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FreeRepublic EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Witness Regarding Arkansas Tainted Blood Scandal Movie
Tona DeMers | 1-18-03 | Doug from Upland

Posted on 01/18/2004 8:00:35 PM PST by doug from upland

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To: thinden
I think the Board of Compliance was created by the federal courts. The Arkansas system was the only one in the nation declared unconstitutional. I presume it was a federal job, or at least there was federal influence in hiring.
61 posted on 01/23/2004 2:38:01 PM PST by doug from upland (Don't wait until it is too late to stop Hillary -- do something today!)
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To: All
Below are the concluding paragraphs of an excellent overall report on the tainted blood story by Suzi Parker, a freelance writer in Little Rock, published in Salon, December 24, 1998 (early). This link is to the first of five pages, so read on through all five to get the whole story:

Suzi Parker SALON article - page one of five

...
But Mike Galster, the medical practitioner, never forgot the grim images he witnessed in those years. Galster used the pseudonym Michael Sullivan to write "Blood Trail," a thinly veiled fictional account of tainted blood in the Arkansas prison system. In Canada, the book has become a bestseller and fueled more investigations into Cummins. "In so many ways it reminds you of Nazi Germany," Galster says. "If it had been the typical Arkansas scam, where we are talking about pigs, tractors, even land, that would be one thing. These guys had the power over a captive audience to make money from human beings."

Galster left HMA in 1983 after he rejected a typical Arkansas ploy -- a demand by an HMA associate that he kick back part of his earnings. "The way Arkansas works is that once you are working within the system, the people in charge make it clear that it is a privilege to have that state contract," Galster says. "Ultimately, you are expected to pay for that privilege."

"This I know," Galster continues. "Without the governor's support and protection, this disease-riddled system would have been shut down by 1982."

In Canada, Michael McCarthy, a hepatitis C sufferer from Stratford, Ontario, is understandably bitter. "I think it is devastating to the victims of the blood disaster in Canada," says McCarthy, who is married with one child and can no longer work thanks to third stage liver failure. "It shows it wasn't God that was running the blood system. It was people who were making bad decisions based on money."

62 posted on 01/23/2004 2:45:40 PM PST by T'wit
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To: doug from upland
"Tainted Blood"

Good name for a rock band.
63 posted on 01/23/2004 2:48:26 PM PST by djf
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To: doug from upland
>> I was not involved in the project.

Aha, yes you were! :-) :-) A midi seems to be attached, if anyone wants to scare up the file and sing along :-)

SONG PARODY: Wayward Wind (tainted blood)

Miscellaneous Humor Keywords: TAINTED, BLOOD, AIDS, HEPATITIS Source: DOUG FROM UPLAND - Song Parodies Published: 6-99 Author: Lyrics, Doug from Upland Posted on 06/24/1999 16:28:44 PDT by Doug from Upland

64 posted on 01/23/2004 3:03:37 PM PST by T'wit
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To: T'wit
CLICK AND SING

And how about -- OH, CANADA. This was four years ago!

65 posted on 01/23/2004 3:27:52 PM PST by doug from upland (Don't wait until it is too late to stop Hillary -- do something today!)
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To: All
This is interesting, and also very early. At least Kelly gets an indirect nod in this one. I'll note the spot. My comments in [brackets].
------------

Written in Blood (An Interview with Michael Sullivan)

JANUARY Magazine (literary)
October, 1998 Linda Richards

January Magazine

Written In Blood

Interview with Michael Sullivan [Michael Galster; Sullivan was his pen name], by Linda Richards

He doesn't look like a lunatic. Crisply dressed and coifed, his blue eyes smile quickly -- though not for our cameras -- and his graying-blond hair stays neatly placed. He is, he tells me, a son of the south and this is verified by his voice: as close to clipped as a southern accent gets. An educated voice, certainly. But one that is, nonetheless, punctuated by the region that spawned him. He does not wear a white suit, but if he did it wouldn't look strange. In short, he doesn't look or sound at all like someone hatching a plot or grinding an ax, though looks can be deceiving.

If half of the things Michael Sullivan is saying are true, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal starts to look like a children's sandbox creation. Interesting for a while, but more crumble than substance. If it's not true, it still seems likely that Sullivan is going to sell a lot of books.

"I want to go on record as saying I am not planning on committing suicide," Sullivan says earnestly. "I plan to live a long, long time."

My interview with Sullivan did not go at all as planned. I arrived expecting to speak with the author of an interesting new suspense novel. I planned to talk to him about his writing process and perhaps his life, interests and favorite pets. The last thing I'd anticipated was being led down a dark path of conspiracy featuring some of the largest characters in international politics: especially some of those who (ahem) have been getting a lot of press in recent months.

I had, of course, noticed some more than fleeting similarities between one of Blood Trail's major characters and a certain former governor from Arkansas. This I put down to the richness of fiction and the fact that Sullivan is a native of that state.

However, it would seem that Sullivan's interest runs less to literature than it does to high level machinations: at least in this instance. With some passion Sullivan spoke at length about what led him to write Blood Trail.

The fictional work focuses on two men from Arkansas. Robert Davis Prescott has been groomed almost from birth to take a place in American history. David Farr is the Vietnam Vet whose son is stricken with AIDS from a blood transfusion given to him in Canada. Farr wants to find out who is responsible, and is somewhat surprised when the trail -- the Blood Trail, if you will -- leads back to his home state and eventually to the White House and Prescott.

Sullivan -- though it's not the writer's real name, and he's not talking -- is a doctor who says he was a medical practitioner for the Arkansas prison system between 1982 and, "off and on, to the present time." He says that he knew that blood was being drawn from sick and infected Arkansas prisoners but he didn't know where the blood was being sold and distributed. In 1995, says Sullivan, he learned about infections and death in Canada, where the Arkansas blood had ended up. Sullivan says he became determined to find out more. The result of that research, says Sullivan, is in the novel Blood Trail. A story that while it's almost unbelievable, Sullivan says only begins to scratch the surface of the truth.

- - - - -

Linda Richards: So is Bob Prescott's resemblance to Bill Clinton unintentional?

Michael Sullivan: I had certain information when I started the book. Actually, not very much. I worked in the system. I knew they were taking blood from very sick people. I knew the group was basically corrupt. And it wasn't until years later that I realized that they didn't have a way to clean up. It was not until 1995 and the initial Krever investigation was kicked off that one article appeared in the Associated Press that said that tainted blood in Canada had been taken from Arkansas prisoners. And I said, 'God Almighty!' because I'd forgotten about it. I was in it. I knew certain things. You know, it was like this huge guilt rush hit me because I hadn't investigated it. That's not my specialty. I just assumed mistakenly that they had a way to manufacture some kind of clean product.

Suddenly I remembered how Clinton had stood in and protected the HMA [Health Management Associates] through everything. Because they'd come under fire not because of plasma but because they hired drug addicts and they hired guys that had lost their medical licenses and several other things, especially dealing with narcotics. They'd come under fire from the media. Clinton had protected and in fact ensured that they received a renewed contract when faced with all this. And I thought, 'There's some kind of scheme here,' you know? And so I was afraid, to be honest with you, to go and do an investigation at that time because I'm too public and I knew I'd be exposed and I knew I'd never get a book written.

Where were you ?

I was still in Arkansas. I had a private medical practice outside of the prison. I was only doing the prison work as a subcontractor.

I naively thought, I'll write this book and then some real smart reporter will grab it and go, 'Oh, my god! Some of this must be true. I need to investigate this.' And then he would do all the work. And I could just sit back and be Mike Sullivan. So, that didn't happen. And we were forced into either dropping the story or coming out and pushing and gathering our own information. I have one investigator working with me. He's one brave guy [This is Kelly -- an investigator, not a "film maker."] He's gone in the face of the Arkansas power people and slowly but surely gotten this information. One of the documents was one in an investigation done by an independent firm in Berkeley, California in 1986 about the prison medical system. We knew that they had done it, and we knew kind of what the summary was, but we couldn't get our hands on the document because the group's building burnt down in 1990 and all the microfiche and everything was ruined. The only people that had documents were Bill Clinton and his group of prison appointees and his board of directors. Finally we found what was probably the only existing copy in one of the state legislator's garages. [I went along with Mike and Kelly to a small Arkansas town to retrieve that document. It was scary and Mike was packing three or four mean-looking weapons in his van.] We asked him to look through all of his old papers and he found it. And man, it is powerful.

I gotta tell you, this is not the conversation I expected to be having with you. It's interesting because we're talking about a novel. But we're kind of not...

It's hard to understand the chronology of it. Chronologically it was absolutely a novel. In the book I kill people right and left and I take political-type characters and I manifest all sorts of things on them. Using a lot of fantasy. The thing that's incredible to me is that afterwards the things we'd learned fit in almost perfectly with the story and -- even more fantastic -- I swear, we never anticipated that.

Maggie Gallagher, the woman who's a writer for the New York Post -- she hadn't even read the book. She read a story about the book in the Ottawa Citizen and all of a sudden she remembers an incident that happened two days after Vincent Foster was killed that ties perfectly to the book. And all of a sudden she's off on this tangent. Well, I made all that up. We were just trying to be inventive. I thought, 'Well, this will be great. I'll tie this character in and kind of relate to this Foster story.' And now she says it's true. That indeed an informant called up to the White House offices and said that Foster was killed because he knew too much about tainted blood. I was the one most surprised of anyone. I mean, who would have ever dreamed? My only relationship with Foster, I met him one time. I saw him all the time. He and I had one very intense conversation about the prison and the blood procedure there, years ago. So I guess that was on my mind and I wove that into the story. Now a national level reporter has said, 'How did this guy know about this?' Well, I didn't know about it.

Are you afraid? Are you afraid for your life?

Well, we weren't especially. I talked with my family. They knew all the evidence. They all voted to go ahead. And just like the main character in the story -- David -- who dropped everything to go seek out who had infected his son, they want me to do the same thing. So our strategy is, if we get enough publicity we'll be safe. Hopefully that'll happen. It seems like it's going to. Just in the last few days we've had national level TV news programs that have called and are interested in the story.

But yes, I'm terrified, to tell you the truth. Put yourself in my position. The power groups I'm going up against. The only advantage is that now the general population of Canada and the United States knows a little bit about the character of the administration. Even though they really don't condemn him so far, they know his capability of lie and deceit and deny. I'll stand on that. I'll stand on my character, he can stand on his and we'll see who's standing at the end.

You said you're collecting more evidence. Why is that?

Well, look at it this way. There were a lot of people who fit into that system back then who are still alive, who know portions of the story much better than I do. They know intricate parts of it. As soon as this story breaks, our hope is they still have a conscience and if they know, hell: Americans don't know of the contaminated blood source. They just don't know. So, as it's exposed hopefully they'll -- like they already have -- start calling in and telling us their portion of the story.

For instance, the inmates that were the donors? I had no idea when I wrote this that they were as much victims as the end users because the HMA was using dirty needles over and over to collect the blood. So they cross-contaminated all those inmates. And these guys -- because of our investigation I've just found out in the last month -- that many of them have already had liver transplants. A bunch of them have already died. Several of them are in intensive care units right now. And a whole group of them -- I've just found out -- they're contaminated with HIV and Hepatitis C. So they're preparing to file a class action suit against the administration of the state of Arkansas, the department of corrections, and all of the people involved in this thing. That's a bigger story than we could have created on our own. They're doing it. And there's no statute of limitations for murder. And there's no statute of limitations when you've just discovered that you're hurt from a certain cause.

This happened in the mid-1980s? Early 80s?

Yeah. They started the blood contract in 1978 when Clinton became governor. They continued right up until he went to the White House. The really important part to Canadians is this: the Krever Commission tells us in 1982 there was one incident that some contaminated blood was identified from Arkansas and everybody went, 'Oh, my God. We didn't know we were taking it from prisons. Oh, my God, we didn't know it was coming from the States. We'll never do it again.'

Krever says they never were supposed to have it in the first place. And he says they were not supposed to destroy all these documents for the Red Cross, so this coverup is obvious. And certainly from 1982 forward you would suppose that no more blood was received from prisons, right? I mean you assume that. It was against the law, and they'd exposed it and no one was going to do it again. We have the head of HMA, the president of HMA telling us in 1984 and again in 1986 that he can not find any place else in the world to sell it, except Canada. Who's lying? Krever's Inquiry? Or this president who would have no reason to tell anyone he was selling it to Canada. But see, no one back in '86 thought that this would be looked at 12 years later from this angle.

Well, it's a really good story. The book is really well written and you're probably hearing comparisons to a lot of the best in the genre.

We've gotten good reviews, and I'm pretty proud of that because this is my first attempt. And all I thought that would carry it was the story. It's such a fantastic story. And Canadians must be sitting there going, 'God Almighty: this guy's really gone out on a limb to tie Clinton and all we've heard about Clinton to all we've heard about the blood plasma story.'

I know! Because it's like, Arkansas and... I mean, there's not even a thin attempt at veiling it.

But, wait a minute: why am I the only one that's made the connection? The Canadians knew from the very beginning it was Arkansas prison blood and they knew it was during his term of government. I expected everyone -- when I read that article -- but there was not a single editorial. Not a single article that appeared after that making the obvious connections.

Blood Trail is published on a fairly small imprint, yet it's doing quite well.

Well, there's a story there, too. I had extremely good connections to several of the big publishers: I won't name names, but the biggest. When I finished the manuscript I took it to them. As a group, they all said, 'Wow! Well written. Nice story. Wow. We don't know what the hell we're going to do with it.' I didn't understand what they were talking about, and yet now that we've done what we had to do with a very brave little publisher out of Ottawa, Illinois there was probably no other way to do it, except that. Because they would have never been able to put all of this together that we have. It would have been too risky for them.

Is this Jameson's biggest ever book? This seems like a big commercial push for a small publisher.

We don't know yet. They had a big book back in the '80s called On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors. It was a slam on General Motor's upper echelon centered around DeLorean. John DeLorean.

So Jameson likes to take a few risks?

Yeah. That's why I went there.

Forgive a naive question but, if everybody knew about the tainted blood, why would they allow it to go on?

You mean the people doing it?

And the people receiving it.

These fractionators were running out of blood. They'd been closed down in east Africa and Haiti because of AIDS. And so they had a very quiet and very strongly controlled audience of politicians that kept it open. When you step back and see it from that standpoint, you understand how it could all happen.

You know, for instance -- I'll bet you don't -- the blood companies, the big money people went to every state in the United States that had no blood shield laws prior to this. And in 46 of 50 states they had blood shield laws passed.

So prior to this, that would be...?

Late 70s, mainly. Now that protected them from any product liability associated with a plasma product so that no one could sue them. And to this day that has inoculated them from liability suits from the states. So why would you do that? Why would spend the vast amount of money to do that when you're totally innocent?

This is a corrupt medical operation. They'd already been shut down in 1982 by the FDA for all kinds of reasons. Mainly, the FDA says you're taking hot blood and you're shipping it. That's pretty obvious, right? You're draining your donors to a near-death situation. Like Dracula. You have inmates doing all the procedures. You have inmates falsifying records so that other inmates can give who should never be allowed to donate. I'm telling you verbatim what's in the report. There were six issues altogether. So they shut them down. The board of prison with its director are all appointed by Bill Clinton, personally. They go before the board they say, 'We've been shut down.' Guess what the discussion was about? Not whether we clean this up or figure a new way to do business or ensure the safety of our product. It was: "Let's open up under a new name, under a new charter to the FDA as soon as possible." We've got the minutes from that meeting. They did this not once, but three times. Now, are they interested in anyone's well-being? They're only interested in the millions of dollars brought in. It's incredible.

Why didn't you do it as a non-fiction book? Why did you decide to do it as fiction?

At the time, in 1995 when I read this article, I decided I was going to do something. I didn't know all of this. I didn't have all of it. I didn't know how much I could find. But I knew enough that I could assume certain things. And I said: okay. And I tried a couple of times. If I start going into these state offices and asking all these questions, I'm going to get exposed, the book will never get finished and the story will be covered up.

So my wife said, 'What would you do if one of our sons had been infected and you knew what you know?' That's what I would have done.

So you're David?

Kinda. I got a whole bunch of kids.

Is there any threat of law suits? Do you think? Or any possibility of law suits?

Well, I hope not. But, yeah. The interesting thing is we really, truly wrote it as a work of fiction. It does have some obvious things to certain people in the media nowadays. But people are going to have to stand on their own credibility sooner or later.

As a piece of fiction it provides you with some protection from law suits, doesn't it?

I hope so. Yeah.

There are some real strong similarities, though.

Yes.

And you haven't made a whole lot of bones about keeping it close to the time.

You know what, I didn't even attempt to. It is kind of chronological to a lot of things, but it's not exact. Arkansas is just a big small town. We all run into each other all the time. As I said in the book, there are just a few people who control all the positions and money, and if you travel in those circles sooner or later you meet these people all the time.

I didn't think anyone could condemn me for writing what I know about. Which is what I did.

The other good thing is I'm a lifelong resident of the state and I'm also the son of a state policeman. Does that sound like something from the book? I know a lot of these people, and a lot of these people who were connected with the Clinton power structure are now very pissed off because he has absolutely ruined the state's credibility. And so he doesn't have the structure he used to have.

So you're collecting more resource material. Are you doing another book? Or, what is that for?

We're turning everything over to the RCMP and the FBI. That's for them, because I want to be done with it. Other than promoting this book. But after you've gathered evidence if you have evidence about the commission of a felony you're required by law to make it available to the legal authorities.

Have you done any pictures yet? Have you been on TV or anything?

Yes, several times.

Maybe you want to stop that.

When lots of people who are involved in this read the story, they'll know who wrote it. I put enough of myself in there. I never intended to completely hide it.

I'll tell you a bizarre thing that happened among all the other bizarre things. We finished the manuscript and it was ready to go to the printer. And we had to change the name of Prescott's daughter. You know what the original name was that we had for her? The name in the book is Nicole, right? That was changed at the last minute to Nicole. The original name in January was Monica. As God is my witness. And of course everyone associated with my tight group of friends goes, 'You're clairvoyant!' But it just seemed like a good name. So we could not leave that, that would be too funny.

Are you working on any other books?

I'm writing two other books right now. They have nothing to do with this. And yet already we've had three or four groups come and ask me to write the story about the story. A non-fiction account of how I wrote the novel and then all of this. I don't know if it's in me to do that. I'm burned out on it. I've been doing this for almost two years now. My family is wrung out over it.

Go interview these victims. It'll change your life. I dare you. Go interview someone who has hemophilia -- a really bad disease in itself -- and through no fault of their own they're born with genetic aberration. And they're required to inject themselves with this Factor VIII [blood clotting agent made from the contaminated prison plasma]. Their life is already difficult enough, and because of greedy people they get infected with HIV. They develop AIDS and now they're taking 40 pills a day, they're on constant IV antibiotics, they're taking oral medication to kill the fungus that grows in their mouth. Their life is absolutely decimated. And then they find out they've got Hepatitis-C, so they have to go on Interferon which makes them sick all of the time. And their liver gets so big that they can't lie down and sleep anymore because it pushes up against their heart and lungs and they can't breathe. So they're reduced to spending the rest of their lives sleeping sitting up.

These people are as destroyed as anyone I've seen on the battlefield, in third world countries or anywhere else. If they had any means to start out with, they go through that money immediately. So they don't have funds for liver transplants. They're completely at the mercy of whatever public assistance there is. You go see these people, and then you will stick your neck out. It really changed my life. And when I tell my wife, she just falls apart. She just can't believe that people that we grew up with, people that I worked for, people that I've known all my life were capable of this. That all the evidence points to the fact that they were.

A lot of people have thought to associate us with some vast right wing conspiracy. And this Republican agenda. In fact I was accused by a reporter of being part of that group. And I said, 'Well, exactly what do you base that on?' And he said, 'Well, obviously, you're flying all over Canada last minute. That costs a lot of money, right?' And I said, 'Well it sure does. Because I can't plan anything more than a day ahead of time.' And he went on and on about, 'Well you're doing this, staying in hotels and that costs a lot of money.' And he said, 'I'd imagine someone behind your publisher is putting up a lot of money.' And I said, 'Oh really. Do you want some evidence on that?' And he said, 'Well, I suppose.' And I said, 'Well, let me tell you, I'll make this available to you. You go to my CPA and you can look at every expense I've had in the last five years. What you'll find is in the last 20 years I've traveled about four times a year as a medical missionary. I've financed it myself. I don't tell anybody about it, it's just the thing that I do. For me. I do it for me. And this year, this has taken the place of that. And I funded every single penny when I travel. These expenses. Is part of what I normally spend for my mission trip. I'm spending it for this because I think it's important and I'm not part of any political party. No one has contacted me.

This is as close to a personal vendetta on my part as you'll ever get. Because I have a daughter that I adopted when I was a missionary in Korea, who is now 16 and who in 1991 contracted a disease very similar to Leukemia. She had to undergo vast amounts of transfusions and went into remission because we did a spleenectomy on her. Now five years later, six years later she's come up with a new disease -- an auto immune disease -- and now we realize it may be the result of the blood products she received. And all of this has come back on me in a way I can't ignore.

It's kinda like God's going, 'Listen to me now! You gotta tell this story.' So all of that's behind what I'm doing. Not any political agenda.

Tell me about the timing of the release of this book. In some ways, it seems pretty calculated.

To be honest with you, we couldn't have chosen any worse time in American history to break our story.

Why? I would think it would be a really good time.

You know when we sent out the stuff [PR materials] to the American press, not one response. And when our people in New York called up to follow up, 'Did you get it? Did you read it?' And they got, 'Well, we got it but we haven't read it because,' it all had to do with Clinton and Lewinsky. That's all anyone wanted to hear about.

This story would be a lot more palatable to the American audience if we said -- I tried this on a reporter once, before I told him anything about the story I said, 'If I could prove or convince you that the sitting governor of Arkansas who later became the President had direct control over a scheme that ultimately caused the direct death of one person, how big a story would that be?'

He said, 'God almighty! That would be the biggest story in the American presidency. There's never been anything like that. All we've had are rumors about sexual liaisons and rumors about special deals that were cut, but not the direct death of one person.' And I said, 'Okay: multiply that by about 400,000.' When you do that it goes shoomp. They can't get a handle on it. They think it's just too fantastic. We're talking about genocide. Think about that idea.

So you're working on two new novels?

One is based on kind of a popular and ingenious young actor and brat packer who got himself in a lot of trouble. But I don't want to say any names.

That could be a bunch.

Good. I'm glad you said that. But I'm having a blast with it. It's got a lot better plot than this one has.

But the reviews have been good for Blood Trail?

Yup. So far. But I'm new to all this. And the publishing business the craziest business I've ever been in in my life.

66 posted on 01/23/2004 4:02:32 PM PST by T'wit
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To: doug from upland
That's very good. I remember it. Reads / sings very well.
67 posted on 01/23/2004 10:52:00 PM PST by T'wit
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To: T'wit; Mudboy Slim; ALOHA RONNIE
"Clinton was involved with the Cummins plasma program in all six of his gubernatorial terms, i.e., from the late 1970s till 1991 (and the program ran on, into Jim Guy Tucker's regime, ending in 1994).
I cannot answer whether a statute of limitations applies to Clinton taking bribes, but I'd say he is open to much more serious charge along the lines of causing the loss of life by being party to a criminal conspiracy and/or felonious activities.
Hillary was in it too."

OMG, a twofer on both scoundrels.
Music to my ears, thanks T'wit.

A-R, since you like keeping tabs on the Hildebeast, here's something to keep track of.

Mudboy, [we] might not be able to nail the punk McAuliff but would you settle for The Bent1 & his cohort in crime?

Because it looks as if there're forces at work here with the *aim* of doing just that.

...X42's shenanagans haven't been as forgotten as he thinks they've been. :^)

68 posted on 01/24/2004 8:24:22 AM PST by Landru (Tagline Schmagline...)
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To: Landru
You might wish to look at some of the Blood Trail files, which cover just about everything published.

Some of this is not familiar to many, so let me walk through it a bit. Blood plasma is donated by a process called plasmapheresis. It is not at all like donating whole blood at the Red Cross (once every 8 weeks). With plasma, they draw the blood and put it in a centrifuge to spin out the liquid -- that's the plasma -- and leave the red blood cells. Then they mix a mild salt solution (out of a bottle) with the red blood cells and put it back in the donor's arm. The solution that goes back resembles blood, so if all this is done right, it is far less "draining" on the body than losing whole blood.

The plasma is then pooled (so if one unit is diseased, the whole pool is diseased) and used to make certain medical products, including Factor 8 (a blood clotting agent that lets hemophiliacs lead a normal life). Hemophiliacs are the first to get sick and die from infected plasma.

A healthy male can give two units of plasma per week -- $100 worth or more at the time, more like $200 in today's dollars. That was nearly straight profit for the program. The prison donors got narcotics (specifically, Percodan, a codeine painkiller -- in the opiate family) plus a few bucks in prison scrip. It was enough to get them lined up to bleed themselves white. Trustee-inmates actually SOLD the "right" to bleed -- that is, inmates "bought" the "right" to stand in line for hours, go through a painful process and knowingly get sick from it... because of the Percodan.

I go through this because I want you to imagine what happens if plasmapheresis isn't done in a perfectly sterile manner. If donors are diseased, dirty needles will cross-contaminate the donor pool. And of course, if the donor is sick, the plasma carries the infection! If you pump the red blood cells into the wrong person, it can kill him, like a transfusion with the wrong blood type. (Cummins had cases of that but the victims evidently survived.)

Now imagine that the whole program was turned over to the inmates themselves to run! That was Cummins. The thing went along hardly any medical supervision and actively falsified medical records. (They would invent "donor" names out of the phone book).

In the 1980s, the health violations at Cummins were so flagrant that program was stopped and overhauled at least three times. Bill Clinton ever to the rescue, in the teeth of sound medical opinion by state and federal health officials! They always cranked it up again. Every week Cummins shipped truckload of blood plasma, at $50 and up per unit. They were minting money.

God knows how many laws were broken, but they were selling poison and they knew it. That's the direction a criminal prosecution could go.

69 posted on 01/24/2004 9:28:09 AM PST by T'wit
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To: thinden
>> Besides, legally, no one can own facts and that's what this story is.

That's a crock. What Kelly walked off with is irreplaceable filmed interviews, not "facts."

The lady also confirms what I told you, that she's given money to Kelly and many others did too. They got stung.

70 posted on 01/24/2004 9:41:13 AM PST by T'wit
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To: T'wit
You really synopsized their scam to the salient points, T'wit.
Thank you.
I now understand precisely what they were up to & you're right, it was like printing money.

One of the keys to overcoming the inertia the Clintoon charater's always been able to count on for keeping his relaitively small potatoes pecadillos well buried -- it seems -- has always been they always involved victims who were ordinary individuals.
~eh?

But here's a case whereby this tainted blood was going to Canada and that's an incident of international proportions, isn't it?
Our sycophant lapdog media may be able to spin it; but, the Canuks sure won't.
There's a real scandel brewing here & one far too big for an out of power PTUS to control without say, help from very high up, such as a sitting POTUS & his DOJ for example?

What's the Canadian government's position on this, anyway?
Because get their ire up & the political angle of repose is quickly overcome, I'd think.

Bottom line -- to me -- appears to rest of this:
"God knows how many laws were broken, but they were selling poison and they knew it."

That's the crux in any event, proving Clintoon knew the blood was corrupt, his intent to sell it anyway, *&* clearing showing the money link to him, right?

"That's the direction a criminal prosecution could go."

That's the direction the prosec should go one would think because, there really isn't any other tack.
Is there?

Scholar, please read #69.
Write me offline, OK?

...would love your take.

71 posted on 01/24/2004 10:21:00 AM PST by Landru (Tagline Schmagline...)
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To: Landru
Canada was first, due to some blood export-import laws, but the poisonous blood spread to at least twenty countries in every part of the world. Europe was hard hit; Japan; China; the middle east; Africa. Once you put diseased blood into circulation, the damage never ends. Check the files, we've covered all that.

Billy Bentpotus has a lot to answer for.

72 posted on 01/24/2004 10:37:08 AM PST by T'wit
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To: Landru
"...[we] might not be able to nail the punk McAuliff but would you settle for The Bent1 & his cohort in crime?"

Haven't we on the Right convinced ourselves that all RATS linked to the Clintons are above and beyond the reaches of the law?! So what...a bunch of innocent folks are killed due to the power-hungry greediness of DerSchleekmeister and the HildaBeast, let's just MOVE ON!!

Seriously, though, folks who continue to believe the Clintons are no longer a threat to America and that we needn't hold them accountable fer their multitude of felonies must come to realize that they won't go away until we drive a stake in their cold, cold hearts!! 'Cuz many Americans believe that if they haven't been convicted of a crime, then they must have been unfairly accused in the first place. You and I know that ain't true, but when you consider the feckless DemonRAT poltroons who would vote fer an axe-murderer of it meant regaining the White House, then add them to the braindead swing vote who don't know any better, well, it may just be enuff to get the HildaBeast and her treasonous hubby back in the White House in '08!! If that were to occur, Katy bar the door!!

FReegards...MUD

73 posted on 01/24/2004 1:07:49 PM PST by Mudboy Slim (RE-IMPEACH Osama bil Clinton!!)
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To: T'wit
"Billy Bentpotus has a lot to answer for."

But who's gonna hold him accountable?! Certainly not the Vast, LeftWing Medyuh Whore'd...certainly not the spineless punk of a man, Jon Ashcroft!! Seems most Pubbies are scair't of taking Slick Willie on...are there enuff non-Republican-sycophants to force justice to be done? Based on prior experience, I have my doubts.

FReegards...MUD

74 posted on 01/24/2004 1:11:51 PM PST by Mudboy Slim (RE-IMPEACH Osama bil Clinton!!)
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To: Mudboy Slim
>> Haven't we on the Right convinced ourselves that all RATS linked to the Clintons are above and beyond the reaches of the law?!

He's a lot more vulnerable since leaving office. He no longer owns the Justice Department (Janet Reno sucking his toes), and he no longer has the untouchable aura of Supreme Power that attracts leftist worshippers as fast as rotting animals attract vultures.

75 posted on 01/24/2004 3:45:02 PM PST by T'wit
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To: doug from upland
Is John Stossel interested in the story? Bill O'Reilly?

They seem to be the only ones who may be interested in blowing the lid off this thing.

76 posted on 01/24/2004 3:50:33 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: F16Fighter
>> Is John Stossel interested in the story?

Hmmm -- I have a chance to see him in a couple of weeks. I could very easily give him a copy of BLOOD TRAIL.

We Bloodhounds and Mike on his own have bent every effort to get such coverage. Program people seem wildly interested and then they back off, as if some higher-up cut off their fingers for even thinking about exposing Billy Bentpotus. But Stossel... we shall see. Maybe the time is right. Thank you for the suggestion.

P.S. You can keep O'Reilly, for my two cents the man has a bigger ego than Mount Rushmore. This is not a story to tell for the glory of it, this is a story to tell the truth about a horrific crime.

77 posted on 01/24/2004 7:52:03 PM PST by T'wit
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To: T'wit
"Program people seem wildly interested and then they back off, as if some higher-up cut off their fingers for even thinking about exposing Billy Bentpotus. But Stossel... we shall see."

With sooo many legit angles and stories yet available to nail Bubba, it's amazing the guy still wields the kind of power Don Corleone only wishes he could ever have...

Godspeed to you and your warrior cohorts -- maybe, just maybe Stossel is approachable on this matter.

78 posted on 01/24/2004 9:08:16 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: T'wit
"Once you put diseased blood into circulation, the damage never ends. Check the files, we've covered all that."

I will, T'wit.
Am curious to learn the *kinds* of resistance those who've attempted to expose this atrocity have met & how it is this has been [successfully?] covered-up, up to now.

Many people -- & I'm one -- have been patient while always believing the day would come when the filthy, cheating, lying & quite probably murdering SOB's luck would run out.

...-BTTT-

79 posted on 01/25/2004 10:51:12 AM PST by Landru (Tagline Schmagline...)
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To: F16Fighter; Landru; thinden; All
Here's the book. Now on to a major motion picture!


80 posted on 01/25/2004 11:42:53 PM PST by T'wit ("Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature" -- Will Rogers)
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