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April 2-4, 1999 -- In a chilling and stunning development, Steve Kangas � former Army intelligence officer (Berlin Soviet eavesdropper/analyst) and proprietor of an excellent and comprehensive
liberal site: "Liberalism Resurgent" (http://www.scruz.net/~kangaroo ) was shot to death in mysterious circumstances on the 39th floor, outside Pittsburgh offices of Richard Mellon Scaife, Feb. 8 � the right wing billionaire who has spent maybe $10 million trying to destroy Clinton. (see Salon account). More than anyone, Scaife was responsible for the Impeachment travesty and has operated with shadowy impunity; because of his wealth, charity donations, and control of Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (a main newspaper) and DC based American Spectator, which broke the Paula Jones story. Allegedly reporters who did one of very rare stories on Scaife in Washington Monthly were subsequently personally terrorized; he is quick to sue and use private detectives against critics (as he was against Kangas). The private detective, Rex Armistead, was big friends with Starr deputy Hickman Ewing (Starr's most virulent Hater), who had also hired him for the OIC; Armistead had also investigated CNN correspondent John Camp and worked for the Scaife funded Arkansas Project (digging Clinton dirt). Kangas was found in the men's room � shot in the temple OR in the roof of mouth depending on police or coroner accounts. Serious conspiracy nuts give me the creeps, so I want to very careful about this. Kangas's Website is very well done, organized, incredibly researched (more like 2 doctoral theses), and reasonable, though there is some far out stuff about the Knights of Malta. It's possible Kangas went to Scaife and committed suicide as a frustrated last ditch effort to start a serious investigation of the malignant Scaife (who is reviled by his own family � Carnegie/Mellon, and most former associates). It's also possible this erratic potentate, who had almost managed to remove a massively popular President and is famous for obsessive grudges, confronted by an threatening character at his seat of power... dealt with him permanently (or one of his loyal subordinates overreacted) If Gordon Liddy was willing to kill anyone Nixon ordered him to, what would a extremist security guy do about a perceived threat to his boss? One indication is the fact that this happened a month and a half ago, but is ONLY making news now, attributed to the fact that no one knew who Kangas was. Scaife (who was there) has refused to talk to police or press and his office claims they had no contact with Kangas, although he might have spent 8 hours in the building. and was found 60 feet from Scaife's door. Apparently Kangas shot himself with a gun he'd purchased before leaving Las Vegas, where he'd made as much as $150,000/yr. as a partner in a computerized horse betting operation. As a major critic of Scaife, we've had to make difficult decisions about how intensively to pursue him S since media outlets are extremely chary of offending him. But this should spur a serious FBI investigation, because Pittsburgh police are not likely to have much predilection to shake the tree of the town's most powerful citizen.
April 10... Little is happening in the Kangas death investigation. Not one media outlet, except for Pittsburgh papers and Salon, picked up the story (if anyone sees anything, let me know) which
frankly is incredible, considering Scaife was peddling his "Clinton had Vincent Foster murdered" trash for years. Now, a liberal activist and sworn opponent is found blown away just outside his
door... and he isn't even questioned? According to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Dennis Roddy, Scaife is almost impossible to write about because nobody will go on the record about the vindictive
magnate, who "prevents people from working in this town again", says Salon. The Washington Post is supposed to be doing a big profile of Scaife any day now. First big question is whether
ballistics match if bullet that killed Kangas came from his gun, though that isn't conclusive: if he was waiving it around it could have been taken away and used against him. We are looking into this.
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