T A B L E+T A L K Is Hillary's right-wing conspiracy for real, or just another blatant coverup? Debate your theories in the Politics area of Table Talk D A I L Y+Q U O T E Take your Peabody Award and shove it R E C E N T L Y First, we kill all the 11-year-olds By Robin Templeton After Springfield: Don't punish all kids for the mad acts of a few killers (05/27/98) The "conservative Ralph Nader" By Joshua Micah Marshall A star of the political chat-show circuit, the head of Judicial Watch has some pretty unorthodox views (05/26/98) The man who would be king By Jonathan Broder Indonesia's new leader says he's been given divine gifts and that his name vibrates in the hearts of children. How is that likely to play with the IMF? (05/22/98) Dickering with the devil By Peter Dale Scott The U.S. says it wants democratic reform in Indonesia. But what if a new military dictatorship takes over? (05/21/98) Northern Ireland: Who will police the police? By Margaret Spillane For peace to work, more attention must be paid to a key issue: The repressive ways of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (05/20/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		Why Vincent Foster can't rest in peace HOW THE FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL'S SUICIDE BECAME THE ROSETTA STONE OF THE SCAIFE-FUNDED RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY INDUSTRY. BY LORI LEIBOVICH | On July 20, 1993, Vincent Foster was found dead at Ft. Marcy Park in Northern Virginia with a .38-caliber revolver in his hand. An autopsy revealed that it was a straight-ahead suicide -- Foster had placed the gun in his mouth and fired one shot that blasted through his head. End of story? Not by a long shot. Nearly five years later, the Foster suicide lives on in the hearts and minds of right-wing Clintonphobes and conspiracy theorists who believe that Foster, a close friend and advisor of the president, was murdered because he knew too much. A year ago, veteran crime reporter Dan Moldea was surprised by an offer from Al Regnery, the head of the conservative Regnery Publishing house, to write a book about the Foster case. Moldea, an unabashed liberal who had twice voted for Clinton, had also been scathingly critical of one of Regnery's authors, LAPD detective Mark Furhman. Regnery was so impressed with Moldea's exhaustive reporting in books such as "The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy: An Investigation of Motive, Means, and Opportunity" and "Evidence Dismissed: The Inside Story of the Police Investigation of O.J. Simpson," he wanted Moldea to write the definitive work on the Foster case. Regnery gave Moldea a $100,000 advance and seven months to complete his work. In the resulting book, "A Washington Tragedy: How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm," Moldea confirms -- again -- that Foster's death was indeed a suicide and that a cabal of right-wing groups -- financed by banking heir Richard Mellon Scaife -- is responsible for keeping the case alive for years in an effort to tarnish the Clinton White House. Moldea also blasts the media -- particularly the Wall Street Journal op-ed page and reporter Christopher Ruddy -- for stoking the conspiracy fires with specious facts and inflammatory rhetoric. In an interview with Salon, Moldea also accused Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office of leaking confidential information to the press, a charge he made during a speech at a Washington, D.C., public library last Tuesday. Moldea says that while writing his book he spoke with Starr's chief deputy, Hickman Ewing, who said he routinely gave information to journalists sympathetic to the independent counsel's point of view. Salon spoke with Moldea by phone from his Washington office about these charges, about Foster's death, his alleged affair with Hillary Rodham Clinton and why he believes Regnery is pushing his book under the rug. How did you go about investigating Vincent Foster's death? I did what no one else had done -- I went to every single cop involved in this case -- whether he was involved in the crime scene search or part of the official investigation. I saw all the crime scene photographs and I saw all the autopsy photographs. I don't think I was prevented from seeing any of the documents I wanted to see. I am a bona fide crime reporter with great -- and loyal -- sources in law enforcement. I've been doing this for 24 years and you get to know people. And from those sources and documents it was clear to you that Foster committed suicide. Yes. It was a no-brainer. But I also looked into the aftermath of the suicide: the search of Foster's office, which led to the discovery of the torn-up note, which led to the interviews that law enforcement conducted, which confirmed, finally, that Foster had, in fact, committed suicide. What was the chief source of the doubts and the resulting conspiracy theories? Some mouthy Park Police official, talking about things he knew nothing about, starts to serve as a source to some reporters who start publishing front-page stories saying things like "[former White House counsel] Bernie Nussbaum had removed documents from Foster's office on the night Foster killed himself," which is flat-out not true, even though it appeared on the front page of the New York Times. This teed up the ball for a lot of other things -- for instance, the next allegation, that during the official search of Foster's office three piles of documents were found, which is true, but that Foster's attorney Jim Hamilton wound up with the Whitewater documents, which is completely untrue. Again, the ball is teed up and everyone starts swinging away at it, and it eventually leads to Congress getting involved, saying the media is raising all these questions. And it all started with a Park Police source, Major Robert Hines. And what he said was false. Why did he say all this? I don't think there was anything nefarious here; I think he was being approached by reporters and he wanted something to say. I doubt that he realized that he was giving false information, but the fact is, he was. When he starts talking to Reed Irvine at Accuracy in Media, and Christopher Ruddy, who was then at the New York Post, he tells them that there is no exit wound in Foster's head, which was also untrue. This tees up the ball for the conspiracy people to come in. After this information starts to get printed, Hines starts to come back and say, "Hey, I made a mistake here." But by then these people are off and running. Who were the major players perpetrating the conspiracy theories? There were a couple of major people who were involved in this: Chris Ruddy of the New York Post, and later with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, which is owned by Richard Mellon Scaife -- who is another player. There was also Joseph Farah, the executive director of the Western Journalism Center, which supposedly engages in nonprofit, pro-journalistic projects -- which of course just happen to be right-wing projects. What specifically about Foster's death fueled the theories? 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 ahold of this information, and what do they do with it? They start making movies alleging that the Clintons were involved in this murder. They were also saying that Foster had been having sex with some blond, that he either committed suicide or was murdered at a location other than Ft. Marcy Park. That he was wrapped in a carpet and laid out to appear as though he committed suicide, and the gun was placed in his hand. Ruddy was involved with these videos. N E X T+P A G E+| Suspicions of a coverup - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PHOTO BY AP/WIDE WORLD