From: rats@ihlpm.att.com
Newsgroups: info.firearms
Subject: Sunday Telegraph story on Klinton
Date: 10 Jun 94 17:14:46 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Message-ID: <9406101715.AA23645@ig1.att.att.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
Originator: daemon@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu

The following story appeared in the London Sunday Times, and nowhere in
the United States- although the Sunday Times didn't appear to have any
problem getting the story.

The surrounding event was widely reported as the photo opportunity that it
was intended to be (without those messy details that so often come with
the truth).

*****
                   Copyright 1994 Times Newspapers Limited
                                  Sunday Times

                              May 29, 1994, Sunday

SECTION: Overseas news
LENGTH: 486 words
HEADLINE: Dead hero's father tears into Clinton
BYLINE: James Adams

 BODY:
   IT WAS the moment President Bill Clinton wanted to restore his
tattered reputation with the military before his departure for the
D-Day celebrations in Europe this week, James Adams reports.

    He had just presented posthumous Congressional Medals of Honour,
America's highest military decoration, to the widows of two soldiers
for valour in Somalia. After inviting the families for a moment of
quiet reflection in the Oval Office, the president approached
Herbert Shughart, the father of one of the two soldiers, and offered
his hand.

    To his astonishment the handshake was declined. "You are not
fit to be president of the United States," said Shughart Senior.
"The blame for my son' s death rests with the White House and with
you. You are not fit to command."

    The president reeled and the unprecedented onslaught continued
for some minutes. According to witnesses it was a "highly charged
emotional moment" which resulted in  Clinton trying to explain to
Shughart,Sr. why the events of that day last October were not his
fault.

     Shughart and his colleague, both sergeants, were killed trying
to rescue fellow rangers from a vicious fire-fight in which 18 died
and 75 were wounded. A later Pentagon investigation revealed that
the troops had been refused the ri ght equipment and there was no
political or military plan to justify the Americ an presence in
Somalia.

    Although the president has tried to escape the blame, he is
largely credite d with the failure of the whole American effort to
bring peace to Somalia. According to witnesses to the Oval Office
scene, the Shughart family remained unconvinced by the president's
arguments.

"The medal doesn't help anything, other than that we are grateful
that Randy will be remembered in such an honourable way," said Lois
Shughart, the soldier's mother.

    Since the row, the White House has been desperate to contain the
damage in advance of the D-Day celebrations. "Everyone wants to
make sure that the president arrives in Europe as the commander in
chief and not as a man seen as unfit to lead," said one White House
source.

    Weeks of feverish preparation have gone into the European trip
to commemorate the Normandy landings and it has been designed to
attract reflected glory for the president, who avoided the draft
during the Vietnam war.

    Yesterday in his Memorial Day address, the day when America
honours its war dead, Clinton said there were limits to committing
US troops abroad in the new post-Cold War era. The greatest
challenge, he said, came from the "the smouldering embers of ethnic
and religious hatreds" in places like Bosnia and Rwanda.

    "We cannot dispatch our troops to solve every problem where our
values are offended by human misery, and we should not," Clinton
said. "We are prepared to defend ourselves and our fundamental
interests when they are threatened." --


             *** Michael Conners - THE Ohio State University ***
              Gun control isn't about guns, it's about control.