99 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
99 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 06
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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HOUSE PANEL TAKES A LOOK AT MENA
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By Rowan Scarborough
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(Washington Times National Weekly Edition, Jan. 22-28, 1996)
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The House banking committee is investigating suspicions of
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criminal activities at Arkansas' Mena Airport, trying to separate
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fact from fiction in a list of accusations about drug dealing,
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gun running and government cover-ups during the 1980s.
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The inquiry is a spinoff of the panel's extensive Whitewater
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probe, during which Arkansas sources repeatedly urged
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congressional staffers to explore dealings said to have occurred
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at the municipal airport while Bill Clinton was governor and
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Ronald Reagan was president.
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Rep. Jim Leach, Iowa Republican and chairman of the committee,
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agreed in November. He issued a memo to committee members saying
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staffers would try to determine whether money from Barry Seal, a
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drug dealer, was laundered by businesses in and near the secluded
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airport in the Ouachita Mountains 130 miles southwest of Little
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Rock.
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The memo outlining Mr. Leach's intentions was disclosed by
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Insight magazine in its Jan. 29 issue.
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Mr. Leach's task is daunting, considering the breadth of the
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rumors buzzing around Seal, a convicted cocaine dealer and
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flamboyant aviator. Seal will be no help in sifting the truth.
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Columbian drug kings had him slain near his home in Baton Rouge,
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La., in 1986 after he became a Drug Enforcement Administration
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(DEA) informant.
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"This is one of the most complex, tangled tales that we've come
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across ever," says a committee investigator and Whitewater
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watcher. "Our objective is to investigate this, and to either
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prove or disprove the allegations that are floating around Mena.
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The chairman sees as much virtue in laying these rumors to rest
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as in exposing a scandal."
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It has been alleged that Seal used Mena as a base to ferry
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cocaine, launder money and supply the Nicaraguan Contras -- all
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while working for the DEA, the Reagan White House and the CIA.
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A banking committee staffer said Jan. 17 that at this point the
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panel's inquiry is confined to one issue. "This is a money-
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laundering investigation," the aide said. "It may lead into other
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things. We have no interest in replowing old Iran-Contra ground."
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The laundering was uncovered by an Internal Revenue Service
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official, William Duncan, and an Arkansas state policeman,
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Russell Welch. They believe there is enough evidence to bring
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charges against Seal's associates but claim they were stymied by
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federal authorities who wanted to keep a lid on clandestine
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activities at Mena.
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The House panel has requested documents from the IRS, the CIA and
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the DEA but has not yet chosen to subpoena witnesses, the aide
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said Jan. 17. Investigators have interviewed Mr. Duncan, Mr.
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Welch and Bill Alexander, a former Democratic congressman from
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Arkansas who has sought a federal inquiry for years, beginning
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when he was a member of the House.
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"I feel that the people of Arkansas and the people of the nation
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deserve to know the facts about the illegal drug trafficking and
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blatant money laundering that took place at Mena, Ark., during
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the 1980s," said Mr. Alexander, who practices law now in McLean,
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Va. and in Jonesboro, Ark.
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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