Bloodgate Author's Clinic Burns Fire Department Suspects Arson By RICKI MAGNUSSEN A fire starting Tuesday night around midnight at author Michael Galster's clinic in Pine Bluff, Arkansas caused damages for possibly around $300,000. After an "extensive" investigation, the fire department is now asking the police for a criminal investigation. "We have done extensive investigations on it and we are now turning the report over to the detective's office," says Fire Marshal Randy Rushing of the Pine Bluff Fire Department. He is now convinced that there quite possibly is a crime involved in the fire. "It's mainly the burn patterns on the building there that makes us suspect that. We have had several different people coming in investigating this and we have got several different things going on right now that I can't discuss because it is an investigation. But we are now turning it over to the detective's office and letting it go from there," Rushing says Clinic owner Michael Galster has become known for authoring the book "Blood Trail," which details a scheme by the government of Arkansas under then-Governor Bill Clinton to sell tainted blood collected at Arkansas prisons to blood processors in the U.S. and in Canada. Galster wrote the book under a pseudonym to avoid retaliation but chose to come forward with his true identity last year when U.S. reporters failed to report on the revelations he was making. Since the fire, Michael Galster has been trying to set up emergency facilities where his patients can be taken care of. He could not be reached for a comment. Break-in in the Canadian Hemophiliac society On the same Tuesday night as the main buildings of Michael Galster's clinic burned down, a break-in at the Canadian Hemophiliac Society offices in Montreal took place. Mike McCarthy, spokesman for the Canadian hemophiliacs infected with hepatitis C from blood from Arkansas prisons, says that in addition to computers and telephones certain records were stolen from the office. He suspects that the removal of the records were the main reason for the break-in: "One good thing is that these records that were stolen were not indicative of the evidence that we have. They are just a small portion of our evidence and we had the foresight to have copies made of these documents and put them in another safe area outside of this office," says Michael McCarthy. "So they didn't get anything that is irreplaceable. We realized that at some point people would like to get their hands on what we know. The one thing that it does point out is that people are desperate to find out what we do know about them and their involvement." McCarthy is planning a lawsuit against the parties in the United States responsible for infecting Canadian hemophiliacs with tainted Arkansas prison blood. The lawsuit could name the State of Arkansas as a defendant. McCarthy is convinced that the two incidents did not occur on the same night by coincidence and that somebody is interested in keeping them away from further investigation into the blood tragedy. "I talked to Michael Galster yesterday and they are devastated with the loss of the clinic. It's a big loss for him, but we discussed that this is too important to give up because of threats and we are going to see this through till the truth gets out there fully." At this point McCarthy can only speculate as to who could have an interest in silencing their investigation: "It's strictly speculation. I could give you half a dozen people where I think this could come from, but I'd only be guessing. Obviously it's people in very high places that are nervous that we are close to uncovering who made the decisions that caused people to lose their lives." Published in the May. 24, 1999 issue of The Washington Weekly. Copyright (c) 1999 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com). Reposting permitted with this message intact.