Vince: We Hardly Knew Ye
Part 14
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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The following is an excerpt from the July-A, 1994 AIM [Accuracy In Media] REPORT:
FISKE SHOWS HIS HAND
Robert B. Fiske, Jr., the New York lawyer recommended by White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum and named by Janet Reno as Independent Counsel to investigate Whitewater-related allegations, has now demonstrated what many have suspected. He cannot be trusted to carry out an honest, exhaustive probe of the Whitewater-related allegations swirling around Bill Clinton.
Attorney General Reno long resisted using her authority to appoint an Independent Counsel, saying that anyone she appointed would be suspected of a pro-administration bias. Fiske, a liberal New York Republican, was chosen ostensibly to deflect that criticism. In the media he was described as a man of unimpeachable integrity who could be counted on to do a thorough job. However, not everyone accepted that. Fiske was a friend of then-White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, one of the Clinton aides he was going to have to investigate. He had been counsel for International Paper Corporation, a company that had big interests in Arkansas and which had sold land to Clinton's Whitewater Development Corporation. He came from the same law firm as Lawrence Walsh, the Independent Counsel who pursued Reagan officials involved in Iran-Contra as Captain Ahab pursued Moby Dick.
New York Times columnist William Safire was one who expressed his doubts about Fiske's integrity in blunt terms in his March 14 column. He wrote: "Non-independent counsel Robert Fiske, the Democrats favorite Republican lawyer, is doing the job the Clinton Administration hired him to do: keep the Congress from holding public hearings into the 80s wrongdoing in Arkansas and 90s coverup in Washington....Fiske was chosen by the people he is investigating for good reason: he would actively help prevent dreaded hearings."
Fiske has done that and more. He has not only blocked hearings, but he has also sealed off access to documents that would have been useful, if not indispensable, to any investigation undertaken by the media. Just after Fiske was appointed by Attorney General Reno, a man who knows Fiske well was asked how Fiske would handle the assignment. He replied, "Fiske will do whatever he thinks is in the best interests of Robert Fiske. If he decides it is in his best interest to bury Whitewater, he will bury it. If he decides it is in his best interest to nail Clinton to the wall, thats what he will do."
Fiske's Report of the Independent Counsel In Re Vincent W. Foster, Jr. "makes it clear that Fiske has decided that it is in his best interests to bury Whitewater. On July 1, The New York Times said the report "essentially embraced what has been the White House version of the circumstances surrounding the death last July of Vincent W. Foster Jr., the deputy White House counsel." Fiske said there was no evidence that Foster's death was anything other than a suicide or that his body had been moved. It denied that his suicide had anything to do with Whitewater, attributing it to depression exacerbated by three Wall Street Journal editorials not related to Whitewater.
Reed Irvine, the Chairman of Accuracy in Media, writes: "THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AIM REPORT I HAVE EVER WRITTEN." This Aim Report takes issue with a number of the conclusions reached by Fiske in the report and throws doubt onto his entire investigation. Too many unanswered questions remain about Vince Fosters death for Fiske's report to be accepted at face value.
If you are interested in a full copy of the report, send a request to rhill@millkern.com. [May not still be available]
Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"