Sarah McClendon and Mena

A little known fact is the only person to ever ask Clinton a public question about the events in Mena Arkansas, while he was President, was Sarah McClendon in 1994.

She also drilled Mike McCurry over the issue in September of 1996, an interesting exchange, in which a person named Helen (my guess is Helen Thomas) told McClendon to "put a sock in it" so she could get her question in. [both transcripts are bellow]

SARAH McCLENDON, McClendon News: Sir, the Republicans are trying to blame you for the existence of a small airbase at Mena, Ark. This base was set up by George Bush and Oliver North and the CIA to help the Iran-Contras, and they brought in planeload after planeload of cocaine there for sale in the United States, and then they took the money and bought weapons and took them back to the Contras, all of which was illegal, as you know, under the Boland Act. But tell me, did they tell you that this had to be in existence because of national security?

Pres. CLINTON: Well, let me answer the question. No, they didn't tell me anything about it. They didn't say anything to me about it. The airport in question, and all the events in question, were the subject of state and federal inquiries. It was primarily a matter for federal jurisdiction. The state really had next to nothing to do with it.

The local prosecutor did conduct an investigation based on what was within the jurisdiction of state law. The rest of it was under the jurisdiction of the United States attorneys who were appointed successively by previous administrations. We had nothing - zero - to do with it, and everybody who's ever looked into it knows that.

HEADLINE: THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON, DC REGULAR BRIEFING September 23, 1996, Monday

Q You know, all this talk that we're getting every five minutes about the Republicans saying that Clinton hasn't done enough against -- to curb narcotics, why doesn't he answer that? Why doesn't he come out and say: The last two or three days around here there's been documented evidence that it was George Bush and Oliver North and the CIA that was bringing in the narcotics, and they're still doing it. The CIA is still bringing in the narcotics through Mena, Arkansas. Now why the devil doesn't -- excuse me for saying that -- but why in the world doesn't Clinton come out and say the Republicans are the ones who have bringing in narcotics?

MR. MCCURRY: The first part of that question, the president is satisfied, as Director Deutch has indicated, that they are conducting an independent review of those allegations at the CIA and that is underway, as has been announced. Secondly, the president is --

MR. MCCURRY: What I just said just then is, as Director of Central Intelligence, John Deutch has said, and assured members of Congress, an independent inspector general at the CIA is looking into some of the allegations that you just referenced. On the first --

MR. MCCURRY: They're conducting an independent inspector general's review of the matter. On the first part of the question, the president is happy to talk about his record during the time he has been president and, frankly, his commitment going back all the years he's been in public service to combat drug trafficking and drug use.

MR. MCCURRY: This president has requested more funding from the Congress for anti-drug efforts than his predecessors did. He has put together a drug strategy now with the leadership of a four-star general. He supported the death penalty for drug kingpins, and he's worked vigorously to combat drug use and spoken to the issue publicly.

Q -- and tell the Republicans: After all, you have been bringing them in for years.

MR. MCCURRY: Well, I believe that's what we are in the process of doing. I think we are attempting, as effectively as you can during a political season in which many misbegotten charges get made, to rebut some of that information. Helen?

Q -- and his inspector general to find out something. (Laughter.) And all he has to do it turn around in his office and find it.

When I first received a pre-publication copy of Terry Reed's book, I was intrigued and strongly inclined to believe his story. The original allegations of a CIA-cocaine conspiracy had already been circulated by leftist radicals like Alexander Cockburn and the "Arkansas Committee" in an effort to smear President Reagan and Oliver North, but Reed's portrayal of a Clinton's involvement in Arkansas was interesting.

After several years of checking it out - mostly by other people, but also myself - Reed's story was discredited. The efforts to blame the CIA for cocaine smuggling in Arkansas have only diverted attention from the true culprits - the Tyson organization. It was the perfect cover story, and shifting the blame to the CIA served Tyson, Clinton and Hutchinson well.

To give one example of why I don't believe Terry Reed - he alleged that missile nose cones were being manufactured at the POM parking meter factory. It happens that my college roommate was the night watchman at that factory during the time period of Reed's allegations. He has been a good friend of mine for over 30 years, and he has always been honest with me. When I asked him whether he noticed any nose cones around POM when he worked there, he said certainly not.

There are dozens of other allegations in Reed's book that don't check out either, and the bottom line is that Terry Reed is a liar. There are many other people who started out believing Reed, but after some time dealing with him have come to the same conclusion.

I'm not particularily a fan of the CIA but I realize that they perform a necessary function for the US in dealing with foreign countries. There are plenty of legitimate problems to criticize the CIA for - but Mena ain't one of them.

well, I appreciate you being patient enough to explain those things to me and to others hopefully. I didn't read Terry Reid's book. But I certainly agree with you that the CIA does have a lot of very legitimate purposes. If some hot-heads like me were to just eliminate funding for them, then that would be a pretty big mistake. I'm convinced that they do protect us from WMD.

Some people (liberals) bash the CIA in order to get america to dis-arm and be weak. Some people do it because they think the CIA has stepped over the line and become a tyrant. I'm in the 2'nd group.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me.

"42-year-old Carlos Ghigliotti, the infra-red imaging expert who proved the government fired shots during the Branch Davidian stand-off, was found dead Saturday (April 29, 2000) afternoon." [http://www.888webtoday.com/waco4.html]

"FREE REPUBLIC BREAKING NEWS: Carlos Ghigliotti Death Ruled A Result of Natural Causes " [http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a391b214632df.htm]

The story seems to have died out.

Coincidentally, Laurel, MD figures in this story and in the sniper story last year - "And some of the hijackers stayed at a motel in Laurel, which is also in PG County, and not far from Bowie. And Laurel has a radical mosque." [http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/765210/posts]

Also, researching this, I can't help noticing that FreeRepublic was on both the Ghigliotti and sniper stories.

Didn't Sarah investigate Promis and Danny Cassalero, also? Promis just resurfaced, and with her death on the heels of that, I seemed to vaguely remember her connection to it.

Whether DOJ violated the terms of use for Promis is a legitimate point of contention, but it is merely a contractual dispute. Mark Levin, whom I have the highest respect for, insists that Inslaws rights were not violated, but I'm not so sure.

But the allegations that Promis was some sort of Orwellian Big Brother software capable of tracking every person and financial transaction on the planet is a wild fantasy. There are not termite-embedded Promis terminals with micro-satellite uplinks. There was no Fifth Column of Kentucky hackers blackmailing politicians into resigning. This crap came straight out of a fictional novel about the NSA written in the early 1980s.

Office of Former President William Jefferson Clinton
New York, New York
For Immediate Release
January 8, 2003
Statement Of William J. Clinton On The Passing Of Sarah McClendon
I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Sarah McClendon, a remarkable journalist who covered more Presidents than anyone in American history. Few women covered the White House when Sarah arrived in 1944 and wrote about Franklin D. Roosevelt. Since then, presidents and White House correspondents came and went, but for decades there was nothing to keep Sarah McClendon from doing her duty, reporting the news for her readers.
Time never diminished Sarah's feisty spirit or her quest for the facts. She never held back. All the trappings of the presidency did not sway her in the least. And all of us who called on her in news conferences did so with a mixture of respect and fear, I suspect, because we would never quite know what she might say. But whatever it was, she brought such enthusiasm and tenacity to the issue at hand that I couldn't help but admire her spirit. She didn't just ask questions. She demanded answers. Answers to questions that may not have dominated conversations inside the proverbial Beltway, but were very much on the minds of American families. She had a way of cutting through the process stories and insider gossip to ask about real issues that mattered to real people.
My thoughts are with Sarah's family and friends at this moment of loss. And I pray that the legacy of her full life will comfort them. Her voice will be missed at news conferences. Her stories will be missed by her readers. But I hope St. Peter is prepared for the kinds of questions that nearly a dozen presidents had to face. Because for Sarah McClendon, I imagine, Heaven is a place where her every question gets a good answer.
###

started by Nixon.

Republicans generally are responsible for most of the really great ideas ... it's they who made abortion a "vital" prong of our national defense policy.

Given the way the Dems always take the blame -- and the heat (as at Waco, for example) -- after a while you have to figure it's they who are the Stupid Party.

But don't tell David Keene that ... he's PROUD to be a member of the Stupid Party.

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