INTERVIEW WITH SHERMAN SKOLNICK -- JUNE 30, 1995 I spoke by phone with Sherman Skolnick in the late evening of June 30, 1995. The following is what he said. Note that I neither necessarily agree nor disagree with either all or parts of the following. Persons mentioned in the interview are invited to send their rebuttals, of reasonable length, to bigxc@prairienet.org for probable distribution.
-- Brian Francis Redman, Editor-in-Chief
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CONSPIRACY NATION:
In a recent interview, Debra von Trapp has said that an ex-White
House official who is still with the government has stepped
forward and signed a document for Sherman Skolnick which
"confirms my information". Has von Trapp's information...
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Her information is 200 percent correct. Not only 100 percent
correct. There's a lot more to the spying than she even knows
about.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay. If you've got a minute, I've got the tape recorder going.
I'd appreciate any info you can give me.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well, the other thing is, I've had probably the most horrendous
couple of days of my life.
I'm not a youngster; I'm gonna be 65 soon. And I've been doin' this work since 1958. I've had a lot of things happen of a scary nature that I don't talk about, because it tends to scare some of the newer members of our group that are volunteers. So I don't talk about all the things that have happened to me.
Such as the 10 times I've been put in jail -- not for criminal offenses, but contempt of court, by judges who later ended up in jail for bribery, but meanwhile they used their power to try to stop me.
But what happened over the last week is, we have come into the possession of a secret, federal agency report on the death of [Vince] Foster that is probably one of the most horrendous and important documents that I've ever come across. And I wrote a story about it for a newspaper of a medium-sized circulation. And they were supposed to go to press with it Thursday. But, things have happened.
On Wednesday -- since I'm a disabled person, and I don't like to talk about the fact that I'm disabled because most of the time it's not pertinent to anything, whether I'm an able-bodied or disabled. I'm a paraplegic since I'm 6 years old. I get along with braces and crutches. I can walk on braces and crutches for maybe 50 feet. And beyond that, I use a wheelchair. Most of the day I'm laying down, because I can't be up and around that many hours.
And while I was laying down on Wednesday, a car pulled up on my drive, people got out and attacked my house with rocks. I didn't call the 911 emergency, because I thought, "It's an isolated event, and it may not happen [again]."
While I was away with some friends on Thursday, however -- and that would have been yesterday. While I was away, eating lunch, I came back and my house had been the subject of a terrorist attack of some kind. A large picture window in the front of the house was crashed-in. My front bedroom window was crashed through, through and through. Things outside my house were put upside- down. My mail had been gone through, may have been stolen from my mailbox.
I called the police. I live two blocks away from the 4th District Police in Chicago. And they seriously refused to consider my situation. I yelled on the phone that "I'm a helpless cripple." (I don't like to use the word, because it's a very severe term.) But I said something senseless -- you know what I'm saying?
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And they wouldn't take down my report.
So I called the Police Superintendent of Chicago, Rodriguez is his name.
Now it is true that we did a TV show on him last year, on him being involved in the dope business. So I have criticized the Police Superintendent.
I called his office, and I spoke to his chief assistant. And they refused to do anything for me. He says, "We're overworked, and we haven't got time to defend people like you."
So I screamed on the phone (because I was quite upset. I suddenly felt very defenseless.) I says, "Look. I'm a poor cripple. I hate to say it, sir. But I cannot defend myself. And my parents made me promise not to take to the gun. But if these terrorist attacks on my house continue, the police won't lift a finger to defend me, I have to take this gun and shoot whatever it is that's going to attack me, I must."
Anyway, it took me an hour of arguing on the phone, with various police officials -- "brass", they call 'em -- before anyone would take down my report.
So, my friends are gonna do certain things (that I don't wish to describe here)... They're gonna make my house a fortress.
Now the medium-sized newspaper that was -- they have about 300,000 circulation. And they were supposed to publish, probably, one of the most important stories of my life: the fact that White House aide Vincent Foster, jr. -- according to the report -- was involved in stealing and selling nuclear secrets of the United States, together with a known spy who has since been punished and sent away for a very long time to jail. But during this other person's trial, there was a "Mr. X" mentioned, and never identified. That, apparently, was Foster.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
And this would've been Jonathan Pollard, the other one, right?
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Right.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay. I know that from talkin' with "Mr. Royce" [not his real
name]. "Mr. Royce" called.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Okay. Yeah.
Now. Somebody, apparently... Now when I arranged with this publication to publish the story, I gave them exclusive rights to it, of course. And I wouldn't put it on Internet because it would be reneging on the exclusive arrangement. And they were going to donate a small amount to our organization. I'm not a commercial writer, and I don't write stories just for money. As most people know me, most of my stories don't bring a single penny. And I'm not complaining. We're dedicated to the public interest.
But somebody, apparently, stole the story after it had been set in, what they used to call "set in type". Nowadays, with the type of ways that they set up offset printing, it's not proper to call it "set in type". But let's just call it that. It was set in type. It was supposed to be the front page story.
Somebody stole the story... Somebody may have threatened the publisher. Because there is tremendous national security problems with this story. And apparently involved in this treason was not only the late Foster, who is dead, but a person who is not dead, and that's Hillary Rodham Clinton -- involved in treason of the highest level in the history of the United States: nuclear missile targeting data.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
And this data...
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Was sold to a foreign country.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay. To Israel? Or to some other country?
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
I'm being purposely vague, okay? But it's based on a secret,
government report that came into my possession, from very
reliable people that I've known for over 30 years. And for
reasons that I can't go into, there is every possible reason to
believe that this is a genuine report.
Something happened at the publisher. They were supposed to go to press with it [Skolnick's article]. Those that I dealt with at the publisher said it had gone to press. But it... somethin' happened. It got stopped at the printing plant.
And somebody stole a copy, or the negative, or a fresh copy, and got it on Internet as if I put it there -- which I did not. (Anything that gets put on Internet, as you know, gets put there through your tremendous efforts in the public interest.) And now, it seems to be known all over the United States that there is such a thing.
I don't know whether the terrorist attack on my house was related to this. The police asked me a lot of foolish questions: "Do I have the name and address of the people that did this?" "Do I have a description?" They asked me everything other than if I knew the social security number of those that attacked my residence. Obviously, I don't. I was lying down. I was not near the window. And it takes me about an hour to assemble myself. And by the time I could've even assembled myself, they were gone. (That was the first time they attacked my place. The second time, I was not here.)
So it's rather foolish for the police to ask me such questions.
I believe that... Oh! Then, a policeman who apparently once followed me home from the TV cable station -- I thought it was an accident that he showed up late at night outside my door and began questioning somebody that drove me home. That same person that drove me home ran into this policeman, elsewhere, just within the last 24 hours. And that policeman started saying terrible things about me. So...
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Such as what?
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...I don't know. I'm only stating the circumstances. Did the
police condone this attack on my residence, knowing that I'm a
defenseless person? (I am a paraplegic. I must face those facts.
I don't like to think of it, but it is what it is.) And then when
the police, all the way up to the Superintendent's Office, would
not raise a single finger by way of offering to do anything to
assist me in this situation, I must assume that the police, in
some way -- including the Superintendent, who I have criticized
on a previous cable show as being involved with dope
traffickers... Uh, I don't know whether it's because of the dope
traffic show months ago, or the current story that I described
and got stopped on Thursday, in production, which was supposed to
go, be finished, off the press, early Thursday afternoon. And a
few hours thereafter was this attack upon my residence.
So I don't know if the two events are connected. I'm trying not to jump to conclusions. I'm only stating a few facts on what occurred.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay, so you're getting a lot of heat lately.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well other things are happening, and they're trying to get me to
suppress the story. I did not put it on Internet.
But were the story to be distributed worldwide, on a big basis (which was my original intention), then this other spy that's been sent away for the rest of his life, Jonathan Pollard, they most likely would have to re-open his case and bring Hillary Rodham Clinton to some kind of a trial, or investigation, upon the re-opening of the case, in that it appears, from this secret, government report, that Hillary and the late Foster were involved in treason on the highest level in the history of the United States.
I'm not a Republican, or some opposing political party. I'm independent. And I'm very disturbed that the "King" and "Queen" of this country -- that is, the President, the First Lady -- are involved in some horrendous criminality and that the First Lady, apparently, prior to the time she was in the White House, was involved in some horrendous, apparent treason, with the one that is now dead (which some people felt was murder) -- that is, Vincent Foster, jr.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay. And gettin' back to the Debra von Trapp, where she had said
that you had confirmed her information. But she didn't specify,
or it wasn't specified...
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
All right. That is on a somewhat different subject, but I will go
into it.
Before I go into it, I must admit: my nerves are completely shot. Because of this story I worked on, because of the fact that I have the possession of this secret, government report which comes from an agency the acronym of which, I think, it is unlawful under the National Security Act to even publish the acronym of this other agency which guards the possession of the nuclear secrets.
Now, whether that caused the publisher to back off, and caused these other events, I don't know.
As to Debra von Trapp: we have the statement of the former key official in the White House who confirms, like 200 percent of what Debra von Trapp says about the spying, and says that her story doesn't begin to say how horrendous and across-the-board the spying and such has been, regarding the Clinton White House. Which tends to give credibility to the interview which, apparently, I... I think I was about the first journalist, or free-lance journalist, to interview her, for about 45 minutes. We used 5 minutes of that on our recorded commentary. And then I played the tape of the entire interview to you, for your report. And you ran it in segments, as I understand, on Internet.
But the main thing, the bottom line is, I, as a journalist, because of the verification of her allegations, feel confident of her allegations, feel confident that her story has tremendous credibility and, in most every respect, is correct.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay. And that interview that you did, on May 5th with Debra von
Trapp, that is in that information area that I've been workin'
on, which I sent ya some information on.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Yeah.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Did you see that?
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Considering all the commotion I've been through the last 48
hours, I honestly, without checking a few things, wouldn't know
how to answer the question.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay. But just, what I'm sayin' is that that interview is out
there constantly now. It's not... You know, normally I would just
post an interview...
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Some knowledgeable persons have told me that they have seen the
story about secret government records relating to the nuclear
secret treason, that somehow got on Internet in some category. I
wouldn't know what category. I don't have a computer. And people
that do, claim that there was some category that ran that, and
that it is widely distributed, and widely known that I have the
possession of that tremendously important government record
regarding treason.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah, "Mr. Royce" had asked me to check for that, and I looked...
I told... "I can't search the whole Internet." You know? I looked
around for it. I didn't see it.
It coulda' got yanked, ya know?
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
I don't know the answer. People in a position to know claim that
my story, about Foster and Pollard, somehow got on the Internet.
I didn't cause it in any way to be there.
I did talk to some people in the editor's office of this publication. And from the gist of the conversation with them, it appeared to me that maybe the government or somebody was standing them on their very head.
I would say this, also: that the other story I did, which was pretty controversial, about the runaway grand jury, that others are confirming the same thing -- such as Christopher Ruddy, of the Philadelphia Tribune-Review, I believe.
I was on a radio show, right following him, on one of the largest stations in California -- a major station in Glendale, California -- and I heard the interview with him, because they had me piped into the station, right behind him, so to speak. And I heard him say that he had been invited before the DC Whitewater grand jury, and that he told them exactly how runaway grand juries should act. And apparently, that's how they're acting.
Apparently, there was a joint project with different journalists which then became the June 20th front-page article in Investors Business Daily about how the mainstream press is dragging their feet in the strange death of [Vince] Foster.
But in respect to the runaway grand jury thing, I found out that one of the problems was national security. Foster was the equivalent of a military general in the National Security Agency [NSA], before he got to the White House, and while he was in the White House. And, that the British counterpart of the NSA -- I forget what their acronym is, right offhand -- but they apparently invoked the British Official Secrets Act, and have stopped two of the largest papers in the world from printing stories, that they have apparently confirmed from their own sources, that a so-called "runaway" federal grand jury in the Whitewater affair, in the District of Columbia, has indicted, is considering to indict, or is about to indict, the following persons for high crimes: William Jefferson Clinton, who is the President; Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is the First Lady; Janet Reno, who is the U.S. Attorney General; and William Freeh, who is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They are charged with obstruction of justice and suborning perjury, that is, arranging perjury to be done by witnesses as to the circumstances under which Foster was found dead, where his body was found, and whether he was or was not murdered.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay. You know, as far as your gettin' a little bit of, or a lot
of heat: I'm gettin' some heat. I got Chip Berlet now, makin'
noises like he's gonna sue me.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
CONSPIRACY NATION:
I want to thank you for giving me Debra von Trapp's phone number,
'cuz I was able to call her and interview her. You saw her on the
recent Dateline program...
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
That program was not fair! It showed her, sitting on a park
bench, [and it] didn't allow her to say very much. And sitting on
a park bench is not news. I can't understand how, all the money
they spent, ended up not allowing her to say much.
They called me (Dateline NBC), their, one of their chief people, Benno Schmidt. And I told them, the one that invented that super-duper type of bomb, that Ted Gunderson says was used on the Oklahoma building, was Michael Riconosciuto. And I spent four-and-a-half months as a voluntary paralegal, interviewing him, as he was awaiting to testify before the Inslaw grand jury in Chicago, in '92.
So I know a lot about that type of bomb, because some of the details got into the civil record in the federal court in Chicago. And that was in '92, and that was three years before this tragedy in Oklahoma City. So I have a working knowledge of that. It's not an explosive, it's a sub-nuclear device. It's not exactly a dynamite bomb. It's an EHT -- Electrostatic Heat Transfer weapon. Sub-nuclear. It's just below a nuclear bomb.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
In talkin' with Debra, she taped her interview with Dateline.
Apparently the interview ran, actually, as long as two hours or
so.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Right. And she is offering a -- if somebody reimburses her -- to
supply an audio copy of the tape of her interview with NBC
Dateline, which they only used a few seconds of. And the whole
thing shows that they suppressed a great deal. [CN -- For more
info on how to get a copy of the audio tape, send e-mail message
to bigxc@prairienet.org]
Now they showed Riconosciuto in the jail. And I told them how they might interview him, there in Estill, South Carolina. They showed him walking with a cane, as if he's infirm. (I don't know if he is or not. He might have slipped on a bar of soap in the jail shower.) But they went to a great expense to get to the jail, get permission from the warden, and video him. And on their 14-minute segment about this thing, about the citizens' militia and the bombing in Oklahoma, they didn't play a single word that may have come out of Michael Riconosciuto's mouth! That's very poor journalism, as far as I'm concerned.
But the point is... In other words, Debra von Trapp has got proof that NBC is a pack of liars.
We now have the written statement of an important former official in the White House, showing that she is very credible and that her story is believed to be 200 percent correct by those that were direct eyewitnesses to certain spying, by the Japanese and other governments, on the Clinton White House.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
All right, she's correct as far as the spying. But what do they
say about the bombing? That it was contracted...
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well it was part of an overall thing that they believe is also
correct. It's not a separate group of things, it's a group of
inter-related situations. And the whole thing, apparently, is
quite correct. In other words, there's strong reason to believe
that her allegations, which seemed very extreme when they first
came out, are, upon careful consideration, and interviewing
important witnesses that are in a position to know, that her
allegations appear to be quite correct.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay. Have you heard that the State of Oklahoma, that they're
gonna be pushing through a bill calling for an independent
investigation by the State of Oklahoma? That, apparently, a lot
of people are dissatisfied with the federal investigation?
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
I... I don't know anything about it, but I encourage such an
independent thing.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay, this was on... I was listening to Radio Free America
[5.065 MHz, mon-fri, 9 pm cst] tonight, and they had, David Hall
was on it. And, according to him, they're gonna be pushing
through legislation for a state investigation into it -- which I
think is great. You know, when they were sendin' all these
"teddy bears" down there, right after the bombing, I was thinkin'
"Why don't they, instead of buyin' 'teddy bears', buy a private
investigator?"
You know, there's so much with that bombing, so many discrepancies. And it's really sickening to turn on the "news" at 5:30 pm and see them reporting on the O.J. Simpson trial.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Look. The point is that this secret report shows that there was
nuclear treason at the highest level, and one of them that was
involved is still around and not dead -- that's Hillary.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
So, you know, you're pretty much of an expert on Whitewater. How
do you see things unfolding in the coming days and weeks?
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well, one White House reporter, I believe, has already sent out a
bulletin to the radio stations that she's a correspondent for,
and has made the statement that Democrats have told Clinton he
must resign by July 29th -- which would be about two weeks after
D'Amato, the Senator, starts with his Whitewater investigation
and whatever he's investigating is, involves Hillary and Bill
Clinton.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
So you had told me before that a source had confirmed to you that
Clinton will resign by July 29th.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
No. No. That's not quite correct. He is being asked,
demanded, by the Democrats, who are threatening that they may
themselves start an impeachment proceeding against Clinton for
what they perceive as criminal offenses. Because if Clinton stays
in office, we will end up as a one-party system, with the
complete destruction of the Democrat Party.
However. Those that are, Washington correspondents have told me that they have inquired into this, and that Clinton let it be known (but not at a press conference) that, even if Hillary gets indicted, he absolutely will not resign. {1}.
---------------------------<< Notes >>--------------------------- {1} The idea was floated, by part-time CBS Sunday Evening News commentator Joel Klein (July 2, 1995 broadcast) that the U.S. is going to have to send in troops to Bosnia in order to help our allies withdraw from Bosnia. Here we go again! How do you withdraw troops? Answer: by sending in more troops, this time U.S. forces. How convenient for a certain pot-smoking, cocaine- snorting, womanizing commander-in-chief that this should occur just as Whitewater and Waco investigations are heating up. Just so long as those Serbs aren't shooting at you, right Billy Boy?
Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"