American Politics Journal

Letter from Saint Paul

July 22, 2001

By now it's been widely reported that Jim Hatfield, author of "Fortunate Son" committed suicide by taking two different kinds of prescription drugs.

While I didn't know Jim I do understand that he must have been under incredible pressure, but I also know that he recently allowed his sources for his facts on Bush to be exposed, and oversaw the reissuance of his book which had been suppressed by Bush Incorporated in 1999.

I feel helpless to insist that his death be adequately investigated, to ensure that his death was indeed suicide and not cleverly disguised retaliation. This feeling awakens in me a gnawing fear that elimination may be the final answer that Bush Incorporated is ready to employ in keeping its stranglehold on the public sources of news and information.

An anxious glance around shows The Guardian newspaper in England, employer of Greg Palast, currently being sued by a big Canadian Gold company financed by Bush Incorporated in order to silence Palast's AMERICAN website, circumventing Palast's AMERICAN First Amendment Rights. Bush protesters are unconstitutionally kept to "First Amendment" Zones while anti-abortion protesters are given free rein in Wichita. Bush protesters are unconstitutionally beaten and arrested in Florida. All this is being dutifully ignored by the American media.

The media refuses to report or investigate Cheney's secret task force, Rove's conflict of interest violations, Fleischer's lies and deceit. Instead our attention is diverted to meaningless conjecture about a Democratic Rep. from California and his bondage peccadilloes to smear his reputation. To address our concerns about corruption in this administration we are treated to speculation regarding Democrats and the closeness of their relationship to Unions.

I am overwhelmed by witnessing the stifled muffling of the voices of reason in the contorted face of right-wing rage.

Jim's death is wrong, whether by his own hand or by the hand of a witting or unwitting henchman of the Bush mob. But in this environment of attack and retaliation against the truth, in this fearful age of deceit and lies, and under this oppressive rightist regime of economic and environmental terror unleashed upon us by the criminal politicos on the Supreme Court, Jim's death marks for all seekers of truth a milestone in the inexorable process of suppression that the right-wing zealots seek to visit upon us all.

Jim's removal heralds the darkening of one solitary bright spotlight shining onto the skeletons in the Bush dynasty's dirty closet of secrets.

Whether you read his book, or knew his name, you should fear the dark hand which hurried his passing, for this dark hand represents the silencing effect of oppression, and moves us closer to the Orwellian era of propaganda necessary to support the corporate puppet dictatorship of the Bush mob.

Of course, we should be aware that there is danger in signing onto another "Vince Foster conspiracy theory." Suicide happens to many people, some famous, some not so famous, and for many different reasons. Some people will urge that we stay away from urging investigation lest we get branded as "conspiracy hunters." They will urge that we let the investigation run its course and trust the results.

Valid concerns, to a point.

Neither the party nor the issues have anything to gain by a long, drawn-out, conspiracy-seeking false investigation bent on finding culpability where there is none.

But there are also differences between Foster and Hatfield.

To the extent that Foster was under pressure it was pressure generated from "within" his relationship with the Clintons. Indeed, the conspiracists alleged that Foster had been "put down" because he was able to pin culpability on the Clintons for their role in the "X"-gate scandal du jour by virtue of his attorney-client relationship, and so was killed BY the Clintons or their cronies. It was this twisted logic framing the Clintons killing their friend and confidant who proved the weakest link for the Clinton-as antichrist-rightwing-nutballs who provided us with the humor, which was the Foster murder conspiracy in the first place.

Hatfield wrote and published a book which made the Bushes really, really mad, on the other hand. Hatfield was an odd exposé kind of source in a way. His tragic past almost made him a natural "safe release" tool for the Bush cocaine story, because Karl Rove, who leaked the information to Hatfield in the first place, knew at the time he leaked the information that Hatfield could be discredited through reference to an old attempted murder connection.

This is precisely what the Bush camp did to St. Martins Press in 1999 during the release of the first edition. They exposed Hatfield's criminal past, and forced St. Martins to recall all the copies of "Fortunate Son" by smearing the author.

This suppression of the book was before Hatfield had named his sources for his information on G.W.'s cocaine conviction and cover-up from the early 1970s.

For the second edition of his book, Hatfield allowed his sources to be named by the new publisher, Soft Skull Press. The freshly exposed knowledge that Karl Rove, chief henchman for Bush Incorporated, provided the information related to G.W.'s conviction and cover-up really made the Bush camp furious.

Hatfield, his wife, his family, and Soft Skull Press received numerous death threats after the announcement of the pending release of the Second Edition of "Fortunate Son."

It was clear that the discrediting of Hatfield that had blackmailed St. Martins to pull the book off the shelf in 1999 would not work with Soft Skull in 2001. Hatfield had learned how to circumvent that by bringing it all out in the open and showing how it was irrelevant to the point of the book. In addition, the book had achieved a new credibility by naming the sources for the information in the book - major players in the Bush Incorporated hierarchy, not bit players with a grudge. Thus Bush Incorporated was now presented with a book, which could not be discredited backed up by unimpeachable sources. Karl Rove has never denied that he is the source of the Bush cocaine conviction and cover-up information.

Concurrently, we need to understand that we must not avoid discussing a possibility merely because it left a bad taste in our mouths when misused by the competition.

The right-wing smear factory clumsily cobbled together a completely unconvincing conspiracy theory on Foster. The entire idea of whether or not Foster committed suicide is independent and irrelevant to whether or not there was any sort of mafia-hit put on Hatfield.

We lose just as much when we say "Don't go there," when to inquire is natural and obvious, just because the raging right has gone there first, as we do by self-defeatingly "assuming" that the job is going to be done right or by complacently rationalizing that "someone else will take care of it."

We should be forceful and proactive about demanding a complete investigation into this man's death. We should maintain an objective stance as to whether the cause of death is murder or suicide. We needn't favor a finding of one over the other, but realistically need to be prepared to think it equally likely that it is one or the other.

Right now we (and by we I mean the left in general) are pussy-footing around in deciding whether to demand:
- that Cheney come clean about his "energy" task force participants.
- that Rove come clean about his Intel conflict of interest.
- that Jeb Bush explain 95 calls to Bush headquarters after "recusal."
- that Buyer come clean about harvesting post-election absentee votes.
- that Katherine Harris give up her hard drive of incriminating information.
- that Fleischer own up to his role in the politics of Clinton destruction.
- that O'Neill give up his damn Alcoa stock. and countless other examples of corruption in this morally bankrupt administration.

The least we can do to honor the memory of someone who pulled back the curtain for a moment on the dark rotten core of Bush Incorporated is to be proactive in ensuring that the investigation into his death is not "bungled" such that a possible assassin escapes.

After all, for a CIA-trained attack squad well-versed in pulling off assassinations of petty drug dealers and officials in third-world countries, how hard is it to whack somebody staying in a rinky-dink hotel in Bumfuck, Arkansas and make it look like suicide?

I'm just asking.

Dan Brown