GORE BLASTS STATE DEPT WITCH-HUNT AS OUTRAGEOUS
      Why Doesn't Bush Look As Carefully for Iraq, Iran Answers

       GORE URGES BUSH TO RELEASE BUSH CABLE TO SADDAM HUSSEIN

       Atlanta, GA - Blasting the Bush Administration for a
 politically- inspired witch-hunt through Bill Clinton's travel
 records, Sen. Al Gore, (D-TN), today (10/14) called on President Bush
 to release a copy of the personal note Bush sent Saddam Hussein only
 days before the Iraqi dictator invaded Kuwait.  Gore said the Bush
 Administration also should release the cables sent back to the U.S.
 from then-U.S. Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie.

      "President Bush has once again turned to the hateful, dangerous
 tactics of Joe McCarthy.  It is a startling abuse of power and a
 violation of our country's most basic principles that demands an
 immediate and thorough explanation," said Gore

      "Why is it George Bush can focus all the investigative powers of
 his government on Bill Clinton's travel records and personal history
 but can't get his own cabinet agencies to tell the truth and provide
 documents to federal prosecutors working a major criminal
 investigation around billions of dollars in illegal loans to Iraq --

 loans the Administration winked and nodded at to let through as part
 of a failed policy that made war inevitable," said Gore.

      Gore asked President Bush to release the complete text of the
 personal message President Bush sent to Saddam Hussein only days
 before Saddam invaded Kuwait and to release the cables then-U.S.
 Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, sent to the State Department.

      "George Bush ought to be looking for the records important to
 the public interest, records that matter to the American people, as
 vigorously as he's looking for records to protect his political
 self-interest," said Gore.

      A senior State Department official this month ordered special
 and "extremely thorough" searches of Governor Clinton's travel
 records from more than 20 years ago when Clinton was in college, the
 Washington Post reported this morning.  The newspaper said State
 Department officials also were instructed to look for documents
 related to Clinton's draft status and citizenship.

      "Serious and pressing questions demand answers and this
 Administration is focusing on political cheap shots and infighting
 over who lied to whom.  It's time the Bush Administration played it
 straight with the American people and started providing some answers
 about the billions of dollars we provided Saddam Hussein and about a
 policy that led to war," said Gore.  "Instead of using taxpayer
 dollars searching for partisan political ammunition in a desperate
 attempt to save his own job, George Bush ought to be putting the
 facts on the table about his Administration's policies toward Iraq
 and his role in the Iran-Contra arms for hostage controversy.

      The Bush Administration's Central Intelligence Agency has misled
 the Justice Department and the Justice Department  misled federal
 prosecutors investigating illegal bank loans to Saddam Hussein,
 according to news reports this week.  A growing body of evidence
 suggests that the Bush Administration knew that these illegal loans
 from the Atlanta office of an Italian bank were being used by Iraq to
 purchase weapons.

      And, just yesterday, President Bush offered yet another version
 of exactly what he knew about the Iran-Contra arms for hostages deal
 -- this time admitting that he knew about the illegal hostages for
 arms deal, dramatically reversing earlier statements that he was "out
 of the loop."

                             -Ed Rosenfeld