Date: Sun Nov 12, 1995 2:22 pm CST From: snet l EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: snet-l@world.std.com TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Clinton body count - summary -- Area : AEN CHAT -----------------------------------------( M-BOARD.FR2 )---- Msg# 21534 Loc Date: 11-04-95 07:46 From: William Kuehne Read: No Replied: No To: All Mark: Subj: Bill Clinton's death count ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following excerpts are from copyrighted material and are posted here without permission. My comments in [brackets]. Begin excerpts: [text omitted] With the release of this report, I may be the #1 target of a group of very short-tempered gentlemen who have thus far dispatched [at least] 21 people who were an embarrassment to their friend Bill Clinton. All of the 21 knew a bit too much about Whitewater or Troopergate or Cattlegate or some other Clinton scandal. In some ways, I know more than they did. I spent 20 years in Arkansas, and I personally knew Clinton, Jim Blair, Vince Foster, Jim McDougal, David Hale, Don Tyson, Governor Tucker, and dozens more of that bunch. Some of the dead probably died by accident. But it's silly to pretend they all did. For example: Victim 1: On September 26, 1993, Luther "Jerry" Parks enjoyed a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Little Rock. On the way home, his car was forced to a stop and he was mowed down by unfriendlies with nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistols. [text omitted] Jerry was the owner of American Contract Services, which supplied the guards for Clinton's presidential campaign and transition headquarters (Clinton still owed him $81,000) so he knew a lot about Clinton's comings and goings. As a matter of fact, Jerry had quietly been compiling a major study of Clinton's sexual affairs for about six years. Not quietly enough though. Shortly before his demise, his home was broken into and the study's backup files - filled with photos and names - were stolen, according to his widow, Jane, after the security alarm was skillfully cut. [text omitted] After a long investigation, Little Rock police detective Sergeant Clyde Steelman gave his character endorsement, "The Parks family aren't lying to you." Victim 2: You must understand the central fact about the Whitewater Development Corporation: It was not the main crime. Whitewater was only a pretext set up by Jim McDougal and the Clintons to milk millions of dollars from the SBA [Small Business Administration], banks, Arkansas Development Finance Authority [ADFA], and Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan. The Resolution Trust Corporation [RTC] people eventually figured out that their investigation of Madison wasn't getting anywhere because it was based in Kansas City, where Clinton's people stymied it. So Jon Parnell Walker, a Senior Investigation Specialist in the RTC's Washington [D.C.] office, began a campaign to get the case moved to DC. Soon after, Jon was looking over a possible new apartment in Lincoln Towers in Arlington, Virginia, when reportedly he suddenly decided to climb over the balcony railing and jump. Victim 3: You remember the name Danny Ferguson. He is the Arkansas patrolman who once said he brought Paula Jones to Bill Clinton's hotel room. Kathy, 38, his wife at the time, blabbed a lot about such things. She often told friends and coworkers about how Bill had gotten Danny to bring women to him and stand watch while they had sex. [text omitted] Kathy told people that Bill was really mad when Paula Jones wouldn't "put out." Bill hates to be refused. On May 10 [year?], Kathy was found dead with a pistol in her hand. A suicide, the police said. [text omitted] Footnote to story: About three weeks later, Danny reversed his story, saying he didn't lead Paula to Clinton's room after all. Second footnote: Bill Shelton, Kathy's new boyfriend since her separation from Danny, was loudly critical of the suicide story and complained to many people about it. Bill was found dead on June 9. They're calling this a suicide, too. Victim 4: Vincent Foster, who was Clinton's counsel for Whitewater, was the highest government official to meet an untimely death since the Kennedys. He could have killed himself on July 20, 1993, Robert Fiske, Clinton's "independent" counsel claimed. But it's rather doubtful. The story line concocted by Fiske has about 20 major holes in it, which partly explains his replacement by Kenneth Starr. [This section was to long to type!] Victim 5 & 6: Then you have the small-plane crashes, which are fairly easy events to stage. [text omitted] [...] C. Victor Raiser II, the former finance co-chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign, and his son, Montgomery. Their plane crashed in good weather near Anchorage, Alaska, on July 30, 1992. Victim 7: Herschel Friday was another member of Raiser's committee and a heck of a nice guy. His plane dropped out of sight and exploded as he approached his own private landing strip in Arkansas in a light drizzle on March 1, 1994. Herschel was a top-notch pilot and his strip is better than those in most cities. [...] Victim 8: Just two days later, Dr. Ronald Rogers, a very vocal dentist from Royal, Arkansas, was on his way to reveal some dirt on Clinton to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a reporter from the London Sunday Telegraph, when his twin-engine Cessna crashed with a full tank of gas in clear weather south of Lawton, Oklahoma. [text omitted] Victim 9: [...Barry Seal's] story is so exciting that Hollywood made it into a movie, 'Double-Crossed' [...] Barry made about $50 million as a pilot and plane supplier in Clinton's incredibly elaborate and successful drug-running operation out of Mena, Arkansas. [text omitted] Barry Seal was eventually arrested by the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration. To get off the hook, he turned state's evidence and fingered several big drug dealers. He even managed to take clandestine photographs of major Colombian and Panamanian figures, one of which President Reagan showed proudly in a nationwide TV speech. But in the end, the DEA betrayed the flamboyant Barry by allowing him to be sentenced to a halfway house, where a few days later he was a sitting duck for three Colombian avengers with Uzi and MAC-10 submachine guns with silencers. [This section was to long to type!] Victim 10 & 11: Kevin Ives and Don Henry, two Bryant, Arkansas, teenagers, apparently were a bit too snoopy about the air drops of dope and cash they had observed in the nearby countryside at night (part of the Mena operation). They were found on the morning of August 23, 1987, having been run over by a train. "They fell asleep on the tracks," according to state medical examiner Fahmy Malak, a Clinton appointee [...] ( [...] Malak once declared that a decapitated man had died of "natural causes," a ruling Clinton defended as a mere symptom of overwork.) Malak's opinion caused a big ruckus locally. Eventually, the boy's irate parents managed to get a second coroner's opinion, and the official causes of death were changed to being stabbed in the back and getting a crushed skull before the train came. At this point... Victims 12 - 17: ...six local people came forward independently, each claiming to have some special knowledge about the deaths of the boys on the track. All were slain before their testimony could do any good. Police involvement is suspected in most cases, but not all: Keith Coney had been slashed in the neck and was fleeing for his life when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck. "A traffic fatality," police said. Gregory Collins was found shot in the face by a shotgun. Keith McKaskle was brutally stabbed at home 113 times. He knew he was doomed, and had told his friends and family goodbye. The burned body of Jeff Rhodes was found in the city dump, shot in the head and with his hands, feet, and head partly cut off. Richard Winters was killed by a man with a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun. Jordon Ketelson died of a shotgun blast to the head and was found in the driveway of a house in Garland County. "A suicide," the sheriff said. Do you see a pattern here? All in all, after ten years of Mena operations, not one arrest was ever made [...] Victim 18: Danny Casolaro was a reporter who was investigating the connections between Mena, BCCI, Iran-Contra, Reagan's "October Surprise," Park-o-Meter Co. (which made dope-storage nose cones for the airplanes at Mena), and the ADFA (Clinton's billion-dollar state bonds racket). [...] On August 10, 1991, just as he was about to receive information linking Iran-Contra to the Inslaw scandal, Danny was found with his wrists slit in the bathtub of a hotel room in West Virginia. What a coincidence. Victim 19: Paul Wilcher, a Washington D.C. lawyer, was deeply investigating Mena and other scandals. He was scheduled for a meeting with Danny Casolaro's former attorney, but on June 22, 1993, was found dead in his apartment, sitting on his toilet. (The bathroom killer strikes again?) Victim 20: Ed Willey, the manager of Clinton's presidential campaign finance committee [...] supposedly shot himself on November 30, 1993. Victim 21: John A. Wilson, a [...] city councilman in Washington D.C., knew a lot about Clinton's dirty tricks. [...] on May 19, 1993, he just decided to hang himself [...] [text omitted] Footnote: I hereby serve notice that I am not depressed in the least, and that if anything happens to me, I publicly accuse Bill Clinton and his circle of power. End excerpts. By Nicholas A. Guarino Editor The Wall Street Underground 1129 East Cliff Road Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 ... Warning: The author of this message has Patriot's Disease --- Blue Wave/QBBS v2.12 [NR] * Origin: Gun Control=Criminals & Gestapo vs. the Unarmed. (1:231/110.0) Date: Mon Nov 20, 1995 11:24 pm CST From: snet l EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: snet-l@world.std.com TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: (fwd) BBC Video Tape on Mena Xref: linex1 alt.conspiracy:144762 alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater:20768 alt.fan.rush-limbaugh:301591 alt.politics:3295 alt.politics.clinton:212621 alt.politics.usa:6949 alt.politics.usa.constitution:49965 talk.politics.misc:437313 Newsgroups: alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater, alt.conspiracy,alt.politics,alt.politics.usa,alt.politics.usa.constitution, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,alt.politics.clinton,talk.politics.misc Path: linex1!pagesat.net!news.uoregon.edu!news.corpcomm.net!newstand.syr.edu! newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com! howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!rivero From: rivero@netcom.com (Michael Rivero) Subject: BBC Video Tape on Mena Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sun, 19 Nov 1995 17:42:31 GMT Lines: 92 Sender: rivero@netcom13.netcom.com Status: N >> >>Try reading the British press and watching British news documentaries, >>and you'll see exactly how derelict the American press and >>electronic media have become. >> > > That's true. While I was down in Australia, everyone was talking about the >British 20/20 program on Mena. I was not able to see it myself, but from the >second hand reports it must have been a very thorough expose. > > I guess that, like "The Atomic Cafe", this is another forign documentary >that will never be shown in our "free" society. Hey, I was wrong! The show IS available here in the United States. The following is offered for informational purposes only. I am not affiliated with the Washington Weekly (although I am a fan), and share no commercial interest in this video tape (but my money is on the way as I type this). ------------------------------------------------------ "The Cocaine Connection" "Reveals a trail of guns, cash and cocaine leading to the front door of the White House" This is the story that American TV should have told, but didn't. This is a scandal that Congress should have exposed, but wouldn't. Now British TV has made a documentary expose of the gun running, drug smuggling, and murder centered around Mena airport in the 1980s. This compelling documentary includes actual footage as well as interviews with L.D. Brown, Terry Reed, Russell Welch, Bill Duncan, Julius Delaughter, John Brown, Linda Ives and many more. No stone is left unturned. This tape is now being distributed by Washington Weekly so the American public can learn the shocking truth. Was Governor Bill Clinton connected to the CIA? Was drug money the source of Bill Clinton's campaign funds? Why did Clinton protect dope dealer Dan Lasater? Who killed the two teenagers who stumbled onto an airdrop gone awry? Who covered up their murders and continues to interfere with the investigation? Alert your friends and neighbors to what may prove to be the biggest scandal ever in U.S. history. Order "The Cocaine Connection" today. The Big Story: The Cocaine Connection. Twenty Twenty Television 1995. 23 minutes. To order this video tape: $19.75 + $2 S/H per copy $35 + $2 S/H for 2 copies $60 + $3 S/H for 5 copies $100 +$4 S/H for 10 copies (additional copies $10) Add $3 for priority delivery (3-5 days after receipt of payment). Standard delivery is 6-11 days. Florida and Wisconsin residents add sales tax. Special offer to Washington Weekly subscribers: The S/H fee is waived for orders postmarked no later than November 27. Send check or money order (made payable to Informatics Resource) to: Video Distribution P.O. Box 753 Gulf Breeze, FL 32562-0753 Remember to include a clearly written mailing address, and please include an email address as well. Credit card ordering will be added on this page shortly. Stay tuned. ------------------------ -- =========== T H E A N I M A T I O N P L A N T A T I O N ============ | Michael F. Rivero - rivero@netcom.com - 17 years in the business | | WEB PAGE OPEN AT file://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ri/rivero/plant.html | | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | History has shown that the honorable man loses to the teller of | | white lies, who loses to the teller of black lies, who loses to | | the blackmailer, who loses to the embezzler, who loses to the drug | | dealer, who loses to the murderer, who loses to the genocidal tyrant. | | | | The operant question in these evil times is therefore not, | | "What is our government capable of?", but rather, | | "What is our government NOT capable of?" | =========================================================================== ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||| Citizens Intelligence Access BBS 415.927.2435 ||||||| |||||||||||||||||| http://linex.com/~steve |||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Date: Sun Nov 26, 1995 8:29 pm CST From: David J. Sussman EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: djsussma@jupiter.acs.oakland.edu TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Re: "The Cocaine Connection": BANNED IN THE USA Question: Has the ownership of the program changed recently? i.e. did Carlton just buy the rights and want to stop all distribution or did Carlton ALWAYS hold the rights and just now decide for reasons not given, to stop the distribution in the US? It is my impression that Carlton is the same firm that negotiated the deal to distribute the tape in the US and now wants to stop the deal. If this is the case then it would appear that Carlton is afraid of reprisals from unfriendlies. If Carlton bought the rights and NOW wants to suppress distribution, then we have a different animal altogether. I worry when I am told all about something by people who have not seen it, and when I cannot see something that was produced to be shown to a wide audience because it offends someone politically or is otherwise an expose of criminal wrongdoing. DS On 25 Nov 1995, John Q. Public wrote: > found at http://dolphin.gulf.net/tape.html > > > BRITISH MENA TAPE BANNED IN THE USA > > The British Mena tape that the Washington Weekly started offering to > subscribers last week, has been banned for wider distribution in the > USA. > > The Washington Weekly originally received a master tape from the > producer of the documentary, who had no objections to distribution of > the tape. > > For unexplained reasons, however, the owner of the rights to the program, > Carlton Television Limited, has refused to negotiate wider distribution > in the U.S. under any circumstances. Carlton Television did not respond > to questions from Washington Weekly asking whether they had been subject > to political pressure to prevent distribution in the U.S. > > Reliable sources have told the Washington Weekly that U.S. Senator Bob > Dole has asked the London Telegraph to curtail its investigation into > the Mena scandal. > > All orders received before the cease and desist demand from Carlton have > been filled. The Washington Weekly is considering further actions in > this matter. > > > Date: Mon Nov 27, 1995 8:35 pm CST From: David J. Sussman EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: djsussma@jupiter.acs.oakland.edu TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Repost: The lights are going out all over this land (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 27 NOV 1995 04:09:02 GMT From: Martin Anderson Newgroups: alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater Subject: Repost: The lights are going out all over this land The November 27 Washington Weekly has foreboding news. The long arm of the Clinton's has reached across the Atlantic to prevent the American distribution of the British 20-20 television documentary on the Mena Scandal. Also, there is information that the internet has come under control of SAIC, a CIA contractor. Editor Marvin Lee has now learned that the matters of greatest interest to SAIC, in his publication, are the Mena scandal and the Inslaw scandal. These, with the Foster death, are the tripod of the Horrors that now stand at the moral foundation of this Administration. Beyond this, Marvin Lee also discloses Republican Senator Robert Dole's ongoing involvement in the Mena coverup. Forget Whitewater, Robert Dole's creature, Senator D'Amato has, by deliberate intention, reduced that to a niggling bore. All this is evidence of the continuing coup that has been rolling across America since the Clinton inaugural. Already, this administration holds the commanding heights of the media; Federal law enforcement, police, intelligence, and regulation; and now has the leadership of the Democratic and Republican parties well in hand. What is next as the lights go out all across this land? Martin >INVESTIGATING MENA > > House Banking Chairman James Leach, in a memo to his committee's >members, has suggested that his low-key Whitewater investigation may lead >to hearings on a high-profile issue: allegations of money laundering and >drug smuggling at Mena Airport in southwestern Arkansas. > Leach disclosed that investigators are probing "whether businesses >based at, or operating through, the Mena Airport engaged in systematic >money laundering." They also are exploring, he said, whether the source of >laundered money was convicted drug smuggler Barry Seal during the time he >said he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency. > Published accounts for years have linked wrongdoing at Mena to the >then-governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. But Leach's memo did not mention >Clinton and asserted "the Mena-related allegations involve possible >improper conduct spanning several federal administrations." > Date: Sun Dec 10, 1995 9:58 am CST From: David J. Sussman EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: djsussma@jupiter.acs.oakland.edu TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Clinton,Bush & CIA question & answer (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 7 DEC 1995 20:35:56 GMT From: Robert Lee Sitler Newgroups: alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater Subject: Clinton,Bush & CIA question & answer Hello everyone. I have Bob Harris's email address now: 75720.2644@compuserve.com Bob Harris is a lecturer and investigator of government abuse. He helped produce the CD "Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination". He has actually been to the Mena airfield, and dug into the facts surrounding Clinton, Foster, etc... I emailed him the following question. Have you read Clinton, Bush & CIA by Terry Reed? And if so, do you have anything to add? Following is his response. Hi Rob. Actually, I haven't spent a lot of time on the Mena airport story. It's apparently just one of many bases used to ship nasty stuff, and unfortunately a lot of political folks have used it to distract attention from the far bettet-documented involvement of Bush's NSC in similar shipments through Homestead AFB in Florida, John Hull's farm in Costa Rica, and even apparently a strip of land way out in the Texas hill country owned by one of Bush's closest friends. But to listen to some of the folks who tout that book, the governor of Arkansas somehow caused our nation's drug problem, which is nuts. Anybody with integrity should call it down the middle, not exploit the activities of somebody in one party for political gain. Which isn't to say that's what Reed's doing-- I have his book, and it looks like he's a pretty straight-up guy--but when I look at how folks like Jerry Falwell have used him to imply that the Clintonistas are major smugglers and then turn around and support Ollie North for the Senate--well, that's just repellent. I've been to Mena, by the way. Gave me the willies. The airstrip really is way the bloody hell too big for that little town. Something's definitely up. Clinton's dirty as hell, no doubt--the commodities stuff was a payoff from Tyson, for example--so, sure, what Terry Reed says could have happened. Just keep in mind that the problem is structural, it's integral to both parties, and so if we want to put an end to it, the answer isn't be electing religious fundamentalists but by enacting campaign finance reform, so neither party can be bought and sold the way the both currently are. Long answer to as short question. Hope it made sense. Bob Date: Fri Sep 08, 1995 9:43 pm CST From: Duane Roberts EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: eaou669@aldebaran.oac.uci.edu TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Re: Molehills and Mountains - some news On 4 Sep 1995, Edward W. Zehr wrote: > Although there is considerable evidence that the CIA routinely financed > covert operations with drug money, that does not appear to have been done > in the Contra supply operation. The amount of aid being given the Contras > was actually quite modest compared to the profits Seal was making on his > drug-running operation. The irony of it is, had drug profits been used to > finance this operation, instead of involving other countries, especially > Iran, the spooks running the show would probably have gotten clean away > with it, given the unwillingness of politicians in both parties to > investigate drug-related covert operations. If as you claim in the preceding paragraph that drug profits weren't used to finance the Nicaraguan Contras, then why did the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations headed by Senator John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) generate roughly fifteen hundred pages of documentation proving that in fact this was the case? And why did Senator Kerry write the following conclusions in a report that was released to the public on April 13, 1989 if there was no evidence to make these claims? There are many other things I could post from this report, but I think this will do for now. ----------------------------------------------------------- DRUGS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND FOREIGN POLICY: A REPORT ----------------------------------------------------------- Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate. December 1988. ----------------------------------------------------------- Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs., April 13, 1989. ----------------------------------------------------------- GOV DOC # Y 4.F 76/2:S.prt.100-165. ----------------------------------------------------------- From pages 36 and 37. NARCOTICS TRAFFICKERS AND THE CONTRAS I. INTRODUCTION The initial Committee investigation into the international drug trade, which began in April, 1986, focused on allegations that Senator John F. Kerry had received of illegal gun-running and narcotics trafficking associated with the Contra war against Nicaragua. As the Committee proceeded with its investigation, significant information began surfacing concerning the operations of international narcotics traffickers, particularly relating to the Colombian-based cocaine cartels. As a result, the decision was made to incorporate the Contra-related allegation into a broader investigation concerning the relationship between foreign policy, narcotics trafficking, and law enforcement. While the contra/drug question was not the primary focus of the investigation, the Subcommittee uncovered considerable evidence relating to the Contra network which substantiated many of the initial allegations laid out before the Committee in the Spring of 1986. On the basis of this evidence, it is clear that individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the Contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers. In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter. The Subcommittee found that the Contra drug links included: - Involvement in narcotics trafficking by individuals associated with the Contra movement. - Participation of narcotics traffickers in Contra supply operations through business relationships with Contra organizations. - Provision of assistance to the Contras by narcotics traffickers, including cash, weapons, planes, pilots, air supply services and other materials, on a voluntary basis by the traffickers. - Payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. These activities were carried out in connection with Contra activities in both Costa Rica and Honduras. The Subcommittee found that the links that were forged between the Contras and the drug traffickers were primarily pragmatic, rather than ideological. The drug traffickers, who had significant financial and material resources, needed the cover of legitimate activity for their criminal enterprises. A trafficker like George Morales hoped to have his drug indictment dropped in return for his financial and material support of the Contras. Others, in the words of Marcos Aguado, Eden Pastora's air force chief: ... took advantage of the anti-communist sentiment which existed in Central America ... and they undoubtedly used it for drug trafficking. While for some Contras, it was a matter of survival, for the traffickers it was just another business deal to promote and protect their own operations.... From page 136. COVERT ACTIVITY ISSUES 5. The war in Central America contributed to weakening an already inadequate law enforcement capability which was exploited easily by a variety of mercenaries, pilots and cartel members involved in drug smuggling. In several cases, drug smugglers were hired by Contra organizations to move Contra supplies. In addition, individual contras accepted weapons, money and equipment from drug smugglers. The Subcommittee did not find evidence that the Contra leadership participated directly in narcotics smuggling in support of their war against the Sandinistas, although the largest Contra organization the FDN, did move Contra funds through a narcotics trafficking enterprise and money laundering operation. There was, moreover, substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual Contras, pilots who flew supplies, mercenaries who worked for the Contras, and Contra supporters throughout the region. There is also evidence on the record that U.S. officials involved in assisting the Contras knew that drug smugglers were exploiting the clandestine infrastructure established to support the war and that Contras were receiving assistance derived from drug trafficking. Instead of reporting these individuals to the appropriate law enforcement agencies, it appears that some officials may have turned a blind eye to these activities. Sincerely, Duane J. Roberts eaou669@ea.oac.uci.edu Undergraduate Student Criminology, Law, and Society School of Social Ecology University of California, Irvine Date: Fri Sep 08, 1995 9:47 pm CST From: Duane Roberts EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: eaou669@aldebaran.oac.uci.edu TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Re: Mena & mainstream media On 5 Sep 1995, Edward W. Zehr wrote: > North mentions in his book *Under Fire* that Seal was used in a sting > operation against the Sandinistas, who were trafficking in drugs at > that time. A well-known article that ran in the monthly Texas Observer > quoted a DEA agent as saying that drugs were being smuggled into the > country from El Salvador. Several newspapers embellished the story, > saying that North had been aware of the drug trafficking. The Washington > Post checked into the story and concluded that the DEA agent had NOT said > that North knew about the operation. If *The Washington Post* ran an article claiming that this DEA agent "had NOT said that North knew about" what was going on at Ilopango airport in El Salvador, then *The Post* was disseminating misleading and inaccurate information about this matter (as usual). The agent you happen to be referring to is a gentleman by the name of Celerino Castillo III. Mr. Castillo was the Drug Enforcement Administration's top man in El Salvador in the early 80s. Last year, Mr. Castillo publically accused Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and other government officials of collaborating with drug traffickers at Ilopango airport in El Salvador to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. in return for using a portion of the profits to buy weapons and supplies for the Contras. Mr. Castillo gave numerous interviews to this effect. The following is a transcript of one of several interviews conducted with him that I have in my possession (I also have a copy of the book he has written about his experiences). [It should be noted that that the C-123/C-130 cargo planes flying in-and-out of the Intermountain Regional Airport in Mena, Arkansas frequently travelled to Ilopango.] ----- Interview: Celerino Castillo ALL NORTH'S PILOTS RAN DRUGS, SAYS FORMER DEA AGENT Celerino Castillo, who was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) top agent in El Salvador during 1985-87, is the co-author, with David Harmon, of a new book, *Powder Burns: Cocaine, Contras and the Drug War* Interviewed by Edward Spannaus on Sept. 10, 1994. Spannaus: Mr. Castillo, before we get into the question of Oliver North, I'd like to ask you a little bit about your background. Could tell us what your employment with the DEA was? Castillo: Being born and reared in south Texas, we come from a family which is very patriotic. My father was a World War II hero who was shot six times in an ambush in the Philippines, and he is the recipient of the onze Star, and of course the Purple Heart, and so forth. I'm the only male in the family, and I could have been kept from going to Vietnam. But I did go to Vietnam; I'm a Vietnam veteran. I'm a recipient of the Bronze Star. Because of my combat experience, I decided to go into law enforcement. I saw a lot of my buddies shoot up heroin in Vietnam, and I decided when I got back I would get involved with the federal narcotics system. I went to school, got my degree in criminal justice, and was a police officer at the time I was going to school. I worked the midnight shift and went to school during the daytime. After that, I applied with the DEA, and was hired by the DEA in 1979. My first assignment with the DEA was in New York City. I turned out to be the first Mexican-American to work in New York City. I teamed up with another agent who was Italian, and we ended up conducting the investigation that ended up in one of the biggest heroin seizures in New York City of all time. After four years in New York City, I was assigned, because of my Vietnam experience, to conduct jungle operations in Peru. I did a lot of assaults on airstrips there, and air assaults on cocaine labs. We conducted an operation there called Operation Condor, which was the first time in history that the Peruvians and Colombians worked hand-in-hand in combatting narcotics trafficking. We ended up seizing a cocaine lab in Peru that was producing 100% hydrochloride cocaine. Spannaus: What year was this? Castillo: This was in 1984.... I was supposed to do a two-year tour there, but I ended up doing about a year and a quarter, because of my exposure to international stardom in Peru. There was a picture of me during the operation that was in every newspaper in South America. For security reasons, I left Peru and I was assigned to work in Guatemala. I arrived in Guatemala in October 1985, and of course that was the first time I was forewarned by the country attache, Bob Stia, about the Contras being involved in narcotics trafficking. Spannaus: What was Stia's position? Castillo: Robert Stia was the country attache, which involved two agents and himself. Two agents covered four countries, including Belize, Guatemala, Salvador, and Honduras. Spannaus: What did you find out while you were there? Castillo: At the beginning, I was in charge. I was supposed to be the agent in charge of El Salvador, which means I was the DEA representation in that country. One of the things that we had in El Salvador was an informant who was in place at Ilopango airport. This informant was the one who did the flight plans for the Contras, and he had previously given reliable information to the U.S. Embassy in regards to some of the pilots who were involved in narcotics trafficking. We had another individual who had been a DEA informant since 1981, and he was also very politically involved with the Arena Party, which was the party of the far right, the party of Maj. [Roberto] D'Aubisson, [Napoleoan] Duarte, and [Alfredo] Cristiani. We had gathered intelligence, and we continued to start the investigation on it. Spannaus: What was going on at Ilopango? Castillo: We had pilots, who were being hired down in Central America, who were running supplies for the Contras and were also involved heavily in narcotics trafficking. When we finally got the names of all the pilots who were involved, we ran it through our computers, and it was revealed that every single one of them was documented as a narcotics trafficker. This was brought to the attention of the U.S. ambassador, Edwin Corr. He was advised of the investigation that we were conducting. His answer to me was the fact that it was a covert operation from the White House and Ollie North, and he advised me that I would be safer to stay away from that investigation, because I would be stepping on people's toes at the White House. Spannaus: What were these pilots doing? Castillo: They were flying narcotics into the United States. They were also flying monies--U.S. currency--into Panama, into the Bahamas, to launder money for the Contras. Spannaus: Were they also flying guns? Castillo: They were flying guns. They were flying supplies for the Contras, and they were also involved in narcotics trafficking. On Jan. 14, 1986, I met George Bush, then vice president, at a cocktail party in Guatemala City. It was at the U.S. ambassador's residence. He came up to me, and asked me what my job description was as a DEA agent in Guatemala. I told him that I was an agent conducting international narcotics investigations, and I told him that there was something funny going on with the Contras at Ilopango airport. As soon as I said that, he shook my hand, he smiled for the cameraman, and then he just walked away from me without saying a word. I knew then that he knew what I was talking about, about the Contras. Spannaus: Was there any doubt in your mind that he knew what you were talking about? Castillo: Not at all. I want to go on the record saying that on that same day, if I'm not mistaken, and I'm sure I'm not, I saw Oliver North in Guatemala City, and I definitely saw Calero, the leader of the Contras, at the same time in Guatemala City at the U.S. Embassy. Spannaus: This is Adolpho Calero? Castillo: Yes, sir. They were all there at the same time. Spannaus: Did you have any information as to what they were doing there? Castillo: They were meeting in the ``bubble,'' and the ``bubble'' means the CIA room up on the third floor, where they were discussing sensitive information. I knew Calero was there and [involved] in discussions about the Contras. That's just what I think was going on. Spannaus: Let me come back to this question of the pilots again. Who hired these pilots? Castillo: These pilots were being hired, according to the pilots and according to our informant, by Felix Rodriguez, who was running Hangars 4 and 5 of Ilopango. They were hired by the CIA, Oliver North's Contra operation, and so forth. Spannaus: What was Rodriguez's relation to George Bush and Bush's office? Castillo: They were very close friends, according to a lot of information we had received. What happened is that this investigation snowballed in early 1986, and I got a cable from the country attache in Costa Rica, advising me that they had received reliable information that there were Contra pilots flying out of Costa Rica into Ilopango into Hangars 4 and 5. It turned out Hangars 4 and 5 are owned and operated by the CIA and the National Security Council--which is Oliver North--and were run by Felix Rodriguez. When we contacted our informants in there, they just went ballistic, telling me that that is what they had been trying to tell everybody: that the Contras and the CIA and everybody else in Hangars 4 and 5 were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. This informant himself saw, in one instance, $4.5 million in cash going from Ilopango into Panama. Secondly, he saw drugs. Thirdly, he would call us and let us know when a certain pilot was on his way to airdrop money into the Bahamas. One of his pilots was Chico Guirola, Francisco Guirola, a Contra pilot. This same individual, who had gone to the Bahamas on certain days, had also been arrested in 1985 in south Texas, with $5.5 million in cash. That was a Contra operation. He was deported and, if I'm not mistaken, that money was given back to him. Spannaus: What's the story on this fellow ``Brasher''? [In Castillo's book, Walter Grasheim is referred to as William Brasher.] Castillo: Mr. Walter ``Wally'' Grasheim was a civilian. He was a documented narcotics trafficker. When I approached everybody in the U.S. Embassy to find out who this individual was, they told me that he was working for the Oliver North Contra operation out of Hangars 4 and 5, and was the liaison officer between General Bustillo and Oliver North. I built a unit in El Salvador, an anti-narco-terrorist unit, and this individual was hit, his house was searched, by my unit in El Salvador. When it was searched, he happened to be in New York City at the time, and we found a lot of U.S. munitions, cases of grenades, cases of explosives--C4. Every explosive we could find was found at that residence, including sniper rifles, helicopter helmets, you name it. This guy was a civilian who was not supposed to have any of this stuff with him. Surprisingly, what we also found at his residence was that all his vehicles had U.S. Embassy license plates. We found radios belonging to the U.S. Embassy. We found weapons belonging to the U.S. Embassy. Spannaus: This is somebody who is a documented drug trafficker? Castillo: A documented drug trafficker and a civilian. He violated every Customs law there is, in the exportation and importation of those items into El Salvador. Spannaus: What happened? Was he prosecuted? Castillo: Well, no. We had a warrant for his arrest, if he was to come back. He found out.... Spannaus: When you obtained information about drug trafficking running out of Ilopango, what did you do with that information? Castillo: I wrote cables; I wrote DEA-6s; I wrote reports. I did everything I was supposed to do. Spannaus: Now these reports would go where--to DEA headquarters? Castillo: The DEA in Washington. Exactly. We've got to remember one other thing that a lot of people are not aware of. Every time I wrote a report, every time I sent a cable out, it had to be approved by the country attache and the U.S. ambassador. Those reports had to be approved, and they did not interfere with me sending those reports, because they knew that some day it was going to come back and bite them in the butt if they didn't do it. Spannaus: What was the response from headquarters to this? Castillo: I got no response in the beginning. None at all. For example, on June 19, 1986, the informant at Ilopango called and advised me that Chico Guirola had departed Ilopango to the Bahamas with large shipments of money--and he was the one documented in 11 DEA files, and he was the same one arrested with $5.5 million in cash. I have certain times and dates, to verify what they were doing. We're going to go back to 1986, in the Kerry Report, on July 26, 1986. The Kerry Report reported to Congress on Contra-related narcotics allegations. The State Department describes the ``Frogman'' case. The Frogman case was a case out of San Francisco. This case got its nickname from swimmers who brought cocaine ashore on the West Coast from a Colombian vessel. It focused on a major Colombian cocaine trafficker by the name of Alvaro Carvajal. He was the one that supplied a number of West Coast smugglers. It involved another Nicaraguan citizen by the name of Pereida, and two other Nicaraguans--Carlos Cabezas and Julio Zavala. Now, these guys testified before the Senate committee that the money they were smuggling, or profiting from the cocaine that was being smuggled into San Francisco, was going to the Contras. They testified to that. It's a funny thing and it's a small world: In 1991, I was conducting an undercover operation in San Francisco, and the wife of Carlos Cabezas delivered to me five kilos of cocaine. She was arrested. Carlos Cabezas came in, and advised me that he, and also Carvajal, was an informant for the FBI, going back to the Frogman case, and that we needed to release his wife. I said, ``I think I know you from somewhere.'' He went on and he discussed the Oliver North/Contra narcotics-trafficking operation in detail. Of course, a report was written on this all the way into 1991, in reference to Oliver North. He described everything else that he had done for Oliver North, running drugs for the Contras. Spannaus: Did he describe that Oliver North was personally involved in this? Castillo: He said that they all have personal contact with Oliver North. Oliver North has given them permission to do whatever they want. I have a recorded statement from the informant at Ilopango where he goes into detail, that every single pilot that was involved with the Oliver North/Contra operation gave Oliver North's name as having permission to run drugs freely. They all had credentials by the Salvadoran government and by the CIA so that they would not be searched. Spannaus: You have described that there is an awful lot of evidence against Oliver North. Oliver North says that he is ``the most investigated man on this planet.'' This is the response he gives whenever the question of his involvement in drugs comes up. What would you say about that? Castillo: Point one: He was not ever investigated on the narcotics matter, ever. He was investigated on everything else. If Oliver North had been investigated on narcotics trafficking, they would surely have contacted the agents down in Central America--which includes me--who conducted the investigation on him. In October 1986, 1987, I'm not sure what day it was, but I got a call from the DEA in Washington, not to close the case on the Contras, because the Kerry committee wanted access to my reports and the DEA had told them there were no reports. Maybe that's why they never contacted the agents down in Central America. But if somebody is going to do an investigation on the Contras, and there's a lot of implication of narcotics trafficking, they should have and would have contacted the agents in Salvador. Spannaus: You sound like you were continuously writing reports and sending information to Washington. Did you get any reaction? Did anybody indicate some interest in investigating this? Castillo: Finally, they decided to come down. What happened was the DEA sent a rookie intelligence analyst, and another guy from intelligence, and they came down to Salvador, and after debriefing two of the informants in the case, went back and reported that it was a couple of Contra pilots, but it was not organized. What happened was they had made up their minds what they were going to write, before they even got to Salvador. They just wanted to cover their butt.... In two days they were able to determine it was just a couple of pilots and not very organized. Of course, we found out later on from several testimonies from several of the pilots who had been testifying before the committees, that it was a very well-organized operation being run by Oliver North. Spannaus: Is there any way that those two agents could have arrived at that conclusion based on what you told them? Castillo: Oh, no. What happened was they {were} told, the people they interviewed were the Contra--the informant who worked at Ilopango. He told them exactly what he was reporting to me. It wasn't like, they knew right away, but they needed to say something, that this was happening. What happened then, the guy who was in charge of the Latin American desk for DEA, his name was John Martsh. And he is now, if I am not mistaken, the deputy administrator for the DEA; he just got promoted. This is the same individual who conspired to hide the truth about the Contras' involvement in trafficking. He came back to me and he suspended me for three days without pay, because I was ``too close to my informant.'' This informant, that ``I was too close to,'' was my {only} backup in El Salvador. He was an informant because he was the Salvadoran officer who ran the narcotics unit in El Salvador. He was the one that raided Mr. Grasheim's residence. To put pressure on me, they came back [saying] that the DEA manual says I cannot associate with an informant. The DEA does {not} give us backup. And that's what got Kiki Camarena killed in Mexico. That's what caught Victor Cortez in Guadalajara, Mexico, because the DEA would not furnish Hispanic backups on that investigation. The only person I could work with, and the only person that was given to me to work with, was this informant. Of course, we became friends. But DEA policy says you can't do that. Yet this guy was the adviser, DEA adviser to my narcotics unit that I built in El Salvador. This guy was not just an informant. He had credentials as a national police officer. Spannaus: Was this an unusual step for the DEA to take, to discipline you for that type of thing? Castillo: No. They just wanted me to stop. I had several calls. Mr. Martsh called me to stop reporting this information. Spannaus: He told you to stop reporting? Castillo: Yes. To stop reporting it. And if I was going to do any reporting, I should use the word ``alleged.'' I have a letter from him. Spannaus: Did you ever, in any other case, have a superior tell you to stop reporting? Castillo: Never. Never. I have a letter where he says I should use the word ``allege,'' and that my grammar was terrible. I'm going back. Every evaluation I've gotten has been an ``outstanding'' evaluation--up to then. Even then, even when I got suspended for three days, a month later, I was put in for a promotion. I had ``outstanding'' evaluations. It is just the fact that the pressure was being put on me to stop the investigation on the Contras. Spannaus: Were there other forms of pressure put on you also? Castillo: Yes, sir. I was ordered to travel to Salvador constantly, by land, by myself, through guerrilla country. It's like they were looking for me to get killed or something. I have proof, that I'll show later on, that they were trying to get me killed. Without any backup, they re having me go out undercover on the Salvadoran military corruption--weapons that were being seized from the guerrillas, they were selling to the cartels. They were sending me out there by myself, so I could get killed. Spannaus: You would attribute this to your involvement in the Contra operation? Castillo: With the Contra operation, exactly. I continued, I continued, and I continued to report this. We'll go back to where several people were starting to report this on the Contras. For example, on March 16, 1987, on a plane owned by a narcotics trafficker, U.S. Customs found an address book and the address and phone numbers were to Robert Owen, North's courier. We go back to the Kerry report in 1988: They confirm my allegation that there was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zone on the part of the individual Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and the Contra supporters throughout the region. Spannaus: Let's talk about the Kerry Committee report for a minute. When that report came out, it got very little attention, it seems. Why was that? Castillo: It got very little attention because there was no credibility on the part of the people who were testifying before the committees, because they were all smugglers, they were all Contra pilots that had been let out to dry, they were all criminals. So there was no credibility at all on them. But, they never, ever brought {me,} the agent in charge of El Salvador who conducted this investigation, to ever go before a committee. They never contacted the Guatemala office. Why? Spannaus: You say you were never contacted by the Kerry Committee? Castillo: Never contacted by the Kerry Committee in any way, shape, or form. I was never contacted by the FBI, which was trying to file the violations of the Neutrality Act out of Costa Rica on John Hull, on Oliver North, and all those people. {Never} did anybody contact the DEA [officers] in Central America who actually conducted the investigation. Spannaus: When the congressional committees were investigating the so-called Iran-Contra affair, they had the public hearings and a lot of private interviews and depositions. Did they ever contact you? Castillo: No, sir, not at all. And I was the agent in charge in El Salvador. I was the one who was reporting everything. Maybe they didn't want to hear the truth. Spannaus: What about the special prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh? Castillo: Let me tell you something about Lawrence Walsh. I had my attorney in San Francisco in 1991 contact Walsh's people to tell them that I had substantial evidence in regards to Oliver North getting involved in narcotics trafficking. The DEA did not, in any way, shape, or form, want for me to contact them. I went ahead and contacted them secretly. I had a covert meeting with FBI agent Mike Foster, at my attorney's office in San Francisco. He was shocked to find out that there was a lot of evidence that the Contras had been involved, that Oliver North had been involved, in the knowledge of the narcotics trafficking. When he asked who in the White House did I think knew about the Contras being involved in narcotics trafficking, I showed him a picture of George Bush and myself. His mouth dropped. He couldn't believe what I was tellihim. He said, ``Cele, if we can prove that the Contras and Oliver North were involved heavily in narcotics trafficking, it would be like a grand slam home run!'' Those are his words. Spannaus: Did you ever get any feedback from Foster or Walsh's office? Castillo: I called Mike Foster several times, and he kept telling me that he still hadn't gotten approval from Mr. Walsh to continue the investigation. That was the end of the investigation. They weren't about to open up another can of worms, because what happened was, everything was dropping, everything was going off. They were working on [Defense Secretary Caspar] Weinberger at the time.... They weren't interested in conducting a narcotics investigation. Spannaus: Have you looked at the final report issued by Lawrence Walsh? Castillo: Yes, sir. I have that. Nowhere in this whole report does it indicate that there is any narcotics investigation at all. Spannaus: There's no reference to narcotics? Castillo: No reference to any narcotics investigation. Oliver North is saying that he is the most investigated person--and if he is, then why isn't there anything in the Walsh report? Spannaus: In the course of your 12 years with the DEA, how many cases or prosecutions were you involved in, would you estimate? Castillo: Thousands of them. All over the country, all over the world. I was constantly having fugitives arrested.... I was an agent who was not scared to get involved. I lost my family because of that. I was just a workaholic; I believed in the system; I believed in the agency, and I believed that what was right is right, and what was wrong is wrong. And it didn't take me 20 years to try and figure this out. I found out after my six years that the DEA was corrupt--in the sense that there was a major coverup. We were losing agents because of political fights within Washington, and I decided to leave. And I negotiated my leave from the DEA. Spannaus: You say you're involved in thousands of prosecutions. So you're pretty familiar with what kind of evidence is needed to get a conviction in a drug case. Do you think that the evidence that you compiled concerning Oliver North would have been sufficient to get a conviction? Castillo: Absolutely. Absolutely, from the get-go. I kept waiting for the phones to ring. I kept waiting for someone to call me. ``We need you to testify before a committee. We need you to tell us what you have on Oliver North.'' Nobody. {The phone never rang}. There was enough evidence, especially on violation of the federal narcotics law, where if a U.S. official has knowledge that there's narcotics trafficking being conducted by somebody, and he does not report it, that's a violation of the law right there. We had the Contras; they were heavily, heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. Spannaus: What do you think about the idea of Oliver North becoming a U.S. senator? Castillo: Well, it's going to be the first felon, convicted felon, to become a U.S. senator. He should be in jail. He should be in jail. On his own words, he lied to Congress, he lied to everybody, he deceived, he's deceiving the American people right now. I think people do not know the real fact that he was heavily involved in narcotics trafficking--his organization was heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. And he had {knowledge} that these people were involved in narcotics trafficking. Spannaus: That knowledge would be sufficient for him to have been convicted? Castillo: Absolutely. But nobody ever contacted me down in Central America. Now, why? Was there a conspiracy to protect him? Was there a conspiracy to protect the President of the United States, George Bush, or the vice president at the time? Apparently there was. All of these things happened. It's documented, it's in black and white, I have case file numbers where it can be obtained. The DEA refuses to release that information. The funny thing about it is: They're talking about Oliver North with the Contras. Well, there is a case file in 1991 that came out of Washington D.C., that implicates Oliver North. The file number is under Oliver North's name for smuggling weapons to the Philippines with known narcotics traffickers. Now, he's under the investigation by DEA and he's running for U.S. senator: Explain that one to me. Spannaus: And you believe this case is still open with the DEA? Castillo: Well, I don't know, maybe it is. Nobody can get access to it. Spannaus: Is there anything else you would want to tell the people of Virginia about Oliver North? Castillo: One of the things that Oliver North is stating, is that I am doing this because he is running for U.S. senator. But, the truth of the matter is that I have been trying to report this going back all the way to 1985-86, then in a memo in 1989, when I met with Walsh's people in 1991; there was a newspaper article that came out with this story in 1993, and in 1994 the Associated Press picked it up again. So it's a continuation of my attempt to educate U.S. citizens to the fact that Oliver North had knowledge that his operations were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. Spannaus: Are you going to come to Virginia and tell your story to the people of Virginia? Castillo: Absolutely, I will go to Virginia. And the other thing I will say: I've never been paid 1 cent to tell my story. Never. When I found out that nobody was listening at the time to my story, I decided to write a book, a year ago. One of the other things I want to remind the Virginians, is that I kept a daily journal of everything I did with the DEA. That's why I'm able to put these stories together with times and dates and so forth. So everything was documented.... Even Jack Blum, the special counsel for Kerry Committee, resigned his post saying, ``I'm sick to death of the truth I cannot tell.'' So it's not me, there are other people out there who are saying the same thing. In the Kerry Report, it says there is impressive evidence on the record that U.S. officials who turned a blind eye to narcotics trafficking and opposed the investigation of foreign narcotics smuggling, must also bear the responsibility for what is happening in the streets of the United States today. And Oliver North should be responsible for that. Oliver North cannot stand there and say that nobody died of the narcotics that the Contras ran into the United States--which could be the ``Frogman'' case, or any other case. He cannot guarantee me that. [end of transcript] Sincerely, Duane J. Roberts eaou669@ea.oac.uci.edu Undergraduate Student Criminology, Law, and Society School of Social Ecology University of California, Irvine Date: Sat Jan 06, 1996 8:29 pm CST From: snet l EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: snet-l@world.std.com TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Mena case Clinton/Bush/CIA: Mena news ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From stephenh@netcom.com (stephenh) Organization NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date Sat, 16 Dec 1995 17:11:58 GMT Newsgroups alt.politics.usa.republican,alt.politics.usa.congress,alt.politics.reform, alt.politics.org.cia,alt.politics.org.fbi,alt.politics.org.covert, dc.politics,misc.legal,alt.law-enforcement,rec.aviation.military, alt.impeach.clinton,alt.politics.democrats.d,alt.news-media,alt.journalism, alt.censorship,alt.society.foia Message-ID ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ Article crossposted from alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater ] [ Author was John Q. Public ] [ Posted on 16 Dec 1995 15:58:44 GMT ] [ Original subject: Washington Weekly: Mena news from 12/11 issue ] with permission; not to be used for commercial purposes COUNTDOWN TO MENA TRIAL ARKANSAS ATTORNEY GENERAL SUBPOENAED IN MENA CASE The defense of Buddy Young in the Mena trial is handled by the Arkansas Attorney General's office. Criminal actions taken by the Attorney General Winston Bryant, however, have now made him a witness in the trial. "We have served a subpoena on Attorney General Winston Bryant who we have discovered was involved in obstruction of justice," says Robert Meloni, counsel to Terry Reed. "He had ordered the removal of all of the Mena files from his office in order to circumvent a FOIA request." "There's an affidavit that we just got from Bill Duncan.... he was ordered to purge the Attorney General's office of all files. There was also a demand for those files by Terry Reed in this case in February 1992. And at that point we had moved to compel the Attorney General's office to produce them and their response at that point was, we don't have them," Meloni said. "We have three people from the Arkansas State Police, in the criminal intelligence division, who we deposed this summer: Michelle Tudor, John Morrow, I forget the third one, who have testified that they were told to remove files and destroy files in the Mena case." "So we are trying to subpoena him [Winston Bryant], because we caught him in a lie. They are moving files around, you know, it's like a shell game with these Mena files. We are trying to depose him, we are going to make him a witness in our case" "Winston Bryant walked into a situation of obstruction and concealment, and he continued the pattern." The Attorney General's office has filed a motion to quash the subpoena. DEFENSE MOVES TO SUPPRESS CIA EVIDENCE The defense in the Reed Mena trial has filed a motion to suppress CIA evidence. "This motion is saying that the judge should exclude all evidence concerning CIA activities at Mena because we have been unable to establish a link between Buddy Young and all of those activities, even if those activities were true," says Robert Meloni, counsel to Terry Reed. "Why the motion doesn't make any sense is because we never had to establish any link because we haven't had the trial yet. That's what you do at a trial. And we do have a link, but this is not the time and place to establish it." "I think they are just doing it so they can get it in the paper," Meloni explains. "It appeared in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette two days later. Nobody called me up to ask my opinion about it. They just put it in, I think just polluting the jury pool with this garbage." "I am almost certain the judge is going to deny it," Meloni told the Washington Weekly. Trial is scheduled for January 16, but Reed's legal team has moved for another continuance. "We are getting stonewalled by a few federal agencies, the FBI, the Department of Justice, they are moving to quash a number of subpoenas." BARRY SEAL'S "FAT LADY" FOUND IN FLORIDA! Barry Seal's C-123 cargo plane was shot down over Nicaragua in 1986 with Eugene Hasenfus being the only survivor, right? Wrong! It has long been suspected that Barry Seal had two identical C-123 cargo planes, and now Terry Reed has located the remaining one outside a museum near Titusville, Florida. "We have been able to trace the registration history directly back to Richard Secord of Iran Contra fame." Terry Reed told Chuck Harder of For the People Radio Network. "So we have good, solid linkage now between the Iran Contra scandal and Barry Seal's [gun running and drug smuggling] operation," Reed said. Reed received a tip about the airplane after he had appeared on a talk radio program. A mechanic who had worked on the plane told Reed where he could find it and said that it was bearing Honduran registration. "We subpoenaed the FAA's records out of Oklahoma City, showing the correspondence between the FAA and one of Richard Secord's executive officers through a company called Corporate Air Services," Reed said. STARR SAYS HE WON'T TOUCH MENA In a speech to the Century City Bar Association in Los Angeles Wednesday November 29, Kenneth Starr responded to a question whether Whitewater had anything to do with the airport at Mena, Arkansas. "The answer is, the scope of our investigation, the subject matter of our investigation, does not run to any activity which has been reported in the press, or alleged activity reported in the press, with respect to possible illegal activities in various administrations at the now legendary Mena airport." In the past year, questions asked by Starr's people of witnesses with knowledge of Mena have led these witnesses to conclude that Starr was interested in the affair. Copyright (c) 1995 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com) Date: Mon Jan 15, 1996 12:24 pm CST From: snet l EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: snet-l@world.std.com TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Mena (fwd) >>Spin control? The following paragraph was printed on the front page of the Friday, November 24, 1995 issue of *The Wall Street Journal* in the Washington Wire column: MENA PROBE: House Banking Chairman Leach sends colleagues a letter on |plans to investigate allegations of drug smuggling and money laundering at the Mena, Ark., airport during the 1980s. Leach says he will also examine "whether past government reviews and investigations associated with Mena Airport were handled properly." The following excerpt is from a newspaper article written by columnist Robert D. Novak that was published in the Sunday, December 3, 1995 issue of *The Chicago Sun-Times* on page 43: House Banking Chairman James Leach, in a memo to his committee's members, has suggested that his low-key Whitewater investigation may lead to hearings on a high-profile issue: allegations of money laundering and drug smuggling at Mena Airport in southwestern Arkansas. Leach disclosed that investigators are probing "whether businesses based at, or operating through, the Mena Airport engaged in systematic money laundering." They also are exploring, he said, whether the source of laundered money was convicted drug smuggler Barry Seal during the time he said he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency. Published accounts for years have linked wrongdoing at Mena to the then-governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. But Leach's memo did not mention Clinton and asserted "the Mena-related allegations involve possible improper conduct spanning several federal administrations." The following paragraph was published on the front page of the Friday, December 29, 1995 issue of *The Wall Street Journal* in the Washington Wire column: The House is investigating alleged drug smuggling and money laundering at Mena Airport in Arkansas. Congressional investigators already have met with officials from the intelligence community, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration. To date, they have turned up nothing to indicate Clinton was associated with any wrongdoing at the remote airport. Sincerely, Duane J. Roberts eaou669@ea.oac.uci.edu Undergraduate Student Criminology, Law, and Society School of Social Ecology University of California, Irvine Date: Tue Jan 23, 1996 10:42 pm CST From: bigred EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: bigred@duracef.shout.net TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 06 The following is brought to you thanks, in part, to the kind assistance of CyberNews and the fine folks at Cornell University. Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 06 ====================================== ("Quid coniuratio est?") ----------------------------------------------------------------- HOUSE PANEL TAKES A LOOK AT MENA ================================ By Rowan Scarborough (Washington Times National Weekly Edition, Jan. 22-28, 1996) The House banking committee is investigating suspicions of criminal activities at Arkansas' Mena Airport, trying to separate fact from fiction in a list of accusations about drug dealing, gun running and government cover-ups during the 1980s. The inquiry is a spinoff of the panel's extensive Whitewater probe, during which Arkansas sources repeatedly urged congressional staffers to explore dealings said to have occurred at the municipal airport while Bill Clinton was governor and Ronald Reagan was president. Rep. Jim Leach, Iowa Republican and chairman of the committee, agreed in November. He issued a memo to committee members saying staffers would try to determine whether money from Barry Seal, a drug dealer, was laundered by businesses in and near the secluded airport in the Ouachita Mountains 130 miles southwest of Little Rock. The memo outlining Mr. Leach's intentions was disclosed by Insight magazine in its Jan. 29 issue. Mr. Leach's task is daunting, considering the breadth of the rumors buzzing around Seal, a convicted cocaine dealer and flamboyant aviator. Seal will be no help in sifting the truth. Columbian drug kings had him slain near his home in Baton Rouge, La., in 1986 after he became a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant. "This is one of the most complex, tangled tales that we've come across ever," says a committee investigator and Whitewater watcher. "Our objective is to investigate this, and to either prove or disprove the allegations that are floating around Mena. The chairman sees as much virtue in laying these rumors to rest as in exposing a scandal." It has been alleged that Seal used Mena as a base to ferry cocaine, launder money and supply the Nicaraguan Contras -- all while working for the DEA, the Reagan White House and the CIA. A banking committee staffer said Jan. 17 that at this point the panel's inquiry is confined to one issue. "This is a money- laundering investigation," the aide said. "It may lead into other things. We have no interest in replowing old Iran-Contra ground." The laundering was uncovered by an Internal Revenue Service official, William Duncan, and an Arkansas state policeman, Russell Welch. They believe there is enough evidence to bring charges against Seal's associates but claim they were stymied by federal authorities who wanted to keep a lid on clandestine activities at Mena. The House panel has requested documents from the IRS, the CIA and the DEA but has not yet chosen to subpoena witnesses, the aide said Jan. 17. Investigators have interviewed Mr. Duncan, Mr. Welch and Bill Alexander, a former Democratic congressman from Arkansas who has sought a federal inquiry for years, beginning when he was a member of the House. "I feel that the people of Arkansas and the people of the nation deserve to know the facts about the illegal drug trafficking and blatant money laundering that took place at Mena, Ark., during the 1980s," said Mr. Alexander, who practices law now in McLean, Va. and in Jonesboro, Ark. ----------------------------------------------------------------- I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation." ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you would like "Conspiracy Nation" sent to your e-mail address, send a message in the form "subscribe cn-l My Name" to listproc@cornell.edu (Note: that is "CN-L" *not* "CN-1") ----------------------------------------------------------------- For information on how to receive the new Conspiracy Nation Newsletter, send an e-mail message to bigred@shout.net ----------------------------------------------------------------- Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc? (1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom ----------------------------------------------------------------- See also: http://www.europa.com/~johnlf/cn.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- See also: ftp.shout.net pub/users/bigred ----------------------------------------------------------------- Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt. Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9 From: snet@world.std.com Reply-To: SNETNEWS@XBN.SHORE.NET Subject: (fwd) MENA: The Testimony of William C. Duncan (7/24/91) Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 14:11:51 -0500 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA alt.politics.reform:75611 alt.politics.usa.congress:38674 talk.politics.libertarian:102445 talk.politics.misc:478108 Path: world!uunet!in2.uu.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!info.ucla.edu! csulb.edu!drivel.ics.uci.edu!news.service.uci.edu!taurus.oac.uci.edu! eaou669 From: Duane Roberts s.libertarian,talk.politics.misc Subject: MENA: The Testimony of William C. Duncan (7/24/91) Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 10:09:34 -0800 Organization: University of California, Irvine Lines: 331 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: taurus.oac.uci.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII ----------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------- Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, 1992. ----------------------------------------------------------- GOV DOC # Y 4.G 74/7:Em 7/16 ----------------------------------------------------------- The following excerpts are from pages 64-73, 85-86. Congressman Doug Barnard, Jr. (D-Georgia) was Chairman of the Commerce, Consumer, and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee in 1991. Mr. BARNARD. Thank you very much. Our next panel consists of Mr. William C. Duncan, a former IRS senior Criminal Investigation employee, and Mr. N. Paul Whitmore, group manager of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service. Gentlemen, we appreciate you again being with us today for this important hearing. We will include your entire testimony, without objection, in the record and would like for your statements, if possible, to be summarized. Thank you again for being with us. We will first hear from Mr. Duncan. Incidently, I want to congratulate you. I understand that you are now gainfully employed again. Mr. DUNCAN. I finally got a job; yes, sir. Mr. BARNARD. Chief investigator of the Arkansas attorney general's office. I am glad that you are now employed. Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you, sir. Would it be better if I just responded to questions from the panel because it takes about 20 to 25 minutes for me to read this? Mr. BARNARD. Could you just sort of summarize to begin with? We have some questions for you and Mr. Whitmore, but couldn't you just sort of summarize what your statement includes? Mr. DUNCAN. This was my summary. Mr. BARNARD. A 20-page summary. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM C. DUNCAN, CHIEF INVESTIGATOR, OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL, STATE OF ARKANSAS Mr. DUNCAN. No, sir. It is about 9 pages. I can just say that Mr. Whitmore and I have testified truthfully about the events that occurred in connection with my testimony before the Subcommittee on Crime and m briefing process. We have provided documentation pertaining to our trips here. We have testified on several occasions, and we volunteered for and submitted to polygraph exams which we passed. And we also cooperated with Treasury IG in their extensive investigation. I don't know what more we can do. Mr. BARNARD. Well, we have some questions that we will direct to you. [The prepared statement of Mr. Duncan follows] TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM C. DUNCAN BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, CONSUMER, AND MONETARY AFFAIRS HOUSE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS JULY 24, 1991 Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Since my testimony before you on July 27, 1989, I have cooperated completely with investigators from the U. S. Treasury, Inspector General's Office and Government Accounting Office in an attempt to deal with the integrity problems and criminal acts of IRS Chief Counsel Attorneys. To my knowledge, not one of the IRS Attorneys has been punished, additional IRS Executives apparently have provided false, misleading or incomplete testimony to Treasury IG Investigators, and the conspiracy to cover up the illegal acts continues. The system now in place for investigating Senior Level IRS integrity problems has not worked. My prior testimony before you related to instructions given to me by IRS Chief Counsel Attorneys concerning my testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime on February 26, 1988, about criminal investigations in which I participated while assigned as an IRS Special Agent to the Fayetteville, AR Post-of-Duty. These joint investigations were initiated because of information which we received during 1983 and 1984 concerning the Barry Seal smuggling organization's move from Louisiana to the Mena, AR Airport. By the end of 1987, it was apparent that thousands of law enforcement manhours and an enormous amount of evidence of drug smuggling, aiding and abetting drug smugglers, conspiracy, perjury, money laundering and illegal modifications to smuggling aircraft had gone to waste. Not only were no indictments ever returned on any of the individuals under investigation for their role in the Mena Operation, there was a complete breakdown in the judicial system. The United States Attorney, Western Judicial District of Arkansas, assured us that there were no national security or other issues involved which would impede investigation and prosecution of criminal violations in Arkansas, however, he refused to issue subpoenas for critical witnesses, interfered in the investigations, apparently mislead grand juries about evidence and availability of witnesses, refused to allow investigators to present evidence to the grand jury, and in general made a mockery of the entire investigative and judicial process. The Subcommittee on Crime, through media reports, became aware of public concern over lack of indictments and requested my testimony. As you are aware from our testimony and statements made to your investigators by Hayden Gregory, Chief Counsel for the Subcommittee on Crime, if I had followed the directives of [deleted] and [deleted], I would have completely mislead the Subcommittee about the problems which we encountered in the investigations, and ultimately would have perjured myself in connection with an allegation about a bribe from Barry Seal to a high ranking Department of Justice official. The intense IRS Disclosure Litigation process which we described was purely and simply designed to impede the Congress of the United States in their investigation of issues which impact on the very heart of our judicial system, and ultimately the security of this country. Why did this happen? What could have been important enough for the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury to join hands in an effort which resulted in such interference? Perhaps there are answers. Evidence gathered during the last year and a half indicates that during the period 1984 through 1986, the Mena, AR Airport was an important hub/waypoint for transshipment of drugs, weapons and Central American "Contra" and Panamanian Defense Force personnel who were receiving covert training in a variety of specialties in the Nella Community, located ten miles north of the Mena, AR Airport. The evidence details a bizarre mixture of drug smuggling, gun running, money laundering and covert operations by Barry Seal, his associates, and both employees and contract operatives of the United States Intelligence Services. The testimony reveals a scheme whereby massive amounts of cocaine were smuggled into the State of Arkansas, and profits were partially used to fund covert operations. Two witnesses testified that one of the Western District of Arkansas Assistant U. S. Attorneys told them that the U. S. Attorney's Office received a call to shut down the investigations involving Seal and his associates. Is this the reason why the IRS went to such great lengths to cause me to withhold information from Congress? I don't know. It is obvious that their interference had little to with 6103 or 6E information. There had to be another reason. Something so important, that it would cause IRS Attorneys to deny even the meeting during which the subornation of the perjury occurred. I have been asked to comment on the Treasury Inspector General's Office Investigation into this matter. After reviewing unredacted portions of the investigative report, I can tell you that it contains many inaccuracies and it should be the subject of intense review by this subcommittee. The conclusions exhibited in the report allow criminal violations to go unpunished, and provide fertile ground for similar violations in the future.... When this subcommittee formally requested my testimony, the pressures from [deleted], and my immediate supervisor [deleted] increased dramatically. [deleted] told me not to even call the Little Rock, AR District Office to inquire as to the location of case files concerning the Mena Investigations. I was not allowed to either inquire about the files or return to Little Rock in time to review the files for information relating to my contacts with the Disclosure Litigation Attorneys.... It is ironic that the Internal Revenue Service promotes use of polygraph examinations in conduct of criminal investigations of American taxpayers because they, along with most other investigative and intelligence agencies, know that polygraph is an excellent investigative tool for determination of the truthfulness of witnesses. Paul Whitmore and I volunteered for, and submitted to, polygraph examinations administered by the United States Secret Service, because we were eager, as we told Commissioner Goldberg, to prove the truthfulness of our testimony. I again challenge [names deleted] and any other Internal Revenue Service personnel who dispute our testimony, to take a polygraph so that the truth can be displayed and this matter put finally to rest. Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, it is unlikely that any of the IRS executives and attorneys who were involved in this matter will ever take polygraph examinations, and they will probably never admit to their deception. They know full well that they do not have to submit to polygraph, and that they have protection within their powerful circle of co-conspirators who have distorted the truth so many times on behalf of this organization that they now comfortably perceive the truth to be whatever the Internal Revenue Service tells them it is. Loyalty is an important and valued asset. But never, ever, should loyalty be justification for perjury. History is filled with tragedies resulting from deception and crimes in the name of loyalty, patriotism and national security. It seems that most of America keeps their hands over their eyes, even when it comes to evidence of U.S. Government involvement in drug smuggling and IRS corruption that erodes voluntary taxpayer compliance, and ultimately, the very fiscal foundation of this country. With the exception of a few in depth articles by publications such as the Boston Phoenix, even the media has refused to demand answers. Please do not allow this matter to remain unresolved. The personal cost? The loss of an unblemished federal law enforcement career and my retirement; emotional and financial trauma beyond description; my portrayal by IRS Management as someone who turned their back on their organization, in other words, a traitor; inability to obtain other federal law enforcement employment because of perceptions that I am a "whistleblower" and because the Internal Revenue Service withheld my closing evaluation for over eighteen months.... I am thankful for the Attorney General of the State of Arkansas who viewed my refusal to perjure myself as a quality which he wanted in his administration. Otherwise, I might still be unable to find employment as a criminal investigator. Unfortunately, reprisal against me for truthful testimony and cooperation with congress continues. The U. S. Attorney in Western, Arkansas has sent word on two occasions that his office will not handle any Medicaid Fraud cases for the State of Arkansas as long as I am on staff with the Medicaid Fraud Division. In other words, he is willing to allow Medicaid Fraud, which affects healthcare of the poor and elderly, to go unchecked in the entire western half of the State of Arkansas, in order to sabotage my first full-time employment in nineteen months. His actions have caused us to have to take all of our criminal cases to the Eastern Judicial District U. S. Attorney, placing an unfair workload on both he and his staff. How is it that IRS and Department of Justice Attorneys continue this type of action with no perception of risk. Why are we powerless to stop it? The Attorney General of the United States should directly intervene with [deleted] to stop retaliation against me. Mr. Goldberg should take charge and begin to deal with integrity problems at the top of his organization. He should also, very quickly arrive at a solution in order to fully restore my Federal Law Enforcement career, with full benefits and compensation for the effects of IRS corruption on me and my family. He should gladly provide Mr. Whitmore and his family full compensation for any losses which they have incurred, and allow him to effectively continue to progress in his management career. People who cooperate with truthful testimony should be promoted, not demoted. We have fulfilled our responsibilities to the Internal Revenue Service and Congress under extreme duress. If the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the Attorney General refuse to fulfill the responsibilities of their jobs, they should be replaced with someone who will. What can be done to protect IRS Whistleblowers? The first thing you can do it make sure that whistleblowers are given the guidance and emotional support which they are going to need to get through some very tough times. We were totally unprepared for the emotional trauma of dealing with an enemy which we really didn't understand. How many IRS Employees know that IRS Attorneys are not there to protect them individually, but are there to protect the IRS Organization? There is no Attorney-Client relationship between an employee and an IRS Disclosure Litigation Attorney. The employee will not even be able to obtain the briefing records prepared by the attorney. Yet I was told repeatedly that I had to use the assigned Disclosure Litigation Attorney, that I had no choice. Finally, you can insure, that complaints about retaliation are promptly addressed, and that action is taken to intercede, and provide immediate relief to the extent possible. People are not going to willingly expose themselves and their families to economic and emotional peril, without some assurance that there will be real support from Congress. During a portion of the past three years I found myself filled with feelings of rage, disgust and helplessness as I discovered that I was powerless to deal with managers within IRS who perceived me as a troublemaker, and even a traitor, because I insisted on telling the truth. I believe that I exhibited the ultimate in loyalty to the Internal Revenue Service. I did not begin dealing with anyone outside my organization until I felt that I had exhausted all avenues within the organization. I sought guidance from each of my supervisors, who, until I became involved with this subcommittee, did nothing but encourage me to go back and go through the same horrifying process again. I feel now that I have done all that I can do. I despise the corruption that I have witnessed first hand, but I have had to displace my anger toward the people who participated in it. I am in the process of trying to reconstruct some semblance of life and security for my family. It is my sincere hope that others within the Internal Revenue Service will read the transcripts of the hearings conducted by this subcommittee and learn from them. Mr. BARNARD. As we begin our interrogation of these two gentlemen, I want to thank both of you for coming to the subcommittee to tell your story. I think that your testimony in the past has helped us mold an IRS of the future that will certainly not tolerate situations like the ones that you have experienced, and hopefully ill prevent any retaliation against whistleblowers in the future. Mr. Duncan, if IRS had given you more latitude in your Justice Department testimony in 1988, would you still be an IRS employee today? Mr. DUNCAN. I am certain that I would. Mr. BARNARD. Why do you believe that? Mr. DUNCAN. I thought I had the greatest job in the Internal Revenue Service. I thoroughly enjoyed my work, and I enjoyed the coworkers. Mr. BARNARD. Where do you think that your investigation would have led? Mr. DUNCAN. Well at the time I testified before the Subcommittee on Crime, we had just touched the tip of the iceberg, in my opinion. Since then we have received additional testimony that there were a lot more things going on, there was a lot more money that was being laundered. All I wanted to do was to be able to respond truthfully and answer questions completely before the Subcommittee on Crime. Mr. BARNARD. What has happened to that investigation since you left it? Mr. DUNCAN. The IRS investigation? To my knowledge, it has been closed. Mr. BARNARD. What about the Justice Department? Mr. DUNCAN. The statutes of limitations have expired on the cases and, to my knowledge, nothing else will be done. Mr. BARNARD. Mr. Duncan, do you believe that the information on the $350,000 bribe to a high-level Justice official was valid? Mr. DUNCAN. That is not a determination for me to make. I can only communicate that the law enforcement officer who received that information told me on numerous occasions that the informant that provided the information had provided in the past nothing but good information. Mr. BARNARD. Had he ever been tested, as far as a lie detector test is concerned? Mr. DUNCAN. I am not aware of that. Mr. BARNARD. Mr. Duncan, why do you believe that [deleted] and [deleted] requested that you not offer this information to the Justice Subcommittee? Mr. DUNCAN. I have asked myself that question thousands of times. Based on the information we have received in the last year and a half it appears that things were going on at that airport that could have been related to the Contra resupply, I don't know. I perceive that they wanted to protect the Internal Revenue Service from anything controversial. Mr. BARNARD. What has happened in that particular case since you left, to your knowledge? Mr. DUNCAN. Information is still coming in, additional witnesses are testifying, and we are gathering information right now. Mr. BARNARD. Are you associated with that case now as an investigator for the Arkansas attorney general? Mr. DUNCAN. I receive information and pass it along to the attorney general, and also to Congressman Alexander. From: snet@world.std.com Reply-To: SNETNEWS@XBN.SHORE.NET Subject: (fwd) MENA: Letter from the Arkansas Governor's Office (8/12/91) Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 14:12:30 -0500 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA alt.politics.reform:75539 alt.politics.usa.congress:38600 talk.politics.libertarian:102336 talk.politics.misc:477874 Path: world!uunet!in2.uu.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!info.ucla.edu! csulb.edu!drivel.ics.uci.edu!news.service.uci.edu!rigel.oac.uci.edu! eaou669 From: Duane Roberts s.libertarian,talk.politics.misc Subject: MENA: Letter from the Arkansas Governor's Office (8/12/91) Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 23:56:15 -0800 Organization: University of California, Irvine Lines: 54 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: rigel.oac.uci.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII ------------------------------------------------------- The following text is from a photocopy of a letter that was originally sent to Mark Swaney, then-President of the Arkansas Committee, a student organization that was investigating Mena, by Robert J. DeGostin, Jr., Office of the Governor, State of Arkansas, on August 12, 1991. ------------------------------------------------------- STATE OF ARKANSAS OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR Bill Clinton State Capitol Governor Little Rock 72201 August 12, 1991 Mr. Mark Swaney, President Arkansas Committee Arkansas Union Room 517 Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 Dear Mr. Swaney: Thank you for your recent letter to Governor Clinton regarding your desire to have a state grand jury investigate possible criminal activity in the Mena, Arkansas area. The Governor has asked me to respond on his behalf. It is my understanding that Attorney General Bryant and Rep. Bill Alexander have brought this matter to the attention of Lawrence Walsh's Office in Washington, D.C. It appears to me that a meeting with Attorney General Bryant, rather than Governor Clinton, would be more appropriate at this time. The Governor appreciates your bringing this matter to his attention. Sincerely, R O B E R T J . D E G O S T I N , J R . Robert J. DeGostin, Jr. Senior Advisor on Criminal Justice RJD: prn From: snet@world.std.com Reply-To: SNETNEWS@XBN.SHORE.NET Subject: (fwd) MENA: Letter to Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton (1/26/89) Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 14:12:38 -0500 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA alt.politics.reform:75609 alt.politics.usa.congress:38671 talk.politics.libertarian:102441 talk.politics.misc:478105 Path: world!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net! usc!newshub.csu.net!csulb.edu!drivel.ics.uci.edu!news.service.uci.edu! taurus.oac.uci.edu!eaou669 From: Duane Roberts s.libertarian,talk.politics.misc Subject: MENA: Letter to Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton (1/26/89) Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 10:08:04 -0800 Organization: University of California, Irvine Lines: 86 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: taurus.oac.uci.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII -------------------------------------------------- The following text is from a photocopy of a letter that was originally sent to Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton by Arkansas Congressman William Alexander on January 26, 1989. -------------------------------------------------- BILL ALEXANDER, M.C. 233 CANNON HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING ARKANSAS WASHINGTON, DC 20515 (202) 225-4078 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES January 26, 1989 Gov. Bill Clinton State Capitol Little Rock, Arkansas Dear Bill: The investigation into alleged drugs and gun smuggling at Mena airport can be cleared up by a local grand jury that will require state funds. Deputy Prosecutor Charles Black of Mt. Ida, the state police and congressional investigators are interested in convening such a grand jury, which is probably the only way that the matter will be resolved and laid to rest once and for all. Black estimates that about $25,000 will be required, because witnesses will have to be brought in from out of state. This figure cannot be paid for out of local resources. Black knows of witnesses who will testify that planes loaded with guns went to Central America and returned loaded with drugs. Certain DEA agents have stated that the late convicted smuggler Barry Seal was flying weapons to Central America in violation of U.S. foreign policy and in return, the federal government secretly allowed Seal to smuggle drugs back into the United States. Congressman Bill Hughes' Subcommittee on Crime has learned independently that at the time Seal was working on the famous Nicaraguan "sting" operation for the DEA and the CIA in 1984, he was still running drugs. Sources in Mena indicate that smuggling activities at Mena continued after Seal's murder in 1986 and are still continuing. My involvement in the case stems from two sources: I initiated a General Accounting Office investigation into drug trafficking from Latin America to the United States, and secondly, because of my position as the senior ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee that handles Justice Department funding. Prosecutor Black, State Police Investigator Russell Welch, and others who have been involved in the investigation have done an exemplary job, but they have been frustrated by the failure of some federal officials to proceed with the case. The only way to get the matter cleared up is to convene the local grand jury. Otherwise it will continue to fester and be a thorn in the side of local, state and congressional resources. I hope you will grant Mr. Black's request for funding in this matter. With kindest regards, I am. Sincerely, BILL ALEXANDER Member of Congress From: snet@world.std.com Reply-To: SNETNEWS@XBN.SHORE.NET Subject: (fwd) CIA Cocaine: Sunday Telegraph 7/17/94 Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 14:14:14 -0500 Organization: Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA alt.politics.usa.republican:225184 alt.president.clinton:83946 Path: world!uunet!in2.uu.net!interaccess!d108.loop.interaccess.com!lar+jen From: lar+jen@interaccess.com (Larry + Jennie) . Subject: CIA Cocaine: Sunday Telegraph 7/17/94 Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 21:15:55 -0600 Organization: InterAccess,Chicagoland's Full Service Internet Provider Lines: 231 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: d108.loop.interaccess.com X-Newsreader: Trumpet for Windows [Version 1.0 Rev B final beta #4] This is a truly disgusting article. It alleges that Bill Clinton had a taste for marijuana, cocaine and young women. One of the sources for this report comes from files kept by former Clinton security man, Luther Parks. Parks was gunned down in Little Rock. No one has ever been arrested for his 1993 murder. Larry ____________ "Cocaine and toga parties: Clinton stands accused" By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (London) July 17, 1994 (Copyright 1994 ) The Telegraph plc, London) When Bill Clinton was asked during the Presidential election campaign whether he had ever used drugs, he gave one of his carefully crafted, lawyerly answers. Yes, he had smoked two or three "joints" of marijuana at Oxford, but had never inhaled. And he insisted that he had never violated a drug law within the borders of the US. Now new evidence is emerging that Mr. Clinton may have been more than a casual user of marijuana. A variety of witnesses interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph at the President's former Arkansas haunts claim his drug habit stretched well into his political career. The pattern alleged by these witnesses goes far beyond questions of inappropriate personal conduct. At the time Mr Clinton was either Attorney-General or Governor of Arkansas. He was part of the law-enforcement machinery that gave stiff prison sentences to drug felons. And if the President once had a major drug habit, when did it end? 1986? 1990? 1994? Perhaps the most compelling allegations revolve around Roger Clinton - rock musician, perennial ne'er-do-well, and the President's younger brother. In summer 1984 Roger spent two months as a non-paying guest at Vantage Point, an upmarket apartment complex in Little Rock. At the time big-brother Bill was in his second term as Governor. Roger's rooms were in the corporate suite, number B107, which was separated from the administrative offices by a thin partition. On the other side of the wall was Jane Parks, manager of the complex. Until now Mrs Parks, 41, had remained stubbornly silent about what she saw and heard while Roger was at Vantage Point. But following the mysterious murder of her husband Jerry last year, and the failure of the Little Rock Police Department to solve the crime, she has decided to speak out. She is in the advanced stages of multiple sclerosis and she feels she no longer has anything to lose. During the time she worked next to Roger's apartment, she could hear the conversations in B107 very clearly. Governor Clinton was a frequent visitor. There was drug use at these gatherings, she claims, and she could clearly distinguish Bill's voice as he chatted with his brother about the quality of the marijuana they were smoking. She said she could also hear them talking about the cocaine as they passed it back and forth. When Roger finally moved out, Mrs Parks found drug paraphernalia left in the kitchen drawer, and cocaine spilt on the furniture. It was not uncommon during the brothers' alleged drug-taking sessions in the apartment for them to be joined by young women. Apart from sharing the drugs, the women on occasion had sex with both the Clinton men, she alleges. "What really concerned me were the young girls going in and out of there," Mrs Parks said. Other tenants in the complex frequently complained to the management about the rowdy scenes in B107. Mrs Parks's testimony is backed up by another resident of Vantage Point, who wishes to remain anonymous. She told me that she saw the Governor enter the apartment on at least three occasions. She also heard some of the activity going on inside while visiting Mrs Parks's office, and backed up claims of drug parties. "Bill had his girlfriends in there," she said. "You could hear them through the walls. Some of them looked like very young girls to me." Mrs Parks relayed her concerns to her husband, Jerry, a former police officer who was then branch manager of a private security firm in Little Rock. He also occasionally worked as a private detective. Fearing difficulties for his wife in her capacity as the building manager, he decided to conduct his own discreet surveillance of Roger's apartment, writing down names, dates, and detailed accounts of who was coming and going. He kept his handwritten notes in a file, which was stored in a dresser in their bedroom. After Roger Clinton moved out of the complex, Mr Parks gave up his inquiries. By a quirk of fate, in 1992 Mr Parks, who by then had set up his own firm, was awarded the security contract for the Clinton-Gore Presidential campaign headquarters in Little Rock. According to records at Mr Parks's firm, American Contract Services, he was not paid immediately. In early 1993 he made repeated calls to the White House demanding payment. The money finally came in July. Just a few days later the secret file was stolen from the Parks's dresser in a sophisticated burglary. The telephone wires were cut to disable the house's high-tech alarm system, and the file was the only item taken. Shortly after the burglary, Mr Parks received two telephone calls which, Mrs Parks said, left him in a state of paranoia. "He was popping my valium. He took a pistol with him everywhere, even to collect the post from the end of the driveway," she said. Two months later he was shot several times at short range at a suburban intersection outside Little Rock. A police source in Arkansas said that Mr Parks had made duplicates of the secret file and entrusted them to people in Little Rock. One set has been passed on to a federal law enforcement agency. The contents, he said, supported Mrs Parks's account. Her allegations would be outlandish if it were not for her reputation for straightforwardness and Christian devoutness. Even diehard enemies of her husband say they have never known her fabricate stories. Her description of Roger Clinton's lifestyle is also consistent with a police drug investigation in the mid-1980s in which Roger and his former boss, Dan Lasater, for whom he worked as a chauffeur and in his racehorse business, were both convicted on federal charges of distributing cocaine. Several women testified in secret to a federal grand jury that they were offered free cocaine by Mr Lasater as a way of seducing them. The youngest was only sixteen, a student at North Little Rock High School. She told me that she also met Governor Clinton several times at Mr Lasater's parties. Before his conviction in 1986, Mr Lasater, who had a variety of business interests, was a close associate of Bill Clinton and a major contributor to his campaign funds. A military subcontractor, another witness interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph who wished to remain anonymous, alleges that he watched Bill Clinton smoking a marijuana joint at a party given by Mr Lasater in 1984. The subcontractor says cocaine use was rampant at the party, although he did not see Bill Clinton partake. "I was smoking a cigar and every time I tried to find an ashtray the damn thing was full of cocaine," he said. "I was afraid to breathe." A former friend of Bill Clinton's has also told The Sunday Telegraph that on one occasion he produced a bag of cocaine in her living room and prepared a "line" on the table. This accusation is made by Sally Perdue, a former radio talk-show hostess in Little Rock, who told The Sunday Telegraph exclusively earlier this year that she had had an affair with Bill Clinton when he was Governor. Referring to the cocaine incident, she said: "He had all the equipment laid out, like a real pro." Ms. Perdue alleges that he came to her house about a dozen times in late 1983, a claim that is broadly confirmed by Arkansas State Trooper L. D. Brown. He smoked marijuana regularly, she claimed, pulling joints ready-made out of a cigarette case. Typically, he would smoke two or three in the course of a three-hour stay, she said, and he always inhaled. There was no indication that it greatly affected his judgment or behaviour. These claims suggest marijuana use may have been a feature of his life throughout his twenties and thirties. A one-time reporter for student newspaper The Daily Texan - he is now a prominent national journalist - says that he saw Mr Clinton smoking a joint in Austin in 1972 at the headquarters of George McGovern's Texas campaign. "Nobody thought anything of it at the time. We were all doing it," he said. Drug use within Clinton's political circle in Arkansas was blatant during his first Governorship from 1978 to 1980. "I can remember going into the Governor's conference room once and it reeked of marijuana," said Democratic State Representative Jack McCoy, a Clinton supporter. As late as 1986 Clinton was still smoking marijuana, according to Terry Reed, a former intelligence operative based in Arkansas who recently published a book about Mr Clinton's involvement in efforts to resupply the Nicaraguan Contras in the 1980s. Finally there is Sharlene Wilson. The 39-year-old Ms Wilson was interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph at the women's prison in Tucker, Arkansas. Her testimony must be treated with caution as she is serving a 31-year sentence for minor drug dealing. Despite it being her first drug conviction, Ms Wilson received a long sentence for selling half an ounce of marijuana and $60-worth of methamphetamine. She now claims she was set up to discredit testimony that might prove damaging to Bill Clinton and senior Arkansas officials. The FBI is investigating the possibility that she is the victim of an abuse of judicial power. Ms. Wilson says she came to know the Governor when she was a friend of his brother in the late 1970s. For a time she was a bartender at Le Bistro nightclub in Little Rock, where Roger used to play with his band Dealers' Choice, and was known as the "lady with the white snow". The Governor would come by frequently to listen to the band and would often snort cocaine, she alleges. On one occasion in 1979, she says, she sold two grammes of cocaine to Roger, who immediately gave some to his elder brother. Ms. Wilson also claimed to have attended toga parties at the Coachman's Inn outside Little Rock where she saw Governor Clinton using cocaine. Guests at these parties would wear sheets and share sexual partners. Ms. Wilson tried to break away from drugs in the late 1980s and began helping federal and state agencies. Gary Martin, an officer with the Drug Enforcement Agency in Little Rock, said she proved very reliable: "I have no reason to doubt her word." In December 1990 she testified as a star witness to a federal grand jury, held in secret, about her knowledge of cocaine use by Bill Clinton and others. This testimony, for a task force investigating drug involvement by Arkansas public officials, will remain secret forever. According to Jean Duffey, who headed the drug task force, within days the investigation was in effect closed down. Ms Wilson was subsequently entrapped. "Sharlene was my best informant," says Jean Duffey, who says she herself was hounded out of her job for being too diligent. She now lives at a secret location in Texas. "They couldn't silence her so they locked her up in jail and threw away the key. That's Arkansas for you." ************************************************************************* These sites are filled with facts about CIA covert operations how they work against the best interests of the citizens of the United States. David Feustel's great archive on CIA cocaine smuggling: http://www.mixi.net/~feustel/ Lisa Pease's Real History Archives: http://www.webcom.com/~lpease/ Bob Parry's The Consortium is filled with important investigative reporting that the mainstream media won't touch: http://www.delve.com/consort.html Whitewater & Vince Foster site: http://www.cris.com/~dwheeler/n/whitewater/whitewater-index.html Covert Action Quarterly home page: http://www.worldmedia.com/caq/ Federation of American Scientists' library of U.S. intelligence documents http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/ ************************************************************************* From: snet@world.std.com Reply-To: SNETNEWS@XBN.SHORE.NET Subject: (fwd) MENA: Letter to Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 14:10:32 -0500 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA alt.politics.reform:75534 alt.politics.usa.congress:38592 talk.politics.libertarian:102331 talk.politics.misc:477855 Path: world!uunet!in2.uu.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net! usc!newshub.csu.net!csulb.edu!drivel.ics.uci.edu!news.service.uci.edu! aldebaran.oac.uci.edu!eaou669 From: Duane Roberts s.libertarian,talk.politics.misc Subject: MENA: Letter to Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 22:49:04 -0800 Organization: University of California, Irvine Lines: 67 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: aldebaran.oac.uci.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII -------------------------------------------------- The following text is from a photocopy of a letter that was orginally sent to Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh by Arkansas Attorney General Winston Bryant on May 30, 1991. -------------------------------------------------- OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 200 Tower Building WINSTON BRYANT 323 Center Street ATTORNEY GENERAL LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS 72201 (501) 682-2007 May 30, 1991 Mr. Lawrence Walsh Office of Independent Council Suite 701 555 13th Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20004 Dear Mr. Walsh: I am forwarding petitions to you bearing the signatures of more than 1,000 citizens, mostly Arkansans, who are calling for an investigation into the activities of the late Berriman "Barry" Seal in regards to an airport in Mena, Arkansas, which Seal and his associates allegedly used as a drug smuggling depot during the early to mid 1980's. Their specific concern, as well as my own, is to learn 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. Because your office touched on these matters during the Iran-Contra investigation, I, along with Congressman Bill Alexander of Arkansas and a number of my fellow Arkansans, ask that you direct your continuing investigation towards the events which occurred at the Mena, Arkansas airport. The people of Arkansas need, and deserve, a final and full accounting of this matter, and it is our hope that the Office of Independent Council can provide one. My office, as well as Congressman Alexander's, stands ready to assist in any manner that we can. Sincerely, W I N S T O N B R Y A N T WINSTON BRYANT Attorney General WB:djh Enclosures From: snet@world.std.com Reply-To: SNETNEWS@XBN.SHORE.NET Subject: (fwd) More Terry Reed Lawsuit Judicial Stonewalling Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 11:24:09 -0500 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Xref: world alt.conspiracy:177867 alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater:42422 alt.journalism:46893 alt.politics.corruption.mena:190 alt.radio.talk:10624 misc.legal:163901 Newsgroups: alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater,alt.conspiracy,alt.journalism, alt.radio.talk,alt.politics.corruption.mena,misc.legal,us.legal Path: world!uunet!in2.uu.net!news-feed.iguide.com!imci2! news.internetMCI.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com! howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!feustel From: feustel@netcom.com (David Feustel) Subject: More Terry Reed Lawsuit Judicial Stonewalling Message-ID: Organization: DAFCO X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1] Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 14:04:04 GMT Lines: 63 Sender: feustel@netcom18.netcom.com U.S. District Judge George Howard has in his latest (March 8th) ruling on the Terry Reed lawsuit stated that Terry may bring any and all evidence to the lawsuit *except* that which pertains to the charges Terry makes in the lawsuit (my interpretation). Text of the order follows: ========================================================================= IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS WESTERN DIVISION TERRY K. REED, ET AL. PLAINTIFFS v. Civil No. LR-C-94-634 RAYMOND YOUNG, ET AL. DEFENDENTS ORDER Pending before the Court is defendants' [Raymond (Buddy) Young and Tommy L. Baker] December 4th motion in limine to exclude the following matters:...These general areas will be referred to as the "Mena" evidence or Documents. ......Even if the Court were to find that the complaint adequately states sufficient facts to make the allegations.....relevant to the alleged overt actions of these defendants, the probative value is substantially outweighed by the dangers of unfair prejudice, confusion of issues, the potential for misleading of the jury and considerations of undue delay and waste of time. The following description will control: [may not be introduced into evidence or made part of the court record] Any reference to the plaintiffs' [Terry and Janis Reed] participation in programs, operations or missions sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investgation or the Central Intelligence Agency or any other agency of the United States government, covert or otherwise, as well as any organization sponsored by or aligned with teh United States government specifically including, but not limited to, any programs, operations or missions conducted in southwest Arkansas regaring the training of Nicaraguan nationls, the funding and support for any factions involved in the Nicaraguan conflict and any contact or communications with opeatives or officials of the above-named agencies or organizations. Any reference to President or Governor Bill Clinton and/or Hillary Clinton and the Mena or Nella Airports. Any references to Barry Seale [sic] and any alleged drug smuggling operation or other references to the Mena and Nella Airports, or to a business relationship of Barry Seale [sic] and Dan Lasater, Lasater and Company and the Arkansas Development and Finance Authority (ADFA) and ADFA's former Director, Bob Nash. .....IT IS SO ORDERED THIS 8TH day of March, 1996 ==================================================================== I think under the terms of this order even the text of Reed's lawsuit cannot not be introduced as evidence. Judge Howard is also the judge for the Whitewater case that allowed President Clinton to testify on video tape. -- feustel@netcom.com Dave Feustel N9MYI For PGP Public Key, finger feustel@netcom.com Fort Wayne, IN Or else access http://www.mixi.net/~feustel/ 219-483-1857 From: snet@world.std.com Reply-To: SNETNEWS@XBN.SHORE.NET Subject: (fwd) Clinton Pal Dan Lasater & the Mena-Related Laundry Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 11:49:04 -0500 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Xref: world alt.conspiracy:176654 Path: world!uunet!in2.uu.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com! news-feed.iguide.com!news.delphi.com!usenet From: Orlin Grabbe Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy Subject: Clinton Pal Dan Lasater & the Mena-Related Laundry Date: Sun, 17 Mar 96 00:07:01 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Lines: 135 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: bos1e.delphi.com Clinton Pal Dan Lasater & the Mena-Related Laundry [The following is the text of John Crudele's article in the NY Post, Friday, March 15, 1996.] Ex-pol: Ark. airport was depot for dope and guns A former Arkansas congressman is about to blow the lid off what some say was a Washington-sponsored gun- running operation that illegally provided weapons to the Contra rebels of Nicaragua. Democrat Bill Alexander, defeated for his congressional seat in a 1993 primary after the House check- kiting scandal. today will release seven boxes of documents he says prove that an airport in Mena, Ark., was used to transport guns to the Contras and smuggle drugs back into the United States in the 1980s. Some of these drugs, Alexander says, ended up in the hands of John Gotti's crime family in New York. Others have made these same charges, and the Mena operation has become the subject of an investigation by the House Banking Committee. Sources say the federal Drug Enforcement Administration is gathering information that will be turned over to that committee, headed by Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa). Alexander will give his Mena documents to the University of Arkansas at Jonesboro at noon today. The Post obtained some of these documents, including a draft indictment--never presented to a grand jury--that could have brought the Mena matter to light nearly a decade ago. "Mena was a U.S. government staging area to support the Contras in Central America. The planes that were contracted to ship the weapons brought drugs back to the U.S.," Alexander told The Post. "Absolutely no doubt about it. And I have evidence of it . . . The drugs came back to the U.S. and they went to various ports of entry, including Mena. Some of the drugs went to New York." Alexander said one witness said the Gambino crime family--then headed by John Gotti--received some of the Mena drugs. Alexander said then Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was never implicated in the Mena operation. "So far, it doesn't touch Clinton. This is pre-Clinton," he said. But others in Arkansas have alleged that Clinton benefited indirectly from what was going on in Mena. And some sources place Clinton on the ground at Mena airport at the time of this alleged drug-and-gun-running operation. Whitewater Special Counsel Kenneth Starr has begun looking into the actions of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, which was reformed in the mid-1980s by Clinton to spur economic development in his state. Starr is not officially investigating Mena, although his probers have put out feelers for anyone who might want to volunteer information. Some sources in Arkansas have alleged that ADFA eventually saw some of the Mena drug money flow into its coffers through the purchase of bonds. Dan Lasater, a convicted drug dealer, friend of Clinton and owner of a brokerage company, is often mentioned as the one who made the bond buys. Alexander investigated Mena in conjunction with the General Accounting Office when he was a member of the House Appropriations Committee. The Probe centered around U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. He was also looking into the matter in his role as special assistant attorney general in Arkansas. He said the probe ended when the National Security Council ordered all government agencies not to cooperate with either him or the GAO. Alexander said he has documentation that the Reagan administration quashed the investigation.. Part of the cache of documents Alexander will make public today is a draft of a 24-count indictment that he says was written by the U.S. attorney in Arkansas at the time. It was drawn up with former IRS investigator Bill Duncan, who Alexander says is the top money-laundering expert in the country. The indictment was never presented to the grand jury for action. The draft alleges that four people and an Arkansas corporation "would transport and cause to be transported quantities of United States currency to various financial institutions, and, there, used this currency to purchase numerous cashiers' checks all in amounts of less than $10,000, thus causing no currency transactions report to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service." (Banks are required to report transactions of $10,000 or more to the IRS.) In short, the transactions looked like a money- laundering operation. The proposed indictment covered only a "pattern of illegal activity involving transactions exceeding $100,000 in a 12-month period" starting Aug. 23, 1982. The proposed indictment also said the late Barry Seal, the alleged ringleader in the Mena operation, modified "numerous aircraft" at the airport. Seal allegedly delivered drugs in his planes. Alexander's stash of documents includes copies of a number of cashiers' checks that Seal made out to the Union Bank of Mena. Most journalists have avoided the Mena tale because they're afraid of being considered part of the lunatic fringe. But the press at large will probably start to notice as more and more is revealed about the antics of Arkansans in the 1980s. Alexander's trove could be a starter kit for the lazy and reluctant. ### Date: Sat, 06 Apr 96 20:46:32 GMT From: carlolsen@dsmnet.com (Carl E. Olsen) To: drctalk@drcnet.org Cc: carlolsen@dsmnet.com Subject: (Fwd) Mena documents via FTP - Was Re: Mena Evidence on Public Display Message-ID: <9604062047.AA11984@dsm7.dsmnet.com> On 2 Apr 1996, Michael Rivero wrote: > ------------------------------------------ > The Oral Deposition of Richard J. Brenneke > ------------------------------------------ > Joint Investigation by the > Arkansas State Attorney General's Office > and the U.S. Congress, June 21, 1991. > ------------------------------------------ This deposition, along with text files of all the letters, testimony, reports, and Congressional hearings pertaining to Mena, Arkansas that I have posted on the internet in various usenet newsgroups, are now available via FTP at "pencil.cs.missouri.edu" (or "128.206.100.207") in directory "/pub/mena". Sincerely, Duane J. Roberts duane@uci.edu Undergraduate Student Criminology, Law, and Society School of Social Ecology University of California, Irvine ****************************************************************** * Carl E. Olsen * carlolsen@dsmnet.com * * Post Office Box 4091 * http://www.calyx.com/~olsen/ * * Des Moines, Iowa 50333 * Carl_E._Olsen@commonlink.com * * (515) 262-6957 voice & fax * 73043.414@compuserve.com * ****************************************************************** Reporters and Researchers are welcome at the world's largest on-line library of drug policy material at: http://www.druglibrary.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat Apr 06, 1996 11:36 pm CST From: bigred EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414 MBX: bigred@duracef.shout.net TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762 Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 59 The following is brought to you thanks, in part, to the kind assistance of CyberNews and the fine folks at Cornell University. Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 59 ====================================== ("Quid coniuratio est?") ----------------------------------------------------------------- ARKANSAS 101 ============ Barry Seal, a skilled pilot, drops duffel bags filled with cash at the Triple S Ranch near Hot Springs, Arkansas. An estimated $9 million per week falls out of the sky. The state of Arkansas gets 10 percent and also temporary use of the entire amount. Finis Shellnut, son-in-law of Seth Ward, lives at the Triple S Ranch. Seth owns the ranch, but Finis is the go-for who retrieves the weekly cash bundles. Finis works for Dan Lasater as a bondsman. Roger Clinton, brother of Bill Clinton, also works for Dan Lasater. Seth Ward, owner of the Triple S Ranch, has a daughter, Suzy, who is married to Webster Hubbell. Webster ("Webb") Hubbell is a close friend of Bill Clinton. Webb Hubbell works at the Rose Law Firm. Hillary Rodham Clinton's office is right next to Webb Hubbell's office at the Rose Law Firm. Hillary Rodham Clinton is married to William Jefferson Clinton, Governor of Arkansas at the time. The weekly $9 million falling out of the sky seems to have been put into ADFA, the Arkansas Development Finance Authority. Or else where *was* its money coming from? The state budget had no funds earmarked for ADFA and the State Constitution barred deficit financing. ADFA was, in effect, a bank, making preferred loans. Because ADFA is a state agency, it is not legally required to publicly divulge its records. ADFA paid more than $100,000 in legal fees to the Rose Law Firm. Was any of the money "loaned" out by ADFA ever re-paid? ----------------------------------------------------------------- I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation." ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you would like "Conspiracy Nation" sent to your e-mail address, send a message in the form "subscribe cn-l My Name" to listproc@cornell.edu (Note: that is "CN-L" *not* "CN-1") ----------------------------------------------------------------- For information on how to receive the new Conspiracy Nation Newsletter, send an e-mail message to bigred@shout.net ----------------------------------------------------------------- Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc? (1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom ----------------------------------------------------------------- See also: http://www.europa.com/~johnlf/cn.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- See also: ftp.shout.net pub/users/bigred ----------------------------------------------------------------- Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt. Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9 Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 02:30:54 +0200 From: mario lap To: drctalk@drcnet.org Subject: Interesting 2: IRT in de States... Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960417003054.0060029c@xs4all.nl> Sorry when this is old news >Da