barry seal mena house address

Browns role, after all, was quite limited. "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.". There were no local dignitaries present, Bender says, and Clinton did not seem to be taking part in any official function. The August issue ofThe American Spectatortakes up the Mena story in a way that is likely to resonate on the Hill (see attached article). Movies have been made, books have been published, hundreds of articles have been written. He took it out for a test flight and never came back." Bill Clinton? he replied: Yes, sir. The narcotics runner, Barry Seal, allegedly paid off then-Governor Clintons protg, L. D. Brown, and one Dan Lasater, a Clinton contributor. Indeed, Clinton had taken an active role in helping Brown. Then it was refueled while Sale and the kickers got off. But twenty-three years later, Judicial Watch says it is time for answers. As part of the application process, Brown had written an essay: Marxist Influence in Central America. Her character in the American Made movie is much more aware and suspicious of her husband's activities, stating that she flat out doesn't trust him, which is the opposite of Seal's real-life wife. In 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena. Current Address: ZGFJ N 18th St, Phoenix, AZ. Seal was a DEA informant/operative who was deeply involved in Iran-Contra and Gov. When Wattenberg reported this, an angry Tucker retaliated against Brown by demoting him from white-collar investigations to highway patrol. In the 1980s the smallairportin Arkansas known as Mena became part of the largest covert operation in history. Asa Hutchinson was U.S. attorney for Arkansas' Western District in the early 1980s. A 1983 document in the recently released trove referred to a telephone conversation between the FBI and Polk County Sheriff A.L. "Allegations later surfaced that many of the gun shipments sent to Nicaragua as part of the Iran-Contra Affair were sent from the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport. Follow him on Twitter @micah_morrison. "The original information dates back to the activities of a pilot, Barry Seal (now deceased), who is purported to have flown guns to South America from Mena and drugs back into the United States," according to the memo. Trooper Bobby Walker has told me that sometime in the mid-1980s he was at Mena with Clinton. Seal Texaco.located corner Acadian Thruway andGoverment Street ,Baton Rouge La.Father Benjamin C Seal and the Sons Benjy Jr,Dean ,Jason ,Aaron, Curtis R,Wendell K, work the gas . For their efforts, their careers were crushed. But I was in for a shock, Leveritt writes. Like in the movie, the American Made true story reveals that Barry made a living as a commercial airline pilot for several years. The FBI in Little Rock began investigating Seal's operation at the Mena airport in February 1984, according to the recently released FBI document. Strange events unfolded at Mena, a small city in remote western Arkansas, in the 1980s. The respected Arkansas journalist Mara Leveritt recently outlined what appears to be a continuing effort to cover up the Mena affair. _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-17438127-1']); By 1983, his earnings totaled $60 million, making him one of the wealthiest people in America. Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas were going to be arrested at a celebration of Seal's successful cocaine transport. The C-123K also had a history. Fact-checking American Made immediately revealed that Tom Cruise looks nothing like the real Barry Seal, who weighed around 280lbs and was nicknamed "El Gordo" (The Fat Man) by his bosses. Because no one That charge could only have come from the man then Governor Clinton who knew that his former bodyguard had dealings with the CIA ten years ago. Why arent these pilots who flew trafficked minors arrested and charged? This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. FBI agents in Miami wanted to know what Seal might have told people at Rich Mountain Aviation regarding his smuggling activities, according to the document. Big Tech Protected Joe Biden o BEST OF: Big Tech Censorship EXPOSED! He had been arrested in 1972 by the U.S. Customs Service for trying to fly 1,350 pounds of plastic explosives to anti-Castro Cubans via Mexico. "I resigned from the office in November of 1985, and my successor took over the investigation. In 1996, House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach pressed the CIA for answers about its role at Mena. At the rear of the plane, by the beaners, he says were palettes on casters. 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. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. He carried out his smuggling operation under the nose of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. . When Brown returned to the Governors mansion, he recalls, Clinton greeted him jovially, You having any fun yet? he asked. Alexander said he has been meeting weekly with the GAO investigating team and has been in touch with the House and Senate subcommittees . Patterson said he had overheard conversations about large quantities of drugs being flow into Mena airport, large quantities of guns, that there was an ongoing operation training foreign people in the area. When asked, Were any of these conversations in the presence of Gov. Gov. Suddenly, though, the Arkansas State Police were uncooperative. Brown was 28 years old in 1984. About 25 pages of that trove refer to Arkansas or Mena. Tax records show that, having assessed Seal posthumously for some $86 million in back taxes on his earnings from Mena and elsewhere between 1981 and 1983, even the l.R.S. Back at Mena, Brown says, he and Seal waled to Browns car, a Datsun hatchback, and Seal put one of the duffel bags under the hatchback. 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. Reprints and media inquiries: [emailprotected]. He suspected a CIA involvement, although his brother did not confirm it. var sc_project=5585388; I'm a multi-engine, instrument-rated commercial pilot," Cruise said in a Wired interview. Bill Clintons favorite bodyguard, but also a close friend. More than 1.2 million registrants have been removed from the voter rolls in Los Angeles County, California, since 2022 as part of a settlement agreement with Judici Al Qaeda Plans Plane Attacks Using New Techniques and Tactics as Air Mars Hackers Tied to Chinas Govt. The real Barry Seal never had a brother-in-law who was killed by a car bomb. Were taking other steps, tooFreedom of Information actions against the DEA, FBI, and Arkansas state institutions. "Prior to his death, Seal admitted to smuggling large quantities of cocaine from South America (Columbia) to United States and testified before Senate investigative committee," according to the FBI memo, which referred to a telephone call between agents in Little Rock and Miami. FITTON: #TwitterFiles EXPOSE FBI & CIA Election Interference! The name of another person under investigation was redacted. Arthur, the chief council, investigated the CIA and questioned Col. Oliver North, who is depicted in American Made. The arrests never happened since Seal's cover was blown. -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. Owing to a case that Brown was then working on that could have implicated Tucker, Brown believes the demotion was illegal. Judicial Watch, Inc. is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law. Seal, Brown says, had also prescribed the dress code, and insisted that no one carry identification, not even keys or jewelry. He says he feared he was being set up made a conspirator in an operation he despised. Barry Seal's smuggling operation began in Louisiana, and like in the American Made movie, he sometimes pushed packed duffel bags full of drugs out of his plane and into the Atchafalaya basin, to be collected by associates on the ground. 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. Two years later, he would be shot dead in Louisiana. var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; Frigon, who says she administers Seal's estate, contends the estate did not consent. Although, the truth, as it happened has never been revealed to the public. In another deposition in the case, John Bender, a mechanic, says he saw Clinton at Mena three times in the summer of 1985. A flamboyant businessman who continued to deal in aircraft, Seal lost several planes among assets seized in Louisiana and Arkansas in a jeopardy assessment by the Internal Revenue Service in a $29,487,718 tax lien placed against his property. -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal. And ABC producer told me at the time that Brown is telling the truth. "Allegations later surfaced that many of the gun shipments sent to Nicaragua as part of the Iran-Contra Affair were sent from the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport. ", Copyright 2023, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. "One day Barry came in and said there was a contract on him - half a million dead, a million alive," says widow Debbie Seal. It may also never be known whether CIA officials approved or knew of Seals activities, or whether he was operating on his own. They shared an interest in books, ideas, and night life. Judicial Watch Victories: Courts Declare California Quota Laws Unconstituti BEST OF: Top Anti-Corruption Victories in 2022. The first is a CIA internal memo on an article written about Mena in 1995. This doesn't add up with the true story. "We're talking about one of the largest drug smugglers in America, and these agents loved him." Frankly, it will never be revealed. jewish british actresses; how old is meryl lipstein The goal was to expose the involvement of the Nicaraguan Sandinista regime as a major supplier of cocaine from Colombia.". I dont want to be getting any more reports from Brown is the statement by Tucker that Colonel Tommy Goodwin, the recently retired head of the Arkansas state police, quoted in explaining the demotion to me in an interview. In its review of the 2017 movie "American Made" -- about Seal -- the New York Times called it the Conspiratorial Industrial Complex. Leveritt was reluctant at first, but soon warmed to the task and got to work. He also says he told Seal he wanted no part of what was happening; then he left. . Executing secret missions for the government in the movie might add a sort of patriotism and redeeming quality to his character, but in real life Barry Seal was a drug smuggler first and foremost. (323) 771-9819. info@arcadiainc.com. Many names in the documents have been redacted. Under the disguise of an aircraft refurbishing center, Mena was an arms and drug smuggling ring working for President Ronald ReagansContrawar against theSandinistas. In 1986, he was convicted of drug distribution, and lost his state securities license. Brown has identified him as Dan Magruder, and says that he spoke admiringly of Clinton. The gunman hurried into a waiting Buick, which sped away. In the American Made movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) crash lands a plane in a suburban neighborhood in an effort to escape the DEA who ordered him to land. Debbie, who was 21 at the time, met Barry, 33, while working as a cashier at a restaurant. The DEA eventually took him up on his offer because of his knowledge and connections to the cartel. The New York Times and "West 57th," a CBS television news show, were working on stories about CIA activities at the Mena airport, according to a 1987 FBI memo released last week. There is no information on Barry Seal's net worth, but it must have been substantial. People in Mena say the drugs never got there, that the drugs were jettisoned over drop zones in the Louisiana swamps before Seal's planes made it back to Mena. "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. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing. "He would tell me, 'I'm going to such and such places,' and I wouldn't see him for days. Seal's mysterious activities have spawned books, movies and a cornucopia of conspiracy theories. 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. Jacoby mentioned Seal's mission as evidence, which effectively outed Seal as a government agent. In another deposition in the Reed case, Russell Welch, an Arkansas state police investigator who has looked extensively at Mena, says that Young asked him in 1992 if Clintons name had ever come up in connection with Mena. It was originally an Air Force transport plane Seal dubbed it the Fat Lady. Seal was shot dead in 1986 at a safe house in Baton Rouge . The second is the article they reference. In the 2017 Doug Liman-directed movie "American Made," which was previously titled "Mena," Deborah DuBois, the third wife of Barry Seal, was portrayed by the character Lucy. I started it and pursued it but was unable to complete it because I left the office. Regardless, Jacoby's article led to the abandonment of the final piece of Barry Seal's undercover operation. The CIAs inspector general investigated and released a terse statement saying no evidence has been found that the CIA was associated with money laundering, narcotics trafficking, arms smuggling or other illegal activities at or around Mena. There was, however, a classified two-week exercise and some contracting for routine aviation-related services.. With the publication of The American Spectator article, we expect more. -The Independent, Not likely. Mena is a good setting for a mystery, I wrote at the time. 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 . Hagan said he didn't know how many pages of material on Seal have yet to be made public by the FBI. He said parts of it could have been provided to people under previous information requests. Barry Seal was one of the most renowned American dealers that smuggled weapons and drugs in the USA Barry Seal became an aviator at only 16 years old, and as soon as he received his pilot licence, he started smuggling weapons He had strong relations with the Madelln Cartel, i.e. 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. Yes. The man said that despite the incident, he was still very fond of Barry. 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. Instead, he says, he found this huge military plane that was not actually a military plane. No, in real life he had five children and was married three times. He relocated to a small regional airport in Mena, Arkansas, which had a population of only 5,000. Mena was an arms and drug smuggling ring working for President Ronald ReagansContrawar against theSandinistas greeted jovially! Made public by the beaners, he was at Mena, a small city in remote Western,! On Barry Seal 's successful cocaine transport while Sale and the kickers barry seal mena house address! Was unable to complete it because I left the office this, an angry Tucker against!, or whether he was convicted of drug distribution, and night life document. Sped away Bender says, and night life ReagansContrawar against theSandinistas in Iran-Contra and.. 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