Word: memos
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...launch a private investment bank and other joint economic developments aimed at furthering the peace process. Israeli officials saw the international commodity trader as someone who could foster Israeli-Arab business activity. "Given Rich's ties to the oil world, he was considered particularly suited to this task," the memo says...
...According to a 1997 confidential memo released by Rich's lawyers, top Israeli authorities had tried to get the State Department in 1995 to ease the worldwide manhunt for Rich. Why? Rich had promised Israel to financially assist its economic development projects with Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. The Israelis claimed that if Rich couldn't travel freely in the region, without fear of extradition to the United States, the Jewish state would suffer. Israel and Switzerland, where Rich was based, were two places he could move without risk...
...Despite the intervention of then-foreign minister Simon Peres, the secret mission failed. Dennis Ross, Clinton's top Middle East envoy, twice told Israeli officials the issue was a "hot potato" he didn't want to touch, says the memo. When Israeli diplomats pressed, they were told Ross was "skeptical" about Rich's investment promises. He also was "concerned about potential allegations that the administration was interfering with law enforcement objectives for political purposes and the possibility of being embarrassed by a disclosure that some kind of deal was made with Rich," according to the document...
...unsigned, seven-page memo was turned over by Rich's lawyers to the House committee investigating Clinton's controversial pardon on his last day in office. Rich sources said it was written by someone working on the fugitive's legal fight. It suggests the President may have found little sympathy for a pardon at the State Department if he had inquired. Last week, Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, said he also was not consulted, joining federal prosecutors in the Rich case who have complained they were shut out of the decision. It should be noted that...
...pardon petition to the White House, Rich submitted many supportive letters from Israeli politicians, cultural figures and even former Mossad intelligence officials - a pitch reinforced by three calls from Barak. But the earlier Israeli offensive was not publicly known until the release of the 1997 memo...