Posted on 06/05/2002 9:52:05 PM PDT by Prodigal Daughter
We first need to know what sort of specialty Army Capt. Andrew Clements' was providing to the Army.
Was he active or reserve, in intel or a combat MOS?
Where was he stationed?
If we know these things then we'll be alot further along then we would if we all keep sitting around wondering about spooky stuff.
Monterey Herald:
"The week before his unexpected death was a busy one for Clements. He was overseeing the movers, making his family's travel arrangements and had just bought a two-story, custom-built home one hour south of Alexandria.
Clements flew his family to Pennsylvania, where the family's other car, a silver BMW, was waiting at his father's Dover Township home. He flew back to California the same day - on Friday - to pick up the van and the dog. He immediately set out on a cross-country trip to join his family and called his wife on Friday and Saturday. She never heard from him on Sunday.
The first indication the family had of Clement's death was a Sunday night call from Oklahoma state troopers to his father, saying that his son's briefcase, a laptop computer and his new military orders had been found in the water..."
From what we know the man knew the victims name, he knew of his PC and Briefcase, and he knew not only that they had been found -- but where to gain access to them.
Assuming some innocence to start with like his ARMY Buddy called him on his cell phone as the bridge went down in a panic to save the computer and documents -- Tossing them out of the car window (Or maybe he was in a convertable -- I hardly think that person X traveling X miles up the highway would have had handy the equipment necessary to monitor local police chatter as to said items being recovered by the river. The idea that the items didn't go straight to the trooper's evidence room and to the mayor instead is very odd in itself
Add to that this Person X strolls up and is able to not only make the specific request but gets the goods as well.
NOW ASK YOURSELF WHAT ARE THE ODDS . . .
Timing a tugboat to knock down a bridge to get a guy who crosses at a certain time is a bit hard for me to belive.
He was a Field Artillery Officer and was "officially" on his way back east after finishing post-graduate work in Monterey, Ca where he was studying business and public policy.
He was newly assigned to the U.S. Army Testing and Evaluating Command Center.
I'd venture a guess that he was either working on something shady or was transporting information that the Pentagon deemed sensitive or secret.
I'd also venture a guess that this Captain Clark was either an Army Officer....but I doubt that was his real name....or maybe even a spook for the CIA, NSA or DIA.
I'm just going on info based in this article. By escort I mean a friendly back up if he was carrying classified material. Either the mayors story is just that a story and there was no Captain Clark whatsoever or someone knew Captain Clements was in the wreck. Would that person be a planned backup or an unfriendly snoop is the question.
The man said he was Capt. William Clark and that he was in charge of the situation on the day of the collapse, Mayor Jewell Horne told KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City on Tuesday.
The man, who was wearing green Army-style fatigues and a beret, briefly took possession of a briefcase belonging to Army Capt. Andrew Clements and looked through it before Horne asked that it be returned, Horne told KOCO. It was not known how the man got near the accident site. Army officials could not be reached late Tuesday to verify the man's identity.
Clements, 35, of Woodbridge, Va., was among the 14 people killed May 26 when a barge hit the Interstate 40 bridge, collapsing it into the Arkansas River.
It is not known if anything was taken from the briefcase. The man seemed to know information about Clements before his body was recovered from the river, Horne said.
The man hasn't been seen in the area since the day after the collapse, the station reported. Horne said she told the man to leave after noticing discrepancies in his story.
Authorities are investigating whether the man possibly wrote bogus checks and stayed at a hotel in Van Buren, Ark., free under the auspices of taking part in the rescue operation, the television station reported.
Or checked out information, hard drives, etc. and then copied it.
He was being assigned to the Army Evaluation Center Fire Support Evaluation Directorate.
He was an arty officer so this makes sense.
His studies in Monterey at the Naval Post Graduate School were done in order to secure his Master's of Science degree, with distinction, in Systems Acquisition Management.
He must've had some information with him that the Army didnt want falling into the wrong hands...probably nothing more.
If he were a high mucky muck spook then I doubt he would've been "driving across the country" with sensitive documents...they would've flown him on a "Tower Air" jet or some other MAC flight.
He probably just had some fire support documentation that was a little too high speed to allow it to remain out in the open.
On the surface that looks good -- but what does this mean? Did she never break eye contact and watch this man's every move or in the course of envents was the mayor otherwise occupied (On the phone) and giving orders to her subordiates allowing yon pilferer the oportunity to remove a few documents -- here and there
Have you ever had a stack of water logged documents to go through? I have, and let me give you a hint they don't shuffle.
If they were in the river were the papers soaking wet if so he would have had to carefully seperate and lay out each page one at a time to see what was in the wet heap.
A quick look at wet papers could easily take 15 - 20 minutes -- during which time a few documents could easily disappear
In other words I think we need more info before giving this guy the no foul no harm thumbs up.
That's probably it. The Army could easilly track his trip and when reports of the collapse came out through Emergency Management they knew he wasn't just stopping for coffee. What doesn't make sense is stiffing the local businesses when he could have as easilly operated upfront if that's what happened. He should have reported to the State Emergency Management on scene who are well trained to deal with such matters and no one's the wiser. By operating this way he sure drew a lot more attention to himself than most would want on offical business.
Don't recall the pay for an 03 allowing that kind of lifestyle -- Far be it for me to suggest this man wasn't on the up and up -- I'm only mentioning he seems to have a whole lotta cash to spend.
The bad check stuff is even weirder because it would only draw attention to this guy.
Seems a bit catch me if you can --- and if so this would mean that this was not the first time this GUY did this . . .
Dum de dum dum . . .
Not likely. That's a lot of trouble just to take out an Army Captain wouldn't you say? There is no way anyone could time the bridge catastrophe that close. And besides who dove the car off the bridge? I think it boils down to somebody wanted his documents either the Army or an unfriendly. Either the Army had a tracker located in the car or someone was following him and perhaps saw him go over.
When you take into account that Classified Laden Lap Tops seem to be a hot commidity in the past few years so it's not too far fetched to think he was being followed by someone waiting on a good opertunity to steal or download from one.
If it was indeed the Army who retrieved it they made way too much noise doing so and went through improper channels as I mentioned in my previous post. Protocol would be the State Emergency Management which has a mission to deal with this and other matters.
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