From server@firefly.prairienet.org Mon May 22 21:45:00 1995
	id VAA27293; Mon, 22 May 1995 21:44:45 +0200
	id AA14359; Mon, 22 May 95 14:43:30 CDT
Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 4 Num. 95
X-Comment:  Conspiracy Nation



              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 4  Num. 95
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")


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SECRET SWISS LINK TO WHITE HOUSE DEATH

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[First, from an interview, March 6, 1995, with Sherman Skolnick]:

[...]

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
*Now*, the Europeans *apparently* have... Well it was European 
journalists, together with some retired CIA people, that 
uncovered Clinton's secret Swiss accounts, by way of the Fuji 
Bank and the Grand Caymans -- that $50 million that we described 
went to Little Rock, to the Caymans, to Switzerland, and is there 
in the name of Chelsea Jefferson.

[...]

And, and, and the thing is, one of Kenneth Starr's people told me 
-- not to flatter me! -- that the thing that we have been working 
on -- about the 50 million?


CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah.


SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
 -- is one of the most crucial points. They've already got the 
date. They know the money arrived in Little Rock and went by way 
of Fuji Bank, to the Caymans and off to Switzerland. And it got 
mixed in with the Mena cocaine money, O.K.? Clinton's "cut" for 
the deal. All right?

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                    *THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH*, 21.5.95

                SECRET SWISS LINK TO WHITE HOUSE DEATH

                Revealed: Clinton aide made mystery trips
                                to Geneva

                 By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Washington

THE mystery over the death of the White House aide Vincent Foster is
getting deeper. Records shown to the *Sunday Telegraph* reveal that he
had clandestine dealings in Switzerland, and even purchased an airline
ticket  to Geneva just three weeks before his death.

Foster's travels have never come under scrutiny before. Two
investigations have concluded that he shot himself on July 20, 1993,
because he was upset over harsh editorials in the *Wall Street Journal*
and other mundane matters. But his trips abroad have come as a total
surprise to his family.

They could prove to be of great importance. Foster was an intimate
friend of both Bill and Hillary Clinton and was responsible for handling
their private financial affairs at the White House.

The revelations of Foster's covert forays to Switzerland come after a
week in which the Senate announced details of new televised hearings on
the Whitewater scandal, due to begin later in the summer.

But it remains far from certain whether the Republicans in Congress are
prepared to reopen the file on the Deputy White House counsel's death.

The records show that Foster bought a ticket to Switzerland on November
1, 1991 - during the early phase of the Clinton presidential bid -
travelling on American Airlines from Little Rock to Paris with a
connection to Geneva on Swiss Air. The return flight was booked for
November 3, giving him less than one full day on the ground in
Switzerland. The cost was $1,490.

A year later he did exactly the same thing, darting in and out of the
country. On December 7, 1992 - during the presidential transition period
- he bought a ticket from Little Rock to Geneva, via Paris, returning
on November 9.

Finally, on July 1, 1993, he purchased a ticket through the White House
Travel Office from Washington to Geneva on TWA and Swiss Air,
reimbursing the White House from his personal American Express Card. But
he never made the trip and was refunded by Swiss Air on July 8.

Twelve days later he was found dead in a Virginia park next to the
residence of the Saudi ambassador. A Colt .38 revolver of Edwardian
vintage was found jammed in his hand. Independent experts have described
the crime scene as a textbook case of a murder made to look like a
suicide.

These are only a sample of his flights, not the full picture. On
December 20, 1988, for example, he flew to Batman in remote Turkish
Kurdistan. At his death he had built up more than 500,000 `airmiles' on
the frequent flier programmes of major US airlines.

On Delta he apparently had 197,853 miles. Much of it came from flying
overseas. His foreign trips on Delta during the later 1980s and early
1990s were often purchased at `executive fares', a category of discount
that is only available to senior government officials - or contract
operatives doing work for the federal government. That raises the
question: was Foster a US agent at a time when he was ostensibly in
private practice as a Little Rock lawyer?

Sources close to the Foster family say that his widow, Lisa, was not
aware of any trips he made to Switzerland, which suggests that he was
not engaged in routine work for the Rose Law Firm. Apparently there are
no Swiss stamps in his passport, but this would not necessarily be
unusual.

Mrs Foster has accepted the official verdict that her husband committed
suicide. In her statement to the FBI she said that he had been depressed
and had "no sense of joy and elation at work". She believed that this
may have been related to the Waco disaster.

"Lisa Foster believes that Foster was horrified when the Branch Davidian
complex burned. Foster believed that everything was his fault," wrote
the FBI. (OIC document 000278). But there may have been other concerns
on his mind. A psychiatrist told the FBI that he was contacted on July
16 1993 by Foster's sister, Sheila Anthony, a top official at the
Justice Department. She told him that Foster was working on "top secret"
issues at the White House and "that his depression was directly related
to highly sensitive and confidential matters".

It remains to be seen whether the investigation of Special Counsel
Kenneth Starr will get to the bottom of the Foster mystery.

Many in Washington now consider that the investigation by Robert Fiske
last year was a charade and a black mark on the American judicial
system. It reached the conclusion that Foster committed suicide *before*
much of the forensic evidence had been analysed by the FBI crime labs,
*before* key witnesses had been interviewed, and *before* the autopsy
review by independent experts. Several of the FBI documents appear to
have been doctored. One official close to the investigation has
described the scale of lying and fabrication by government officials as
staggering.

There are signs that the same thing could be happening again. Very few
witnesses have been called before the Grand Jury. The police have not
even visited the houses within earshot of the spot where Foster was
supposed to have shot himself. Yet a highly placed member of the
investigation has already been leaking stories to journalists saying
that there is nothing to the Foster death, and that there will soon be
a fresh ruling of suicide.

The lead prosecutor handling the death of Foster, Miguel Rodriguez,
resigned in March. Sources say he quit because he felt that certain
members of the Starr team were more interested in covering up
discrepancies than finding out what really happened, and were merely
going through the motions of an investigation. The Starr team counters
that his resignation was largely the result of a character clash.

The *Pittsburgh Tribune-Review* reports that Rodriguez was unable to
call key witnesses before the Grand Jury. The paper said he had also
lost confidence in the FBI, which appeared to be sweeping crucial
evidence under the carpet. For example, the FBI had discarded a set of
crucial crime scene photographs, deeming them unusable. Rodriguez turned
to a private firm, which had no difficulty enhancing the photos.

Rodriguez cannot be dismissed as a Right-wing prosecutor with an axe to
grind. He is a liberal by background and rose to his current position as
Assistant US Attorney in Sacramento after working as a civil rights
lawyer. It is astonishing that the American media has made so little of
his resignation. If a lead prosecutor during the Watergate scandal had
departed in such circumstances it would have been headline news.

What is it about the death of Vince Foster that has caused every
investigation to recoil? First the US Park Police, then the Fiske
investigation, then the Senate Banking Committee and now, perhaps,
Kenneth Starr's team - all have dipped their toe in the water and pulled
it straight back out again. One can only deduce that the temperature
must be very hot indeed.

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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 

 Brian Francis Redman    bigxc@prairienet.org    "The Big C"
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    Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"        
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