by Tom Finton
Judicial Watch 

    Judicial Watch released new documents this week from the Clinton Presidential Library regarding Hillary’s botched attempt to stage a government takeover ....

    ....of our nation’s healthcare system in 1993.  Our investigators found them during a trip to the Clinton Library in Little Rock last year.

Here are a few highlights from what we found:

• A June 18, 1993 internal Memorandum entitled, “A Critique of Our Plan,” authored by P.S., which makes the startling admission that critics of Hillary’s health care reform plan were correct:  “I can think of parallels in wartime, but I have trouble coming up with a precedent in our peacetime history for such broad and centralized control over a sector of the economy…Is the public really ready for this?... none of us knows whether we can make it work well or at all…” (Click here to read.)

• A “Confidential” May 26, 1993 Memorandum from Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) to Hillary Clinton entitled, “Health Care Reform Communications,” which criticizes the Task Force as a “secret cabal of Washington policy ‘wonks’” that has engaged in “choking off information” from the public regarding health care reform.  The memorandum suggests that Hillary Clinton “use classic opposition research” to attack those who were excluded by the Clinton Administration from Task Force deliberations and to “expose lifestyles, tactics and motives of lobbyists” in order to deflect criticism.  Senator Rockefeller also suggested news organizations “are anxious and willing to receive guidance [from the Clinton Administration] on how to time and shape their [news] coverage.”  (Click here to read.)

• A February 5, 1993 Draft Memorandum from Alexis Herman and Mike Lux detailing the Office of Public Liaison’s plan for the health care reform campaign.  The memorandum suggests building an “interest group data base” detailing whether or not organizations “support( ed) us in the election.”  The database would also track personal information about interest group leaders, such as their home phone numbers, addresses, “biographies, analysis of credibility in the media, and known relationships with Congresspeople.”  (Click here to read.)

We found these records amongst the approximately 13,000 made publicly available by the Clinton Library, specifically from the White House Health Care Interdepartmental Working Group.  The National Archives admits there are an additional 3,022,030 additional textual records, 2,884 pages of electronic records, 1,021 photographs, 3 videotapes and 3 audiotapes related to the Task Force that are currently being withheld indefinitely from the public.  Given what we found thus far, can you imagine what else is down there in Little Rock?  (On November 2, 2007lawsuit to obtain the Task Force records.) we filed a

Unsurprisingly, rather than engaging the American people on the issue of health care reform honestly, the Clintons and their allies attempted to track citizens’ private and political information, smear administration critics, shroud their plan in secrecy, and manipulate news coverage.  Some of this was dirty politics; some of it may have run afoul of the law.  Will anyone ask Hillary about it? 

Former Congressman Indicted as Part of Terrorism Financing Ring

There were two stories of note this week involving the financial networks that support Islamic terrorism.

First, according to the Associated Press, “A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. 

“The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity [the Islamic American Relief Agency] that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.”

Siljander, now a lobbyist, served two terms in Congress from 1981 to 1987, and was allegedly paid $50,000 to do the Islamic non-profit’s bidding.  (Ultimately, it was discovered that these funds were stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.)

What makes this story so strange is that Siljander, in his own words, “a trained evangelical Christian,” was an outspoken critic of Islamic fundamentalism.  In fact, he once referred to the Koran as “the book of the devil.”  (I guess $50,000 was enough to change his mind on that point.)  He’s releasing a book in June 2008 that intends to blur the distinctions between Christianity and the Islam.

And then there was this from the New York Times:  “Three leaders of a defunct Islamic charity were convicted Friday of defrauding the federal government by winning tax-exempt status for their organization while concealing the fact that it supported militant fighters in Afghanistan and elsewhere.”

The organization, Care International, reportedly funneled money to wage “jihad” in various countries, including Afghanistan, while claiming to support war orphans, widows and refugees.  Care International raised $1.7 million from 1993 to 2003, the years the organization remained active.

Regular readers of the Weekly Update will recall that Judicial Watch took the lead in exposing the financial networks that make terrorism possible even before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  And following 9/11, Judicial Watch called upon the Justice Department to investigate and shut down U.S.-based Muslim “charities” that were allegedly funneling money to terrorist groups overseas.  (It looks to me like the Islamic American Relief Agency may be related to (or the same as) a similarly named group that we complained about in 2001.)

Be sure to also take a look at our report, entitled “Muslim Charities:  Moderate Non-profits or Elaborate Deceptions” for a good summary of the connection between Muslim charities, Islamic terrorism, and Judicial Watch’s efforts on this critical issue.

Tom Fitton
President
Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. Judicial Watch is dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to ethics and morality in our nation's public life. To make a tax-deductible contribution in support of our efforts, click here.    

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