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Kissinger client conflicts { December 2 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/02/politics/02INQU.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/02/politics/02INQU.html
December 2, 2002
Kissinger Promises to Drop Clients if Interests Conflict
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 — Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, appointed last week by President Bush to lead an independent investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, said today that he would sever ties with any of his global clients if they presented conflicts of interest.
Mr. Kissinger, the founder and chairman of Kissinger Associates Inc., in New York, has represented some of the world's most powerful multinational corporations, including many with interests in American foreign policy, since 1982. He has not been required to disclose the names of his clients, but they are believed to include ExxonMobil, Arco, American Express and Coca-Cola.
Mr. Kissinger said today that he was not aware that any of his clients might pose conflicts of interest with his mission as chairman of the commission, which is to investigate why the United States failed to prevent the attacks. He said no Middle Eastern governments were among his clients.
"If there are any clients that are involved in the investigations, I will certainly sever my relations with them," Mr. Kissinger said on "Fox News Sunday."
"But," he added, "I cannot conceive that there will be any."
The vice chairman of the commission, George J. Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader and a member of a New York law firm, said on the same program that he, too, would sever any ties with his clients if a conflict of interest arose.
"The fact of the matter is that there are not conflicts, to the best of my knowledge," Mr. Mitchell said. "But certainly, should someone that we — I personally or my law firm — is now representing that is a subject of this inquiry, then there would be no question" about severing his ties.
The assurances came after questions arose about the independence of Mr. Kissinger in particular. Mr. Kissinger's role in contentious foreign policy activities — like the secret expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the 1973 coup in Chile that toppled the government of Salvador Allende and decades spent helping arrange relationships between powerful economic interests and foreign governments — have led some critics to suggest that Mr. Kissinger might not pursue all leads in the investigation to their logical conclusions.
The White House has not asked Mr. Kissinger to make his client list public. Because the job is part time, White House officials said, Mr. Kissinger is not required to release the names or suspend his consulting work.
However, Mr. Kissinger did say today that he had no clients in the government of Saudi Arabia, one country likely to be scrutinized because 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis.
"We represent nobody in the Middle East governments," Mr. Kissinger said on CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer." "And under no circumstances would we ever permit — would I ever permit — a foreign government to affect my judgment."
Nonetheless, Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who announced today that he was taking a preliminary step to run for president, called for Mr. Kissinger to sever all ties to his clients for the time being.
"It is going to be extraordinarily important for Dr. Kissinger to prove to the nation that he comes to this without any linkages that could remain suspect," Mr. Kerry said on the NBC program "Meet The Press."
(Mr. Kissinger's clients include one — H. J. Heinz — with close ties to Mr. Kerry. Mr. Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz, is the widow of Senator John Heinz, the Pennsylvania Republican who was an heir to the Heinz food fortune.)
In an editorial, The New York Times questioned Mr. Kissinger's independence and suggested that the White House might have appointed him to contain the investigation rather than pursue it.
The Los Angeles Times editorialized, "There is the possibility of a conflict of interest in investigating foreign governments that can be beneficial to clients."
Mr. Kissinger said it was outrageous to suggest that he would be a captive of foreign governments or his clients for commercial reasons.
"The possibility that the investigation of a commission that contains eight commissioners would be affected by any conceived commercial interests is outrageous," he said on CNN. "I have served six presidents, and I have never been accused of anything of this kind."
As for not revealing the names of his clients, he said, "No law firm discloses its clients." But, he added, "I will discuss my clients fully with the counsel of the White House and with the appropriate ethics groups."
In response to the editorial concerns about his independence, Mr. Kissinger said, "I think The New York Times will apologize for this editorial when our report is submitted."
He promised that the report would be "nonpartisan, thorough and something that will permit the American people, when it is finished, to say that a full accounting has been given of the facts and circumstances that led to this tragedy."
The eight other members of the commission are to be appointed by Dec. 15, and their final report is due in 18 months.
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