("Quid coniuratio est?")
INTERVIEW WITH SHERMAN SKOLNICK -- JULY 4, 1995 I spoke by phone with Sherman Skolnick on the morning of July 4, 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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SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
All right, this is being taped at a little after 10 o'clock
Chicago time, on the morning of July 4th -- a holiday, usually --
'95.
I got a call this morning from Israeli Radio. They informed me that a story about "Conspiracy Nation" and me is on the front page, today, of the Washington Post, regarding the possibility that Israel was blackmailing [Vince] Foster, which led to his death. {1}. The reporter for Israeli Radio (I guess that's their national radio)... [Other phone rings] Hold on a second, the other phone's ringin'. [...pause...]
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay, you got a call from somebody from Israel or somethin'?
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Israeli Radio. A Mr. Aryeh Golan. (I gather that that's their
national radio network.)
He says, "Do you realize, Mr. Skolnick, that what you contend is gonna cause the top officials of Mossad to be murdered?"
And I says, "Well, let me explain the details." (And I'm gonna explain 'em here.)
On, prior to Monday, June 26th, '95, I came into possession of a secret report, purportedly from an agency so secret, few people even know they exist: DISC -- Defense Industrial Security Command and their subsidiaries. They guard plutonium plants, and they see to it that the nuclear secrets are not taken. And they're prepared to be very severe with anyone that interferes with them. They feel, sometime, if necessary, if you bother them, to kill you and plant your dead body by the gates of their plutonium plant and claim that you were climbing over the fence. (Although in my case, if they tried anything against me, it wouldn't wash. Because I'm disabled. I don't do any fence climbing.)
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Hah! Yeah.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
But anyway. I told this to Mr. Golan, who's with Israel Radio. I
told him that I abstracted the report (which is some 50 pages),
that a watered-down version, with some similarity to this report,
was put together by James R. Norman of Forbes magazine.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay. You know, I found something related to that, that I put in
the mail to you, yesterday.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
By Mr. Grabbe. I have the 3 parts.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Mr. Grabbe, a journalist of some sort (to divert myself for a
moment), contends that Jim Norman's story was squelched because
the publisher emeritus (in other words, the sort of semi-retired
[unclear] but still there) is Caspar Weinberger, who's involved
with the Pollard case and therefore has got a conflict of
interest.
But anyway, Norman's story, which he couldn't get published, called "Fostergate" (I have a copy, too)... But that's a very, a much watered-down version of the secret, government report that I have.
Now I typed up the story, and faxed it, to a secure fax number for Spotlight. And I was told to submit it to the attention of Willis Carto, the owner, and Tom Valentine, who runs a subsidiary of theirs called "Radio Free America".
And on Wednesday, the 28th, I received a message on my answering machine. Valentine says, "We're gonna run it. Everything is fine." On Thursday, when they were supposed to go to press, in the afternoon, is when my house was terrorized. And the Superintendent of Police told his assistant to tell me that they don't have the time or manpower to protect me.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay, that was from our interview of June 30th.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Yeah.
Today, the Michigan Militia wants to protect my house. But I'm one of the few white men in a mostly all-black neighborhood. And although they're not supposed to be bigots, some may look at it that way and it may cause me more trouble than they think, to have the Michigan Militia to surround my house.
All right. Now. Then, on Saturday morning, I was on a conference call with Willis Carto, who lives in San Diego, and Tom Valentine, who lives in Florida. And they told me that everything is fine. The next weekly edition of Spotlight will run the story, because they have obtained independent confirmation, from those that know about such things, that evidently the one that wrote the story has the secret report, knows what he's talkin' about, and that the information is, fits other known facts and is independently confirmed.
Then I, yesterday, I found out that another, smaller magazine, evidently -- Media Bypass, owned by Treetop Communications of Evansville, Indiana -- was going to press with a monthly edition magazine that has a story by me about the runaway grand jury, and that they evidently obtained a copy of Jim Norman's (editor of Forbes), his story, "Fostergate", which Forbes would not run.
And, I was told at midnight last night, and repeated again to me this morning from one of those who is an important personage with that communications company, that an apparent, national security injunction is being used to stop Media Bypass (that's their magazine) from going to press. In other words, they're gonna try to stop it at the printing house.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Okay, and they're trying to stop the story about the runaway
grand jury, or some other story?
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
No. I think that... Spotlight, in their last edition, already
had a centerfold: two entire pages of my story about the runaway
grand jury. So that's already been published. I think the
story...
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Are you sure!? 'Cuz I don't remember seein' that.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well it didn't come out yet! It's published on Thursday, and it
doesn't come out, it doesn't arrive in the mail until the
following Thursday, to subscribers.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Oh. Okay.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
All right. So most people get it on July 6th.
But the story that Media Bypass has inserted into the magazine at the last minute, which is Jim Norman's suppressed story, "Fostergate", is what they jammed into the magazine, to be printed. And they are, reportedly -- I talked to the "horse's mouth", so if the "horse's mouth" is wrong, I'm... I have no direct, personal knowledge.
But somebody very much with that magazine and the communications company (Treetop Communications, their parent company) says, just told me, a few minutes ago, that an injunction is in the works, that they may try to get the thing printed before the injunction grabs them, er... stops their printing house, their printer, in other words, from going with it. And they believe it to be a national security injunction.
CONSPIRACY NATION:
And that would be Media Bypass that they're tryin' to stop, to
get from printin' the story.
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And their parent company, Treetop Communications.
All right, now. Getting back to what happened with me. I called Tom Valentine Monday night, July 3rd. And he says, "We are not gonna publish it. The report might be a 'ringer'."
I says, "Well, it's kind of odd. I thought it was already confirmed." That is, that my story abstracted the report and is correct.
Then, I'm told that Spotlight is in bad financial trouble and needs an infusion of a million dollars. Now the way I interpret that is -- this is my interpretation, now, of the conversation! It may not be what somebody else interprets. But my interpretation is, that if they don't publish the story, they'll get the $1 million transfusion.
Now getting back to... That's Spotlight.
Now getting back to Media Bypass: one of their distinguished journalists were in the Evansville office, Friday. Some of their top people spoke to me on Friday, on several occasions, and said, whether they could get the story of the secret report linking Foster to Pollard. And I said, "I'm committed to Spotlight."
I then found out, over the weekend -- well, I found out yesterday -- that a military officer, a colonel, showed up in Evansville at the offices of Media Bypass, that he reportedly came from Little Rock. And according to a distinguished journalist that was in the office, either working or visiting (Karen Bixman, I believe her name is), she alleges that the colonel opened a suitcase -- it had $100,000 cash -- and began counting it. And he wants to buy stock, preferred stock, in Treetop Communications and that it apparently is part of possibly several million dollars that they want to buy in stock.
[...to be continued...]
---------------------------<< Notes >>--------------------------- {1} I have independently corroborated that such a story, mentioning Mr. Skolnick and Conspiracy Nation, did indeed appear in the July 4, 1995 Washington Post. I have been unable to obtain a copy, locally. If some kind reader could xerox a copy of the article and send it to me, it would be much appreciated.
I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"