Media Monitor
June 8 and 9, 1995

U.S. MEDIA IGNORE FOSTER'S SWISS TRIPS

An intriguing new element has been injected into the death of Vincent Foster, who was Bill Clinton's White House lawyer and a close personal friend. Airline records show he made two furtive trips to Switzerland during and just after the Clinton presidential campaign, and abruptly cancelled yet another trip just before his death in July 1993. These revelations came in the London Sunday Telegraph of May 20 by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who gained access to airline records pertaining to the late White House deputy counsel. This is what Evans-Pritchard wrote:

"The records show that Foster bought a ticket to Switzerland on Nov. 1, 1991--during the early phase of the Clinton presidential bid traveling on American Airlines from Little Rock to Paris with a connection to Geneva on Swiss Air. The return flight was booked for Nov. 3, giving him less than one full day on the ground in Switzerland. The cost was $1,490. A year later he did the same thing, darting in and out of the country. On Dec. 7, 1992 during the presidential transition period he bought a ticket from Little Rock to Geneva via Paris, returning on Dec. 9."

Evans-Pritchard continued that on July 1, 1993, Vincent Foster purchased a ticket through the White House Travel Office from Washington to Geneva via TWA and Swiss Air, reimbursing the White House from his personal American Express card. But he never made the trip and was refunded by Swiss Air on July 8." Twelve days later, Foster was found shot to death in a suburban Virginia park. The official verdict was suicide although overwhelming forensic evidence exists that he did not die either by his own hand or in the park.

Delving further into Foster's travel records, Evans-Pritchard found that the Little Rock lawyer had amassed about half a million frequent-flyer miles, including trips to such places as Turkish Kurdistan. Many of these trips beginning in the late 1980s were billed at "executive fares," available only to high government officials or contract workers.

Evans-Pritchard offered no speculation as to why Foster did this travel, although he did note that (a) family members said wife Lisa was unaware of the trips; (b) the travel seemed extraordinary for a "Little Rock lawyer," and (c) Foster handled Bill and Hillary Clinton's financial affairs.

Peculiarly, the Park Police and former special counsel Robert Fiske did not mention Foster's cancelled trip to Geneva in lengthy reports they made on his death. They claimed that quote "depression" was the reason he killed himself. We now know, of course, that the forensic evidence strongly suggests otherwise - that Foster probably died neither by his own hand nor in Fort Marcy Park, where his body was found....

The thousands of pages of investigative reports we've read on the Foster death (a suicide, officially, but don't count on it) don't mention this foreign travel, which Evans-Pritchard says Foster kept secret even from his own wife. The White House says Foster killed himself in a fit of depression. But even if this is true, what caused this high-powered lawyer to kill himself?

Among the 2,672 pages of documents released in January by the Senate Banking Committee is the report of an FBI interview with a psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Hedaya. He said that Foster's sister, Sheila Anthony, contacted him July 16, 1993. She told him that Foster (whom she did not name) quote "occupied a very sensitive position at the White House and was dealing on a daily basis with Top Secret matters and that his depression was directly related to highly sensitive and confidential matters."

Mrs. Anthony continued that her brother quote "was in a bind, needed desperately to talk with someone but had grave concerns" about discussing "sensitive and confidential issues" with an outsider. The psychiatrist agreed to see the brother on an off-the-record basis. Four days later Foster was found dead. Because there was a gun in his hand, the police jumped to the conclusion that he killed himself. An independent analysis of the evidence by outside experts disputed that finding.

Were the sensitive issues that upset Foster and the bind that he was in related to the cancelled business trip to Switzerland? Could this have involved secret bank accounts and transactions? Is it possible that Foster was involved in something illegal that he decided to get out of, cancelling the trip? If so, this could be the key to his mysterious death. It could provide a motive for his suicide or murder 12 days later. This could hardly have escaped the attention of Special Counsel Robert Fiske, but he made no mention of it in his report. Even more troubling is the revelation by Chris Ruddy of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review that Miquel Rodriguez, who was in charge of the reopened investigation into Foster's death, was not permitted to look into Foster's travel or credit card records.

Rodriguez resigned because of interference in his investigation. That went largely unreported by the mainstream media. Now Foster's mysterious Swiss trips are being given the same silent treatment. We think this smells to high heaven. You might want to ask your local newspaper editor or your Congressman about this coverup.