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So, those two press releases by the CIA, one in late 98 and one in February of 1999 where the CIA said that they've been involved in smuggling drugs into the US for 20 years were just lies, just propaganda put out by the democrats to blame the republicans.

If my recollection is accurate, those press releases did admit some unspecified involvement in narcotics traffiicking, but not in Mena. If you have some specific quotes from the CIA press releases to contradict that, please post them.

My interpretation was that they were probably admitting to the activity of a few rogue agents and independent contractors in Laos during the Vietnam War.

I seriously doubt that the CIA has ever condoned drug importation into the US - even during the Clinton administration.

your recollections are 100% correct; and your gullability is very impressive also.

Of course it's true that the two CIA statements from late 98 and early 99 didn't have anything in them about Mena, no specifics. They were very short statements. The 1'st one said they'd beeninvolved in drug smuggling into the US. The second one said they'd been involved in this for 20 years. Also, in 1983 Attorney General William F Smith signed a letter that has been made public and I've seen here on FR that told the various 92 US Attorneys that there were cases where the CIA did not want them to prosecute drug cases and that the various 92 US Attorneys were to cooperate with the CIA. So, the only kind of person who denies that the CIA has been involved in drug smuggling are stupid idiots who don't give a damn about the truth.

But we must consider the context of the statements. There were many ex-CIA people and associates who were telling the press fantastic stories about drug smuggling. This included the fantastic Mena stories and other stories. In my opinion the purpose of the two statements was to tell the agents who were talking to the press to shut up. The CIA was confirming that they knew all about it and just didn't want to talk about it and didn't want anyone else to talk about it. Some CIA agents apparently didn't understand that top management was behind the drug smuggling and they had to be publicly told to get them to shut up.

Obviously the purpose of the press releases was not to inform the american public. The 2'nd press release was made on the saturday morning that Clinton was impeached, just a half hour after the vote. Obviously, they wanted to make the press release, but they didn't want the americans to know. They wanted their own CIA people to know that top management wanted them to shut up, that it was OK what happened and that if they continued, then they'll be killed. That, IMHO, was the purpose of the press releases.

To me it verifies that the fantastic stories are more true than false. But you are right in that the press releases did not actually confirm the wild fantastic stories.