To: Red Jones
I suspect your an unrepentant left-libertarian so we probably disagree on many aspects of Mena.
From where I am sitting, and having read a fair amount on the subject, the operation involved uber patriot Ollie North hiring some pilots to fly guns down to the Contra's. The program would be funded with monies from the arm sales in Iran.
The CIA mentioned they had an old contact who was now a Governor in Arkansas. Clinton of course spied on anti-war protestors at Oxford for the CIA. So Clinton gets paid a visit and told that the they would use a little strip called Mena Airport to fly out guns.
They hire the greatest pilot in the world, Barry Seal to form a team. Barry goes along with it because he was facing trouble with the DEA in Miami. Barry gets a team together, and the gun running begins, only Barry and the Boys are bringing loads of cocaine back with them. Dan Lassiter was the point man in Arkansas, and the famous quote attributed from Clinton by LD Brown, "That's Lassiter's deal."
When the operation ends, things get murky, because someone told LD Brown to fly to Mexico and murder, as it turned out to be, Terry Reed. LD got cold feet.
I should also mention, Senator John Kerry investigated Mena in the late eighties and proclaimed a clean bill of health.
There is no evidence that I am aware of the CIA orchestrating a drug running operation to fund anything. That sounds like the left wing spin to make an otherwise unsexy story of Southern Dixie Mafia corruption look like a grander conspiracy with old foe the CIA.
20 posted on
01/09/2003 3:27:06 PM PST by
JohnGalt
To: JohnGalt
that corresponds to a lot of what I read also. Except that I'm not a liberal, I'm a right-winger and very non-republican.
The story I believe is that Reagan told his people to fund the contras after congress had specifically shut down funding for the contras. I remember those days, there was a big effort in conservative press to support contras, I wanted to send them money. Reagan was kept in the dark as to how the money was raised. But the cocaine smuggling was what paid for the guns for the contras. The effort was successful. The communists were shut down in central america.
Another thing the CIA did to fund the contras was they brought about 10% of El Salvadoran population to California as illegal aliens and created some big businesses that employed these people all so that these El Salvadorans would send money to contras in appreciation.
There are legitimate reasons for the CIA to want to penetrate and even to control or set up a drug smuggling operation. But I think that the people who rule our country and use this CIA for dark purposes have gone way too far. They are short-circuiting and bypassing the democracy completely and in an illegitimate manner. Problem is that they control the media, and any politician who stands up to them will either be discredited or killed through covert activities.
What happened at Waco? That was CIA murdering 90 americans. Things have gotten out of hand, but we as free citizens are finding it impossible to get the CIA under control.
To: JohnGalt
Your scenario at #20 is probably closer to the truth than the one I resonded to at #19. All my stuff still stands though.
27 posted on
01/09/2003 4:16:23 PM PST by
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