Word: coverting
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...weeks Starr's operation had been exchanging fire with the White House over who was doing more leaking, lying, manipulating and stonewalling. Last week, after TIME reported that the White House had been waging a covert campaign to discredit Starr's deputies, perhaps with the help of private investigators, the prosecutor prepared to respond with some hardball of his own. But by subpoenaing White House spinmeister Sidney Blumenthal to probe his contacts with the press, Starr succeeded in undermining himself in ways the White House could have only dreamed...
...compounded by two problems. To start with, he has to handle questions he has been given no answers for. Even worse, sources say, McCurry is finding himself undercut by free-lance spinmeisters and by the President's legal teams, some of whom are engaging in their own leaks and covert counterattacks. One session last Wednesday involving McCurry's team and the lawyers exposed the difficulty of his predicament. White House counsel Charles Ruff, citing the fact that the matter was under court seal, refused to offer the press handlers any guidance on whether the President was invoking Executive privilege--even...
Just when Bill Clinton's White House was girding for battle against Saddam Hussein, a much more covert war against Starr was already under way. Tactically, it was clever: defense lawyers were using Starr's own invasive tactics against him, bringing up the workplace and sexual histories of the prosecutors who themselves were dredging up the workplace and sexual history of the President. And it seemed to be working: just as the probe was supposed to be heating up, two of Starr's top lieutenants, Bruce Udolf and Michael Emmick, were being kept busy just defending themselves from charges...
...White House, the get-Starr strategy is not without risk. After Clinton met early Saturday morning with Harold Ickes, a now outside adviser helping him through the Monica mess, officials sought to distance the President from the covert attacks on Starr's operation. They even hinted that Udolf and Emmick, who just hours before were the targets of a mad round of telephone calls to reporters from Clinton allies, were actually more reasonable than others on the Starr payroll. A White House official watching it all said privately that he was careful to avoid any discussion of the counsel...
...Coming in the same week that Israel?s once-feared Mossad came off like Keystone Spooks in a bungled bugging in Switzerland, the Times report detailing debate over a covert operation still in its planning stages underlined the declining fortunes of the elite intelligence services that had seemed so formidable in the Cold...