IS FOSTER KEY TO "THE OCTOPUS?" Editorial When you start digging into the circumstances surrounding the death of White House aide Vince Foster, a number of names keep popping up that have popped up in relation to a number of large scandals of the last two decades. Starting with the "October Surprise," the alleged plot to delay the release of hostages from Iran to after the presidential election in 1980 in an attempt to embarrass President Carter, it is indeed striking that the hostages were released just a few hours after President Reagan was sworn in. A number of witnesses have testified to the involvement of Vice President Bush and Earl Brian in this secret plot. These witnesses, all CIA or Mossad assets, have received the "Terry Reed treatment": indictment on false charges and thorough discrediting. But it was another source, White House staffer Barbara Honegger, who wrote the first "October Surprise" book in 1989. It was early in the Reagan administration that Earl Brian, Richard Secord and others used their influence and connections to make money on selling the pirated PROMIS software from Inslaw Inc. Former OSS agent Jackson Stephens is alleged to have made money on PROMIS as well through his Arkansas Systematics Inc. It was there that Vince Foster, as a partner of Hillary Clinton in the Rose Law Firm and representing Systematics, became involved with the Inslaw affair. A much bigger scandal of government corruption was the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980. The federally backed savings-and-loans were not only looted by crooks and criminals but also by well-connected politicians who needed an easy buck. Neil Bush and Bill and Hillary Clinton are just a few examples. Apparently not content with the hundreds of billions in S & L loot from the taxpayer, corrupt government officials turned to drugs. The CIA-sponsored Contra re-supply network was used to ship illegal drugs of incredible volume into the United States. CIA assets Terry Reed and L.D. Brown implicate Bill Clinton, George Bush and Oliver North with this operation. A confidential CIA document obtained by the Washington Weekly supports the involvement of George Bush by linking him to arms-dealer Adnan Khashoggi, Richard Secord, and CIA asset John Hull, whose ranch in Costa Rica was used for transshipment of drugs and arms through Mena, Arkansas and other U.S. destinations. Another of these scandals during the 1980s was the illegal penetration of the bank that the CIA preferred - the BCCI Bank of Crooks and Criminals. Politicians across the spectrum are implicated in taking bribes to allow this bank to take over American banks with the help of Jackson Stephens and Vince Foster. No serious investigations have been launched by the Bush and Clinton Justice Departments. Leaving aside for a moment the dispute over whether any of these scandals have been proven, there is one remarkable facet about the facts as they have been presented: some names appear in several of these alleged scandals. Topping the list is George Bush, the only CIA director to become President of the United States. It is difficult to reconcile these serious allegations with the rather decent public image of George and Barbara Bush. But to dismiss these allegations out of hand is to accept a conspiracy that includes a large number of unrelated witnesses naming the same culprits in different scandals. But it should also be said that participants in these scandals may have thought they acted to defeat Communism, where the end would justify every means. After all, that was the prime objective of the CIA during the Cold War. Are these the arms of the octopus that reporter Danny Casolaro referred to just before he was found dead in his hotel room in 1991? He told friends he was tracing a network of government corruption involving Inslaw, BCCI, and the October Surprise. Washington D.C. attorney Paul Wilcher was tracing the same Octopus when he was found dead three days after Vince Foster died. Think back to the 1992 elections for a moment. Did George Bush bring up any of the scandals that could have defeated Clinton? Did he mention Whitewater, Cattlegate, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Mena? Why not? Did he know that it could backfire seriously because of what Bill Clinton knew about him? Did Bill Clinton take advantage of that in his unlikely bid for the presidency? What, then, is this Octopus? It appears to be an association between rogue elements of the CIA and certain elected officials. An analysis of these structures will show that corruption is inevitable. The CIA has a budget of $28 billion, it assassinates people without being held accountable in a court of law, it operates in secret, it has almost unlimited power and is not subject to any meaningful oversight. Only saints could avoid corruption and abuse of power in such an environment. Then what can we do about it? Limit the budget of the CIA, limit its role, subject it to greater outside scrutiny, expose past scandals and hold individuals responsible for their crimes. Three presidents tried to do just that: John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter. None of them stayed in office for long, and none of them achieved their goal. Copyright (c) 1995 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com)