USA: MONICA LEWINSKY AUDIO TAPES RELEASED

(17 Nov 1998) English/Nat

We've seen her on T-V, in the papers and magazines for months -- and now we are getting to hear Monica Lewinsky's voice for the first time.

The House Judiciary Committee of the U-S Congress has released the audio tapes of the phone conversations Linda Tripp secretly recorded with the former White House intern.

During their conversations, Lewinsky comes through sometimes as earnest and matter-of-fact.

Other times, she sounds coy as she talks about her relationship with the man she calls "The Creep" - U-S President Bill Clinton.

When the 37 tapes recording 22 hours of phone conversations were released, it quickly turned into a battle between journalists.

U-S networks rushed to put on excerpts of her taped conversations with Linda Tripp.

Americans now are hearing the voice of a sometimes emotional Lewinsky, confiding in and being consoled by Linda Tripp.

In one tape, Lewinsky sobs uncontrollably about the outcome of her relationship with President Clinton, as Tripp lends a friendly ear.

The transcripts of those conversations were released to the public earlier.

In some, Lewinsky reads letters she has penned to the president.

UPSOUND: (English)
(Lewinsky) "Handsome you have been distance the past few months and shut me out. I don't know why. Is it that you don't like me anymore or are you scared? Please let me come see you this evening or Thursday night. I want to hear it, I want to hear it from you, no one else."
SUPER CAPTION: Monica Lewinsky

For many, it was the first chance to hear what Lewinsky sounds like.

But it likely won't be the last.

American network A-B-C News has announced that Ms. Lewinsky has agreed to a television interview with Barbara Walters.

And she has signed a book deal with British biographer Andrew Morton, the man who told the world about the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

But on Tuesday, the secretly recorded phone conversations filled the U-S airwaves.

UPSOUND: (English)
(Lewinsky) "Linda, if I ever want to have an affair with a married man again - especially if he's President - please shoot me."
(Tripp) "I promise you, if you get out of this one alive and unharmed, and sane and healthy..."
SUPER CAPTION: Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp

It was the Tripp tapes that launched independent counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation into President Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky back in January.

The tapes include sometimes damning evidence that Lewinsky may have pressured the president to use his authority to get her a job -- or face her going public about the affair.

UPSOUND: (English)
(Lewinsky) "But you know, maybe I'm being an idiot, but I don't want to have to work for this position."
(Tripp) "Say that again."
(Lewinsky) "I want it to be given to me.
(Tripp) "Right, you don't want to go through the whole interview process and the whole, you want to know that you have a position."
(Lewinsky) "Right."
(Tripp) "Alright then maybe you want to say secure."
(Lewinsky) "I'd like you to secure me a position."
SUPER CAPTION: Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp

Perhaps the only U-S residence apparently not listening to the tapes is the White House.

Spokesman Joe Lockhart claims the reaction to the first airing of the secretly recorded tapes is "somewhere between none and indifference."

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