Clinton and the Killer Blood

A documentary by US film-maker Kelly Duda, has fresh evidence of Arkansas prison officials selling infected blood products collected from inmates with AIDS during the administration of former governor Bill Clinton.

The film, titled “Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal,” will be shown at the American Film Institute Festival in Los Angeles on November 8. Duda spent almost ten years researching the story of the tragic blood policy in Arkansas’ prison system that led to thousands of hemophiliacs world-wide being infected with both AIDS and hepatitis.

The contaminated blood was used to manufacture clotting agents for hemophiliacs and exported to Canada, the UK and Europe during the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Duda’s film gives new details about the scandal, including falsification of medical records by prison authorities to hide the fact that the blood came from infected prisoners, who were paid to donate their blood.

Claims have also been made in the documentary that Clinton may have known about the infected blood. “It would be ludicrous that Bill Clinton did not know that the plasma program was experiencing problems,” said Randal Morgan, deputy director of the Department of Corrections.

The “tainted blood” scandal first erupted in Canada when it was discovered that more than 1,000 Canadians was infected with blood-borne HIV and up to 20,000 others had contracted hepatitis C. Officials considered it one of the worst public health disasters in Canadian history.

The Canadian Hemophilia Society is asking the RCMP to consider the documentary as new evidence in the ongoing police investigation into the tainted-blood scandal.

According to the Scottish Sunday Herald, hemophiliacs in the UK have demanded an investigation by the government, and numerous lawsuits have been filed against pharmaceutical companies handling the blood products.

It is stunning that Hollywood would support 2 such obvious thugs and opportunists.... I thought AIDS was one of Hollywood's defining issues....

CLINTON & THE KILLER BLOOD

THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW

UNDERNEWS

By Sam Smith

February 18, 1999

In the mid-1980s, as contaminated blood flowed from

Arkansas inmates to other countries, then-Governor

W.J. Clinton sat on his hands despite evidence of

severe mismanagement in his prison system and its

medical operations. The prison medical program was

being run by Health Management Associates, which was

headed by Leonard Dunn, a man who would brag to state

police of his close ties to Clinton.

Some of the killer blood ended up in Canada where it

contributed to the deaths of an unknown number of

blood and plasma recipients. An estimated 2,000

Canadian recipients of blood and related products got

the AIDS virus between 1980 and 1985. At least 60,000

Canadians were infected with the hepatitis C virus

between 1980 and 1990. Arkansas was one of the few

sources of bad blood during this period.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has a staff of 24

working on the case. So far, investigators have

interviewed about 600 people including in the U.S.,

Germany and the Netherlands. According to the Ottawa

Citizen, the team has amassed more than 30,000

documents.

Other Arkansas plasma was sent to Switzerland, Spain,

Japan, and Italy. In a case with strong echoes of the

Arkansas scandal, a former premier of France and two

of his cabinet colleagues are currently on trial

stemming from the wrongful handling of blood

supplies. Some of the blood in the French controversy

may have come from Arkansas.

A 1992 Newsday report on the French scandal noted

that three persons had been convicted for their role

in distributing blood they knew was contaminated:

"Throughout the 1980s and later, blood was taken from

prison donors for use in blood banks despite a series

of directives warning against such a practice.

According to the report, donations from prisoners

accounted for 25 percent of all the contaminated

blood products in France. Blood from prisons was 69

times more contaminated that that of the general

population of donors."

The Arkansas blood program was also grossly

mishandled by the Food and Drug Administration. And

the scandal provides yet another insight into how the

American media misled the public about Clinton during

the 1992 campaign. The media ignored a major Clinton

scandal despite, for example, 80 articles about it in

the Arkansas Democrat in just one four-month period

of the mid-80s.

Here's how Canada's Krever Commissioner report

describes the beginnings of the problem:

"During 1981-2, the number of AIDS cases in the

United States reported to the Centers for Disease

Control in Atlanta grew at an alarming rate. The vast

majority of the reported cases were of homosexual men

and intravenous drug abusers. During 1982, cases of

AIDS transmitted through the use of blood and blood

products began to be reported.

The U.S. blood and plasma centers regularly collected

from two groups of persons who were at high risk of

contracting AIDS: homosexual men and prison inmates.

Plasma was collected at centers, licensed by the Food

and Drug Administration, in prisons in Arkansas,

Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. By way of

contrast, because of the high prevalence of hepatitis

B in prisons, the Canadian Red Cross Society had

stopped collecting donations from prison inmates in

1971."

Suzi Parker, writing in the Arkansas Times, described

the scene: "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.

Mike Galster, a medical practitioner whose

fictionalized account dramatically raised interest in

the blood scandal, recalls that at the Pine Bluff

unit's hospital they also took blood from prisoners.

When he raised questions about the wisdom of bleeding

sick people, he was told that even the ill had the

right to sell their blood.

Here is a time-line of this as yet too known Arkansas

horror story:

1981

The Arkansas Board of Corrections puts A.L. "Art"

Lockhart in charge of the state's troubled prisons.

An Arkansas Gazette front page feature on Lockhart

begins by noting that he is "dogged by a public

reputation as a man who runs roughshod over the

constitutionally guaranteed rights and welfare of

inmates. 'I don't why,' he said in an interview with

the Gazette. 'I don't deserve it.'"

The state's prisons are already a mess. Ten years

earlier Lockhart had taken over the notorious Cummins

facility which, according to a member of the

corrections board, was "still controlled by inmate

trusties with guns. The inmates called the shots. A

lot of experts said there was no way to take the guns

away from them without a riot. But Art did it without

spilling any blood."

But the Gazette also notes: "The prison system, and

Cummins, in particular, still is in the transition

from an institution controlled by the inmates to one

controlled by guards. On many nights at Cummins,

there are as few as half a dozen guards to watch

about 1,650 inmates."

Two years earlier, a prison monitor hired under a

federal court order, released a report saying there

was "clear and convincing evidence" that Lockhart and

other employees beat and kicked inmates needlessly

after an attempted escape from Cummins. Another

prison mediator charged that the abuse of inmates had

increased under Lockhart and that he had obstructed

efforts at prison reform.

Health Management Associates wins a contract to

provide health services to state inmates, including

running a blood plasma donor program.

The Centers for Disease Control and World Health

Organization establish that AIDS is a blood-borne

disease. CDC recommends testing and sterilization of

donor blood. The warning is widely ignored and, as a

result, according to WHO, some one million people

become infected. Twenty-two countries will eventually

have to pay compensation as a result.

FDA asks US companies not to buy prison plasma since,

due to unsafe sexual and drug practices by many

inmates, the blood has a high risk of carrying the

AIDS virus.

JUNE 1983

HMA tells FDA that 38 units of plasma from four

inmates of the Grady prison should not have been

collected because the prisoners had once tested

positive for hepatitis B despite a test at the time

of collection being negative. HMA sees the hazard as

slight and thinks there is no need to recall the

plasma. The Canadian Krever Commission will later

report that "by 1983, however, an association had

been identified between hepatitis B and AIDS; most

persons with AIDS had also been infected with

hepatitis B. There was a greater than average risk

that the 38 units of plasma from the four inmates

could transmit AIDS. Four of the units ended up in

Canada, the others were sold to corporations in

Switzerland, Spain, Japan, and Italy."

AUGUST 1983

HMA decides to withdraw the 38 units from circulation

and FDA concurs. This is the first time that

Connaught, the Canadian blood firm, has heard of any

problems. The shipping papers had only shown that the

blood came from "ADC Plasma Center, Grady, Arkansas."

By this time, however, the blood is already in

circulation and only 417 of 2409 vials are retrieved.

The same month HMA tells the FDA of a fifth inmate

with similar problems. He had given 34 units in less

than a year.

SEPTEMBER 1983

Connaught reviews its approvals for receipt of plasma

from US centers and finds that twelve have never been

properly approved. One is the prison center in Grady,

Arkansas. Other questionable blood has come from four

prisons in Louisiana. Canadian Red Cross nullifies

its contract for the blood the same day it finds this

out.

FEBRUARY 1984

FDA suspends plasma production at the Grady facility

where an average of 550-600 inmates have been giving

blood since 1967. UPI regional wire reports that FDA

finds overbleeding of inmate donors, disqualified

donors, lack of documentation of testing, and

inadequate storage. It also notes inaccurate and

incomplete storage, instances of intentional and

willful disregard for proposed standards, alteration

of records and files to conceal violations, as well

as inadequate training and ineffective supervision of

the plasma center staff. Within months, however, HMA

successfully applies for a new license after blaming

the problems on a corrupt clerk.

1985

A UPI story recounts how the largest inmate donor

program in the country -- in the Louisiana state

prison -- is coming under increased federal scrutiny

because of what is dubbed the "AIDS scare." Says the

state's secretary of corrections: "We have no

intention of shutting it down. It would have the same

impact as a major industry shutting down in a small

town: economic chaos." The president of a plasma

company is quoted as saying, "There is no scientific

evidence that prisoner plasma is worse than street

plasma." The programs had, in fact, been shut down

for six months but were reinstated after the prison

discovered foreign markets to replace a dwindling US

demand. Says the plasma company president, "I'd say

70 to 80 percent is going overseas. There's a good

market for it over there, and they don't ask where it

came from."

FDA finally requires testing of donor blood. Tainted

blood distribution will continue inside the US until

1986. Thereafter, contaminated blood stocks will

still be shipped from US companies to other

countries.

Prosecuting attorney Wayne Matthews, after a two

month state police probe, finds no evidence of drug

trafficking in the Arkansas prison system. The

allegation is that HMA employees are diverting drugs

from the department's pharmacy and selling them to

inmates, and that prisoners who 'knew too much' about

drug trafficking were killed or allowed to die.

"There's just absolutely no evidence whatsoever,"

says Matthews.

JANUARY 1986

The Corrections board agrees to have HMA's contract

reviewed by outside parties. A media account notes

that "HMA has been frequently in the news lately

because of allegations by inmates of improper medical

treatment." Among the charges: HMA hired a

Mississippi doctor who was refused a permanent

license in Arkansas. The doctor had lost his

Mississippi license for "habitual personal use of

narcotic drugs."

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports: "Governor Bill

Clinton recently asked the Department to review

health care services provided by HMA after

allegations were raised that several inmates died

because of a lack of medical care and that the leg of

at least one inmate was amputated as a result of

improper care. Department Director A. L. (Art)

Lockhart, who earlier said HMA was doing a

'satisfactory' job, said Thursday a review of HMA

could reveal some problems. ~~~ During the discussion

of HMA and the allegations that have been made

against it, [Corrections] Board member Don Smith of

Pine Bluff excused himself because his law firm

represents HMA."

MARCH 1986

Clinton tells a radio audience that there is no

solution to problems with running a prison, only the

process of dealing with the problems as they arise.

He also says that "there is no evidence of systematic

abuse for which the administration is responsible

that I can see. If I did, I'd try to do something

about it."

State Representative Bobby Glover charges that

inmates are forced to participate in homosexual

activities, that there have been gang rapes, that

marijuana is openly smoked and that "home brew" is

being sold for $7 to $10 a gallon. He disputes a

recent prison department report that claimed only 6

per cent of the inmate population was participating

in illicit drug use. Glover says he also is looking

into reports of gambling, the theft and personal use

of department property by employees, bid rigging,

three questionable deaths, the lack of medical

services, the physical abuse of inmates by guards and

other prison officials, and bribes to obtain work

release assignments or favorable classification.

Sandra Kurjiaka, director of the American Civil

Liberties Union in Arkansas, says that there is a

"real slavery problem" in the state correction

department and that changes need to be made. Kurjiaka

says an attitude exists that allows inmates to be

raped and brutalized and that it exists with the

consent of the governor, the correction board and the

public.

APRIL 86

Clinton tells State Police chief Tommy Goodwin to

begin a full scale investigation into reports of

criminal conduct within the prison system. Says he

finds them "very disturbing." Clinton makes his

announcement after meeting for an hour with Goodwin

and Rep. Glover. "Rep. Glover has communicated to me

and Col. Goodwin some very serious allegations."

Clinton says the state police "has resources" to

investigate and Goodwin promises to assign at least

eight investigators.

MAY 1986

Stories circulate about an alleged $25,000 bribe

being paid to a prison board official to obtain a new

contract for HMA. One witness tells the state police

that the HMA board was angry about the extortion.

This is all denied in a series of state police

interviews with HMA and prison officials. It is

claimed that the story arose from the attorney

Richard Mays being hired for that same amount to

serve for two years as an ombudsman for HMA. No

contract or other written evidence of this agreement

is ever produced.

What did Mays do in this job? According to HMA

medical director Francis Henderson in a state police

interview, "Mr Mays has thus far performed his duties

in a very capable manner. He has met with us on three

or four occasions and has mediated in some problem

areas we have had. He has met with inmates and worked

out some difficulties they had in the form of

grievances with medical treatment services."

Henderson also describes his efforts to obtain a

buyer for the plasma: "Historically this [was] the

worst possible time to do it. I called all over the

world and finally got one group in Canada that would

take the contract."

Corrections board chair Woodson Walker is also

interviewed by state police. According to the

interview notes, he states that "he had had direct

contacts with Governor Clinton throughout the

selection process and that the Governor was deeply

concerned with HMA's past performance and the

deficiencies found by both the State Health

Department and the Arkansas State Police Investigator

of [sic] late 1984." Asked by Clinton for his

recommendation, Walker states that after "taking

everything into prospective [sic] he advised the

Governor that he had decided to go with HMA ~~~ but

only if a safeguard in the form of an ombudsman was

included. The ombudsman was completely my idea and

Governor Clinton advised me that he definitely

approved. I was asked to make several suggestions as

to who this ombudsman might be and among others

recommended Judge Richard Mays and Judge David Hale,

both of Little Rock. Hale was white and Mays was

black but races was not a major consideration in

these recommendations. As it turned out, Judge Hale

declined. . . "

Hale would later become famous in the Whitewater

scandal. Mays would also crop up again several times

in the Clinton saga. A long-time Clinton supporter,

he would gain posts both on the state supreme court

and on the prison board. More curiously, he would

show up as David Hale's attorney when the FBI got a

subpoena to raid Hale's files for Whitewater

documents -- issued on July 20, 1993, the day Vincent

Foster died. [For yet another Mays link to Clinton,

jump to 1994]

From state police notes of an interview with former

Cummins guard Jackie Cummings: "Jackie Cummings

further stated that he had been dismissed from his

job at the Cummins Unit because he had not been a

'team player.' When asked to provide additional

information that would help investigators look into a

situation such as his, Cummings stated that he would

say no further, but that he only wants to 'get my job

back.' Cummings advised both investigators that he

had gone to the Office of Governor Bill Clinton and

had met with him personally and was told by Clinton

that he could do nothing about the situation at the

Cummins Unit because it would cause him political

harm."

Leonard Dunn, president of HMA, is interviewed by

state police. Investigator S. R. Probasco notes that

Dunn explained that he "was the financial portion of

the corporation as well as the political arm. Dunn

advised that he had been a former member of the State

Claims commission under Governor Pryor and that he

was close to Governor Clinton as well as the majority

of state politicians presently in office. Mr. Dunn

explained that he was very fond of politics and that

he was very active.

"Dunn stated to these investigators that the entire

matter of trying to obtain a contact for HMA was

considered to him to be part of negotiation and not

in any form of pressure by the State Corrections

Board or the Governor's Office. When asked

specifically about contacts from the Governor's

Office, Mr. Dunn stated that he did have

conversations with both Governor Clinton and Mrs.

Betsey Wright to assure them that HMA wanted to what

was right. ~~~ Dunn stated that he was advised that

the Governor's office was very concerned about

problems HMA was having but was told to compete like

anyone else if they wanted the penitentiary

contract."

Incidentally, Dunn is chair of a holding company that

will later purchase two branches of Jim McDougal's

failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association.

He will also be named to the Arkansas Industrial

Development Commission.

JUNE 27, 1986

The Institute for Law and Policy Planning, asked by

the corrections board in March to study allegations

of malfeasance in the prison system, presents its

report to Governor Clinton and the board. The report

states that that HMA has "consistently failed to

provide the management system and medical services

specifically called for in the contract." It also

states that HMA and ADC "have only recently developed

protocol and procedures for handling AIDS cases, and

are currently developing a refined approach to AIDS

screening and testing." Among numerous deficiencies,

ILLP finds HMA has failed to provide the required

number of doctor hours, the head of HMA is too

overcommitted to give proper medical supervision, the

enforcement of the medical contract has been

inadequate, the program "fails to meet many

significant professional standards," HMA has not

followed state requirements, it has used inmates in

prohibited medical jobs, and its record-keeping has

been lacking."

JULY 30 1986

HMA is cleared of wrong-dong by the State Police.

Prison officials are charged with just two

misdemeanors and one felony.

JULY 31, 1986

The corrections board finds HMA in violation of its

two year contract and placed on 90-day probation. The

contract will eventually be taken over by Pine Bluffs

Biologicals.

AUGUST 1986

Clinton decides not to ask AL "Art" Lockhart --

director of the state prison system -- to resign. He

also denies being directly involved in the renewal of

the contract for HMA. He says he didn't talk with

Dunn until after the decision was made to give HMA

the contract again. All he told Dunn, Clinton claims,

is that HMA should be willing to accept an outside

monitor and should work to improve patient care.

Rep. Glover, who has asked for Lockhart's

resignation, says he has shown "a complete lack of

administrative abilities." Clinton refuses to respond

to Glover saying he should have taken the matter up

with the Board of Corrections. He said he had "bent

over backwards to try accommodate" Glover and accuses

him of refusing to accept the state police

investigation because "he had decided how it was

suppose to come out before it was done."

1987

The last year improperly treated blood and plasma is

distributed in Canada. The government provides

compensation for harmed patients.

1989

The Committee of Ten Thousand -- named for the

estimated 10,000 Americans infected with HIV by the

blood industry -- is formed. Writing in POZ seven

years later, COTT's president Corey Dubin says, "For

years the manufacturers of blood products and the

regulators at the FDA persuaded the hemophilia

community as well as the general public that their

infections were a 'tragic yet unavoidable mistake.'

We now know that this is absolutely not the case and

that doing business as usual from 1982 to 1985

consigned thousands of people with hemophilia to the

ravages of AIDS. ~~~ Internal drug company memos

demonstrate that officials understood the impact that

blood tainted by this pathogen could have on people

with hemophilia as early as mid-1982, but they failed

to warn either our doctors or us. The industry was

also targeting for plasma collection groups with a

high incidence of hepatitis B -- gay men and

prisoners -- that the CDC had by then identified as

likely to have AIDS."

MAY 1993

Two separate tainted blood probes -- one by a

California investigator and another by the Canadian

government -- lead to the door of the Arkansas

governor's office, now occupied by Jim Guy Tucker.

Both are informed that all the governor's papers were

removed when he left office and that they should

contact the White House legal counsel's office. What

happens next is not known but presumably they make

contact with Vince Foster, the man in the legal

counsel's office who knew Arkansas and who had been

involved in the prison system and who may, at one

point, have represented HMA.

JULY 1993

Vince Foster dies under mysterious circumstances.

A day or two after Foster's death, the New York Post

will report much later, someone calls a little-known

phone number at the White House counsel's office

where Mr. Foster worked. "The man said he had some

information that might be important," writes

columnist Maggie Gallagher, who did not name her

source or identify the official who took the call.

"Something had upset Vince Foster greatly just days

before he died. Something about 'tainted blood' that

both Vince Foster and President Clinton knew about,

this man said."

1994

Richard Mays, the "ombudsman" in the 1980s prison

health scandal, crops up again, as described in a

report from the House Government Reform and Oversight

Committee:

"Charlie Trie was first solicited to contribute to

the DNC in connection with the June 22, 1994,

Presidential Gala in Washington, D.C. Trie was

solicited to give $100,000 to the DNC, even though he

had never made any significant political

contributions previously. No one at the DNC

demonstrated any concern about taking $100,000 from

an obscure Arkansas restaurateur with little apparent

wealth. Trie was rewarded with an immediate entree

into the world of Washington insiders and

presidential intimates, and the DNC was rewarded with

badly-needed campaign cash.

"Trie was solicited to make his first contributions

to the DNC by Richard Mays, a close friend of the

President from Arkansas. Mays had been appointed to

the Arkansas bench by Governor Clinton, and was also

a longtime major DNC donor and fundraiser. Mays

claims that he knew Trie from patronizing his

restaurant in Little Rock. Mays claimed not to recall

the exact circumstances of his solicitation of Trie,

but did state that he 'had the distinct impression

that [Trie] was in a position to contribute, and

wanted to make a contribution.' Mays says he based

his conclusion that Trie was in a 'position to

contribute' to the DNC on the fact that Trie was

traveling between Little Rock and Washington, D.C.:

"Question: When you say "in a position to

contribute," do you mean he had sufficient money to

contribute?

"Mays: I felt he did.

"Question: And how did you get that impression?

"Mays: I donít know how I got that impression, but

frequently, he seemed like he was traveling

extensively, you know, I knew he owned that Chinese

restaurant down there, and he apparently had engaged

in some business, other business interests. I really

didnít have a specific judgment that, in fact, he

could, but I certainly thought it was worth talking

to him about it.

***

"Question: Would you ever see him anywhere other than

D.C. or Little Rock?

"Mays: I donít recall that I have. I mean, I am not

saying I havenít, but I donít recall."

"Mays asked Trie what he could contribute, and Trie

told him $100,000. Mays claims that he was not

surprised by Trieís offer of $100,000, even though

this was the largest contribution he had ever

solicited. Trieís $100,000 contribution was used for

the DNCís Health Care Campaign, which was a public

campaign to promote the Presidentís health care

legislative proposal.

"At this point, Mays claimed he still had no concern

that a political novice with little apparent wealth

had pledged $100,000 to the DNC. Rather than

conducting any background research of Trie, or

looking into the source of Trieís funds, he

introduced Trie to Terry McAuliffe, then the Finance

Chairman of the DNC. Mays set up a breakfast meeting

between McAuliffe and Trie. At this meeting, Trie

confirmed that he would make a $100,000 contribution

to the DNC, and asked only that he be prominently

seated at the June 22 gala. When asked if he ever had

a concern about the source of Trieís contributions,

Mays responded, 'Why would I have some concern?'"

1994

Arkansas finally stops selling prisoner's plasma.

1995

Four blood company officials are convicted in Germany

of distributing HIV tainted blood and derivatives.

The government admits a cover-up. The former owner of

a plasma testing lab goes on trial for murder in the

deaths of three people treated with AIDS-tainted

blood products.

1996

Japan, which has never discarded its contaminated

blood and plasma, criminally charges a pharmaceutical

company and a government adviser for the distribution

of tainted blood matter.

1999

"This I know. Without the governor's support and

protection, this disease-ridden system would have

been shut down by 1922" -- Mike Galster to Suzi

Parker

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Tainted-blood sleuth firebombed

Intimidation campaign suspected as Arkansas clinic razed,
Montreal office ransacked

by Mark Kennedy
The Ottawa Citizen
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/990520/2621916.html
Monday May 31, 1999

The controversial story involving tainted plasma from Arkansas
prisoners that was shipped to Canada in the 1980s while Bill
Clinton was state governor has taken a mysterious and chilling
new turn.

Two crimes that occurred within hours of each other Tuesday
night, hundreds of kilometres apart, have raised questions about
whether someone is trying to intimidate or silence those who are
asking questions about the prison-blood fiasco.

In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, someone firebombed a prosthetics clinic
owned by Michael Galster, who has been pushing hard for a U.S.
government investigation. The clinic was burned to its shell and
fire officials, who found a gas container in Mr. Galster's attic
-- where he kept his documents -- say they're "90-per-cent sure"
the fire was arson.

In Montreal, someone broke into the offices of the Quebec chapter
of the Canadian Hemophilia Society, which recently unearthed
documents that showed Finance Minister Paul Martin was a board
member of the corporation that owned Connaught Laboratories, the
company that fractionated and distributed the Arkansas prison
plasma in Canada.

Hemophilia Society officials say thieves stole a computer and
three telephones. They also stole documents from a box labeled
"Hepatitis C, Krever Commission, Reform of the blood system,
HIV-AIDS."

Police are investigating both incidents.

Mike McCarthy, a Canadian hemophiliac at the forefront of pushing
for answers into the prison plasma scandal, says he's convinced
the two crimes are connected.

"It's too much of a coincidence," he said, adding that someone is
worried Mr. Galster and the victims are probing too close to the
truth.

"They're trying to find out what we know and erase the trail if
they can."

"I think they're also sending a message. They're trying to scare
us into backing off. They're trying to put the fear of God into
us, that if we pursue the truth it can get worse. That the next
action might not just be buildings and records."

The RCMP are examining the prison-blood scheme as part of their
criminal investigation into the tainted-blood scandal. RCMP Cpl.
Gilles Moreau said yesterday that the Mounties are willing to
review any evidence local police in Montreal and Arkansas
uncover.

"We do not work in a vacuum," said Cpl. Moreau. "If there's
information that is linked to the blood distribution system for
the period that we're investigating, we're certainly not going to
close our eyes to that information. We welcome any information
that comes our way."

The story of how prison plasma was collected and found its way
into the bloodstreams of unsuspecting Canadians stands as one of
the most shocking aspects of the tainted-blood tragedy.

It's not known how many Canadians contracted HIV and hepatitis C
from the plasma of Arkansas prisoners, who were paid $7 a unit,
although it's likely that several hundred people were infected by
the tainted products.

At the time, U.S. companies that fractionate blood products had
stopped buying prison blood because it was widely understood
that, since many inmates practised unsafe sex or were intravenous
drug addicts, their blood posed a high risk of carrying the AIDS
virus.

In Arkansas, a private firm, Health Management Associates, was
given a contract by the state government to collect the
prisoners' plasma. The firm had difficulty locating a U.S.
customer but found a willing buyer in a Montreal blood broker,
Continental Pharma Cryosan, which then sold the plasma to
Toronto-based Connaught Laboratories. Connaught apparently didn't
realize the plasma had come from prisoners.

Canadians learned of the prison plasma scheme in 1995, when
Justice Horace Krever's inquiry unearthed some aspects of the
story. Last September, the Citizen revealed further details.

Also last fall, Mr. Galster went public with his accusations
about the Arkansas prison system, where he conducted orthopedic
clinics during the 1980s. Mr. Galster published a book, Blood
Trail, which is a fictionalized account of how the prison-plasma
program worked.

He wrote under a pseudonym because he feared reprisals. Soon
after media stories began appearing, he revealed his true
identity. In February, he organized and participated in a news
conference in Washington where Canadian victims called for a
probe by the U.S. Justice Department and announced plans to
depose Mr. Clinton.

Mr. Galster said yesterday he is reeling with shock from the
firebombing of his clinic, which he has owned for 21 years.

He said he worked until about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and was later
called at home about the fire.

"I'm trying not to get too paranoid about it. I pray to God that
it was just a coincidence."

Mr. Galster said that if someone is trying to silence him, it
won't work.

"They're barking up the wrong tree. They can't erase the victims
who are seeking the truth."

Pine Bluff's fire marshal, Capt. Randy Rushing, said the state
crime lab has been called in to help with the arson
investigation.

Capt. Rushing said fire officials have a "couple of leads," but
have no evidence on a motive.

In Montreal, hemophilia society officials are puzzled.

In recent days, the group learned that Mr. Martin was a director
of the Canada Development Corporation (CDC) from 1981 to 1986 --
the key years of the tainted blood scandal. The CDC was created
with federal seed money to promote the country's leading
industries and owned a variety of firms, including Connaught.

The Citizen published details of the story on Saturday, and
indicated that Mr. Martin has no recollection of any discussions
about tainted blood while a CDC board member. The article stated
that Mr. Martin's connection to the CDC had been "unearthed" by
the hemophilia society.

Just three days later, the break-in occurred. Thieves entered the
office of executive director Pierre Desmarais and were selective
in what they took.

Mr. Desmarais said that because the thieves stole documents --
not just computer equipment -- it appears they were looking for
information, not goods.

"It's really frightening. This is the kind of thing you see in
movies."

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