The Capital from Annapolis, Maryland • Page 2

CAPITAL, Tuesday, March 18. 1997 NATION WORLD White House, CIA review donor's contacts WASHINGTON (AP Efforts by the Democratic Party chairman to help a fugitive businessman and Democratic donor get high-level meetings with Clinton administra officials are being reviewed by tbf White House and the CIA White House Counsel Charles F.C Ruff will look uito attempts by Donald Fowler to enlist the help of the National Security Council staff in arranging meetings between policy makers and businessman Roger Tamraz, an oil financier who is wanted in Lebanon on decade-old NATIONAL DIGEST embezzlement charges, a presidential spokesman said Monday The CIA's inspector general also opened an inquiry to determine whether Mr Fowler or anyone else at the Democratic National Committee asked the intelligence agency to vouch for Mr. Tamraz in a CIA report that was sent to the NSC in December 1995 Mr. Fowler who now operates a communications business in South Carolina, did not immediately return a reporter's telephone call seeking comment yesterday. News of the Fowler-NSC contacts played a role in the decision by the former head of the NSC, Anthony Lake, to ask President Clinton yesterday to withdraw his already troubled nomination to head the CIA.

Preliminary information indicates that the NSC not Democratic Party officials sought the report on Mr. Tamraz from the CIA, said an agency official who spoke only on condition of anonymity. But the CIA said it had notified House and Senate intelligence com- mittees of the possible contacts by the DNC. Acting Director George Tenet said in a statement that any inappropriate intrusion into the intelligence process cannot and will not be tolerated Mr. Tamraz, an international oil financier who donated 172,000 to the DNC in the past two years, is wanted in Lebanon on a decade-old charge that he embezzled money from a collapsed bank that he headed.

Now a New York businessman, Mr Tamraz visited the White House seven times in 1996 and 1996, mostly to attend social events for Democratic donors. Hut his June 2.1995, meeting with NSC aide Sheila Heslin touched ofl" a new round of inquiries in the controversy over whether the Clinton administration improperly mixed fund raising with policy making. Mr. Tamraz, who is trying to put i a i a multibillion dollar oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea region, met with Heslin to discuss his project Mr Fowler's effort to enlist Mr. Heslm's help getting more White House appointments was met with a stern rebuke from Nancy Soderberg, the No.

3 official at the NSC, White House spokesman Mike McCurry told reporters MS. Soderberg told Mr. Fowler to stop contacting NSC aides, Mr. McCurry said. Mr.

Ruffs office will gather facts about the contacts to help the White House "provide a definitive account of this event," he said. Clinton, using wheelchair, back to work WASHINGTON President Clinton conducted official business from a wheelchair three days after serious knee surgery and jokingly referred to his physical therapists as "the torture team." vigorous and active" on the first working day Monday since Friday's surgery to repair a torn tendon. I "He's not doing wheelies, but he's getting pretty good at moving around," Mr. McCurry said. Housings starts near 3-year high 3 WASHINGTON Housing starts shot up 12.2 percent in February t6 the highest leVel In nearly three years, the latest sign there could be a boost hi interest rates to keep the economy from overheating.

The Commerce Department said today construction of new homes 5md apartments totaled 1.53 million at a seasonally adjusted annual 'rate, up from L36 million in January when starts rose 0.7 percent. Starts were higher in every region except the Northeast where they tumbled 26.9 percent, the biggest loss in more than six years. The overall total was the highest since a 1.56 million rate in March 1994. Many analysts had expected only a 1.45 million rate. And the was the steepest since a 13.1 percent gain in July 1995.

Man sought in slaying of family Mass. A. "iSruigfiter were shot to death execution-style in their beds and police are seeking the husband for questioning. The bodies of Uma Reddy, 41, a licensed day-care provider, her daughter, Kitri, and father, Jaganath Reddy, 58, were found Monday morning after some of her clients tried to drop off their children. Kitri was shot twice in the head, her mother and grandfather each in the head.

A building superintendent found the bodies in two of a ground-floor apartment at the Dexter Park Apartment Complex, a nine-story brick building near Boston University in this Boston suburb. Police are looking for Uma Reddy's husband, a medical professional doing an internship at an out-of-state hospital, and other rfamily members, but investigators would not say if any of them are suspects. iPanel debates air bag hazard WASHINGTON Passenger air bags kill roughly one child for 3every five people they save, according to government statistics. The parent of a child killed by a deploy ing air bag made an emotional appeal yesterday for the government to disconnect passenger-side air bags. "There is nothing more valuable than a child's Albert Ambrose of Nashville, told a National Transportation Safety Board forum on automobile air bags.

Mr. Ambrose's 5-year-old daughter, Frances, was wearing both lap and shoulder belts when she was killed by a deploying air bag in a low-speed accident last September. At least 38 children arid infants and 24 adults have been killed by air bags hi lower speed accidents they otherwise should have survived, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Air bags have saved 189 passengers since 1986, according to government estimates, and more than 1,800 drivers. Racist e-mail sparks postal controversy WASHINGTON The U.S. Postal Service is investigating a risque glossary of "ebonies" terms that was sent on the service's electronic mail system.

A postal workers' union labeled the e-mail a "vicious, racist message." The list of 16 words and their supposed meanings in common parlance among blacks isrife with sexual and racial stereotypes. It apparently was sent by a manager in New York using an internal home page called Postal Internet. "TRIPOLI I was gonna buy me pi! lady a bra, but I couldn't find no TRIPOLI," read one example, referring to a large bra size.lt was one of the tamest examples on the list, which was presented as a tongue-in-cheek guide for managers to improve communications with office staff. In a letter sent Friday to Postmaster General Marvin Runyon, an American Postal Workers Union official said Mr. Runyon's response tolhe incident should "send a message to the entire postal community." A postal official agreed the message was offensive and promised a quick investigation.

WORLD DIGEST 50 presumed dead in Russian plane crash MOSCOW A passenger plane crashed in southern Russia today and all 50 people on board were feared dead. One Russian official said an explosion was suspected. The Stavropol Airlines AN-24 plane crashed soon after taking off from the southern city of Stavropol, said Viktor Beltsova of the Emergency Situations Ministry. The 41 passengers and nine crew members all were believed killed when the plane slammed into a wooded area near the city of Cherkessk, 55 miles south of Stavropol. Itescue workers flew to the site and found at least 17 bodies, Boris Erkenov, deputy interior minister for the Karachayevo-Cherkessia region, told the Interfax news agency.

Theairliner appeared to have exploded in flight because plane fragments and human remains were scattered over a 4-mile-wide area. Greater radiation leak hinted TOKYO A jump in radiation has been observed southwest of a damaged nuclear plant, officials said today, suggesting two fires at the plant spread radiation over a larger area than previously thought. The March II fires at the nuclear reprocessingplant in Tokaimura. 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, exposed 37 workers to low-level radiation. The plant, which has been accused of mishandling the emergency, has not announced how much radiation was released.

But officials have assured residents there was no health danger. Meteorological officials said today they detected an abnormal increase in the level of cesium a byproduct of nuclear fission 35 miles southwest of the plant Lake withdraws CIA bid WASHINGTON (AP) Having firmly decided to abandon the fight -ftr towHf-tfw CIA, TS gloomy Aatboiiy Lake walked into President Clinton's private study and said, "I'm sorry. You know why I'm here." The president, casually dressed, his injured leg elevated, already had gotten word that his closest foreign policy adviser over the past four years wanted out of an increasingly nasty confirmation battle. "I want you to stay and fight," an angry, almost despondent Mr. Clinton told as recounted by White House press secretary Mik McCurry.

"You'd be a great CIA director." Then, however, the president added, "I'll respect your personal judgment." The 20-minute White House meeting yesterday closed a bitter, four- month confirmation battle that has left the vast intelligence, apparatus without a director, split the customarily bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee and infuriated White House aides loyal to Mr. Lake, who for four years was Mr. Clinton's national security adviser! "I'm Sen. Orrin Hatch, "a Utah Republican, said today. "I think he would have made it through the process.

1 personally liked him, wanted to vote for him and probably in the end would have," Mr. Hatch said oh NBC's "Today" show. ANTOHONY LAKE tired of fighting. r.hairn^m senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee to qjuestJoft.jyhfiihec.JBfe-- could be confirmed. Nonetheless, the withdrawal was surprising because Mr.

Lake had weathered several GOP attacks on his finances and on his role in allowing Iranian arms into Bosnia to emerge relatively unscathed from last week's confirmation hearings. The hearings were to have concluded this week, and Republicans on the intelligence committee had said privately he probably would be confirmed. Mr. Lake and Mr. Clinton briefly discussed options for a new nominee to head the CIA but Mr.

McCurry declined to provide any details. One obvious candidate would be Acting CIA Director George Tenet, an intelligence community veteran. Last week Mr. Lake had said he planned Shelby, a critic of Mr. Lake's nomination, said today that, "Initially I was surprised.

But after considering everything, this was a controversial nomination from the outset. "I never was out to get Mr. Lake. It was not personal with me," Mr; Shelby told ABC's "Good Morning America." There were no immediate indication that new and damaging revelations about Mr. Lake were to emerge, but Mr.

Lake's management of the NSC staff had caused a top deputy. Aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it is too early -and emotions are too raw to seriously consider a new nominee. But a handful of other possible candidates were mentioned, including Morton Abramowitz, the outgoing head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an oft-mentioned candidate for Clinton appointments. Aides said former Sen. Sam Nunn, will be given serious consideration if he is interested in consider longtime pal Strobe Taljp bott, who was passed over to Mr.

Lake as national security adviser. Mr. McCurry quoted the president as saying Mr. Lake's treatment at the hands of the Senate committee was "inexcusable" and said Mr. Clinton was "angry and close being despondent" hi his meeting with Mr.

Lake. In a letter to Mr. Clinton dated yesterday and signed simply, "Tony," Mr. Lake said his reasons for withdrawing stemmed not from fear of any new revelations but from weariness with the "political circus" his nomination had become. Mr.

Lake said he was convinced that under Mr. Shelby, the confit-- ination" "endless de-lay." "After more than three months, I have-finally lost patience and the' endless delays are hurting the CIA' and NSC staff in ways I can np' longer Mr. Lake said. said his nomination had become "a political football in a game with, constantly moving goalposts," and he said the intensely political cty" mate surrounding the process showed that "Washingtoit. has gone haywire." Disputed Jerusalem construction begins JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli buH dozers began carving up an east Jerusalem hilltop today as work started on a Jewish neighborhood despite condemnation by the international community and warnings ofPalesHnian riotsT Army helicopters hovered overhead as a ring of hundreds of troops blocked off the disputed construction site.

Soldiers scuffled with Palestinian protesters and blocked them from reaching the area, known to Israelis as Har Homa and to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim, A convoy of four flatback trucks carrying bulldozers and cranes reached Har Homa this afternoon, escorted by police and soldiers. One bulldozer starting moving earth at the bottom of the hill, apparently for an access road, as Israel's deputy chief of staff took command. Dozens of Palestinians, who had set up six protest tents on a rocky slope nearby late yesterday, began walking toward the convoy but were stopped by the Israeli troops. ''With our bodies, we will protect Jabal Abu Ghneim," the demonstrators chanted. "Israel is escalating the -situation," said Faisal Husseini, the senior Palestinian official in Jerusalem who was among the 30 or so protesters, "We feel we must con- AP photo Israeli soldiers guard a bulldozer as It starts to clear land for a Jewish neighborhood on the disputed Har Homa hill on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem today.

front their plans." The building project has become a test of both sides' resolve regarding Jerusalem, the most explosive issue on their agenda. The final decision to begin work on the project came after a morning meeting attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, senior Cabinet ministers and security chiefs. Israel argues it is the sovereign in Jerusalem and need not consult with anyone on construction in- the city. The Palestinians want to establish a capital in east Jerusalem, the sector Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast War. EU officials visit ports for relief to Albania TIRANA, Albania (AP) Euro- hpean Union officials ventured to Albania's biggest seaports today to assess how to best deliver food and medicine to a country largely gripped by anarchy.

Meeting an 11-member EU delegation late yesterday, President Sali Berisha requested immediate delivery of food and medicine to keep Albania from sliding further into chaos, the ATA state news agency reported. Mr. Berisha also asked for Europe's help in re-establishing public and financial institutions in order to restore normality. He admitted government doesntiiave a bjfldget to do that." Mr. Berisha also asked for European police to help restore order in Albania and retrain the nation's security forces.

"I think that European police units are a necessity so that together with our units they can distribute aid and contribute to reestablishing order and reforming our police," the president said, according to ATA. The head of the EU delegation, Jan Graf de Marchand et d'Ausem- burg of the Netherlands, declined to discuss the meeting with Berisha. He told Associated Press Television that the trip to Durres, Albania's main port, was to judge how to get aid in. Durres, 25 miles west of Tirana, has seen chaotic scenes in recent days as thousands of Albanians tried to scramble aboard overcrowded vessels and flee across the Adriatic to Italy. Crowds have battled police and cowered as gunmen fired wildly: EU officials also were to visit Vlora, a port 50 miles south of Tirana.

Asked if it's too early to send aid in, the Dutch diplomat said Europe would do what it could to help 'restore security, "but it's really for the Albanians to solve their prob- Jems." FBI director admits incomplete testimony A I A -Prompted by a blunt complaint from the Justice Department in spector general, FBI Director Louis Freeh admits he gave Congress incomplete testimony about why the bureau suspended the whistle-blower in its crime lab. Inspector General Michael Bromwich accused Mr. Freeh of three inaccuracies in his March 5 testimony to a House subcommittee about Mr. Bromwich's investigation into allegations of mismanagement, sloppy work and bias in the crime lab made by suspended scientist-agent Frederic Whitehurst. An exchange of letters between Mr.

Bromwich and Mr. Freeh was released by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs a Judiciary subcommittee that oversees the FBI. hi a statement late yesterday, the FBI said, "Director Freeh totally rejects any contention that he deliberately misled either the Congress or the public during recent testimony before the House. He failed to mention an important point in the testimony.

When this was pointed out to him, he promptly corrected the record regrets his inadvertent omission." Mr. Grassley charged yesterday that Mr. Freeh is playing damage control and "misleading the public" about the severity of the lab's problems. "The bureau is more worried about its image than its Mr. Grassley said in a Senate speech.

"He (Mr. Freeh) wants the public to think he was forced by the inspector general to take action against a whistle-blower." A secret draft report by Mr. Bromwich has confirmed some but not all of Mr. Whitehurst's charges..