Religions > Atheism > Surpise! Yet Another GOP Lie (Re: CLINTON FAMILY DEAD FRIENDS LIST!)
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Yang" |
| Date: |
02 Feb 2004 12:21:04 AM |
| Object: |
Surpise! Yet Another GOP Lie (Re: CLINTON FAMILY DEAD FRIENDS LIST!) |
On 1 Feb 2004 21:07:06 -0800, (Alvin Valkenheiser
X) wrote:
CLINTON FAMILY DEAD FRIENDS LIST!
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/clinton.htm
Claim: Bill Clinton has been quietly doing away with those who
oppose him.
Status: False.
Origins: A new version of a lengthy list of deaths associated with
Bill Clinton began circulating on the the Internet in August 1998.
According to it,
there have been close to fifty suspicious deaths of colleagues,
advisors and citizens who were about to testify against the Clintons,
with the unstated implication that Bill Clinton or his henchmen were
behind each untimely demise.
We shouldn't have to tell anyone not to believe this claptrap, but we
will anyway. In a frenzied media climate where the Chief Executive
couldn't boff a White House intern without the whole world finding out
every niggling detail of each encounter and demanding his removal from
office, are we seriously to believe the same man had been having
double handfuls of detractors and former friends murdered with
impunity?
Don't be swayed by the number of names listed on screeds like this.
Any public figure is bound to have a much wider circle of acquaintance
than an ordinary citizen would. Moreover, the acquaintance is often
one-sided — though many of the people enumerated on this list might
properly claim to have known Clinton, he wouldn't know or remember
having met a great number of them.
"Body count" lists are not a new phenomenon. Lists documenting all the
allegedly "suspicious" deaths of persons connected with the
assassination of John F. Kennedy have been circulating for decades,
and the same techniques used to create and spread the JFK lists have
been employed in the Clinton version:
List every dead person with even the most tenuous of connections to
your subject. It doesn't matter how these people died, or how
tangential they were to your subject's life. The longer the list, the
more impressive it looks and the less likely anyone is to challenge
it. By the time readers get to the bottom of the list, they'll be too
weary to wonder what could possibly be relevant about the death of
Clinton's mother's chiropractor.
Play word games. Make sure every death is presented as "mysterious."
All accidental deaths are to be labelled "suspicious," even though by
definition accidents occur when something unexpected goes wrong. Every
self-inflicted death discussed must include the phrase "ruled a
suicide," to imply just the opposite. When an autopsy contradicts a
"mysterious death" theory, dispute it; when none was performed because
none was needed, claim that "no autopsy was allowed." Make liberal use
of words such as 'allegedly' and 'supposedly' to dismiss facts you
can't contradict with hard evidence.
Make sure every inconsistency or unexplained detail you can dredge up
is offered as evidence of a conspiracy, no matter how insignificant or
pointless it may be. If an obvious suicide is discovered wearing only
one shoe, ignore the physical evidence of self-inflicted death and
dwell on the missing shoe. You don't have to establish an alternate
theory of the death; just keep harping that the missing shoe "can't be
explained."
If the data doesn't fit your conclusion, ignore it. You don't have to
explain why the people who claim to have the most damaging goods on
Clinton — Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Linda Tripp,
Monica Lewinsky, Kenneth Starr — are still walking around unscathed
while dozens of bit players have been bumped off. It's inconvenient
for you, so don't mention it.
Most importantly, don't let facts and details stand in your way! If
you can pass off a death by pneumonia as a "suicide," do it! If a
cause of death contradicts your conspiracy theory, claim it was "never
determined." If your chronology of events is impossible, who cares?
It's not like anybody is going to check up on this stuff . . .
This Clinton "body count" list is not a new phenomenon — multiple
versions have been circulating for years. New victim names are
routinely added and old ones taken off, forming an endless variety of
permutations. At this point, there is no one "official" list.
But where did all this craziness start? In 1994, in a letter to
congressional leaders, former Rep. William Dannemeyer listed 24 people
with some connection to Clinton who had died "under other than natural
circumstances" and called for hearings on the matter.
Dannemeyer's list of "suspicious deaths" was largely taken from one
compiled by Linda Thompson, an Indianapolis lawyer who in 1993 quit
her year-old general practice to run her American Justice Federation,
a for-profit group that promotes pro-gun causes and various conspiracy
theories through a shortwave radio program, a computer bulletin board
and sales of its newsletter and videos.
Her list, called "The Clinton Body Count: Coincidence or the Kiss of
Death?" then contained the names of 34 people she believed died
suspiciously and who had ties to the Clinton family. Thompson admitted
she had "no direct evidence" of Clinton killing anyone. Indeed, she
said the deaths were probably caused by "people trying to control the
President" but refused to say who they were. Thompson said her
allegations of murder "seem groundless only because the mainstream
media haven't done enough digging."
Ah, but they had. If not before she put her list together, at least
afterwards. Anyone who continues to state the mainstream media has
given these claims short shrift is being disingenuous.
Since 1994, various respected news outlets have been confronted with
versions of the "Clinton Body Count" list, run their own
investigations of a few of the claims, and found nothing to
substantiate what they looked into. Those investigations would
culminate in yet another story about an oddball conspiracy rumor.
But conspiracy theories don't die that easily. These "body count"
lists and the many specious claims contained therein continue to
circulate in cyberspace and beyond: yesterday's newspaper articles are
forgotten with the next day's delivery, but e-mail lives forever.
Let's take this new version apart line by line. The sections which
appear in a highlighted color are the "Clinton Body Count" e-mail,
while the sections in ordinary text color are my comments.
Much of the evidence will never be known because many people who were
witnesses or who possessed evidence of some kind suffered mysterious
deaths prior to being able to come forward.
In other words, "We can't prove that all these people had information
damaging to Bill Clinton, but since they're dead now we can simply
assert that they did without fear of contradiction."
The list compiled here is not complete and is not detailed. It is
presented to show how extensive the problem is and to illustrate that
all these deaths could not be just a coincidence.
Translation: "If I included all the details, it would expose what a
canard this list really is. And hinting that there's even more than I
could list here makes it sound all the more ominous."
1. Mary Mohane - former White House intern gunned down in a coffee
shop. Nothing was taken. It was suspected that she was about to
testify about sexual harassment at the White House.
Former White House intern Mary Caitrin Mahoney, 25, manager of a
Georgetown Starbucks, was killed along with two co-workers (Emory
Allen Evans, 25 and Aaron David Goodrich, 18) on 6 July 1997 during a
robbery of the shop. In March 1999 Carl Derek Havord Cooper (29) of
Washington was arrested and charged with these murders.
Yes, it is unusual that three employees were killed in the course of a
robbery during which nothing was taken. According to Cooper's 26 April
2000 guilty plea (he received life with no hope of parole), he went to
the Starbucks to rob the place, figuring the receipts from the July 4
weekend would make for a fat take. He came in after closing, waved a
38, and ordered all three Starbucks employees into the back room.
Once there, Mahoney made a run for it after Cooper fired a warning
shot into the ceiling. She was ordered back to the room, but then went
for the gun. Cooper shot her, then afterwards shot the other two
employees. He left empty-handed, afraid the shots had attracted police
attention. As regrettable as these three deaths were, this was nothing
but a case of a robbery gone wrong.
And, right away, we have come to the first big lie of the "Clinton
Body Count" list: Any unexplained death can automatically be
attributed to President Clinton by inventing a connection between him
and the victim. Mary Mahoney did once work as an intern at the White
House, but so have hundreds of other people who are all still alive.
There is no credible reason why, of all the interns who have served in
the Clinton White House, Ms. Mahoney alone would be the target of a
Clinton-directed killing. (Contrary to public perception, very few
interns work in the West Wing of the White House or have any contact
with the President. The closest most interns get to the chief
executive is a brief handshake or a group photo.)
The putative reason offered for Mahoney's slaying — that she was about
to testify about sexual harrassment in the White House — was a lie.
This absurd justification apparently sprang from a hint dropped by
Mike Isikoff of Newsweek just before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke
that a "former White House staffer" with the initial "M" was about to
talk about her affair with Clinton. We all know now, of course, that
the "staffer" referred to was Monica Lewinsky, not Mary Mahoney. The
conspiracy buffs maintained that White House hit men rushed out,
willy-nilly, and gunned down the first female ex-intern whose name
began with "M" they could find.
2. Vincent Foster - former White House Counsel, found dead of a
gunshot wound to the head and ruled a suicide. He had significant
knowledge of the Clintons' financial affairs and was a business
partner with Hillary. If the Clintons are guilty of the crimes they
are accused of by Larry, Vincent Foster would have detailed knowledge
of those crimes.
This laundry list of deaths always refers to someone taking his life
as "ruled a suicide," thus implying another conclusion of equal
likelihood was capriciously dismissed by someone who had the power to
do so. From here on, read "ruled a suicide" as "an investigation was
carried out, arriving at this as the only reasonable conclusion."
White House deputy counsel Vince Foster committed suicide on the night
of 20 July 1993 by shooting himself once in the head, a day after he
contacted his doctor about his depression. A note in the form of a
draft resignation letter was found in the bottom of his briefcase a
week after his death. (Note that this letter was not, as is often
claimed, a "suicide note." It was Foster's outline for a letter of
resignation.) Foster cited negative Wall Street Journal editorials
about him. He was also upset about the much-criticized role of the
counsel's office in the controversial firing of seven White House
travel office workers.
On 10 October 1997, special prosecutor Kenneth Starr released his
report on the investigation into Foster's death, the third such
investigation (after ones conducted by the coroner and Starr's
predecessor, Robert B. Fiske) of the matter. The 114-page summary of a
three-year investigation concluded that Foster shot himself with the
pistol discovered in his right hand. There was no sign of a struggle,
nor any evidence he'd been drugged or intoxicated or that his body had
been moved.
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. Or are we to believe Starr is part of
the cover up, too? And if we buy into the conspiracy theory, what are
we expected to believe? That a group of professional killers capable
of carrying out dozens of murders all over the world shot Vince
Foster, then clumsily dumped him in a park (after he had bled out),
planted a gun he didn't own in his hand (without bothering to press
his fingerprints onto it), amateurishly forged a suicide note (in
several different handwritings), and then seriously expected the
nation would believe it was suicide? Claims too crazy to believe are
never discounted when they're needed to help establish a conspiracy,
of course.
3. C. Victor Raiser, II - former National Finance Co-Chairman of
Clinton for President, and Montgomery Raiser, his son. Both died in a
suspicious private plane crash in Alaska. No cause determined. Raiser
was considered to be a major player on the Clinton team.
All plane crashes are "suspicious," because airplanes are supposed to
stay in the air, and when they don't it's because something went
terribly wrong. Pilot error and mechanical failure are by far the most
common causes underlying any crash. The National Transportation Safety
Board investigates every downed plane in the U.S., and though they
might not always pin down the exact cause of a crash, they're
generally pretty good about ruling out the use of explosives or
mechanical tampering. If the NTSB doesn't find evidence of tampering
or explosives, that's not what downed the plane, and we're left with
pilot error and mechanical failure as our choices.
Raiser, his son, and three others died in a plane crash in Alaska on
30 July 1992 during a fishing trip. The pilot and another passenger
survived and were hospitalized with severe burns. While the "body
count" list claims "no cause determined," the NTSB says otherwise:
pilot error in a small plane flying in mountainous terrain during low
visibility conditions led to the crash.
Now, consider how ridiculous it is to include this accident on a list
of allegedly deliberate deaths. The airplane did not crash due to
mechanical failure. The airplane did not crash because it was damaged
by fire or explosion. The airplane crashed because its pilot made a
mistake. So how could C. Victor Raiser's death possibly have been
deliberate? Do you know any pilots willing to intentionally crash
their planes? Is there a registry of kamikaze flyers one can hire when
one needs a few passengers to be "accidentally" bumped off? Isn't it
astounding that the pilot managed to crash his plane and kill the
targeted victim, yet ensure his own survival?
See what the NTSB had to say about this accident.
Note that the conspiracy buffs can't even come up with a plausible
reason for Raiser's killing other than noting that he was "a major
player on the Clinton team," as if that were reason enough. (What
about all the other "major players" who aren't dead? How does Clinton
ever get anything done if he keeps bumping off anybody with any
responsibility in his organization? And isn't it a little foolish to
kill off one of your chief financial chairmen three months before a
major election? "Yup, I've got all the money I'll ever need for this
presidential election; guess I can kill off my finance chairman now.")
4. Paul Tully - DNC Political Director, was found dead in a Little
Rock hotel room. No cause was ever determined and no autopsy was
allowed. Tully was a key member of the damage control squad and came
up with some of the Clinton strategies.
Paul Tully died on 24 September 1992. Problem is, there wasn't
anything the least bit unusual about his death, so whoever cooked up
this list had to lie and claim that "no cause was ever determined" and
"no autopsy was allowed." Au contraire! An autopsy was performed, and
Tully's cause of death was determined: a massive heart attack. (Not a
surprising demise, since Tully was extremely overweight, a heavy
drinker, and a chain smoker.) According to Steve Nawojczyk, the
Pulaski County coroner, "An autopsy by the Arkansas medical examiner's
office discovered advanced coronary artery disease." He added that
investigators found no evidence of external trauma to the body.
Note again that the conspiracy buffs offer no putative reason for
Tully's "killing," yet would have us believe that Clinton ordered his
chief strategist rubbed out while the most important election of his
career was still over a month away.
5. Ed Willey - Clinton fund raiser. Found in the woods in Virginia
with a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide.
Ed Willey was a former Virginia state senator and a lawyer; his wife
Kathleen was active in Democratic state politics, worked as a
volunteer (including some fund-raising efforts) on behalf of the
Clinton campaign in Virginia in 1992, and later worked as a volunteer
in the White House Social Office. Ed Willey's death was as clear cut a
case of suicide as one is likely to find. Willey was a desperate,
unstable man who (along with his wife) spent money lavishly, stole
$275,000 of a client's money, and was about half a million dollars in
debt to the IRS. He took his own life on 29 November 1993, leaving
behind a suicide note found by his wife: "Saying I'm sorry doesn't
begin to explain. I hope one day you will forgive me."
At the same time as Willey was killing himself, his wife was allegedly
being groped by Clinton. She'd gone to the Chief Executive looking for
a job to help her family out of its financial crisis and found herself
fending off Clinton's advances. Clinton admits to the meeting but
denies her version of what went on during it. Kathleen Willey
testified in Paula Jones' harrassment suit against Clinton, but she's
never claimed that Clinton had her husband killed.
Yet again, no reason is offered as to why Clinton would supposedly
want to see Willey dead.
6. Hershell Friday - Clinton fund-raiser. His plane exploded.
Herschel Friday, an Arkansas lawyer who had been on the Clinton
campaign finance committee, died in a airplane accident on 1 March
1994. His plane did not "explode"; the elderly (73-year-old) Friday,
at the controls, crashed it during an attempted landing on a
poorly-lighted private airfield at dusk on a dark and drizzly day.
Nothing suspicious about this one, hence the need to claim that the
plane "exploded." That always sounds suspicious.
See what the NTSB had to say about this accident.
Again, no reason is offered why Clinton would have wanted to dispose
of Friday.
7. Jerry Parks - former security team member for Governor Clinton.
Prior to his death he had compiled an extensive file on Clinton's
activities. His family had reported being followed and his home broken
into just before being gunned down at a deserted intersection.
On 26 September 1993, Luther (Jerry) Parks was hit with ten bullets
from a 9-mm semiautomatic handgun as he left a Mexican restaurant at
the edge of Little Rock. His murder remains unsolved.
Parks' security company guarded Clinton's campaign headquarters in
1992. Parks' son, Gary, asserts in Circle of Power and The Clinton
Chronicles (both video products of Linda Thompson's American Justice
Federation) that his father collected a secret file of Clinton's
indiscretions, and that his father was using the file to try to
blackmail the Clinton campaign. (He also claims that Vince Foster knew
of the file's existence.) Despite these allegations, the younger Parks
has failed to produce the mysterious file, and Clyde Steelman, the
homicide sergeant with the Little Rock police force, dismissed Gary
Parks' theories of his father's death as "unsubstantiated, nothing to
grasp." A far more likely suspect in the murder is Jerry Parks' former
partner, with whom Parks had quarreled bitterly.
8. John Wilson - former Washington D.C. council member. Had ties to
Whitewater. Died of a very suspicious hanging suicide.
John Wilson was the chairman of the District of Columbia Council, and
his suicide was far from "very suspicious": Wilson had a long history
of depression, was wrestling with marital problems, and had tried to
kill himself on at least four other occasions. He finally succeeded on
19 May 1993. Upon his death, Wilson's wife said, "[His] depression was
an inherited problem; that he was able to contribute so much over the
years in the face of his disability was a miracle." Police said that
he did not leave a note and that there were no signs of foul play.
Wilson had absolutely nothing in common with Clinton other than that
they worked in the same city (i.e., Washington, D.C.). The claim that
Wilson had anything to do with Whitewater is laughable (and rathert
pathetic).
9. Kathy Ferguson - former wife of Arkansas State Trooper Danny
Ferguson, the co-defendant with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones
lawsuit. Found dead in her living room of a gunshot wound to the head.
Ruled a suicide. Interestingly, her packed suitcases seemed to
indicate she was about to go somewhere.
Kathy Ferguson killed herself with a gunshot to the right temple on 11
May 1993 at the home of her boyfriend, Bill Shelton. Their
relationship had fallen on hard times, with each accusing the other of
having been unfaithful. Ferguson left behind a suicide note that read:
"I can't stay here any longer. Things will never be the same for us. I
can't take that." Close by was another note from Shelton questioning
her relationship with another man, which Ferguson's daughter said her
mother had been upset over.
There was no mention of packed suitcases in any of the reports about
Ferguson's death examined so far, but even if there were, it wouldn't
be the least bit surprising — is it so unusual that a woman might be
thinking of moving out of the house of a boyfriend who quarreled with
her and challenged her fidelity?
Note how tenuous the imagined connections between Clinton and the
"victims" are becoming at this point in the list. The ex-wife of an
Arkansas state trooper? That's quite a stretch. Moreover, why would
anyone kill Kathy Ferguson but not Danny Ferguson?
10. Bill Shelton - Arkansas state trooper and fiance of Kathy
Ferguson. Allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself at her
grave.
Shelton killed himself over Kathy Ferguson's grave on 12 June 1993. A
suicide note was found beside his body. Just a month earlier he had
quarreled with his girlfriend, accused her of cheating on him, and
driven her to suicide. There's nothing mysterious about his death or
his reasons for taking his life. And if the idea that the ex-wife of
an Arkansas state trooper was a Clinton "connection" weren't absurd
enough, we're now offered the boyfriend of an ex-wife of an Arkansas
state trooper.
11. Gandy Baugh - attorney for Dan Lasater in a financial misconduct
case. Supposedly jumped out the window of a tall building to commit
suicide.
Gandy Baugh died on 8 January 1994 at home. Although causes weren't
specified, it's safe to assume people who jump out of tall buildings
either die on the spot or in the hospital, not at home.
12. Dr. Donald Rogers - dentist. Killed in a suspicious plane crash on
his way to an interview with reporter Ambrose Evans-Pritchard to
reveal information about Clinton.
On 3 March 1994 the Cessna carrying a pilot, Donald Rogers, and two
other passengers crashed. The pilot had earlier radioed in that he was
experiencing electrical trouble and then lost radio contact. The NTSB
investigation after the crash revealed that the plane's left generator
severely overheated and shut down, leaving the plane without
electrical systems. The plane went down far off its planned route, and
the pilot was good and lost at the time of the crash.
See what the NTSB had to say about this accident.
13. Stanley Huggins - lawyer investigating Madison Guaranty.
Suicide. His extensive report has never been released.
How anyone can confuse dying of pneumonia with suicide is beyond me.
Huggins died on 23 June 1994. According Dr. Richard Callery,
Delaware's top medical examiner, viral myocarditis and bronchial
pneumonia killed Huggins. Lt. Joel Ivory of the University of Delaware
police said his exhaustive investigation of Huggins's death turned up
"no sign at all of foul play."
14. Florence Martin - Accountant for the CIA and had information on
the Barry Seal case. Three gunshot wounds to the head.
On 23 October 1994 69-year-old Florence Martin of Mabelle, Texas (40
miles from Wichita Falls) was murdered in her home by three gunshots
to the head through a pillow. She wasn't an accountant for the CIA,
though: She worked the graveyard shift at a convenience store in
nearby Seymour and had lived in that area for decades. The murder is
still unsolved.
15. Suzane Coleman - reportedly had an affair with Clinton. Was seven
months pregnant at the time she was found dead of a gun shot wound to
the back of the head, ruled suicide.
At the time of Susan Coleman's suicide, Bill Clinton was her law
professor. In 1992 an overzealous supporter of George Bush hired
investigators to probe this girl's 1977 suicide. They found no
evidence that the two had even had an affair. It was an old rumor and
a baseless one, and even a determined attempt at muckraking turned up
nothing to substantiate it.
16. Paula Grober - Clinton's interpreter for the deaf. Traveled with
Clinton from 1978 until her death in 1992 in a one-car accident. There
were no witnesses.
The accident took place during the afternoon of 7 December 1992. Paula
Gober's car overturned at a curve in the highway, throwing her 33 feet
from the vehicle. No one witnessed the accident.
17. Paul Wilcher - attorney investigating corruption. He had
investigated federal elections, drug and gun smuggling through Mena,
the Waco incident, and had just delivered a lengthy report to Janet
Reno. He died in his home of unknown causes.
Wilcher's partially decomposed body was found seated on the toilet in
his Washington D.C. home on 22 June 1993. His death was attributed to
natural causes. According to The Washington Times, "[H]e was
investigating the theory of an 'October Surprise' conspiracy during
the 1980 federal election campaign. He had been interviewing an inmate
who claimed to have piloted George Bush to Paris so he could secretly
seek to delay the release of 52 American hostages in Iran." President
Clinton, just a year into his first term, would hardly be likely to
give up a key political advantage by bumping off someone who was
supposedly about to dig up some major dirt on the Republican party
18. Jon Parnell Walker - RTC investigator who mysteriously fell to his
death from an apartment balcony.
I can find nothing about this man, not a report of his death or of his
being an Resolution Trust Corporation investigator. Various lists
state this tragedy happened on 15 August 1993 at the Lincoln Towers in
Arlington, Virginia, but nothing shows up in the newspapers about it.
19. Ron Brown - former DNS Chairman, Commerce Secretary. Reported to
have died in a plane crash, but new evidence reveals he may have been
shot in the head. He was being investigated by a special investigator
and was about to be indicted with 54 others. He spoke publicly of his
willingness to "make a deal" with the prosecutors to save himself a
few days before the fatal trip. He was not supposed to be on the
flight but was asked to go at the last minute. (This count does not
include the other business leaders and other passengers who died on
this government-sponsored trade mission.)
What "new evidence"? Ron Brown and 34 others were killed in a plane
crash in Croatia on 3 April 1996. The plane slammed into a mountain
while on landing approach. There were no survivors.
A lot has been made of an x-ray of Brown's skull in which what looks
like a round entry wound appears. Closer examination of Brown's skull
by military officials revealed no bullet, no bone fragments, no metal
fragments and, even more telling, no exit wound.
Simply imagining a scenario under which Ron Brown could have been shot
takes one into the realm of the absurd. Was he shot in the head during
the flight, in full view of thirty-four other witnesses? (If so, how
did they get off the plane?) Did the killers shoot him before the
flight, then bundle his body into a seat (just like "Weekend at
Bernie's") and hope nobody noticed the gaping hole in his head? Or did
Croatian commandos fortuitously appear on the scene to scale a
mountain and pump a bullet into the head of an already-dead plane
crash victim?
See what the Air Force had to say about this crash.
20. Barbara Wise - Commerce Department secretary. Worked with Ron
Brown and John Huang and had extensive knowledge of their activities.
Found dead in her locked office the day after Thanksgiving. It was
ruled a suicide. Interestingly, she was found partially clothed,
bruised, and in a pool of blood.
There was no pool of blood, and Barbara Wise's death was never ruled a
suicide by anyone. She was discovered in her Commerce Department
office on 29 November 1996 after last being seen alive on 27 November
1996, the day before Thanksgiving. A thorough investigation uncovered
no evidence of foul play or suicide. Wise had a history of frequent
and severe health problems, including liver ailments. Her death was
attributed to natural causes.
21. Charles Meissner - Assistant Secretary of Commerce. John Huang was
given a special security clearance by Meissner. Shortly thereafter, he
died in the crash of a small plane.
Charles Meissner died in the same plane crash that took the life of
Ron Brown, the one in Croatia on 3 April 1996. Fourteen Commerce
Department staffers died in that crash, Meissner and Brown among them.
We're now entering an long segment of the list wherein a number of
deaths are tied to those of Henry and Ives, who are supposedly linked
to Clinton. All of this linkage is one big canard. Henry and Ives had
nothing to do with Clinton — they were two young men who foolishly
ripped off drugs from a dealer and were beaten to death in revenge.
With no link between Clinton and Henry or Ives, the following eight
entries collapse like a house of cards.
22 & 23. Kevin Ives and Don Henry - seventeen-year-old boys who
apparently saw something related to drugs in Mena by accident late at
night. Officially ruled an accidental death on the train tracks, but
evidence shows they died before being placed on the tracks - one of a
crushed skull and the other of a knife wound in the back.
Henry and Ives were run over by a train on 23 Aug 1987. Dr. Fahmy
Malak, Arkansas' former state medical examiner, ruling the deaths
accidental, said the teens fell asleep on the tracks after smoking
marijuana. A 1988 Saline County grand jury determined the boys were
murdered and their bodies afterwards laid on the tracks, but no other
conclusions were reached and no indictments were returned. The FBI is
still investigating the deaths.
A number of Malak's determinations had been challenged and overturned
during his career. He certainly wasn't always a conscientious medical
examiner, and his Ives and Henry rulings were only two of many such
botchings.
Getting back to the real meat of who killed the boys, nothing ties
Ives and Henry to Clinton. Though various of these lists will claim
the boys accidentally stumbled onto a "protected" drug drop and were
killed for it, there's no reason to believe even that. In a 25 May
1990 hearing before U.S. Magistrate Henry Jones Jr., Katherine
Brightop said her ex-boyfriend Paul William Criswell told her he and
three other men were involved in the teenagers' deaths. Brightop said
Criswell told her the boys tried to steal cocaine from Callaway's home
and they were caught and beaten to death before their bodies were
placed on the tracks.
Ripping off a drug dealer will get you killed, whether you know a
governor or not.
24. Keith Koney - had information on the Ives and Henry deaths. Died
in a motorcycle accident with reports of a high-speed car chased
involved.
19-year-old Keith Coney died on 17 May 1988 when the motorcycle he was
driving struck the back of a tractor-trailer. He was riding a
motorcycle he'd stolen the day before. There were no reports of a
high-speed car chase.
25. Keith McKaskle - had information on the Ives and Henry deaths.
Stabbed to death.
In August 1989, Ronald Shane Smith was sentenced to ten years for the
10 November 1988 murder of Keith McKaskle. McKaskle had earlier
expressed fears for his life, linking them to his knowing something
about "the railroad track thing". Smith may have been paid to kill
McKaskle, as a prison inmate said he had been approached and offered
$4,000 to kill McKaskle himself.
26. Gregory Collins - had information on the Ives and Henry deaths.
Gunshot wound to the head.
Greg Collins (25) of Bryant, Arkansas, was found shot in woods near
Rosston on 2 December 1989. If he truly knew something about
drug-related murders, that's reason enough for him to have been
killed.
27. Jeff Rhodes - had information on the Ives and Henry and McKaskle
deaths. Tortured, mutilated, shot, body burned in a dumpster.
In July 1989 Frank Pilcher was arrested for the April 1989 murder of
Jeffrey Rhodes. Rhodes had earlier told his father he feared for his
life because he'd witnessed a narcotics transaction.
Rhodes was last seen alive on April 3. His body was discovered in a
dumpster on April 19. He'd been shot twice in the head and his body
was badly burned. The body was likely burned in an effort to destroy
forensic evidence that would led investigators to the murderer.
28. James Milam - had information on the Ives and Henry deaths. He was
decapitated. The coroner ruled death due to natural causes.
This is my favorite entry. Remember that Arkansas medical examiner,
the one I said wasn't always the most conscientious investigator on
God's green earth? Yep, we're about to see him again. Fahmy Malak
listed James Milam's cause of death as a perforated ulcer, adding that
Milam's small dog afterwards ate the dead man's head, accounting for
Milam's headless condition.
Milam's daughter-in-law insists Milam was murdered. She claims Malak
showed her photographs of the headless corpse, and the neck was cut
clean. The Milam family has not attempted to legally challenge the
ruling because of the expense, so we'll never know which way the cat
jumps, ulcer or murder.
Whatever killed him, Milam died three months before the Ives and Henry
murders. What are we supposed to believe here, that Clinton
conspirators knocked off someone who "had information on the Ives and
Henry deaths" three months Ives and Henry actually died? Wow, talk
about a preemptive strike!
29. Jordan Kettleson - had information on the Ives and Henry deaths.
Found shot in the front seat of his pick up truck.
21-year-old Jordan Ketelsen died on 25 June 1990.
30. Dr. Stanley Heard - Chair, National Chiropractic Health Care
Advisory Committee. He personally treated Clinton's mother,
stepfather, and brother. His personal small plane developed problems
so he rented another. Fire broke out in flight and he crashed.
Ooh, Clinton's mother's chiropractor died in plane crash. How
mysterious. What's next, Clinton's brother's dentist's dog?
Stanley Heard and Stephen Dickson died on 10 September 1993, when
their Piper Turbo Lance II caught fire shortly after takeoff from
Dulles airport and crashed. They'd attended a briefing that morning on
the Clinton administration's health care plan. Dickson's plane had
developed mechanical problems on the way to Washington the week
before, so Dickson and Heard rented the Cherokee in St. Louis to make
the trip. They rented a badly maintained plane, and it cost them their
lives.
Here is what the NTSB had to say about this crash.
I've found nothing on the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory
that Heard supposedly chaired.
31. Steve Dickson - attorney for Heard. Died in same plane crash.
Dickson attended the same briefing Heard did. I do not know if he was
there as Heard's lawyer or for independent reasons.
32. John Hillier - video journalist and investigator. He helped to
produce the documentaries "Circle of Power," and "The Clinton
Chronicles." He mysteriously died in a dentist's chair for no apparent
reason.
Again, I can find no record of this man's death or of his work. There
have been a few dental chair deaths, but I find nothing on his.
33. Maj. Gen. William Robertson
34. Col. William Densberger
35. Col. Robert Kelly
36. Spec. Gary Rhodes
37. Steve Willis
38. Robert Williams
39. Conway LeBleu
40. Todd McKeehan
41. Sgt. Brian Haney
42. Sgt. Tim Sabel
43. Maj.William Barkley
44. Capt. Scott Reynolds
* all former Clinton bodyguards who are dead.
Steve Willis, Robert Williams, Todd McKeehan and Conway LeBleu were
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents killed during the Waco
confrontation on 28 February 1993.
Brian Haney, Timothy Sabel, William Barkley and Scott Reynolds died in
a helicopter crash on 19 May 1993. These four were members of Marine
Helicopter Squadron One, the unit responsible for transporting the
President. They died when the Blackhawk helicopter they had taken out
for a maintenance-evaluation flight crashed. There was no evidence of
sabotage. Clinton had set foot in the aircraft on only one occasion,
two months earlier, when he traveled from the White House to the USS
Theodore Roosevelt.
Jarrett Robertson, William Densberger, Robert Kelly and Gary Rhodes
died in a helicopter crash in Weisbaden, Germany on 23 February 1993.
45. Gary Johnson - former attorney for Larry Nichols, severely beaten
and left for dead.
Again, I can find nothing on this incident or even this man's life.
46. Dennis Patrick - had millions of dollars laundered through his
account at Lasater & Co. without his knowledge. There have been
several attempts on his life, all unsuccessful.
It's hard to know what to say about this one. Though I find credible
reference to Patrick's life having been in danger a few times, I'm
unable to trace back to news reports on the original incidents.
Without seeing them, I'm not confident in stating an opinion on
whether or not those attempts took place.
Patrick was a client of Lasater, albeit a reluctant one. He was asked
to open an account there, he refused, one was opened for him anyway,
and he was handed "profits" from one transaction for his part in
allowing whatever was going on to take place. Again, someone who got
involved with drug dealers ended up in trouble. In this case, an
otherwise upstanding man took money he knew to be dirty to keep quiet
about what his account was being used for. If he's now being chased by
drug dealers who don't want the details of the transactions to come to
light, is that all that surprising?
47. L.J. Davis - reporter. While investigating the Clinton scandals he
was attacked in his hotel room and his notes were taken. He survived.
Davis said he had awakened in his hotel room with a big bump on his
head. He soon admitted having drunk at least four martinis that night.
No pages were missing from his notebook, and he had no idea how he
ended up on the floor. "I certainly wasn't about to conclude that
somebody cracked me on the head," Davis said at the time.
48. Larry Nichols - former marketing director of ADFA. Responsible for
bringing forth more evidence and witnesses on Clinton corruption than
any other source. Very public about his claims against Clinton. He has
suffered six beatings, arrest on trumped up charges, and a near
arrest.
In 1988 Larry Nichols, then a marketing director for the Arkansas
Development Finance Authority, was fired from his job for making
hundreds of calls to the Nicaraguan contras from his office. In 1990
he filed a lawsuit against Clinton claiming the then-Governor of
Arkansas and others made him the scapegoat in a
misappropriation-of-funds charge that cost him his job. In that suit
he also tossed in claims of extramarital affairs, naming five women
Clinton was supposed to have chased across the sheets. Nichols
withdrew his lawsuit in 1992 and issued a round of apologies to
everyone involved. He admitted what he'd said had been an attempt to
destroy the Governor by innuendo.
Nichols has since changed his tune yet again, and has returned to
making allegations against Clinton, always being careful to stop just
short of asserting Clinton is involved in various murders and other
crimes Nichols points to as "suspicious."
Since his dismissal from the AFDA, Nichols has made a career of
peddling anti-Clinton books and tapes to the lunatic fringe. Take
anything claimed about or by this man with a huge grain of salt.
Now, ask yourself: how many people with whom you were acquainted have
died mysteriously or violently in the past 10 years.
The bottom line on this piece of e-lore? It's a badly worked laundry
list dressed up to appear significant. The promised damning
connections to the Chief Executive are missing, with innuendo
misinformation offered up in their place. Nothing ties Clinton to any
of these deaths, something this list (and others of its ilk)
conveniently glosses over. What evidence is offered that would compel
a rational person to believe there was Clinton involvement in any of
these deaths?
Clinton was acquainted with some people who died — that's about all
one can make of this list. Indeed, that's far more than can be made of
a number of the entries, specifically, that of Ives and Henry and all
those supposedly tied to theirs.
Though it's clear from digging through numerous newspaper articles
there is a thriving and dangerous drug culture in Little Rock, how or
why this should be connected to Bill Clinton is left unanswered.
Regrettably, Little Rock is akin to numerous other large cities: it
has its share of drug dealers, murders, and violence. It also has one
very famous citizen. And that's about as much of a connection as
anyone can make.
"Oh, but I've never known anyone who committed suicide or died
'mysteriously,'" you think. "A list with this many entries must be
suspicious." Well, let's set the proper framework. Among your circle
of "acquaintences," we will include:
Anyone whom you have ever considered a friend, any you have ever
dated, and anyone with whom you have attended any type of social or
recreational event.
Anyone who ever attended the same school you did, whether you knew or
had any contact with that person or not.
Anyone who ever worked for the same employer you did, whether you knew
or had any contact with that person or not (and even if you worked in
completely different geographical locations).
Anyone with whom you or any of your family members has ever conducted
business (e.g., plumbers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, building
contractors, car salesmen).
With a circle that large, would we find at least a few accidental
deaths, homicides, and suicides among your "body count" list?
Probably. See how easy it was to create a similar list for George
Bush, for example.
A number of suicides are enumerated in this list. Suicide is far from
an unusual mode of demise. It claims 32,000 lives in the U.S. every
year, and it's the 9th leading cause of death. It is indeed a rare
person who does not know someone who died by his own hand.
Deaths by airplane crash account for a number of entries on the list.
Again, this is not all that surprising. Every year many small planes
crash in the United States, and some of those crashes result in
fatalities. As mentioned above, the National Transportation Safety
Board investigates every one of them, to determine both the cause of
the accident as well as to gather data that will help prevent future
tragedies. The agency does a thorough job of looking into the
circumstances surrounding each downed plane. To describe any of the
plane crash deaths on this list as "suspicious" is to suggest the NTSB
was part of a coverup.
There have been a couple of unsolved murders (Jerry Parks, Kevin Ives,
and Don Henry), but there have also been deaths by natural causes that
have been tossed into the mix willy-nilly simply to boost the body
count. (Like I said earlier, how can anyone claim a death by pneumonia
was a suicide?) All the best lies make sure to mix a bit of truth in
with them, and the few genuinely unsolved murders work to cloak the
many less credible claims in an aura of plausibility. Don't be overly
bemused by them — study each entry on its own merits.
One final question to ask yourself before falling for any Clinton Body
Count list: If the Chief Executive was having people bumped off left,
right, and centre, why aren't Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp on this
list? At the time of Mary Mahoney's death — a death this list hints
was ordered by Clinton — neither Tripp nor Lewinsky were the
high-profile household names they now are; they were complete
unknowns. It would be another six months before information about them
would explode into the news. If the President were in the habit of
having those dangerous to his presidency put in the ground, why didn't
he order these deaths?
-----
Yang
a.a. #28
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Socerey Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec
The Bush 'balanced' budget: -525 billion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: -3 million jobs and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -525 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
.
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