SENATE EXPOSES FLAWS IN FOSTER PROBE The Senate Banking Committee has released two thick volumes of depositions taken by its investigators probing the unanswered questions about the death of former White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster. During the Senate hearings last summer, one of the Republican senators commented that the committee's investigators had discovered more in a few weeks than the special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno had learned in six months. The newly released documents show he is right.
Special Prosecutor Robert Fiske summed up his investigation with a double-spaced, 58-page report that simply validated the inept investigation conducted by the Park Police Keystone Kops. He kept under wraps all the interviews conducted by his FBI investigators. The Banking Committee has now issued a 54-page typeset majority report, together with dissenting views by the Republican minority. But the real service performed by the committee lies in their release of two volumes totaling 1343 pages of transcripts of testimony taken under oath, report prepared by Fiske s investigators and supporting documents.
These two volumes by no means answer all the questions we have had about Foster's death. In our view, a careful study of these documents strengthens the claim that Foster's body was moved to Fort Marcy Park from some other place. We now have before us the statements of all the personnel who were present the night the body was found. All say Foster was lying face up when they saw it. All deny that they moved Foster's head or saw anyone move the head. Since all the experts agree that the bloodstain on the right side of Foster s face proves that his face had at some time rested on his bloody right shoulder, this must be considered evidence that he did not shoot himself, unattended, on the spot where his body was found.
That casts doubt on the first conclusion of Fiske, who explained the mysterious bloodstain by claiming, with no evidence whatever, that one of the officers or medical personnel had readjusted the position of the head.
But the interviews and documents also cast strong doubt on Fiske's second conclusion--that Foster killed himself because he was depressed over the Travelgate scandal and some critical comments about him in the Wall Street Journal. The interviews with people that worked with Foster and his friends strongly indicate that he was not the kind of man who would be driven to suicide by such trifles. They also indicate that he loved his family, and it is hard to believe that he would desert them in such a heartless way, without even leaving a note of explanation, because he had been subjected to some public criticism.
For five days after Foster's death, everyone said his behavior was quite normal. The secretary who brought his lunch the day he died thought he must have planned to meet someone. He was a bit upset because she had taken so long, and he carefully removed all the onions from his hamburger. Was he concerned about bad breath? He ate his lunch and left, saying he would be back. No serious effort was made to discover where he went and who he saw. That is the fatal flaw in the investigation.