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Reno must send a decision on Gore by today to a special court, which selects counsels. She faces separate, similar decisions about President Clinton and his former deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes in the next two weeks.
The question of whether Clinton and his aides illegally funded issue advertisements during the 1996 election also is unlikely to be sent by Reno to an independent counsel, according to Justice Department and law enforcement officials, who requested anonymity. That decision is due Dec. 7.
The Ickes case has the greatest chance of prompting Reno to order what would be the seventh independent counsel of her tenure to look into a top Clinton administration figure, these officials said. Reno has until Nov. 30 to decide whether there is enough evidence the former White House aide lied to a Senate committee about administration assistance to the Teamsters union during a strike against Diamond Walnut Co.
Clinton, Gore and Ickes have denied wrongdoing.
Republicans in Congress have pressed Reno for two years to turn over the campaign finance investigation to an outside prosecutor. Reno's task force of more than 120 prosecutors and investigators has charged 14 people, including prominent Democratic donors and fund-raisers.
Her aides anticipate Reno will take each decision "up to the last minute," as one official involved in the deliberations said yesterday. Just in case, they drafted papers to go either way, although the documents requesting an independent counsel are terse and contain far less information than those that explain why she does not name one.
Reno got the recommendation of her criminal division on the Gore case Saturday, and she is known for peppering aides with questions and demands for more information during the final reviews of these decisions. While considered unlikely, an unanswered, last-minute question from Reno might force her to request 60 more days to study any of the cases.
As before during the two-year-old campaign finance investigation, she has conflicting advice. FBI Director Louis Freeh said last week he and bureau officials made recommendations on the three cases, but he wouldn't divulge them.
Law enforcement officials said Freeh recommended a counsel, as he has twice before. Freeh has argued the sprawling probe should be investigated as one potential scheme to circumvent campaign laws and, at least to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest, an outside counsel should be in charge.
But other officials said she was getting contradictory advice from career department prosecutors, whose advice she has taken over Freeh's before. A year ago, she turned down independent counsels to probe Gore's telephone fund raising and Clinton's use of White House coffees and overnight visits for contributors.
Clinton, Gore and others were interviewed during the current 90-day inquiries conducted by Justice officials.
The Gore case revolves around whether he lied to investigators during last year's probe when he said he understood a Democratic Party media campaign fund that paid for the issue ads contained only so-called "soft money," like that Gore thought he was raising in telephone calls from his office. Reno ruled last year that federal law barred only soliciting "hard money," which advocates election of specific candidates, from government offices.
Since then, Gore's private lawyer has turned over handwritten notes, by Gore's former deputy chief of staff David Strauss, from a Nov. 21, 1995, strategy meeting Gore attended at the White House. The cryptic notes contain a reference to the media fund being composed of a combination of about two-thirds soft money and one-third hard money, which is allowed by the Federal Election Commission.
Investigators interviewed those at the meeting to see if the division of money was discussed in detail while Gore was there and if he showed he understood it.
The Clinton case involves whether issue ads, which both parties use, crossed the line into advocating Clinton's election. A Federal Election Commission staff audit argued this summer that they did and recommended requiring Clinton's re-election campaign to repay $13.4 million in federal matching funds.
The law requires that violations be knowing and intentional. Democratic Party general counsel Joseph Sandler has said he reviewed the ads and altered some to conform to what officials believed the law required. Senior Justice aides have said that could well provide Reno with clear and convincing evidence there was no intentional violation by Clinton.
But Hyde's timetable, as virtually everything else in the final stages of the nation's third presidential impeachment inquiry, is subject to numerous unsettled issues, ranging from constitutional matters to logistics.
As an example, before adjourning last month for the elections, lawmakers gave Speaker Newt Gingrich the authority to call the House back into session "whenever, in his opinion, the public interest shall warrant it."
That provision was crafted with impeachment proceedings in mind. Now, though, Gingrich is a lame duck, and as a practical matter, has ceded power to Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), tapped by House Republicans to succeed him in January.
Christina Martin, Gingrich's press secretary, declined to say how the outgoing speaker would respond. Other officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he probably would yield to Livingston's wishes. At the same time, Gingrich could also appoint Livingston to preside over the House for any such proceedings.
Nor is it clear whether House approval of censure - an alternative to impeachment suggested by many lawmakers - would advance to the Senate for a vote there. That depends on how the measure is drafted.
That is not the only perceived problem with censure. "I don't think there is any constitutional authority for us to do anything other than impeachment," Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) a Judiciary Committee member, said recently on CNN.
Several lawmakers have said recently that while the GOP-controlled committee is likely to approve at least one article of impeachment on a party-line vote, the House would reject it.
Livingston has said he, like Hyde, is eager to have the entire issue resolved by the end of the year. "If it requires a vote in the House of Representatives, I'd be prepared to ask Newt Gingrich, as the current speaker of the House, to call us in," he said in an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
But apart from the committee, little effort has gone into planning the final stages of the impeachment drama.
Livingston says he has not discussed the issue with Hyde. Nor has House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt had any discussions with Livingston on the subject, according to Democratic officials. Nor did the issue come up last Thursday, when Livingston presided over the first formal meeting of the newly elected GOP House leadership.
The White House has been checking the impeachment landscape in the wake of an expected gain of seats by Democrats in the Nov. 3 election.
"I have been taking the temperature of some individuals, finding out what their views are," Gregory Craig, a White House aide, said on "Meet the Press."
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, a former lawmaker, has been asked to contact members of the House to gauge the sentiment, officials said.
Clinton's response to written questions from Hyde will also have an impact.
Aides close to Clinton expect that material to be shipped to Congress tomorrow or Friday, when many Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving and paying scant attention to news reports.
The answers are said to rely heavily on responses previously provided by Clinton or his lawyers, referring Hyde to the president's deposition and the lawyers' reaction to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report.
On the most pointed questions, which ask whether Clinton gave "false or misleading testimony," the answers do not in any way suggest an admission to perjury, say officials involved in drafting the document. The document is subject to change after last-minute review by Clinton or his lawyers.
Also unknown is how seriously Hyde intends to delve into issues unrelated to Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, which Starr investigated at length.
The panel took a deposition yesterday from Daniel Gecker, an attorney for Kathleen Willey, the woman who claims Clinton made a sexual pass at her in the White House. Other depositions are planned, and a hearing is set for next week on the subject of perjury.
Hyde hasn't yet said whether the committee will go into allegations of campaign finance wrongdoing during Clinton's re-election effort in 1996 - an issue over which Starr does not have jurisdiction.
Republican investigators are eager to see the memo a federal prosecutor wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno recommending appointment of an independent counsel for the issue. Reno has refused to turn the memo over, and Hyde must decide how strenuously to pursue the document, which includes grand jury material, according to officials.
One Justice Department official, requesting anonymity, has said that past court rulings have held that grand jury secrets could be to sent to Congress if the material was to be used in an impeachment inquiry.
The impeachment inquiry which the House voted last month expires with the current Congress in early January. Officials said during the day that Hyde's powers, and those of his committee, would be curtailed.
On the other hand, they said, Hyde - or any other lawmaker - could introduce an impeachment resolution in the new Congress. Under the rules of the House, a vote would be granted.
Just as importantly, the finding of a biological "signature" in the brains of those with ADD could help determine a child does not have the disorder, according to the Stanford University researchers.
Their announcement, to be published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, comes just days after a government panel concluded that doctors have no consistent way to identify ADD or diagnose who has it.
The brain scan technique needs further testing, however, and could prove expensive. Insurance companies generally do not pay for the special type of brain scan, called a "functional MRI," that is required. A regular MRI can cost more than $1,500, and a functional MRI, available at just a few hospitals, can cost even more.
Nevertheless, "we've taken a first step that looks very promising," said Dr. John Gabrieli of Stanford's Department of Psychology, the study's co-author.
Attention deficit disorder, or ADD, also known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, usually is diagnosed in school-age children. The diagnosis is usually based on observed behavior, and some experts believe it is highly subjective, essentially just an educated judgment.
Symptoms of ADD include the restless inability to sit still to read, study or even watch television. Often a child cannot play in group games, and a common symptom is the inability to control impulses. Some mild forms of symptoms are common in many children, leading to concerns it is diagnosed too often.
"Many people are concerned because the diagnosis remains very subjective," Gabrieli said. "It is possible to misdiagnose a child and miss another condition, or to over-diagnose a child who is merely rambunctious."
A biological signature of ADD, in contrast, would allow for "a valid and consistent diagnosis," he said.
Mind-affecting drugs such as Ritalin are the most common treatment, but some doctors and parents worry about their long-term effects, which have never been studied.
The Stanford study used a special type of magnetic resonance imaging device, the functional MRI, to individually scan the brains of 16 boys between the ages of 8 and 13 while they were playing a simple mental game. The MRI detects which part of the brain responds to specific actions or to drugs.
Ten of the boys had been diagnosed with ADD, and six were considered normal. These six were used as a comparison control.
In the game, the boys watched letters of the alphabet flash individually on a screen. The boys were to push a button for every letter except X. When X flashed, they were to resist the impulse to press the button.
"They were seeing a lot of letters except for X," said Gabrieli. "They got so used to going that it was hard to stop."
Since impulse control and poor concentration are a hallmark of ADD, those patients with the disorder did much more poorly than the normal patients, he said.
When the researchers compared brain scans, there was a clear difference in brain activity between the ADD patients and the other boys.
The boys were next tested after they had been given doses of Ritalin. Curiously, the drug improved the performance of both groups to the same extent.
But when the brain scans were compared again, the researchers found that boys with ADD had more activity in the basal ganglia, a brain structure, than they had before taking Ritalin. In contrast, the boys without ADD had less activity in that part of the brain.
The test thus gives "a brain signature" that specifically and biologically identifies those with ADD, Gabrieli said.
However, it is still preliminary and must be proven by testing both boys and girls and by being duplicated independently in other labs, said Dr. Chandan Jidya, the main researcher.
It took two years to develop the preliminary test, Jidya said, and there's no way to estimate how long it will take to perfect so it can be used reliably on patients.
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Yeltsin's ailment, the third time in six weeks he has appeared seriously ill, came as aides were openly discussing the possibility of transferring some of his powers to Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, although Primakov said he had not received any new instructions from the president.
In an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency made public Sunday, Yeltsin's deputy chief of staff, Oleg Sysuyev, said Primakov had presidential stature, and should be seen "as a person who should take upon himself presidential powers if the situation persists." He did not elaborate.
The Kremlin announced yesterday morning, however, that Yeltsin on Sunday had come down with a 102-degree fever, was taken to the Central Clinical Hospital yesterday morning, and was diagnosed with pneumonia. Yeltsin had failed to make a personal appearance following the slaying Friday of a leading progressive legislator and former aide, Galina Starovoitova.
Last night, press secretary Dmitri Yakushkin said Yeltsin's health "has not worsened, but neither has it improved." He said Yeltsin was being treated with antibiotics, has a "slight" fever and may be hospitalized for eight to 10 days.
Yakushkin said the fever came up "rather unexpectedly" and that Yeltsin had been deeply troubled by the slaying of Starovoitova, who had been his adviser on ethnic issues in 1992. "He took the news ... very sharply, very heavily," Yakushkin said.
In the last few years, Yeltsin, 67, has suffered two heart attacks, undergone a quintuple coronary-artery bypass operation, and had subsequent bouts with pneumonia and other illnesses. In October, he was described as suffering from bronchitis when he cut short a visit to Central Asia and from nervous exhaustion when he abruptly left Moscow for a week of vacation at Sochi, a Black Sea resort.
According to numerous Russian political and business sources, Yeltsin has also, over the past year, suffered from periods of disorientation and incoherence.
In the Kremlin videotape of the meeting with Jiang, Yeltsin was seen - but not heard - making a point and motioning. He looked pale, but was sitting up and dressed casually.
The meeting, which officials said lasted 40 minutes, had been billed as an informal one, "without ties." But there was no way to tell whether the brief, silent film clip was representative of Yeltsin's demeanor or condition; the Kremlin has often issued deceptive reports about his health.
Under the 1993 constitution, if Yeltsin is incapacitated or should die, Primakov would become president automatically and elections would be held within three months. While the opposition Communists long have demanded that Yeltsin step aside, the latest illnesses have brought similar suggestions from his allies.
Yeltsin's illness added tension to a national mood already darkened by the brutal killing of Starovoitova. Primakov chaired a meeting of the security agencies, imploring them to crack down on extremism and corruption. Recalling recent anti-Semitic broadsides in parliament, as well as racist statements against Caucasians, Primakov declared, "This is the road toward fascism. We cannot go down that road." But Yeltsin's absence once again left many doubts about who is running Russia.
"This is a series of illnesses that indeed testify to the inability" of Yeltsin "to fulfill his duties in full," said Alexander Shokhin, a leader of the centrist Our Home Is Russia bloc in parliament. He said "methods of running the country should be reviewed, as Prime Minister Primakov has in fact been acting as vice president since September."
Shokhin suggested an accelerated effort to revise the constitution next spring and simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections next September.
After Yeltsin's meeting with Jiang, the two leaders issued a broad statement saying the main result was "similar approaches to all international issues and identical positions" on the future of Chinese-Russian relations. They celebrated the demarcation of their common border, but apparently left remaining issues for Jiang's meetings with other Russian officials this week.
Traffic jams up to 25 miles long were reported at rush hour on the roads around Brussels, Belgium, where all trains ground to a halt. In Paris, where the strike hit rail service especially hard, grumbling commuters also were forced to pile into cars or pack into the underground Metro, which was unaffected.
The spark for the coordinated one-day labor action was a proposal from the European Union's executive to allow competition for 25 percent of the rail freight market over the next 10 years.
Union leaders are wary because liberalization has led to big job cuts in many of Western Europe's former state-owned telecommunications or airline companies. They insist on safeguarding the national monopoly status enjoyed by most countries' railroads.
"We have the example of the United Kingdom, where liberalization and privatization resulted in the loss of one-third of the jobs at British Railways," said Sabine Trier, spokeswoman for the Brussels-based European Federation of Transport Workers. "The other fear is that with competition, with new entrants, the pressures of competition will lead to a deterioration of social standards, that working conditions will be diminished."
In Greece, trains halted at midnight Sunday, and traffic wasn't expected to resume until 24 hours later. In Belgium, the one-day strike began Sunday night.
In France, an average of one train in three was running yesterday, the French national railways said. Only eastern lines and the Eurostar, which links Paris and London, were functioning normally.
Spain's conservative government of Jose Maria Aznar insisted minimum service be assured, and some trains ran on regional and national lines. The timetable of the country's only high-speed rail line, between Madrid and Seville, was unaffected.
In Luxembourg and Portugal, rail workers decided on a two-hour job stoppage. Their counterparts in Austria, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands limited themselves to news conferences, leaflets and public statements to their governments.
Next Monday, transport ministers from the 15 EU member countries will review a proposal to open up the rail sector, in part, to free-market forces. Neil Kinnock, the EU's transportation commissioner, says 500,000 jobs have been lost in the past 15 years, and that railroads must change to stave off competition from road transport.
"Our proposals do not pose a threat to jobs," Kinnock, a former leader of Britain's Labor Party, said. "The great and continuing menace to jobs comes from the way in which rail is losing shares of the transport market."
11-24-98
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