[WorldNetDaily] Clinton HIV&Hepatitis Blood Scandal

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Clinton blood scandal exposed in new film

Documentary tying Arkansas guv to spread of AIDS to screen in

Hollywood next week

 

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Posted: October 30, 2005

10:10 p.m. Eastern

By Joseph Farah

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

 

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47128

 

 

WASHINGTON – A documentary seven years in the making tying Bill

Clinton to an Arkansas prison blood scandal that spread AIDS to

thousands around the world is set to screen in Hollywood next week –

renewing controversy about the long-forgotten story.

 

The film, which premieres at the prestigious American Film Institute

film festival next Tuesday, reportedly uncovers fresh evidence about

how thousands in Europe contracted AIDS and hepatitis through tainted

blood deliberately shipped even after widespread problems were

discovered in Canada where some 10,000 had already been infected.

 

Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal, " made by Kelly Duda, an

Arkansas native, will reveal new details about how inmates at an

Arkansas jail were paid to donate blood despite authorities knowing

they had AIDS and hepatitis.

 

The documentary shows how senior figures in the state prison system

altered prisoners' medical records to make it look like they were not

carrying the deadly diseases.

 

 

Kelly Duda

 

" While making this documentary, I lost several things. I lost my

president, my home state, my family, many friends, and my innocence, "

says Duda.

 

The film reveals how for more than two decades, the Arkansas prison

system profited from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with

viral hepatitis and AIDS. Thousands of unwitting victims who received

transfusions of a product called " Factor 8 " made from this blood died

as a result.

 

Duda interviews victims in Canada who contracted the diseases, state

prison officials, former employees, high-ranking Arkansas

politicians, and inmate donors.

 

" In the early days of AIDS, we at the CDC (Centers for Disease

Control) were surprised that the hemophiliac community was infected

so rapidly, " said Dr. Donald Francis, former head of the AID

Laboratory for the CDC. " This shocking documentary tells why. "

 

Duda, who has worked with CNN, the Canadian Broadcasting Company and

Associated Press Television in their coverage of the blood-scandal

story, says he was followed, sued, burglarized and had his tires

slashed while working on the documentary. He was also part of the

team for Fuji-TV that produced " The Hepatitis C Epidemic: A 15-Year

Government Cover-up. " The program won a George Foster Peabody Award

in 2003 and was watched by more than 12 million viewers in Japan.

 

He also worked as a consultant in two major class-action lawsuits in

Europe and Japan where plasma from Arkansas' prison system showed up.

He also assisted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in its

investigation of the Arkansas prison plasma sales. He has also been

in talks with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI about a

possible investigation in the United States.

 

" Kelly Duda's film screams to be known about, " says William Gazecki,

producer-director of " WACO: The Rules of Engagement. " " The blatant

abuse of power, the criminal subjugation of prison inmates, and the

complete absence of government oversight and accountability make for

a compelling, must-see story. "

 

" Prior to the making of 'Factor 8,' I never considered myself an

investigative journalist, " says Duda. " In fact, I had never written a

newspaper article before in my life. I was an aspiring filmmaker who

had a story thrown into his lap. Actually, it wasn't even a story at

the time but a series of events that allegedly took place in my home

state in the 1980s. It was a tale I didn't want to tell, but the more

I looked into it, the more I found. It didn't take long before I

realized that regardless of the cost and sacrifice, the story you're

about to see which is a complicated one had to be told. There where

quite literally lives at stake. I felt a moral responsibility, a

civic duty to do something. "

 

Last May, the Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty to distributing blood

tainted with HIV and hepatitis C in a health disaster that killed

more than 3,000 people.

 

The organization, which distributed the blood in the 1980s, paid a

fine of $4,000 for causing more than 1,000 Canadians to contract

blood-borne HIV and as many as 20,000 to become infected with

hepatitis C.

 

As part of the plea deal, Canadian Red Cross Secretary General Dr.

Pierre Duplessis issued a public apology via videotape that was

played in the courtroom to survivors of the victims.

 

As WorldNetDaily reported, Bill Clinton was at the center of a

scandal in Arkansas in the 1980s involving the sale of AIDS-tainted

blood to Canada, which was distributed through the Red Cross.

 

As governor of Arkansas, Clinton awarded a contract to Health

Management Associates to provide medical care to the state's

prisoners. The president of the company was a long-time friend and

political ally of Clinton and later was appointed by him to the

Arkansas Industrial Development Commission. Later, he was among the

senior members of Clinton's 1990 gubernatorial re-election team.

 

The death toll from the tainted blood has grown since the figure of

3,000 was calculated in 1997, but recent estimates are not available,

the Associated Press reported.

 

Duplessis said the organization accepted responsibility for " having

distributed harmful products for those that rely on us for their

health. "

 

Prosecutors dropped criminal charges, including criminal negligence

and common nuisance.

 

 

 

The Canadian Red Cross already has paid victims $55 million in a

separate fund. Along with the fine, the charity will set aside $1.2

million for scholarships for family members of victims.

 

The Arkansas connection to Canada's blood scandal began with a deal

Health Management Associates struck with the state allowing

collection and sale of prisoners' blood in addition to treatment.

 

Because of the exploding AIDS crisis, U.S. regulations did not permit

the sale of prisoners' blood within the country.

 

But HMA found a willing buyer in Montreal, which brokered a deal with

Connaught, a Toronto blood-fractionator, which didn't know the source

of the supplies.

 

Sales continued until 1983, when HMA revealed that some of the plasma

might be contaminated with the AIDS virus and hepatitis. The blood

was also marketed overseas.

 

Michael Galster, who conducted orthopedic clinics in the Arkansas

prison system during the period the blood was collected, charged HMA

officials knew the blood was tainted as they sold it to Canada and a

half-dozen other foreign countries. He also alleged Clinton knew of

the scheme and likely benefited from it financially.

 

" It may sound sensational, but I assure you it's true. In the process

of making 'Factor 8,' I received strange phone calls, I was followed,

my house was broken into, my tires slashed, and sensitive

information – including my personal notes – mysteriously appeared on

the Internet, " recounts Duda. " I also had a gun pointed at the back

of my head, there was a murder, and a key inmate informant was

whisked out of state and put into isolation. "

 

He says when he went looking for Clinton's governor's papers to find

state documents relevant to his investigation, he was told that 4,000

boxes had been hidden away in private storage and could not be found.

 

" When I went to the Arkansas State Health Department to request

records regarding disease rates at the prison and anything about the

plasma program, I was stonewalled, " he said. " I actually had to sue

the state agency just to get access to its files that by law are

supposed to be a matter of public record. When I went to the Arkansas

State Police Headquarters key documents had disappeared. When

complete strangers showed up out of the blue asking me what I was

doing and with whom did I work for, I had to ask myself, 'What's

going on here?

 

One thing is for certain, if I had a dollar for every time someone

(in the past seven years I've been investigating this story) told me

to " be careful! " I could have paid my rent several times over. "

 

Duda says in 2004 he was sued shortly before " FACTOR 8 " was to screen

in Park City, Utah. A federal judge blocked the premiere. The case

eventually was settled out of court but set his project back nearly

two years.

 

Suzi Parker, writing in Salon.com, described how the scandal

unfolded: " At the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas penal system during

the 1980s, while President Clinton was still governor, inmates would

regularly cross the prison hospital's threshold to give blood, lured

by the prospect of receiving $7 a pint. The ritual was creepy to

behold: Platoons of prisoners lying supine on rows of cots, waiting

for the needle-wielding prisoner orderly to puncture a vein and watch

the clear bags fill with blood. Administrators than sold the blood to

brokers, who in turned shipped it to other sates and to Japan, Italy,

Spain and Canada. Despite repeated warnings from the Food and Drug

Administration, Arkansas kept its prison plasma program running until

1994 when it became the very last state to cease selling its

prisoners' plasma. "

 

While working at the White House, Linda Tripp – the former assistant

to both Vincent Foster and Bernard Nussbaum – said received a phone

call from someone who mentioned the " tainted blood issue. " The phone

call came just after Foster's mysterious death. The phrase meant

nothing to Tripp and when she tried to find out more from a White

House computer, the database denied her access. Testifying in a

Judicial Watch deposition, Tripp said, " It had been alarming to me

that when I tried to enter data from a caller that I was working with

on a tainted blood issue, that every time I entered a word that had

to do with this particular issue, it would flash up either the

word 'encrypted' or 'password required' or something to indicate the

file was locked. "

 

The Ottawa Citizen reported attorney Foster had defended a lawsuit

against HMA, the Arkansas firm shipping tainted blood from prison

inmates.

 

 

 

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Previous stories:

 

Canada's Red Cross guilty in HIV scandal

 

'Blood Trail' author's clinic burns

 

Previous columns:

 

The pricetag for Blood-gate

 

Blood trail grows cold

 

Blood scandal and Clinton's plumbers

 

We always get our man

 

Clinton's Arkansas blood scandal

 

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Joseph Farah is editor and chief executive officer of

WorldNetDaily.com.