Several members of the Maine Corps who had ridiculed Clinton die in a helicopter crash after three had flown with Clinton to the Roosevelt in the Potomac: "Definitely a far cry from conclusive evidence, but certainly a very intriguing coincidence" (117). That type of hint with no evidence is how conspiracy theorists build a vision of what they believe but cannot prove, and the fact that there is no proof becomes proof that someone is keeping anyone from finding the truth.
One of the other hot buttons for right-wing conspiracy theorists is the town of Mena, Arkansas, a town with an airport once used by the CIA to send material to the Contras and later used for smuggling cocaine into the country. Gottlieb cite another conspiracy theorist author, George Carpozi Jr., who finds the death of pilot Barry Seal to be a murder to cover up other activities. The provable crimes taking place in Mena were being committed by Republicans supporting the contras and smuggling drugs as well, and Gottlieb links this to Clinton largely because when a state representative wanted to investigate, "Mr. Clinton did not seize on the issue and offer support" (133). This fact is taken as a demonstration that Clinton was involved in drug smuggling, which is not even a sensible way to reach a conclusion.
Gottlieb has a way of implying guilt without actually saying so, as when he wites about a series of deaths he says are suspicious, though the suspicion comes largely fro the way he links widely disparate events as if they are connected because he can find a tenuous connection. He then writes,
None of the deaths or acts of violence mentioned here can be directly pinpointed to either of the Clintons. They all seem unrelated, but when taken together, it seems impossible that they could be mere coincidence (107).
That is...
He even cites Carpozi again who "relates an intriguing series of deaths -- perhaps murders" (107), again leaping to unwarranted conclusions and finding a way to link them to the Clintons.
Most of the hints at charges in this book are of the same stamp, from Whitewater to the death of Vincent Foster. Gottlieb is rehashing a lot of new accounts and similar data, and authorities with far more experience and far greater resources looked into these various issues and found no evidence of Clinton criminality at all. As with most conspiracy theorists, Gottlieb finds the absence of evidence to be evidence in itself. The focus of this book is supposed to be on Hillary Rodham Clinton, but for much of the book, the focus is on the Clintons and their supposed secret gang of operatives who carry out their every whim. The Mafia never had an organization as tight as Gottlieb seems to think the Clintons have. Every event is linked with a form of "impossible not to believe" that the event fits with the conspiracy theory and that the Clintons are behind the whole thing. The book is largely a recounting of the same claims and charges that have been discounted and discredited by police authorities, courts, and the press since before this book was written, and nothing developed since has changed any of that. The scrutiny given the Clintons has been even more than is normal for a presidential race, and all that has been found is the sort of rank speculation that Gottlieb trades in for his book. The basic details of Hillary Rodham Clinton's life may shape this book, but the reader learns little of fact about her or her husband and much more about the lengths to which conspiracy theorists will go to support their pet theories.
