From the Radio Free Michigan archives ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu. ------------------------------------------------ THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 4 JAN. 1995 PRESS LINKS CLINTON TO IRAN-CONTRA DRUGS DEAL BY HUGH DAVIES IN WASHINGTON Allegations of cloak-and-dagger events in Arkansas while President Bill Clinton was governor began surfacing in the mainstream US media yesterday with the *Washington Times* speculating that the `scandal' could `dwarf Whitewater'. [It's *part* of Whitewater, silly - DSO.] Rumours of an `Arkansas connection' in smuggling Colombian cocaine into America have been swirling in the capital for weeks. Famous political names are supposed to be involved in a `cover-up'. So persistent are the charges that the Washington paper decided to go public with its bare-bones version, confessing that accurate particulars remained elusive. Prominent were the names of the retired Marine colonel, Oliver North, and the former Attorney General, Edwin Meese, key figures in the Iran-Contra controversy. The tale centres on a remote airfield at Mena in the Ouachita mountains of Arkansas, allegedly used for Iran-Contra flights that shipped guns into Nicaragua and returned with drugs. A former US air force [CIA - DSO] intelligence officer, Mr Terry Reed, insists that Mr Clinton was aware of the illegal operation and received a 10 per cent cut of the profits. No documentary proof seems to be available and the President has ridiculed the notion. But, the *Washington Times* reported, it is a tale `that won't go away'. *** A report on the Whitewater affair by Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee yesterday accused White House and Treasury Department officials of `serious misconduct and malfeasance' by discussing the case. [Stephanopoulos must go. Anyway, for all the media hype about his being an honest, hardworking genius from a devout Greek Orthodox family, he's quite happy to be dogboy for a lying, cheating, womanising, drug-taking, draft-dodging, power-hungry megalomaniac - DSO.] ************************ FROM THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 1 JAN. 1995 BY AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD More and more Washington insiders are coming to the conclusion that it is hopeless for Mr Clinton now. The first Whitewater indictments have changed the political landscape. Newspapers and television networks that dismissed the scandal as much ado about nothing are scrambling to catch up. The `Mena Airport' story about gun-running and drug smuggling in Arkansas in the 1980s is finally about to break in the grand press, revealing information that is likely to astound the American public. A federal court case that touches on Mr Clinton's involvement in these bizarre underworld activities is coming to a head during the next three months. Some of the best lawyers in the country have joined the case. The witness list has 105 names. Among those to be subpoenaed and made to testify are Oliver North, the former Attorney General Bill Barr and nine Arkansas state troopers. Under current plans the key depositions will be taken in February and March. They will be distributed to the press. And then there is Paula Jones. After a ruling this week her lawyers now have broad `discovery' power to take sworn depositions from witnesses, even though the actual trial is to be delayed until after Clinton leaves office. This is very bad news for the President. The purpose of Jones's suit all along was to gain `discovery' power in order to investigate the role of state troopers in facilitating sexual trysts for Mr Clinton. Do not be surprised if the White House offers a settlement soon and an abject apology. *************************** THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 1 JAN. 1995 WHITE HOUSE `FORCED CIA CHIEF TO QUIT' BY AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD IN WASHINGTON The turnover at the top of the Clinton Administration is brisk this holiday season. Wily old Texan Lloyd Bentsen has left his post as Treasury Secretary, pleading fatigue. Mike Espy, the Agriculture Secretary, has moved on after being caught taking gifts from Arkansas chicken king Don Tyson. But the change that has tongues wagging in Washington is the announcement by the CIA's director, James Woolsey, that he, too, intends to go his own way. Before Christmas he was telling friends that he was in for the long haul. The official word is that the soft-spoken Rhodes Scholar came to grief because of his handling of the Aldrich Ames affair. Mr Woolsey has been castigated repeatedly by the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and others for failing to clean up his house after it came to light that Ames had sold the `Crown Jewels' to the Soviet Union, exposing at least 10 Soviet intelligence officials working secretly for the US. But the damage was done years ago, long before Mr Woolsey's appointment in 1993. It was Mr Woolsey, in fact, who found the traitor and exposed him. The unofficial word is that Mr Woolsey was squeezed out by the liberal-Left elements in the White House for being too Right-wing, too close to the foreign policy gurus of the Reagan era, even too pro-British. Mr Woolsey set up his own long-range planning group at the CIA. It was treated as a threat by Tony Lake, the head of President Clinton's personal foreign policy team at the White House. The rivalry turned nasty over Haiti. Last year, while the Clinton Administration was trying to drum up support for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the CIA was leaking a profile describing Mr Aristide as mentally unstable. The leaks were seen as part of a broader CIA campaign to undercut Mr Clinton's Haiti crusade, a policy that was considered madness at CIA headquarters in Langley. Aristide enthusiasts in the White House were incensed. Since then, Mr Lake has fought tenaciously to prevent the CIA Director from gaining access to the President. By letting this happen Mr Clinton has cut himself off from the best foreign policy adviser in his Administration. Mr Clinton's own relationship with the CIA has been the stuff of rumours since he first emerged as a presidential candidate. A number of journalists and intelligence experts are convinced that he began stringing for the CIA in an informal way during his Oxford days, slipping information to the US Embassy in London on the anti-war movement. The idea is not as absurd as it sounds. Bill Clinton was always searching for ways to promote his career. It would also explain the mystery of how he paid for his trip to Scandinavia and the Soviet Union in 1969, a time when he was perpetually broke. During the 1980s, as Governor of Arkansas, Clinton appears to have had a `you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours' relationship with Ronald Reagan's CIA. There are strong grounds for suspecting that the CIA used the corrupt rural state as a base for a covert supply operation, manufacturing untraceable weapons parts for shipment south to the Nicaraguan Contras, and possibly to the Guatemalan and Peruvian governments. A number of sources involved with the operation have told *The Sunday Telegraph* that Mr Clinton was directly involved, though none have been able to produce documentary evidence. There is also speculation that Arkansas was used by the US intelligence community for other Cold War purposes requiring an arms length `deniability', chiefly in computer software and irregular banking activities, to frustrate Congressional restrictions on CIA work inside the US. The details have been emerging in dribs and drabs. Now the pace is quickening. One of the country's most prestigious newspapers is set to run a long piece giving credence to the allegations on January 8. If the story breaks into the mainstream, it could eventually turn into a first-rate CIA scandal, a sort of Iran- Contra Part II. It is not what the CIA needs at a time when the colossal $28 billion US intelligence budget is already under attack and Senator Patrick Moynihan is questioning whether the US needs an intelligence agency any longer. [Surely it does. Who else is there capable of assassinating US Presidents? Sorry, couldn't resist... :-) - DSO] By getting out now, Mr Woolsey may have spared himself a very unpleasant 1995. ************************ ------------------------------------------------ (This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the Radio Free Michigan archives by the archive maintainer. All files are ZIP archives for fast download. E-mail bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu)