Hillary Clinton
A MENA BIBLIOGRAPHY
SUGGESTED BOOKS
Castillo, Celerino III and Harmon, Dave, POWDERBURNS, Oakville, Ont., Mosaic Press, 1994 Head of DEA in El Salvador discovered that the Contras were smuggling cocaine into the United States. Castillo's superiors reacted to his reports by burying them. This book is too controversial for an American publisher to print.
Cockburn, Leslie, OUT OF CONTROL, New York, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987 Early account of the of the Reagan Administration's secret war in Nicaragua, the illegal arms pipeline and the Contra drug connection.
Johnson, Haynes, SLEEPWALKING THROUGH HISTORY, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 1991. Pg. 261-274, 292-293 History of the Reagan years traces the relationships of William Casey, Manuel Noriega and the Medellin cocaine cartel.
Levine, Michael, THE BIG WHITE LIE, New York, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1993 DEA undercover investigator learns that the biggest deterrent to stopping the drug epidemic is the Central Intelligence Agency.
Levine, Michael, DEEP COVER, New York, Dell Publishing, 1990 DEA undercover operative penetrates the leadership of the Bolivian cocaine cartel, Panamanian money-launderers and Mexican military middle-men. But it is all for nought, as interference from the CIA and Attorney General Meese, along with DEA infighting, sabotage the investigation.
McCoy, Alfred, THE POLITICS OF HEROIN, Brooklyn, NY, Lawrence Hill Books, 1991 Excellent history about CIA complicity in the global drug trade, from the French Connection, to Southeast Asia and onward into the Afghanistan and Latin America. A must read.
Parry, Robert, FOOLING AMERICA, New York, William Morrow and Company, 1992 Several sections discuss Contra cocaine smuggling in this book which describes how Washington insiders twist the truth and manufacture the Conventional Wisdom.
Persico, Joseph E., CASEY, New York, Viking Penguin, 1990, pg..478-481 Biography on former CIA director William Casey briefly explores the relationships between the CIA and drug traffickers, as well as the protection of narco-CIA assets.
Reed, Terry and Cummings, John, COMPROMISED, New York, S.P.I. Books, 1994 The definitive book on Mena, Reed's first person account of his CIA service on behalf of the Contras opens eyes as to the relationships between the CIA, drug trafficking and recent occupants of the White House. A second edition is in bookstores, however not from bankrupt S.P.I. Books. [I highly recommend this book]
Terrell, Jack with Martz, Ron, DISPOSABLE PATRIOT: REVELATIONS OF A SOLDIER IN AMERICA'S SECRET WARS, Washington, DC, National Press Books, 1992 ISBN 0-915765-38-1 An American soldier goes to fight the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. But he discovers that the most dangerous war is the political infighting of Washington as politicians and covert operatives fight to save their political skins ans stay out of jail.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
Adams, Lorraine, "North Didn't Relay Drug Tips; DEA Says It Finds No Evidence Reagan Aide Talked to Agency," WASHINGTON POST, October 22, 1994, pg A1 Oliver North knew his Contra network was smuggling cocaine, but he did not inform the DEA as required by law.
Anderson, Jack and Van Atta, Dale, "Drug Runner's Legacy," February 28, 1989 Federal authorities stonewall investigations into Barry Seal's drug-trafficking.
Anderson, Jack and Van Atta, Dale, "Small Town for Smuggling," March 1, 1989 Suspects say they worked for the CIA to turn back investigations into the cocaine of Mena.
Arbanas, Michael, "Hutchinson knew in 83 of Seal probe, ex-IRS agent says," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, September 19, 1990 IRS agent William Duncan claimed Asa Hutchinson knew about allegations of drug trafficking at Mena when he was US Attorney.
Arbanas, Michael, "Truth on Mena, Seal shrouded in shady allegations; Drug smuggling rumors just won't die," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, December 22, 1990 Long overview of Mena evidence.
Arbanas, Michael, "FBI apparently investigating Mena, Seal," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, May 24, 1991
Bowers, Rodney, "Slain smuggler used airport," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, December 14, 1987 Evidence showing drug smuggler Barry Seal used Mena airport, and that federal Justice officials interfered in local law enforcement investigating the narcotics.
Bowers, Rodney, "House investigators opens Mena probe," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, December 17, 1987 Aide to Congressman William Hughes (D-NJ) visited Mena to gather evidence and testimony.
Brown, Chip, "Former DEA agent: North knew of cocaine shipments to US," ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 17, 1994 DEA agent Celerino Castillo tells of his knowledge regarding drug smuggling through the Contra resupply network.
"Co-pilot held answers sought in investigation; But he died in plane crash in 1985," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, June 27, 1988, pg 6A
Cockburn, Alexander, "Chapters in the Recent History of Arkansas," THE NATION, February 24, 1992 Describes what was revealed in court papers filed by Terry Reed in his case against Clinton aide Buddy Young regarding CIA Contra cocaine smuggling out of Mena.
Crudele, John, "Drugs and the CIA -- A Scandal Unravels in Arkansas," NEW YORK POST, April 21, 1995 Report that special prosecutor Kenneth Starr is investigating the CIA guns-for-drugs operations at Mena.
Crudele, John, "Bombshell in Arkansas Investigations Brings Both Parties the Jitters," NEW YORK POST, August 14, 1995 Congressman Jim Leach's Banking Committee and the House Judiciciary Committee investigate allegations of cocaine trafficking at Mena that point responsibility at the Clinton, Bush and Reagan administrations.
"Demo Says IRS Blocked Probe Of Drugs, Arms," SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (ASSOCIATED PRESS), July 28, 1989 Rep. Alexander (D-Ark.) Charges the IRS with blocking investigations into cocaine of Mena.
"Deposition summarizes rumors about Seal," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, June 26, 1988, pg. 18A Former military investigator Gary Wheaton gave a sworn deposition claiming that Barry Seal engaged in gun-running and drug smuggling with the consent of the Drug Enforcement Administration and Central Intelligence Agency.
editorial, "Investigate Mena," WALL STREET JOURNAL, July 10, 1995, pg A12
Epstein, Edward Jay, "On the Mena Trail," WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 20, 1994 The Journal warns that beneath Clinton's crimes, lie the crimes of Reagan and Bush.
Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose, "Cocaine and Toga Parties," SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, July 17, 1994 Describes evidence that Bill Clinton enjoyed drugs and young women.
Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose, "International Smugglers linked to Contra arms deals," SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, October 9, 1994 Links Contra cocaine smuggling with Bill Clinton associate, Dan Lasater.
Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose, "Airport scandal set to crash into White House," DAILY TELEGRAPH, March 27, 1995 Recounts evidence provided by Terry Reed and William Duncan regarding cocaine trafficking through Arkansas.
Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose, "Clinton Involved in CIA Arms and Drugs Racket," SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, July 9, 1995 Reveals that AMERICAN SPECTATOR was about to publish and interview with former Clinton bodyguard, L.D. Brown. Conservative editor R. Emmett Tyrrell remarked how shocked he was to uncover CIA skullduggery involving the secret was against the Sandinistas.
Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose, "Embattled Clinton falls back on Nixon's Watergate defence," ELECTRONIC TELEGRAPH, December 18, 1995
Haddigan, Michael, " Fat Man' key to mystery," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, June 26, 1988, pg. A1 Overview of the investigations and obstructions to uncovering the truth behind the cocaine of Mena.
Haddigan, Michael, "The Kingpin and his many connections," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, June 27, 1988, pg. 1A Explores the career of Barry Seal.
Haddigan, Michael, "Mena tires of rumors," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, June 28, 1988, pg. 1A Remote Mena airport does special refittings for planes from around the world.
Hanchette, John, "House Banking Committee Probing Tangles Tale of Mena, Ark.," GANNETT NEWS SERVICE, January 25, 1996 House Banking Chairman Jim Leach is investigating Mena.
Harmon, Dave, "Ex-agent: Drug sales aided contras; Retired DEA man says smuggling, North venture linked," CHICAGO TRIBUNE, January 26, 1993 Celerino Castillo describes the frustration in prosecuting cocaine smugglers involved with the Contra resupply network.
Henson, Maria, "Testimony reveals leak in drug probe: Cost Seal his life, witness says," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, July 29, 1988 House Judiciary subcommittee on crime hears DEA officials tell how a White House leak revealing Barry Seal's undercover work ruined a major drug investigation.
Henson, Maria, "Alexander threatens budget ax to get agency's cooperation; He pledges to continue investigation into drug trafficking," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, October 5, 1988 Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.) tries to force the Reagan administration to allow a General Accounting Office investigation into drug-trafficking around Mena.
"IRS says smuggler owes $29 million, seizes his property," BATON ROUGE STATE TIMES, February 5, 1986, pg. 1-A Some of Barry Seal's assets are listed.
"Judge set to rule in dispute over Seal's tax assessment," BATON ROUGE STATE TIMES, March 28, 1986
Kwitny, Jonathan, "Dope Story: Doubts Rise on Report Reagan Cited in Tying Sandinistas to Cocaine," WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 22, 1987 Account of Barry Seal's activities in Mena and his attempt as a DEA informant to connect the Sandinistas with cocaine trafficking.
Lemons, Terry and Fullerton, Jane, "Perot Called Clinton About Mena Inquiry," ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, April 19, 1992 In 1988, Ross Perot called Gov. Bill Clinton to discuss the allegations of cocaine trafficking on behalf of the Contras in Mena.
Lemons, Terry and Fullerton, Jane, "Perot Vows Mena Airport Won't Be Issue If He Runs," ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, April 26, 1992. Perot confirms that he discussed Mena with Gov. Bill Clinton in 1988.
Morris, Scott, "Clinton: State did all it could in Mena case," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, September 11, 1991 Gov. Bill Clinton claims the Arkansas State Police conducted a "very vigorous" investigation into allegations of drugs and money-laundering around Mena.
Morrison, Micah, "Mena Coverup? Razorback Columbo to Retire," WALL STREET JOURNAL May 10, 1995, pg. A18 Recounts the efforts of Arkansas State Policeman Russell Welch to investigate Mena, and the career troubles which ensued.
Morrison, Micah, "Mysterious Mena," WALL STREET JOURNAL, June 29, 1994 Recounts the stories about allegations of U.S. government-protected drug-running in Arkansas.
Morrison, Micah, "The Mena Coverup" WALL STREET JOURNAL, October 18, 1994 IRS investigator William Duncan developed documentation proving the money-laundering of cocaine profits through Arkansas.
Nabbefeld, Joe, "Evidence on Mena-CIA ties to go to Walsh; Airport's inclusion in Contra probe urged," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, September 10, 1991 Iran-contra Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh is given evidence on drug money-laundering involving CIA-Contra activities at Mena.
Norman, Jane, "Arkansas Airstrip Under Investigation," DES MOINES REGISTER, January 26, 1996, pg. 3 House Banking Chairman Jim Leach is investigating Mena.
"Panel investigating slain informant's activities," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, April 11, 1988 House investigators continue probing allegations of Contra cocaine smuggling.
Rafinski, Karen, "North gets boosters, protesters; Controversial Iran-Contra figure campaigns for Hayes," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, September 23, 1990 Oliver North visits Arkansas to support Republican Terry Hayes running against Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.).
Scarborough, Rowan, "House Panel Takes a Long Look at Mena," WASHINGTON TIMES, January 18, 1996 House Banking Committee is investigating the cocaine trafficking at Mena.
Semien, John, "Agent says Seal trafficked drugs while an informant," BATON ROUGE MORNING ADVOCATE, March 28, 1986 Louisiana state police describe their evidence that Barry Seal was a drug trafficker.
Semien, John, "Plane downed in Nicaragua once owned by Adler Barry Seal," BATON ROUGE MORNING ADVOCATE, March 10, 1986 The plane shot down over Nicaragua, revealing the Iran-contra affair, was owned by drug smuggler Barry Seal.
Semien, John, "Congress investigating Barry Seal's activities," BATON ROUGE SUNDAY ADVOCATE, April 10, 1988 Investigators for the House Subcommittee on Crime visited Louisiana to develop evidence regarding cocaine smuggling and the Contra resupply network.
Stewart, Julie, "Contras, Drug Smuggling Questions Remain Abut Arkansas Airport, ASSOCIATED PRESS, September 24, 1991
Stinson, Jeffrey, "Alexander vows to find answers to Seal story," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, December 22, 1990 Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.) Renews his efforts for a federal investigation of Mena.
Stinson, Jeffrey, "House panel hears tales of illegal activities at Mena airport," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, July 25, 1991 IRS investigator William Duncan describes the evidence he collected on drug trafficking at Mena and how the Justice Department asked him to perjure himself before a grand jury.
Tyrrell, R. Emmett Jr., "Furtive Drug Flights," August 25, 1995 Former Clinton bodyguard L.D. Brown reveals that apparently both Bill Clinton and George Bush knew about the Contra cocaine flights into Mena.
Walker, Martin, "Conspiracy theorists let imagination run riot over Whitewater scandal; Murder, arson, burglary, drug trafficking . . . they're all part of he plot, if the Clintons' accusers in the press are to be believed," THE GUARDIAN, March 24, 1994 Recounts the darkest allegations against Bill Clinton.
Weiner, Tim, "Suit by Drug Agent Says U.S. Subverted His Burmese Efforts," NEW YORK TIMES, October 27, 1994 Top DEA official in Burma describes how the State Department and CIA jeopardized his heroin investigations and put his life in danger.
MAGAZINE ARTICLES
Chua-Eoan, Howard G. and Shannon, Elaine, "Confidence Games," TIME, November 29, 1993, pg.35 CIA facilities in Venezuela are used to store 1,000 kilos of cocaine that is shipped to Miami.
Corn, David, "The C.I.A. and the Cocaine Coup," THE NATION, October 7, 1991, pg.404 Tells of CIA assistance in 1980 Bolivian coup that put cocaine cartel leaders into power.
COVERT ACTION INFORMATION BULLETIN, "The CIA and Drugs" edition, Number 28 (Summer 1987) 8 articles on the history of CIA drug trafficking and money laundering. Ordering information at http://www.worldmedia.com/caq
Dettmer, Jamie and Rodriguez, Paul M., "Starr Investigation Targets Law-Enforcement Complicity," INSIGHT, May 29, 1995 Report that Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr was investigating the shredding by Arkansas law enforcement of documents related to Iran-contra drug smuggling.
"Ghosts of carelessness past," ECONOMIST, May 7, 1994, pg. 30 Summary of allegations regarding cocaine smuggling at Mena.
Robinson, Deborah, "Unsolved mysteries in Clinton country," IN THESE TIMES, February 12-18, 1992 As Bill Clinton moved to gain the Democratic nomination for President, allegations surfaced that he ignored local law enforcement officials' pleas for assistance to investigate Mena.
Robinson, Linda and Duffy, Brian, "At play in the field of the spies; A primer: How not to fight the war on drugs," U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, November 29, 1993 CIA operatives in Venezuela were involved in or had known about drug shipments in the United States, but did nothing to stop them.
Tyrrell, R. Emmett Jr., "The Arkansas Drug Shuttle," THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR, August, 1995, pg.16 Story of former Clinton bodyguard, L.D. Brown, and his experiences in the Contra resupply operation
Wheeler, Scott L., "Dateline Mena: New Evidence, Rumored Congressional Inquiry Redirect Attention Toward Lingering Scandal," MEDIA BYPASS, January, 1996, pg. 60 More allegations rise to surface regarding cocaine trafficking at Mena, including evidence that the drug smuggling continues unabated.
"Whitewater Ad Nauseam?" BUSINESSWEEK, February 26, 1996, pg.45 House Banking Chairman James Leach is investigating Mena.
CONGRESSIONAL REPORTS
CONTINUED INVESTIGATION OF SENIOR-LEVEL EMPLOYEE MISCONDUCT AND MISMANAGEMENT AT THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, Hearing before the Commerce, Consumer, and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, First Session, July 24, 1991, GOV DOC # Y 4.G 74/7:Em 7/16 House probe into why IRS investigator William Duncan faced a career crisis for documenting the money-laundering through Arkansas in the 1980s.
DRUGS, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND FOREIGN POLICY, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 1989, S. Prt. 100-165 Chaired by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the subcommittee heard abundant testimony by drug dealers and pilots about CIA connections to the smuggling.
ENFORCEMENT OF NARCOTICS, FIREARMS, AND MONEY LAUNDERING LAWS, Oversight Hearings before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, Second Session, July 28, September 23, 29, and October 5, 1988, GOV DOC # Y 4.J 89/1:100/138 Investigation of connections between cocaine smuggler Barry Seal and the Contra resupply network.
IRS SENIOR EMPLOYEE MISCONDUCT PROBLEMS, Hearings before the Commerce Consumer and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, July 25, 26 and 27, 1989, GOV DOC # Y 4.G 74/7:Em 7/11 Congressional hearings discover that IRS employee problems are due to employees investigating money-laundering of cocaine through Arkansas.
SYRIA, PRESIDENT BUSH AND DRUGS, Subcommittee Staff Report, House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice, October 28, 1992 Reports that Bekaa Valley heroin traffickers have close ties to the Syrian government and Army, and that President Bush ignores this problem in his policy towards Syria.
SUMMARY OF IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST JANET RENO
by Tami Kay Freedman
TamKay24@aol.com
We the people, present these charges against Attorney General Janet Reno:
1. DERILICTION OF DUTY (Ruby Ridge, Idaho - 1992)
Janet Reno refused to support the conclusion of a Justice Dept. investigation that found an FBI sniper shot which killed Vicki Weaver was unconstitutional. Senate testimony showed that an FBI sniper killed Vicki Weaver by shooting her in the head as she held her baby while standing with the door open on her front porch. The FBI snipers were shooting at the Weavers from over 200 yards away using rifles with 10 power scopes. The snipers and assistant FBI director Larry Potts, testified that they had the right to shoot and kill anyone if that person was holding a gun. Chairman Spector pointed out that such a situation did not warrant the use of deadly force according to FBI policy. On the House floor, Idaho representative, Helen Chenoweth, called for the resignation of Potts who was also responsible for the WACO disaster and a personal friend of FBI Director Freeh, the Reno appointee. Randy Weaver's attorney called for Lon Horiuchi, the sniper, to be tried for murder based on the Justice Dept. investigation. Instead Horiuchi and Potts received paid leave for over two years. (SENATE RUBY RIDGE SIEGE INVESTIGATION)
2. FAILURE TO UPHOLD THE 4TH AMENDMENT OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION (Waco, Texas - 1993)
Janet Reno approved the CS military gas attack that led to the deaths of over 80 men, women and children who had never been charged with any crime. She also stated that she "could not find anything wrong" with FBI actions in Waco despite overwhelming video based evidence that the FBI was responsible for the deaths of the Davidians. An aerial video tape shows a tank destroying a Davidian building while people were still inside. Autopsy reports indicate that six bodies found in the rubble of that building were crushed to death. The Forward Looking Infared (FLIR) tape clearly shows heat images from bullets being fired at the Davidians as they tried to escape from the burning buildings. Janet Reno also could find no violation of the Posse Comitatus act which expressly prohibits the use of military equipment and personnel to enforce laws against American citizens unless authorized by the U.S. Constitution or act of Congress. (HOUSE BRANCH DAVIDIAN INCIDENT INVESTIGATION, RULES OF ENGAGEMENT - WILLIAM GAZECKI)
3. ABUSE OF POWER (Firing of all U.S. Attorneys - 1993)
Janet Reno fired all 94 United States Attorneys, a move unprecedented in American history, shortly after her appointment in March 1993. She stated that the replacement of all U.S. Attorneys was a "joint decision" with the White House. The liaison with the White House was the third highest ranking Justice Dept. official, associate attorney general, Webster Hubbell, who is now a convicted felon.
4. WILLFUL NEGLIGENCE (Fiske Appointment - 1993)
Janet Reno appointed Robert Fiske as a special independent prosecutor to investigate the Clintons' Whitewater dealings even though Fiske was a lawyer for International Paper Inc., the company that had sold land to the Whitewater partnership of Clinton and McDougal. Fiske was also a lawyer for the Bank of Commerce and Credit, which received laundered drug money transfers from the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, (ADFA) as explained by ADFA marketing director Larry Nichols. Bank records show that the laundering abruptly ended when Barry Seal, who ran a Mena Arkansas drug trafficking ring was assassinated in 1986 just before he was to testify before a grand jury. ADFA was created by Bill Clinton, who was the only authorized payer. BCCI created one of the worst scandals in savings & loan history when it collapsed in 1985 and was shut down in July 1991. As president, Clinton dismissed charges against the head of BCCI, Clark Clifford, who was the former LBJ defense secretary. (CITIZENS FOR HONEST GOVERNMENT - CLINTON CHRONICLES)
5. OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE (Arkansas U.S. Attorney - 1993-present)
Janet Reno has refused a 1993 FBI investigation recommendation to prosecute Chuck Banks, the former Arkansas U.S. attorney who was to be tried for obstruction of justice for shutting down a federal drug investigation that implicated many people within the state and local governments. The investigation found compromised local judges and prosecutors, drug trafficking at Mena, money laundering through ADFA, suppression and distortion by the media and information about the murder of Kevin Ives and Don Henry as well as five other subsequent deaths. Assistant U.S. attorney Bob Govar, who resigned in protest, received much information from Jean Duffey, the head of a drug task force investigation that was shut down by Judge John Cole. Duffey was attacked with 200 false press articles, threatened with imprisonment on an illegal warrant issued by the same judge, pressured to turn over her investigation to the people she was investigating and forced to temporarily flee the state when her mother received a tip from a police dispatcher that she would be killed if imprisoned. Despite confiscation of task force evidence, Dan Harmon, a prosecutor that she implicated, was tried and convicted in June of 1997 on five drug related felony counts, each carrying a maximum of 20 years in jail and a $150,000 fine. Harmon was convicted in 1990 on tax evasion but had his suspended law license reinstated after Winston Bryant, the Arkansas attorney general under Governor Clinton, testified on his behalf. To date, no one has been charged in any of the murders, despite contentions of the task force undercover agents that the murders were easily solvable. (CITIZENS FOR HONEST GOVERNMENT - OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE)
6. SUPPRESSION OF EVIDENCE (Tyson / Espy Investigation - 1994)
Janet Reno barred expansion of the probe into the affairs of Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy so that it would not include Don Tyson, the Clinton campaign contributor who was accused of bribing Espy. The investigation of Mike Espy, conducted by independent prosecutor Donald Smaltz, revealed evidence that Don Tyson was involved in drug abuse, drug distribution, money laundering and even murder for hire. Much of the evidence already existed in Arkansas State Police intelligence files. Tyson, owner of Tyson foods, had contributed over $600,000 to Bill Clinton campaigns. Tyson Foods counselor, James Blair, was the individual who turned a $1,000 cattle futures investment into $100,000 for Hillary Clinton. (CITIZENS FOR HONEST GOVERNMENT - CLINTON CHRONICLES)
7. IMPEDING AN INVESTIGATION (Judicial Watch vs. Commerce Dept. 1993-Present)
The Janet Reno led Justice Dept. has repeatedly attempted to stymie Judicial Watch in their freedom of information suit against the Commerce Dept., even though the Justice Dept. role is to make sure that the Commerce Dept. responds properly. The Judicial Watch suit was responsible for the John Huang deposition, which led to the exposure of millions of dollars in illegal contributions to the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaigns. In February 1996, Judicial Watch also subpoenaed Ron Brown who was killed in the plane crash at Croatia during April 1996, while he was preparing for the deposition. An assistant U.S. attorney in the Justice Dept. filed numerous motions to delay the case, made repeated objections that were overruled during testimony and terminated a deposition against orders of the judge, who ruled that his conduct was "totally improper" and "totally scandalous." (JUDICIAL WATCH, AMERICAN SPECTATOR 10/97)
8. GROSS FBI MISMANAGEMENT (William Sessions replacement with Louis Freeh - 1993)
Janet Reno fired William Sessions and replaced him with Louis Freeh on July 19, 1993, the day before the body of Vince Foster was found in Fort Marcy Park, Under Freeh, the FBI has entered the most incompetent, unaccountable period in its history as shown by these facts: - Louis Freeh promoted his close friend Larry Potts despite the assistant FBI director's responsibility for both the disastrous Waco and Ruby Ridge sieges - Freeh's FBI illegally gave Clinton Administration personnel over 900 files, including those on political adversaries. Freeh's FBI General Counsel, Howard Shapriro, even briefed White House counsel Jack Quinn on the information Freeh ordered agents to illegally read Richard Jewell his miranda rights while Jewell was cooperating to film a training video. The order was issued by phone over the unanimous protest of all involved Atlanta FBI agents - Freeh's FBI failed to process criminal background checks on citizenship applications resulting in over 70,000 criminals being granted U.S. citizenship in time for the 1996 elections - Freeh's FBI has been cited along with the ATF by 13,500 Oklahomans who were granted a new grand jury investigation into the alleged government cover-up involving the Oklahoma City bombing - Freeh's FBI crime labs were accused by agent Fredric Whitehurst of tainting evidence in high profile cases including the Oklahoma City bombing case - Freeh's FBI agents interrogated agent Gary Aldrich about his book, Unlimited Access, as well as agent Dennis Sculimbrene about his Craig Livingstone background inquiry that linked the Livingstone hiring to Hillary Clinton. (WASHINGTON TIMES NATIONAL WEEKLY 3/23/97)
9. AIDING & ABETTING ORGANIZED CRIME (Laborers International Union of North America - 1996)
Janet Reno shut down the prosecution of Arthur Coia, the head of Laborers International Union of North America, who was investigated by the Justice Dept. over several years for corrupt labor union practices such as extortion, conspiring to prevent free elections and even death by fire bombing. They concluded in their 1994 complaint that he was "associated with, influenced from and controlled by" organized crime. His union political action committee, Laborers' Political League, contributed over 4.5 million dollars to the Democrat National Committee and its candidates. In February of 1995, Coia also helped Hillary Clinton raise millions more dollars in a Miami Beach fund raiser at the Fountainbleau hotel for the top officials of his union. Also in February of 1995, the Justice Dept. dropped the complaint against Coia, signed a consent decree, withheld his prosecution and told him to clean up his own union. Officials of the Janet Reno led Justice Dept. now say that the consent decree was "the finest most practical resolution that's ever been reached in a case of alleged mob influence." Coia thanked them by being vice chairman of a May 1996 gala that raised $12,000,000 for Democrats. (NATIONAL LEGAL & POLICY CENTER, READERS DIGEST 4/96)
10. TREASON (Campaign Fund Raising - 1996)
Janet Reno refused three separate House committee requests in 1997 to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Democratic National Committee and presidential fund raising scandal, despite clear evidence of treasonous policies made by Bill Clinton in exchange for contributions. The requests were made by the Judiciary Committee in March and September as well as the Government Reform and Oversight Committee in August. Nearly $1,000,000 in contributions from Charlie Trie were traced by the FBI to Ng Lap Seng who advises both the Chinese government and Communist party on business and economic matters. Bill Clinton helped John Huang get hired at the DNC and Commerce Dept., even though he was a former U.S. president of the Lippo Group, which has a partnership with the Chinese Communist government to run the Hong Kong Chinese bank and its affiliate in China. Even before he was hired, Huang received a top secret military clearance which allowed him to attend over 100 briefings and review dozens of classified documents. Consequently, Bill Clinton relaxed U.S. export restrictions to China for several types of military technology and supported an effort by the Chinese communist controlled China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), to take over the Long Beach military port. COSCO was caught shipping 2000 illegal AK-47s into the Oakland port on route to L.A. street gangs. The weapons came from Poly Technologies, just days before their chairman, Wang Jen, an internationally renowned arms dealer, met with Bill Clinton at the White House. Bill Clinton also ensured Indonesia's monopoly on new low sulfur, super compliance coal when he declared 1.7 million acres in southern Utah as the Grand Escalante National Monument and made U.S. mining of the world's largest deposit of that coal there unfeasible. Despite all of this, Reno said she could see no evidence that a special prosecutor was needed and even failed to notify the White House when the FBI informed her of Chinese attempts to influence the 1996 presidential elections. (SENATE CAMPAIGN FINANCE COMMMITTEE, AMERICAN SPECTATOR 3/97, WASHINGTON TIMES 12/26/96 -12/30/96, 04/11/97-04/18/97)
11. VOTER FRAUD (INS Illegal Immigration - 1996)
Under Janet Reno, the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) registered 180,000 illegal immigrants just in time for the 1996 election. The INS typically registers about 300,000 immigrants per year. In 1996, they registered 1.1 million before the election, including 180,000 illegal immigrants and 70,000 criminals. In a House Appropriations Committee meeting, INS head Doris Meissner, confirmed that the INS was working closely with the Vice President and his office to register the immigrants. Meissner and other INS employees also acknowledged the existence of E-Mail messages from the Vice President's office to the INS stating Bill Clinton's frustration that the registration process may be going too slowly to be completed in time for the election. (HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS SUB COMMITTEE MEETING 4/4/97, SENATE ELECTION INVESTIGATION)
12. INCOMPETENCE (Bill Clinton sexual harassment suit - 1997)
Janet Reno filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court in an attempt to support the claim by Bill Clinton that he should be shielded from the Paula Jones sexual harassment civil suit until he leaves office on the grounds that he is the commander and chief of the U.S. armed forces. The Supreme Count ruled unanimously, by a 9-0 count, against him. (WASHINGTON TIMES NATIONAL WEEKLY Vol.4 No.25)
13. TAMPERING (Hillary Clinton privilege claim - 1997)
Janet Reno attempted to compromise the Kenneth Starr investigation by challenging an 8th U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that found the Hillary Clinton personal attorney client privilege claim does not apply to White House lawyers who are paid by American taxpayers. The ruling, which was challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court, involved Vince Foster and Rose Law firm billing record matters that Hillary Clinton discussed on July 11, 1995 with White House counsels Miriam Nemetz and Jane Sherbourne, lawyers. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case. (WASHINGTON TIMES NATIONAL WEEKLY Vol.4 No.25)
14. CONSPIRACY (Immunity refusal for Buddist nuns - 1997)
Janet Reno refused to grant immunity to four nuns who had contributed $5000 apiece to the Democratic National Committee at a fund raiser in the Hsi Lai Buddist temple in Hacienda Heights Cal, during April 1996. The event was attended by Vice President Al Gore who claimed he did not know it was a fund raiser even though evidence showed that virtually everyone on his staff knew it was a fund raiser and dozens of early 1996 documents confirmed it. The nuns, who like Buddist monks, are sworn to poverty, were unwilling to testify as to where they got the money unless granted immunity. Reno, admitted that the Justice Dept. would not prosecute the nuns but refused to grant immunity which helped conceal the illegal foreign source of the contributions. The bi-partisan Senate committee granted immunity to the nuns by votes of 15-1 and 13-3. The nuns testified that the related temple financial documents had been shredded. (SENATE CAMPAIGN FINANCE INVESTIGATION, AMERICAN SPECTATOR 10/97)
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Please Write Your NEWSPAPER about the need to FIRE JANET RENO!!
Write/Fax/Call!! And while you're sending, you might want to send it to OUR Congress also!!
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YOU ARE TRULY GREAT!! Tami Kay Freedman
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Mena (
/miːnə/) mee-nə) is a city in Polk County, Arkansas, United States. It is also the county seat of Polk County.[1] It was founded by Arthur Edward Stilwell during the building of the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad (now the Kansas City Southern). It was Stilwell who decided Mena would be the name of this new town along the route to Port Arthur, Texas. He named her so in honor of his beloved friend and financier Jan DeGeoijen's wife, Folmina Margaretha Janssen DeGeoijen, whom Mr. DeGeoijen affectionately called Mena. Mena was settled in 1896.
/miːnə/) mee-nə) is a city in Polk County, Arkansas, United States. It is also the county seat of Polk County.[1] It was founded by Arthur Edward Stilwell during the building of the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad (now the Kansas City Southern). It was Stilwell who decided Mena would be the name of this new town along the route to Port Arthur, Texas. He named her so in honor of his beloved friend and financier Jan DeGeoijen's wife, Folmina Margaretha Janssen DeGeoijen, whom Mr. DeGeoijen affectionately called Mena. Mena was settled in 1896.A number of allegations have been written about and several local, state, and federal investigations have taken place related to the notion of Mena as a drop point in large scale cocaine trafficking beginning in the latter part of the 1980s. The topic has received a large degree of its coverage due to the alleged knowledge, participation and/or coverup involvement of figures as powerful and infamous as future presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, as well future Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Saline County prosecutor Dan Harmon, who was convicted of numerous felonies including drug and racketeering charges in 1997.
The Crimes of Mena
By Sally Denton and Roger Morris
From the July 1995 issue of Penthouse Magazine.
This is the story that couldn't be suppressed.
An investigative report into a scandal that haunts the reputations of three presidents
— Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.
An investigative report into a scandal that haunts the reputations of three presidents
Barry Seal — gunrunner, drug trafficker, and covert C.I.A. operative extraordinaire — is hardly a familiar name in American politics. But nine years after he was murdered in a hail of bullets by Medellin cartel hit men outside a Salvation Army shelter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he has come back to haunt the reputations of three American presidents.
Seal's legacy includes more than 2,000 newly discovered documents that now verify and quantify much of what previously had been only suspicion, conjecture, and legend. The documents confirm that from 1981 to his brutal death in 1986, Barry Seal carried on one of the most lucrative, extensive, and brazen operations in the history of the international drug trade, and that he did it with the evident complicity, if not collusion, of elements of the United States government, apparently with the acquiescence of Ronald Reagan's administration, impunity from any subsequent exposure by George Bush's administration, and under the usually acute political nose of then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton.
The newly unearthed papers show the real Seal as far more impressive and well-connected than the character played by Dennis Hopper in a made-for-TV movie some years ago, loosely based on the smuggler's life. The film portrayed the pudgy pilot as a hapless victim, caught in a cross fire between bungling but benign government agencies and Latin drug lords. The truth sprinkled through the documents is a richer — and altogether more sinister — matter of national and individual corruption. It is a tale of massive, socially devastating crime, of what seems to have been an official cover-up to match, and, not least, of the strange reluctance of so-called mainstream American journalism to come to grips with the phenomenon and its ominous implications — even when the documentary evidence had appeared.
The trail winds back to another slightly bruited but obscure name — a small place in western Arkansas called Mena.
Of the many stories emerging from the Arkansas of the 1980s that was crucible to the Clinton presidency, none has been more elusive than the charges surrounding Mena. Nestled in the dense pine and hardwood forests of the Oachita Mountains, some 160 miles west of Little Rock, once thought a refuge for nineteenth-century border outlaws and even a hotbed of Depression-era anarchists, the tiny town has been the locale for persistent reports of drug smuggling, gunrunning, and money laundering tracing to the early eighties, when Seal based his aircraft at Mena's Intermountain Regional Airport.
From first accounts circulating locally in Arkansas, the story surfaced nationally as early as 1989 in a Penthouse article called "Snowbound," written by the investigative reporter John Cummings, and in a Jack Anderson column, but was never advanced at the time by other media. Few reporters covering Clinton in the 1992 campaign missed hearing at least something about Mena. But it was obviously a serious and demanding subject — the specter of vast drug smuggling with C.I.A. involvement — and none of the major media pursued it seriously During 1992, the story was kept alive by Sarah McClendon, The Nation, and The Village Voice.
Then, after Clinton became president, Mena began to reappear. Over the past year, CBS News and The Wall Street Journal have reported the original, unquieted charges surrounding Mena, including the shadow of some C.I.A. (or "national security") involvement in the gun and drug traffic, and the apparent failure of then governor Clinton to pursue evidence of such international crime so close to home.
"Seal was smuggling drugs and kept his planes at Mena," The Wall Street Journal reported in 1994. "He also acted as an agent for the D.E.A. In one of these missions, he flew the plane that produced photographs of Sandinistas loading drugs in Nicaragua. He was killed by a drug gang [Medellin cartel hit men] in Baton Rouge. The cargo plane he flew was the same one later flown by Eugene Hasenfus when he was shot down over Nicaragua with a load of contra supplies.
In a mix of wild rumor and random fact, Mena has also been a topic of ubiquitous anti-Clinton diatribes circulated by right-wing extremists — an irony in that the Mena operation was the apparent brainchild of the two previous and Republican administrations.
Still, most of the larger American media have continued to ignore, if not ridicule, the Mena accusations. Finding no conspiracy in the Oachitas last July, a Washington Post reporter typically scoffed at the "alleged dark deeds," contrasting Mena with an image as "Clandestination, Arkansas ... Cloak and Dagger Capital of America." Noting that The New York Times had "mentioned Mena primarily as the headquarters of the American Rock Garden Society," the Columbia Journalism Review in a recent issue dismissed "the conspiracy theories" as of "dubious relevance."
A former Little Rock businessman, Terry Reed, has coauthored with John Cummings a highly controversial book, Compromised: Clinton, Bush, and the C.I.A., which describes a number of covert activities around Mena, including a C.I.A. operation to train pilots and troops for the Nicaraguan Contras, and the collusion of local officials. Both the book and its authors were greeted with derision.
Now, however, a new mass of documentary evidence has come to light regarding just such "dark deeds" — previously private and secret records that substantiate as never before some of the worst and most portentous suspicions about what went on at Mena, Arkansas, a decade ago.
Given the scope and implications of the Mena story, it may be easy to understand the media's initial skepticism and reluctance. But it was never so easy to dismiss the testimony arid suspicions of some of those close to the matter: Internal Revenue Service Agent Bill Duncan, Arkansas State Police investigator Russell Welch, Arkansas Attorney General J. Winston Bryant, Congressman Bill Alexander, and various other local law-enforcement officials and citizens.
All of these people were convinced by the late eighties that there existed what Bryant termed "credible evidence" of the most serious criminal activity involving Mena between 1981 and 1986. They also believed that the crimes were committed with the acquiescence, if not the complicity, of elements of the U.S. government. But they couldn't seem to get the national media to pay attention.
During the 1992 campaign, outside advisers and aides urged former California governor Jerry Brown to raise the Mena issue against Clinton — at least to ask why the Arkansas governor had not done more about such serious international crime so close to home. But Brown, too, backed away from the subject. I'll raise it if the major media break it first," he told aides. "The media will do it, Governor," one of them replied in frustration, "if only you'll raise it."
Mena's obscure airport was thought by the I.R.S., the F.B.I., U.S. Customs, and the Arkansas State Police to be a base for Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal, a self-confessed, convicted smuggler whose operations had been linked to the intelligence community. Duncan and Welch both spent years building cases against Seal and others for drug smuggling and money laundering around Mena, only to see their own law-enforcement careers damaged in the process.
What evidence they gathered, they have said in testimony and other public statements, was not sufficiently pursued by the then U.S. attorney for the region, J. Michael Fitzhugh, or by the I.R.S., Arkansas State Police, and other agencies. Duncan, testifying before the joint investigation by the Arkansas state attorney general's office and the United States Congress in June 1991, said that 29 federal indictments drafted in a Mena-based money-laundering scheme had gone unexplored. Fitzhugh, responding at the time to Duncan's charges, said, "This office has not slowed up any investigation ... [and] has never been under any pressure in any investigation."
By 1992, to Duncan's and Welch's mounting dismay, several other official inquiries into the alleged Mena connection were similarly ineffectual or were stifled altogether, furthering their suspicions of government collusion and cover-up. In his testimony before Congress, Duncan said the I.R.S. "withdrew support for the operations" and further directed him to "withhold information from Congress and perjure myself."
Duncan later testified that he had never before experienced "anything remotely akin to this type of interference.... Alarms were going off," he continued, "and as soon as Mr. Fitzhugh got involved, he was more aggressive in not allowing the subpoenas and in interfering in the investigative process."
State policeman Russell Welch felt he was "probably the most knowledgeable person" regarding the activities at Mena, yet he was not initially subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. Welch testified later that the only reason he was ultimately subpoenaed at all was because one of the grand jurors was from Mena and "told the others that if they wanted to know something about the Mena airport, they ought to ask that guy [Welch] out there in the hall."
State Attorney General Bryant, in a 1991 letter to the office of Lawrence Walsh, the independent counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation, wondered "why no one was prosecuted in Arkansas despite a mountain of evidence that Seal was using Arkansas as his principal staging area during the years 1982 through 1985."
What actually went on in the woods of western Arkansas? The question is still relevant for what it may reveal about certain government operations during the time that Reagan and Bush were in the White House and Clinton was governor of Arkansas.
In a mass of startling new documentation — the more than 2,000 papers gathered by the authors from private and law-enforcement sources in a year-long nationwide search — answers are found and serious questions are posed.
These newly unearthed documents — the veritable private papers of Barry Seal — substantiate at least part of what went on at Mena.
What might be called the Seal archive dates back to 1981, when Seal began his operations at the Intermountain Regional Airport in Mena. The archive, all of it now in our possession, continues beyond February 1986, when Seal was murdered by Colombian assassins after he had testified in federal court in Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami for the U.S. government against leaders of the Medellin drug cartel.
The papers include such seemingly innocuous material as Seal's bank and telephone records; negotiable instruments, promissory notes, and invoices; personal correspondence address and appointment books; bills of sale for aircraft and boats; aircraft registration, and modification work orders.
In addition, the archive also contains personal diaries; handwritten to-do lists and other private notes; secretly tape-recorded conversations; and cryptographic keys and legends for codes used in the Seal operation.
Finally, there are extensive official records: federal investigative and surveillance reports, accounting assessments by the I.R.S. and the D.E.A., and court proceedings not previously reported in the press — testimony as well as confidential pre-sentencing memoranda in federal narcotics-trafficking trials in Florida and Nevada — numerous depositions, and other sworn statements.
The archive paints a vivid portrait not only of a major criminal conspiracy around Mena, but also of the unmistakable shadow of government complicity. Among the new revelations:
Mena, from 1981 to 1985, was indeed one of the centers for international smuggling traffic. According to official I.R.S. and D.E.A. calculations, sworn court testimony, and other corroborative records, the traffic amounted to thousands of kilos of cocaine and heroin and literally hundreds of millions of dollars in drug profits. According to a 1986 letter from the Louisiana attorney general to then U.S. attorney general Edwin Meese, Seal "smuggled between $3 billion and $5 billion of drugs into the U.S."
Seal himself spent considerable sums to land, base, maintain, and specially equip or refit his aircraft for smuggling. According to personal and business records, he had extensive associations at Mena and in Little Rock, and was in nearly constant telephone contact with Mena when he was not there himself. Phone records indicate Seal made repeated calls to Mena the day before his murder. This was long after Seal, according to his own testimony, was working as an $800,000-a-year informant for the federal government.
A former member of the Army Special Forces, Seal had ties to the Central Intelligence Agency dating to the early 1970s. He had confided to relatives and others, according to their sworn statements, that he was a C.I.A. operative before and during the period when he established his operations at Mena. In one statement to Louisiana State Police, a Seal relative said, "Barry was into gunrunning and drug smuggling in Central and South America ... and he had done some time in El Salvadore [sic]." Another then added, "lt was true, but at the time Barry was working for the C.I.A."
In a posthumous jeopardy-assessment case against Seal — also documented in the archive — the I.R.S. determined that money earned by Seal between 1984 and 1986 was not illegal because of his "C.I.A.-D.E.A. employment." The only public official acknowledgment of Seal's relationship to the C.I.A. has been in court and congressional testimony, and in various published accounts describing the C.I.A.'s installation of cameras in Seal's C-123K transport plane, used in a highly celebrated 1984 sting operation against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.
Robert Joura, the assistant special agent in charge of the D.E.A.'s Houston office and the agent who coordinated Seal's undercover work, told The Washington Post last year that Seal was enlisted by the C.I.A. for one sensitive mission — providing photographic evidence that the Sandinistas were letting cocaine from Colombia move through Nicaragua. A spokesman for then Senate candidate Oliver North told The Post that North had been kept aware of Seal's work through "intelligence sources."
Federal Aviation Administration registration records contained in the archive confirm that aircraft identified by federal and state narcotics agents as in the Seal smuggling operation were previously owned by Air America, Inc., widely reported to have been a C.I.A. proprietary company. Emile Camp, one of Seal's pilots and a witness to some of his most significant dealings, was killed on a mountainside near Mena in 1985 in the unexplained crash of one of those planes that had once belonged to Air America.
According to still other Seal records, at least some of the aircraft in his smuggling fleet, which included a Lear jet, helicopters, and former U.S. military transports, were also outfitted with avionics and other equipment by yet another company in turn linked to Air America.
Among the aircraft flown in and out of Mena was Seal's C-123K cargo plane, christened Fat Lady. The records show that Fat Lady, serial number 54-0679, was sold by Seal months before his death. According to other files, the plane soon found its way to a phantom company of what became known in the Iran-Contra scandal as "the Enterprise," the C.I.A.-related secret entity managed by Oliver North and others to smuggle illegal weapons to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. According to former D.E.A. agent Celerino Castillo and others, the aircraft was allegedly involved in a return traffic in cocaine, profits from which were then used to finance more clandestine gunrunning.
F.A.A. records show that in October 1986, the same Fat Lady was shot down over Nicaragua with a load of arms destined for the Contras. Documents found on board the aircraft and seized by the Sandinistas included logs linking the plane with Area 51 — the nation's top-secret nuclear-weapons facility at the Nevada Test Site. The doomed aircraft was co-piloted by Wallace Blaine "Buzz" Sawyer, a native of western Arkansas, who died in the crash. The admissions of the surviving crew member, Eugene Hasenfus, began a public unraveling of the Iran-Contra episode.
An Arkansas gun manufacturer testified in 1993 in federal court in Fayetteville that the C.I.A. contracted with him to build 250 automatic pistols for the Mena operation. William Holmes testified that he had been introduced to Seal in Mena by a C.I.A. operative, and that he then sold weapons to Seal. Even though he was given a Department of Defense purchase order for guns fitted with silencers, Holmes testified that he was never paid the $140,000 the government owed him. "After the Hasenfus plane was shot down," Holmes said, "you couldn't find a soul around Mena."
Meanwhile, there was still more evidence that Seal's massive smuggling operation based in Arkansas had been part of a C.I.A. operation, and that the crimes were continuing well after Seal's murder. In 1991 sworn testimony to both Congressman Alexander and Attorney General Bryant, state police investigator Welch recorded that in 1987 he had documented "new activity at the [Mena] airport with the appearance of ... an Australian business [a company linked with the C.I.A.], and C-130s had appeared...."
At the same time, according to Welch, two F.B.I. agents officially informed him that the C.I.A. "had something going on at the Mena Airport involving Southern Air Transport [another company linked with the C.I.A.] ... and they didn't want us [the Arkansas State Police] to screw it up like we had the last one."
The hundreds of millions in profits generated by the Seal trafficking via Mena and other outposts resulted in extraordinary banking and business practices in apparent efforts to launder or disperse the vast amounts of illicit money in Arkansas and elsewhere. Seal's financial records show from the early eighties, for example, instances of daily deposits of $50,000 or more, and extensive use of an offshore foreign bank in the Caribbean, as well as financial institutions in Arkansas and Florida.
According to I.R.S. criminal investigator Duncan, secretaries at the Mena Airport told him that when Seal flew into Mena, "there would be stacks of cash to be taken to the bank and laundered." One secretary told him that she was ordered to obtain numerous cashier's checks, each in an amount just under $10,000, at various banks in Mena and surrounding communities, to avoid filing the federal Currency Transaction Reports required for all bank transactions that exceed that limit.
Bank tellers testified before a federal grand jury that in November 1982, a Mena airport employee carried a suitcase containing more than $70,000 into a bank. "The bank officer went down the teller lines handing out the stacks of $1,000 bills and got the cashier's checks."
Law-enforcement sources confirmed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were laundered from 1981 to 1983 just in a few small banks near Mena, and that millions more from Seal's operation were laundered elsewhere in Arkansas and the nation.
Spanish-language documents in Seal's possession at the time of his murder also indicate that he had accounts throughout Central America and was planning to set up his own bank in the Caribbean.
Additionally, Seal's files suggest a grandiose scheme for building an empire. Papers in his office at the time of his death include references to dozens of companies, all of which had names that began with Royale. Among them: Royale Sports, Royale Television Network, Royale Liquors, Royale Casino, S.A., Royale Pharmaceuticals, Royale Arabians, Royale Seafood, Royale Security, Royale Resorts ... and on and on.
Seal was scarcely alone in his extensive smuggling operation based in Mena from 1981 to 1986, commonly described in both federal and state law-enforcement files as one of the largest drug-trafficking operations in the United States at the time, if not in the history of the drug trade. Documents show Seal confiding on one occasion that he was "only the transport," pointing to an extensive network of narcotics distribution and finance in Arkansas and other states. After drugs were smuggled across the border, the duffel bags of cocaine would be retrieved by helicopters and dropped onto flatbed trucks destined for various American cities.
In recognition of Seal's significance in the drug trade, government prosecutors made him their chief witness in various cases, including a 1985 Miami trial in absentia of Medellln drug lords; in another 1985 trial of what federal officials regarded as the largest narcotics-trafficking case to date in Las Vegas; and in still a third prosecution of corrupt officials in the Turks and Caicos Islands. At the same time, court records and other documents reveal a studied indifference by government prosecutors to Seal's earlier and ongoing operations at Mena.
In the end, the Seal documents are vindication for dedicated officials in Arkansas like agents Duncan and Welch and local citizens' groups like the Arkansas Committee, whose own evidence and charges take on new gravity — and also for The Nation, The Village Voice, the Association of National Security Alumni, the venerable Washington journalists Sarah McClendon and Jack Anderson, Arkansas reporters Rodney Bowers and Mara Leveritt, and others who kept an all-too-authentic story alive amid wider indifference.
But now the larger implications of the newly exposed evidence seem as disturbing as the criminal enormity it silhouettes. Like his modern freebooter's life, Seal's documents leave the political and legal landscape littered with stark questions.
What, for example, happened to some nine different official investigations into Mena after 1987, from allegedly compromised federal grand juries to congressional inquiries suppressed by the National Security Council in 1988 under Ronald Reagan to still later Justice Department inaction under George Bush?
Officials repeatedly invoked national security to quash most of the investigations. Court documents do show clearly that the C.I.A. and the D.E.A. employed Seal during 1984 and 1985 for the Reagan administration's celebrated sting attempt to implicate the Nicaraguan Sandinista regime in cocaine trafficking.
According to a December 1988 Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, "cases were dropped. The apparent reason was that the prosecution might have revealed national-security information, even though all of the crimes which were the focus of the investigation occurred before Seal became a federal informant."
Tax records show that, having assessed Seal posthumously for some $86 million in back taxes on his earnings from Mena and elsewhere between 1981 and 1983, even the I.R.S. forgave the taxes on hundreds of millions in known drug and gun profits over the ensuing two-year period when Seal was officially admitted to be employed by the government.
To follow the I.R.S. logic, what of the years, crimes, and profits at Mena in the early eighties, before Barry Seal became an acknowledged federal operative, as well as the subsequently reported drug-trafficking activities at Mena even after his murder — crimes far removed from his admitted cooperation as government informant and witness?
"Joe [name deleted] works for Seal and cannot be touched because Seal works for the C.I.A.," a Customs official said in an Arkansas investigation into drug trafficking during the early eighties. "A C.I.A. or D.E.A. operation is taking place at the Mena airport," an F.B.I. telex advised the Arkansas State Police in August 1987, 18 months after Seal's murder. Welch later testified that a Customs agent told him, "Look, we've been told not to touch anything that has Barry Seal's name on it, just to let it go."
The London Sunday Telegraph recently reported new evidence, including a secret code number, that Seal was also working as an operative of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the period of the gunrunning and drug smuggling.
Perhaps most telling is what is so visibly missing from the voluminous files. In thousands of pages reflecting a man of meticulous organization and planning, Barry Seal seems to have felt singularly and utterly secure — if not somehow invulnerable — at least in the ceaseless air transport and delivery into the United States of tons of cocaine for more than five years. In a 1986 letter to the D.E.A., the commander and deputy commander of narcotics for the Louisiana State Police say that Seal "was being given apparent free rein to import drugs in conjunction with D.E.A. investigations with so little restraint and control on his actions as to allow him the opportunity to import drugs for himself should he have been so disposed."
Seal's personal videotapes, in the authors' possession, show one scene in which he used U.S. Army paratroop equipment, as well as militarylike precision, in his drug-transporting operation. Then, in the middle of the afternoon after a number of dry runs, one of his airplanes dropped a load of several duffel bags attached to a parachute. Within seconds, the cargo sitting on the remote grass landing strip was retrieved by Seal and loaded onto a helicopter that had followed the low-flying aircraft. "This is the first daylight cocaine drop in the history of the state of Louisiana," Seal narrates on the tape. If the duffel bags seen in the smuggler's home movies were filled with cocaine — as Seal himself states on tape — that single load would have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Perhaps the videos were not of an actual cocaine drop, but merely the drug trafficker's training video for his smuggling organization, or even a test maneuver. Regardless, the films show a remarkable, fearless invincibility. Barry Seal was not expecting apprehension.
His most personal papers show him all but unconcerned about the very flights and drops that would indeed have been protected or "fixed," according to law-enforcement sources, by the collusion of U.S. intelligence.
In an interview with agent Duncan, Seal brazenly "admitted that he had been a drug smuggler."
If the Seal documents show anything, an attentive reader might conclude, it is that ominous implication of some official sanction. Over the entire episode looms the unmistakable shape of government collaboration in vast drug trafficking and gunrunning, and in a decade-long cover-up of criminality.
Government investigators apparently had no doubt about the magnitude of those crimes. According to Customs sources, Seal's operations at Mena and other bases were involved in the export of guns to Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, and Brazil, as well as to the Contras, and the importation of cocaine from Colombia to be sold in New York, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and other cities, as well as in Arkansas itself.
Duncan and his colleagues knew that Seal's modus operandi included dumping most of the drugs in other southern states, so that what Arkansas agents witnessed in Mena was but a tiny fragment of an operation staggering in its magnitude. Yet none of the putative inquiries seems to have made a serious effort to gather even a fraction of the available Seal documents now assembled and studied by the authors.
Finally, of course, there are somber questions about then governor Clinton's own role vis-a-vis the crimes of Mena.
Clinton has acknowledged learning officially about Mena only in April 1988, though a state police investigation had been in progress for several years. As the state's chief executive, Clinton often claimed to be fully abreast of such inquiries. In his one public statement on the matter as governor, in September 1991 he spoke of that investigation finding "linkages to the federal government," and "all kinds of questions about whether he [Seal] had any links to the C.I.A.... and if that backed into the Iran-Contra deal."
But then Clinton did not offer further support for any inquiry, "despite the fact," as Bill Plante and Michael Singer of CBS News have written, "that a Republican administration was apparently sponsoring a Contra-aid operation in his state and protecting a smuggling ring that flew tons of cocaine through Arkansas."
As recently as March 1995, Arkansas state trooper Larry Patterson testified under oath, according to The London Sunday Telegraph, that he and other officers "discussed repeatedly in Clinton's presence" the "large quantities of drugs being flown into the Mena airport, large quantities of money, large quantities of guns," indicating that Clinton may have known much more about Seal's activities than he has admitted.
Moreover, what of the hundreds of millions generated by Seal's Mena contraband? The Seal records reveal his dealings with at least one major Little Rock bank. How much drug money from him or his associates made its way into criminal laundering in Arkansas's notoriously freewheeling financial institutions and bond houses, some of which are reportedly under investigation by the Whitewater special prosecutor for just such large, unaccountable infusions of cash and unexplained transactions?
"The state offers an enticing climate for traffickers," I.R.S. agents had concluded by the end of the eighties, documenting a "major increase" in the amount of large cash and bank transactions in Arkansas after 1985, despite a struggling local economy.
Meanwhile, prominent backers of Clinton's over the same years — including bond broker and convicted drug dealer Dan Lasater and chicken tycoon Don Tyson — have themselves been subjects of extensive investigative and surveillance files by the D.E.A. or the F.B.I. similar to those relating to Seal, including allegations of illegal drug activity that Tyson has recently acknowledged publicly and denounced as "totally false." "This may be the first president in history with such close buddies who have NADDIS numbers," says one concerned law-enforcement official, referring to the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Intelligence System numbers assigned those under protracted investigation for possible drug crimes.
The Seal documents are still more proof that for Clinton, the Arkansas of the eighties and the company he kept there will not soon disappear as a political or even constitutional liability.
"I've always felt we never got the whole story there," Clinton said in 1991.
Indeed. But as president of the United States, he need no longer wonder — and neither should the nation. On the basis of the Seal documents (copies of which are being given to the Whitewater special prosecutor in any case), the president should ask immediately for a full report on the matter from the C.I.A., the D.E.A., the F.B.I., the Justice Department, and other relevant agencies of his own administration — including the long-buried evidence gathered by I.R.S. agent Duncan and Arkansas state police investigator Welch. President Clinton should also offer full executive-branch cooperation with a reopened congressional inquiry, and expose the subject fully for what it says of both the American past and future.
Seal saw himself as a patriot to the end. He had dictated his own epitaph for his grave in Baton Rouge: "A rebel adventurer the likes of whom in previous days made America great." In a sense his documents may now render that claim less ironic than it seems.
The tons of drugs that Seal and his associates brought into the country, officials agree, affected tens of thousands of lives at the least, and exacted an incalculable toll on American society. And for the three presidents, the enduring questions of political scandal are once again apt: What did they know about Mena? When did they know it? Why didn't they do anything to stop it?
The crimes of Mena were real. That much is now documented beyond doubt. The only remaining issues are how far they extended, and who was responsible.
This is a documentary series that was never aired where an investigative journalist uncovers truth to the rumors about Iran-Contra during the Reagan years, CIA drug trafficking, CIA drug operations in Mena, Arkansas during the Clinton governorship and presidency. It also implies that former president George H.W. Bush, who was vice president during the Reagan years, and was also former head of the CIA was also involved. This documentary to my knowledge was recorded from a hacked satellite tuned to an "edit" channel which was feeding coast to coast "preview programming" to network executives in NYC. Apparently the decision was made against running this program due to its content and the "heat" that it would generate. The CIA poses as FBI more often than not, so perhaps the "FBI" stated this would interfere with their investigation......
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if all of this so called evidence is so true, how is Clinton not behind bars? Its public enough to get to the answers.
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