced that he had receivedclassified documents which clearly showed that in January of 1991, theCIA knew about the BNL's high-level approval of the loans for Iraq.In his letter, Gonzalez expressed concern over Gates' lies to federalprosecutors in Atlanta regarding the BNL's Rome office not beingaware of what its Atlanta branch was doing.The Senate Intelligence Committee also accused Gates of misleadingthe Justice Department, federal prosecutors and Judge Shoob aboutthe extent of CIA knowledge of BNL events.The Justice Departmentallowed Drogoul to withdraw his guilty plea on Oct.1 [ Pobierz całość w 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