-Caveat Lector- The other Starr Report By Allan J. Favish © 1999 WorldNetDaily.com The report by Kenneth Starr's Office of Independent Counsel about President Bill Clinton's conduct in the Monica Lewinsky matter caused much controversy, but there was little or no argument about the report's factual accuracy. This is not the case with Starr's other report, the one in which he concluded that former Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster committed suicide in Virginia's Fort Marcy Park in July 1993. That report, publicly released in October 1997, is replete with significant factual omissions, distortions and conflicts with the underlying official investigative record. Some of those omissions, distortions and conflicts are about to be scrutinized by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit I filed seeking photographs of Foster's body as it laid in the park. The OIC is withholding the photos on the basis of the privacy exemption in the FOIA, claiming that Foster's surviving relatives would suffer emotional grief if the photos were released because the photos are "graphic, explicit, and extremely upsetting." Oral argument is scheduled for Nov. 1, 1999, in Pasadena, Calif. But the United States Supreme Court has never defined privacy as a broad right to be free from emotional grief. Indeed, the Court's leading opinion on the FOIA's privacy exemption, Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee (1989), holds that privacy is defined as the freedom to control information about oneself. Thus, given that there is no information about Foster's relatives in these photos, they do not have any privacy interest in them. While some lower courts have held that surviving relatives do have privacy interests in photos of their deceased relatives, these courts deviated from the Supreme Court's ruling and thereby gave the FOIA's privacy exemption a broad interpretation that lacks support in the FOIA's legislative history and Supreme Court precedent. These rulings further conflict with other Supreme Court opinions holding that the FOIA exemptions should "be narrowly construed" to "ensure maximum disclosure" because the "basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed." Moreover, the claim by the Office of Independent Counsel (OIC) that the photos are "graphic, explicit, and extremely upsetting" is dubious. The evidence does not show what one would expect from a .38 caliber high-velocity gunshot into the mouth: massive amounts of blood coming out of the nose and mouth, broken teeth from the recoil of the gun, a significant hole in the back of the head with lots of blood, brain and bone spatter on the surrounding area. To the contrary, a United States Park Police officer who examined Foster's body at the park testified that he saw a "pool of blood under his head, gun in his right hand, appeared to be a .38 caliber revolver, no sign of a struggle, no other obvious signs of trauma to the body." This same officer reported that there "was no blood spatter on the plants or trees surrounding decedent's head," and testified that he did not observe any "blowout" from the back of the head. Additionally, an FBI report of its interview with the only medical doctor to view Foster's body at the park says, "no blood was recalled on the vegetation around the body." Starr omits these observations from his report. But even if Foster's relatives do have a privacy interest in the photos, they still must be released if that interest is outweighed by the public's interest in monitoring the government's administration of justice. Therefore, in order to demonstrate the exceptionally high public need for disclosure in this case, I presented the Ninth Circuit with several of the many examples of omissions, distortions and conflicts infesting Starr's Foster report. Although the official government story holds that Foster was found with a gun in his hand, the first person who officially found Foster's body said that there was no gun in his hand. This witness testified that Foster's hands were palms up and empty. In concluding that this witness "simply did not see the gun that was in Mr. Foster's hand," Starr cited the witness' FBI interview in which the witness said that it was possible there was a gun on the rear of Foster's hand that he might have missed. But Starr failed to tell the public that one of the body site photos shows a gun in Foster's right hand that eliminates the possibility of there having been a gun on the rear of Foster's hand that went unseen by the witness. This photo, leaked to ABC-TV and published in Time magazine, shows Foster's gun-hand palm down, while the witness said the hand was palm up and empty. This photo shows the gun underneath the palm of Foster's right hand with the rear of Foster's hand facing up. The gun is in a position where the witness could not have missed it if it was there when he saw Foster's hand. This means that the only possible condition which the witness agreed would account for his not seeing the gun, is a condition that did not occur. Starr also failed to tell the public that the witness testified that his concession that he could have missed seeing the gun was based on the FBI's representation that Foster's hands were palms-up with the gun concealed on the other side of Foster's hand. The witness further testified that the FBI would not show him the photo. But when he subsequently saw it, he testified that it was not a picture of what he saw. Therefore, Starr failed to tell the public that he relied upon a statement by the witness that the witness later testified was based on a false representation by the FBI. Identification of the gun was a major problem for the government. Starr failed to tell the public that his predecessor, Robert Fiske, who also issued a report on the death, used an invalid gun identification from Foster's widow, Lisa. Nine days after the death, the Park Police showed Lisa a photo of the official death gun, which is blued steel and appears black. Lisa reportedly said she could not identify the gun because it was not silver. The FBI said that ten months later, in May 1994, it showed Lisa the official death gun and she "believes that the gun found at Fort Marcy Park may be the silver gun which she brought up with her" from Arkansas. Fiske then reported, without mentioning the gun colors, that Lisa identified the official death gun. Fiske's use of Lisa's statement clearly was deceptive. If she was shown the black official death gun at this May 1994 interview and simultaneously identified it as being silver-colored, then she failed to give a valid identification of the black official death gun. Likewise, if she was shown a silver-colored gun at this interview, then she failed to give a valid identification of the black official death gun. No matter what color gun Lisa was shown at this interview, given her reported response, it was deceptive for Fiske to use her response as if it were a valid identification of the black official death gun. Starr failed to explain why Fiske used Lisa's invalid gun identification. Starr also failed to explain why, if Lisa was shown the black official death gun in May 1994, she reportedly simultaneously described it as silver, without any of the FBI agents or attorneys present saying anything about such a bizarre response. Starr also failed to tell the public that Lisa's reason for not identifying the gun in the photo shown to her nine days after the death was because it was not silver. Also absent from Starr's report is that the FBI expressly stated that Lisa believed the gun shown to her in May 1994 was silver. The effect of Starr's omissions are to obscure the possibility that Lisa was deliberately shown the wrong gun -- a silver gun -- in May 1994 so that there would be something in the record that could be presented as a Foster family member's "identification" of a gun, without telling the public that she had identified a gun that was not found with the body. Starr also failed to explain why Park Police Chief Robert Langston falsely told the public at a press conference on Aug. 10, 1993, that the official death gun had been identified by the Foster family as one of Foster's guns. By the time of the press conference, Lisa had not identified the black official death gun, in part because it was the wrong color, and Foster's sister, Sharon Bowman, failed to give a credible identification of the official death gun. By Aug. 10, 1993, nobody in the Foster family identified the black official death gun as one previously belonging to Foster. Indeed, Fiske and Starr failed to tell the public that largely because of its color, the black official death gun could not be identified by Foster's nephew, who was the surviving family member most familiar with the family's guns. Starr's discussion of the medical evidence also is deceptive. The official government story says there was no neck wound and that Foster shot himself in the mouth, leaving a one by one and a quarter inch exit hole in the back of the head, three inches from the top. Starr dismisses a report by one of the paramedics that there was a small bullet-like entrance wound on the right side of Foster's neck. But the only medical doctor to view Foster's body at the park wrote a two-page report that is internally inconsistent. On the first page it states that the death shot was "mouth-head," but on the second page it states that the death shot was "mouth to neck." Moreover, the report appears to have been improperly altered. Underneath the "mouth-head" language on page one, there appears to be a "whited out" four-letter word that was replaced with the word "head" slightly to the right of the concealed word. Both Fiske and Starr failed to tell the public all the facts about this medical report. Fiske completely ignored it and Starr quoted from the apparently altered language, while failing to tell the public about the apparent alteration, and about the unaltered language mentioning a neck wound. Starr also failed to explain why the report appears to be altered and what, if anything, is written underneath the apparent alteration. The medical evidence was further distorted because Starr falsely implied that the Park Police observed the entire autopsy when they did not do so. Starr reported that several Park Police officers observed the autopsy, and quoted one of the officers who wrote that after he briefed the autopsy doctor, the doctor "started the autopsy." But Starr failed to tell the public that the next sentence in the officer's report says, "Prior to our arrival, the victim's tongue had been removed as well as parts of the soft tissue from the soft pallet (sic)." Starr's omission is significant given that this is an autopsy of a man who allegedly fired a gun into his mouth while leaving behind unresolved questions about a right-side neck wound whose track might have gone through the tongue and soft palate. Additionally, Starr failed to tell the public that the autopsy doctor violated policy by beginning the autopsy before the police arrived, and that the autopsy doctor refused to tell the police the identity of his assistant. Two days after the autopsy, an FBI agent sent a memo to the director of the FBI stating, "Preliminary results include the finding that a .38 caliber revolver, constructed from two different weapons, was fired into the victim's mouth with no exit wound." Neither Fiske nor Starr mentioned this memo. Nor did they explain the conditions that would make it possible for a .38 revolver to be fired in the mouth without making an exit wound. Also unmentioned is whether the FBI director did anything to resolve the contradiction between this memo and the official autopsy report of an exit wound. The memo was released in response to a FOIA lawsuit. Starr also omitted important evidence about Foster's arrival at the park. Starr mentioned four people who were in the park at a time when Foster was probably already dead and his gray car should have been in the park's parking lot. Starr mentioned that one of these people reported seeing a brown car, not Foster's gray car. But Starr failed to mention that the other three people also reported seeing a brown car, not Foster's gray car. Yet, Starr inexplicably concluded that Foster's gray car was in the lot at this time. At this point you might be comparing Starr's OIC with O.J. Simpson's criminal defense team, and you would have good reason. Simpson's discredited expert witness, Dr. Henry Lee, was hired by Starr. Starr said Lee's examination of Foster's clothes revealed no evidence that Foster's body had been dragged. But Starr failed to tell the public that, according to the Park Police, they dragged Foster's body when it began to slide down the hill during an examination. Starr failed to mention these Park Police descriptions of the body sliding up and down the dirt path and failed to reconcile them with Lee's apparently erroneous conclusion. The OIC probably wants the American people to forget about Starr's other report. But the FOIA gives private citizens an opportunity to uncover government corruption and incompetence even when it may not be popular to do so. The Ninth Circuit now knows that the government's Foster reports are so unreliable that had they been produced for a private entity, payment on the check would have been stopped. Clearly, the OIC is trying to prevent disclosure of additional evidence that might further expose government deception. But the erroneous lower court opinions distorting the FOIA's privacy exemption create the possibility of legal action against the OIC by Foster's relatives should it release the photos without a court order. The OIC can protect itself by endorsing those erroneous opinions and forcing the court to decide. But the Ninth Circuit needs no such protection, can reject those opinions, and thereby preserve the FOIA's integrity. Allan J. Favish is an attorney specializing in civil litigation. Mr. Favish's appellate briefs are available at his website. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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