Informed Sources

What Paris Really Wants in Bosnia

Paris -- To hear some officials talk, Paris wants Washington to take broad military action in Bosnia. Defense Minister Francois Leotard led the charge last week, calling on "the U.S. to intervene." The actual French position, worked out at a meeting chaired by President Francois Mitterrand, is limited: it calls for the U.S. and its allies to back a proposal authorizing the local U.N. commander to order NATO air strikes against units firing on U.N. troops.

Another Curious Whitewater Connection

New York -- The coziness of the relationship between Bill Clinton and the International Paper Co. has been questioned in the press because some months after he, as Governor of Arkansas, gave the company major tax breaks, it sold Whitewater development land. And lobbyist Betsey Wright, Clinton's longtime chief of staff in Little Rock, appears to have ties to the firm; she now works for the Wexler Group -- one of whose clients is the American Forest and Paper Association.

Uncle Sam Wants You -- to Play Golf

Washington -- Senator Dennis DeConcini says the U.S. government wastes millions of dollars a year on golf, and he wants to do something about it. The Democrat from Arizona recently learned that the military maintains about 280 golf courses for its personnel at the cost of some $6 million a year. DeConcini wants to open up the military courses for civilian use for about a dollar a hole, a plan that could net the Treasury $100 million a year.