From the Radio Free Michigan archives ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu. ------------------------------------------------ WHEN DID WHITE HOUSE LEARN OF AIDE'S DEATH? SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 9 APRIL 1995 By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard WHEN did the Clinton administration first learn about the death of Vincent Foster, the deputy White House counsel and intimate friend of the First Family? Was it at 8.30pm on July 20, 1993, as the official version claims? Or was it really at about 7pm, an hour-and-a-half earlier? It is not an academic question. If the exact time of notification was falsified, there must have been some purpose behind it. So far it is not clear what that might have been or who was involved. Inquiries by the *Sunday Telegraph* have established, however, that an Arkansas State Trooper, Roger Perry, has signed an affidavit stating that he learned of the death suspiciously early, definitely before 7pm local time. (Arkansas is an hour behind Washington.) In an interview he estimated the call at 5.15pm - or 6.15pm in Washington DC, very shortly after the Park Police first discovered the body. He claims that he was on duty that afternoon at the Governor's Mansion in Little Rock when a junior White House aide, Ms Helen Dickey, called to tell the Governor and his wife what had happened. "She was kind of hysterical, crying, real upset," said Perry. "She told me that `Vince got off work, went out to his car in the parking lot, and shot himself in the head'." The wording is significant. It is very similar to the Secret Service memorandum on the night of the death which reported that the "US Park Police discovered the body of Vincent Foster in his car." The memorandum was wrong, of course. Or was it? When rescue workers and Park Police found the body after a telephone tip off at 6.03pm, Foster's corpse was deep inside a Virginia park. But the body-in-the-car version was the first one circulating in the White House that night. After receiving the call, Perry telephoned several other people in Little Rock to relay the news. One of the them was Arkansas State Trooper Larry Patterson. A second was Lynn Davis, a former US marshal and former commander of the Arkansas State Police. Both Patterson and Davis have issued affidavits - which carry a penalty of perjury - swearing that they were told of Foster's death before 6pm local time. This would be a full hour-and-a-half before the Secret Service says it was notified by the US Park Police. Dickey, a former nanny to Chelsea Clinton, is a member of the tight-knit `Arkansas group'. She refused to answer queries about the alleged call to the Governor's Mansion. "It's going to have to go through the press office," she said. The White House press office, however, did not return repeated calls. A Freedom of Information Act request for the telephone logs from the White House social office, where Dickey worked in 1993, was made on behalf of the *Sunday Telegraph* last year, but it was rejected without explanation. It is possible that Perry, Patterson, and Davis are confused about the time, though they all seem certain that it was during the Little Rock rush-hour. But there is another reason to doubt the official version of events. People on the scene that night dispute a key element of the story put out by the Park Police. The shift commander on duty, Lt Pat Gavin, told the FBI that he notified the Secret Service within five to ten minutes of finding out that Foster was a senior White House official. This would suggest he discovered the fact at about 8.20pm - that is, shortly before the 8.30pm call to the Secret Service. But there is no doubt that the Park Police found Foster's White House ID on the front seat of his Honda Accord much earlier, probably before 6.45pm. The first medical examiner to see the body, Dr Donald Haut, told the *Sunday Telegraph* that everybody knew Foster was a White House official by the time he arrived on the scene at 7.30pm. "They all knew right away," he said. A Fairfax County rescue worker, who left the park at 6.45pm, said: "We all knew that it was a White House official when we left." He is under a strict gag order, and asked not to be identified. How does the Park Police explain the delay of one-and-a-half hours before notifying the Secret Service, which they should have done to comply with standard operating procedure? They say that there was a failure of communication. The investigator who found the White House ID, Cheryl Braun, told the FBI that she gave instructions to another officer to pass on the word to the shift commander. This officer, who is never fully identified, apparently forgot to do so. She then made the call herself, she says, at roughly 7.30pm. This still leaves almost an hour unaccounted for. In any case, the shift commander inadvertantly contradicted her story. He told the *Sunday Telegraph* that he was first informed by another officer on the scene, John Rolla. The investigation of Special Counsel Robert Fiske last year never began to probe the glaring discrepancies in chronology. The shift commander, Lt Gavin, was not required to testify under oath. It remains to be seen whether the new investigation of Special Counsel Kenneth Starr does any better. The *Pittsburgh Tribune-Review* reported this week that the Washington part of the Whitewater/Foster investigation, under the control of Democrat Mark Tuohey, is seriously compromised. The lead prosecutor, Miguel Rodriguez, resigned in March because the federal grand jury was unable to call witnesses and issue subpoenas. If the White House received an early warning about Foster's death, why would it have been covered up? One explanation is that a tip-off could have provided a window of time for pre-emptive moves. Papers that might have thrown light on any number of sensitive issues could have been removed or destroyed. It is already acknowledged that Patsy Thomasson, the White House Director of Administration, went into Foster's office to remove documents later on the night of his death. Did anybody enter between 7pm and 8.30pm - that is, before the Secret Service claims it was notified? President Clinton clearly had no advance warning. He was on CNN's *Larry King Live* from 9pm onwards, giving a cheerful account of himself. His right-hand man, Webb Hubbell, did not know anything either. He was having dinner with his family at the Lebanese Taverna when the Justice Department Command Centre contacted him with the bad news. It was already dark outside, clearly after 8.30pm. Janet Schaufele, a young White House intern staying with the family, said that Hubbell was shattered by the news. After the dinner he couldn't remember where he had parked his car. Then he lost the keys to his house. But somebody must have known. Somebody must have passed the word to young Helen Dickey. Who was it? **************************************************** ------------------------------------------------ (This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the Radio Free Michigan archives by the archive maintainer. All files are ZIP archives for fast download. E-mail bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu)