And move on, the world did. In his research for the book, the only confirmed connection Hahn could make between the CIA and Barry Seal was in 1984, after Seal had started working as an informant for the DEA. In the 1980s, the Mena airport was the reported base of a drug-smuggling, money-laundering and arms-smuggling ring run by Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal, according to an Encyclopedia of Arkansas . Tips: [emailprotected], Investigative Bulletin is published by Judicial Watch. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. During the past few years, the activity at the airstrip has aroused the interest of local law enforcement, who then attempted to conduct some investigations but were blocked by the U.S. The Louisiana attorney general would tell the Justice Department that Seal had "smuggled between $3 billion and $5 billion in drugs into the U.S." How much did Clinton know about what he called Lasaters deal in that conversation with L.D. Seal, a pilot, moved much of his smuggling operation from Baton Rouge to Rich Mountain Aviation at the Mena Intermountain Airport, according to the May 1986 FBI memo. In 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena. When Wattenberg reported this, an angry Tucker retaliated against Brown by demoting him from white-collar investigations to highway patrol. CIA and DEA activities flowed out of Mena in the Clinton years. ABC was also told that brown had failed a psychological test. He suspected a CIA involvement, although his brother did not confirm it. -Vulture.com, Yes. The extent of Barry Seal's involvement with the CIA in the 1980s has provided fuel for speculation and conspiracy theories. Many names in the documents have been redacted. While there, he had a chance meeting with Jorge Ochoa's New Orleans business manager. All rights reserved. The other troopers called him Clintons Fair-haired boy. Barry emerges from the plane covered in cocaine. Walker said a huge dark-green military plane was parked there, and that when he expressed surprise at seeing a military plane at Mena, Clinton said it was not military; it served another purpose. "The aircraft flew with various cameras used to obtain photographic evidence of the Sandinistas in the act of smuggling narcotics," Sherwood wrote. Welsh said it had not, but Youngs concern was intriguing. No one responded when she asked if the newly arisen concerns might be political., In the Arkansas Times article, Leveritt pinned her hopes on the new Cruise movie, which opened in 2017 to good reviews. Cocainea lot of itflowed in. _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-17438127-1']); Copyright 2023, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Brown says Clinton told him not to worry. Patterson was being deposed in a legal suit filed against Buddy Young, the former head of Clintons security detail, and another man by Terry reed, who says he trained Contra pilots, under Seals supervision, at Nella, Arkansas. Over a quarter of a century ago, George H.W. Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas were going to be arrested at a celebration of Seal's successful cocaine transport. "There are also allegations that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency used the airport as a base of operations to help train pilots and troops for the intervention in the Nicaraguan uprising by the Contras during the 1980s," according to the encyclopedia entry, which was written by Robert Sherwood of Georgia Military College. Clinton appeared to have pressured Hale, the head of an Arkansas lending agency, into making loans to Susan McDougal, the Clintons Whitewater real estate partner. In its review of the 2017 movie "American Made" -- about Seal -- the New York Times called it the Conspiratorial Industrial Complex. ", No. The FBI in Little Rock began investigating Seal's operation at the Mena airport in February 1984, according to the recently released FBI document. The C-123K also had a history. He was also providing Clinton with the use of a private airplane, and entertaining him at various places, including his New Mexico resort, Angel Fire. On one CIA-involved mission in 1984, a secret camera in Seals C-123 cargo plane snapped photos of an alleged Sandinista official loading cocaine aboard the aircraft. Frankly, it will never be revealed. The first is a CIA internal memo on an article written about Mena in 1995. Bill Clinton's Mena, Arkansas drug smuggling and money laundering operation through the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA).. Seal was a Green Beret in the Vietnam war and later a pilot for TWA. The August issue ofThe American Spectatortakes up the Mena story in a way that is likely to resonate on the Hill (see attached article). Brown was 28 years old in 1984. Clinton, Brown believed, was the CIA. "Tom Cruise doesn't look like Barry Seal. A Seal associate cut a runway deep in the woods. Money from the sale of weapons to Iran was used to help fund the rebels in Nicaragua. All were wearing jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers. Doug Liman had previously modeled Chris Cooper's villain in The Bourne Identity after North, which reveals Liman's feelings about the controversial figure North. Two years later, he would be shot dead in Louisiana. . -The Independent, In the movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) starts working for the Medelln Cartel after they abduct him while he is refueling his plane and then make him an offer he can't refuse. Corporate Office Arcadia Inc. 2301 East Vernon Ave. Vernon, CA 90058. Hahn told Vice that Barry was likable but "not as smart and clever as he thought he was. Judicial Watch has launched a new campaign for answers. When I got back from that first trip he knew I had been out doing something, Brown insists. Arthur, the chief council, investigated the CIA and questioned Col. Oliver North, who is depicted in American Made. Yes. While at a small airport in rural Mena, Arkansas, the notorious smuggler Barry Seal was given protection by Governor Bill Clinton to continue his drug-smuggling, gun-running, money laundering operation but now as a DEA informant and a CIA contract pilot, also set up by Bush. Undercover cameras installed on Seal's plane captured photos on the tarmac of a Nicaraguan airport. Because no one . In another deposition in the case, John Bender, a mechanic, says he saw Clinton at Mena three times in the summer of 1985. No. Three Colombians eventually were arrested and convicted of the murder. "He would tell me, 'I'm going to such and such places,' and I wouldn't see him for days. Buddy Young that little beady-faced fellow, and said he was with Clinton at Mena. An indignant Brown began toying with the idea of exposing the corruption of Arkansas politics. The arrests never happened since Seal's cover was blown. Purwin was a passenger in a plane that went down, killing both Purwin and Venezuelan pilot Carlos Berl. He also says he told Seal he wanted no part of what was happening; then he left. Benjamin /Mary Seal son Adler M 1940 census address 315 Lovers Lane Baton.Rouge Louisiana (next hwy73/North blvd).lovers lane White house Barry was the 1st son.Seal Entrepreneur.Texaco Service station .called B.C. Upset that he has lost his pension and healthcare at TWA, he embraces the idea of making $2,000 per kilo of cocaine smuggled into the United States. -Daily Mail Online, The movie proposes that Barry Seal's first foray into smuggling drugs happened in 1980 after he was kidnapped while refueling his plane in Colombia. Seal flipped, becoming a valuable government informant. In total, he had illegally imported $3 to $5 billion worth of drugs and an estimated 56 tons of cocaine into the U.S., making over 100 flights. "He thought we had more time. After a barrage of requests from different people and media outlets under the federal Freedom of Information Act, on Wednesday the FBI released more than 1,000 pages of its file on Seal: vault.fbi.gov/recently-added. Jeffrey Epstein: Predator, Spy plus FULL access to all newsletters. No. In her suit, Lisa, who is not depicted in the movie, also claimed that there were factual inaccuracies in the script, including the fact that Barry had five children, not three, and that the movie falsely suggests he was an alcoholic and a reckless pilot. An "extensive joint investigation" by the FBI, Arkansas State Police and IRS revealed that Barry Seal used the Mena airport for "smuggling activity" from late 1980 until March 1984, according to an internal FBI document released last week. The movie proposes that Barry Seal's first foray into smuggling drugs happened in 1980 after he was kidnapped while refueling his plane in Colombia. The DEA eventually took him up on his offer because of his knowledge and connections to the cartel. It would later be serviced and financed by Southern Air Transport, a CIA front company, and it was eventually shot down over Nicaragua in a doomed supply effort to the Contras that left an American, Eugene Hasenfus, a prisoner of the Sandinistas and the CIA link to the Contras revealed. Brown says Seal told him theres good money to be had. But Brown, says he was out of that game for good. As part of the application process, Brown had written an essay: Marxist Influence in Central America. Meanwhile, Brown says, he confronted Clinton, asking him if he knew that Seal was dealing in drugs and unreported currency. I have re-typed two documents that were scrubbed off the internet. 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; A Baton Rouge, Louisiana native, Barry Seal was eventually forced to move his drug smuggling operation after he drew the attention of Louisiana authorities. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal grew up in south Baton Rouge in the 1950s. But Brown says he is lying. JB is fictional. It alleges, explicitly and implicitly, that an aircraft operated by a CIA front company in 1984 used the airfield at Mena, Arkansas, as a stating point for weapons supply flights to the Contras in Nicaragua; on the return flights from Honduras, the aircraft allegedly carried illegal narcotics to Mena. The life of the former TWA pilot, Barry Seal, inspired the film. The movie's title was changed to put less emphasis on the Arkansas connection, including the possibility that Bill Clinton was aware of what was going on. Gov. In 1983, the DEA arrested him on drug smuggling charges. An index was completed and the book was listed in the University of Arkansas Press catalog. He also referred to Clinton, familiarly, as the guv. Alexander said he has been meeting weekly with the GAO investigating team and has been in touch with the House and Senate subcommittees . Frigon, who says she administers Seal's estate, contends the estate did not consent. At this juncture, no one, including Brown, can say precisely what Clinton was doing at Mena. Scared the s---- out of me just taking off. Brown says that when the plane took off, he was sitting on a bench behind the two pilots. The real Barry Seal claimed that he started running covert operations for various government agencies as early as the late 1950s, while he was a member of the Civil Air Patrol in New Orleans, well before he became a TWA pilot. "The apparent reason was that the prosecution might have revealed national security information, even though all of the crimes which were the focus of the investigation occurred before Seal became a federal informant.". Judicial Watch On Issue: The Battle for Election Integrity, Judicial Watch On Issue: Leading the Battle Against Illegal Immigration, Al Qaeda Plans Plane Attacks Using New Techniques and Tactics as Air Marshals Keep Getting Sent to Mexican Border, Biden staying at St. Croix villa of wealthy donors who got state dinner invite, Tom Fitton's Judicial Watch Weekly Update. And the U.S. was covertly backing the Contras. It aborted the scheduled trial of Casper W. Weinberger which had been schedule to begin on January 5, 1993. Exclusive: Tom Cruise's portrayal of drug-smuggler-turned-government-informant Barry Seal is a fast-paced visit back to the Reagan era's shadowy world of the CIA, cocaine and secret wars . Contributions are received from Hadaway. BEST OF: Left Targets Elon Musk, FBI Investigated Fauci Agency, CA Court Vi BEST OF: Twitter Changed Rules to Ban Trump! It is believed that the Colombians put a hit out on Barry after they learned he was going to help the feds with the extradition of Jorge Ochoa from Spain, one of the heads of the Medelln Cartel. "It's my understanding that no drugs ever came to the airport," said Fred Ogden, the current airport manager. About 25 pages of that trove refer to Arkansas or Mena. Seal, Brown says, talked knowledgeably about airplanes, and spoke of an operation he was planning. Question: Was Barry Seal's C-123K aircraft (serial number 54-File: Attachment Size; DOC_0001289717.pdf: 37.21 KB: . the Colombian drug cartel led by Pablo Escobar Biography Brown? Barry Seal, courtesy of the Baton Rouge Advocate. It was no coincidence when Donald TrumpappointedWilliam Barr as his Attorney General. Dan Lasater, of course, was the celebrated Little Rock bond daddy. An entry in Browns daybook indicates that the flight with Seal took place on October 23, 1984. He says he feared he was being set up made a conspirator in an operation he despised. The CIA stonewalled the release of information now sought by Judicial Watch on the Mena Airport controversy, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. Just prior to the movie's release, news broke that the family of deceased stunt pilot Alan Purwin was suing American Made's producers for wrongful death. Seal, according to Brown, was familiar with the biographical information he had given the agency. Watch an interview with the real Barry Seal where he discusses his undercover mission, and listen to President Ronald Reagan talk about the photos Seal obtained on the mission. "We're talking about one of the largest drug smugglers in America, and these agents loved him." The man who made Baton Rouge headlines in the mid-1980s for the machine-gun killing of drug informant Adler "Barry" Seal died in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on Aug. 25, Louisiana. A 1983 document in the recently released trove referred to a telephone conversation between the FBI and Polk County Sheriff A.L. Please read our Terms of Use or contact us. The Judicial Watch lawsuit seeks the report of a November 1996 CIA investigation into drug running, money laundering and intelligence gathering at Mena. _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); Suddenly, though, the Arkansas State Police were uncooperative. "I resigned from the office in November of 1985, and my successor took over the investigation. Barr opposed the independent counsels investigation of wrongdoing in the White House and facilitated Bushs famous1992 Christmas Eve pardonsof six of the co-conspirators of Iran-Contra. In 1981, he was making daily deposits of $50,000 into an account at a bank in the Bahamas. Seal, he says, laughed, and told Brown that all he had wanted him to do was sit back for the ride. Then he gave Brown an envelope with $2,500 in cash not marked money, not banded money, just twenties, fifties, mostly twenties, used money, like you just went out and spent.. Barry met Debbie while he was on his way to a hearing after he was caught in 1972 trying to smuggle military explosives out of the country. -Daily Mail Online, No. how to cut cod for fish sticks; air force epr future roles listvasant panchami 2021 for marriage. Magruder, Brown says, asked him if he would be interested in paramilitary, counterintelligence and narcotics. Brown, who had worked in narcotics enforcement as a police officer, said he was interested. Some facts, however, are indisputable. It does seem, however, that Clinton was far less cautious. He then was able to get a meeting with Vice President George H.W. Eight months later, Seals C-123 was shot down over Nicaragua with a load of ammunition and supplies for the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels. "Despite the availability of evidence sufficient for an indictment on money laundering charges, and over the strong protests of state and federal law enforcement officials, the cases were dropped," according to the report. When he was deposed, Bender was shown a photograph of Buddy Young. During the past few years, the activity at the airstrip has aroused the interest of local law enforcement, who then attempted to conduct some investigations but were blocked by the U.S. Leveritt has written convincing book-length studies of the Memphis Three case and the deaths of teenagers Don Henry and Kevin Ives, the Arkansas boys on the tracks. In Whos Afraid of Barry Seal?, in the Arkansas Times, Leveritt wrote that secrets are still being carefully kept, especially in Arkansas. In advance of the recent Tom Cruise movie about Seal, American Made, an official associated with the Arkansas Studies Institute, an affiliate of the University of Arkansas and the Central Arkansas Libraryboth state institutionsconvinced Leveritt to write a book about Mena, as a tie-in to the movie. Seal, a pilot, moved much of his smuggling operation from Baton Rouge to Rich Mountain Aviation at the Mena Intermountain Airport, according to the May 1986 FBI memo. Young has since been made head of the Federal Emergency Management Administration in Denton, Texas. The scene was actually inspired by something that happened while director Doug Liman and Tom Cruise were training for the movie. He carries it around and begins spending it, which attracts the attention of the local authorities. Dwayne Brown says he knew his brother had made some unexplained trips out of the country. All rights reserved. Judicial Watch Sues Air Force Academy for Records about Critical Race Theor DOJ & FBI Target Biden Political Opponents, Judicial Watch Warns: Critical Race Theory Rising. Tom Cruise is set to play murdered DEA informant Barry Seal in Doug Liman's film Mena. It must be noted now that Clintons efforts to distance himself from Mena have persisted for years. Instead, he says, he found this huge military plane that was not actually a military plane. Seal's mysterious activities have spawned books, movies and a cornucopia of conspiracy theories. The Mena operation reveals the essential reckless of our present president. Evidence emerged suggesting that the CIA was operating in the area in the early 1980s; that a major cocaine and gun smuggler was based at the airfield; and that the U.S. military was somehow involved. Whatever the case, of all the Arkansas troopers who would later admit to knowledge of Clintons high life, Brown was the most hesitant to talk. 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