Clinton blood scandal exposed in new film.

WASHINGTON – A documentary seven years in the making tying Bill Clinton to an Arkansas prison blood scandal that spread AIDS to thousands around the world is set to screen in Hollywood next week – renewing controversy about the long-forgotten story.

The film, which premieres at the prestigious American Film Institute film festival next Tuesday, reportedly uncovers fresh evidence about how thousands in Europe contracted AIDS and hepatitis through tainted blood deliberately shipped even after widespread problems were discovered in Canada where some 10,000 had already been infected.

"Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal," made by Kelly Duda, an Arkansas native, will reveal new details about how inmates at an Arkansas jail were paid to donate blood despite authorities knowing they had AIDS and hepatitis.

The documentary shows how senior figures in the state prison system altered prisoners' medical records to make it look like they were not carrying the deadly diseases.

"While making this documentary, I lost several things. I lost my president, my home state, my family, many friends, and my innocence," says Duda.

The film reveals how for more than two decades, the Arkansas prison system profited from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and AIDS. Thousands of unwitting victims who received transfusions of a product called "Factor 8" made from this blood died as a result.

Duda interviews victims in Canada who contracted the diseases, state prison officials, former employees, high-ranking Arkansas politicians, and inmate donors.

"In the early days of AIDS, we at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) were surprised that the hemophiliac community was infected so rapidly," said Dr. Donald Francis, former head of the AID Laboratory for the CDC. "This shocking documentary tells why."

Duda, who has worked with CNN, the Canadian Broadcasting Company and Associated Press Television in their coverage of the blood-scandal story, says he was followed, sued, burglarized and had his tires slashed while working on the documentary. He was also part of the team for Fuji-TV that produced "The Hepatitis C Epidemic: A 15-Year Government Cover-up." The program won a George Foster Peabody Award in 2003 and was watched by more than 12 million viewers in Japan.

He also worked as a consultant in two major class-action lawsuits in Europe and Japan where plasma from Arkansas' prison system showed up. He also assisted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in its investigation of the Arkansas prison plasma sales. He has also been in talks with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI about a possible investigation in the United States.

"Kelly Duda's film screams to be known about," says William Gazecki, producer-director of "WACO: The Rules of Engagement." "The blatant abuse of power, the criminal subjugation of prison inmates, and the complete absence of government oversight and accountability make for a compelling, must-see story."

"Prior to the making of 'Factor 8,' I never considered myself an investigative journalist," says Duda. "In fact, I had never written a newspaper article before in my life. I was an aspiring filmmaker who had a story thrown into his lap. Actually, it wasn't even a story at the time but a series of events that allegedly took place in my home state in the 1980s. It was a tale I didn't want to tell, but the more I looked into it, the more I found. It didn't take long before I realized that regardless of the cost and sacrifice, the story you're about to see which is a complicated one had to be told. There where quite literally lives at stake. I felt a moral responsibility, a civic duty to do something."

The organization, which distributed the blood in the 1980s, paid a fine of $4,000 for causing more than 1,000 Canadians to contract blood-borne HIV and as many as 20,000 to become infected with hepatitis C.

As part of the plea deal, Canadian Red Cross Secretary General Dr. Pierre Duplessis issued a public apology via videotape that was played in the courtroom to survivors of the victims.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Bill Clinton was at the center of a scandal in Arkansas in the 1980s involving the sale of AIDS-tainted blood to Canada, which was distributed through the Red Cross.

As governor of Arkansas, Clinton awarded a contract to Health Management Associates to provide medical care to the state's prisoners. The president of the company was a long-time friend and political ally of Clinton and later was appointed by him to the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission. Later, he was among the senior members of Clinton's 1990 gubernatorial re-election team.

The death toll from the tainted blood has grown since the figure of 3,000 was calculated in 1997, but recent estimates are not available, the Associated Press reported.

Duplessis said the organization accepted responsibility for "having distributed harmful products for those that rely on us for their health."

Prosecutors dropped criminal charges, including criminal negligence and common nuisance.

The Canadian Red Cross already has paid victims $55 million in a separate fund. Along with the fine, the charity will set aside $1.2 million for scholarships for family members of victims.

The Arkansas connection to Canada's blood scandal began with a deal Health Management Associates struck with the state allowing collection and sale of prisoners' blood in addition to treatment.

Because of the exploding AIDS crisis, U.S. regulations did not permit the sale of prisoners' blood within the country.

But HMA found a willing buyer in Montreal, which brokered a deal with Connaught, a Toronto blood-fractionator, which didn't know the source of the supplies.

Sales continued until 1983, when HMA revealed that some of the plasma might be contaminated with the AIDS virus and hepatitis. The blood was also marketed overseas.

Michael Galster, who conducted orthopedic clinics in the Arkansas prison system during the period the blood was collected, charged HMA officials knew the blood was tainted as they sold it to Canada and a half-dozen other foreign countries. He also alleged Clinton knew of the scheme and likely benefited from it financially.

"It may sound sensational, but I assure you it's true. In the process of making 'Factor 8,' I received strange phone calls, I was followed, my house was broken into, my tires slashed, and sensitive information – including my personal notes – mysteriously appeared on the Internet," recounts Duda. "I also had a gun pointed at the back of my head, there was a murder, and a key inmate informant was whisked out of state and put into isolation."

He says when he went looking for Clinton's governor's papers to find state documents relevant to his investigation, he was told that 4,000 boxes had been hidden away in private storage and could not be found.

"When I went to the Arkansas State Health Department to request records regarding disease rates at the prison and anything about the plasma program, I was stonewalled," he said. "I actually had to sue the state agency just to get access to its files that by law are supposed to be a matter of public record. When I went to the Arkansas State Police Headquarters key documents had disappeared. When complete strangers showed up out of the blue asking me what I was doing and with whom did I work for, I had to ask myself, 'What's going on here?

One thing is for certain, if I had a dollar for every time someone (in the past seven years I've been investigating this story) told me to "be careful!" I could have paid my rent several times over."

Duda says in 2004 he was sued shortly before "FACTOR 8" was to screen in Park City, Utah. A federal judge blocked the premiere. The case was eventually dismissed, but set his project back nearly two years.

Suzi Parker, writing in the Arkansas Times, described how the scandal unfolded: "At the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas penal system during the 1980s, while President Clinton was still governor, inmates would regularly cross the prison hospital's threshold to give blood, lured by the prospect of receiving $7 a pint. The ritual was creepy to behold: Platoons of prisoners lying supine on rows of cots, waiting for the needle-wielding prisoner orderly to puncture a vein and watch the clear bags fill with blood. Administrators than sold the blood to brokers, who in turned shipped it to other sates and to Japan, Italy, Spain and Canada. Despite repeated warnings from the Food and Drug Administration, Arkansas kept its prison plasma program running until 1994 when it became the very last state to cease selling its prisoners' plasma."

While working at the White House, Linda Tripp – the former assistant to both Vincent Foster and Bernard Nussbaum – said received a phone call from someone who mentioned the "tainted blood issue." The phone call came just after Foster's mysterious death. The phrase meant nothing to Tripp and when she tried to find out more from a White House computer, the database denied her access. Testifying in a Judicial Watch deposition, Tripp said, "It had been alarming to me that when I tried to enter data from a caller that I was working with on a tainted blood issue, that every time I entered a word that had to do with this particular issue, it would flash up either the word 'encrypted' or 'password required' or something to indicate the file was locked."

The Ottawa Citizen reported attorney Foster had defended a lawsuit against HMA, the Arkansas firm shipping tainted blood from prison inmates.

If you'd like to sound off on this issue, please take part in the WorldNetDaily poll.

It is stunning that Hollywood would support 2 such obvious thugs and opportunists....
I thought AIDS was one of Hollywood's defining issues....

YOO-HOO, Streisand... Spielberg. Over here!

CLINTON & THE KILLER BLOOD

THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
UNDERNEWS
By Sam Smith
February 18, 1999

In the mid-1980s, as contaminated blood flowed from
Arkansas inmates to other countries, then-Governor
W.J. Clinton sat on his hands despite evidence of
severe mismanagement in his prison system and its
medical operations. The prison medical program was
being run by Health Management Associates, which was
headed by Leonard Dunn, a man who would brag to state
police of his close ties to Clinton.

Some of the killer blood ended up in Canada where it
contributed to the deaths of an unknown number of
blood and plasma recipients. An estimated 2,000
Canadian recipients of blood and related products got
the AIDS virus between 1980 and 1985. At least 60,000
Canadians were infected with the hepatitis C virus
between 1980 and 1990. Arkansas was one of the few
sources of bad blood during this period.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has a staff of 24
working on the case. So far, investigators have
interviewed about 600 people including in the U.S.,
Germany and the Netherlands. According to the Ottawa
Citizen, the team has amassed more than 30,000
documents.

Other Arkansas plasma was sent to Switzerland, Spain,
Japan, and Italy. In a case with strong echoes of the
Arkansas scandal, a former premier of France and two
of his cabinet colleagues are currently on trial
stemming from the wrongful handling of blood
supplies. Some of the blood in the French controversy
may have come from Arkansas.

A 1992 Newsday report on the French scandal noted
that three persons had been convicted for their role
in distributing blood they knew was contaminated:
"Throughout the 1980s and later, blood was taken from
prison donors for use in blood banks despite a series
of directives warning against such a practice.
According to the report, donations from prisoners
accounted for 25 percent of all the contaminated
blood products in France. Blood from prisons was 69
times more contaminated that that of the general
population of donors."

The Arkansas blood program was also grossly
mishandled by the Food and Drug Administration. And
the scandal provides yet another insight into how the
American media misled the public about Clinton during
the 1992 campaign. The media ignored a major Clinton
scandal despite, for example, 80 articles about it in
the Arkansas Democrat in just one four-month period
of the mid-80s.

Here's how Canada's Krever Commissioner report
describes the beginnings of the problem:

"During 1981-2, the number of AIDS cases in the
United States reported to the Centers for Disease
Control in Atlanta grew at an alarming rate. The vast
majority of the reported cases were of homosexual men
and intravenous drug abusers. During 1982, cases of
AIDS transmitted through the use of blood and blood
products began to be reported.
The U.S. blood and plasma centers regularly collected
from two groups of persons who were at high risk of
contracting AIDS: homosexual men and prison inmates.
Plasma was collected at centers, licensed by the Food
and Drug Administration, in prisons in Arkansas,
Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. By way of
contrast, because of the high prevalence of hepatitis
B in prisons, the Canadian Red Cross Society had
stopped collecting donations from prison inmates in
1971."

Suzi Parker, writing in the Arkansas Times, described
the scene: "At the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas penal
system during the 1980s, while President Clinton was
still governor, inmates would regularly cross the
prison hospital's threshold to give blood, lured by
the prospect of receiving $7 a pint. The ritual was
creepy to behold: Platoons of prisoners lying supine
on rows of cots, waiting for the needle-wielding
prisoner orderly to puncture a vein and watch the
clear bags fill with blood. Administrators than sold
the blood to brokers, who in turned shipped it to
other sates and to Japan, Italy, Spain and Canada.
Despite repeated warnings from the Food and Drug
Administration, Arkansas kept its prison plasma
program running until 1994 when it became the very
last state to cease selling its prisoners' plasma.

Mike Galster, a medical practitioner whose
fictionalized account dramatically raised interest in
the blood scandal, recalls that at the Pine Bluff
unit's hospital they also took blood from prisoners.
When he raised questions about the wisdom of bleeding
sick people, he was told that even the ill had the
right to sell their blood.

Here is a time-line of this as yet too known Arkansas
horror story:

1981

The Arkansas Board of Corrections puts A.L. "Art"
Lockhart in charge of the state's troubled prisons.
An Arkansas Gazette front page feature on Lockhart
begins by noting that he is "dogged by a public
reputation as a man who runs roughshod over the
constitutionally guaranteed rights and welfare of
inmates. 'I don't why,' he said in an interview with
the Gazette. 'I don't deserve it.'"

The state's prisons are already a mess. Ten years
earlier Lockhart had taken over the notorious Cummins
facility which, according to a member of the
corrections board, was "still controlled by inmate
trusties with guns. The inmates called the shots. A
lot of experts said there was no way to take the guns
away from them without a riot. But Art did it without
spilling any blood."

But the Gazette also notes: "The prison system, and
Cummins, in particular, still is in the transition
from an institution controlled by the inmates to one
controlled by guards. On many nights at Cummins,
there are as few as half a dozen guards to watch
about 1,650 inmates."

Two years earlier, a prison monitor hired under a
federal court order, released a report saying there
was "clear and convincing evidence" that Lockhart and
other employees beat and kicked inmates needlessly
after an attempted escape from Cummins. Another
prison mediator charged that the abuse of inmates had
increased under Lockhart and that he had obstructed
efforts at prison reform.

Health Management Associates wins a contract to
provide health services to state inmates, including
running a blood plasma donor program.

The Centers for Disease Control and World Health
Organization establish that AIDS is a blood-borne
disease. CDC recommends testing and sterilization of
donor blood. The warning is widely ignored and, as a
result, according to WHO, some one million people
become infected. Twenty-two countries will eventually
have to pay compensation as a result.

FDA asks US companies not to buy prison plasma since,
due to unsafe sexual and drug practices by many
inmates, the blood has a high risk of carrying the
AIDS virus.

JUNE 1983

HMA tells FDA that 38 units of plasma from four
inmates of the Grady prison should not have been
collected because the prisoners had once tested
positive for hepatitis B despite a test at the time
of collection being negative. HMA sees the hazard as
slight and thinks there is no need to recall the
plasma. The Canadian Krever Commission will later
report that "by 1983, however, an association had
been identified between hepatitis B and AIDS; most
persons with AIDS had also been infected with
hepatitis B. There was a greater than average risk
that the 38 units of plasma from the four inmates
could transmit AIDS. Four of the units ended up in
Canada, the others were sold to corporations in
Switzerland, Spain, Japan, and Italy."

AUGUST 1983

HMA decides to withdraw the 38 units from circulation
and FDA concurs. This is the first time that
Connaught, the Canadian blood firm, has heard of any
problems. The shipping papers had only shown that the
blood came from "ADC Plasma Center, Grady, Arkansas."

By this time, however, the blood is already in
circulation and only 417 of 2409 vials are retrieved.

The same month HMA tells the FDA of a fifth inmate
with similar problems. He had given 34 units in less
than a year.

SEPTEMBER 1983

Connaught reviews its approvals for receipt of plasma
from US centers and finds that twelve have never been
properly approved. One is the prison center in Grady,
Arkansas. Other questionable blood has come from four
prisons in Louisiana. Canadian Red Cross nullifies
its contract for the blood the same day it finds this
out.

FEBRUARY 1984

FDA suspends plasma production at the Grady facility
where an average of 550-600 inmates have been giving
blood since 1967. UPI regional wire reports that FDA
finds overbleeding of inmate donors, disqualified
donors, lack of documentation of testing, and
inadequate storage. It also notes inaccurate and
incomplete storage, instances of intentional and
willful disregard for proposed standards, alteration
of records and files to conceal violations, as well
as inadequate training and ineffective supervision of
the plasma center staff. Within months, however, HMA
successfully applies for a new license after blaming
the problems on a corrupt clerk.

1985

A UPI story recounts how the largest inmate donor
program in the country -- in the Louisiana state
prison -- is coming under increased federal scrutiny
because of what is dubbed the "AIDS scare." Says the
state's secretary of corrections: "We have no
intention of shutting it down. It would have the same
impact as a major industry shutting down in a small
town: economic chaos." The president of a plasma
company is quoted as saying, "There is no scientific
evidence that prisoner plasma is worse than street
plasma." The programs had, in fact, been shut down
for six months but were reinstated after the prison
discovered foreign markets to replace a dwindling US
demand. Says the plasma company president, "I'd say
70 to 80 percent is going overseas. There's a good
market for it over there, and they don't ask where it
came from."

FDA finally requires testing of donor blood. Tainted
blood distribution will continue inside the US until
1986. Thereafter, contaminated blood stocks will
still be shipped from US companies to other
countries.

Prosecuting attorney Wayne Matthews, after a two
month state police probe, finds no evidence of drug
trafficking in the Arkansas prison system. The
allegation is that HMA employees are diverting drugs
from the department's pharmacy and selling them to
inmates, and that prisoners who 'knew too much' about
drug trafficking were killed or allowed to die.
"There's just absolutely no evidence whatsoever,"
says Matthews.

JANUARY 1986

The Corrections board agrees to have HMA's contract
reviewed by outside parties. A media account notes
that "HMA has been frequently in the news lately
because of allegations by inmates of improper medical
treatment." Among the charges: HMA hired a
Mississippi doctor who was refused a permanent
license in Arkansas. The doctor had lost his
Mississippi license for "habitual personal use of
narcotic drugs."

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports: "Governor Bill
Clinton recently asked the Department to review
health care services provided by HMA after
allegations were raised that several inmates died
because of a lack of medical care and that the leg of
at least one inmate was amputated as a result of
improper care. Department Director A. L. (Art)
Lockhart, who earlier said HMA was doing a
'satisfactory' job, said Thursday a review of HMA
could reveal some problems. ~~~ During the discussion
of HMA and the allegations that have been made
against it, [Corrections] Board member Don Smith of
Pine Bluff excused himself because his law firm
represents HMA."

MARCH 1986

Clinton tells a radio audience that there is no
solution to problems with running a prison, only the
process of dealing with the problems as they arise.
He also says that "there is no evidence of systematic
abuse for which the administration is responsible
that I can see. If I did, I'd try to do something
about it."

State Representative Bobby Glover charges that
inmates are forced to participate in homosexual
activities, that there have been gang rapes, that
marijuana is openly smoked and that "home brew" is
being sold for $7 to $10 a gallon. He disputes a
recent prison department report that claimed only 6
per cent of the inmate population was participating
in illicit drug use. Glover says he also is looking
into reports of gambling, the theft and personal use
of department property by employees, bid rigging,
three questionable deaths, the lack of medical
services, the physical abuse of inmates by guards and
other prison officials, and bribes to obtain work
release assignments or favorable classification.

Sandra Kurjiaka, director of the American Civil
Liberties Union in Arkansas, says that there is a
"real slavery problem" in the state correction
department and that changes need to be made. Kurjiaka
says an attitude exists that allows inmates to be
raped and brutalized and that it exists with the
consent of the governor, the correction board and the
public.

APRIL 86

Clinton tells State Police chief Tommy Goodwin to
begin a full scale investigation into reports of
criminal conduct within the prison system. Says he
finds them "very disturbing." Clinton makes his
announcement after meeting for an hour with Goodwin
and Rep. Glover. "Rep. Glover has communicated to me
and Col. Goodwin some very serious allegations."
Clinton says the state police "has resources" to
investigate and Goodwin promises to assign at least
eight investigators.

MAY 1986

Stories circulate about an alleged $25,000 bribe
being paid to a prison board official to obtain a new
contract for HMA. One witness tells the state police
that the HMA board was angry about the extortion.
This is all denied in a series of state police
interviews with HMA and prison officials. It is
claimed that the story arose from the attorney
Richard Mays being hired for that same amount to
serve for two years as an ombudsman for HMA. No
contract or other written evidence of this agreement
is ever produced.

What did Mays do in this job? According to HMA
medical director Francis Henderson in a state police
interview, "Mr Mays has thus far performed his duties
in a very capable manner. He has met with us on three
or four occasions and has mediated in some problem
areas we have had. He has met with inmates and worked
out some difficulties they had in the form of
grievances with medical treatment services."

Henderson also describes his efforts to obtain a
buyer for the plasma: "Historically this [was] the
worst possible time to do it. I called all over the
world and finally got one group in Canada that would
take the contract."

Corrections board chair Woodson Walker is also
interviewed by state police. According to the
interview notes, he states that "he had had direct
contacts with Governor Clinton throughout the
selection process and that the Governor was deeply
concerned with HMA's past performance and the
deficiencies found by both the State Health
Department and the Arkansas State Police Investigator
of [sic] late 1984." Asked by Clinton for his
recommendation, Walker states that after "taking
everything into prospective [sic] he advised the
Governor that he had decided to go with HMA ~~~ but
only if a safeguard in the form of an ombudsman was
included. The ombudsman was completely my idea and
Governor Clinton advised me that he definitely
approved. I was asked to make several suggestions as
to who this ombudsman might be and among others
recommended Judge Richard Mays and Judge David Hale,
both of Little Rock. Hale was white and Mays was
black but races was not a major consideration in
these recommendations. As it turned out, Judge Hale
declined. . . "

Hale would later become famous in the Whitewater
scandal. Mays would also crop up again several times
in the Clinton saga. A long-time Clinton supporter,
he would gain posts both on the state supreme court
and on the prison board. More curiously, he would
show up as David Hale's attorney when the FBI got a
subpoena to raid Hale's files for Whitewater
documents -- issued on July 20, 1993, the day Vincent
Foster died. [For yet another Mays link to Clinton,
jump to 1994]

From state police notes of an interview with former
Cummins guard Jackie Cummings: "Jackie Cummings
further stated that he had been dismissed from his
job at the Cummins Unit because he had not been a
'team player.' When asked to provide additional
information that would help investigators look into a
situation such as his, Cummings stated that he would
say no further, but that he only wants to 'get my job
back.' Cummings advised both investigators that he
had gone to the Office of Governor Bill Clinton and
had met with him personally and was told by Clinton
that he could do nothing about the situation at the
Cummins Unit because it would cause him political
harm."

Leonard Dunn, president of HMA, is interviewed by
state police. Investigator S. R. Probasco notes that
Dunn explained that he "was the financial portion of
the corporation as well as the political arm. Dunn
advised that he had been a former member of the State
Claims commission under Governor Pryor and that he
was close to Governor Clinton as well as the majority
of state politicians presently in office. Mr. Dunn
explained that he was very fond of politics and that
he was very active.

"Dunn stated to these investigators that the entire
matter of trying to obtain a contact for HMA was
considered to him to be part of negotiation and not
in any form of pressure by the State Corrections
Board or the Governor's Office. When asked
specifically about contacts from the Governor's
Office, Mr. Dunn stated that he did have
conversations with both Governor Clinton and Mrs.
Betsey Wright to assure them that HMA wanted to what
was right. ~~~ Dunn stated that he was advised that
the Governor's office was very concerned about
problems HMA was having but was told to compete like
anyone else if they wanted the penitentiary
contract."

Incidentally, Dunn is chair of a holding company that
will later purchase two branches of Jim McDougal's
failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association.
He will also be named to the Arkansas Industrial
Development Commission.

JUNE 27, 1986

The Institute for Law and Policy Planning, asked by
the corrections board in March to study allegations
of malfeasance in the prison system, presents its
report to Governor Clinton and the board. The report
states that that HMA has "consistently failed to
provide the management system and medical services
specifically called for in the contract." It also
states that HMA and ADC "have only recently developed
protocol and procedures for handling AIDS cases, and
are currently developing a refined approach to AIDS
screening and testing." Among numerous deficiencies,
ILLP finds HMA has failed to provide the required
number of doctor hours, the head of HMA is too
overcommitted to give proper medical supervision, the
enforcement of the medical contract has been
inadequate, the program "fails to meet many
significant professional standards," HMA has not
followed state requirements, it has used inmates in
prohibited medical jobs, and its record-keeping has
been lacking."

JULY 30 1986

HMA is cleared of wrong-dong by the State Police.
Prison officials are charged with just two
misdemeanors and one felony.

JULY 31, 1986

The corrections board finds HMA in violation of its
two year contract and placed on 90-day probation. The
contract will eventually be taken over by Pine Bluffs
Biologicals.

AUGUST 1986

Clinton decides not to ask AL "Art" Lockhart --
director of the state prison system -- to resign. He
also denies being directly involved in the renewal of
the contract for HMA. He says he didn't talk with
Dunn until after the decision was made to give HMA
the contract again. All he told Dunn, Clinton claims,
is that HMA should be willing to accept an outside
monitor and should work to improve patient care.

Rep. Glover, who has asked for Lockhart's
resignation, says he has shown "a complete lack of
administrative abilities." Clinton refuses to respond
to Glover saying he should have taken the matter up
with the Board of Corrections. He said he had "bent
over backwards to try accommodate" Glover and accuses
him of refusing to accept the state police
investigation because "he had decided how it was
suppose to come out before it was done."

1987

The last year improperly treated blood and plasma is
distributed in Canada. The government provides
compensation for harmed patients.

1989

The Committee of Ten Thousand -- named for the
estimated 10,000 Americans infected with HIV by the
blood industry -- is formed. Writing in POZ seven
years later, COTT's president Corey Dubin says, "For
years the manufacturers of blood products and the
regulators at the FDA persuaded the hemophilia
community as well as the general public that their
infections were a 'tragic yet unavoidable mistake.'
We now know that this is absolutely not the case and
that doing business as usual from 1982 to 1985
consigned thousands of people with hemophilia to the
ravages of AIDS. ~~~ Internal drug company memos
demonstrate that officials understood the impact that
blood tainted by this pathogen could have on people
with hemophilia as early as mid-1982, but they failed
to warn either our doctors or us. The industry was
also targeting for plasma collection groups with a
high incidence of hepatitis B -- gay men and
prisoners -- that the CDC had by then identified as
likely to have AIDS."

MAY 1993

Two separate tainted blood probes -- one by a
California investigator and another by the Canadian
government -- lead to the door of the Arkansas
governor's office, now occupied by Jim Guy Tucker.
Both are informed that all the governor's papers were
removed when he left office and that they should
contact the White House legal counsel's office. What
happens next is not known but presumably they make
contact with Vince Foster, the man in the legal
counsel's office who knew Arkansas and who had been
involved in the prison system and who may, at one
point, have represented HMA.

JULY 1993

Vince Foster dies under mysterious circumstances.

A day or two after Foster's death, the New York Post
will report much later, someone calls a little-known
phone number at the White House counsel's office
where Mr. Foster worked. "The man said he had some
information that might be important," writes
columnist Maggie Gallagher, who did not name her
source or identify the official who took the call.
"Something had upset Vince Foster greatly just days
before he died. Something about 'tainted blood' that
both Vince Foster and President Clinton knew about,
this man said."

1994

Richard Mays, the "ombudsman" in the 1980s prison
health scandal, crops up again, as described in a
report from the House Government Reform and Oversight
Committee:

"Charlie Trie was first solicited to contribute to
the DNC in connection with the June 22, 1994,
Presidential Gala in Washington, D.C. Trie was
solicited to give $100,000 to the DNC, even though he
had never made any significant political
contributions previously. No one at the DNC
demonstrated any concern about taking $100,000 from
an obscure Arkansas restaurateur with little apparent
wealth. Trie was rewarded with an immediate entree
into the world of Washington insiders and
presidential intimates, and the DNC was rewarded with
badly-needed campaign cash.

"Trie was solicited to make his first contributions
to the DNC by Richard Mays, a close friend of the
President from Arkansas. Mays had been appointed to
the Arkansas bench by Governor Clinton, and was also
a longtime major DNC donor and fundraiser. Mays
claims that he knew Trie from patronizing his
restaurant in Little Rock. Mays claimed not to recall
the exact circumstances of his solicitation of Trie,
but did state that he 'had the distinct impression
that [Trie] was in a position to contribute, and
wanted to make a contribution.' Mays says he based
his conclusion that Trie was in a 'position to
contribute' to the DNC on the fact that Trie was
traveling between Little Rock and Washington, D.C.:

"Question: When you say "in a position to
contribute," do you mean he had sufficient money to
contribute?

"Mays: I felt he did.

"Question: And how did you get that impression?

"Mays: I donít know how I got that impression, but
frequently, he seemed like he was traveling
extensively, you know, I knew he owned that Chinese
restaurant down there, and he apparently had engaged
in some business, other business interests. I really
didnít have a specific judgment that, in fact, he
could, but I certainly thought it was worth talking
to him about it.

***

"Question: Would you ever see him anywhere other than
D.C. or Little Rock?
"Mays: I donít recall that I have. I mean, I am not
saying I havenít, but I donít recall."

"Mays asked Trie what he could contribute, and Trie
told him $100,000. Mays claims that he was not
surprised by Trieís offer of $100,000, even though
this was the largest contribution he had ever
solicited. Trieís $100,000 contribution was used for
the DNCís Health Care Campaign, which was a public
campaign to promote the Presidentís health care
legislative proposal.

"At this point, Mays claimed he still had no concern
that a political novice with little apparent wealth
had pledged $100,000 to the DNC. Rather than
conducting any background research of Trie, or
looking into the source of Trieís funds, he
introduced Trie to Terry McAuliffe, then the Finance
Chairman of the DNC. Mays set up a breakfast meeting
between McAuliffe and Trie. At this meeting, Trie
confirmed that he would make a $100,000 contribution
to the DNC, and asked only that he be prominently
seated at the June 22 gala. When asked if he ever had
a concern about the source of Trieís contributions,
Mays responded, 'Why would I have some concern?'"

1994

Arkansas finally stops selling prisoner's plasma.

1995

Four blood company officials are convicted in Germany
of distributing HIV tainted blood and derivatives.
The government admits a cover-up. The former owner of
a plasma testing lab goes on trial for murder in the
deaths of three people treated with AIDS-tainted
blood products.

1996

Japan, which has never discarded its contaminated
blood and plasma, criminally charges a pharmaceutical
company and a government adviser for the distribution
of tainted blood matter.

1999

"This I know. Without the governor's support and
protection, this disease-ridden system would have
been shut down by 1922" -- Mike Galster to Suzi
Parker

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--------------------------

Tainted-blood sleuth firebombed

Intimidation campaign suspected as Arkansas clinic razed,
Montreal office ransacked

by Mark Kennedy
The Ottawa Citizen
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/990520/2621916.html
Monday May 31, 1999

The controversial story involving tainted plasma from Arkansas
prisoners that was shipped to Canada in the 1980s while Bill
Clinton was state governor has taken a mysterious and chilling
new turn.

Two crimes that occurred within hours of each other Tuesday
night, hundreds of kilometres apart, have raised questions about
whether someone is trying to intimidate or silence those who are
asking questions about the prison-blood fiasco.

In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, someone firebombed a prosthetics clinic
owned by Michael Galster, who has been pushing hard for a U.S.
government investigation. The clinic was burned to its shell and
fire officials, who found a gas container in Mr. Galster's attic
-- where he kept his documents -- say they're "90-per-cent sure"
the fire was arson.

In Montreal, someone broke into the offices of the Quebec chapter
of the Canadian Hemophilia Society, which recently unearthed
documents that showed Finance Minister Paul Martin was a board
member of the corporation that owned Connaught Laboratories, the
company that fractionated and distributed the Arkansas prison
plasma in Canada.

Hemophilia Society officials say thieves stole a computer and
three telephones. They also stole documents from a box labeled
"Hepatitis C, Krever Commission, Reform of the blood system,
HIV-AIDS."

Police are investigating both incidents.

Mike McCarthy, a Canadian hemophiliac at the forefront of pushing
for answers into the prison plasma scandal, says he's convinced
the two crimes are connected.

"It's too much of a coincidence," he said, adding that someone is
worried Mr. Galster and the victims are probing too close to the
truth.

"They're trying to find out what we know and erase the trail if
they can."

"I think they're also sending a message. They're trying to scare
us into backing off. They're trying to put the fear of God into
us, that if we pursue the truth it can get worse. That the next
action might not just be buildings and records."

The RCMP are examining the prison-blood scheme as part of their
criminal investigation into the tainted-blood scandal. RCMP Cpl.
Gilles Moreau said yesterday that the Mounties are willing to
review any evidence local police in Montreal and Arkansas
uncover.

"We do not work in a vacuum," said Cpl. Moreau. "If there's
information that is linked to the blood distribution system for
the period that we're investigating, we're certainly not going to
close our eyes to that information. We welcome any information
that comes our way."

The story of how prison plasma was collected and found its way
into the bloodstreams of unsuspecting Canadians stands as one of
the most shocking aspects of the tainted-blood tragedy.

It's not known how many Canadians contracted HIV and hepatitis C
from the plasma of Arkansas prisoners, who were paid $7 a unit,
although it's likely that several hundred people were infected by
the tainted products.

At the time, U.S. companies that fractionate blood products had
stopped buying prison blood because it was widely understood
that, since many inmates practised unsafe sex or were intravenous
drug addicts, their blood posed a high risk of carrying the AIDS
virus.

In Arkansas, a private firm, Health Management Associates, was
given a contract by the state government to collect the
prisoners' plasma. The firm had difficulty locating a U.S.
customer but found a willing buyer in a Montreal blood broker,
Continental Pharma Cryosan, which then sold the plasma to
Toronto-based Connaught Laboratories. Connaught apparently didn't
realize the plasma had come from prisoners.

Canadians learned of the prison plasma scheme in 1995, when
Justice Horace Krever's inquiry unearthed some aspects of the
story. Last September, the Citizen revealed further details.

Also last fall, Mr. Galster went public with his accusations
about the Arkansas prison system, where he conducted orthopedic
clinics during the 1980s. Mr. Galster published a book, Blood
Trail, which is a fictionalized account of how the prison-plasma
program worked.

He wrote under a pseudonym because he feared reprisals. Soon
after media stories began appearing, he revealed his true
identity. In February, he organized and participated in a news
conference in Washington where Canadian victims called for a
probe by the U.S. Justice Department and announced plans to
depose Mr. Clinton.

Mr. Galster said yesterday he is reeling with shock from the
firebombing of his clinic, which he has owned for 21 years.

He said he worked until about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and was later
called at home about the fire.

"I'm trying not to get too paranoid about it. I pray to God that
it was just a coincidence."

Mr. Galster said that if someone is trying to silence him, it
won't work.

"They're barking up the wrong tree. They can't erase the victims
who are seeking the truth."

Pine Bluff's fire marshal, Capt. Randy Rushing, said the state
crime lab has been called in to help with the arson
investigation.

Capt. Rushing said fire officials have a "couple of leads," but
have no evidence on a motive.

In Montreal, hemophilia society officials are puzzled.

In recent days, the group learned that Mr. Martin was a director
of the Canada Development Corporation (CDC) from 1981 to 1986 --
the key years of the tainted blood scandal. The CDC was created
with federal seed money to promote the country's leading
industries and owned a variety of firms, including Connaught.

The Citizen published details of the story on Saturday, and
indicated that Mr. Martin has no recollection of any discussions
about tainted blood while a CDC board member. The article stated
that Mr. Martin's connection to the CDC had been "unearthed" by
the hemophilia society.

Just three days later, the break-in occurred. Thieves entered the
office of executive director Pierre Desmarais and were selective
in what they took.

Mr. Desmarais said that because the thieves stole documents --
not just computer equipment -- it appears they were looking for
information, not goods.

"It's really frightening. This is the kind of thing you see in
movies."

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