Mena

[jya@pipeline.com (John Young)]

   The Washington Post, August 7, 1996, p. A6. 
 
 
   CIA Probed in Alleged Arms Shipments 
 
      Reports Claim Agents Involved in Arkansas-Nicaragua Drug 
      Swaps 
 
   By Susan Schmidt 
 
 
   The CIA's inspector general is investigating claims that 
   U.S. intelligence agencies were involved in illegal arms 
   shipments and drug smuggling at an isolated airstrip in 
   Mena, Ark., during the years Bill Clinton was governor. 
 
   A spokesman for the CIA said Inspector General Frederick P. 
   Hitz is preparing a report on allegations that the CIA was 
   involved in arms shipments from Mena to the Nicaraguan 
   rebels during the 1980s, and that pilots hired by the 
   agency brought back large shipments of cocaine. 
 
   CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the inspector general 
   will report on possible contacts between the agency and 
   Arkansas state officials during the 1980s. His report also 
   will deal with allegations that the CIA attempted to 
   influence or curtail law enforcement investigations of 
   Mena. 
 
   Hitz was asked to investigate the Mena airport by CIA 
   Director John M. Deutch, who was acting on a request from 
   House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach (R-Iowa). 
   Leach's panel is looking into the possible laundering of 
   drug money generated at Mena. 
 
   Leach's Banking Committee staff has been looking a variety 
   of claims about Mena emanating from a collection of 
   Arkansas law enforcement officials and various figures 
   operating in the shadowy netherworld on contract with 
   intelligence agencies. 
 
   One congressional investigator likened sorting through the 
   allegations to being trapped in "a hall of mirrors." 
 
   Congressional sources said Leach made the request to the 
   CIA about six months ago and expects a report from Hitz in 
   late summer or early fall. 
 
   The latest Mena claims are contained in "Boy Clinton," a 
   book by American Spectator Editor R. Emmett Tyrrell 
   published this week. In it, Tyrrell asserts that Clinton 
   knew about CIA operations and cocaine smuggling at Mena. 
 
   He cites as sources Arkansas state troopers, including one 
   on the governor's security detail who says he was also a 
   contract employee for the CIA during the mid-1980s and 
   informed Clinton of what was going on at Mena. 
 
   Clinton has said he had nothing to do with any activities 
   at Mena. "Mena is the darkest backwater of the right wing 
   conspiracy industry," said White House spokesman Mark 
   Fabiani. "The allegations are as bizarre as they are 
   false." 
 
   [End]