Congressman admits affair with missing intern

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JULY 8. Washington is in the midst of a media buzz over the Federal Agency intern, Ms. Chandra Levy, who has been missing since April 30. What would have gone as a routine missing persons report took on a high profile because of Ms Levy's connections with the Democratic Congressman, Mr. Gary Condit of California.

After insisting over the last eight weeks that his relationship with Ms Levy was nothing more than a friendship, Mr. Condit during his third interview with the District Police and Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has admitted to a romantic relationship.

What is important in the Levy case is that Mr. Condit is not being considered as a suspect. For want of any criminal leads, the police is still classifying the case as one of missing person. The authorities have gone to great lengths to get to the bottom of this baffling incident. For instance, cadaver sniffing dogs have been used to track down landfills. On April 30, Ms Levy walked out of her apartment leaving everything intact and authorities have found no evidence of any foul play or struggle.

Ms. Levy's disappearence was first noticed when she failed to show up for graduation in California after finishing her internship in Washington D.C. She had her internship at a Federal Agency, the Bureau of Prisons.

There has been a lot of criticism here about the manner in which the media is going about the Levy case - with a lot of focus on the personal life of the Democratic Congressman.

The authorities have constantly made the point that Mr. Condit has been very cooperative and has not been a suspect. But what has lent to the script and the ``drama'' element to the whole thing is Mr. Condit's lifestyle that supposedly involved a brief fling with an airline stewardess.

Meanwhile, the other intern in the news, Ms Monica Lewinsky, who nearly brought the Clinton Presidency down, has got back in her possession her ``blue dress''. The office of Independent Counsel has confirmed that the semen-stained dress has been returned to Ms Lewinsky along with a ``variety of things''.

The stain on this blue dress was a critical piece of evidence linking the former intern and the then President, Mr. Bill Clinton. The Independent Counsel at the time, Mr. Kenneth Starr, conducted DNA tests to determine the source of the stains.

As the Independent Counsel's office is preparing to shut down its operations, a lot of items are being returned to persons who were in the forefront of the more than two years of investigations. During an interview in 1999, Ms. Lewinsky had maintained that the blue dress was a humiliation and if she ever got it back she would burn it.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Changes likely to Kyoto pact
Next     : Task cut out for Bangladesh interim govt.