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 Dole supporters sniff out 'cocaine use' by Clinton
THE longer Bill Clinton resists pressure to release his medical records, the stronger the suspicions that he is hiding something important, perhaps even something that could affect the outcome of the presidential election.
The White House press secretary, Michael McCurry, was distinctly ambiguous when reporters asked in public whether the president was suffering from a sexually transmitted disease. It seemed almost as if McCurry wished to encourage this line of inquiry. The White House calculation, apparently, is that nobody cares too much about encounters long ago. The impact in post-puritan America would be nil.
But not everybody has fallen for this diversionary tactic. In a biting editorial last week the Wall Street Journal asked whether Clinton was covering up a history of drug use. Drugs are a much more serious matter. If the American people were ever led to believe that Clinton was a heavy user of cocaine while Governor of Arkansas, the scandal would be thermonuclear.
Stories about past drug use by Bill Clinton are a staple of Right-wing radio talk programmes. But no major newspaper in the US has ever published an investigative exposé.
This is not because drug use is too much of a tabloid issue. Far from it. The mainstream media were quick to print the uncorroborated allegations of a convicted felon who claimed to have sold marijuana to a young Dan Quayle.
In the case of Bill Clinton, a number of people have come forward with direct knowledge of drug use, but the press always finds a reason to impugn the source's credibility. Nothing short of documentary proof will induce them to examine the claims. Hence the intense speculation in Washington about the medical records.
'Bill was so messed up that night, he slid down the wall into a garbage can'
But there are other records. A freelance journalist, Scott Wheeler, has obtained copies of the Arkansas State Police surveillance audio-tapes from the 1984 investigation of Roger Clinton, the President's younger brother. (Roger was eventually convicted for dealing in cocaine and sent to prison).
The tapes reveal that Roger Clinton was a drug trafficker - not just an addict who crossed the line. He can be heard describing how he used to smuggle large amounts of cocaine through airports hidden under his clothes. But most interesting is the comment he makes about the Governor: "Got to get some for my brother; he's got a nose like a vacuum cleaner."
Then there is the case of Sharlene Wilson, currently serving a prison term in Arkansas for drug offences. She told The Sunday Telegraph two years ago that she had supplied Bill Clinton with cocaine during his first term as Governor. "Bill was so messed up that night, he slid down the wall into a garbage can," she said.
The story has credibility because she told it under oath to a federal grand jury in Little Rock in December 1990. At the time she was an informant for the Seventh Judicial District drug task force in Arkansas. Jean Duffey, the prosecutor in charge of the task force, talked to Wilson days after her grand jury appearance.
"She was terrified. She said her house was being watched and she'd made a big mistake," said Duffey. "That was when she told me she'd testified about seeing Bill Clinton get so high on cocaine he fell into a garbage can . . . I have no doubt that she was telling the truth."
Shortly after Wilson's testimony the drug task force was closed down. Duffey was hounded out of her job and now lives at a secret address in Texas.
Wilson was charged with drug violations. In 1992 she was sentenced to 31 years for selling half an ounce of marijuana and $100- worth of methamphetamine to an informant.
She protested that she was "set up" to eliminate her as a political liability and she appealed on the grounds of entrapment.
With the help of a brilliant Arkansas lawyer, John Wesley Hall, her case went all the way to the US Supreme Court. Finding a violation of her constitutional rights, the court ordered the state of Arkansas to give Wilson a fresh trial or set her free. Her release date is now set for November.
What about those grand jury transcripts? They are secret, of course, sealed in perpetuity. But every witness has the right to the transcripts of their own testimony, if they make a formal request.
The Republicans are at last beginning to twig. Last week I received a number of phone calls from bashful operatives on the deniable fringes of the Republican Party. They wanted to know where, perchance, they might find a person called Sharlene Wilson.
4 January 1995: Press links Clinton to Iran-Contra drugs deal
15 July 1996: Foster 'hired detective to spy on Clinton'
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