[CTRL] "Snow Job and Bill Clinton"

[Kris Millegan]

 -Caveat Lector-

from:
http://www.esotericworldnews.com/snowjob.htm
Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.esotericworldnews.com/snowjob.htm">Snow Job
and Bill Clinton</A>
-----
SNOW JOB AND BILL CLINTON

ôI have never seen a whitewash job like what has been executed in this
case. There prosecuted. US Rep. William Alexander (D, AR) on Mena
In These Times, Feb. 12, 1992.

You mention Mena, Arkansas to just about anyone and they ask you if you
really said the word ômee-nuhö. But this small town in the Ozark Mountains
west of Little Rock holds dark secrets. It was here in the 1980s that Contra
mercenaries were trained in guerilla flying techniques, ones that could be
used to smuggle and deliver arms. Arms were stockpiled and flown from Mena to
Central America, where the cargo was exchanged for cocaine from the Medellin
Cartel. The planes returned to Mena and unloaded their precious cargo into
CIA hands to be sold on the streets of the US. This was not a ôrogue elementö
conducting this cocaine smuggling directly into the United States. It was a
business arrangement made at the highest levels of our government, conceived
and executed in the offices of the White House, the National Security
Council, and the CIA. There is also evidence to show that a deal was made
directly between the CIA (thus the NSC) and the Medellin Cartel in Colombia,
one which involved payments of millions of dollarsùand, apparently,
ôproductöùby Medellin to the CIA. A Governor named Bill Clinton knew about
CIA cocaine in Mena, abetted the operation, and with his chief of personal
security actively sabotaged nearly all official and media investigations into
it. WhatÆs more, ClintonÆs state-of-the-art presidential campaign was funded
by money looted from BCCI, the CIAÆs money laundering bank of choice. Money
donated by very old Clinton friends with ties to the CIA leadership.

Bill Clinton is a Company man.

TENTACLES

Much of the early history of the Mena operation has been exposed by Terry
Reed, a man who acted as a flight trainer at Mena and ran CIA front companies
in the US and Mexico. He says he quit the illegal Contra supply network in
1987 only to face retribution and endangerment of himself and his family. A
life-long patriot, he says he never intended to talk publicly about what he
knew. Nevertheless, he was framed on insurance fraud charges in a CIA
ôpreemptive strikeö. It was through Gov. Clinton that the set-up was made.
Reed decided to defend himself, and he started to talk. To understand Mena,
perhaps it is best to understand his story. It centers around a Piper
turbo-prop airplane. Terry Reed served during the Viet Nam war as a pilot
with Air-America, a secret CIA subsidiary used to conduct covert air strikes
and smuggle arms throughout Southeast Asia. This was the same Air-America
used by Oliver North, Richard Secord, Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, Thomas Clines
and Theodore Shackley to smuggle heroin out of Laos and eventually to the
US.[1] The profits from the heroin sales were laundered through banks like
Nugan-Hand in Australia,[2] and then used to finance myriad top secret
intelligence operations. (These included the infamous Project PHOENIX, a
program of systematic assassinations of a perceived ôVietcong infrastructureö
throughout Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. More than 48,000 peasants were
tortured and slaughtered.)[3] The secret team made alliance with the top
heroin lord in Laos, headquartered on the Plain of Jars. Secord, who
commanded the tactical air wing in the region, lent high-powered enforcement
against Vang PaoÆs rivals, not to mention efficient transportation.[4] In
return, the CIA got cheap heroin. Countless millions of dollars were made in
profitùmost of it vanishing into secret bank accounts known only to the
Secret Team. The Laos operation was the prototype for future operations by
the exact same group of people. ôThe Enterpriseö, as they themselves would
come to call it, conducted war on a commercial basis. Pilot Terry Reed ôcut
his teeth on covert operationsö, serving two ôenjoyable toursö in Thailand,
with top security clearance.[5] It was then that Reed first met William
Cooper, one of the chief pilots under Secord. (Not to be confused with Milton
William Cooper, author of Behold a Pale Horse.) Despite this veritable nest
of heroin smugglers, Reed claims he had no personal knowledge of any drug
operations. Reed left the Air Force in 1976; the year Jimmy Carter was
elected, the year he would instruct his new CIA director Stansfield Turner to
fire half of the CIAÆs covert action wing, following the public uproar caused
by the revelations of the Congressional Church and Pike hearings. ReedÆs
friends were among those given the boot. So he moved to Oklahoma City where
he started a machine tool business.[6] In 1980, right around the time that
Reagan came into office, Reed got a phone call from his old Air-America
friend William Cooper. They arranged for ReedÆs company to begin machining
special parts for what he later discovered was the nascent Contra
initiative.[7] In 1982, a man calling himself ôJohn Catheyö met with Reed in
a Oklahoma City restaurant. Cathey talked a lot about patriotism (they shared
an admiration for Harry Truman), and at one point in the conversation showed
a CIA i.d. card.[8] They talked about the Contras. Cathey told him about
ôOperation Donationö, whereby people could ôdonateö materiel to the cause and
then claim the loss from certain insurance companies the CIA knew about. Reed
wasnÆt willing to part with his plane. But after more conversation, they
arranged for him to open a front company through which to ship arms. Terry
Reed was moving up. A few months later, his Piper turbo-prop airplane was
stolen from a repair shop in Joplin, Missouri (ReedÆs home state). He was out
of town at the time and claims he didnÆt know who had stolen it. He settled
with the insurance company and went on with his life.[9] Which was about to
get exciting.
In March 1983, the Boland Amendment was imminent. There was not much time
left to implement covert supply lines to the CIAÆs growing Contra army. It
was then that ôJohn Catheyö met with Reed in his office and revealed that his
name was actually Oliver North.[10] The CIA was consolidating the supply ops
in Florida and southeastern states. They had strong intelligence resources
there among the anti-Castro crowd, dating back to the days of Operation
Mongoose and Bay of Pigs.[11] North asked Reed to train guerilla pilots at a
secluded new base deep in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. He quickly agreed,
and off he went to Mena.
MOUNTAIN HOME

Actually, the CIA air strip and camp was outside of Nella, AK, a tiny
mountain berg ten miles north of Mena in the Ouachita National Forest. The
Intermountain Regional Airport in Mena also served as a cargo and personnel
hub.[12] Conveniently enough it was 82 miles due south of Fort Smith. And the
capital of Little Rock lies just 130 miles east of Mena. Why the Arkansas
Ozarks?? One reason was that Mena is in ArkansasÆ 3rd Congressional District,
represented at that time by Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt, a longtime
friend of Vice President Bush. He was one of two (out of six) Arkansas
Representatives who supported federal aid to the Contras.[13] ReedÆs old
friend William Cooper was there. ReedÆs job was to take Nicaraguan Contras
and other recruits from Latin America and train them in resupply missions,
night landings, precision paradrops and similar flight maneuvers. Aircraft
were also to be retro-fitted for smuggling operations and ôspecial
maneuversö, which would originate from the airstrip.[14] That was CooperÆs
job. One of the people Reed met at the Mena airbase was Barry Seal. Seal had
been a Green Beret in Viet Nam and later a pilot for TWA. In 1972 he was
indicted but aquitted on charges of conspiring to ship explosives to
anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico. From æ73 to æ82 he ran a no questions asked
aiplane dealership, including as customers the CIA. During this period he
also flew marijuana, and later cocaine from Colombia to his private airstrip
in Baton Rouge. In 1982 he was arrested in Ft. Lauderdale for possession with
intent to deliver quaaludes. He faced a 10-year sentence. He had tried to cut
a deal with the DEA, but they werenÆt interested. So, Seal flew on a Lear jet
to Washington, DC for a hearing before the National Narcotics Border
Interdiction Task Force. The NNBITF was a Vice Presidential Task Force. They
overruled the concerns of the Miami DEA office and made an arrangement with
Seal.[15] He was put to work in Operation Screamer, which included the
largest drug bust in Nevada history. Later, NorthÆs network had Seal work
undercover to ôdiscredit the Sandinista government.ö Seal agreed to fly his
C-130 transport plane to a site where ôSandinista soldiersö would be
photographed loading it with 750 kilos of cocaine. (This photo ôevidenceö was
widely publicized in the US, until it became known that they had been faked.)
That cleared Seal of the DEA. North then recruited the ex-Green Beret to help
manage and fly missions to Central America. That took him to Mena.[16] Seal
first made contact with the Medellin cartelÆs Miami contacts, Fillix Dixon
Bates and Carlos Bustmante. Medellin was headed at time by the Ochoa
brothers: Juan, Jorge and Flavio Ochoa. Soon he was in Colombia contracting
with the Ochoas to deliver their cocaine to customers in Miami and the West
Coast.

MIDNIGHT BLIZZARD

Planes were loaded with arms at the CIAÆs private airbase in Mena. They flew
almost a straight shot south to Ilopango Air Base in civil-war wracked El
Salvador. There the arms were unloaded to be distributed to Contra bases just
to the east in Honduras, where the mercenaries maintained field camps all
along the northern border of Nicaragua.[17] (The southern front, and the main
command post, was based in Costa Rica. The role of John Hull and his ranch
and several airfields as the base for NorthÆs network was well documented in
the documentary film Cover-Up: Behind the Iran-Contra Scandal (1988). Arms
and drugs poured through HullÆs ranch during the æ80s, most of it from
Florida bases and Ilopango. After federal charges of drug smuggling,
conspiracy, and arms violations were filed in Costa Rica, Hull fled the
country and is now hiding somewhere in the US, perhaps in his native Indiana.
See also, L. Cockburn, Out of Control and Christic Institute, The Shadow
Government.) The planes were then loaded with shipments of cocaine and
marijuana. This was done both at Ilopango and HullÆs Ranch. Some flights were
actually sent to La Guajita in Colombia where they were loaded with
cocaine.[18] Even from La Guajita, Colombia it is only 2 1/2 hours by air to
Miami. The cocaine pipeline flowed back across the Caribbean, past the CIAÆs
base at Quantanimo Bay, and emptied out in small air fields in Florida,
Georgia, and of course Mena, AR.[19] The cocaine was distributed through
longstanding CIA contacts in the US drug trade.[20] The money was laundered
through Arkansas banks, BCCI, and other networks NorthÆs team long used.

CRUEL EMISSARY

The man running the Ilopango supply operation for the CIA was Felix Rodriguez
(alias Max Gomez). He testified as such before the Tower Iran-Contra
Hearings. Rodriguez, now ôretiredö, had a long and colorful career with the
CIA, one which took him into the darkest corners of covert operations. He was
a member of the CIAÆs pre-Bay of Pigs assassination squad based in Miami, FL
called ZR/RIFLE. Their mission was to ôdevelop a capability to disable
foreign leaders or murder them if necessary.ö[21] The 1975 Senate Church
Committee hearings, in their public findings, detailed eight assassination
plots connected to ZR/RIFLE and other ôshooter teamsö.[22] Rodriguez was also
in the CIAÆs advance team that covertly entered Cuba six weeks before the Bay
of Pigs fiasco in 1961. He was one of 15 (out of 33) who escaped Cuba
afterward. In 1967, Rodriguez was the last man to interrogate Che Guevara in
Bolivia, and gave the order to shoot him. (He wears GuevaraÆs watch as a
trophy to this day.) During the late-Æ60s and early-Æ70s, he followed his
ZR/RIFLE boss, Theodore Shackley, to Laos where he led an elite antiguerilla
force, the Provincial Reconnaissance Units. After injuries forced him out of
combat, Rodriguez trained guerillas and assassins in Lebanon.[23] Then came
the fall of the Shah, the ascention of Reagan, and the Contra War.

THE GENTLEMENÆS AGREEMENT

Congressional testimony suggests that a deal was struck between the CIA and
the Medellin cartel based in Colombia. It is known that Medellin made
payments to the CIA through Felix Rodriguez.[24] Barry Seal, a Medellin asset
in the US with links to the Secret Team, was probably the ôliaison officerö
to the Mena operation. In all likelihood, Seal was one of several such
CIA-Medellin liaisons at bases throughout the US Southeast. Milian Rodriguez
(no relation) presented testimony & documents at his trial that showed
several million dollars in cash had been paid by the Medellin cartel to the
Contras, buying access to the aircraft pipeline.[25] Other Congressional
testimony, including that of former Noriega crony Jose Blandon, has closely
linked the CIA with Contra cocaine operation.[26] Lt.Col. Oliver NorthÆs own
files specifically mentioned $14 million in drug money being used in the
contra program. (Remember that he spent three days shredding his more
sensitive files.)[27] Evidence, including reports with NorthÆs signature,
describe the flow of drug money from the Enterprise, and saying disclusure
ôcould damage Vice President Bush.ö[28] According to declassified NSC
documents, NorthÆs notebooks and other Iran-Contra evidence, Felix Rodriguez
met several times with Vice President George Bush at the White House several
times over the course of the Ilopango operation. It was probably at these
meetings when details about the Medellin deal were handled, and quite
possibly money exchanged.[29] With Rodriguez acting as the bagman for cartel
payoffs, CIA planes were permitted to fly into Colombia and load up with
cocaine, at a ôfair priceö. In return, the CIA kept the DEA and other
arrogant Justice Department agencies at bay. The Cartel already had a cozy
relationship with several banks in Manuel NoriegaÆs Panama. The CIA offered
to share some of their own resources (and thus learn more about MedellinÆs).
Later, Medellin would sometimes aid the CIA in combatting the communist
Sandero Luminosa insurgency in Peru, a relationship which continues today.[30]

CRIMES OF SISYPHUS

By 1985, the Enterprise was in full swing. Terry Reed was training a steady
stream of mercenary pilots who were then being sent to the Contra camps. Arms
and cocaine moved through Mena regularly. And money was flowing in rivers.
For example, once a week, an airplane would fly over the Mena airstrip and
drop a leather satchel filled with $10 million. Despite it all, Reed claims
he knew of no drug smuggling at the time. That year he was informed by Cooper
that his plane which had been ôstolenö two years before had been in use by
North in Central America the whole time. It was being returned him. Cooper
suggested Reed rent a hangar for it until things ôcooled offö. North later
called him and repeated the advice.[31] He followed it. Later that year, Reed
was approached with a plan for him to go to Mexico and set up an operation
expanding the supply network. He agreed, and travelled to Vercruz for
discussions with Felix Rodriguez.[32] In July of 1986, Reed set up a front
company called Machinery International, in Guadalajara. Three months later,
on October 5, 1986, a C-123 transport plane carrying weapons to a Contra air
drop was shot down by a Sandinista missile. William Cooper and Buzz Sawyer,
the pilots, were killed. The dropmaster, Eugene Hasenfus, managed to
parachute right into the SandinistasÆ arms. His face, and the names in the
phone book captured with him (Felix Rodriguez, Oliver North, Barry Seal...),
would come to unravel the cultivated public ignorance about the war. The
whole supply operation all but ground to a halt while the Secret Team
regrouped. The cover-up in Washington began in full force, with Atty. Gen. Ed
Meese directing damage control in the Justice Dept. Later that same year,
Barry Seal was gunned down in Baton Rouge, LA by what authorities say was a
Medellin hit squad. ReedÆs Machinery International ôtransshippingö business
was on hold until January 1987. Seven months later, <<Continued on next
page>> ReedÆs singular blindness evidentally lifted and he says he then
discovered that the CIA was smuggling cocaine into the US. He told his
handler, Rodriguez, that he wanted out. He didnÆt want to disclose the
operation, he didnÆt need anything special, he just wanted to guit. And
remarkably they seemed to let him: by early September 1987 he and his wife
had returned to the United States.[33]
ENTER THE SAXOPHONE MAN

The story goes, Tommy Baker was out for a stroll. On October 8, 1987ùjust one
month after ReedÆs returnùBaker just happened to be walking past the hangar
hiding ReedÆs ôstolenö airplane. Suddenly, he later testified, a powerful
gust of wind blew the door open and there it was. Baker says he thought the
plane looked ôsuspiciousö, so he called up his friend in the Arkansas State
Police. His friend at the GovernorÆs mansion. Buddy Young was the chief of
ClintonÆs personal security throughout his gubanatorial career right up to
the election. Baker had worked under Young in the State Police. Young says
that when he got BakerÆs call, he gave the planeÆs registration number to the
National Crime Information Center, a nationwide crime intelligence computer
network used by law enforcement. The NCIC said the plane had indeed been
stolen, as Reed himself had reported it. By October 21 the case was turned
over to the FBI. A manhunt ensued. The FBI file described Reed as ôarmed and
dangerous...hiding out in Mexico...[and] may be involved in running drugs.ö
Federal agents confronted ReedÆs parents in Carthage, MO. After their
intimidating visit, his elderly mother had to be hospitalized ôas a result of
stressö.[34] The agents then proceeded to interrogate ReedÆs friends and
coworkers about their knowledge of his criminal activities,thus effectively
destroying his reputation. Fearful for his family, Reed turned himself in to
Federal Marshalls in Kansas City. In June 1988 four counts of federal
insurance and postal fraud charge were filed against him. His wife Janis was
slapped with corollary charges of aiding and abetting a felon.[35] But under
scrutiny, the sequence set out by Young and Baker did not stand up. Baker
swore that he had discovered ReedÆs plane on Oct. 8, 1987. But NCIS phone
records showed that Young had called in the registration numbers three days
_before_, on Oct. 5ùone year to the day after Cooper and HasenfusÆ plane was
shot down. Other ôirregularitiesö began to appear. Records showed Young made
his calls from the GovernorÆs mansion. Young and Baker eventually admitted to
entering ReedÆs hangar three times without a warrant. They also admitted to
tampering with the plane. When they finally did obtain a warrant it was on
the basis of misrepresentation. And even though the hangar had been rented in
ReedÆs name, his signature is not that on the lease. Police documents
relating to the case were falsified as much as a year after the fact. Chief
Young and Baker subsequeNtly made false statements to a federal grand jury as
well as, on more than one occasion, in hearings related to United States v.
Reed. Also, evidence that would have helped Reed was hidden in a safe in
YoungÆs office in ClintonÆs mansion when it was supposed to be in federal
court.[36] The federal judge on the case, Frank Theis, declared that Baker
and Young had acted with ôreckless disregard for the truth.ö Reed was
acquited when he ruled that the government did not have enough legitimate
evidence to convict him. Perjury charges against State Police officers Young
and/or Baker were never filed.[37] Even darker forces would soon assail Reed.
Furious and betrayed, he risked confronting the CIA and filed a court motion
in February 1989. In it he outlined the ôborrowingö of his plane by NorthÆs
Operation Donation. He also claimed the case was retribution by Rodriguez for
his quitting the Contra supply operation. Reed went bankrupt paying two
ôineffectualö lawyers, who he says actively sabotaged the case. Eventually he
turned to the Public DefenderÆs Office. With no experience in covert
operations or disinformation, Joe Dunlap and Fed. Public Defender Marilyn
Trubey took on the case. The trio gathered a witness list 54 names long,
including people like Oliver North and Felix Rodriguez. They prepared to
subpoena their witnesses. That was when a reign of terror began against
Dunlap and Trubey. Two days before the first trial date, on Memorial Day
1990, DunlapÆs daughterÆs car was firebombed as it sat in his driveway. Two
weeks later, DunlapÆs wifeÆs car was rammed in a deliberate hit-and-run.
Witnesses gave two different license numbers; neither checked out.[38] By
this time, Reed had safely squirreled away his most important evidence. In
April 1990, his secret storage unit was broken into, ransacked, and six boxes
of meticulous, key financial and personal records were stolen. Both counsel
and client regularly encountered surveillance vehicles outside their homes.
They all suspected their phones were tapped, and began using only secure
lines. Then in September 1991, the windows of DunlapÆs car were smashed only
four days before a delayed court date.[39] Because of who was on ReedÆs
witness list, the Classified Information Procedure Act was invoked. This
federal law effectively bars any court inquiry involving CIA agents, assets,
or sensitive topics. Judge Theis dismissed the case. Fearing for their lives,
Reed and his family vanished into the wallpaper. [Terry Reed and John
Cummings coauthored the new book Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA
(S.P.I. Books, 1994). This small publisherÆs hardback is currently available
at most major book retailers. The 566-page tome tells ReedÆs whole account,
reproducing many documents, receipts and photographs.]

PENNY FOR YOUR DOCS?

Much has been made about ClintonÆs anti-Contra views, but the facts
belie the spin. Clinton was only too happy to deploy Arkansas National Guard
units in Honduras for training. Some of these, like Operation Big Pine III,
were
huge ôpractice invasionsö involving 8,000 - 11,000 US and Honduran
soldiers. These ômaneuversö played a key role in the NSCÆs war of nerves
against the Sandinistas. And it is a matter of record that early in 1988 the
Governor was happy to issue Arkansas ôTravellerö citationsùa fairly routine
honorificù to three of the most notorious figures in the Contra nexus: Adolfo
and Mario Calero and Major Gen. John Singlaub. Adolfo and his brother were
top Contra leaders, the same who conspired to kill US journalists in the
bombing at La Penca. Singlaub was at the time NSC intelligence liaison over
North in the chain of command. He had previously been the Pentagon connection
in the Laos operation. One of the signatures on those Arkansas Traveller
certificates was that of an old Clinton pal named Larry Nichols. He just
happened to have recently returned from prolonged intelligence duty in
Honduras in 1987. He needed a job so he called his old friend the
Governor.[40] Clinton installed Nichols as the head of Arkansas Development
Finance Authority, despite his total lack of experience in such an agency.
ADFA was a fairly new state agency offering low-interest, tax-exempt loans
for housing and attracting business to Arkansas. It was widely known as one
of ôClintonÆs fiefdomsö. Oddly enough, it was loaning money to the very
companies and shells which were filling semi-secret commercial accounts for
the Mena operation. Also, the ADFAÆs bonds were underwritten by Lasater & Co.
President Dan Lassater was one of SealÆs money laundering connections.[41] In
1988, as Reed and his wife were indicted in Missouri, a Little Rock reporter
discovered this former Contra was working for the ADFA. The reporter queried
Clinton about the appointment and Nichols was promptly fired, accused of
making over 700 phone calls to Central America on state time. However, there
is no evidence in the phone toll records from that period of any calls to
Central America, although Nichols would later admit to making calls to
Washington.[42] Sliced off and tossed away, Nichols vowed revenge. He
prepared a defamation of character lawsuit which made a number of
allegations, including drug money laundering, covert smuggling, and an affair
Clinton had with a woman named Gennifer Flowers. The resulting scandal about
the affair nearly ended ClintonÆs campaign, until he and his wife appeared on
60 Minutes. Nichols later told the Arkansas Committee that ôBuddy Young had
phoned to tell him as an old friend that if he kept this up he was æa dead
man.Æ On January 29, the night before Bill Clinton was scheduled to go before
the nation on 60 Minutes to deny the FlowersÆ story, Nichols put his name to
a statement discrediting all his previous assertions.[43] At the end of it
all, Clinton quietly put Flowers on the state payroll, and she disappeared
from the media eye.[44]

SILENCE OF THE WOLVES

Evidence shows that Clinton not only framed Reed, but also interfered with
earlier investigations into Mena. The GovernorÆs own State Police began
investigating drug activities at Mena in 1984. Is it not reasonable to assume
that Clinton would be informed of such an investigation? Buddy Young himself
was officially a Chief of the State Police, and would have been briefed on
it.[45] CBS News correspondant Bill Plante wrote in a recent letter to the
Wall Street Journal, ôMr. Clinton did acknowledge learning about Mena as
early as April 1988; Ross Perot, who had done his own investigation of Mena,
was concerned enough about the drugs-for-guns operation to call Mr. Clinton.
And former Clinton staff people have told CBS News that the governor was
aware of what was going on there.ö[46] In 1988, former state prosecutor
Charles Black delivered in person a letter to Clinton asking for help to
pursue the case against the Mena defendants. Black wanted him to fund a grand
jury investigation. Help was promised but never arrived. In 1989 Clinton
received petitions from Arkansas citizens demanding he convene a state grand
jury and continue the investigation. A student group called the Arkansas
Committee was formed at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, headed by
Mark Swaney and Tom Brown. They began their own investigation of the Mena
affair, and went to the press to demand Clinton invesigate.[47]
Winston Bryant even made Mena an issue in his successful bid for state Atty.
Gen. in 1990. A year later he turned over state files involving Mena to
special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, who was investigating the whole Contra
operation. But nothing more was heard from Mr. Walsh. US Asst. Attorney Steve
Snyder confided to associates that his office had been ordered to drop the
case by the Miami Drug Enforcement Agency.

State Investigator Russell Welch says he believes the scandal reaches ôfrom
Mena, Arkansas, to the White House.ö At one point in WelchÆs own
investigation, he was told by federal agents that the case was being handled
ôdiffer entlyö from others.[48]
THE SEVEN VEILS

When Arkansas Rep. Bill Alexander tried to initiate his own hearings into the
Mena case, Clinton (and everyone else) stonewalled until the investigation
withered on the vine. Alexander then asked the General Accounting Office in
Congress to investigate, only to find the NSC instructed other White House age
ncies not tocooperate with the investigation.[49] In 1991, Alexander did
manage to get the Justice Dept. to allocate $25,000 to restart a Mena
investigation, but the money was held up behind a wall of bureaucratic red
tape in Little Rock. After the federal government scrapped its investigation,
the State Police were taken off the case by Clinton.[50] In fact, for years
investigators from the IRS and the Arkansas State Police had probed money
laundering, drug smuggling and weapons shipments arising from MenaÆs ôexotic
positionö in international trade. They couldnÆt understand why an
ôinternational aircraft delivery companyö picked a remote base like Mena in
the Ozarks to run their operation out of. Bill Duncan, an investigator for
the IRS, was looking into suspected drug smuggling by Rich Mountain Aviation,
a front company at Mena. In the spring of 1989, Duncan was called into the
office of a lawyer for the IRS who told him if he continued to pursue his
investigation it would lead to ôan extremely high level official in the
[Bush] administration.ö[51] Duncan says he was instructed to lie about
government tampering in the Mena case to the House Judiciary Subcommittee.
Duncan was also told to suppress a report he had received from an employee of
Fred Hampton, Jr., Barry SealÆs chief mechanic at Mena, that Atty. Gen. Ed
Meese received a $350,000 bride from Seal. Duncan refused to perjure himself
and resigned from the IRS.[52] DuncanÆs reports were later confirmed by Terry
Capehart, an auxiliary Polk County (Mena) sheriffÆs deputy at the time of
SealÆs arrival there, and who also ran a small machine shop at the
airport.[53] Unfortunately, investigators were never able to really target
Barry Seal, a key connection. Long before his assassination, they knew he was
working for the federal government and was ôuntouchableö.[54] However, Seal
had been called to testify at the Kerry hearings. In the summer of 1985,
Barry Seal testified before the early Kerry hearings against the Medellin
cartel, implicating the Ochoa Brothers. In hearings against the Medellin
cartel, implicating the Ochoa Brothers. In December was sentenced on earlier
drug charges to six months probation with community service at a Salvation
Army shelter. He was not to leave Baton Rouge or carry a firearm. Seal began
his Salvation Army shelter stint in January, 1986. Then on February 19, he
was assassinated in front of the shelter, shot over 50 times with an Ingram
Mac-10 and an Uzi. One of the seven people eventually arrested in connection
with SealÆs killing was Jose Coutin. Coutin owned a gun shop in Miami which
ôwas a well-known meeting place for Contras and their buddies from Brigade
2506.ö (Brigade 2506 was a Miami based Cuban-American group which trained and
fought with Contras. NorthÆs representative to the Brigade was the State
Dept.Æs Robert Owen.)[55] To this day, Clinton, despite his anti-drug
rhetoric, has taken a self-described ôhands-offö approach to the
investigation. In 1991, while he was still Governor, ClintonÆs adviser on
criminal justice wrote to a concerned citizen to say that the Governor
understood the matter was being studied or otherwise taken up by Bryant,
Walsh and Arkansas Rep. Bill Alexander, and thus the matter was in othersÆ
hands.[56] However, these were investigators Clinton had all obstructed. But
they were still having real problems sitting on the Mena story. Besides
Nichols, Duncan, et al., several other court cases turned up evidence of
involvement by Contras and CIA subsidiary companies that were supporting the
contraÆs involvement with drug smuggling. US Attorney General Edwin Meese
himself repeatedly blocked major drug prosecution of smugglers on ôgrounds of
national securityö.[57] And as long the cases are in court, the CIA decline
to comment. Then people started looking at the banks that were used. All that
money had to get washed somehow, right? It was found that several companies
involved in Mena were run by some of ClintonÆs oldest friends and financial
backers. These men have close ties to BCCI (The Bank of Credit and Commerce
International), making huge fortunes off illegal money handling and the
eventual failure of many of BCCIÆs member banks. BCCI is also known to have
laundered CIA profits from covert drug sales, and it almost certainly
laundered the cash from Mena.[58]


MENA TODAY: INFO WAR

The cover-up has begun in the pages of periodicals known to have covert links
to the CIA.[59] Time magazine ran an article by Richard Behar titled
(appropriately enough) ôAnatomy of a Smearö.[60] In it, Terry Reed was called
an outright liar. Behar grossly misstated facts of the case, distorted
aspects of ReedÆs life, and treated the story with derisive sarcasm. Reed and
his family went back into hiding after the public

ENDNOTES:

[1] See Alfred McCoy in last issue of Lumpen Times. Also, the Church Senate
Committee and the HouseÆs Pike hearings into CIA activities here and abroad;
McCoyÆs Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia; David Barsamian, ôThe CIA & the
Politics of Narcoticsö, an interview with Alfred McCoy, conducted at the Univ.
 of Wisconsin (Madison), 2/17/90 (CA: Prevailing Winds Research); Daniel
Sheehan, ôWho, What, When, Whereö, speech at Victoria Theater, Santa Barbara,
CA, 8/21/88 (CA: Prevailing Winds Research). [2] See Johnathan Kwitney,
Crimes of Patriots (NY: Touchstone, 1987). A detailed account of xthe
Nugan-Hand drug money laundering operation, including the several mysterious
and timely deaths connected with the affair. Documents deep CIA involvement
in Nugan-Hand. [3] See also Douglas Valentine, The PHOENIX Program (NY:
Morrow, 1990). [4] Christic Institute, Inside the Shadow Government (1988),
p. 13; Ned Scott Jr., ôThe Secret Life of Richard V. Secordö, High Times
December 1990, pp. 44. [5] David S. Fallis, ôæNot the America I KnewÆ:
Disposeable Asset Burned by NorthÆs Networkö; Covert Action Information
Bulletin, no. 37 (Summer 1991), p. 42. Based on interviews and court
testimony by Terry Reed. [6] During this period, North and Secord dissolved
into the Carter-era Pentagon. North would later play a key role in carrying
out the ill-fated Desert One attempted rescue of the US hostages in Iran.
Theodore Shackley became second in command at the CIAÆs (clandestine)
operations division, with Clines as his assistant. Together, directly
supervised an ôanti-terroristö assassination squad out of Tehran. This team
of killers worked with the approval and aid of the Shah of Iran and his
dreaded secret police, the SAVAKùan organization the CIA had helped to set
up. These connections proved to be pivotal in the Iran-Contra crimes.
Shackley and Clines resigned under a cloud in 1979 after they were implicated
in an ôunofficialö Libyan arms deal. They immediately surfaced in the
pre-election October Surprise circles and were back in businessùoff the
shelfùduring the æ80s. [See, Leslie Cockburn, Out of Control (NY: Atlantic
Monthly Press, 1987), pp. 95-96.] [7] Fallis, Op. cit. [8] Ibid. [9] Reed
filed a $33,000 claim on the plane, which he still owed $26,500 on. He
eventually received $6,600 from the company. [10] Alexander Cockburn, ôSay it
With Flowersö, Beat the Devil [regular column], The Nation, 2/24/92. [11] See
McCoy,et al. Op. cit. [1]. [12] A. Cockburn 2/24/92; John Cummings, Boston
Phoenix, 2/23/90. [13] Joel Bainerman, The Crimes of a President: New
Revelations on Conspiracy & Cover-Up in the Bush & Reagan Administrations,
(NY: S.P.I. Books, 1992), p. 265. [14] A. Cockburn, 2/24/92. [15] Rob Koenig
& Ben Masel, ôCongress to Probe Contra Cocaine Linkö, Overthrow, Vol. 9 No. 1
(Spring æ87), pp. 1, 18; Joel Millman, Village Voice, July 1, 1986. [16]
Koenig & Masel, p. 18; Bainerman, p. 266; A. Cockburn, 2/24/92; Fallis, p.
44; Bill Plante & Michael Singer, ôStill a Strong Scent on the Mena Trailö,
Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal, 5/3/94. [17] See also, Jenny
Pearce, Under the Eagle: US Intervention in Central America (Boston: South
End Press, 1984). [18] Kerry hearings: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on
Terrorism, Narcotics and International Communications of the Committee on
Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 100th Congress, Second Session. Part
3, April 4-7, 1988. John F. Kerry (chairman), pp. 297-307; L. Cockburn, Out
of Control; Stockwell pp. 118-120. [19] Bainerman, pp. 264-274; A. Cockburn,
2/10, 2/24 & 3/23/94; Fallis, pp. 42-46; Plante & Singer; Kerry hearings. The
Kerry subcommittee was able to document at least 50-100 Contra flights
carrying drugs into the US. [20] See Henrik Kruger, The Great Heroin Coup:
Drugs, Intelligence, and International Fascism (Boston: South End Press,
1980); Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (NY: Sheridan Square
Press, 1988 / NY: Warner Books, 1991); L. Cockburn, Out of Control; McCoy,
Politics of Heroin, etc. [21] L. Cockburn, p. 98. ZR/RIFLE existed under the
umbrella of Operation Mongoose, which was run in Miami by then-CIA station
chief Theodore Shackley 1962-1965. It was Mongoose which spawned such
espionage classics as the exploding cigar, and the foot-powder that would
cause CastroÆs beard to fall out and make his voice high-pitched. It also
kept several trained ôShooter Teamsö. (c.f. Rodriguez, Shadow Warrior.) [22]
Another veteran of the CIA shooter teams was Frank Fiorini, better known as
Watergate burglar Frank ôSturgisö. [23] L. Cockburn, Op. cit.; Felix
Rodriguez, Shadow Warrior. [24] Stockwell, p. 20. [25] Ibid. [26] Kerry
hearings, April 4, 1988, testimony of Jose Blandon. [27] Ibid. [28] Newsweek,
May 23, 1988. [29] Stockwell, p. 22; Kerry hearings; Milian Rodriguez trial
testimony. [30] See also, Phillip Smith, ôPeru: Inching Toward the Abyssö,
Covert Action Information Bulletin, no. 42 (Fall 1992; also Gustavo Gorriti,
ôVladimiro Montesinos: The Betrayal of Peruvian Democracyö, Covert Action
Quarterly, no. 49 (Summer 1994). At press time, news reports indicate that a
powerful transmitter has been built in the Bolivian Amazon region to provide
vital radio links with Panama and Washington vis a vis operations in Colombia
and Peru. Newspapers in Peru and Brazil report that over 100 members of the
37th Airborne, stationed at Fort Bragg (home of Special Forces), are erecting
a permanent base near the town of El Benia, in the heart of cocaine-producing
territory. The Pentagon claims it is building a ôschool.ö [31] Bainerman,
p.272-274; A. Cockburn, 2/24/92. [32] Ibid. [33] Op. cit. [30]. [34] Fallis,
pp. 44-45. [35] Ibid. [36] Bainerman, pp. 272-274; A. Cockburn 2/24 &
3/23/92; Fallis, Op. cit. [37] Bainerman, p. 274; A. Cockburn, 2/24/92. Judge
Theis also sat for the Karen Sil8wood trial. [38] Fallis, p. 45. [39] Ibid.
[40] Bainerman, pp.270-271; A. Cockburn 2/10/92. [41] Interview with Larry
Nichols by host Tom Donahue, AmericaÆs Town Forum, May 5, 1994. The
Libertarian talk show is broadcast most weekday evenings at 7 pm (CST) on
shortwave frequency 5.810 mHz. [42] Op. cit. [41] [43] A. Cockburn, 2/24/92.
[44] A. Cockburn, 2/10/92. [45] Plante & Singer. [46] Ibid. [47] Bainerman,
p. 268; Paul DeRienzo, ôClinton Turned Blind Eye to Arkansas Contra
Connectionsö, _High Times_, May 1992, p. 21. [48] Mena Star, April 14, 1992;
Bainerman, pp. 268-269. [49] Bainerman, p. 266. [50] A. Cockburn, 3/23/92.
[51] Bainerman, p. 270. [52] In These Times, Feb. 12, 1992; Unclassified,
Feb.-Mar. 1992; Bainerman, p. 270. [53] Ibid. [54] Plante & Singer. [55]
Koenig & Masel, p. 18 [56] A. Cockburn, 3/23/92. [57] Stockwell, p. 119. [58]
Alan Friedman, ôJustice Department æFailed to ActÆö, Financial Times,
7/25/91; Christina Lamb, ôBCCI Linked to Heroin Trade,ö Financial Times,
7/25/91, p. 1; and The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations. [59] See the Pike and Church Hearings. [60] Richard Behar,
ôAnatomy of a Smearö, _Time_, 4/20/92, p. 45. [61] See _Compromised: Clinton,
Bush, and the CIA_ by Reed & Cummings. The authors reprint trasciptions of
interview tapes made by
Behar in preparing the ar ticle, obtained under court order. [62] Edward J.
Epstein, ôOn the Mena Trailö, _Wall Street Journal_, 4/20/94. Epstein also
wrote _Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA_. The _WSJ_
has a long history of CIA collaboration, including a key role as a front for
CIA disinformation during the ôYellow Rainö hoax. [63] Plante & Singer. [64]
Ibid. [65] Nichols radio int., 5/5/94. Nichols may have been poisoned in an
effort to silence him. He developed a rash in his lungs which only appears
when the victim is exposed to certain pesticides. Nichols claims he has never
been near those chemicals. Several of the most deadly nerve gasses ever
developed are chemically related to pesticides. [66] Ibid. [67] Ibid. [68]
Just last year the Pentagon reopened their BioChemical Research facility at
the Dugway Proving Grounds, only about 60 miles southwest of Salt Lake City,
UT. It had been shut down in the mid-Æ80s due to public outcry about safety.
The story about its reopenig was selected as one of the Top-Ten Most Censored
News Stories of 1993. For more on CBW and the USÆ role in it, see Robert
Harris & Jeremy Paxman, _A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret Story of
Chemical & Biological Warfare_ (NY: Noonday Press, 1982); also Sheldon H.
Harris, _Factories of Death:
Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 and the American Cover Up_ (NY:
Routledge, 1994). [69] Nichols radio int., 5/5/94. [70] Ibid.


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