Haven't a bunch of anti-Bush folks died mysteriously?
What about that dead guy that beat John Ashcroft?
The Freepers still buy into that whole Arkanside / Bodycount hogwash.
I think we could make a much better case for our own Bushwhacked Bodycount.
Anyway, here's a rebuttle of the Freeper Conspiracy:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/clinton.htmClaim: Bill Clinton has been quietly doing away with those who oppose him.
Origins: A new version of a lengthy list of deaths associated with Bill
Clinton began circulating on the the Internet in August 1998. According to it,
there have been close to fifty suspicious deaths of colleagues, advisors and
citizens who were about to testify against the Clintons, with the unstated
implication that Bill Clinton or his henchmen were behind each untimely demise.
We shouldn't have to tell anyone not to believe this claptrap, but we will
anyway. In a frenzied media climate where the Chief Executive couldn't boff a
White House intern without the whole world finding out every niggling detail of
each encounter and demanding his removal from office, are we seriously to
believe the same man had been having double handfuls of detractors and former
friends murdered with impunity?
Don't be swayed by the number of names listed on screeds like this. Any public
figure is bound to have a much wider circle of acquaintance than an ordinary
citizen would. Moreover, the acquaintance is often one-sided — though many of
the people enumerated on this list might properly claim to have known Clinton,
he wouldn't know or remember having met a great number of them.
"Body count" lists are not a new phenomenon. Lists documenting all the allegedly
"suspicious" deaths of persons connected with the assassination of John F.
Kennedy have been circulating for decades, and the same techniques used to
create and spread the JFK lists have been employed in the Clinton version:
List every dead person with even the most tenuous of connections to your
subject. It doesn't matter how these people died, or how tangential they were
to your subject's life. The longer the list, the more impressive it looks and
the less likely anyone is to challenge it. By the time readers get to the
bottom of the list, they'll be too weary to wonder what could possibly be
relevant about the death of Clinton's mother's chiropractor.
Play word games. Make sure every death is presented as "mysterious." All
accidental deaths are to be labelled "suspicious," even though by definition
accidents occur when something unexpected goes wrong. Every self-inflicted
death discussed must include the phrase "ruled a suicide," to imply just the
opposite. When an autopsy contradicts a "mysterious death" theory, dispute it;
when none was performed because none was needed, claim that "no autopsy was
allowed." Make liberal use of words such as 'allegedly' and 'supposedly' to
dismiss facts you can't contradict with hard evidence.
Make sure every inconsistency or unexplained detail you can dredge up is offered
as evidence of a conspiracy, no matter how insignificant or pointless it may
be. If an obvious suicide is discovered wearing only one shoe, ignore the
physical evidence of self-inflicted death and dwell on the missing shoe. You
don't have to establish an alternate theory of the death; just keep harping
that the missing shoe "can't be explained."
If the data doesn't fit your conclusion, ignore it. You don't have to explain
why the people who claim to have the most damaging goods on Clinton — Gennifer
Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Linda Tripp, Monica Lewinsky, Kenneth
Starr — are still walking around unscathed while dozens of bit players have
been bumped off. It's inconvenient for you, so don't mention it.
Most importantly, don't let facts and details stand in your way! If you can pass
off a death by pneumonia as a "suicide," do it! If a cause of death contradicts
your conspiracy theory, claim it was "never determined." If your chronology of
events is impossible, who cares? It's not like anybody is going to check up on
this stuff . . .
This Clinton "body count" list is not a new phenomenon — multiple versions have
been circulating for years. New victim names are routinely added and old ones
taken off, forming an endless variety of permutations. At this point, there is
no one "official" list.
But where did all this craziness start? In 1994, in a letter to congressional
leaders, former Rep. William Dannemeyer listed 24 people with some connection
to Clinton who had died "under other than natural circumstances" and called for
hearings on the matter.
Dannemeyer's list of "suspicious deaths" was largely taken from one compiled by
Linda Thompson, an Indianapolis lawyer who in 1993 quit her year-old general
practice to run her American Justice Federation, a for-profit group that
promotes pro-gun causes and various conspiracy theories through a shortwave
radio program, a computer bulletin board and sales of its newsletter and
videos.
Her list, called "The Clinton Body Count: Coincidence or the Kiss of Death?"
then contained the names of 34 people she believed died suspiciously and who
had ties to the Clinton family. Thompson admitted she had "no direct evidence"
of Clinton killing anyone. Indeed, she said the deaths were probably caused by
"people trying to control the President" but refused to say who they were.
Thompson said her allegations of murder "seem groundless only because the
mainstream media haven't done enough digging."
Ah, but they had. If not before she put her list together, at least afterwards.
Anyone who continues to state the mainstream media has given these claims short
shrift is being disingenuous.
Since 1994, various respected news outlets have been confronted with versions of
the "Clinton Body Count" list, run their own investigations of a few of the
claims, and found nothing to substantiate what they looked into. Those
investigations would culminate in yet another story about an oddball conspiracy
rumor.
But conspiracy theories don't die that easily. These "body count" lists and the
many specious claims contained therein continue to circulate in cyberspace and
beyond: yesterday's newspaper articles are forgotten with the next day's
delivery, but e-mail lives forever.
Let's take this new version apart line by line. The sections which appear in a
highlighted color are the "Clinton Body Count" e-mail, while the sections in
ordinary text color are my comments.
Much of the evidence will never be known because many people who were witnesses
or who possessed evidence of some kind suffered mysterious deaths prior to
being able to come forward.
In other words, "We can't prove that all these people had information damaging
to Bill Clinton, but since they're dead now we can simply assert that they did
without fear of contradiction."
The list compiled here is not complete and is not detailed. It is presented to
show how extensive the problem is and to illustrate that all these deaths could
not be just a coincidence.
Translation: "If I included all the details, it would expose what a canard this
list really is. And hinting that there's even more than I could list here makes
it sound all the more ominous."
The rest (including a point-by-point, case-by-case rebuttal):
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/clinton.htm(link fixed on edit)
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