Time: Sun Mar 02 18:38:26 1997
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Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 18:34:20 -0800
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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: SNET: Picture points finger at White House
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<snip>
>International News
> Electronic Telegraph
> Sunday 2 March 1997
> Issue 646
>
> Picture points finger at White House
>By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Washington
>
> A CRIME scene photograph from the investigation into the death of the
>White House aide Vincent Foster appears to prove that the federal
>authorities have lied about the case and perpetuated a cover-up that
>continues to deceive the Foster family, the US Congress, and the
>American people.
>
>The photograph is one of the few surviving pictures taken by a Park
>Police officer soon after Foster's body was found in Fort Marcy Park
>on July 20, 1993. It reveals that Foster suffered trauma on the right
>side of his neck, just below the jawline. On the photograph there is a
>clearly visible wound about the size of an old sixpence, marked by a
>black "stippled" ring suggestive of gunpowder burns. It has the
>appearance of a small-calibre gunshot wound.
>
>The photograph is undoubtedly authentic. A prosecutor on the staff of
>Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel appointed by a panel of judges to
>investigate President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, has shown it
>to individuals "off the record", including a leading forensic scientist
>in New York.
>
> It is devastating evidence. The official report issued by Robert Fiske,
>the Independent Counsel, in June 1994, which concluded that Foster
>shot himself in the mouth with a Colt .38 revolver, said "there was no
>other trauma identified that would suggest a circumstance other than
>suicide". Dismissing the testimony of paramedics who described seeing
>a wound on Foster's neck when they found the body, the Fiske Report
>stated that "the photographs taken at the scene conclusively show that
>there were no such wounds".
>
>In fact, the photograph confirms the eye-witness account of the
>paramedics. Four testified in 1995 that they saw trauma to the neck.
>Two described it as a probable gunshot wound. One rescue worker,
>Richard Arthur, explained in a deposition to the Senate Banking
>Committee that he "saw blood all over the right side of the neck . . .
>I saw what appeared to be a small gunshot wound here near the
>jawline. Whether the coroner's report says that or not, fine. I know
>what I saw."
>
>The autopsy report said that the only external wound was a gaping hole
>in the back of Foster's head where the bullet supposedly came out. The
>bullet was never found. But it is doubtful whether such a wound existed
>when the paramedics arrived. Sgt George Gonzalez said in a deposition:
>"I didn't see an exit wound."
>
> Corey Ashford, who lifted Foster from behind the shoulders, cradling
>the head, told the FBI that he "did not recall seeing any blood while
>placing Foster in the bag". He said that "Foster's head was intact and
>he had not observed an exit wound".
>
> Dr Julian Orenstein, the doctor who certified death at the Fairfax
>Hospital, said he did not see an exit wound. "I never saw one directly.
>I didn't spend too much time looking back there."
>
> Tom Wittenberg, head of the Reubel funeral home in Little Rock where
>Foster's body was taken, gave a bizarre answer when asked to describe
>the exit wound. "What if there was no exit wound at all? I'm telling
>you it's possible there wasn't." Then he refused to say another word.
>
> The story of the crime scene photos is disturbing. The first
>photographs taken that evening, by Franz Ferstl, a Park Police officer,
>have all disappeared. So have most of the photographs taken by
>detective John Rolla. The entire set of 35mm photos taken by technician
>Peter Simonello were under-exposed and deemed useless. All that remains
>is a motley mix of 18 Polaroid photographs that reveal little.
>
> There are, of course, autopsy photographs but the investigation had
>already been compromised by that stage. The X-rays from the autopsy have
>vanished. Consequently, the photograph examined by The Telegraph is a
>unique record of the crime scene as it was when the paramedics arrived.
>It is all the more shocking to discover that this photo was never
>presented to the panel of four forensic pathologists brought in by the
>Fiske investigation to review the case in 1994. "I never saw anything
>like that. If I had it certainly would have piqued my interest," said Dr
>Donald Reay, Seattle chief medical examiner.
>
>Instead, the panel was shown an enhanced "blow-up" of a second
>generation photograph which had been cleverly distorted. An informed
>source said the mischief occurred at the FBI crime laboratories, the
>same ones plagued by allegations of evidence tampering in a series of
>key cases.
>
>This sham photograph was shown to investigators on the Senate Banking
>Committee and Congressman Bill Clinger's House Oversight Committee,
>tricking the Republicans on Capitol Hill into believing that nothing
>was amiss. In the distorted picture the stippled neck-wound looks like a
>smear of blood. The Fiske panel was misled into concluding that it must
>have been a "contact stain". But because Foster's head was pointing
>straight up, and was not in contact with any blood, the panel
>speculated that one of the paramedics must have jolted the head.
>
>This theory might have held if it had not been for Miquel Rodriguez, the
>tenacious prosecutor appointed by Mr Starr to reopen the investigation
>into Foster's death. Mr Rodriguez discovered that the photograph
>circulated had been touched up. After a struggle with the FBI he
>obtained the original, which he sent outside FBI channels to the
>Smithsonian Institution. The enhancement work was done by Asman Custom
>Photo Service, in Washington.
>
> Mr Rodriguez resigned soon afterwards, complaining that he was
>overruled by his immediate superior, Mark Tuohey, then head of Mr
>Starr's Washington office. Mr Touhey had indicated from the start that
>the Foster investigation was largely for show and that it would be
>ill-advised to challenge the official version of suicide. When Mr
>Rodriguez appealed to Mr Starr, the response was vacillation.
>
>Mr Starr risks committing himself to a position that could haunt him for
>the rest of his life. Although sources close to the Starr investigation
>acknowledge in private the authenticity of the photograph, the original
>has not been provided to the two outside pathologists brought in to
>evaluate the Foster case.
>
>Brian Blackbourne, the San Diego medical examiner, told The Telegraph
>that he had not seen anything that would indicate trauma on Foster's
>neck. Henry Lee, the world famous forensic scientist, said that he
>could not remember if he had seen it, a laughable evasion. Mr
>Blackbourne and Mr Lee have submitted reports that tend to buttress the
>ruling of suicide.
>
> For two years Mr Starr has been making tactical leaks to newspapers,
>encouraging them to say that the Foster phase of his investigation is
>over. Last week The Los Angeles Times announced that the final
>document was ready. Mr Starr had better be ready to explain why a crime
>scene photograph shows a .22 calibre bullet wound in the neck of
>Hillary Clinton's closest friend.
>
>
>© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997. Terms & Conditions of
>reading. Information about Telegraph Group Limited and Electronic
>Telegraph. "Electronic Telegraph" and "The Daily Telegraph" are
>trademarks of Telegraph Group Limited. These marks may not be copied or
>used without permission. Information for webmasters linking to
>Electronic Telegraph.
<snip>
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