ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: From The Boston Globe and The New York Times note: below
The Clinton administration interceded with Secret Service officials and granted White House access to at least 21 employees who had a history of cocaine, crack and hallucinogen use, in a decision that ignited a new round of political fire Wednesday.
A Secret Service official told congressional investigators that the agency had denied passes to the employees in 1993 and 1994 because of recent drug use. But the passes were granted after the White House established a program of additional drug testing for those the Secret Service deemed security risks.
``So all the people with drug histories flagged got passes?'' said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va.
``Yes,'' said Arnold Cole, a former supervisor of the Secret Service's White House control operations, adding that ``those issues were mitigated.''
Secret Service agents told the House panel that dozens of White House workers had admitted drug histories.
``I would say more than 30, more than 40 perhaps, had drug usage,'' said agent Jeffrey Undercoffer. ``I have seen cocaine usage. I have seen hallucinogenic usages, crack usages.''
Cole said Craig Livingstone was named head of the administration's personnel security office despite previous drug use.
The agents at the hearing also related that other White House workers had attracted the attention of security personnel for failing to pay their taxes, some for years at a time.
White House press secretary Mike McCurry, bombarded with questions on the administration's action at a briefing Wednesday, said the president does not believe prior drug use disqualifies someone from public service. He said the White House has a mandatory drug testing program for all employees and a more exhaustive one for the employees in question.
McCurry even volunteered that he had smoked marijuana ``from time to time'' in the 1970s. ``The point is, if I use drugs now, in any shape or form, I'm gone, I'm history,'' said McCurry, who is 41.
He did not identify the staff members who had been put in the special testing program. Nine of the 21 who entered it remain on the White House staff and as part of the program are tested twice a year. He said Wednesday that none of those nine hold the rank of assistant to the president, deputy assistant or special assistant - the 130 political appointees who make up much of the White House staff. He did not say whether any of the original 21 held those positions.
On the presidential campaign trail, Republicans criticized McCurry's comments as cavalier. ``It's the typical mind-set of the Clinton crowd that everybody did it,'' complained Bill Bennett, a former drug policy director who was speaking on behalf of GOP presidential hopeful Bob Dole.
In depositions that were made public Wednesday, Secret Service officials said they were initially concerned that employees with a history of recent drug use posed a potential threat to the president. The agents appeared last week before the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight to answer questions on the FBI files controversy, but were diverted to the drug issue by the Republican-controlled committee.
Cole and two of his colleagues said they had been concerned that the drug problems specifically could lead to low productivity, blackmail and other potential breaches of security that could endanger President Clinton and his family.
But they said administration officials cleared those employees, after first devising a special voluntary drug-testing program to monitor their future activity.
It was unclear, according to the depositions, just how ``recent'' the drug use might have been - whether it was in the prior year or the previous five years. Secret Service spokesmen did not return telephone calls. The agents seemed to stress, however, that they were not referring to experimental drug use in college, but were classifying this as more habitual use of drugs stronger than marijuana.
The revelation, a reminder of Clinton's own admission of marijuana use in which he said he did not inhale, immediately set off criticism around the capital, with Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby saying he would hold a hearing into the White House actions before the August recess. It could prove potentially embarrassing for Clinton because of the prominent place that crime fighting has in his campaign agenda.
``We don't like to overlook current or past drug use,'' said Laura Cox, Shelby's spokeswoman. ``It's important. It's illegal, among other things. Second, with the type of information they have access to, it's very serious.''
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., called it ``awful and unbelievable.''
Wednesday's disclosures appear to open another broad avenue of attack for Republicans who are lambasting the White House for improperly acquiring confidential personnel files on nearly 900 people, including many prominent officials in the Reagan and Bush administrations.
The New York Daily News and the Los Angeles Times contributed information to this story.
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