Vince Foster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Vince Foster |
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| Born: | January 15, 1945 Hope, Arkansas, United States |
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| Died: | July 20, 1993 Fairfax County, Virginia, United States |
| Occupation: | Deputy White House counsel |
| Spouse: | Lisa Foster |
| Children: | 3 |
| Website: | Vince Foster's journal |
Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was a deputy White House counsel during the first term of President Bill Clinton.
Law partner and personal acquaintance of Hilary Clinton, found dead in a Virginia park outside of Washington D.C. a day prior to announcing his resignation as White House Deputy Counsel, His death was ruled as a suicide by multiple investigations by the United States Park Police, the United States Congress, and Independent Counsels Robert B. Fiske and Kenneth Starr.[1] As CNN explained on February 28, 1997, "The [Starr] report refutes claims by conservative political organizations that Foster was the victim of a murder plot and coverup," but "despite those findings, right-wing political groups and Tom Emmert have continued to allege that there was more to the death and that the president and first lady tried to cover it up."[2] Miguel Rodriguez, an Assistant United States Attorney, after resigning from the Starr investigation, provided an interview regarding his participation in the investigation. He stated plainly that he resigned from the investigation after it became clear to him that suicide was the only acceptable determination despite the preponderance of evidence indicating homicide.[3] According the Charles Carman, from the Center for Transparent Governance, It has been theorized that Foster was conflicted about having to form a typically routine Presidential trust, in the face of growing scandal surrounding Bill and Hillary Clinton and their role in a fraudulent Arkansas real estate deal known as the Whitewater Scandal.
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[edit] Life and career
Foster was born in Hope, Arkansas. He graduated first in his law school class at the University of Arkansas after graduating from Davidson College. Additionally he scored the highest in his class on the Arkansas bar exam.[4]
A childhood friend of Bill Clinton, Foster had worked at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas with Hillary Clinton. After Clinton's election, Foster joined his White House staff. The Foster residence was on Cambridge Place in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C.[5]
Foster had difficulty making the transition to life and politics in Washington. He was only a deputy counsel, but he was personally the target of several hostile Wall Street Journal editorials.
Wrestling with clinical depression, Foster was prescribed a mild sleeping aid/anti-anxiety pill, Trazodone, over the phone by his doctor, though he only had taken a few before he died. The next day, Foster was found dead in Fort Marcy Park, a federal park in Virginia. He was found with a gun in his hand and gunshot residue on that hand. An autopsy determined that he was shot in the mouth and no other wounds were found on his body. A suicide note of sorts, actually a draft of a resignation letter, was found torn into 27 pieces in his briefcase, a list of complaints specifically mentioning the Wall Street Journal and complaining "I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport."
His funeral Mass was held at the Cathedral of St. Andrew Catholic Church in Little Rock, Arkansas and he was buried in Memory Gardens Cemetery in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. Foster was 48 years old, and left behind a widow, Lisa, and three adult children, Vince III, Laura, and Brugh.
[edit] Conspiracy theory
[edit] Background
Some conspiracy theorists question the three independent reports of suicide. One such group is right wing Accuracy in Media (AIM), a group that has received over $2 million dollars from Richard Mellon Scaife.[6] AIM quotes Assistant U.S. Attorney Miguel Rodriguez, who resigned from the investigation, as saying "I knew what the result was going to be, because I was told what the result was going to be from the get-go."[7] Based on this assertion and other variables, some go so far as to propose that Foster was murdered to prevent his revealing information derogatory to Clinton, and others allege a romantic relationship between Foster and Hillary Clinton.[8]
The Washington Post noted David Brock was "summoned" to a meeting with Rex Armistead in Miami, Florida at an airport hotel. Armistead laid out an elaborate "Vince Foster murder scenario," Brock said – a scenario that he found implausible."[9] Both Brock and Armistead were reporters who were funded by Scaife to investigate issues ranging from drug smuggling to Foster to discredit Clinton with the Arkansas Project.[10]
Scaife funded Christopher W. Ruddy (later founder of NewsMax), who previously was a writer for the Scaife owned Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, to dig up dirt on Clinton for the Arkansas Project. Ruddy has argued that while he posits no conspirancy theory about Foster's death, he believes a cover-up took place and that Foster's body had likely been moved. [11]
Ruddy was backed by Joseph Farah (founder of WorldNetDaily) and Farah's organization the Western Journalism Center. This group supplied Ruddy with "additional expense money, funding for Freedom of Information Act requests, legal support and publicity during his book research of a conspiracy surrounding the suicide of Foster.[12] Ruddy eventually released The Strange Death of Vincent Foster which was published by Simon & Schuster. [13]
Nonetheless in 1999, Farah's Western Journalism Center "placed some 50 ads reprinting Ruddy's Tribune-Review stories in the Washington Times, then repackaged the articles as a packet titled The Ruddy Investigation, which sold for $12."[14] Shortly thereafter, the Western Journalism Center "circulated a video featuring Ruddy's claims, 'Unanswered-The Death of Vincent Foster,' that was produced by ultra-conservative James Davidson, chairman of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) and co-editor of the Strategic Investment newsletter."[14] (NTU's research arm receives funds from Scaife.) Eventually, Scaife became an investor and the third-largest stockholder of Ruddy's NewsMax[15] and both NewsMax and the WorldNetDaily continue to publish materials that show the Clintons in a negative light."[16]
Besides the official investigations, including Kenneth Starr's report that ruled Foster's death a suicide, Dan Moldea wrote a book with encouragement from Al Regnery of the conservative Regnery Publishing house wrote that Foster's death was a suicide and he found the conspiracy theories were started by Robert Hines who shared ideas with Reed Irvine at Accuracy in Media, and Christopher W. Ruddy, who was then at the New York Post.[17] Hines had falsely told "them that there is no exit wound in Foster's head," but Moldea explained, "I don't think there was anything nefarious here," rather Hines "was being approached by reporters and he wanted something to say."[17]
The main conspiracy theorists were Christopher W. Ruddy of the New York Post, and later with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review (owned by Richard Mellon Scaife), and Joseph Farah of the Western Journalism Center (later WorldNetDaily), "which supposedly engages in nonprofit, pro-journalistic projects—which of course just happen to be right-wing projects."[17]
As to what started the theories, reporter Dan Moldea claimed in an interview for Salon.com that "Foster had some blond hair and carpet fibers on his suit jacket, and he had semen in his underwear. So, the Jerry Falwells and the right-wing crowd get a hold of this information, and…they start making movies alleging that the Clintons were involved in this murder."[17] Falwell produced the Clinton Chronicles, which Ruddy was involved with claiming the gun was placed in Fosters hand.[17] These videos and claims have been "widely discredited" the videos "sophisticated production" served as a reliable resource.[18]
Funding for the film was Citizens for Honest Government, which Jerry Falwell paid $200,000 to in 1994 and 1995.[18] In 1995 Citizens for Honest Government paid two Arkansas state troopers to make allegations supporting the conspiracy about Vincent Foster.[18] These two troopers were Roger Perry and Larry Patteson who also were paid for their testimony in the Paula Jones (See: Troopergate) claims.[18] Citizens for Honest Government also covertly paid individuals who provided information to media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the American Spectator magazine, which named them as sources."[18]
Patrick Matrisciana, president of Citizens for Honest Government, and producer of the Clinton Chronicles video appeared in its commercials as the "silhouetted individual whom he identifies only as an 'investigative reporter'."[18] When ask about the scene Matrisciana admitted he was not a reporter and replied "I doubt our lives were actually ever in any real danger. That was Jerry's idea to do that ... He thought that would be dramatic."[18]
[edit] Different Theories
Some conspiracy theorists allege no bullet fragments were ever found and very little blood was present at the body's final location. Thus, the theorists assert suspicions that the body had been moved from another location to the park site. Some reject the official reports and believe that while Foster was located on an incline, the trickle of blood ran contrary to gravity. No explanation was offered to explain this. The U.S. Park Police were assigned to investigate the case, but no more information was ever disclosed.
With respect to this case, conspiracy theorists are largely divided into two groups. Some suspect that Foster committed suicide in a location that was embarrassing to figures connected to the Clinton administration and that government agents dumped his body in the park to avoid any embarrassment. Others suspect that Foster died from a shot from a small-caliber pistol to the neck and his body was dumped in the park. A book by Christopher Andersen entitled Bill and Hillary: The Marriage claims that Foster and Hillary Clinton were involved in an affair, and some claim that this supposed affair has some relation to Foster's death.[8]
Special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who investigated the Clintons on several other issues, including Whitewater, concluded after a three-year investigation that Foster had shot himself. Urban-legend-debunking website Snopes.com cites this as evidence that Foster was not murdered: "If Foster had been murdered or if unanswered questions about his death remained, Starr would have been the last person to want to conclude the investigation prematurely."[19]
Today, there is a video on the internet comparing the deceased body of Foster with that of Budd Dwyer, who committed suicide publicly in front of television news cameras. The website shows Dwyer's suicide as evidence of elements that would be present in a firearm suicide that were absent from Foster's body(mainly splatter patterns of blood).
[edit] References
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Full text of the report on the 1993 death of White House counsel Vincent W. Foster, Jr., compiled by Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, After an exhaustive three-year investigation, Starr reaffirmed that Foster's death was a suicide]
- ^ Report: Starr Rules Out Foul Play In Foster Death CNN February 23, 1997
- ^ http://www.fbicover-up.com/Miquel/Miquel.htm
- ^ Vince Foster: One of the Best and Brightest. Retrieved on 2006-05-02.
- ^ Vince Foster Home. Retrieved on 2006-05-02.
- ^ Arkansas Project Led to Turmoil and Rifts Washington Post May 2, 1999
- ^ Death of Vince Foster (Part 1) Miquel Rodriguez October 16, 2004 Accuracy in Media
- ^ a b Book reveals Hillary's 'passionate affair' BBC News August 4, 1999
- ^ (May 2 1999) "'Arkansas Project' Led to Turmoil and Rifts". Washington Post: A24. Retrieved on 2006-05-03.
- ^ Murray Waas, Behind the Clinton cocaine smear. Salon.com, 2000.
- ^ Christopher Ruddy interview.
- ^ The ConWebWatch Primer
- ^ Christopher Ruddy."Strange Death of Vincent Foster"
- ^ a b Western Journalism Center- Joseph Farah PublicEye.Org
- ^ NEWSMAX MEDIA, INC. SB-2/A#1 REG. NO. 333-83408 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
- ^ Gold Star Mothers Myth Snopes.com
- ^ a b c d e Why Vincent Foster can't rest in peace Lori Leibovich Salon.com
- ^ a b c d e f g The Falwell connection by Murray Waas Salon.com
- ^ The Clinton Body Count Snopes.com January 2001 Barbara Mikkelson
[edit] Books
- John Clarke, Patrick Knowlton, and Hugh Turley. "Failure of the Public Trust" Proof of the cover-up by the media and Office of Independent Counsel (McCabe Publishing, 1999, ISBN 0-9673521-0-X)
- Brock, David. "Blinded by the Right : The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative." (Three Rivers Press, 2003)
- Clinton, Bill (2005). "My Life." Vintage Publishing. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
- Conason, Joe. and Lyons, Gene. "The Hunting of the President : The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton." (St. Martin's Griffin, 2001)
- Dan Moldea. "A Washington Tragedy : How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm" (Regnery Publishing, Inc, 1998)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Vince Foster: suicide note on Wikisource- The Official Foster Report (This version only the full report except the appendix.)
- Rotten.com biography
- Frontline: Once Upon a Time in Arkansas: Vince Foster's journal
- Vincent W. Foster, Jr./Missing Gun File FBI FOIA
- Interview with crime reporter Dan Moldea
- Foster Report posted by the Washington Post
- The Death of Vince Foster on Google Video
