The most politically sensitive independent counsel request concerned “Iraqgate”—a 1992 investigation into whether Bush administration officials played an improper role in a criminal scheme involving an Italian bank, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro. Investigators said that US government–backed agricultural loans to Saddam Hussein were illicitly used for weapons purchases. Barr rejected calls to appoint an independent counsel, drawing the ire of William Safire, a conservative columnist at the New York Times, who mockingly referring to him as “Coverup-General Barr.”
