The Confidential Witness For The Foster Death Investigation:
A Second Look At "CW"
by Hugh Sprunt, February 11, 1996
All Rights Reserved

Introduction

The Confidential Witness ("CW") acted differently than others witnesses and was also treated differently by the various Federal authorities investigating the death of Vince Foster. No information has emerged to explain most of these differences since CW came forward in March of 1994, was interviewed by the FBI, featured prominently in the Fiske Report released on June 30, 1994, and was deposed by Congressman Dan Burton and others on July 28, 1994. For this reason alone, it is appropriate to revisit CW's connection to the death of White House Deputy Counsel on Tuesday, July 20, 1993, and engage in some speculation about CW based upon information that appears in various government documents created during the Foster death investigation.

Background Information On CW

When I wrote the Citizen's Independent Report ("CIR"), my pro bono account of the death of White House Deputy Counsel Vince Foster, early in the summer of 1995 it appeared to me that the so-called Confidential Witness gave a reasonably consistent credible account of what he had seen at Fort Marcy Park the afternoon of July 20, 1993, although I did not believe, as he claimed, that he drove into the park merely to seek a secluded spot in which to empty his distended bladder. In short, CW has always been "a problem" when analyzing the Foster death.

CW requested that his identity be kept confidential, as did a number of other witnesses who were not government employees. His request was respected by the government bodies that wrote official reports on Foster's death, such as the Fiske Office of Independent Counsel and the Senate Whitewater Committee. Similar requests from other civilian witnesses were usually ignored. For example, the two Senate Hearings Volumes covering the death of Vince Foster and released in early 1995 (S. HRG. 103-889, Volumes I and II) include the names of most of other the "civilian" witnesses as well as a large amount of other personal data. The CIR respects the privacy of all such witnesses, referring to them indirectly as "the Thrifty Rental driver," "the couple in the White Nissan with Maryland plates," and so on.

In a deposition taken by Congressmen Dan Burton and others on the evening of July 28, 1994, almost a month after the release of the Fiske Report, CW announced: "Gentlemen, understand one thing. I will not go before any Senate and be hammered by attorneys. I will not." In any event, CW appears to have been treated with kid gloves by the authorities.

CW certainly has never received any of the sort of treatment that Pat Knowlton, another civilian witness, did although the FBI has tried to get CW to change certain aspects of his witness account. Knowlton was harassed in spectacular fashion on the streets of Washington and in his own apartment building by some two dozens individuals for the week prior to his Federal grand jury testimony and treated very roughly by the prosecutor in his grand jury appearance on November 1, 1995. Knowlton "went public" in October 1995, when, having been shown a copy of his FBI interviews from 1994 by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Sunday Telegraph, he characterized these interview reports as outright lies (London Sunday Telegraph, October 22, 1995).

Since then, as reported by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and by Chris Ruddy in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on February 8, 1996, the FBI has conducted a concerted effort to discover witnesses who will say that he is homosexual and a regular visitor to Fort Marcy Park while disavowing its agents efforts to do so. This attempt fell flat since these witnesses told Chris Ruddy of the FBI's efforts.

Although it is quite possible that my original evaluation in the CIR remains correct, various events since I originally drafted the CIR in the early summer of 1995, such as credible allegations of forgery (the so-called Foster "torn suicide note") and witness tampering (Knowlton being one example), have made a relatively radical speculation about CW's connection tot he Foster death more attractive, namely that CW may not simply be the innocent bystander who discovered a body in a park and arranged for a 911 call. I now think it worthwhile to examine carefully whether CW had some other role in the death, but I will continue to respect his request that his name and not be revealed (though I, and many others involved with Foster's death, have known CW's name, address, phone number, and a variety of other personal information for many months).

The substantive reasons for my change in attitude can best be explained after recapping the information in the official record concerning what CW saw at Fort Marcy. The information below was compiled from CW's depositions, FBI interviews conducted by Independent Counsel Fiske in the spring of 1994, and other statements by CW that are accessible by the public. If nothing else, it will constitute a refresher course in CW's official public statements to date.

Somewhat curiously, the 1994 Senate Whitewater Committee did not demand to subpoena CW and hear his statements under oath. CW almost certainly has given other statements that have not yet been released by the authorities even though they have had them since the spring of 1994, just as Reporter Chris Ruddy claims that other witness statements from the first phase of the Fiske Investigation (concerning Foster's death) have not been made public (see Chris Ruddy's article on Thomas Castleton of the White House Office of Legal Counsel in the February 4, 1996, issue of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).

Somewhat curiously, CW was the only known witness to be deposed by other than official government entities investigating Foster's death, at least for the first 30 months or so after the death. CW was deposed by Representative Dan Burton and other congressmen on July 28, 1994, but other Foster witnesses who flatly contradicted information in the Fiske Report were not so deposed. For example, two Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department personnel, Sergeant George O. Gonzalez, Jr. and EMS Technician Richard Arthur, stated that they saw bullet wounds on the right side of Foster's face where none officially existed and also questioned whether Foster's death was a suicide.

CW's primary FBI interview is eight pages, but virtually all of the last two have been redacted (that is, the contents have been blanked out and not revealed to the public). One page of his three-page second FBI interview has also been redacted, thereby adding somewhat to his mystique since one can reasonably suppose that 30% of CW's FBI interviews would not be composed of personal information that would otherwise allow a reader to identify him.

Furthermore, unlike White House employees whose statements were redacted in part because those statements contained information relevant to some aspect of the Fiske Office of Independent Counsel's compartmentalized Foster inquiries other than the death itself (such as the Treasury-White House-RTC contacts, the handling of documents in Vince Foster's office after his death, the Arkansas phase of the Whitewater investigation, etc.), CW is most unlikely to have knowledge about investigative matters unrelated to Foster's death that required redaction. Perhaps some of the redacted material will turn out to be the basis for subsequent challenges to CW's statements and any future changes in his story (see below).

What Did CW Tell Say About Finding Foster's Body In Fort Marcy Park?

Officially, CW drove his white construction van with the three blue letters on the side signifying the name of a construction firm into the Fort Marcy parking lot from the northwest-bound lanes of the George Washington Memorial Parkway at about 5:35 to 5:40 PM EDT on Tuesday, July 20, 1993. According to CW, he urgently needed to empty his bladder and the relatively slow-moving traffic on the parkway gave him no viable alternative other than Fort Marcy, though he must have realized, since he is very familiar with the park, that there were no public bathrooms there. Readers with access to the CIR should refer to Map V (R), an aerial trace map of Fort Marcy Park and the environs, in Appendix II of the CIR as an aid to understanding the descriptions that follow.

Interestingly enough, a source familiar with CW and with Fort Marcy Park has told one of my associates, though admittedly only on a not-for-attribution basis, that while it is true that CW was a frequent visitor to Fort Marcy Park, CW parked his van on Chain Bridge Road across from the Saudi Ambassador's compound in one of the parking spaces on the south side of Chain Bridge Road (Virginia Route 123) and entered the park via the north side pedestrian entrance (a gap in the northern park fence along Chain Bridge Road) rather than using the other entrance to the park, the exit off the George Washington Memorial Parkway, that CW stated he used on July 20.

A sizable construction project was under way in the Saudi compound throughout the summer of 1993. Large-scale aerial photos I obtained many months ago taken in the spring of 1993 show vehicles parked on the south side of Chain Bridge Road across from the Saudi compound in the early morning hours, apparently vehicles that belonged to the construction workers involved with the project in the Saudi compound.

CW parked his van on the west side of the Fort Marcy parking lot, after he exited the George Washington Memorial Parkway, between the only two other vehicles in the single row of twenty-one spaces in the parking area to his left as he drove into the lot. After first checking three places in the park where he thought people might be found, CW stated he then made his way to the extreme northwest corner of Fort Marcy some 775 feet from the parking lot where, immediately after relieving himself, he discovered Foster's body at about 5:45 PM EDT. Did he check the three locations in Fort Marcy where he thought people might be to ensure he would not be seen when he relieved himself?

Officially, at least, CW did not see another other living soul that afternoon during the approximately ten minutes he says he spent at Fort Marcy Park. It is not completely clear whether CW was seen by other witnesses in the Fort Marcy parking lot (or elsewhere in the park), though honest answers to questions posted to CW would lay any doubts to rest.

When I wrote the CIR, CW's explanation that he stopped at the park simply because he badly needed to urinate did not sound authentic. Would any man, "in extremis" from an over-full bladder after drinking several large cups of coffee as CW stated he had done that day, travel well over 250 yards on foot before "taking care of business?" Would a man in his situation bother to check out three locations in the park where he thought other people might be merely to avoid them, thereby significantly increasing the distance he must cover before relieving his bladder? CW stated that he walked as far as he did to ensure privacy, given he knew there were two other vehicles parked in the lot, but I believe his explanation just doesn't "hold water". . .

CW also told the FBI that, to the best of his recollection, he took the extra time to back his white van into its parking space, another unusual move for a man with an inherent "need for speed." After backing into his parking space, CW also took the time to remove his sweaty work shirt and hang it out to dry on the side mirror of his van, meaning that he strolled through the park shirtless while desperately looking for a suitable place to take a leak.

The only other witness who appeared in the park that afternoon to relieve himself, Patrick Knowlton, arrived at 4:30 PM EDT, parked in roughly the same place that CW did (also between two other cars, though apparently not the same two that CW encountered), walked a mere 50-75 feet to a large tree, did his business promptly, and exited the park, all within five minutes.

At the time I wrote the CIR I did not consider CW's reason for being at Fort Marcy the afternoon of Foster's death especially important because it seemed likely to me that the actual reason for his presence in the park, whatever it might have been, was completely unrelated to Foster's death.

Perhaps, I speculated at the time, that CW did not have to go to the bathroom at all and was instead "cruising" Fort Marcy Park even though Fort Marcy does not have as strong a reputation for "cruising" as does the Turkey Run Recreation Area two and a half miles to the northwest on the George Washington Parkway.

The "cruising" conclusion had a certain appeal, but I am no longer as confident that such a relatively simple potential fall-back position can ultimately "cover" for the hard-to-believe official explanation that CW entered Fort Marcy only because he had to relieve himself.

Although Fort Marcy Park can be expected to be empty of people, or nearly so, in the middle of a hot summer workday, CW arrived at around 5:35 PM EDT and therefore might reasonably expect to encounter people of both sexes in the park who had left work for the day (as did the heterosexual couple in the white Nissan with a Maryland plate described below or the people who can often be seen around that time of day walking their dogs in the park).

My tentative conclusion, as someone who is "straight, but not narrow, originally was:" even if CW was "cruising" Fort Marcy that, in itself, was no reason to question the credulity of the balance of his Foster-related statements.

CW described the first vehicle on his left as he drove into the lot as an unoccupied light-colored Japanese-made compact parked front-end-forward in the second or third space (color unknown, according to the Fiske Report, but CW stated in a later deposition that it was "light brown or cream colored" and told the FBI it was "possibly light blue or tan" and "light tan or light brown," also saying that "it was a two-door model"). He did not notice the license plate.

The first vehicle was seen in approximately the spot in which Foster's auto (a taupe gray four-door 1989 Honda Accord sedan with an Arkansas plate) was later seen by US Park Police and Fairfax county Fire and Rescue Department personnel. Like the first vehicle, the second vehicle was also unoccupied according to CW.

CW described the second vehicle as a white Honda two-door model with blue interior backed into a parking space near the rear (northern end) of the lot. The owner of this vehicle, which was in fact a white Nissan with a Maryland license plate, confirmed to the FBI that her vehicle had indeed been backed into its parking space, but indicated her vehicle had four doors, not two.

CW parked his van somewhat closer to the second vehicle than the first. On his return to his van after finding the body, CW passed close by and slightly above the second vehicle and noticed that it had a jacket tossed on the back of the passenger seat, a jacket that was similar in color to the suit pants he had just seen on the body (in his second FBI interview and in his statement to Liddy CW states that this jacket was on the rear seat). CW thought the second car, the one he described as being a white Honda, belonged to Foster since the color of the jacket matched Foster's suit pants but, officially at least, Foster's car was the first, not the second, vehicle parked on the left as CW drove into the lot.

The second vehicle had been driven to the parking lot by the female half of a couple who, at the time Foster's body was located by the US Park Police at 6:14 PM, had walked out of sight of the parking lot toward the southeastern side of the park, the opposite end of the park from Fort Marcy itself where the body was found. CW also saw a four-pack of wine coolers (two bottles gone) in the front passenger floor area of the second car as he strolled by this vehicle on elevated ground a few yards north of the Nissan.

However, it would have been difficult if not impossible for CW to see the four-pack in the manner and location CW described (floor of the front passenger seat) from the distance and angle he described. Did CW in fact "check out" both of the other vehicles in the parking lot fairly closely after he had see the body? It would have been natural for anyone in his position to do so. After all, it would be quite possible that one of the cars in the lot belonged to the victim. If CW thought the victim had met with foul play, the perpetrators' vehicle might have still been in the parking lot.

Perhaps CW entered one or both vehicles in an attempt to discover which vehicle was owned by the victim (it is known that the first vehicle was unlocked at the time according to the consensus in the official record). Foster's suit coat with his wallet and White House ID were officially on the front passenger seat of Foster's Honda Accord when CW arrived at Fort Marcy. Such examinations would certainly account for his remembering the wine cooler bottles on the front passenger floor of the second vehicle. However, if CW took the trouble to do this, why didn't he write down the license plates of both vehicles for the police before driving his van from the park?

CW recalled that there was a brown briefcase in the second vehicle. In his second FBI interview CW stated with more certainty that there was a briefcase in the second vehicle, but in that interview, he located the briefcase on the rear seat with the wine coolers. He also told Liddy that the briefcase and the four-pack of wine coolers were on the floor of the front passenger seat.

While officially standing quite near the northern end of the western berm of Fort Marcy relieving himself, with the so-called "second cannon" at Fort Marcy some five or six yards to his left, facing in the general direction of Chain Bridge Road, and with his feet about a yard below the top of the berm, CW noticed something to his left on the western slope of the berm, three or four yards in front of the end of the cannon barrel (As described below, CW later told an interview that the body was not precisely in front of the cannon but, though down slope from the cannon, was located some yards to the right of the fore and aft line of the cannon barrel).

CW ventured over, first thinking he had seen a pile of trash, and discovered a body, that of deceased Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster, neatly lying face to the sky, straight up and down the berm slope, the head somewhat below the top of the berm. According to CW there was no dirt pathway under the body or near it and the vegetation was quite heavy. This does not correspond to the terrain just west of cannon two which includes a dirt pathway two or three feet wide that is largely clear of grass and shrubbery.

According to CW, the dead man was dressed in a white dress shirt, expensive trousers, and black dress shoes. The face was pointed straight up or perhaps slightly to the right (five or ten degrees) and the arms were straight down at the sides with both palms pointed upward.

CW did not see a gun in either hand but, officially, the 1913-vintage black Army Colt .38 Special revolver that Foster used to kill himself was in Foster's right hand, palm down, at the time. According to CW, "I clearly saw his hands were empty." CW stood over the body for two minutes, possibly a little longer (in one interview CW said he stood over the body for "several minutes").

CW also saw a wine cooler bottle, one-quarter full of a light purple liquid, some two to two-and-one-half feet to the right of the body's right arm, at a level between the elbow and the shoulder, held in place on the steep slope by some twigs. CW never saw Foster's glasses which were later officially located at the bottom of the berm in a gully, some 19-20 feet below the head. CW observed that the body, including the face, had begun to bloat, making the shirt and pants abnormally tight. The body had slid down the berm slope slightly (the slope being about 45 degrees), just enough to take the slack out of the pants at the ankles.

CW also remarked on the extensive trampling of the foliage and brush ("trampled completely flat") on the berm slope below Foster's feet leading down to the bottom of the gully. In many respects, CW's description of the scene around the body, as does that of some of the official personnel at the death scene as reported in their statements in the record, corresponds much more closely to an area some yards west of cannon one (overlooking the southern berm of Fort Marcy), in its extreme steepness, the lack of a walking path, the heavy vegetation, and the relative lack of sunlight.

Subsequent examination of the scene by the FBI in the spring of 1994 revealed that "a walking path had been worn in the berm from the front of the cannon down the berm and into the woods joining up with the other walking paths that crisscross the wooded area of the park," but CW stated that "there was no walking path down the berm. . . and that the area was heavily overgrown with foliage." This description jibes more closely with a location some yards to the west of cannon one on the southern berm, a location that Reporter Chris Ruddy has consistently reported as the actual location of the body based upon numerous interviews with US Park Police and Fairfax County Fire and Rescue personnel in January of 1994.

When confronted during an interview with Reed Irvine of Accuracy in Media with the fact that there is (and long has been) a dirt trail leading down the berm to the west of the second cannon, CW changed his story and told Irvine that the body was not directly in front of the second cannon as recorded in his interview with the FBI, but was somewhat to the right of the second cannon (and therefore off the dirt path that CW said he did not see). CW also told Irvine that the FBI agents had convinced him that the body was on a dirt trail directly in front of the barrel of the second cannon, not somewhat to the right of it as he had originally believed.

According to CW, the FBI also tried to convince him during his interviews with the Bureau that the gun was in Foster's right hand when he viewed the body and that CW had simply missed seeing it because the gun was obscured in part by the right hand itself (palm up, the FBI orally expressing agreement with CW on this point during his interview) and by the heavy vegetation around the body.

The one photo of the body (leaked to Reuters and ABC TV News) shows the black Army .38 Colt Special revolver in the right hand with the hand palm down, but with much of the cylinder area and the barrel in plain view (Appendix III of the CIR). The photo was shot from the body's feet looking up slope and to the left of the body's centerline, depicting the right pants leg and right hand palming the gun.

The FBI refused to show CW any photos of the body and the gun during the course of his interviews to refresh his nine-month-old memory When shown such a photo during a July 28, 1994, deposition after the release of the Fiske Report on June 30, 1994, CW stated, "That is not a picture of what I saw. The man's [empty] hands were straight up." "I would have seen the gun [if it had been in the hand, as was shown in the photo he was seeing for the first time]."

The presence or absence of the gun aside, CW stated under oath that the right hand must have been moved after he saw it since the photo showed the right hand palm down whereas he had clearly seen both hands palm up.

CW observed traces of dried blood ("the blood was dried hard and black") on the partially open lips and nostrils as well as a purple stain, thought by CW to be a vomitous wine stain roughly the size of a fifty cent piece, on the right shoulder and chest area. The color of the wine stain matched that of the liquid in the wine cooler bottle CW had seen to the right of the body and the light pink color of the label matched the color of the label on the two bottles that remained in the four-pack of wine coolers he was to subsequently see on the floor of the passenger seat of the second car in the parking lot.

Flies had filled the mouth and nostrils by the time CW first came upon the body.

CW was clear when he was deposed by Burton, after the Fiske Report had been released, that there were no streams or trickles of blood on the face, though CW's second FBI interview records that "traces of dry black blood were running from the side of the mouth and nose down the right side of the face." In stark contrast, CW's first FBI interview states, "traces of dried, black blood were on the lips and around the nostrils . . . He does not recall blood or traces of dried blood running down the right or left side of the face." Either CW or the FBI team working for the Fiske Office of Independent Counsel must be in error. The eyes were about two-thirds closed and glazed over, per CW. He saw nothing to indicate that the victim had been shot. CW is emphatic that he never touched the body.

CW also stated in a deposition after the Fiske Report was published on June 30, 1994, that he could have been observed by people to the west of the western berm while he was relieving himself, potentially people who might have transported Foster's body into the park from the obscure old road that runs southerly from Chain Bridge Road, down the western boundary of the park (CW did not, however, think of that possibility while he was in the park the day of the death).

After standing over the head of the body for at least a couple of minutes, his feet some two to two-and-one-half feet from the head, and examining the body from head to toe with his face about three to four feet from the victim's head, CW returned to his white construction van in the parking lot, re-entered the George Washington Memorial Parkway and drove about 2.5 miles northwest in rush-hour traffic to the US Park Service maintenance facility at Turkey Run where he called over one of two uniformed Park Service maintenance workers he saw and asked that individual to call 911 to report the body.

CW spoke with that worker and CW says that worker confirmed that he knew the locations of both the cannons at Fort Marcy Park. The official transcript of the Park Service maintenance worker's 911 call to Fairfax County indicates an awareness on the caller's part that there were two cannons at Fort Marcy:

Caller: There's ah, have ah, ah, this is, is a body, this guy told me was a body laying up there by the last cannon.

Dispatcher: Last what?

Caller: Huh? Dispatcher: There's a body laying near what?

Caller: There's, there's a man laying up there by the last cannon gun.

Dispatcher: Near the, near the last what? I cannot understand a word your [sic] saying.

Caller: The last cannon gun.

Dispatcher: Cannon.

Caller: Yes, they have cannons up there. Those big guns.

Dispatcher: Oh, okay.

The problem with these references to the "last cannon," is that, as Chris Ruddy reported on January 15, 1995, he was told categorically in two separate interviews by the park maintenance worker who made the above Fairfax County 911 call that he did not use the phrase "last cannon" because as far as he knew, there was only one cannon in the park. At the time of the death, cannon one was in plain view, some 150 yards northwest of the parking lot, overlooking the southern berm. Cannon two is some 250 yards north-northwest of the parking lot in the extreme northwestern corner of Fort Marcy and cannot be seen from the main part of the fort since it is isolated in a small largely surrounded by trees.

The caller emphasized to Chris Ruddy that the man in the white van (CW) had referred only to "a cannon," not to "the last cannon" or to "the second cannon." An examination of the second call made by the maintenance worker (to the US Park Police, as requested by Fairfax County) indicates no reference to a "last" cannon and is consistent with the Park Service maintenance worker's statement to Chris Ruddy that he was aware of only one cannon, the so-called first cannon.

None of the six Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department personnel interviewed by the Fiske Office of Independent Counsel said they were directed to a "second" or "last" cannon, even though the certified transcription of the Fairfax County 911 tape obtained by the FBI in March 1994 makes that reference several times (see the extract from that transcript above).

Sergeant George Gonzalez of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department told the Senate investigators that he had been informed by his dispatcher that the body was at "a cannon." When Gonzalez responded to Fort Marcy Park he had not been told by anyone that the body was by the "last cannon" or "the second cannon." Richard Arthur, a co-worker, who reviewed the 911 dispatch after he returned to the McLean, Virginia, firehouse, told Chris Ruddy (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 25, 1995) that he thought it was strange that the 911 dispatch did not identify a specific cannon even though the certified transcript refers to the "last cannon."

The Park Service worker who made the emergency call first phoned Fairfax County 911 (6:00 PM) and then immediately placed a second call to the US Park Police as instructed by the 911 operator (6:02 PM) because the body was located in a Federal park and therefore within US Park Police jurisdiction. CW drove off without giving his name to the Park Service maintenance workers. The man who made the call did not give the Fairfax County or the US Park Police his name either, but he was officially identified by the investigators later. Neither of the Park Service maintenance workers noticed the license plate of CW's van.

The FBI never presented CW to the worker who made the 911 call to see if the man, who had talked with CW, could identify him. The FBI did present CW to the other worker (who did not come over to CW's van on July 20, 1993), but this man's identification of CW was equivocal (the man the FBI showed him "could have been" the man in the white van). CW apparently told the FBI he could not recognize the Park Service worker he spoke with the day of the death, so CW was never presented to the worker for him to identify CW, a strange investigative economy.

CW stated under oath that the day after he found the body he told his brother and his co-workers at the construction company what he had seen and they all agreed to keep quiet about it just the way he had asked them to. CW: "At this point, I had probably a hundred men on that job and you know not one sole -- they kept me quite [quiet?] and I love it."

CW told the FBI that in early August 1993 after there had been considerable news coverage concerning the unknown driver of a white van who had caused the Foster 911 call to be made, he contacted a woman friend who was an attorney at the Department of Justice. He told her he was the man who had driven the white van and then asked her if he were breaking any laws by not coming forward. She checked the law for him and called CW back the next day, advising him that he was not violating any laws by not coming forward.

When he asked her what she thought he should do, CW told the FBI that she told him to "stay quiet because there is nothing you can do to change things now," certainly strange advice for any attorney to give a friend who innocently came upon a body. CW refused to provide the FBI the name of his female friend at the Department of Justice.

CW did not come forward for over eight months after Foster's death. He eventually contacted G. Gordon Liddy on March 22, 1994, just over a week after the gun-in-hand photo was leaked to Reuters and ABC TV News. Liddy agreed to keep CW's name and other personal information confidential. CW told Liddy that he wanted to keep his identity a secret since he did not see a gun in Foster's hand, contrary to what had been reported in the press, and because the location in which he had found the body (just west of the second cannon) was inconsistent with press reports.

Perhaps CW was referring to the location reported by journalist Christopher Ruddy whose January and February 1994 New York Post articles had placed the body on the southern berm, some yards west of the first cannon at Fort Marcy. Liddy also stated that CW had considered coming forward to Rush Limbaugh, but that he went to Mr. Liddy because he felt confident that Liddy would not reveal his identity. CW's apparent attraction for right-of-center radio hosts might be of more than passing interest once there is certainty about his actions at Fort Marcy Park that afternoon.

CW also stated he had decided to come forward because he had read in the New York Times that the a park service maintenance worker had changed his story and was now denying that any man in a white van ever existed. Is CW referring to a March 14, 1994, story in the New York Daily News written by Mike McLary, "The Unfostered DC Suspicions?" Per McLary, "The body was discovered by a park maintenance worker who had slipped into the area for a quiet midday drink. He reported finding the body, but then made up a story about having seen a white van, admitted it was created to cover up his own behavior."

It might profitably be asked who leaked this information to McLary since there has been no additional corroboration of the Park Service maintenance worker's alleged change of heart to this day. All of the official government reports and the Senate Hearings Volumes were released months after the McLary story and nowhere is this alleged flip-flop reported therein (except in CW's deposition taken by Burton).

CW says he wondered who could have "gotten to" the two Park Service maintenance workers (McLary mentioned only one) and convinced them to change their story, so he came forward to Liddy, he says, to make sure he did not end up like the man whose body he had found. CW thought that "going public" through Liddy would provide him some protection. The Daily News story by McLary ran three days after the "gun in hand" photo leaked to ABC News and Reuters appeared on television showing the black .38 Special cupped by Foster's right hand palm down. It's publication was apparently intended to damp down any lingering suspicions that the death was other than a straightforward suicide with a .38 Army Colt Special revolver near cannon two at Fort Marcy Park.

Liddy encouraged CW to talk with Agents Colombell and Monroe of the FBI who had been assigned to the Fiske investigation and who wanted to interview CW after they heard about his appearance on the Liddy show. CW agreed to do so, again with the understanding that his identity would not be released. The Fiske investigators agreed to keep his identity confidential and have never officially released his name to the public, unlike the government treatment of a number of the other civilian witnesses who also requested anonymity.

Reasons To Doubt CW's Statements

Given the above synopsis of the information provided to the Fiske investigation by CW, are there any other reasons to doubt his statements to the FBI and in his deposition to the congressmen other than: 1) the curious redactions in CW's FBI interviews, 2) CW's relatively implausible story about his urgent need to relieve himself, but nonetheless opting to walk over 775 feet from his van to do so, 3) the fact that CW's request for confidentiality, unlike those of other civilian witnesses, was respected by the government, as was 4) his desire not to be questioned by Senate investigators?

As will be described below, there are many other reasons to doubt his statements, not the least of which is that if Chris Ruddy is correct that Foster's body was located some twenty yards west of cannon one on the southern berm as opposed to some five yards west of cannon one on the western berm, CW (and the government reports are lying about the body's location. Before turning to questions that might profitably be asked of CW and speculating what future role CW might play in the Foster investigation, let us take a look at some additional reasons to question his statements.

Those in the mainstream media who advocate acceptance of the official "suicide verdict" did not attack CW's credibility even though he said a number of things that one would think those individuals should find disturbing (CW said there was no gun in the hand, the palms were up, brush and vegetation down slope from the body was trampled down, there were no blood drainage stains on Foster's face, etc.).

Reporters and others who actively questioned the suicide verdict were branded "scurrilous kooks" or worse, but CW escaped unscathed. Indeed, why did one major columnist and defender of the Washington establishment publicize only the seemingly contradictory information provided by CW from amongst the tremendous amount of evidence damaging the government's case that the death was a suicide? Was it to establish CW's bona fides among those who questioned the official government "suicide verdict?"

CW mentioned a vomitous wine stain on the right center chest area of Foster's shirt that no other witnesses saw.

CW was the only witness who commented on the presence of the old road bordering the west wide of Fort Marcy Park and the old cabin between the park and the Dogwoods subdivision.

CW decided to phone in his discovery of the body, but instead asked a Park Service maintenance worker to do so from the Turkey Run maintenance area. If CW wanted to avoid becoming personally involved with the death as a witness as he said he did, why not make the call personally rather than take the chance the two Park Service maintenance workers would remember the license plate number of his van and thereby make him a prime suspect in the death (remember, CW thought Foster had been murdered).

If CW had called 911 himself, the only CW-specific information the authorities would have been an unidentifiable voice on a phone that would have been useless for identification purposes unless CW otherwise came under suspicion and CW's voice was compared to the voice on the tape.

CW did not come forward, but nonetheless, based on the official statements he gave to government investigators, he was not shy about telling his brother and numerous fellow workers what he had seen. Why was he so confident that they would not "give him up" and why did he remain so after it was clear that the dead man was a high official in the Clinton Administration?

CW provided the only confirmation from a non-governmental employee that the body was indeed located near cannon two. He is by far the witness who is the most familiar with the park. He had a van in which the body could have been transported. He knew of the north side pedestrian entrance off Chain Bridge Road and that there was space to park several vehicles there. Since he says he was quite familiar with the park, he also must have known of the construction under way at the Saudi Compound on Chain Bridge Road and that numerous construction worker trucks and vans routinely parked there that summer, vehicles that typically left that parking area in mid- to late-afternoon.

CW indicated that there was no dirt walking path down the berm slope even though he now knows that the official location of the body places it squarely on a dirt walking path down the berm slope.

CW refers to an anonymous female attorney friend at the US Department of Justice whom he says told him not to bother to come forward to the authorities, even after it was clear that the body he saw belonged to a high official in the Clinton Administration. This advice (quoted above) does not sound like the advice any attorney would give to any person who was an innocent witness. The public documents give no indication that the FBI ever tried to confirm this statement by CW by seeking the identity of the Justice Department attorney. Another unusual investigative economy.

The public documents do not indicate that any effort was made to determine why the Park Service maintenance worker(s) were said to have changed their story and denied the existence of CW, the man in the white van, even though the distinctive account of this change of story that appeared in the New York Daily News has officially long been known to have been in error. What sources provided the information to the author of that article and why?

Questions That Should Be Asked Of CW Under Oath

1. Where was he working on July 20, 1993, and what time did he leave the job site? Any witnesses?

2. Did his current or former construction company employers (or CW personally) ever do any work at the Saudi Compound on Chain Bridge Road which had some construction work underway on July 20, 1993?

3. Did CW empty trash from his van before proceeding into the park? [Another civilian witness refers to a white van that could have been CW's, indicating that the driver emptied trash into a trash receptacle at the parking lot.]

4. What are the purposes of CW's overseas trips? Why so many? What are the specifics of trips in the last five years? Locations? Cost of each trip? Funding source?

5. Is CW gay or bisexual? Can his response to this question be verified? Does he have a habit of walking shirtless through Fort Marcy Park on hot summer days?

6. Can CW provide the name and address of his brother (and CW's numerous co-workers) whom he said he told about finding the body the day after he did so? Will these individuals verify that CW told them about finding the body? What is the name of his female friend of the Justice Department and does she agree that he called her for advice and that she told him not to come forward in early August 1993 to the US Park Police who were investigating Foster's death?

7. Will the brother verify CW's account of how he, CW's brother, learned that the Park Service maintenance workers had changed their story about the man in the white van?

8. Where was CW at 4:30 PM on the afternoon of July 20, 1993?

9. Has CW ever been arrested?

10. Has CW ever seen a path leading down the berm slope west of cannon two? One more time, where was the body in relation to this path?

11. Many construction jobs start early in the summer months to avoid some of the later afternoon heat, so why was CW still driving home from work at 5:30 PM?

12. Since CW did not want to come forward at the time he found the body, why did he tell his brother, his co-workers, his friend at the Justice Department, and (later) G. Gordon Liddy? Why tell pretty much the entire planet except the police?

13. Has CW ever done any work, directly or indirectly, as an informant or otherwise for the FBI or any other US government intelligence or crime-fighting agency?

14. Did CW see a Mercedes Benz or a Cadillac parked at or near Fort Marcy Park on July 20, 1993? [These are two of the unexplained civilian vehicles that appeared in Fort Marcy Park that afternoon; the Mercedes in question is not the blue Mercedes belonging to the medical lobbyist that broke down on the exit ramp to Fort Marcy around 6 PM]

15. CW should be shown a map of Fort Marcy itself and Fort Marcy Park and asked to indicate under oath the spot where he said he relieved himself and discovered the body.

What Future Role Could CW Play In The Foster Death Investigation?

This is quite speculative, but what if Independent Counsel Starr eventually reports to the public that CW has recanted parts of his story under oath, has admitted that "mistakes were made," and that he, in all innocence, altered critical aspects of the death scene and now wants to make a clean breast of it:

If Independent Counsel Starr does happen to release a report in the future that includes many of the above "recantations" by CW, what are the chances that CW has been something of a Trojan Horse designed to mislead those who doubted the Foster death investigation and in fact was a "foot soldier" involved in a cover-up of Foster's death, not an innocent witness who made innocent mistakes at the crime scene, lied about his actions, and ultimately recanted his prior statements to the Fiske or Starr Office of Independent Counsel, possibly as early as August of 1994? Officially Foster was said to be "cynically depressed." It may appear that the author of this report is "cynically depressed," but the possibilities herein should be publicly aired and analytically critiqued.

In conclusion, I want to repeat that this report is speculative and is the author's fair comment and opinion about an issue before the public, except for the material extracted from the official record. After some delays, this report is being made public in the rough form seen here in order that others may evaluate it. Additional releases of this report may follow.

Warm regards,
Hugh Sprunt
HSprunt@aol.com