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| For Immediate Release | |
| Oct 27, 1999 | Contact: Press Office 202-646-5172 |
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(Washington, D.C.) On October 26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion affirming the lower court's decision not to release to Accuracy in Media, Inc. (AIM) crime scene photos of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster, who was found dead on July 20, 1993. AIM, a non-profit media watchdog organization, has been investigating the Foster death since 1994. Its investigation has been severely hampered by the unexplained disappearance of many crime scene photos and all autopsy X-rays. The U.S. Park Police investigators naively concluded that a gun in Foster's hand was proof that he killed himself. A photo of this revolver that was leaked to the media shows the importance of photos in determining whether or not the findings of the official investigations are valid. The photo shows that the explanation the police gave for the gun not having fallen from Foster's hand when it was fired is false. They claimed Foster's thumb was stuck in the trigger guard and that the gun had to be partially cocked to slip it down past his thumb joint. The photo shows only the tip of the thumb in the trigger guard. The gun was not stuck on the thumb. The most important discrepancy exposed by a crime scene photo is the government's denial of a wound on Foster's neck. Miquel Rodriguez, the prosecutor hired by Starr to investigate this case, ordered a blow up of an original Polaroid of the right side of Foster's neck. It showed what has been described as "a dime-sized wound...marked by a black stippled ring...suggestive of a .22 caliber gunshot fired at point blank range." It is located where paramedic Richard Arthur said he saw a small-caliber bullet wound, under the jaw line near the ear. The Fiske Report says that the crime-scene and the autopsy photos don't show such a wound. Dr. Brian Blackbourne, Starr's pathologist, admitted that the autopsy photos showed a mark on "the side of the right upper neck just below the jaw line." He claimed it was "small fragments of dried blood" that had escaped being washed off before the photos were taken. Another expert says Blackbourne could not possibly tell that from a photograph. There is no evidence that any of these pathologists were shown the Polaroid blow up that Rodriguez had made. It is obvious that the U.S. Park Service is fighting the release of the crime scene photos because they expose deliberate efforts by government investigators to cover up evidence that proves that Vince Foster did not die the way their reports say he did. The reason and nature of the death is important because Foster was involved in the misuse of FBI files and other improper matters. "AIM intends to file a petition for a rehearing en banc with the appeals court," said Larry Klayman, Chairman and General Counsel of Judicial Watch. |
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