Posted on 10/31/2005 6:42:51 AM PST by Mikey
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.
Previous stories:
Canada's Red Cross guilty in HIV scandal
'Blood Trail' author's clinic burns
Previous columns:
Blood scandal and Clinton's plumbers
Clinton's Arkansas blood scandal
Joseph Farah is editor and chief executive officer of WorldNetDaily.com.
If you want it to spread, go 'digg' it.
bump
Bump for later.
Thanks Arthur!!! At long last is right. I know most of the hemopheliacs are Factor 8's but 20% of them are Factor 9's like my son (and now my grandson). The Factor 8's got co-infected in phenomenal numbers. Many many have died who have NOT been included in the statistics. My son as you know is Hep C positive. We thank God everyday that he is fine so far. Liver function tests normal. Fortunately he does not drink. But, that said, he is turning 34 this month and he would have had to be infected likely 25 years ago at least. To explain it to someone who has never lived it, it's like living on the edge of a volcano. You just never know when it will erupt. Some form of justice is very long overdue. The beauracratic weasels here (The Ministers of Health from each Province) had to receive immunity from Prosecution before they would ever testify or open their files or cooperate in any way. The Federal Govt. did everything they could stop the Judge who ran the Investigatory Commission on this. In the end the Lawyers won 1.1 BILLION. The Lawyers were paid multiple MILLIONS right off the bat. My son to date has received the sum total of $30,000.00. Clinton should be prosecuted and spend the rest of his life in jail. He's a MULTIPLE MURDERER in reality.
However, if justice is not done on this earth, it will still be done. CO PS: When will this film be shown do you know?
OK folks. Check out post 64. This is our friend, Canadian Outrage. SHE WAS THERE. Tainted Blood is NEVER going to be forgotten! LOOK at what our president got away with!!!!!!!!
Thank you for pouring your heart out. If you feel up to it, please bear with me a bit more, either now or later. Just as your child and grandchild have a disease, so does the US. It is a very dangerous disease.
"I know most of the hemopheliacs are Factor 8's but 20% of them are Factor 9's like my son (and now my grandson)."
I'm very sorry this happened to your family. This is one of the lowest moments in US history, comparable with Sherman's March and arguably lower than that.
"Many many have died who have NOT been included in the statistics."
One is one too many. This is shocking enough as it stands, so shocking in fact, that I believe US citizens are incredulous, filled with disbelief and denial. [Not to mention the 800 FBI files raided by Hillary's employee, Craig Livingstone].
"To explain it to someone who has never lived it, it's like living on the edge of a volcano. You just never know when it will erupt."
That's where we all are. It's just that some see it and others don't.
"Some form of justice is very long overdue."
Absolutely. It will be a tough hoe to tow, however, to have Clinton retroactively impeached, as I understand it. We may need an amendment to the US Constitution to nail Clinton on this, and I'm all for such a notion. Sad to say, Sandy Berglar's 'punishment' with a wet noodle and air whip is not a good indication that Bush will lift a finger for justice. No time soon.
I imagine you and your's are tempted to go to the World Court to get Clinton and your own Canadian politicians punished. But the sad truth is, the UN will do nothing that hurts a leftist. And if they did start nailing politicians in free countries [somewhat free at least], it would lead to very dangerous times. But I wouldn't blame you one bit. I know I'd be tempted.
"The beauracratic weasels here (The Ministers of Health from each Province) had to receive immunity from Prosecution before they would ever testify or open their files or cooperate in any way."
Looking at the DeLay indictment and Scooter Libby, and knowing that a number of conservatives in Canada ended up in jail, I imagine you have some insight to share with us Yanks.
"The Federal Govt. did everything they could stop the Judge who ran the Investigatory Commission on this. In the end the Lawyers won 1.1 BILLION. The Lawyers were paid multiple MILLIONS right off the bat. My son to date has received the sum total of $30,000.00."
Golly gee. The lawyers were essentially paid off?
"Clinton should be prosecuted and spend the rest of his life in jail. He's a MULTIPLE MURDERER in reality."
How can any logical mind argue that point? Does my nation deserve to be immune from the World Court if we allow this injustice to stand? No we don't deserve it. I still want that immunity, but it doesn't stem from pride in my country, I can tell you that.
Yes. It is all too easy to forget that real people, with all-too-fragile human lives, lie behind this story, and others we all know about.
Whether justice will ever be served is beyond my ability to even hazard a guess, but we can hope that in the fullness of time, more will be done. My Father had an interesting take about why the evil among us seem to prosper- he always said, "I guess they just didn't live long enough for it to catch up with them."
May all involved on the wrong side of this story have long, long lives...
The Clintons are pure evil and yet our evil press protects them.
It's amazing this guy wasn't a victim of ARKANCIDE.
"I guess they just didn't live long enough for it to catch up with them. May all involved on the wrong side of this story have long, long lives..."
Justice delayed.
It's time for an omnibus amendment. At the top of the list: "Anyone who allowed tainted prison blood [leading to the deaths of thousands] to be sold should be investigated directly by the Supreme Court. If found guilty, they should be given the death penalty immmediately, no appeal."
Correction:
"Anyone who, after being warned by the FDA, allowed tainted prison blood to be sold [leading to the deaths of thousands] should be investigated directly by the Supreme Court. If found guilty, they should be given the death penalty immmediately, no appeal."
The clintons will be prosecuted for their many crimes only when we have purged the government of all the sickening, self-serving careerists. In the meantime, we must make certain that the voters learn who these two animals are so that they never again achieve any real position of power.
OTOH, notwithstanding improved blood screening, etc., poetic justice may be easier in coming. You may recall that Arthur Ashe, the tennis player, died of AIDS contracted during open-heart surgery in NYC.
Part 3: If a politician is suspected of pardoning or giving clemency to terrorists who kill in the name of some foreign or Islamic cause, the Supreme Court must try that politician as well. The procedure is the same as Part 2, but there is simply no excuse for pardoning such terrorists, so monetary reward is not a factor in this decision. But if a family member or friend is suspected by the Supreme Court to have influenced this politician for some unscrupulous reason, that family member is also to be held in jail, no bail, and the CIA is to assassinate said family member or friend for fleeing the country if found guilty.
Part 4. If the Supreme Court is suspected of abusing the powers bestowed upon it by this amendment, then a Simple Majority vote by the House of Representatives leads to the release of a suspect from jail, and the senate must hold a hearing on the alleged abuse in reaction to the House decision. A two thirds vote by the Senate can remove justices from the bench for abusing this new power. If, however, the Senate does not remove anyone from the Supreme Court bench, then the trial proceeds, although the suspects cannot be punished until the House overturns it's previous decision, if ever.
This amendment is retroactive, and no one can pardon these suspects. The only body with any power to spare the lives of people found guilty is the House of Representatives [as noted above].
We are getting closer, I think. The rats keep rattling the GOP's cage, don't they? Indictment of DeLay, indictment of Scooter, etc. None of that will smooth the waters. The GOP is slowly beginning to realize it has friends in the New Media. When this levy breaks, I suspect it will be like Led Zepplin's song.
I'm waiting for the Documentary Academy Award to be issued.
Oh.
Wait.
Micheal Moore got that for work of fiction.
|
If not Streisand and Spielberg, maybe Gere.... Does Richard Gere know about this? He may have the guts and character to take it on....
Richard Gere stunned fellow liberals Monday by suggesting that President Bush is doing a better job of fighting AIDS than President Bill Clinton did.
|
Suggestion: let's post an open letter to Richard Gere....
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.