- WASHINGTON - The government
is now saying discrepancies in testimony of witnesses in the murder of
Vince Foster were merely "mistakes."
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- "It is not a crime to make a mistake," declared
Karl N. Gellert, associate independent counsel in a federal court session
considering Accuracy in Media 's lawsuit against the Office of Independent
Counsel. The group charges the office of former Independent Counsel Ken
Starr of criminal activity and cover-up in the murder of Clinton White
House aide Vincent Foster in 1993. The death was officially ruled a suicide.
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- "What Mr. Clarke [AIM counsel John Clarke] has to
prove is that when we or our witnesses made mistakes, we did so with criminal
intent, knowing it was false," Gellert told Judge Ellen Huvelle on
Thursday.
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- One of those "mistakes," Clarke recalled in
an interview with NewsMax.com, was locating the service records for the
X-ray machines used by Dr. James C. Beyer, the medical examiner for northern
Virginia. He found an exit bullet wound that had not been detected by anyone
else who had examined the dead Foster's head. The bullet has never been
found.
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- The absence of an exit wound, of course, presents difficulties
in making the case that Foster shot himself at short range. A high-velocity
.38 bullet would not only exit Foster's head, but would not have exited
the head 4-1/2 inches above where it entered. No plausible explanation
has been given for this by any medical examiner.
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- What should settle the matter are the X-rays that any
medical examiner would take.
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- First, Beyer said the X-rays showed no bullet fragments
in the skull. Later, he told the FBI there were no X-rays. He said he had
checked "Yes" to signify that he took the X-rays because he intended
to take them, but the machine malfunctioned.
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- Later, he testified before a Senate committee that he
had no X-rays for the July time period in question.
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- "A deliberately deceptive response" is the
verdict of AIM, noting the "multi-thousand-dollar" X-ray machine
was newly installed "in June, around 30 days before Foster's autopsy.
The first call for service on the machine was made on October 29. But getting
this information from the OIC was like pulling eyeteeth," Clarke told
us. That information was presented to the court.
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- Gellert told Judge Nuvelle, in effect, that AIM's position
was that everyone who changed his story was a criminal.
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- "We're not saying that any of those witnesses were
criminals or that any of these witnesses were involved in these various
activities," Clarke told NewsMax.com after the hearing. "What
we're saying is that the FBI is the one who changed the witness statements."
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- Among the examples cited by Clarke: one witness "who
says he was leaned on for four hours to change his story. Finally, he wanted
to get on with his life," so he said to the FBI agents, "What
do you want me to say?" They told him to say he could have been mistaken.
At which point, the witness, one of the paramedics originally called to
the scene, finally said, "Okay, I could have been mistaken."
-
- Arthur said he had doubts that Foster had killed himself,
saying the body was "coffin-like" as if it had been placed there
by someone else. It would be hard to find a suicide case that lies down
neatly after shooting himself.
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- "So it wasn't Richard Arthur, the witness, who was
nefarious or doing anything wrong," said Clarke during the interview.
"It was the FBI agents detailed to the independent counsel's probe."
-
- The best-seller by NewsMax.com CEO Christopher Ruddy
also figured in the courtroom arguments.
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- Clarke alluded to the official finding that Foster had
shot himself from the awkward and unlikely position of wrapping his hand
around the barrel and cylinder gap and pushing the trigger with his right
finger.
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- "That's what Christopher Ruddy says we said in his
book, 'The Strange Death of Vincent Foster,'" Gellert exclaimed, "but
that's not what we said at all."
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- "Absolutely incorrect by the defendant, absolutely
correct by Ruddy," Clarke told NewsMax. "And Gellert to claim
not to have known that - It's just ridiculous.
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- "I do know the FBI said he held the weapon that
way, and it's really been the long-standing conclusion. It would be very
uncomfortable. In fact, impossible."
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- He cited other areas where the OIC's lead counsel in
the case appeared to be short on basic knowledge. Clarke recalled that
Gellert acknowledged in open court not knowing the difference between the
posterior oropharnyx (the rear wall of the throat) and the soft palate
(the roof of the mouth). "You don't need a rocket scientist or even
an expert to tell the difference," Clarke said.
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- Reading between the lines, Judge Nuvelle seemed to be
saying at the end of Clarke's presentation that it is bizarre that Sgt.
Bob Edwards of the Park Police, medical examiner Dr. Beyer and FBI personnel
- all of whom did not know each other beforehand - would be involved in
a cover-up.
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- "She did say that, and what we said was that Dr.
Beyer was involved in the cover-up, the FBI was involved in the cover-up,
and one Park police officer. That's two individuals and the FBI. We're
making that charge, sure."
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- The AIM attorney noted this was not the first murder
investigation that Beyer had badly mangled. He had also tried to cover
up the murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent several
years ago. It ended up that "suicide" was a case of assault and
murder.
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- At the end of the day, Judge Nuvelle asked for documents
to be precisely categorized within two weeks.
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- Clarke thinks there will not be another hearing, that
the judge will rule based on what is filed.
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- It was then-President Bill Clinton who appointed Judge
Nuvelle to the bench.
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- Posted by permission of NewsMax.com http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/8/16/215711.shtml
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