High life Hanky-panky Taki
New York In the late autumn of 1976 the senior Senator from Massachusetts arrived m Athens, Greece, accompanied by his usual large entourage as well as his nephew, Joe. The Kennedy group was on one of those fact-finding tours that the American tax payer foots the bill for. Because he is not the most articulate of men, Teddy Ken- nedy, I assume, costs the tax payer more than most Senators, as he's never been known to venture outside the confines of the Senate without a couple of researchers, a speech writer or two, and a few thinkers in tow. Kennedy had been invited by the former prime minister Constantine Karamanlis, the man who in a previous term of office had managed to unite the Greek parliament as no one had before or has since. Karamanlis accomplished that hY proposing to give the choicest piece of real estate this side of Sounion to the visiting First Lady of the United States, Mrs Jac- queline Kennedy. Needless to say, GreeAk deputies are used to taking, not giving, an,' they voted unanimously that Mrs KenneoY would have to pay for any land that be- longed to the Greek state. Karamanlis was furious and I imagine Jackie was not too pleased either, but everything ended utc; satisfactorily when six years later she lande the wily Turk. But back to Teddy's visit. I was living in Athens at the time, trying to write a book that explained how the Greek government steals with impunity, when Teddy rang. Me and invited me out for dinner and a drink., Knowing the long homosexual history the Kennedys I took three girls with me an° went to the Grande Bretagne Hotel where the Senator was staying as a guest of qte, Greek tax payer. After some time Joe an and two of the girls (all were Amerteant students trying to learn the Greek waY) weri. to a nightclub. Teddy stayed behind in hts suite with the third, Anita Clifford. • _ camThc oenveextt tthingo my h I knew, ee , accusing K hysterical A° of having offered her drugs while trying ' win her favour. Although I was very lea ,r at first, when Anita continued to 0', hysterical and rang her parents and asked them to come and get her out of GreeeeL.. became convinced she was telling tn` truth. In fact, three years later I wrote about the incident in Private Eye and some newspapers over here picked it up as well. But not the New York Times, or the Washington Post. In fact the story was squashed and the only good thing that emerged from it is that Bobby Kennedy Jr stopped speaking to me.
The reason I bring the incident up again is that in April 1981, Washington police, learning of a narcotics ring operating among Congressional aides, began an undercover operation. After a year. the Police confirmed that a drugs ring was operating, and by April 1982 a raid landed an alleged supplier, Douglas Marshall, the son of a diplomat, who sang like the pro- verbial canary. Marshall was charged but after one month he fled to Australia and is now back in the United States. Among the names he and one of his alleged con- federates gave the police was that of the senior Senator from Massachusetts. He was the only Senator named, and a liberal Democrat like the other alleged druggies. Now what I would like to know, along With the few journalists who have managed to put Watergate behind them and look for hankY-panky in high places outside the Nix- on administration, is why the bloodhounds of the press have been so paralysed where cocaine use among liberal Democrats is concerned. Is it because a lot of the hacks use the stuff themselves and are reluctant to Pursue a case that might blow the cover of more people than they bargained for? Or is it because all the alleged users are liberal Democrats, and thus ideological soulmates of the hacks? I believe it is both things.
In do take a lot of laughing powder in Washington, and they are more than reluctant to go after liberals. So much for the integrity of the press in America, as well asields the power the Kennedy family still
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