, . WE kl1t "It1 One hundred three years of editorial freedom Special counsel says Whitewater probe could last 18 months THE WASHINGTON POST Special counsel Robert B. Fiske, Jr. told a *ederal judge yesterday his investigation of President Clinton's Whitewater real estate venture and ties to a failed S&L may last 18 months, cover more than a million documents and involve 20 or more investigators. After meeting with Fiske behind closed doors, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen M. Reasoner in Little Rock, Ark., agreed to empanel a special grand jury to exclusively handle the federal probe of Madison Guar- nty Savings & Loan, and the Whitewater evelopment Corp. real estate venture, a cor- poration jointly owned by President and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Madison owner James McDougal and his former wife, Susan. "The duties of any grand jury investigat- ing this matter are much more extensive than the court had previously envisioned," Reasoner said in his order. Early this week, Fiske's office served a subpoena seeking a widerange of documents on the Rose Law Firm, where Hillary Clinton and several high-ranking administration offi- cials were once senior partners. They include Associate Attorney General Webster L. Hubbell, assistant White House counsel Wil- liam H. Kennedy III, and Vincent Foster, the deputy White House counsel who committed suicide last July. The scope of Fiske's work includes looking at how the investigation into the Foster suicide was handled by the White House and law enforcement officials. Rose firm lawyers did legal work relating to Madison. Hillary Clinton represented Madi- son during the mid-1980s when it sought regulatory approval for a stock plan from state officials. McDougal, a longtime Clinton friend, has said he placed the Rose firm on a $2,000-a-month retainer when then-Gov. Clinton complained to him about his family finances. Hubbell represented the government when it sued Madison's accountants for malprac- tice in 1990. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been examining whether Hubbell and the Rose firm properly disclosed possible conflicts of interest in handling the case. After his meeting with Reasoner, Fiske told reporters in Little Rock that it was neces- sary to ask for a special grand jury "because of the importance of this investigation and the importance of doing it as quickly and as thoroughly as possible." In his order, Reasoner said that even if the regular grand jury was asked to extend its term until the end of the year, it would not be able to complete the investigation. Those grand jurors, who have already begun work on the Whitewater investigation, initially thought they could do the job, Reasoner wrote, but believe it would be impossible now that the "actual scope and magnitude of the duties that would be involved in such a task has become more apparent." Reasoner asked James Burnett, the fore- man of the grand jury, to attend his meeting with Fiske. Burnett served as head of the National Transportation Safety Board under President Ronald Reagan. In addition to the criminal investigation going on in Little Rock, a special civil task force assembled by the Resolution Trust Corp., the federal agency charged with overseeing the S&L crisis cleanup, has been working feverishly in Kansas City for the past several weeks. RTC investigators and lawyers, as well as lawyers from the firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro hired under contract by the RTC, are poring over Madison files to see if there are any civil claims that can still be brought against Madison attorneys, officials or bor- rowers. U.S. will sell Saui Arabia $ 6 billion in f jet airliners} LOS ANGELES TIMES WASHINGTON-In an unusual step, President Clinton announced in White House ceremony yesterday that Saudi Arabia will purchase 50 . new airliners from U.S. manufactur- ers -- an order worth between $5 billion and $6 billion The decision to trumpet the agree- ment from the White House marked an uncommon level of official par- ticipation in a commercial transac- tion that was designed to underscore t he administration's growing involve- ent in promoting U.S. exports. The Saudi order is extremely im- portant to Seattle-based Boeing Co. and to the McDonnell Douglas Corp. F *,* of St. Louis, which will share produc- tion of the planes. It also provides a major boost for McDonnell's strug- gling Douglas Aircraft Co. division in Long Beach, Calif., and for dozens of aircraft parts makers that supply :omponents to both Douglas and Boeing. Although the order is not likely to . prompt a new wave of hiring, it is expected to help stabilize employ- ment - welcome news for the com panties, which have had steady layoffs because of defense cutbacks. The purchase could keep as many as 100,000 workers employed over the d ext several ears administration of- . ficials said. g isv The precise division of work be- Th dj tween the two companies and the ess act types of planes the Saudis will buy C4;:t"'siii::nceent o:i"i:dea::is gle was d . .e sad. : will not be announced until after a House, where he was " ss shes final round of negotiations between:{ .+},,;;.. "wr the companies and Saudi officials. Those negotiations are expected to m fsd. -ss.t fU Jg begin next month in Saudi Arabia. AP::::,<:::<::>::>«:>:>:>:;::::}: PHOTOi>} That the Saudis intended to buy A HT *~imerican planes - rather than the President Clinton speaks about the sale of jets to the Saudi Arabian government yesterday at the White House. :European-made Airbus - first be- came clear through official confirma- and Germany. cials of both Boeing and McDonnell tively; we're serious about working tions last summer. But the final deal The degree of government in- Douglas. in conjunction with American busi- was made only after intensive lobby- volvement in the deal wasunderscored As the president announced the ness and industry to win those battles," ing by the president and by other by Clinton's announcement of it in deal, his glee was evident.. he said. senior officials who were competing the White House, where he was "What this demonstrates is that The announcement follows ameet- for the business against senior gov- flanked by the Saudi ambassador, we're serious about opening markets; ing in December in which officials of erment officials from Britain, France members of his Cabinet and top offi- we're serious about competing effec- See SAUDI JETS, Page 2 U.N. demands Serb artillery out by Monday Serbian and Bosnian weapons in Sarajevo must be withdrawn by Monday or U.N. willcollect and control them; U.N. insists on absolute authority over guns LOS ANGELES TIMES NAPLES, Italy - The Monday deadline for the withdrawal of heavy weapons from around Sarajevo is unambiguous, and U.N. troops will exercise total control of weaponry turned in by Serb and Bosnian forces, the NATO commander who would order any air strikes said yesterday. "Control of weapons means that they are regrouped and collected and under U.N. control. If a warring fac- tion wants to use those weapons, it would have to fight to get them," Admn. Jeremy M. Boorda told report- ers here, gainsaying speculation from Washington that the United Nations might settle for less than absolute authority over weapons remaining in the area after the deadline. U.N. commanders in Bosnia have exactly the same understanding of what control means, said the Ameri- can four-star admiral. "It's the U.N.'s deadline, and it's the NATO dead- line; there's no ambiguity about that." "Our mandate hasn't shifted. Our rules haven't shifted," said Boorda, who heads the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Southern Command here along with the bristling armada of NATO warplanes poised at Italian air bases and on aircraft carriers in the Adriatic. In Brussels yesterday, NATO ambassadors also reaffirmed the Feb. 21 deadline, saying there would be no extension. A NATO ultimatum issued last U.S. will not send troops to support NATO THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON -- The United States has rejected United Nations requests this week for troops and equipment to support a NATO ultimatum to silence Serb artillery around Sarajevo, U.S. officials said yesterday. In a meeting in New York on Tuesday among several coun- tries involved in Bosnia, U.N. officials conveyed a request from Lt. Gen. Michael Rose, the Brit- ish commander of U.N. troops in Bosnia, for an additional 2,500 to 3,000 soldiers. The troops Iwould help U.N. forces monitor Serbartillery that cannot be moved out of the 12-mile exclu- sion zone declared by NATO last week. This monitoring ef- fort has become critical to the joint U.N.-NATO effort to stop the shelling of the Bosnian capi- tal. In addition,f ose requested sophisticated counter battery ra- dar that can pinpoint the source of shelling and fix blame in the See NATO, Page 2 week and aimed principally at the Serbs gives both sides in the Bosnian struggle until just after midnight Sun- day to withdraw artillery, mortars and other heavy weapons from within a 12.5-mile radius of Sarajevo or turn them over to U.N. peacekeepers. Fail- ing that, NATO warplanes-- Ameri- can, British, French and Dutch - could strike at U.N. behest anytime See DEADLINE, Page 2 *Brater, now a 'U' prof, is still active in city politics Students give up ice cream, chocolate, Limbaugh for Lent By JAMES M. NASH DAILY STAFF REPORTER The bad blood resurfaced at Monday night's council meetingwhenNicolas I :r:. t ; :.