DO YOU SMELL SMOKE?

By Marc E. Fisher (Dateline: 7/23/97)

Where there's smoke, there's usually a conspiracy theory.

But, unlike Tom Chaffin in a recent Chicago Tribune article, I don't think Americans are indulging in "promiscuity of the imagination". I think we're just anxious to have our questions answered. And when our government will not answer those questions to our satisfaction, we tend to do our own guesswork.

Take J. Orlin Grabbe, for example. His remarkable 38-chapter opus, "Allegations Regarding Vince Foster, the NSA, and Banking Transactions Spying" (link below) is one of the most thorough, frightening and well-documented pieces I've seen on the Internet. It questions the involvement of the National Security Agency and other mysterious government agencies in the 1993 alleged suicide of Deputy White House Counselor Vince Foster, and outlines some extremely suspicious links between the NSA, BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a front for international money laundering), Israeli and Pakistani atomic bomb development, the Medellin drug cartel, and even the NSA's project to use top-secret Justice Department PROMIS software to monitor the bank accounts of American citizens.

Sound ludicrous? Think again. Foster's death in July of 1993 became a rallying cry of conspiracy theorists simply because nobody ever answered some very good questions. And with the official maneuverings and cover-ups surrounding Whitewater, we smell more than your run-of-the-mill smoke here.

Questions that have yet to be answered:

- Why was a known Israeli Mossad agent with Foster in his apartment just hours before he died? Is it a coincidence that her hair color is the same as the hairs found in Foster's underwear, or that a forensic pathologist determined that he "died at the moment of ejaculation"? How many men commit suicide at the supreme moment of sexual ecstasy? Why do tapes show her leaving the apartment, but not Foster?

- Foster's body was found on the other side of a large, gravelled parking lot from his vehicle at Fort Marcy Park, Virginia. Why wasn't there any gravel on the soles of his shoes?

- The official investigation said that gunpowder residue was found on his hand. If so, then why weren't his fingerprints found on the gun? And why couldn't the FBI, using their best detection equipment, find bullets anywhere in the vicinity of his body at Ft. Marcy Park?

- If there was no "hit", then why did former FBI agent Robert Goetzman (who had been a member of George Bush's "Plumbers" unit) proclaim to a witness, "We did him!"..."we dumped him in a queer park to send Clinton and his queer wife a message!" ?

- Foster had a secret Swiss bank account reportedly containing $2.73 million, funds which allegedly came from the State of Israel in payment for secret information on nuclear weapons. Twelve days before his death, he was shocked to discover that this account had been accessed without his authority and cleaned out.

- His sister, Sheila F. Anthony, former Assistant Attorney General, wired $286,000 to Foster's wife four days prior to Foster's death. The source of the funds is alleged to be the Democratic National Committee. This wire transfer was also not mentioned anywhere in the two volumes of the 1994 Senate report on Foster's death.

- What is the DNC doing paying Mike Wallace $150,000 to debunk the Foster conspiracy theories on CBS' "60 Minutes"?

- Vincent Foster had been a behind-the- scenes control person on behalf of the National Security Agency for Systematics, a bank data processing company involved in a secret intelligence effort to monitor world bank transactions. Systematics was also involved in 'laundering' funds from covert operations, including drug and arms sales related to activities in and around Mena, Ark.

If these statements are untrue, then why were incriminating documents on Systematics rushed out of his Washington office before the FBI was allowed to search his belongings? Does this have anything to do with the CIA's investigation of him for espionage before he died?

- What is the connection between Foster's death and the murders of Alan Standorf and Danny Casolaro? Standorf was an NSA employee who apparently gave Casolaro (an investigative journalist) documents related to BCCI's relationship with the US Government, and the illegal sale of the Justice Department's PROMIS software to foreign governments.

It would take volumes to delineate all the possible answers for these questions, and I don't have the room for it here. Better for you to visit Grabbe's page and prepare to do some serious reading. You will find the time well-spent and enlightening.

And when you're done, give some thought to the arrogance of power and the evils of secrecy. Regardless of who these people are, we have given them the shield of "national security", behind which they are allowed to do anything they deem necessary - even to the point of advancing their own self-interest, perpetrating odious immoral acts and murdering anyone who threatens to expose them, all without the fear of any legal consequences whatsoever.

Then ask yourself one question: "If there is no conspiracy, then why aren't answers being provided to good questions?"

Sleep well tonight.