'KINGPIN' BILL IS LOBBYISTS' TARGET

Senate Aide Says He Was Fired For Refusing To Back Changes

A fired Senate intelligence committee aide said yesterday that powerful
Washington lobbyists representing foreign businesses are attempting to
undermine legislation that would require U.S. officials to designate
foreign "drug kingpins" and freeze their holdings in the United States.

The aide, Jim Stinebower, who helped draft the drug-trafficking bill, said
he was fired 13 days ago at the behest of Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.),
chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, for refusing to
back changes sought by business interests in Mexico and Aruba. Several
Republican sources also said Shelby's insistence on amendments had led to
the firing of Stinebower, the panel's chief drug analyst.

Stinebower's concerns were echoed by Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) Tuesday in
debate on the House floor. "Sadly, we have discovered in this Congress that
we are not insulated from efforts of the kingpins to buy influence and
corrupt our political institutions," McCollum said. "Their narco-lobbyists
were paid well to try to shape and gut this bill through this process.
Well, they have not succeeded, fortunately."

McCollum's comments came minutes before the House overwhelmingly passed the
measure, 385 to 26, and sent it to the Senate, where its fate remains
uncertain.

The House legislation, backed by the Clinton administration, would require
the U.S. government to compile an annual list of suspected drug kingpins,
similar to the list kept of terrorist organizations. The government could
then freeze their U.S. assets, bar their entry to the United States and
prohibit American businesses from dealing with them.

The Senate passed a similar measure in August as part of the fiscal 2000
intelligence authorization, which is now in a House-Senate conference
committee. Shelby, who wants to amend that bill, denied that he has been
influenced by lobbyists in any way. Shelby said through an aide that he is
only trying to protect U.S. businesses from being unfairly sanctioned in
the event one of their foreign partners is designated as a drug kingpin
under the legislation.

Shelby's aide said the senator wants a provision added to the bill in
conference committee stating that U.S. companies would have an automatic
right to judicial review if their assets were seized following the drug
kingpin designation of one of their foreign partners.

"The concern that we've had from the beginning--and it's not a slight one,
it's a real one--is that U.S. companies could get caught up in this thing,"
said the Shelby aide, who asked not to be quoted by name. "Senator Shelby
supports this legislation, but he just wants to find a way to protect U.S.
business and the due process of U.S. persons."

The aide also denied that Stinebower's dismissal was related in any way to
his work on the bill.

Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, a major Washington law
firm, began an intensive lobbying effort to amend the legislation on behalf
of Transportacion Maritima Mexicana (TMM) after the Senate in August
unanimously passed an earlier version of what is now called the Foreign
Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.

John A. Merrigan, a Verner, Liipfert partner, said TMM remains concerned
about the legislation after a June report by the National Drug Intelligence
Center that he said falsely accused the giant shipping conglomerate of
involvement in drug trafficking. The report was based on intelligence
gathered by the CIA, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs.

If such a "false, libelous and defamatory" charge were leveled against TMM
with the drug kingpin legislation in effect, Merrigan said, the company and
its U.S. joint venture partners could have their assets frozen by the
Treasury Department without notice and without the right to review by the
courts.

"We feel very comfortable for our law firm's sake that we're not
representing drug traffickers and that our [proposed amendments] make good
sense and are very modest," Merrigan said.

Another major D.C. law firm, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, recently
began lobbying on behalf of Glossco Freezone, an Aruba business controlled
by the Mansur family, some of whose members have been indicted in the
United States on charges of conspiracy to launder drug trafficking
proceeds, congressional sources said.

Barney J. Skladany Jr., the Akin, Gump partner representing Glossco, did
not return repeated telephone calls for comment.

Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.) and other members of the Senate GOP leadership
may try to go around Shelby and the conference committee and vote directly
on the House-passed version, according to GOP staff members.

"We have a version that protects American business--the House version,"
said one high-ranking Republican staff member. "Anything beyond this is
changing the intent of the bill."