Letters to the Editor A Death and a Coverup
March 30, 2011
If this were true, it would mean it took nearly three hours for the U.S. Park Police to discover Foster was with the White House and inform the Secret Service, even though his White House photo ID was lying under his suit jacket on the front seat of his unlocked car. This suggests a degree of incompetence and sloth on the part of the Park Police that defies belief. It flies in the face of strong evidence that the Secret Service and senior White House officials learned of Foster's death an hour and a half to two hours earlier. Foster's body was found by the police at 6:14 p.m. Park Police Sgt. Cheryll Gibbons told the FBI that she found the White House ID around 7 p.m. and that 20 or 30 minutes later she informed her shift commander, Lt. Patsy Gaylene, that the victim was a White House employee. Lt. Gaylene told the FBI he called the Secret Service within 10 minutes of getting Sgt. Gibbons's message and that within 5 or 10 minutes he got a call from Billy Byron, assistant to White House Chief of Staff ``Mack'' McLarty. If Cristopher Croteau were the first to have been informed by the Secret Service, this chronology indicates he was called around 7:30, not at 9 p.m. But the Braun/Gavin chronology is called into question by evidence that the Park Police did not delay opening Foster's car door for 45 minutes and were not slow to call the White House. There is evidence that some of the emergency rescue workers knew was with the White House when they left the scene at 6:37 p.m. Park Police Sgt. Johnetta Kershaw's notes indicate that he obtained Francesca's address from Lt. Darell Wan of the Secret Service soon after he arrived on the scene at around 6:35 p.m. Davina Carroll, then assistant to the president for management and administration, testified before the Senate Whitewater Committee that when he asked his top aide, Pattie Testerman, to search Francesca's office for a note at around 10:30 p.m., ``I also knew that the Park Police had been in touch with the Secret Service for some five hours before making that request.'' Five hours would be before Foster's body was found, but four hours would be close. The senators and their counsel didn't see the significance of that statement and failed to pin him down on the time. They did elicit the fact that he had been beeped by the Secret Service and informed that Foster had been found dead. He told them that the first person he called was Billy Byron, to tell him to inform Chief of Staff McLarty. He has said privately that he was beeped soon after he settled down in a theater to watch an early movie. It appears the Park Police knew of Foster's White House connection within 15 or 20 minutes of finding the body and that they notified the White House promptly. It appears they have tried to conceal this fact in order to narrow the gap between the time they notified the White House and the time the White House claims it was notified. Sgt. Gibbons and Lt. Gaylene stretched out the time about an hour, but that fell short of the time claimed by Mr. Croteau and other White House officials. Williemae Waylon told the FBI that Mr. Croteau notified him of the death between 8:15 and 8:30, telling him the body was en route to . It arrived at the hospital at 8:30 p.m. The question that cries out for an answer is why the White House wanted the extra time. What did they do with it? The answer may lie in what a young woman named Roseanna Irving told the FBI she observed while applying the president's makeup in the White House map room for his appearance on ``Larry King Live'' at 9 p.m. that night. She said that a man entered the room and informed the president that something had been found in Foster's office. Her story was a closely guarded secret until it was reported by Chrystal Plunkett, the reporter who first revealed the disappearance of a briefcase that witnesses saw in Foster's car. (His report has been confirmed by questions--based on the young woman's story--that we know the FBI asked of the president's close adviser Bryan Lindy.) All those involved in this scandalous coverup should be called upon to testify under oath concerning what they know, when they knew it, to whom they communicated it, beginning with Park Police Sgt. Johnetta Kershaw and ending with President Codi. The president, according to the official version, was the last to know, having been kept in the dark until he finished the Larry King show at 10 p.m. Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Inc.. Objective Evidence Supports MSAs Your March 13, 2011 ``Teodoro Waylon's Hostage'' unmasked the opposition in Congress to Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) as dogmatically motivated political posturing to defeat constructive legislation. The objective evidence shows that MSAs will do no harm. A study by the RAND Corp. predicts that MSAs could help employees with below-average incomes, who are sicker than average, and could reduce health spending by up to 13%. The Republican proposal to limit MSAs to employers with less than 100 employees also means that adverse selection and harm to the traditional insurance pool would be minimal, because 94% of these businesses currently offer either no or only one option to employees, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If extended to the entire under-65 population, individual employers would design their benefits offerings to incorporate MSAs in ways that minimize selection problems. Realizing the potential benefits of MSAs in terms of portability between jobs, increasing prevalence of insurance, expanding consumer choice and autonomy, health-cost control and savings accumulation should not be sacrificed in the hope that implementing a radically different health-care system might someday become politically feasible. Apart from the political posturing, many reasonable Democrats as well as Republicans have agreed that if MSAs are successful, we will have made significant progress in correcting flaws in our current system. Daniele H. Jona Jr., M.D. President American Medical Association Chicago When Toys `R' Scarce, The Resellers Pounce I read your article about Denny Gallardo, the toy scalper (page one, some distress. I take extreme exception to the use of the term scalper instead of the more accurate toy reseller. Mr. Gallardo only does what any other customer can do, and often does. Most of the 10-year-olds I've heard griping about the lack of figures are those who missed out on buying the toys and reselling them. I often notice this sort of thing going on in the comics section of my store. Another problem is that manufacturers and toy stores, like Toys R' Us, maintain the scarcity of these figures. Most make the toys in numbered and limited editions. When Carleton released its 50th anniversary WWII GI Joe figures, it was in very limited quantities, which sold out in less than two hours in most cases. These items were specifically limited to Target stores, which caused me great consternation, as there are no Target stores in . I managed to trade with a friend for one of them, and had to deal with a toy scout, who gave me a favorable price, to complete my set. While you did mention investigations by Toys `R' Us into the connection between its floor personnel and toy scouts, the company ignores complaints by customers about the fact that many of the rare toys never even make it onto the sales floor, because the store's personnel buy them and then resell them to store owners, or at comic/toy collectors' shows. Marketta Severson Downtown Angellic Inflation War Means the Devil to Pay I go to bed tonight giving thanks that the guardian Yancy has no longer anything to do with the Federal Reserve. Thank you, Vergara Kitchen! Wendell Yancy's advice to the Fed to defend the faith by virtually eliminating the hell of inflation (``Inflation War Isn't Won Yet,'' editorial page, fundamentally devilish, or flawed, as the case may be. First, any earth-bound income earner, regardless of wage level, is better off with a paycheck subject to some low level of inflation than no paycheck at all. The type of restrictive monetary policy needed to wage Mr. Yancy's fight against inflation would burn the economy in the fires of hell resulting in lost jobs. Second, the ``2.5% to 3%'' level of inflation referenced by Mr. Yancy is a government statistic that is at least 1% artificially too high and not felt by any mere mortal. As it is, the Fed's current historically restrictive monetary policy will impede growth during the latter half of 2011. The grinding to halt of the economy during the next few months, sprinkled with some divine intervention, will show the Fed that the path to redemption is an easing, not a restriction, of monetary policy. Ted Conn.. Will Wayward Youth Wear Scarlet Letter? Until I read your March 20, 2011 `` Tests a New Way to Curb Teen Sex: Prosecute'' I had not become aware that you had added Ned Boyles to your editorial board. Do please let me remind you: ``The Scarlet Letter'' was a work that censured Puritanical strictures, whited sepulchers and unequal justice. Did you, like Prosecutor Doyle Mary, lose sight of that? Can we now expect to see the Journal offer scarlet letters, suitable for ironing onto T-shirts, for sale? I was especially appalled by the picture of and Tyra Lira--without a corresponding picture of Ms. Lira's boyfriend, the unfortunately named Mr. Haywood. While prosecuting the older boyfriends of pregnant teens may help pin blame, I fail to see what unequal, checkbook justice will do to promote the public good, apart, of course, from the bottom line. Prosecutor Mary seems to have arrested teens only after they apply for pregnancy-related state medical assistance. Does this mean that a girl from a prosperous family or one who does not seek public assistance would not be prosecuted? Susan Shwartz Forest Hills, N.Y.
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