For Team Clinton, Fortnight Spent Battling on Two Fronts

WASHINGTON —  Last week, President Clinton’s lawyers complained that they couldn’t get him to devote enough time to preparing for his testimony before independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. “Now they know why,” a senior aide said.

For two weeks, presidential aides say, the White House has been a place of almost unremitting tension--on more levels than usual.

In the basement, military planners and CIA officers monitored the progress of plans for secret missile strikes against terrorists. On the second floor, the president’s lawyers prepared for confrontation with a different adversary: Starr. And in the Oval Office on the ground floor, Clinton juggled both issues.

For much of last week, as if seeking relief from his troubles at home, Clinton focused on foreign policy--not only on the plan for military strikes against terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for this month’s twin bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, but also on crises in Russia and Northern Ireland.

As his lawyers demanded more time from the president, the senior aide said, “it got a little awkward, since we couldn’t tell them anything.”

But in the end, the calendar was obliging. By midafternoon last Friday, the military plans were complete, the evidence of Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden’s responsibility for terrorism compelling. In an Oval Office meeting that afternoon, Clinton approved the plan for missile strikes. He set the date for Aug. 20 because of reports that an unusually large number of terrorists might be at one of the targets that day.

Once that meeting was through, there was little for the president’s foreign policy advisors to do but wait--and hope that their plans did not leak.

Clinton was less lucky. He plunged into a weekend of meetings with his wife, his daughter, his lawyers and advisors--all leading up to his testimony Monday on his relationship with former intern Monica S. Lewinsky.

A chronology:

* Wednesday, Aug. 5: Monica S. Lewinsky testifies before a federal grand jury, reportedly confirming that she had a sexual relationship with Clinton--an admission that could make the president vulnerable to charges of perjury.

* Friday, Aug. 7: Massive bombs explode almost simultaneously outside the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing more than 260 people. Clinton’s foreign policy team meets and begins planning possible responses.

* Monday, Aug. 10: A manifesto published in Cairo suggests that Saudi financier Bin Laden, already a prime suspect, was behind the bombings. Clinton begins a three-day trip of speeches and political events in California and the Midwest. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the Starr investigation is rooted in “prejudice against our state.”

* Tuesday, Aug. 11: Clinton stumps for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gray Davis in San Francisco. A spokesman says the president isn’t worried about his looming legal showdown: “He’s in a very positive frame of mind.”

* Wednesday, Aug. 12: Clinton arrives back at the White House at 6:20 a.m. (all times EDT) and meets with his foreign policy team in the Situation Room at 10:35 a.m. Intelligence officers report that evidence is mounting that Bin Laden was behind the attacks. At a smaller meeting in the Oval Office, Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presents a proposal for missile strikes Aug. 20.

* Thursday, Aug. 13: On the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base, Clinton watches the arrival of 10 coffins of slain Americans from Nairobi, tears streaming down his face. That evening, according to some reports, he has a long talk with his wife about his scheduled testimony on the Lewinsky affair.

* Friday, Aug. 14: Newspapers report that Clinton plans to testify that he had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky but that he relied on a loophole in phrasing in his earlier testimony. The president also spends 40 minutes on the phone with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, urging him to enact economic reforms.

At 2:15 p.m., he meets in the Oval Office with his foreign policy team. CIA Director George J. Tenet presents a formal report concluding that overwhelming evidence connects Bin Laden with the embassy bombings. Shelton presents a detailed military plan. Clinton approves the plan, to be carried out Aug. 20. After this point, National Security Advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger says, the attacks will go head unless the president “turns the switch off.”

Clinton’s private lawyer, David E. Kendall, reportedly complains that the president has spent almost no time preparing for his grand jury testimony.

In the evening, Hillary Clinton and the president’s staff throw a surprise birthday party: Clinton is about to turn 52.

* Saturday, Aug. 15: Clinton cancels his weekend plans in order to prepare for his testimony.

U.S. officials say Pakistan has turned over an Arab suspected of involvement in the bombings--officially, to Kenya, but the man is soon in the hands of American investigators. “He spilled his guts,” one official says later.

* Sunday, Aug. 16: The Clintons attend church. The president meets with his lawyers. The Rev. Jesse Jackson visits the White House and says he has offered spiritual counsel to the first family.

* Monday, Aug. 17: Clinton meets with his lawyers for two hours for a final run-through of his testimony. Then he meets with Berger for a short national security briefing, including an update on the military planning.

At 12:59 p.m., the president begins testifying before Starr, other prosecutors and--via closed-circuit television link--the grand jury. Aides say he is asked “outrageously graphic” questions about sexual behavior; he acknowledges an improper relationship with Lewinsky but refuses to provide some details.

At 10:02 p.m., Clinton gives a four-minute speech to the nation, acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky but demanding that Starr’s investigation end.

* Tuesday, Aug. 18: Several leading Democrats, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), say they are disappointed by Clinton’s testimony and speech. Starr summons Lewinsky for more testimony.

Berger tells Clinton that military planning for the missile strikes is on track. The Clintons leave for a vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.

* Wednesday, Aug. 19: Berger briefs the vacationing Clinton by telephone four times, including the latest intelligence reports. Berger telephones House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other congressional leaders to warn them that military action is imminent.

* Thursday, Aug. 20: At 3 a.m., Berger telephones Clinton on Martha’s Vineyard and gives him his last chance to call off the raid. Clinton says, “Go.”

At 1:30 p.m., cruise missiles--fired from U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea--begin exploding in Afghanistan and Sudan.

At 1:54 p.m. on Martha’s Vineyard, Clinton walks into a press center at the Edgartown School and makes a brief statement.

In Washington, Clinton’s foreign policy advisors are exultant--because the operation came off with no news leaks.

The president’s lawyers are focused elsewhere. Lewinsky spent three hours testifying again before the grand jury.

Times staff writers James Gerstenzang in Edgartown, Mass., and Tricia Ford and Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.