Posted on 07/22/2007 4:36:02 AM PDT by GFritsch
14 yers ago today, on July 20, 1993, the body of Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. was found in a Virginia park, next to a civil war cannon, with an unidentified revolver lodged in the right hand. Vincent Foster died of a small-caliber gunshot wound to his head.
Vince Foster was not only deputy White House counsel but also the personal attorney to Bill and Hillary Clinton. On the night of Foster’s death, top Clinton aides made a frantic effort to enter and remove documents from his West Wing office. In the days that followed, federal investigators were stymied in their investigation of Foster’s office and strange death.
The following happened within weeks of his death. Vince Foster finally files the missing Whitewater tax returns. On July 19, FBI director William Sessions is fired. Clinton personally orders him by phone to turn in his FBI property and leave headquarters.
That evening, Clinton security aide Jerry Parks' wife Jane says she overhears a heated telephone conversation with Vince Foster in which her husband says, "You can't give Hillary those files, they've got my name all over them."
On July 20, Clinton names Louis Freeh as Sessions' successor.
That same day, the FBI raids David Hale's Little Rock office and seizes documents including those relating to Capital-Management.
Just hours after the search warrant authorizing the raid is signed by a federal magistrate in Little Rock, Vince Foster apparently drives to Ft. Marcy Park.
Foster was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound to the head in Ft. Marcy Park. His unoccupied car, a 1989 Honda, was found in the park's parking lot. Several witnesses - before and after the arrival of the park police - have claimed they saw a briefcase in Foster's car.
A so-called suicide note was found in an office briefcase that had been searched and found to be empty after Foster’s death. The note was torn into 27 pieces. Yet an FBI examination found no trace of Foster’s fingerprints on the note and three independent handwriting experts determined that Foster's suicide note, was a forgery.
The Raid of Vince Foster’s Office While the U.S. Park Police studied the body, Foster's office at the White House was being looted.
Secret Service agent Henry O' Neill watched as Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, Margaret Williams, carried boxes of papers out of Vincent Foster's office before the Park Police showed up to seal it, yet the official identification of Vincent Foster's body by Craig Livingstone did not take place until 10PM!
Another Secret Serviceman saw Craig Livingston remove items from Vincent Foster's office in violation of the official seal. Witnesses also saw Bernard Nussbaum in Foster's office as well. Three witnesses noted that Patsy Thomason, director of the White House's Office of Administration, was desperate to find the combination to Vincent Foster's safe. Ms. Thomason finally opened the safe, apparently with the help of a special "MIG" technical team signed into the White House in the late hours. Two envelopes reported to be in the safe by Foster's secretary Deborah Gorham, addressed to Janet Reno and to William Kennedy III, were never seen again. When asked the next day regarding rumors of the safe opening, Mack McLarty told reporters Foster's office did not even have a safe, a claim immediately shot down by former occupants of that office.
The next day, when the Park Police arrived for the official search of Vincent Foster's office, they were shocked to learn that Nussbaum, Thomason and Williams had entered the office. Conflicts channeled through Janet Reno's Department of Justice resulted in the Park Police merely sitting outside Foster's office while Bernard Nussbaum continued his own search of Foster's office. During this search, he opened and upended Vincent Foster's briefcase, showing it to be empty. Three days later, it would be claimed that this same briefcase was where the torn up suicide note was discovered.
The boxes of documents removed from Foster's office by Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, Margaret Williams, were taken to the private residence area of the White House! Eventually, only 54 pages emerged.
One set of billing records, under subpoena for two years, and thought to have originated in Foster's office, turned up unexpectedly in the private quarters of the White House, with Hillary's fingerprints on them.
So, who ordered the office looting?
Bill Clinton was unavailable, being on camera with Larry King. But Hillary Clinton, who had only the day before diverted her planned return to Washington D.C. to Little Rock, was on the phone from Little Rock to someone at the White House in the moments before the looting took place.
The death of Vince Foster is very unsettling. There is an amazing amount of inconsistent information surrounding his death, the investigation and the autopsy. And, of course, his close relationship with Hillary was intriguing. Many books have claimed that the two were lovers for several years.
To date, several unanswered questions still remain. What did the White House know and when did they know it? Another question: If Foster was not identified as a White House official until at least an hour and a half after police arrived, why were police officers associated with an elite federal unit on the scene within 45 minutes? Evidence suggests that White House officials were informed of Foster's death, at least an hour before they claim to have been initially notified.
The FBI never officially investigated the case but simply signed off on the Park Police "probe." The bureau had little choice.
Later, Robert Fiske, selected by Clinton’s counsel Bernie Nussbaum and Janet Reno, quickly confirmed the Park Police probe as a suicide. Yet, no fewer than three of the paramedics on the scene indicated in reports or testimony that the crime scene was consistent with a murder scene, not a suicide.
? A careful FBI microscopic investigation of Foster’s shoes found not a trace of soil or grass stains on them, though he supposedly walked several hundred yards through wooded Fort Marcy Park to where his body was found. [Years later, Starr’s investigation found plenty of soil and grass stains. Rodriguez charged that the shoes were tampered with to produce such "evidence."]
? Foster was found with little blood around his body – and despite claims that he fired the gun into his mouth, practically no blood was found on the front of his shirt.
? Foster was found with a 1913 revolver no one in his family could claim, with two serial numbers, made from the parts of three or more guns. None of Foster’s fingerprints were found on the gun. The bullet that supposedly killed Foster was never found, despite intensive searches.
? The first witness to find the body insisted that there had been no gun near the body. The memory in Foster's pager had been erased. Critical evidence began to vanish. Many witnesses were harassed. Others were simply ignored. There were even suggestions that the body had been moved, and a Secret Service memo surfaced which reported that Foster's body had been found in his car! The official reports were self-contradictory.
? All of the X-rays taken during the autopsy are missing. Complete crime scene photos don’t exist. The Park Police said all the photos were "accidentally" overexposed. A series of close-up Polaroids, which Favish is suing for, remain.
? A briefcase in the car of Vincent Foster was removed after U.S. Park Police arrived at his death scene. The briefcase, which may have carried important documents, was never listed on official evidence reports compiled by park police who conducted the first investigation into the White House deputy counsel's death.
Hillary Clinton was trying to gain leverage over her husband, possibly in relation to future divorce proceedings. It is possible Mrs. Clinton wanted to get to the bottom of persistent rumours about her husband's philandering before subjecting herself and her daughter to the media glare of a presidential campaign. At the time, Mrs Clinton and Vince Foster were partners at the Rose Law firm.
Did Hillary Clinton have an affair with Little Rock lawyer Vincent Foster? According to retired Arkansas State Trooper Larry Patterson, "There is no doubt in my mind that there was a long, ongoing sexual relationship between Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster."
Patterson, who guarded the Clintons for more than six years, made the new disclosures on the audiotape set "More than Sex: The Secrets of Bill and Hillary Clinton Revealed"
Patterson said that on one occasion, at a birthday party for Hillary Clinton, he saw Foster touch Hillary in private areas of the body twice. Patterson said his belief about Hillary and Vince was formed after years of observation during the frequent meetings between the two, when Bill was out of town, and the stories of other troopers.
Patterson gives eyewitness details of several occasions upon which he saw Vince and Hillary in compromising situations.
On the day of Vince Foster’s death, Patterson said he learned about the death before the Park Police even found Foster’s body and hours before the White House said they were informed. Patterson’s information, corroborated by another trooper, exposes a cover-up bigger than Watergate.
A case arose from an overall conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection with federal investigations into the death of deputy White House counsel Vincent W. Foster.
Patrick Knowlton was in Ft. Marcy Park the afternoon that Vincent Foster died. What Knowlton saw and what happened to him afterwards is one of the most disturbing stories of the whole Clinton saga. You can read the testimony here
Miguel Rodriguez was a prosecutor on the staff of Kenneth Starr. His attempts to uncover the truth in the Vincent Foster death case were repeatedly foiled, and he was the subject of planted stories undermining his credibility and implying that he was unstable. Rodriguez eventually resigned.
After learning of Fosters death, Jane Parks, the wife of Jerry Parks claims that her husband said, "I'm a dead man". Parks had collected detailed data on Clinton's sexual escapades, including pictures and dates. His wife claims federal agents subsequently removed his files and computer, and that Bill Clinton still owed him $81,000.
(Note. Two months later, Jerry Parks is found murdered gangland-style )
I posted it trying to show ‘This is compounded by the fact the family seems to be satisfied with the results.’.
I really don’t think a wife crying by her husband’s grave is a Clinton hit piece.
I wouldn’t doubt the Rose Law firm remarks are...but my post was in reference to Lisa’s state of mind.
The main point here is that many of us believe the Clintons had Foster killed. We also believe that all of those 50 plus bodies that are lying in their hasty wake enroute to the White House were murdered.
Putting these felons in the W-H for another term would be like letting Teddy drive young girls home (or wherever) drunk.
Then there's Madeleine Albright and the surgeon general, Jocelyn Elders.
I stood at that spot with Patrick Knowlton one Saturday. He went through the details of the day and the events after that day. He told us about the interviewe by the FBI and the days in court.
They exchanged hellos and then the White House couple went on their way.
As they were driving on to their final destination, Bill put his arm around Hillary and said, "Well, honey, if you had stayed with him, you would now be the wife of a service station owner."
She smirked and replied, "No! If I had stayed with him, HE would be the President of the United States!"
We reached the infernal depths with the clintonistas.
I cannot believe anyone could possibly conceive of putting these criminals in the WH again.
Where’s Craig Livingstone today and what is he doing for a living?
He fell off the face of the earth? Seriously does anyone know...?
The factual errors/misstatements reveal the author's interest in whitewashing the Clinton's.
I suspect we'll see more of these stories as Hillary moves towards the White House.
(And unless a tsunami such as 9-11 hits again, she has it in the bag :^( ....)
We reached the infernal depths with the clintonistas.
I cannot believe anyone could possibly conceive of putting these criminals in the WH again.”
Amen
I say this because (A) the Constitution will limit your terms if you ascend to the presidency through unelected means (death, impeachment, or resignation of the elected president) and (B) Hillary is saying that Bill will have powers as she did in his White House.
This is clearly a violation of the intent of this amendment.
Push the Constitutional Crisis question in the debates. “How can you legally serve AGAIN?” NO THIRD TERM.
Also the public is getting sick and tired of alternating oligarchies of the Clintons and the Bushes.
Also the public is getting sick and tired of alternating oligarchies of the Clintons and the Bushes.
Yeah but even moreso - the public is sure sick of the Dems controlling Congress!
If the Clinton’s are never held accountable....then this is all a farce. JMO.
I tried the Wikipedia thing, and there's scant mention of him then, let alone now.
I understand that Hilary is famous for going off on Blacks and Jews.
I am half expecting a tape to surface during this campaign where she is caught cussing Blacks and Jews.
John
From the Starr report:
"In debris collected from Mr. Foster's clothing, the FBI Laboratory reported finding two blond to light brown head hairs of Caucasian origin that were suitable for comparison purposes and dissimilar to those of Mr. Foster. the hairs did not appear to have been forcibly removed. Hair evidence can become important or relevant in a criminal investigation when there is a known suspect and a significant evidentiary question whether the suspect can be forensically linked to another person (a rape or murder victim, for example) or to a particular location. If the suspect is a stranger to the victim or the scene, the presence of the suspect's hair is relevant in assessing whether he or she had contact with the victim or scene. In this case, however, the only known individuals who reasonably might have been compelled to provide hair samples were persons already known to have had contact with Mr. Foster."
Also they found that he had dined very recently and had drank wine.
From the Starr Report:
"During the 1993 investigation, the laboratory of the Virginia Division of Forensic Science found that the blood, vitreous humor, and urine were negative for alcohols and ketones. The Laboratory did not detect "phencyclidine, morphine, cocaine, [or] benzoyleogonine"; "other alkaline extractable drugs"; or "acidic [or] neutral drugs."
Notice the Livingstone reference
BUBBA BAILOUT BID - YOU (that means the US taxpayers)MAY GET $3.5M TAB FOR BILL-HILL SCANDAL FEES
from the NY Post September 18, 2002
Brian Blumquist
SCANDAL’S PRICETAG
Clinton scandal players seeking money from Uncle Sam to cover their lawyers’ fees:
Bill and Hillary Clinton - $3,549,561
Monica Lewinsky - $1,165,390 - former intern at center of Sexgate
Vernon Jordan - - $302,719 - Clinton pal helped Lewinsky find lawyer and job
Susan McDougal - $345,412 - Whitewater partner
Bruce Lindsey - $245,023 - Clinton trouble fixer
Ken Bacon - $10,780 - Pentagon spokesman dished dirt on Linda Tripp
Cliff Bernath - $6,093 - Bacon’s deputy
Bennie Beard - $7,500 - involved in appraisal of investigated land deal
Gloria Cabe - $28,135 - Clinton campaign manager in 1990
Glenda Cooper - $6,300 - involved in Branscum trial, an offshoot of Whitewater
Harry Denton - $1,451 - Arkansas banker and Whitewater bit player
Kevin Fornshill - $11,560 - cop who discovered Vince Foster’s body
Bill Henley - $7,500 - Susan McDougal’s brother
Robert Hill - $5,000 - banker accused of illegally funneling money to Clinton
Ellen Kulka - $862 - general counsel in Resolution Trust Corp. probe of Whitewater
Dan Lasater - $863,095 - never charged in drug-trafficking investigation
Craig Livingstone - $235,299 - White House security man ordered up FBI files on GOPers
Anthony Marceca - $189,968 - also investigated in FBI-files probe
Matthew Moore - $84,790 - junior White House staffer worked for Clinton travel chief William Watkins
Bayani Nelvis - $18,850 - White House usher pressed to talk about Clinton-Lewinsky
Michael Schaufele - $242,438 - Accountant for Clinton friend Webster Hubbell
Nicholas Stonnington - $47,419 - Merrill Lynch consultant hired Hubbell
Ginny Terzano - $528 - Former press aide to Bill Clinton and Al Gore
Patsy Thomasson - $31,273 - Watkins’ deputy at time of Travel Office firings
William Watkins - $129,583 - Travel chief said Hillary pressured him to fire workers
William Watt - $72,229 - one-time target in Whitewater
Betsey Wright - $166,581 - custodian of records in Clinton’s 1990 campaign
TOTAL: $7,775,339
The public didn’t vote to empower the Democrats in Congress, they voted to unempower the Republicans in Congress. The DNC proclaimed it a mandate and has p!ssed off the public holding over 600 partisan witchhunt “investigations”.
It isn’t what the public wanted.
And you have to wonder about public support for raising the minimum wage. We are told that we need to permit illegal immigrants to enter the country because we need a source for low-income workers. Workers who are paid below the minimum wage.
Craig Livingstone did exist...and Al Gore knows something too. (hope this isn’t too long but it’s a blast from the past and worth it)
SECTION: LIFESTYLE, Pg. H1
LENGTH: 1688 words
HEADLINE: FROM BEAVER COUNTY TO WHITE HOUSE: HE KEEPS OFFICIAL ACTIVITIES ON EVEN KEEL
BYLINE: JANE CRAWFORD, POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, D.C.
BODY:
They call him ‘’The Mayor of the White House.’’
Craig Livingstone strolls from one corner of America’s most famous residence to another, greeted with waves and ‘’hi’s’’ from staffers and security people. Every 10 minutes or so he stops — sometimes in mid-sentence — to respond to his beeper, usually beckoning him to put out one sort of fire or another as he carries out his duties as Director of Personnel Security at the White House.
The buzz word in his conversations is ‘’situation’’ — as in ‘’yesterday’s situation,’’ ‘’today’s situation’’ and ‘’the other situation.’’
Following him around the White House is a lesson in navigation in exclusive waters. Keep your eyes and ears open, know when to keep your mouth closed, recognize the players, get the picture quickly, be nice and smile are the lessons learned early on.
Livingstone, a former Indiana University of Pennsylvania student and 1977 graduate of Beaver High School, is a member of the White House’s ‘’second tier of staff’’ as he puts it. Among his duties are doing background investigations on staffers and checking out those requesting press credentials, being the liaison with the Secret Service and the FBI on personnel security and helping stage events attended by President Clinton, such as the recent signing of the Middle East Peace Accord.
‘’Basically my job is to stay out of the way and be invisible. If I’m around, something’s wrong.’’ At only 35, he’s a political veteran with major responsibilities and access to the power brokers in the White House. It’s not unusual for him to confer with senior policy adviser George Stephanopoulos (’’he’s brilliant,’’ Livingstone says), chief of staff Mack McLarty and other big guns from the president’s inner circle. He sees the president almost daily and — along with other staffers — sits in on an occasional meeting with him.
Livingstone, who lives in suburban Maryland, leaves this week for London where he will do preliminary work in coordinating the June presidential visit to mark the 50th anniversary of D-Day. He oversaw the burial of Virginia Kelley, the president’s mother, and was asked to coordinate the president’s role at Richard Nixon’s funeral, which he was unable to do because of a personal commitment elsewhere.
Stephanopoulos, who has worked with Livingstone since Clinton’s presidential campaign, gives him high marks. ‘’He does a terrific job. All I know is that anything that has anything to do with security or logistics — Craig’s going to take care of it. You don’t have to tell him how to do it, when to do it. Just that it needs to be done, and he does it. And he knows how to cut through the bureaucracy and get things done.’’
There are sometimes problems attached to getting things done. Livingstone readily admits ‘’we had been remiss in the quickness of getting people cleared’’ for some jobs, especially early on. He explains that the hiring and investigation process hit a lot of snags due to staff transition and unexpected kinks in the system.
This past March Livingstone’s venue was Pittsburgh as a member of the team to plan the visit of Clinton and British Prime Minister John Major. Arriving days in advance he ensconced himself at the Tin Angel restaurant on Mount Washington where the leaders were to dine. Then the work began. Checking out exits and people, directing the installation of 17 phone lines, even opening stuck doors and later, checking to see that the bill for dinner had been paid (it had) were among his tasks.
‘’He and 15 people on the advance team showed up with business cards and credentials. Craig was real businesslike and pleasant but I wouldn’t want to be on his bad side,’’ said Maria Kyros, the restaurant’s co-owner.
Kyros got a taste of Livingstone’s access to the president when ‘’one night at 11 o’clock his private phone rang. Only the president’s office calls him on that phone and when it rang he said, ‘that’s the big guy’ and left the room to take the call.’’ It was the president’s operator asking a question for Clinton.
In April, Livingstone was back in the area (his grandfather still lives in Ellwood City though his parents have moved to Maryland) to speak at an education conference at IUP. Not one to forget where he came from, he recently set up a White House internship program for an IUP student.
‘’He had a great deal of poise and was well-versed in terms of what’s going on at the White House and administration policy,’’ said Robert McGowan, acting associate dean, College of Fine Arts, at the college. He remembers Livingstone well and has kept in touch with him off and on over the years.
Teachers tend to recall the bright students but McGowan said Livingstone was ‘’persistent, not intimidated by authority,’’ as well as smart. ‘’He had some sense of vision for himself and a passion for politics. So I wasn’t surprised when he called me about six months ago about the intern program,’’ McGowan said.
That passion has been simmering for years. ‘’When I was 15 I said I wanted to work in the White House. People laughed but I developed strong political skills like getting people to work together who don’t like each other but are exceptionally good at what they do.’’
As a student leader (national vice president of the U.S. Student Association) he went to Poland during the initial push for Solidarity and was invited to address students there and meet Lech Walesa.
Livingstone now has an office in the Old Executive Office Building across from the White House. But in his student days he was often on the other side of the fence — literally — carrying a picket sign. He did his share of demonstrating at the White House ‘’many times’’ against President Reagan’s financial aid policies, education issues and in support of organized labor.
His professional career in Democratic Party politics began when he worked on the personal staff of Geraldine Ferraro (’’I took care of the bags’’) during her vice presidential campaign and on Gary Hart’s staff during his presidential bids in 1984 and 1988. In addition to doing whatever was needed on campaign stops Livingstone said, ‘’I always had a clean shirt or blouse for them. Every politician likes to get into a clean shirt. Those are the things they remember.’’
In between campaigns he held jobs as diverse as doing public relations for a casino in Atlantic City and the film ‘’The Last Temptation of Christ,’’ serving as assistant to Washington City Council member Charlene Jarvis and training Angolan guerrilla soliders in democratic politics in advance of an election there. He was also director of operations for the Democratic Convention in Atlanta in 1988.
Impressing the right people in the right way got Livingstone the job as director of security for Clinton’s inaugural celebration. Al Gore had ‘’known about me through the grapevine.’’ Gore asked Livingstone to put together his announcement to run for the presidency in 1988. He was on Gore’s advance team in 1992. And on solid ground with Clinton and Gore high-level staffers.
Livingstone’s beeper was working overtime while on the job with former Arkansan/current Hollywood producer Harry Thomason during the inaugural festivities, and got his current job one week after the swearing in.
‘’He’s very level-headed ... patient and professional. You need those attributes in a job like his. He’s someone who excels when it’s a crisis situation,’’ said deputy press secretary Ginny Terzano.
Although there is not a crisis every day, one suspects Livingstone would like there to be one. In the meantime, he’s popping in and out of the White House senior staff dining room (’’the mess’’ as regulars call it), walking by the Oval Office, criss-crossing the Rose Garden and arranging special White House tours and other hard-to-get tickets for appreciative friends and acquaintances.
McGowan and his parents were the recipients of this generosity on a recent trip to Washington. They sat in the presidential box at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Performing Arts, compliments of Livingstone. ‘’My parents actually sat in president and Mrs. Clinton’s seats,’’ McGowan said. To say they were all thrilled is putting it mildly.
Also in the D.C. area, is Livingstone’s brother, Steven, an engineer, a political appointee in the Department of Energy working on hazardous environment issues. He, like his parents, is a Republican.
Livingstone tries to squeeze in time for bicycling and going to movies — his passion. And while he’s winning friends and influencing people in the nation’s capital, he’s gearing up for another campaign — to find someone in the girlfriend/ wife/mate/date category.
‘’I’m ready, it’s my next project after I leave this job,’’ he said. Working 12 and 15 hours a day, six and seven days a week isn’t the best arrangement for building a social life. ‘’I meet women just like me. They put themselves and their careers first, they’re goal-oriented. Most of us are here because we believe in the president’s agenda.’’
That agenda is presently focused on dealing with the latest round of sexual misconduct charges not to mention Whitewater and cattle futures trading. Do these charges discourage Livingstone?
‘’I am a presidential staffer and I understand that role. I believe in the fundamental vison he has for America and there will always be distractions associated with any president. I see him daily and while I’m concerned about (the charges), I believe in the president 100 percent.’’
Livingstone, having observed the president up close for more than two years, says Clinton ‘’is very focused, caring and impassioned. He has an amazing ability to remember people’s names. You don’t dare meet with him without being prepared because very often he’ll know more about the subject than you.’’
Livingstone knows he’s existing in a unique environment that won’t last forever. After this stint in Washington, he believes his next direction will be due west — as a producer in Hollywood. If that happens, he’ll no doubt arrive with enough experience to make a new niche for himself — beeper required.
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