Black Crawling Systems Archive Release 1.0/Black Crawling Systems Archive Release 1.0 (L0pht Heavy Industries, Inc.)(1997).ISO/tezcat/Clinton/Foster_Death_Time.txt

Text File | 1996-07-08 | 8KB | 168 lines

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                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?


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