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Fowler Breaks His Silence
Ex-DNC chair denies pressuring Security Council officials to let Tamraz into White House
By Kevin Bohn/CNN
WASHINGTON (March 19) -- Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler says he never pressured any official of the National Security Council to allow controversial contributor Roger Tamraz into events with the president, nor did he contact the Central Intelligence Agency to vouch for Tamraz.
Administration officials had said earlier that Fowler had pressed for Tamraz to be included, after an NSC official told Fowler that Tamraz should not be.
"In no sense of the word was it my intention to put pressure on anyone to do anything, much less anything that was improper. My purpose was to determine if it would be appropriate for Mr. Tamraz to be invited to a group social event," Fowler says in a prepared statement. He has refused all comment up to now on the matter.
Fowler says his recollection is "vague" about his talks with the NSC official, Sheila Heslin. Fowler says Nancy Soderberg, the third highest official in the NSC, did not object to Tamraz attending a group social event.
Tamraz and his companies contributed almost $200,000 in total to both the national and Virginia state Democratic parties.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Fowler was involved in having the CIA provide reports vouching for Tamraz. He denies any such involvement.
"I did not in this situation, or any other, call or contact the CIA to ask them to supply information to Ms. Heslin, Dr. Soderberg or anyone else, nor did I direct anyone else to do so," Fowler says.
Intelligence sources told CNN it has discovered at least two telephone calls from the DNC to the CIA in the fall and winter of 1995. The agency is investigating what it concedes are "absolutely inappropriate contacts" between the Democratic Party and the spy agency.
Tamraz is wanted for questioning by the international policy agency, Interpol, in connection with the collapse of a Lebanese bank.
Intelligence sources say Tamraz had connections to the CIA in the past, but was never a paid CIA agent or employee. One intelligence source said Tamraz has provided information to the CIA in the past "on a voluntary basis." The source described Tamraz as "someone who's been helpful in the past," but declined to describe the nature of the information he provided.
Tamraz, in an interview with CNN, confirmed that he provided information to the U.S. government, but declined to be specific about how or when he did that.
CNN's Ralph Begleiter contributed to this report.