Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 6  Num. 39
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")

`60 MINUTES' REPORT ON THE DEATH OF VINCE FOSTER (House of Representatives - October 26, 1995)

[Page: H11373]

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 15 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I have been watching the television show on CBS, `60 Minutes,' for a long, long time, and I have always respected that program because it was very informative, and I always thought it was factual. And then, just after the last presidential election, I think Mr. Hewlett, the producer of `60 Minutes,' said in a national interview that had he exposed all of the information that was available to him at `60 Minutes' during the campaign, that the then candidate for President, who was later elected, would be walking around in the snows of New Hampshire. So it became apparent to me that the `60 Minutes' producers and the people who ran that show had a very strong bias, and that bias was reflected in much of their reporting.

This became apparent to me again about 2 weeks ago on a Saturday night, when I watched Mike Wallace start doing a 20 minute segment on the death of Vince Foster. I have never seen so much misinformation and so much bias in reporting as I saw during that 20 minute segment.

Let me just tell you some of the things that happened, some of the things that `60 Minutes' ignored. Mike Wallace said that every government body that has investigated the death of Vince Foster reached the same conclusion, than he killed himself at Fort Marcy Park.

He did not mention that the independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, has reopened the investigation. Mr. Starr's attorney spent this summer questioning witnesses before a grand jury. The FBI is back in Fort Marcy Park, or was a couple of weeks ago, more than 2 years after Vince Foster's death, looking for the bullet that killed him. Would the independent counsel go through all of this work were there not unanswered questions about the case?

So I believe that Mr. Wallace was incorrect when he said that the conclusion has been reached by every government agency. In addition, many of us in Congress have come to different conclusions as well.

Another thing that he forgot to mention was that the police were not the first people to encounter Foster's body. He mentioned a national park policeman who found the body. The fact of the matter is that the park policeman did not find the body. The body was found by a man called C.W., the confidential witness, who was the first person on the scene.

I have a sworn statement, where I went out to his home with a court reporter and two other Congressmen, from the confidential witness. The FBI questioned him extensively and considers him honest and credible.

`60 Minutes' never talked about him or even mentioned on that program that there was a confidential witness that found the body. `60 Minutes' never read his statement.

The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Clinger], who is the chairman of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight in the House, told `60 Minutes' that he knows more about this subject than any Member of Congress, and, although I have high regard for Representative Clinger, he never interviewed the confidential witness, although he had an opportunity to do so, and he never read his sworn deposition, which was verified.

Mike Wallace went into great detail during this interview about how the gun was found in Foster's
right hand. He said critics of the investigation incorrectly stated that Foster was left-handed. Well, that misses the point entirely. When the confidential witness discovered the body, he looked very carefully. He was within 18 inches of Mr. Foster's face. He looked very carefully and saw no gun in either hand. He was very clear in his statement, in the sworn statement before me and the FBI, that when he found Foster, both hands were palm up with the thumbs pointed out away from the body. When the police arrived on the scene, they found his right hand palm down with the thumb pointed in, the gun on the trigger finger, and the gun was partially obscured by his hand and his leg.

I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."