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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (72565)	1/18/2006 7:55:55 AM
From: lorne	Respond to of 81568

Hollywood studio to produce feature based on tainted blood scandal Dennis Bueckert, Canadian Press Published: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 canada.com OTTAWA (CP) - A new Hollywood film will dramatize the story of how contaminated blood from Arkansas prisoners found its way into the veins of thousands of Canadian hemophiliacs, killing many. Blood Trail will make revelations that point to criminal negligence and raise suspicions of murder, says Elizabeth Fowler of Clear Pictures Entertainment, one of two partners in the project. "The complete story in the proper context has never been told in a dramatic way," Fowler said in an interview Tuesday. "There's bits here and bits there and that's how they managed to get away with it. You put it all together and you go, 'Whoa!' " The other partner in the project is Quantum Entertainment, the same company that has produced a controversial new film on Karla Homolka. An RCMP investigation has been underway for close to five years, but no charges have been laid in connection with the prison blood. Charges have been filed against leading figures in the Canadian Red Cross and the federal Bureau of Biologics but they don't involve the Arkansas connection. Fowler said Blood Trail, which is expected to be released in about a year, will feature some prominent characters: Bill Clinton and Paul Martin. Clinton, who went on to become U.S. president, was Arkansas governor in the 1980s when inmates in a state prison were allowed to run their own blood program without screening for infections. U.S. regulations banned the sale of blood from high-risk populations in the United States, but did not ban its export to other countries. A now-defunct Montreal company, Continental Pharma, bought the blood from Arkansas, then sold it to Connaught Laboratories of Toronto. Connaught was controlled at the time by a Crown corporation, Canada Development Corp. (CDC), of which Martin was a director. Martin, the current prime minister, has said he can't recall participating in discussions of blood at the corporation. CDC minutes from the time went missing but some reappeared in the files of a Calgary chemical company. Former ethics counsellor Howard Wilson exonerated Martin after investigating the matter, but information commissioner John Reid was critical after his own probe. "I'm drawn toward these stories that people want to go away," said Fowler. She purchased rights to the life stories of Michael Galster, an Arkansas doctor who raised alarms about the prison blood program, and Michael McCarthy, a Canadian hemophiliac who became infected through tainted blood. The story is marked by many strange coincidences. On the same night in May 1999, Galster's clinic in Arkansas was firebombed and the offices of the Canadian Hemophilia Society were burgled. An Arkansas prison warden was found murdered just as he was about to talk about the story, said Fowler. "For the first time were going to present and dramatize in a highly dramatic way all that happened in a way that's understandable to the public.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (72565)	1/18/2006 8:00:18 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 81568

Special prosecutor: Clinton killed case against Cisneros White House cover-up of tax fraud by pal found in report of 11-year investigation January 18, 2006 WASHINGTON – The Clinton White House engaged in a successful cover-up of a tax fraud case against Henry Cisneros, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, concludes a special prosecutor's report expected to be released tomorrow. Special prosecutor David Barrett's spent 11 years and $23 million on the Cisneros probe and reportedly blames the Clinton administration for stonewalling and impeding justice in the case. Cisneros was forced to admit in 1999 that he had made secret payments to a mistress. Barrett went on to investigate tax-fraud charges stemming from those payments. Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Peggy Richardson, a close friend of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has been linked to the efforts to squelch the probe. But, according to one report, Richardson's role was cut from Barrett's report, which went through 26 drafts, at the behest of Democratic law firm Williams & Connolly. The law firm represents Cisneros, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. The investigation began in 1995 with Barrett examining events surrounding Cisneros's nomination. During his FBI background check, Cisneros lied about adulterous relations, his payments to a mistress, the extent of his income and his IRS tax filings. Cisneros, a former San Antonio mayor, eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of lying to the FBI. He paid a $10,000 fine and was pardoned by Clinton on his final day in office. Barrett's 428-page report charges Cisnero's mistress delayed the first half of his investigation and top Clinton administration officials impeded the second half, according to a report in the New York Sun. Barrett reportedly focuses his attention on Lee Radek, the former chief of the public-integrity section of the Justice Department, and Barry Finkelstein, former assistant chief counsel for criminal tax matters. In 1994, Cisneros' mistress, Linda Medlar, revealed in a TV interview that she had received tens of thousands of dollars annually from him over a period of years. A regional IRS office in Texas began investigating possible tax violations by the Cabinet official, as did the office of the independent counsel. Janet Reno, then attorney general, was asked by the independent counsel's office for expanded jurisdiction and access to the findings of the ongoing IRS investigation. That's where the cover-up began, according to the Barrett report. It says Finkelstein had the IRS investigation relocated to Washington, where it was ordered closed. Radek, meanwhile, worked on Reno to make sure she did not permit the expansion of the independent counsel's investigation. The report suggests the White House was aware of Cisneros's possible tax violations and misstatements to FBI investigators about payments to Medlar before the appointment of an independent counsel. The report says Clinton ignored the concerns of his transition team about Cisneros's relationship with Medlar because he regarded them as minor and was determined to have him in his Cabinet because he is Latino. worldnetdaily.com