No 'independent' probe of
Foster death
FBI investigated itself
for Fiske, Starr, says witness
� 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
A key witness in the death of White House deputy
counsel Vincent Foster charges that so-called
"independent" investigations led by Robert Fiske and
Kenneth Starr actually relied on FBI agents who had a
vested interest in verifying the findings of their agency
which, along with the U.S. Park Police, was deeply
involved in the probe from the day Foster's lifeless body
was discovered in Fort Marcy Park.
Patrick Knowlton, who happened by the crime scene
hours before Foster's body was found in the park on July
20, 1993, points out the FBI played a large role in the
initial investigation, according to key depositions in the
case.
"The FBI, you see, had as big a hand in the initial
investigation as did the United States Park Police,"
Knowlton said. "The purpose of having an independent
counsel is to prevent the Justice Department from
investigating itself. But that is precisely what happened in
the Foster case. The FBI, a part of the Justice
Department, investigated itself."
The role of the FBI in the initial investigation has been,
heretofore, little known. Press reports downplayed the
extent of FBI involvement -- characterizing it as simply
"monitoring" the work of the park police. Days after
Foster's death, Justice Department spokesmen
specifically stated that there was no investigation by the
FBI.
Even Christopher Ruddy, a critic of the official
investigations, reported that the Clinton administration
blocked the FBI from taking any real role in matters
relating to Foster's death. In his book published in 1997,
Ruddy wrote, "The truth was that the FBI had been kept
at arm's length during the entire Park Police probe."
The full extent of the FBI's role has never before been
fully revealed, say Knowlton and others knowledgeable
about the case.
The breadth of the FBI's role in the initial 17-day death
investigation was documented in a 20-page attachment
http://fbicover-up.com/starr/addendum.htm added to
Starr's Report by the three-judge panel on the Special
Division of the United States Court of Appeals and
released to the public Oct. 10, 1997. Knowlton
submitted these 20 pages of official evidence to the court.
It was a historic event marking the first time that evidence
of a cover-up by the independent counsel's own staff was
included in a report by an official investigator. Most
Americans are unaware of the existence or the contents
of the attachment to Starr's report, but one issue it
addressed is the role of the FBI in the initial death
investigation.
"The public has been told repeatedly that the U.S. Park
Police investigated from the time of the discovery of Mr.
Foster's body until the case was officially closed (the first
time) 16 days later," said Hugh Turley, an aide to John
Clarke, the attorney for Patrick Knowlton. But, "publicly
available official federal government records demonstrate
that throughout the 16-day U.S. Park Police
investigation, FBI participation was significant," according
to the attachment to the Starr report.
The evidence in the attachment showed that on the
evening of the discovery of Foster's body, the FBI
arranged to send FBI agents Scott Salter and Dennis
Condon to the White House to investigate the death.
They were dispatched to the White House the following
morning, as agent Salter testified June 30, 1995.
"(FBI Agent) John Danna called us in my car (on July 21)
and told us to go to the southwest gate of the White
House and meet him there and that we were ... going to
be working on a death investigation involving Mr.
Foster's death," Salter said in his deposition.
When handed a memorandum and asked to identify it,
agent Salter said: "[I]t's basically a summary of events
from the 21st through the conclusion of, through August
4th or 6th or whatever it was, through the conclusion of
the investigation that we did."
Salter explained that the FBI's function was to interview
witnesses along with the U.S. Park Police.
"We were there to assist them in conducting the
investigation, which meant interviewing co-workers ...
[and] then proceed as the investigation, you know, called
for," he testified.
Department of Interior Chief of Staff Thomas Collier
testified in a deposition June 23, 1995, that "the FBI and
the Park Police ended-up working on this kind of
hand-in-glove."
U.S. Secret Service Agent Paul Imbordino, in response
to the question at his June 22, 1995, deposition, "Who
conducted the interviews?" answered, "Park Police and
FBI." Other FBI agents who conducted interviews during
the initial investigation into Foster's death included
Charles K. Dorsey and Bradley J. Garrett.
During his July 30, 1994, deposition, U.S. Park Police
Maj. Robert Hines testified that the FBI dominated much
of the investigation. When asked, "Did there come a time
when you determined that [the] Department of Justice
was really in charge of this investigation?", Hines
answered, "There came a time when I determined that
they were calling a lot of shots, setting-up a lot of
protocols ..."
During the course of the initial investigation, FBI agents
interviewed over two dozen people regarding events
leading up to and immediately following Foster's death,
far more than the Park Police interviewed.
The day after the death, July 21, FBI agents met with
White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, Assistant
White House Counsel Steven Neuwirth and Assistant
White House Counsel Clifford Sloan to discuss the
search of Foster's office. In 1995, the Senate held
well-publicized hearings concerning Nussbaum's refusal
to let authorities see all the documents he reviewed during
the office search on July 22 in the presence of the FBI
and the Park Police. There were allegations that White
House personnel searched the office before Nussbaum's
official search. Yet, the FBI had already searched the
office and removed evidence, according to a U.S. Secret
Service report, written by a technical security division
officer. On Aug. 3, 1993, that officer wrote that on July
31, 1993, 11 days after the death, an FBI agent told him
of the FBI's involvement in the case.
"[The agent] ... and some other agents (five) were
working on the Foster suicide ... working ... leads on
some info they had received ..."
The source of the information that "the FBI had removed
evidence" was the officer who was there to change the
locks on Wednesday, July 21. The FBI was later
charged with determining who had secretly ferreted-out
documents from Foster's office in the aftermath of his
death and determining what was removed.
Additionally, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert
Bryant admitted that a federal assassination statute
required the FBI to exercise primary jurisdiction over the
case. At an Aug. 10, 1993, press conference, Bryant
explained that the FBI ruled the death a suicide.
Because the initial investigation was, in fact, conducted
jointly by the Park Police and the FBI, both agencies
would bear responsibility for any deficiencies. Critics of
the probe have long charged that basic investigative
procedures were ignored, both at the scene and
thereafter. Since the FBI did initially investigate along
with the Park Police, at which time it ruled that the death
was a suicide, the FBI had an interest in a final
determination of no criminal activity, according to Turley.
Starr has steadfastly refused to comment further on his
findings that Foster shot himself in the park.
Last September, a three-judge federal panel unsealed the
511-page report, submitted by Knowlton, which, in the
view of Clarke, Knowlton, Turley and others presents
incontrovertible evidence of conspiracy and cover-up by
the Justice Department and the Office of the Independent
Counsel in connection with their investigations into
Foster's death and counters the official conclusion that
the top White House official committed suicide by
gunshot in the park.
Knowlton's court filing charges Starr's investigation
simply added "another layer to the 6-year-old ongoing
Justice Department cover-up" -- which began the night of
the death and continued through an initial 17-day
examination by the FBI and two probes by the two
independent counsels -- a reference not only to Starr's
work but to that of Special Counsel Robert Fiske, whose
report was issued June 30, 1994.
Knowlton's filings in the U.S. Court of Appeals are built
on charges developed in a civil suit he filed Oct. 25,
1996, charging FBI agents and others with obstruction of
justice, witness intimidation and personal harassment. An
amended complaint was filed in October 1998 adding
defendants and additional information.
"In this report, we've proved there was a crime -- though
we're nowhere near the point where we can say who did
it or why," Clarke said. "I think the evidence is consistent
with a professional hit."
Foster's body was found July 20, 1993, at 5:50 p.m.
near the northwest corner of Fort Marcy Park, Va.,
approximately 700 feet from the parking lot. The body
was found in a heavily wooded area lying on one of the
earthen berms of the Civil War fort. The official cause of
death -- touted from the outset as a suicide -- was
declared due to a gunshot fired into the mouth; the
weapon, said to be a black 1913 Army Colt .38 Special
six-shot revolver, was said to have been found in Foster's
hand.
Knowlton, 44, had stopped briefly at Fort Marcy 70
minutes before the body was discovered. He saw that
Foster's silver-gray 1989 Honda was not in the parking
lot at 4:30 p.m. when he arrived, though Foster had
officially driven it there and took his own life. Knowlton
did, however, see an early-1980s model, rust-brown
Honda with Arkansas plates and a blue late-model
sedan.
Knowlton later reported that no one was in the Honda
but that the driver of the sedan stood by that car
watching him "menacingly" as he walked into the woods
seeking a secluded place where he could relieve himself,
and he was still there when Knowlton returned a few
minutes later.
Knowlton notified the U.S. Park Police as to what he
had seen in the parking lot as soon as word of Foster's
death was made public on July 21. He was not contacted
by the FBI for a statement until the following spring. FBI
agents interviewed him in April and May 1994 prior to
the release of the Fiske report but, according to
Knowlton, falsified his account of what he saw. Despite
Knowlton's insistence that the car he saw was a 1983-84
rust-brown Honda, the agents in their report wrote that
he had seen a 1988-1990 Honda. Foster's car was a
silver 1989 Honda.
It was important to establish that Foster's car was in the
parking lot at 4:30 p.m. since the medical examiner and
others later set the approximate time of death between 2
p.m. and 4:20 p.m. The question is -- if Foster's car was
not at the park at 4:30 p.m., as Knowlton insists, where
was it? And, if Foster did not drive to the park, how did
he or his body get there?
Since stepping down as independent counsel, Starr has
steadfastly refused to comment on questions about his
report on Foster's death.
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