Condit's aides to be questioned

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JULY 26. The continuing investigation into the missing 24 year old former intern, Ms. Chandra Levy, is taking on new and different dimensions with at least one report saying that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now expanding the scope of the enquiry to include the Democratic Congressman, Mr. Gary Condit's, aides.

The USA Today in a report is saying that a former staffer who had a relationship with Mr. Condit was urged to keep quiet of the affair and was basically warned to leave the past behind or face ruin and specifically told not to talk to the authorities.

The former staff member, Ms. Joleen Argentini McKay, has told the newspaper that there were various ``rules'' that Mr. Condit forced her to follow during the course of her affair. Ms. McKay, who is now married but single at the time of her affair with the Democratic law-maker, has spoken to the FBI. And the word is that code of conduct that Mr. Condit wanted to be followed is similar to the guidelines that the Levy family has talked about.

What is being pointed out is that profilers in the FBI are going through the information to see what Mr. Condit would do should someone like Ms. Levy confronted him with a crisis. The other side of this information from different women would be to evaluate the state of mind of Ms. Levy. In fact, the FBI wants to talk to Mr. Condit again to get a better understanding of what Ms. Levy's state of mind could have been prior to her disappearance. That meeting is expected to take place this week.

Meanwhile, it is being said that the lie detector test Mr. Condit had with a private examiner had just four questions about the missing intern; and none about an airline stewardess' contention that Mr. Condit had asked her to sign an affidavit that was not truthful. According to at least one report, the Democratic law- maker was not directly asked if he had an affair with Ms. Levy.

Though much has been made by Mr. Condit's legal adviser of the polygraph test, neither the District Police nor the FBI has been terribly impressed with the outcome, with the latter deeming the test practically worthless. In spite of all the media focus on Mr. Condit, authorities have maintained from the very beginning that he is not a suspect. But it was only in the third interview that Mr. Condit admitted of having had an affair with Ms. Levy.

The contention of critics from the beginning has been that Mr. Condit has been less than forthcoming and that this had hampered investigation. On the other hand, the authorities have taken some flak for showing too much deference to a Congressman. But Mr. Condit's supporters have been making the point that the media has been focussing too much on the law-maker as opposed to the larger picture itself.

The Democrats on Capitol Hill have not come out as a group to pressure Mr. Condit, but there is some evidence of mounting concern of the implications of all this. The conservative California district of Mr. Condit is just one concern for Democrats who fear they may have to write off this seat in the next elections. But the bigger worry is that in all the media hoopla on Mr. Condit and the missing intern, Democrats are worried that their message on policies is not making sufficient headway.

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