Peace Annan?
The ongoing U.S. assessment of the U.N.-brokered Iraq deal leads at USAT and
the WP. The national edition of the NYT goes with a Senate vote that keeps
alive a campaign fund-raising reform bill (the metro edition of the
Times goes with a state court decision that gives New York City the
right to kick topless joints and sex shops out of Times Square). The LAT lead
is El Nino rainstorms that have killed six in California, while the paper's
off-lead is the news that Kenneth Starr will prosecute White House officials if
he believes they have spread false information about his staff. The stance,
says the paper, amounts to an escalation of the confrontation with the Clinton
administration to "frenetic proportions."
USAT reports that the U.N. Security Council delayed voting on the
Iraq agreement after pressing Secretary-General Kofi Annan on several points.
The big unresolved issues, says the paper: the role of the diplomats who would
now accompany weapons inspectors on their rounds, the inspectors' chain of
command now, and whether or not the agreement's nod to respecting Iraqi
sovereignty could interfere with inspections. The WP says the U.S. fears
the new inspection organization will be more susceptible than its predecessor
to outside political pressures. In response, says the Post , Annan
telephoned President Clinton yesterday, reassuring him that inspections will
remain controlled by technical experts.
The WP also reports that the U.S. wants the U.N. resolution to
automatically declare Iraq in breach of the agreement if it resumes its
obstructive ways. The WP runs the text of the deal signed by Annan and
Hussein, and the language is surprisingly clear. "Today's Papers" has had
apartment leases that were harder to follow--and longer.
The NYT front runs a nice piece of access journalism detailing how
President Clinton, and his top national security aides, especially Madeleine
Albright, contributed to the ultimate details of the Annan/Hussein deal. At one
point, apparently, Al Gore suggested that the administration consider
designating Saddam a war criminal. According to the paper, Washington was far
more actively involved in planning Annan's approach than has been previously
acknowledged.
But the biggest NYT story is that President Clinton has decided to
have his closest aides cite executive privilege to keep from testifying to the
Starr grand jury about internal White House discussions on the Monica L.
matter. The notion could be put to a test before a federal judge as early as
this week.
The WSJ reports that the Justice Department has decided to fight Starr's
efforts to obtain testimony from presidential bodyguards. The decision was
forged, says the Journal , after the Secret Service director, in arguing
that efficient protection requires agent proximity and hence agent
confidentiality, made a presentation at the DOJ that included a slow-motion
videotape of a Secret Service agent taking a bullet intended for Ronald Reagan
in 1981.
Some editorial writers weigh in today on the escalating battle between
Clinton and Starr. The WP lead editorial says Starr "absurdly"
subpoenaed White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, and assesses the White House
strategy of "looking for dirt on prosecutors and trying to discredit
straightforward reporting of embarrassing facts" as "sleazy." The NYT
lead editorial views Starr's move on Blumenthal as "bone stupid" tactically and
an "attack on press freedom and the unrestricted flow of information."
The NYT reports that "robust investment returns coupled with strong
donations to higher education have created a financial boom for American
colleges and universities, 25 of which now have endowments of $1 billion or
more." The piece goes on to quote various breathless university officials about
how the money is rolling in, but nowhere is the question raised as to why if
financial times are so good, tuition has risen at a ferocious rate, often
outpacing even health care costs.
The NYT front includes a Gina Kolata piece describing the rapidly
escalating cost of donor eggs for various infertility procedures. One New
Jersey clinic has just doubled payments to donors, offering $5,000 for a
month's worth of eggs. The paper notes that sperm donors typically get less
than $100, but also describes in some detail how much less fun egg donors
have.
