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| Was Ron Brown Murdered? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| by William F. Jasper | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Like the strange death of White House deputy counsel and long-time Clinton friend Vincent Foster, the death of Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown has been enveloped in a blanket of glaring inconsistencies and conflicting "facts." Like the official investigation of the Foster death, the investigation of Brown's demise has been plagued by troubling departures from standard investigative procedure, "missing" evidence, and improper White House interference. And, as with the Foster "suicide," the Clinton-friendly media elites have been only too willing to turn a blind eye to obvious official misconduct and to denounce in the most vicious terms anyone courageous enough to question the official verdict. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apparent Gunshot Wound | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fortunately, as in the Vince Foster death, the Ron Brown death attracted the attention of Christopher Ruddy, an investigative reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In a story that appeared in that newspaper on December 3, 1997, Ruddy fired the opening broadside in a series of articles that is proving to be a major challenge for the White House cover-up artists and their media allies. With supporting photographs and X-rays from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Ruddy quoted a forensic expert in the official Brown investigation who reported that a circular hole in Brown's skull was an "apparent gunshot wound" and certainly should have prompted an autopsy. "Even if you safely assumed accidental plane crash, when you got something that appears to be a homicide, that should bring everything to a screeching halt," Lieutenant Colonel Steve Cogswell, a doctor and deputy medical examiner with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, told the Tribune-Review. Cogswell, an Air Force forensic pathologist who had been dispatched to Croatia by the AFIP to investigate the jet crash in which Brown died, was put under a gag order immediately after the Ruddy story broke and the AFIP issued a press release disputing the Cogswell-Ruddy story. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| At the same time, acting Secretary of the Air Force F. Whitten Peters sent a letter to family members of the air crash victims attempting to debunk the bullet wound thesis. "I'm writing because you may have seen recent reports alleging the death of former Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown could have been caused by a gunshot wound," wrote Peters. He continued: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I want to assure you the reports are untrue and to provide you with the facts and dispel all rumors. The reports resulted from the opinion of an Air Force medical examiner who did not personally examine any of the CT-43 casualties. They are his opinions only. The consensus of Col. (Dr.) William Gormley, who personally examined Secretary Brown, and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology forensic community is that Secretary Brown, like the others tragically killed in the plane crash of an Air Force CT-43 aircraft in Croatia on April 3, 1996, died of injuries sustained during the mishap. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Due to the initial appearance of Secretary Brown's injuries, the medical examiners carefully considered the possibility of a gunshot wound. However, their examinations combined with X-rays ruled out that possibility. These findings confirmed the cause of death as multiple blunt-force injuries suffered in the mishap. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The alleged "bullet fragments" mentioned in the reports were actually caused by a defect in the reusable X-ray film cassettes. Medical examiners took multiple X-rays using multiple cassettes and confirmed this finding. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Peters went on to aver that "the medical examiner determined there was no gunshot wound, and therefore concluded there was no need for further examination. Had there been suspicion regarding the nature of Mr. Brown's death or the death of any other person on the aircraft medical examiners would have pursued permission to perform a full internal examination." Moreover, wrote Peters, in order "to correct this misinformation and reduce further coverage that could be erroneous and painful to you, we plan to respond to media queries with the information contained above." Before ending with his "heartfelt apologies," the Peters statement revealed its real purpose: "We hope these actions will preclude credible media from pursuing this story." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stunning Contradiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The "credible media" that is the dominant liberal Establishment media have not disappointed Peters or his boss, President Clinton, in spite of the fact that the official story began falling apart almost immediately. In a stunning contradiction of the Peters letter and the AFIP press release which accompanied it, the supposed "consensus" among the AFIP "forensic community" was jarringly exposed when Dr. Cogswell?s account was backed up by another AFIP pathologist, Army Lieutenant Colonel David Hause, who personally observed the apparent bullet hole. According to Dr. Hause, the wound caused quite a sensation among the staff at the AFIP?s Dover, Delaware examination facility when the crash victims? bodies were flown back to the U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Several AFIP personnel were present while Dr. Gormley was conducting his external examination of Ron Brown?s body. Kathleen Janoski, a forensic photographer, reportedly got everyone?s attention when she exclaimed, "Wow! Look at the hole in Brown?s head. It looks like a bullet hole." According to Ruddy, Janoski was "shushed" after she repeated the statement several times. One of those present was Hause, who was examining another body two examining tables away. According to Christopher Ruddy?s December 9th story, Hause remembers saying, "Sure enough, it looks like a gunshot wound to me, too." He said the wound "looked like a punched-out .45-caliber entrance hole." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hause?s colleague, Dr. Cogswell, basing his description on discussions with colleagues and his review of records, photographs, and X-rays, had called the wound "as close to a perfectly circular hole as you can get." "Essentially Brown had a .45-inch inwardly beveling circular hole in the top of his head, which is essentially the description of a .45-caliber gunshot wound," Cogswell said. He referred to the hole as an "apparent gunshot wound," but also said, "Whether it's a bullet or something else, we don't know." That is exactly why an autopsy should have been done. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The official AFIP explanation of the wound is that it was probably caused by a rivet, rod, or bolt from the airplane wreckage. Ruddy reported that "neither Cogswell, who has been involved in more than 100 plane crash investigations, nor Hause, who has been with AFIP for five years, could remember finding a similar wound in a plane crash victim's head. Both contend that while parts of the plane could certainly pierce the skull during a crash, the resulting hole probably would be left jagged or irregular after the object entered and exited the skull." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cogswell recalled that while he was investigating the crash site in Croatia, he received a call from Gormley, who had examined Brown?s body and several others at Dover the day before. Gormley "told me there is a .45[-inch] inwardly beveling, perfectly circular hole in the top of Brown's head," Cogswell said. Gormley asked Cogswell, as AFIP man at the scene, to figure out what type of cylindrical object could punch through the skull creating such a wound. Cogswell said he indicated to Gormley that it sounded like a gunshot wound. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cogswell searched the crash site and measured all cylindrical objects he could find, but turned up none that might have made the hole. Cogswell says he doesn't know whether the hole was produced by a bullet or, providing it is a bullet hole, whether it contributed to the crash, or was made before or after the crash. Some of those things would have been resolved by an autopsy. Hause agreed that "by any professional standard" an autopsy should have been conducted on Brown's body. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The addition of Dr. Hause?s testimony should be considered newsworthy by any reasonable standard. As Christopher Ruddy reported: "Hause is considered one of AFIP's leading experts on gunshot wounds. He served as an Army combat infantryman in Vietnam, where he received a Purple Heart. He left the service for a brief stint as a police officer, but rejoined to become a medical pathologist. Hause said he has been involved in autopsy procedures since 1972. Before joining AFIP, Hause spent two years as division surgeon for the Army?s 1st Cavalry Division, including duty as a surgeon during the Gulf War. He also served as the Army?s regional medical examiner in Germany." In other words, Hause is obviously a qualified expert with nothing to gain and much to lose by coming forward after viewing the treatment his colleague, Dr. Cogswell, received. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Under Investigation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Soon after the first Ruddy story appeared, Cogswell received an administrative letter informing him that he was under internal investigation, that he could not leave the area of his office without permission, and that he was not to speak to the press. Then a military police officer showed up and escorted Cogswell to Cogswell's home to retrieve all slides and photos in his possession relating to AFIP cases. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "One of the things I?m wondering is why all the attention is focused on Cogswell, who never had the original X-rays," Hause said in a Tribune-Review interview. Cogswell's allegations should have precipitated a review of AFIP?s handling of the Brown case, both from within the office and from outside consultants, rather than an investigation targeting Cogswell, said Hause. "The question you have to ask yourself is: Are [officials] upset that AFIP may have blown a case, or are they upset the American public found out that AFIP may have blown a case?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If the combined testimony of Drs. Cogswell and Hause is not sufficient to stir suspicions among the media cognoscenti that something is amiss in the Brown investigation, certainly the addition of Dr. Cyril H. Wecht?s expert opinion should have done much to demolish the alleged "consensus" in the forensic community. As chief coroner of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh and former president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Dr. Wecht is an authority whose opinions should be of significant interest. "Due to the initial appearance of Brown's injuries," Dr. Gormley stated in the AFIP press release, "we carefully considered the possibility of a gunshot wound. However, scientific data, including X-rays, ruled out that possibility." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dr. Wecht finds this to be ludicrous. "It's not even arguable in the field of medical legal investigations whether an autopsy should have been conducted on Brown," Wecht told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review after viewing the evidence. "I?ll wager you anything that you can?t find a forensic pathologist in America who will say Brown should not have been autopsied," Wecht continued. According to this expert?s expert, it is standard procedure to conduct autopsies on all victims in a plane crash. "Forget about Brown being a Cabinet member, or being under investigation," Wecht added. "He was in a plane crash. That alone should have meant he was autopsied." Ruddy points out that Wecht?s opinion is "based on his nearly 40 years of experience in forensic pathology. Dr. Wecht has conducted some 13,000 autopsies himself and has reviewed approximately 30,000 additional autopsies. His experience includes both gunshot wounds and airplane crashes." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Whose Jurisdiction? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Besides claiming that Brown's head wound was not sufficiently anomalous to warrant an autopsy, Gormley also stated that the AFIP had jurisdiction to do autopsies only on military personnel and not any of the civilian victims, including Brown. Cogswell vigorously disagrees and has argued that the finding of a suspicious hole in Brown?s head put the case under the Presidential Assassination Statute, which gives the FBI, and the AFIP, jurisdiction to investigate the death of a Cabinet member. In his interview with Ruddy, Wecht, who is also a lawyer, agreed with Cogswell. "There was more than enough evidence of a possible homicide to call in the FBI," Wecht said. "The military had a duty to notify the [Brown] family, and if the family didn?t allow an autopsy, go to another authority to have it conducted." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gormley has acknowledged that at first glance the hole appeared disturbing. "A perfectly round .5-inch hole makes one think, "Tell me more about this gunshot wound, right?" he said. He also has acknowledged that no piece of the aircraft was found to account for the hole, but argues that a metal fastener or rivet probably struck Brown's head. According to Gormley, whatever struck Brown did not penetrate his skull, but simply had depressed the bony area of the skull, which he said was about a quarter of an inch thick. The hole "didn't go any place," he said. "It turned out it didn't have a track." Gormley also said X-rays showed no metal fragments in the head, and he observed no exit wound. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cogswell disputed Gormley's analysis, contending that brain matter was visible in the wound. Cogswell, notes Ruddy, "completed part of his training in forensic pathology under Miami's medical examiner, Dr. Joe Davis, a renowned expert in gunshot wounds. Dr. Davis, an expert on pathology and plane crashes who has worked with the Federal Aviation Administration since 1960, told the Tribune-Review that "there have been other cases when a bullet hole has been found in a supposed victim of a plane crash. In one instance several years ago, he said, a deranged flight attendant smuggled a gun aboard a civilian plane and killed the crew, causing the crash." Davis said that anytime a possible gunshot wound is found on a crash victim, "that in itself raises all sorts of alarms.... No way can you say it's a simple accident. It's considered very suspicious." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| And suspicion should have been heightened, Cogswell asserts, because of who the victim was in this case. "You can't ignore who this person is," he told the Tribune-Review. "You can't ignore the controversy surrounding him. To stack up the coincidences: one of 36 people has got a hole; the hole is in their head; the hole is dead center in the top of their head; and it just happens to be the most important person on that airplane from a political point of view. That?s a whole [lot] of reason to investigate it." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No Dearth of Motives | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| At the time of Brown's death, independent counsel Daniel Pearson was seeking to determine whether Brown had engaged in several fraudulent financial transactions with longtime business partner Nolanda Hill. Brown had been a constant focal point of corruption charges, and before his death was also under investigation for malfeasance involving John Huang and the funneling of massive illegal donations from the Lippo Group into the pockets of his family and friends, as well as the coffers of the Democratic Party. The Jakarta-based Lippo Group is jointly owned by the Indonesian Riady family (longtime "Friends of Bill") and the government of Red China. Brown was also connected to Charlie Trie, another shadowy figure in the illegal fundraising scandals. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In view of subsequent charges and evidence that the Beijing regime has been involved in a massive effort to influence and subvert U.S. policies and elections, it is obvious that there was no dearth of motives for someone to target Brown. Last year, Brown?s son, Michael, pleaded guilty to illegally laundering campaign contributions. The younger Brown was taking money from Eugene and Nora Lum, who have links to the Lippo conglomerate. In plea agreements with the Justice Department that many critics saw as blatant payoffs aimed at buying their silence, the Lums and Michael Brown escaped with relatively painless sentences. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All of this, of course, should have been red meat for any investigative journalist. But the "credible media" have taken a walk on this explosive story. Joseph Farah, executive director of the Western Journalism Center and editor of WorldNet Daily on the Internet, stated bluntly: "As stacked as the deck is, in this case, against the government line, the Clinton Administration has successfully controlled the press. The story may be discussed on some talk radio shows. It may be the top story on the Internet. And it may be the cause of buzz in the Black Congressional Caucus. But it has not appeared on the front page of the New York Times or Washington Post. It is not getting any play on the major television networks." The American people should demand to know why. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Look at the events of this "Accident" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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