No Covert Action In Bosnia Arms Deal, Administration Says

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 24) -- A senior State Department official has rejected a senator's assertion that the Clinton Administration failed to notify Congress of a covert action in connection with arms shipments to Bosnia in 1994.

In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott disagreed with a suggestion from Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) that failing to specifically respond to a Croatian inquiry about arms shipments amounted to a covert act that allowed the shipments of Iranian arms to continue.

The law requires the administration to notify Congress of covert acts, so it can exercise its oversight responsibilities.

"It is our strong view that this instance was by no stretch of the imagination covert action," Talbott told the committee.

Talbott testified that in April 1994, Croatian officials asked if the U.S. objected to shipment of arms through Croatia to Bosnia. A U.N. arms embargo was in place at the time.

The U.S. position was that Ambassador Peter Galbraith had "no instructions." The U.S. was not required to enforce the U.N. embargo and although it was not happy the source of the arms was Iran, the administration believed the arms allowed the Bosnians to survive and the Dayton peace talks to begin later.

Talbott said if the U.S. had clearly signaled it was opposed to the arms shipments, the Croatians might have halted them, but the outcome would not have been what the U.S. desired.

Specter's committee and the White House may be on a collision course over access to an administration report on the incident; Specter wants it, but the administration so far has declined to turn it over.

No Covert Action In Bosnia Arms Deal, Administration Says

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