Vince: We Hardly Knew Ye
Part 13
Being a recap of the death, and various ongoing investigations into same, of White House aide Vincent Foster, jr.
(With apologies to his family, who prefer to "let sleeping Fosters lie.")
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With the U.S. about to invade Bosnia in order to promote peace ("War is peace"); with things getting a little hot in Washington (and not just the weather) for that big, lovable clown from Arkansas; with investigations heating up; with the "special people" beginning to panic -- how convenient for the comfortable classes that the situation in Bosnia should heat up just about now.
So that the commissar class doesn't get too comfortable, I thought I'd offer a bit of a history lesson on the death, as well as the on-and-off investigations into same, of Vincent Foster, jr.
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"INDEPENDENT" COUNSEL FISKE (FIX?) REPORTS ON FOSTER DEATH
Former FBI agent and Watergate personage G. Gordon Liddy has a talk show called "Radio Free D.C." Due to his contact with someone claiming to be the first to have found the corpse of White House aide Vincent Foster, Liddy has a marked interest in trying to uncover all details relating to Foster's mysterious death.
On Thursday, June 30, 1994, "independent" investigator into Clinton sliminess, Robert Fiske (possibly in conjunction with the FBI), released a report giving his conclusions as to circumstances surrounding Foster's death. Fiske and the FBI, either separately or together, concluded that Foster did commit suicide in Fort Marcy park, where his body was found. (It is not clear to me whether Fiske worked with the FBI on the report or whether each arrived at the same conclusion separately.)
Due to his past association with the FBI, Liddy immediately received a copy or copies of the report(s) when they first were made public on June 30th. However he refrained from commenting on the report until he had had time to read through it.
On his July 1, 1994 radio show, Liddy gave the following review of the report. (Note that in what follows, it is sometimes hard to distinguish between when Liddy is reading from the report and when he is interjecting his own comments.)
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LIDDY: ...with respect to the independent counsel's conclusion that Foster killed himself at Fort Marcy park.
The evidence that supports this conclusion is that the blood in Foster's body remained pooled in his legs and body cavity; there was very little of it having departed from the small entry wound in his mouth and the large exit wound in the back of his head.
Foster's body lay on a rampart, at a 45-degree angle, with his head and the wound significantly above the pooled blood.
The independent counsel determined that it would be very unlikely for the body to be moved while maintaining that upright positioning.
And of course that, that's talking about, you know, moving it there. I'm, what I'm concerned about is, was, did he die elsewhere and was moved to there.
He [Fiske] says when the Park Police did eventually move the body, massive bleeding did ensue.
And the only soil found on Foster's clothing matched that of Fort Marcy park. If he'd killed himself somewhere else, and his body was moved by friends, there would likely to be large quantities of soil or carpet fibers from the other location and his clothes would have been disrupted, twisted. And none of this was found.
Well, the report may very well be correct. But the failure to locate the bullet after a massive search is not satisfactorily explained. Nor is the failure to find any skull fragments. None were found there, ladies and gentlemen. And there was a tremendous exit wound. And they found, I think, 12 other bullets. But they didn't find the one that killed Foster! You know, one wonders how many other people died there and they weren't supposed to. I'm not convinced, necessarily, that Foster died there.
And the skull fragments: they didn't find any.
All right. The FBI report also states that the travel office fiasco played a heavy role in Foster's decision to commit suicide. (Now mind you, I'm not saying that he didn't commit suicide. I am questioning whether or not he died there.) Foster was concerned that the White House travel office firings would be closely investigated and he was depressed because he felt such an investigation was unwarranted. (This is all, what I'm reading you now, is from the report.) Foster felt that he should resign. But his reputation would be destroyed if he admitted the fiasco was his responsibility and be unable to show his face back in Little Rock.
Foster consulted an attorney as to [unclear] his own exposure concerning "Travelgate" and feared that his efforts at protecting himself would conflict with his duties to serve the interests of the President.
According to the report, Vincent Foster was a quiet and reserved man who never raised his voice. Yet he raised his voice to then- White House counsel Nussbaum when it was decided that Kennedy would be the highest White House official reprimanded in the wake of the travel office firings.
Foster, according to the FBI report, wanted to take the blame for himself. This is consistent with reports that Foster was a man of loyalty who worked very hard to build and maintain his reputation. It's likely that tremendous stress was placed on him when the travel office staff was fired and their names were smeared by White House statements that the FBI was investigating them internally. Once it became public that the FBI was investigating nothing, until they were called by the same White House employees who made the slanderous statements, Foster speculated that there would be Congressional investigation. (And of course, there should have been.) Foster was, most likely, unwilling to obstruct that investigation by hiding the plans to put President Clinton's cousin in charge of the travel. Foster knew of the connections between her travel agency experience in Little Rock, and [Dan] Lasater.
(Lasater is the fellow who is the convicted cocaine dealer. And a high official in Lasater's organization is now a high official on the White House staff [Patsy Thomasson(?)].)
The plan to assist Hollywood "Friend Of Bill" Thomasson generate massive profits for his charter airline, Ultra Air, in return for the large campaign contribution [a.k.a. bribe] was something that Foster knew. And Foster knew that the real way to get in trouble in Washington is to participate in a cover-up. He retained a lawyer. He knew that appropriate actions to protect himself would be in conflict with his actions to protect the President and Hillary. And he wanted to resign, but he felt trapped. Because to resign in the wake of the fiasco would have damaged his reputation in Little Rock. But he was not going to remain in the White House and participate in the cover-up. If the Clinton White House was going to play the cover-up game, they were gonna do it without Vince Foster.
So he "ate" his gun.
All right. Now. There is some more here. In an attempt to deal with his depression, according to... this is according to the FBI report, Foster wrote down "everything that was disturbing him," mentioning that he'd made mistakes relating to "Travelgate" because of ignorance and overwork. And he wrote that he did not knowingly violate any law. He felt that members of the White House press corps improperly benefited from wrongdoing at the travel office, but covered the story in a limited fashion so as to prevent exposure of their own complicity and benefit from wrongful action.
Well the FBI was unable to determine Foster's whereabouts between 1 pm, when he left the White House, and the time he arrived at Fort Marcy and where and when he got the gun. It was not in the White House and it is doubtful that he had previously put it in his car. Was his car in the White House parking lot? There were rumors that it was not. If not, perhaps the gun was in the car and he purposely left it outside the White House gate. That's just speculation.
Foster's clothes were neat; there was no sign of a struggle.
Uh, insufficient evidence available to estimate the time of death!? That's rather remarkable, isn't it? I mean, you know, that the, uh, estimating the time of death is something that is routinely done in autopsies. I don't really understand that.
Now. The .38 caliber Colt revolver had one empty shell casing in it and one complete cartridge. The gun had two serial numbers; that indicates it was a composite. Both of the originals were sold in 1913. There's no additional information. Foster's sister thought it was her fathers. There's no additional .38 caliber ammunition that was found in the Foster home or the automobile. You know, there's just 2 cartridges, one of which was expended.
The bullet which exited the back of Foster's skull was never found! Now look: nobody buys two Remington cartridges! Where are the rest of the .38 cartridges?! They most likely are in the same place that Foster was between 1 pm and 4 pm. And where was that? Somebody in this town knows. Maybe the person whose hair was found on Foster's clothes.
Well the report goes on to say that the confidential witness reported seeing wine cooler bottles, a 4-pack. The report states that there were empty beer bottles left by Foster's sons from a recent trip to the beach. Oh? No alcohol is found in the body, but trace amounts of [unclear] and valium, missed by the county but found by the FBI lab. (Well that's to be expected. The FBI lab is the best in the world.)
No X-rays were taken at the autopsy... the machine was broken!! <groans>
Listen to this: In addition to numerous gunpowder particles found on and around Foster which match that from the Remington cartridges found in the gun, there were small amounts of gunpowder residue which did not come from Foster's gun. And the report can't determine the origin of that foreign gunpowder. But is speculates that the clothes removed from Foster's body were contaminated in an evidence room at the Park Police station where the clothes were left in the open for 4 days in a room with a fan. You see now? Uh, why the FBI should have been the investigating agency here, ladies and gentlemen, and not the "meter maids"?
Valium was found... of course the White House did not want the FBI investigating this death. No way. Valium was found in Foster's home. But his wife was not aware that he was taking it.
There was no blood found on the gun?? That's interesting.
Blood stains inconsistent with the position of the body as discovered. (And at the very least, Foster's head was moved.) That you'll find in page 45.
One fingerprint was found on the gun. It was not that of Vincent Foster.
Hair, other than Foster's, was found on the body. Fibers from a carpet were found on the body. Perhaps a lover. Or a killer. Perhaps the body was taken from a carpet. Perhaps the clothing was placed on a carpet prior to killing... even days before. We don't know.
An extensive search was conducted for the bullet. Metal detectors were used. 12 bullets were found. All were modern and none matched Foster's gun.
No bone fragments were found. I don't know, the FBI reports that Foster killed himself where he was found, basing their conclusion on the little blood found on the body. When a body's moved there's considerable bleeding and staining as well as massive contamination of the clothing.
Soil different. Now that's assuming that, you know, that he died on different soil and not on a carpet someplace.
I don't know, ladies and gentlemen. There's a lot of questions that I still would like to see resolved about where Vincent Foster met his death.
Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"