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PART I

Below are some of the incriminating facts in the Ron Brown case. Keep in mind that this body of information was collected WITHOUT there being an investigation by law enforcement organizations into the possibility of a mass murder. Despite that, I think these facts inexorably lead any fair-minded person to the conclusion that Ron Brown, Clinton's former Secretary Of Commerce, and 34 others on a flight to Croatia on April 3, 1996, were murdered and that the Clinton Administration, with help from certain people in the military, Department Of Justice and the media, covered it up.

********* SOURCES *********

Some of the sources used in creating the list of items below are:

"Questions Linger About Ron Brown Plane Crash" By Christopher Ruddy and Hugh Sprunt FOR PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, November 24, 1997

"Experts Differ on Ron Brown's Head Wound" By Christopher Ruddy, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, December 3, 1997

"Military Imposes Gag Order in Ron Brown Controversy" By Christopher Ruddy, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, December 6, 1997

"Second Expert: Brown's Wound Appeared to be From Gunshot" By Christopher Ruddy, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, December 9, 1997

"Brown Death Case: Gag Order Broadened" By Christopher Ruddy, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, December 11, 1997

"Top Pathologist: Autopsy Needed in Possible Homicide of Ron Brown" By Christopher Ruddy, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, December 17, 1997

"Pathologists Dispute Military Claims in Brown Probe" By Christopher Ruddy, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, January 11, 1998

"4th Expert Claims Probe of Brown's Death Botched" By Christopher Ruddy, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, January 13, 1998

"Ron Brown's Death Still A Mystery" by Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy In Media, February 24, 1999.

"A Shocking Analysis Of A Deadly Crash" by Reed Irvine, Accuracy In Media, March 5, 1999.

"The Confidential Commerce Department Chronology Of Ron Brown's Death", www.NewsMax.com, October 8, 1999.

You can see the photos of the headwound, crash site and xrays at www.Newsmax.com. The Air Force has acknowledged that they are authentic.

A number of Judicial Watch briefs that were filed by Klayman on behalf of the AFIP personnel that were punished for revealing what happened at the Brown examination. Interviews given by Klayman about these briefs.

"The Botched Ron Brown Investigation: An Interview with AFIP Forensic Photographer Kathleen Janoski", by Wesley Phelan, Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 2, No 35, October 26, 1998.

"KATHLEEN JANOSKI DESCRIBES COVER-UP IN RON BROWN INVESTIGATION" by Carl Limbacher, Washington Post, April 26, 1998. (transcript of Janoski interview on The Bob Grant Show, a New York talk radio program by the WOR Radio Network)

"The Secret Files Of Ron Brown" by Charles Smith, WorldNetDaily, September 27, 2000.

"The Ron Brown Stonewall: Prominent African Americans Grow Impatient" by Carl Limbacher, The Washington Weekly, January 5, 1998.

Numerous other newspaper articles published on www.freerepublic.com.

*******Setting The Stage*******

1) At his death, Ron Brown was under investigation by the FDIC, the Congressional Reform and Oversight Committee, the FBI, the Energy Department, the Senate Judiciary Committee and even his own Commerce Department Inspector General. He was scheduled to be deposed by Judicial Watch regarding the illegal sale of trade mission seats for campaign contributions. The Justice Department asked that the deposition be postponed until he returned from the ill-fated trade mission. He was also about to be indicted by an independent council named Daniel Pearson. Brown's wife and son had already been indicted on related charges. Pearson had plenty of documentary evidence and testimony on over a dozen serious crimes (like ending the trade embargo against North Vietname for 700000 dollars in bribes). The situation was so serious that Brown had retained a $750/hour attorney. He spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal and matters only got worse. Only days before Brown's death, another 20 witnesses were subpoenaed focusing on Brown's dealings. It seems that an Oklahoma gas company called Dynamic Energy Resources gave Brown’s son Michael $500,000 in stock, a $160,000 cash payment, and exclusive country club memberships. Former Dynamic president Stewart Price told a Tulsa grand jury that the money was to be routed to Ron Brown, who was expected to "fix" a big lawsuit for Dynamic.

2) Almost immediately after Brown's death, the Pearson probe was shut down. However, Judicial Watch continued its efforts questioning Nolanda Hill, a democrat fund raiser and one of Brown's key business partners, in court under oath. Nolanda Hill paid Brown $500,000 for his interest in First International, Inc., a company that never made any profits. First Int’l, which owned Corridor Broadcasting, defaulted on government loans totalling $40 million. The loans were passed to the FDIC, which was unsuccessful in collecting anything from Hill, even though at that time the firm was making large contributions to the Democratic Party and paying hundreds of thousands to Brown through shell corporations. These payments to Brown (three checks for $45,000 each) were the core of evidence gathered by Rep. Clinger that forced Reno to hire Daniel Pearson in the first place. They were cashier checks, all cut on the same day in 1993 with sequential numbers even though the money supposedly came from three contributors acting independently. Brown never disclosed or paid any taxes on these amounts. Just one week before Nolanda's testimony, the Whitehouse had her charged with a crime. Judge Lamberth has revealed that Hill testified that Brown told her he was ordered by Leon Panetta and John Podesta, two of Clinton's Whitehouse Chiefs Of Staff, to "slow down" the effort to comply with Judicial Watch's request (subpoena) for documents. Lamberth has said there is ample evidence that department officials did so.

3) Nolanda Hill also testified that shortly before the crash Brown met with Panetta and turned over a stack of documents that would have proven he sold seats on trade missions for VERY LARGE, illegal, contributions to the DNC. These documents were withheld in violation of the Judicial Watch subpoena. Nolanda swore under oath that Brown told Panetta "if I go down, so will everyone else".

4) Nolanda Hill also testified that shortly before he died, Brown went to see Clinton and told him that he intended to enter a plea agreement and testify against the Administration. She then testified that prior to making this threat, Brown wasn't scheduled to be on the trade mission flight that crashed. She says at the last minute the White House told Brown to go. It is worth noting that much of Hill's testimony has been proven true or cooberated by other witnesses. There has been NOTHING presented by the Whitehouse to suggest she is making up the allegations. They've tried to smear her but they haven't shown that what she claims is untrue ... for example by proving that Brown had no meeting with Clinton shortly before the flight.

*******The Crash Site Investigation*******

5) Ask someone on the street what happened and they are likely to tell you the crash was due to bad weather. And why not, Newsweek and Time magazine both reported that at the time of the crash, Dubrovnik was having "the storm of the decade" with visibility just one-hundred yards. In fact, nearly EVERYONE connected with the administration immediately identified "the worst storm in decades" or even "century" as the cause. Yet, the official Air Force report ended up saying that weather was "not a substantially contributing factor," with visibility of 8 kilometers and winds at 14 mph. In fact, five planes landed at Dubrovnik airport just prior to Brown's without any problems.

6) The Dubrovnik tower (at the airport to which the plane was headed) lost voice contact with the aircraft at the same time the aircraft transponder vanished from the screens of both the approach radar and an AWAC. Brown's plane was still 8 miles from the airport at the time contact was lost. Geography was not a factor, which leads one to speculate that something serious happened BEFORE the crash. This loss of transponder signal has NEVER been explained by the government.

7) Although the Air Force now says they were mistaken, they initially reported recovering part of the wreckage in the Adriatic. Nolanda Hill has testified that after Brown crashed, she was told by Togo West, Secretary of the Army, that "the military was looking for the bodies in the water." Was it the loss of transponder signal that caused them to look there? Or was it a deliberate delay to keep the search effort away from the crash site for as long a possible?

8) The official Air Force "conclusion" is that the plane just ran into a mountain due to pilot error and faulty navigation aids. However, the pilot was an "evaluator", the most senior pilot flying that type of plane. He had nearly 3,000 flight hours on the plane and his co-pilot had more. And curiously, the Air Force has settled several wrongful death suits stemming from the crash by saying that the pilots should have known that the poor weather made it unsafe to land. Yet their own report states weather was not a significant factor. Or could those settlements be a form of hush money meant to keep the families from asking questions? Do you know that EACH of the victim families has quietly received MILLIONS of dollars (in some cases, up to 14 MILLION)? Is not talking about the matter part of the deal?

9) The plane was 1.6 miles off course when it crashed. One official explanation is that the pilots set the compasses 10 degrees off course. However, pilots usually set their compasses right before takeoff. If the compass was off by 10 degrees, they could not have been on course (which they were) when they passed the first beacon, 12 miles from the airport. Besides, all indications are that the plane was flying on the VOR signal, not the compass. Perhaps it isn't just coincidence that the backup portable navigation beacon at the airport disappeared only days before the crash (according to the US Air Force). Aviation Week has reported that the flight trajectory of the plane as it approached the airfield is totally consistent with being spoofed by a portable beacon like the one that was missing.

10) Further supporting this scenario is the fact that Niko Junic, the maintenance chief who was in charge of the airport beacons, died from a gunshot 3 days after the crash (before he was interviewed). Within a day, it was ruled a "suicide" ... even though he was shot in the chest (an pretty unusual location to shoot oneself). The New York Times (a questionable source if you want the truth) reported that Junic was "despondent over a failed romance" (like that would be foremost in his mind immediately after a crash such as occurred at his airport!).

11) It was a relatively low speed crash ... low enough that the rear section of the plane was intact (pictures are available on the internet). A stewardess (Sergeant Shelly Kelly) seated in that rear section survived the crash. Lt. Colonel Cogswell, a highly experienced pathologist for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), participated in the crash site investigation. He is quoted in an interview with Christopher Ruddy as saying "depending on who you talked to, Kelly was found near her seat, on the floor of the plane or outside the plane." There are also reports that she was able to get aboard the helicopter without assistance from the medics. However, all agree that she died on the helicopter ride to the hospital. The AFIP claims she had a "broken neck" but there are reports that her autopsy revealed a neat three-inch incision over her main femoral artery. Note that the AFIP had her body cremated BEFORE her family was even notified of her death. This is a clear violation of established procedures.

12) After the crash, businesses that had employees on the plane were told there were no survivors. Later, they were told there was one (Sergeant Kelly). However, a Commerce Department document recently uncovered by Judicial Watch indicates that TWO people survived the impact. The document, a chronology of events, was prepared for Secretary of State Warren Christopher. The log includes the following item 40 minutes after the wreckage was discovered: "Commerce Dept. has heard from Advance Ira Sokowitz in Sarajevo that two individuals have been recovered alive from the crash." The government has never mentioned in ANY forum the second survivor. The log also indicates that shortly after notification of two survivors, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott asked that a TV crew "not film at the crash site." The request was granted without any explanation from the State Department as to why it was made. Recently, it was learned that Ira Sockowitz was supposed to be on the Brown flight but missed it for some "unspecified" reason. Amazing how he was still able to get to the crash site in time to be the point man for sending information back regarding the two survivors. And by the way, Ira Sockowitz was an associate of John Huang (a known spy) and is himself implicated in illegally obtaining Secret materials while at Commerce (another matter never pursued by the RENO DOJ).

13) The rear door of the aircraft was found open when rescuers first arrived at the crash site, opening the possibility that someone could have jumped out of the plane before it crashed. Also, the hand gun of Brown's bodyguard was never located at the crash site.

14) Although the crash occurred within two miles of the airport, it "officially" took at least 7 hours for the U.S. Air Force to arrive. This was reportedly hours after the Croatians had reached the crash site. Curiously, an Associated Press report stated that the first Croatian rescuers were met by three Americans who were already on the ground. Since item #37 suggests Brown could have have survived the crash, might the other survivor have been Brown? Might he have been shot after the crash, by a cleanup crew, rather than during the flight?

15) The Croatian Ministry Of Transportation announced shortly after the crash that the black boxes had been found. The US Air Force in Germany confirmed this. Several foreign news stations reported it. The Department of Commerce log mentioned in item # 13 states, "Chief of protocol Misetic called...The flight data recorder has been recovered." Then, a week later, the Air Force said the plane had no black boxes and that some boxes that looked EXACTLY like the recorders had been found instead. The problem with this scenario is that flight recorders are designed to be unique in appearance and the people in Croatia who reported finding them were certainly qualified to know what one looks like.

16) Another problem with the claim that there were no black boxes is that this exact plane, just a week earlier, carried the First Lady and Chelsea and, several weeks before that, had carried the Secretary of Defense. Supposedly, regulations require that the First Lady and Cabinet Members only fly on aircraft with black boxes. For example, according to Associated Press, all VIP aircraft based at Andrews AirForce Base are equipped with flight recorders. All that Major Chandler, an Air Force spokeswoman, could say about the lack of black boxes is that "We have not been able to ascertain why this particular aircraft was not equipped with them." Curiously, noone has been punished for this "violation" of regulations.

17) USAF policies also require that ALL plane crashes initially be considered as resulting from undetermined causes. Yet Air Force spokespersons were telling the press that weather and pilot error were the cause even before ANY on-site investigation had commenced. For example, Secretary of Defense Perry told the Associated Press that this crash is "a classic sort of accident that good instrumentation should be able to prevent" even though U.S. investigators had not begun their investigation.

18) In fact, as crash safety investigation team members were preparing to leave for this crash, they were told not to bother ... that it was already being RULED "pilot error". he Air Force canceled the Safety Board, the phase of crash investigations specifically charged with finding the cause. This is only the SECOND Air Force crash in US history to have NO post crash safety investigation (the other involved friendly fire in IRAQ where the cause was immediately obvious). This one was anything but obvious.

*****The Dover Investigation*****

19) The remains of all the crash victims were shipped to the AFIP at Dover AFB for examination. Colonel William Gormley, an Assistant Armed Forces Medical Examiner, was in overall charge of the AFIP effort. He also was the one who examined Ron Brown's body. Several others were present during his examination, including Chief Petty Officer Kathleen Janoski, an experienced military photographer; Lt. Colonel Hause, another AFIP Medical examiner; Jeanmarie Sentelle, a naval criminal investigator; and Erich Junger, AFIP's chief forensic scientist.

20) During the examination, Chief Petty Officer Janoski exclaimed in a loud voice that there appeared to be a bullet wound on the top of Brown's head. The wound, which is documented in the pictures she took, was "perfectly circular" and "inwardly beveling", which she says led her to that conclusion. According to Janoski, Colonel Gormley told her to "be quiet" and "not to remark about the wound." A nurse says she heard Gormley say that. Pathologist Lt. Colonel Hause, who was examining another body 2 feet away, heard Janoski's remark and came over to look. Hause, who is considered to be one of the military's leading experts on gunshot wounds, remembers saying "sure enough, it looks like a gunshot wound to me, too." He said the wound "looked like a punched-out .45-caliber entrance hole".

21) Despite this, Gromley ordered no autopsy. He ruled it death due to blunt force trama. He later indicated in various forums that he ruled out a bullet wound because no brain matter was visible and the x-rays showed nothing unusual. As you will see in a moment, that was untrue.

22) Erich Junger, who never visited the crash site, is quoted as saying that a "very reasonable explanation" for the hole was found "when we looked around the aircraft area itself." Lt. Colonel Cogswell, mentioned earlier, disputes this. He has testified that Gormley called him at the crash site and asked that he search for something that could cause Brown's head wound. According to Cogswell, NOTHING was found. Gormley has apparently acknowledged that no piece of the aircraft was found to explain the hole. Also, Cogswell says that when Gormley called, he told Gormley that it sounded more like a gunshot wound and that "this man needs an autopsy."

******The AFIP Coverup******

23) Janoski was a democratic volunteer at the time of the crash with no political axe to grind. Well before she went public with her story, she was contacted by Christopher Ruddy and she declined to comment. She referred all questions to AFIP's press office. Since then, however, she has gone public and submitted a sworn affidavit. According to her testimony, almost six months after Brown's death, she was told by Jeanmarie Sentell that x-rays and photographs were deliberately destroyed in the Brown case after a "lead snowstorm" (indicative of gunshot) was discovered in the x-rays. Janoski further testified that Sentell said that a second set of X-rays were made "less dense" to diminish or eradicate the "lead snowstorm" image, and that Colonel Gormley was involved in its creation. Sentell, informed of Janoski's accusations, declined comment.

24) After talking to Sentell, Janoski says she realized that she had taken slides photos of the first set of x-rays while they were displayed on a light table in the examination room. She located the slides and showed them to Cogswell. After looking at the pictures and x-rays slides, Cogswell decided that an autopsy should have been performed and began to say so publicly. He even included this case in a talk he gave on "mistakes in forensic pathology" at professional conferences and training courses. He reportedly told his audiences that the frontal head X-ray shows, in the area behind the left eye socket, "multiple small fragments of white flecks, which are metallic density", i.e., a "lead snowstorm" from a high-velocity gunshot wound. He also told them that brain matter is visible in the photos and the side X-ray indicates a "bone plug" from the hole displaced under the skull and into the brain ... both are contrary to what Gormley was then claiming.

25) On December 5, 1997, AFIP imposed a gag order on Cogswell, forcing him to refer all press inquiries on the Brown case to AFIP's public affairs office. Cogswell was told he could leave his office only with the permission of Dr. Jerry Spencer, Armed Forces Medical Examiner. He was escorted to his house by military police, who, without a warrant, seized all of his case materials on the Brown crash.

26) On December 9, 1997, Lt. Col. David Hause decided to come forward and publically agreed with Cogswell that an autopsy should have been performed. Hause's eyewitness examination also contradicts Gormley. "What was immediately below the surface of the hole was just brain. I didn't remember seeing skull" in the hole, he said. Hause has stated that "by any professional standard" Brown should have received an autopsy and that the AFIP's actions against Cogswell are a classic case of "shooting the messenger." After he talked to the press, the gag order was extended to include ALL AFIP personnel. They were ordered to turn in "all slides, photos, x-rays and other materials" related to the Brown case. All personnel at the AFIP were prohibited from talking to the press and had to stay at their work stations for the duration of their working day. All personnel, including ranking officers, had to obtain permission to leave for lunch! But by then, the photos and the x-ray slides were already in the public domain. And in case you are wondering, Alan Keyes, a spokesman for the AFIP, has acknowledged that the internet photos are legitimate.

27) On December 11, 1997, despite the gag order, Gormley was allowed to give a live interview on Black Entertainment Television. Members of the black community, who had heard rumors about the possibility of a gun shot wound in Brown's head, had begun to ask for an investigation. This appears to be a clear attempt at "damage control". From what I've read, Gormley immediately attacked the other pathologists. He stated that one could rule out a bullet wound because no brain matter was visible in the wound. He also stated that the x-rays taken during the examination showed no trace of a bullet injury. He denied that two sets of x-rays existed. Then, on live TV, he was confronted with a photograph taken during the examination (by Janoski) that showed brain matter visible in the wound. He ended up admitting that brain matter was indeed visible, excusing his former statements as a memory lapse. He then admitted that the hole was a "red flag" which should have triggered a further inquiry. Next he was confronted with a copy of Janowski's x-ray slides. He immediately changed his story and claimed that this first set of x-rays had been "lost" so that a second set was required. It was then pointed out that the Janoski x-rays slides show signs of a "lead snowstorm", which he didn't refute.

28) Judicial Watch says that Colonel Gormley now admits that he consulted with other high-ranking pathologists present DURING the external examination of Ron Brown's body and they AGREED that the hole looked like a gunshot wound, "at least an entrance gunshot wound". Furthermore, he confesses that no autopsy was requested BASED ON "discussions" at the highest levels in Commerce, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and THE WHITEHOUSE! Cabinet members such as Ron Brown are covered by federal laws that deal with assassinations of federal officials and certain acts of terrorism. As such, the matter should have been referred to the FBI as soon as an apparent gunshot wound was discovered. Why wasn't it?

29) On January 9, 1998, the Washington Post reported that the AFIP had convened a review panel of ALL its pathologists, including Cogswell and Hause. The article quoted AFIP's director, Col. Michael Dickerson, in saying that the panel came to the UNANIMOUS conclusion that Brown died of blunt-force trauma and not a gunshot. According to Cogswell, however, he refused, following the advice of his lawyer, to participate in the review because he thought it would be unfair and biased. He says that most of those participating were not board-certified in forensic pathology and of those who were, none had significant interest or experience in gunshot wounds. He says that ALL of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's forensic pathologists with any expertise in gunshot wounds (Cogswell, Hause and a new name ... Air Force Maj. Thomas Parsons) dissented from the "official" opinion. Even though Hause and Parsons have cooberated Cogswell's version, AFIP spokesman Chris Kelly says AFIP "stands by" Dickerson's claim that the findings were unanimous ... a clear lie.

30) On January 13, in violation of the gag order, Kathleen Janoski went public. She did this, according to her, for self protection and out of concern for the careers of Cogswell, Hause, and Parsons. Since then she has been interviewed repeatedly and has provided a sworn affidavit regarding what happened.

31) The AFIP now claims that the x-ray film used in the first set of x-rays (i.e., those captured in Janowski's slides) was defective. They say this explains why a second set of x-rays was taken (now the story is that the first set wasn't lost ... just discarded) and why the first x-rays might "appear" to show a lead snowstorm. Janoski responds that the photos she took of other Brown X-rays on the light box do not show any film "defect".

32) AND GET THIS ... Hause, along with Dr. Jerry Spencer, have confirmed that Brown's x-rays are missing from his case file, as well as the photographs of the x-rays that were stored in a safe and the negatives for those photographs. According to Hause, all that remains of the x-rays are the color slides in Dr. Cogswell's slide presentation and the copy of Brown's head x-ray in the possession of the Tribune-Review. Gormley and the AFIP have not investigated or offered any explanation for how the X-rays or photos disappeared. According to Ruddy, Gormley now refers calls to Chris Kelly, who simply says that Gormley will not grant additional interviews.

33) In a press statement, the AFIP reportedly said that extensive "forensic tests" disproved a bullet theory. Janoski said she was present for the entire examination and did not observe ANY forensic tests, such as those for gunpowder residue.

34) Janet Reno told the nation that the Justice Department conducted a "thorough review" of the facts in the Ron Brown death investigation and concluded that there was no evidence of a crime. However, no one from the Justice Department or FBI interviewed the military pathologists. The review was conducted by the same AFIP personnel responsible for the decision not to autopsy.

35) As of today, Cogswell, Hause, Parsons and Janowski have all been reassigned to other duties outside their areas of expertise and the Government has tried to limit their contact with fellow pathologists by barring them from conferences. They had their homes searched without a search warrant and have been given negative job evaluations (for the first time in careers spanning over 10 years). For example, Cogswell's evaluation, which was six months late, states that he is "disruptive to the work environment with immature behavior." He has been "unresponsive to counseling," it continues, adding that he has used "inappropriate language" and worn "inappropriate dress." Cogswell is even criticized for his manner of driving in the AFIP facility’s parking lot. The belated report bears three signatures, including those of Armed Forces Chief Medical Examiner Jerry Spencer and AFIP Director Col. Michael Dickerson, both PROVEN liars. The signatures are not even dated.

36) The Accident Investigation Report (produced during the second phase of the NORMAL Air Force crash investigation ... the first phase is the Safety Board, which was suspiciously skipped in the Brown crash) PRESUMES that the cause was "accidental". It does not contain anything regarding the opinions of the pathologists about a bullet wound or the evidence (x-rays, photos) cooberating those opinions. Strange, given that the document is to aid lawyers in any legal matters following a crash. In fact, neither the Brown family or other families were EVER told about the possibility of a bullet wound. They had to learn about it YEARS later.

CONTINUED IN PART II