192 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
192 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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CIA drug-running and Clinton
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As the powerful Western countries grapple with the extradition of two
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suspected bombers from Libya another extradition re-quest has gone almost
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entirely without notice in the press. Costa Rica is attempting to bring
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back a naturalised citizen of their cou ntry to face justice following a
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governmental report into his activities. The man in question, John Hull,
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is accused by Costa Rica of murder, drug trafficking and hostile acts
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against Nicaragua in violation of their countrys neutrality. John Hull
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was a major contra supporter during the U.S.s war against Nicaragua and
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is believed to have engineered the bombing of the La Penca press
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conference given by Eden Pastora, the only contra leader who had refused
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to work under the C.I.A. Five were
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killed in the explosion and twenty injured (though marginally higher and
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lower figures have also been put for-ward). Hull was even accused by
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Colombian drug kingpin Carlos Lehder on an ABC news program of pumping
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about 30 tons of cocaine into the United
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States a year from his ranch in Costa Rica. It included an airstrip:
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just one link in the contra resupply network. Cocaine-funded covert
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operations have a pedigree: the C.I.A. support for opium-growing Chinese
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nationalists in the Golden Triangle set the scene for the 60s heroin
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plague in the U.S. As far back as the 50s the C.I.A. had found it
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expedient to ally with the Corsican syndicates smuggling drugs through
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Marseilles who were able to break the power of the communist dockworkers
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there. Further examples would include the Mujaheedin guerrillas, for
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instance, and Manuel Noriega, who himself helped organise the rou ting of
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drugs to the U.S. and guns to the contras. Since jumping bail in Costa
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Rica, Hull has found sanctuary in the U.S., the country where he was born
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and also a country professing zero tolerance for drug smugglers. And
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even, we are told, a whole war on drugs along with its 'abhorrence of
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terrorism' . Hull has told journalists that he will return to Costa Rica
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to clear his name and has even been in touch with Amnesty Internation=
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al
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to protest about harassment. A number of U.S. Congressmen quickly got in
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touch with the Costa Rican President to ask th at he handle Hull's case
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"in a manner that will not complicate U.S.-Costa Rican relations." Can we
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expect Hull to return to Costa Rica to prove his innocence soon? Not
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according to Susie Morgan, a British journalist badly injured in the La
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Penca blast: the C.I.A. cannot afford Hull taking the witness stand,
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theyd have to kill him. She herself
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gave up chasing Hull after four arduous years of investigation. Others
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have tried too and faced blockages and death threats; one
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insider-turned-informant was killed on Hulls ranch.=20
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The Christic Institute: under attack
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The one organisation which looked as if it might be able to put some
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pressure on Hull was the Christic Institute - a liberal public interest
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law firm which made Hull a defendant, along with twenty-eight others, in a
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lawsuit brought by two of the American journalists injured in the La Penca
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explosion. The lawsuit charges that a criminal racketeering enterprise
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smuggled narcotics and arms through contra bases in Central America,
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supplying much of the North American drug market. In the event the
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Christic Institute was given the runaround by the judicial system, which
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denied them a jury trial, and with the unprecedented -
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politically-motivated - removal of their tax-exempt status looming as well
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as awards of huge costs and fines totalling $1.7 million against them,
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they may soon lie in financial ruins. Leonard Schroeter, chair of the
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Association of Trial Lawyers of America, has called the various judicial
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sanctions against the Christic Institute the single most unspeakable
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attac k on dissent Ive ever seen... It was judicial tyranny. Schroete=
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r,
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like others, is terrified at the implications: Corporate America is
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deter-mined to convert judges into ideo-logues, who follow the
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corpor-ations agenda. And part of that agenda is minim ising peoples
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capability to have access to justice. Corporate America wants to reduce
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the number of lawsuits challenging their practices and abuses by the
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federal government... If youre challenging something major, youre
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subjecting yourself to severe r isk. The risk of personal bankruptcy. The
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risk of being forced out of your profession. Thats the kind of terror
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this case has created. Some sympathisers say that the Institute itself
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may be partially to blame for casting its net too wide and bringing in so
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much insufficiently well-prepared evidence along with superfluous and
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sometimes unsourced conspiracy theory that their case became
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too cumbersome. The Christic Institute has a praiseworthy record of
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legal actions in the public interest: it helped with the successful Karen
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Silkwood case against Kerr McGee Nuclear Corporation and with a number of
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important civil rights cases in southern black communi ties. Now, however,
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it may finally have bitten off more than it can chew: the White House, the
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C.I.A. and even the Justice Department (who halted the F.B.I.
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investigation of contra-linked heroin trafficking). It looks as if it may
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fail to live up to the high hopes of its supporters - who include Jesse
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Jackson and Bruce Springsteen - through a mixture of inexperience as well
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as a generous dose of governmental maliciousness. Hull apparently remains
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in hiding in the U.S. - still a free man. The Christic In stitute has
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managed, until now at least, to survive after drastic cuts in staff and
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activities and the selling-off of buildings, and even then only after a
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large donation towards the $1.7 million in fines. There has still been no
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direct refusal by the U.S. government to allow the extradition but neither
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has there been any sign that Clinton favours extradition; his past
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behaviour may give little cause for optimism.=20
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Clinton's cocaine cover-up?=20
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A small dirt airstrip at Mena, Arkansas, was a major North American focus
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for the Contra drug and gun-running network, apparently handling a
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night-flight every five minutes, without lights, at the height of the
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activities. Democrat Congressman for Arkans as, Bill Alexander, has stated
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that activities at Mena have been responsible for large volumes of drugs
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coming into his state. In spite of mounting evidence, however, Clinton, as
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Governor of the state, appears to have made no attempt to help with
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investig ations by local prosecutors into the illegal activities there; he
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may even have sat on important evidence which could have helped to bring
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into the open these activities, as we shall see. In his defense Clinton
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has claimed that he did in fact authorise $2 5,000 for an investigation,
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but no trace of such a payment has yet been found. Clinton's behaviour has
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led to suspicion in some quarters that he may even have been linked to the
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C.I.A. in the past, perhaps receiving their help in obtaining his Rhodes
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scholarship as has happened with others. One fellow scholar at the time,
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Lt.Col. Ro bert Earl, curiously enough went on to become an assistant to
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Oliver North. Clinton is well-known too for sending his state's National
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Guard to Honduras for training in what amounted in effect to
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Contra-supporting activities. He has honoured prominent con tras, like
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Adolfo Calero and his brother as well as a notorious American supporter
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Major-General John Singlaub, with "Arkansas Traveller" awards. Clinton had
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also employed, in the Arkansas Development and Finance Administration, a
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contra-supporter named L arry Nichols, who almost torpedoed his candidacy
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later by exposing his affair with Gennifer Flowers during a court case
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following Nichols' dismissal from his job. Clinton's brother - who has
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been convicted of cocaine possession - is also involved, as a 'hanger-on'
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of Barry Seal who was a major organiser of the contra resupply network and
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one-time pilot for the Medellin cocaine cartel. An investigation in the
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newsletter "Washington Report" concluded that "There is ample evidence
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that Bush, Clinton, Pryo r (Senator David Pryor, Democrat-Arkansas),
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Bumpers (Senator Dale Bumpers D-AR), Hammerschmidt, various U.S.
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attorneys, Arkansas state officials and Arkansas financial institutions
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knew plenty about the illegal activities at Mena but permitted these to pr
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oceed."=20
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The Deniable Link
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One episode which ought to have brought the Mena activites to the
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attention of the public involves Arkansas resident and C.I.A. 'asset'
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Terry Reed who found himself framed by Arkansas state officials, including
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Clinton's state security chief, Buddy Young,
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when he tried to end his role in assisting covert operations from Mena.
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He is currently suing these police officials. Reed had once worked for
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the C.I.A.'s 'Air America' and later, as a family man, still happily
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became involved in helping the contra resupply network: he refitted planes
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and trained contra pilots at the Mena airstrip. Later he became involved
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with Oliver N orth who asked Reed to allow a small plane he owned to be
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taken in a faked "theft" so that it could be used by the contra resupply
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network. This scam of North's - named "Operation Donation" - enabled him
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to circumvent Congressional clampdowns on aid to th e contras whilst plane
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and boat-owners would claim the insurance money and lose nothing
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themselves. Reed was unhappy about lending the plane, perhaps permanently,
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as it was needed for his work and he declined to help. A few weeks later
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it was stolen anywa y. Reed says it was a couple of years later, in 1985,
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that a friend from his days with Air America - C.I.A. pilot William Cooper
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- told him that the plane had actually been taken for Oliver North and
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"Project Donation". In mid-1986 Reed accepted the C.I.A.'s offer of a
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business opportunity in Mexico in exchange for further help in providing
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cover for a Mexican leg of the resupply operation. However, several months
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later Reed began to get cold feet after his old friend Wi lliam Cooper was
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shot down and killed over Nicaragua. The sole survivor, cargo-kicker
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Eugene Hasenfus, was propelled into the media spotlight sparking off the
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Iran-Contra investigation. "I told them that this was a grandiose, fun
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scheme but I am not going
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to do this anymore... we don't want to hurt you - we just want out. (But)
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once you've seen it, you're in", as Reed puts it. It is suggested that he
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also stumbled upon a tonne of cocaine in a hanger he used. His bosses,
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then including hardline anti-Castro Cuban Felix Rodriguez, were not
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pleased by his refusal to continue his work in Mexico. Before he knew what
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had hit him Reed found that his "stolen" plane had been secretly returned
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to its hanger and a passin g private investigator just happened to be
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walking by this hanger as the wind blew the door open to show the plane.
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He soon found himself in court, along with his wife, charged with
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insurance fraud. His F.B.I. file now inexplicably described him as "arme d
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and dangerous". The initially skeptical Public Defenders appointed to the
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case soon changed their minds when they and the Reeds suffered what under
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normal circumstances would have been an inexplicable series of violent
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incidents including break-ins, fir e-bombing and an apparently deliberate
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hit-and-run attack when one of the Defenders' cars was rammed. In the
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event Reed was aquitted of insurance fraud perhaps because he had
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expressed his wish to sub-poena North and Rodriguez. Reports on the case
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by Buddy Young, Clin-ton's security chief, had been dictated in 1988 and
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backdated by a year; the Judge conclud-ed that Young and the private
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investigator both had a "reckless dis-regard for the truth". Vital
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evidence supporting Reed's
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claims remained in Clinton's mansion way after it should have been handed
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over to the court. Reed is currently prosecuting the Arkansas officials
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who he believes tried - unsuccessfully - to frame him.=20
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Pictures courtesy of Christic Institute: 8733 Venice Boulevard, Los
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Angeles, CA 90034 Tel. 010 1 310 287 1556 SELECTED SOURCES: Covert Action
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37, The Realist 122, Unclassified Vol. IV No. I, Christic Institute -
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Convergence, Summer/Fall/Winter 1991.=20
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