Is it now time to go Whitewater rafting in the river of American Injustice?
In the Texas-Mexico border region there is something they call la mordita
("the bite"). The game theorists at the Rand Corporation might refer to a "side
payment". Vulgar street parlance speaks of "graft" or "payola". Whatever it's
called, it often accumulates in hidden bank accounts.
Was such an account in existence at Mellon Bank on July 16, 1993? Or was the
account in question entirely legitimate?
Let us consider an innocent attorney named Sheila F. Anthony.
Sheila F. Anthony, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs,
U.S. Department of Justice. Besides serving as liaison with Congress, her duties
include clearance of bills before they are forwarded to the Office and
Management and Budget. She also has a role in selecting nominees for positions
as U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Marshalls, and Federal Judges.
Sheila F. Anthony, the wife of Beryl Anthony. Beryl Anthony is a former
Arkansas congressman, former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, and
a lawyer in the Washington D.C. office of the Chicago-based law firm of Winston
and Strawn, whose chairman is former Governor of Illinois Jim Thompson.
Sheila Foster Anthony, sister of Vince Foster, the dead Deputy White House
Counselor.
Sheila F. Anthony, who is said to have effected a wire transfer of
approximately $286,000 from a branch of Mellon Bank on July 16, 1993, to her
sister-in-law, Lisa Foster, the wife of Vince Foster, four days prior to Vince
Foster's death.
Large financial transactions, taking place between relations of a person
whose death is not entirely satisfactorily explained, usually generate further
inquiries--no manner how possibly innocent the explanation.
Particularly if the money is authorized by a top official of the Justice
Department and paid to the wife of a top official of the White House--and the
White House official disappears a few days later for a number of hours, before
being found dead under mysterious circumstances.
This wire transfer is not mentioned in the two volumes of the 1994 Senate
report on the death of Vince Foster, nor is a likely explanation suggested by a
perusal of their contents. Lisa Foster did tell the FBI she arrived to
set up a permanent residence for her family on June 5, 1993. But if the money
was payment on a house, why was this not discussed in the context of Vince
Foster's "depression"? For Lisa also said Vince had, in the previous week,
talked of resigning his White House job--hardly auspicious circumstances under
which to make further financial committments in the D.C. area.
Moreover, what was the source of the funds? Did they represent the private
savings of Sheila F. Anthony or her husband Beryl?
Or did they come from a hidden account set up by Vince Foster himself, but
now being transferred to his wife for safe-keeping, because Foster's Swiss
account had been recently cleaned out?
July 1, 1993, Thursday
Foster purchases a plane ticket from Washington D.C. to Geneva on TWA and
Swiss Air.
July 2, Friday
Vince Foster has a dinner at his house, and surprises Sheila Anthony by
the secret arrangements he had made to have Sheila's daughter fly up from
Texas to attend the dinner which was in honor of Sheila's confirmation as
Assistant Attorney General.
Around the same date, Vince and Lisa Foster have dinner with Sheila and
Beryl Anthony at the Cactus Cantina restaurant.
July 8, Thursday
Swiss Air refunds the purchase price of Foster's ticket. Foster had
canceled the trip to Geneva "when he inquired about his numbered bank
account at Banca Della Svizzera Italiana in Chiasso, Switz.--and found the
account empty. Foster was shocked to learn from the bank that someone using
his secret authorization code had withdrawn all $2.73 million he had stashed
there and had moved it to, of all places, the U.S. Treasury" (Jim Norman,
"Fostergate", Media Bypass Magazine, August 1995).
July 11, Sunday
Vince Foster tells his wife Lisa he had written the opening argument for
his defense against a feared congressional probe into his affairs. According
to the Fiske report, Lisa believed this was the torn note found in Foster's
briefcase by Stephen Neuwirth on July 26, six day's after Foster's death.
July 12, Monday
Webster Hubbell receives Inslaw's rebuttal to the Bua Report. The
rebuttal is dated July 11, 1993.
July 16, Friday
Sheila F. Anthony allegedly effects an approximate $286,000 wire transfer
from Mellon Bank to Lisa Foster. Sheila Anthony contacts a psychiatrist and
tells him--according to the psychiatrist--that Vince Foster is working on
"top secret" issues at the White House, and that "his depression was
directly related to highly sensitive and confidential matters." But Vince
Foster does not visit the psychiatrist. Instead the name of this
psychiatrist, along with the names of two others, are found in his wallet
after his death.
Clinton has a two hour meeting with Judge Louis Freeh.
In the evening Vince and Lisa Foster drive to the Tidewater Inn, on the
eastern shore of Maryland.
July 17-18, Saturday & Sunday
Vince and Lisa Foster spend the weekend on Maryland's eastern shore. By
"coincidence" Webster Hubbell also spends the weekend in the area, and he
and Vince Foster meet at the estate of Michael Cardozo, head of Clinton's
legal defense team and son-in-law of prominent Democratic fund-raiser Nathan
Landau.
According to the Fiske report, "Lisa Foster stated that the weekend did
not go particularly well for Foster. When Foster returned on Sunday evening,
July 18, he spoke to Lyons by telephone."
(James M. Lyons was a Little Rock attorney who was Counsel to the
Clinton-Gore Presidential Transition Planning Foundation. He says Foster
discussed Travelgate, and they talked about his representing Foster before
Congress.)
July 19, Monday
Marsha Scott, Deputy Assistant to the President, spends 1-2 hours in a
closed door session with Vince Foster. This is especially noted by Linda
Trapp, executive assistant to Bernard Nussbaum, because Foster rarely has
meetings this long with any one person.
Foster calls Larry Watkins, his physician in Arkansas and says he is
depressed. Watkins calls a D.C. pharmacy and has 30 tablets of DESYREL
(Trazodon) delivered to Foster's residence before 6 p.m.
At 3:15 p.m. Clinton meets with Janet Reno to discuss the FBI. Afterward
he fires FBI Director William Sessions, and appoints Floyd Clark as Acting
FBI Director.
Webster Hubbell stops by Foster's office. According to testimony, Hubbell
gives Foster a Systematics-related document.
Monday night Foster goes home earlier than usual. Bill Clinton calls to
invite Vince to a movie back at the White House. Vince declines, and has
dinner with Lisa.
July 20, Tuesday
At 9:27 a.m. in the Rose Garden, Clinton nominates Judge Louis Freeh to
be head of FBI. Clinton commends the FBI on the "remarkably swift arrest in
the World Trade Center bombing" and laments that "drugs continue to ravage
our young people and our streets".
In Little Rock, the FBI obtains a warrant to search the Little Rock
offices of David Hale, the head of Capital Management Services.
(Hale was a Clinton-appointed municipal judge who charged that James
McDougal and Gov. Clinton forced him to give fraudulent SBA loans to
Clinton's friends. This included $300,000 to a company connected to Madison
Guaranty and run by McDougal's wife, $100,000 of which later ended up in a
Whitewater Development Co. account.)
James Lyons calls Foster from Little Rock late morning, but says he was
unable to speak to him. Lyons was scheduled to meet with Foster the
following day in Washington D.C.
C. Bradley Buck, a partner at the Rose Law Firm, calls Foster. Buck
leaves a message when he is unable to speak to Foster. Foster calls back at
12:17 p.m. (D.C. time) and leaves a message for Buck. Buck then calls Foster
back at 1:00 p.m., but Foster has gone out. Buck later tells the FBI his
calls related to the blind trust he was working on with Foster for Bill and
Hillary Clinton.
At 12:00 Foster asks Linda Tripp, executive assistant to Bernard
Nussbaum, to get him lunch from the cafetaria. He eats lunch in his office.
At about 1:00 p.m. he emerges with his jacket on and leaves, telling Tripp,
"There are lot's of M&Ms; left in there. I'll be back."
Later at 6 p.m. Foster is reported dead, his body found laying on a steep
slope near one of the cannons at Ft. Marcy Park across the Potomac in
Virginia. His 4-door Honda Accord bearing Arkansas license plate RCN 504 is
found in the Park parking lot. The car is registered to Vincent Foster, Jr.,
5414 Stonewall Rd., Little Rock, Arkansas 72207.
A Park Service employee says that a man in a white contractor van had
told him that he had seen a body by the last [second] cannon at Fort Marcy
Park. This report was in the form of a 911 telephone call to the Fairfax
County Public Safety Communications Center. The call was received by
dispatcher Marion White at call-taker position 11, at 5:59.59 p.m.
The Secret Service is notified when a White House identification badge is
found in the car.
White House staffers Bernard Nussbaum, Patsy Thomasson, and Maggie
Williams rifle Foster's office for "national security matters". The FBI and
the Park Police are kept waiting outside in the hallway. Secret Service
officer Henry O'Neill says he saw Maggie Williams, Hillary's chief of staff,
leave "carrying what I would describe, in her arms and hands, as folders".
Some documents are taken to Hillary's closet upstairs at the White House.
The White House releases a statement saying, "The positive identification
of Mr. Foster's body was provided to the White House at approximately 9:55
p.m., and the death was reported by Park Service Investigators as an
apparent suicide."
July 21, Wednesday
At 12:50 p.m. in the Rose Garden, Clinton refers to Foster as "my friend
of 42 years," but as to his intimate friend's [alleged] suicide, says "there
is really no way to know why these things happen".
July 22, Thursday
Robert Brink is appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of
Legislative Affairs.
At the afternoon press briefing, Dee Dee Myers says that the Park Service
Police had been at the White House that morning; ". . . what they are
looking for is anything that would confirm it was a suicide, such as a
note".
Deborah Gorham, Vince Foster's secretary, is asked by Bernard Nussbaum to
help search Foster's file. She observes that the index detailing the
Clinton's personal files is missing.
July 23, Friday
In the morning Clinton attends funeral services for Foster at St.
Andrew's Catholic Church in Little Rock, then travels to Hope, Arkansas, for
the burial.
At a press briefing at Jack Still's Watermelon Stand in Hope, Clinton
said that earlier in the day he had met with Win Rockefeller whom he had
reappointed State Police Commissioner. (Clinton said he had met Win in 1969
when Win's father was governor of Arkansas.)
Sheila Anthony told the FBI on April 4, 1994, that she had "no knowledge of
Foster having any financial difficulties".
If Foster had no financial difficulties, then what was the alleged $286,000
wire transfer all about?
