By Trowbridge H. Ford – October 19, 2008
While cover-ups of murders, especially assassinations, are commonplace, never has such a big, quick one been arranged as in the killing of Austrian, right-wing party leader Jörg Haider. It took only a week to complete and legalize it - the same amount of time as it took to arrange a state funeral for the struck-down troublemaker. By comparison, the assassinations of leaders like JFK, MLK, RFK, Dr. David Kelly,Greater Manchester Police's Chief Constable Mike Todd et al. took months if not years to achieve the same status, and some of them don't even have it yet.
By the most reliable accounts, Haider set off home a little after midnight on Saturday morning, October 11th, after having attended a government reception, and a magazine launch at a nightclub, 'Le Caberet' where he sipped a glass of champagne, and had his photograph taken while smiling along side a scantily-dressed female performer. In taking leave of the nightclub, Haider not only said his goodbyes to assistant Alliance for the Future of Austria leader Stefan Petzner, but also got his government driver Friedrich Schager to agree to let him drive his government-provided VW Phaeton V6 - about the most powerful, electronically operated car in the business - home by himself after having left Schager off at his home.
After Haider dropped off Schager, and started going up the highway west of Klagenfurt towards Lambichel - a road Haider hated because he had had a narrow escape with death there in a 1993 accident - the vehicle continued to accelerate, apparently reaching a speed of 88mph, and became impossible to steer, moving further and further off to the right of the highway until it finally hit a concrete pillar, approximately 150 meters down the road, was flipped up into the air, and rolled over twice before ending up back on its wheels on the highway. In the process, the car lost both the doors on the left side, the lugs on the tires on this side were knocked off, its whole left side was severely smashed in, and there was a strange hole in the roof right over where Haider sat. He, though protected by air bags, and strapped into his seat, still suffered a broken neck, his left arm almost sheered off, and severe injuries to his head and chest.
A woman reported the accident, it seems, though she apparently had trouble making making contact with the rescue services. This woman said that Haider had veered off the highway after he had passed her car, though there is no evidence to support her claims, as the marks off the highway's right side showed the tire marks going straight toward the pillar without any indications of either the car's direction or speed being changed. Given the implausibility of her claims, it is hardly surprising that the Austrian police have not only not identified her but also have not had her come forward to elaborate upon her claims. She apparently is part of the problem rather than its solution.
Then the chief prosecutor, Gottfried Kranz, quickly ruled out any "foul play" or "electrical glitches", even refusing to answer a question about Haider's alcohol level in his blood. By doing so, Kranz showed that he had already determined the death to be the result of an accident - what would oblige him to withhold evidence so as not to cause undue heartbreak and embarrassment for Haider's survivors. This is part of Austria's protection of human rights. Of course, by not explaining why he was not answering the question, Kranz only fuel suspicions that Haider was DUI. There was, consequently, no need for either an autopsy or an inquest into this private tragedy.
When Petzner did not speak of Haider's alleged DUI while making his tearful, final goodbye to Haider the following day on TV - what would have certainly resulted in a great deal of self-castigation if he had thought that Haider had been drunk when he left the nightclub, and had not made sure that Haider was not allowed to drive himself home - and the media started posting stories, especially about the accident itself, Austrian authorities began spinning the story about the alcohol content in his blood, getting Petzner to agree that Haider might have been over Austria's strict .5 limit. Then Kranz apparently said that the autopsy showed that it was at 1.8, over 3 and a half times the limit - what the press, starting apparently with Der Spiegel, then attributed the finding to Petzner, though he continued to maintain that Haider was not drunk when he last saw him.
Then rumours started, claiming that Haider had visited a gay bar for all sorts, the 'Stadtkramer', before going home, though there was no mention of what happened to driver Schager in the process. While at the bar, Haider apparently just simply guzzled down Italian wine. While there was no attempt by him to pick up a gay, he was reported to be in bad enough shape when he left that another unknown person volunteered to drive him home, but Haider declined the offer.
Ultimately, Bild.com posted a story, "Was Jörg Haider drinking in a gay bar before death crash," in order to keep up the pressure on there being no "foul play" in his death by alluding to his apparent "foul play" in life. There was much more uncertainly about how much he had actually drunk, as it would have taken at least his guzzling down 15 glasses in about a half hour to get up to the blood level rumoured. The gay bit was obviously intended to keep his family, the gay bar operatives, and local officials from saying anything untoward about the matter for fear of blowback about Haider's true sexuality, what the local fathers were permitting the bar to do, and what they had permitted of this nature in the past.
Then the Volkswagen people sent down an investigative team, headed by Peter Thul, to inquire into the massive failure of its most sophisticated car, both in terms of electronic gadgetry and safety features. After inspecting the crash scene and the vehicle, the VW team was at a loss to explain it, suggesting that someone in its garage possibly caused it, unlocking its electronic brain, and programming it to go full speed ahead when certain driving conditions were reached.
The VW suggestion got nowhere in the media, however, until Thul mentioned that the Haider crash recalled the Princess Diana one - what allegedly sent Britain into a rage about the comparison, thanks to a story in The Sun. Of course, it was only an understandable allusion under the circumstances. And who knows, it might be the real one as nothing much was made of a programmed car in her case: it was all the paparazzi, DUI, The Duke of Edinburgh, another missing car, MI6 agents, especially Oswald Le Winter, etc. (Remember in the sudden death of FBI Director J. Edgard Hoover, no one thought that he might have been poisoned to death by Nixon's Plumbers until the full scope of their agenda and capability, particularly inducing a heart attack by a pill the CIA had just developed through its Often program, was disclosed.)
At this point, there are just too many unidentified people in the story - i. e., the woman who reported the crash, the person who offered the drunk, it seems, Haider a ride home, and who the people are at the garage where the Phaeton was kept, and what did they do. Then there has been no follow-up about what Schager and Petzner really know, and think about the tragedy.
It seems certainly quite possible that a team of assassins - like a Mossad kidon - set up Haider for a programmed kill where he was strapped into his death vehicle while it went down the predetermined way, helped along by the car of the missing witness, as if he were a war criminal, getting his just desserts while still fully conscious.
Little wonder that the elite of Austria's current establishment made the most of it by turning up at state funeral that it had arranged for Haider since their hated opponent was truly finally dead.
If more is not investigated and explained about this still most suspicious death, it will become one of the favourites for future conspiracy theorists.
Also see:
Haider May Have Been Assassinated
Last updated 21/10/2008
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