Seal is purported to have flown guns to South America from Mena and drugs back into the United States, according to the memo. No investigation was blocked.". Frankly, it will never be revealed. Author Del Hahn, a former FBI agent who wrote the book about Seal titled Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal, told Vice, "Seal thought he was smarter and cleverer than the Ochoas," who are one of the founding families of the Medelln Cartel. Last March, in a legally binding deposition, trooper Larry Patterson also said that Clinton knew about Mena. Yes. Hagan said he didn't know how many pages of material on Seal have yet to be made public by the FBI. 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.. -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. It's certainly possible and it's what the movie proposes. An entry in Browns daybook indicates that the flight with Seal took place on October 23, 1984. Two duffel bags were put on board the plane at Tegucigalpa. The Sandinistas overthrew Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending 46 years of dictatorship by the Somoza family. Big Tech Protected Joe Biden o BEST OF: Big Tech Censorship EXPOSED! In 1986, he was convicted of drug distribution, and lost his state securities license. I have re-typed two documents that were scrubbed off the internet. Instead, he says, he found this huge military plane that was not actually a military plane. 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. "We're talking about one of the largest drug smugglers in America, and these agents loved him." is above the law! -Daily Mail Online. -Vulture. The assassination happened on February 19, 1986 in the parking lot in front of the Salvation Army building on Airline Highway (U.S. 61) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Leveritt had in-depth knowledge of the travails of investigators Duncan and Welch, and state and federal officials, in attempting to get to the truth about Mena. At the rear of the plane, by the beaners, he says were palettes on casters. "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. Seal became a federal informant in March 1984. -The Independent, Not likely. In 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena. Yes. And ABC producer told me at the time that Brown is telling the truth. -Good Morning America. And the U.S. was covertly backing the Contras. An interesting fact we learned while researching the true story was that while training for the Civil Air Patrol in Baton Rouge, Barry Seal met President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. That didnt happen. 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. 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. He took it out for a test flight and never came back." Brown has identified him as Dan Magruder, and says that he spoke admiringly of Clinton. CIA and DEA activities flowed out of Mena in the Clinton years. Brown? With the publication of The American Spectator article, we expect more. Then it was refueled while Sale and the kickers got off. Despite the movie attempting to pin it on North, Jacoby later said that North was not his source and that it was a deceased Special Forces and CIA guy named Ted Lunger, who at the time worked as a staff member for Representative Dan Daniel. The gunman was later identified as Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz. Two years later, he would be shot dead in Louisiana. Current Address: ZGFJ N 18th St, Phoenix, AZ. -TIME. In 1996, House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach pressed the CIA for answers about its role at Mena. 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. Hahn was part of the task force that pursued Seal in the 1980s. Soon after, JB is killed by a car bomb. I knew the agency had an extensive file on Seal, Leveritt wrote, because Id read it decades earlier, shortly after Seals murder. At the time Seals flights took place, Lasater was contributing to Clintons political campaigns. (323) 771-9819. [email protected]. Micah Morrison is chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch. "He would tell me, 'I'm going to such and such places,' and I wouldn't see him for days. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 - February 19, 1986) was an American commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medelln Cartel.When Seal was convicted of smuggling charges, he became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and testified in several major drug trials. It was originally an Air Force transport plane Seal dubbed it the Fat Lady. 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. "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. Then, he started the engines, and Brown remembers, ThisI mean just thunderous noise. 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 . Hadaway. "In other words, the charges of drug smuggling and money laundering were not enough to warrant the release of information about the use of the airport in the Iran-Contra Affair," wrote Sherwood for the Arkansas encyclopedia. "Doug and I are both aviators, so we both love to fly.". Dr. Faucis "SHADY" Gain of Function Research! The respected Arkansas journalist Mara Leveritt recently outlined what appears to be a continuing effort to cover up the Mena affair. -Daily Mail Online. _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-17438127-1']); The story took on a new life when Bill Clinton ran for president. -Refinery29, Yes. Seal, according to Brown, was familiar with the biographical information he had given the agency. Owing to a case that Brown was then working on that could have implicated Tucker, Brown believes the demotion was illegal. -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal, Yes. attorney.". An indignant Brown began toying with the idea of exposing the corruption of Arkansas politics. As early as 1982, his firm had been censured by the Arkansas security commissioner for cheating customers. Tips: [emailprotected], Investigative Bulletin is published by Judicial Watch. the Colombian drug cartel led by Pablo Escobar Biography 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. In the film, his abductors take him to a secret airstrip in the Colombian jungle where three businessmen, including Pablo Escobar, make him an offer he can't pass up. Later, after Seal's cover was suspiciously blown, President Reagan used the photo shown below in a 1986 television address to the nation. As part of his reduced sentence, the judge had ordered Barry to spend his nights, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., at a Salvation Army halfway house for six months. Hagan said he didn't know how many pages of material on Seal have yet to be made public by the FBI. ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? The CIA does not talk about these things, and so Browns exact relationship with the agency may never be known. I started it and pursued it but was unable to complete it because I left the office. Weinberger faced charges of lying to Congress about his knowledge of the arms and drug smuggling that President George W. Bush had endorsed. Terms & conditions/privacy policy apply. Past Addresses: See available information. In February 1986, Seal was killed in a hail of machine-gun fire outside a Baton Rouge Salvation Army halfway house after allegedly crossing Pablo Escobar and the Medellin drug cartel. 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. "I've heard that stated by a lot of people.". The explosives were supposedly going to anti-Castro Cuban fighters. And the U.S. was covertly backing the Contras. 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. But twenty-three years later, Judicial Watch says it is time for answers. 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. "I resigned from the office in November of 1985, and my successor took over the investigation. In 1983, the DEA arrested him on drug smuggling charges. The Ochoa Family, along with Pablo Escobar and others, were the founders of the Medelln Cartel. Barry's widow, Deborah Seal, says that he began smuggling drugs in 1975, first focusing mainly on marijuana. The August issue ofThe American Spectatortakes up the Mena story in a way that is likely to resonate on the Hill (see attached article). In the years that followed his split from Clinton, Brown investigated white-collar crime for the Arkansas State Police. The other troopers called him Clintons Fair-haired boy. By 1983, his earnings totaled $60 million, making him one of the wealthiest people in America. 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; 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. 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. The gunman hurried into a waiting Buick, which sped away. -The Hollywood Reporter, Debbie Seal insists that she was unaware of what her husband was up to. The cartel tells Barry that they'll deal with JB, a suggestion that Barry opposes. var sc_partition=60; Phone Number . apartments in dallas that allow airbnb Uncovering hot babes since 1919. Were taking other steps, tooFreedom of Information actions against the DEA, FBI, and Arkansas state institutions. Miguel Velez was the man driving the getaway car. 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. 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. After Brown told Sealand Clintonthat he would no longer take part in the drug flights, Seal contacted Brown again. Barry Seal was an American-born Trans World Airlines pilot who . "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. His cooperation led to many convictions, as well as indictments against Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa, two of the founding members of the Medelln Cartel. Bush's anti-drug task force in hopes of convincing them of his value as an informant. 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.. How much did Clinton know about what he called Lasaters deal in that conversation with L.D. An index was completed and the book was listed in the University of Arkansas Press catalog. Photograph: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP . He carried out his smuggling operation under the nose of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. Jul 04, 2022 12:40 P.M. A 1983 document in the recently released trove referred to a telephone conversation between the FBI and Polk County Sheriff A.L. Some facts, however, are indisputable. He said parts of it could have been provided to people under previous information requests. He was not only Gov. 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. 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. He says that Clinton arrived in a Beech aircraft, and was still there when he left for the day. Many names in the documents have been redacted. Indeed, Clinton had taken an active role in helping Brown. No. Vincent G Mena, Age 54. "He put the airplane into a parabolic arc and pinned me against the ceiling, and right in that moment, I had this inspiration. 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. Back at Mena, Brown says, he told Seal he had thought they were going to fly in a plane similar to the ones he had been on with the Governor. When asked who his source was, Jacoby implied that it was "an aide in the White House" and that Oliver North had the most motivation to release the information. The DEA had been onto him for a long time. Follow him on Twitter @micah_morrison. 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." Yet she pressed on with her writing and finished the book. In another deposition in the case, John Bender, a mechanic, says he saw Clinton at Mena three times in the summer of 1985. 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. In fact, I still had a letter from the former director advising me, in case Id planned to make copies, that the file held some 3,000 pages.. -Daily Mail Online. 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. 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. Barry Seal "'Fat Man' key to mystery" By Michael Haddigan THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE June 26, 1988 Allegations of cocaine smuggling and international intrigue swirled about the Mena Airport and Seal for years. "I can state absolutely that Oliver North had nothing to do with my story as far as I knew, or as far as I know today," said Jacoby. Eight months later, Seals C-123 was shot down over Nicaragua with a load of ammunition and supplies for the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels. "Tom did all his own flying in the movie," says director Doug Liman, who is a pilot himself (Vulture.com). 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. Subsequently, Brown says, Seal called him at home, and set up a meeting at Cajuns Wharf, a popular Little Rock watering hole. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. The state really had next to nothing to do with it. Although, the truth, as it happened has never been revealed to the public. The CIA stonewalled the release of information now sought by Judicial Watch on the Mena Airport controversy, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. Suddenly, though, the Arkansas State Police were uncooperative. In the American Made movie, Barry Seal's boredom with piloting commercial flights leads him to perform stunts that cause the oxygen masks to fall and frighten passengers. In Mena, meanwhile, things were getting stranger. In essence, not only was the airport used to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States, but it was also a departure point for weapons used to arm the Contras in Nicaragua.". Mena, Arkansas, as a staging point for weapons supply flights. -Daily Mail Online, No. Seal's mysterious activities have spawned books, movies and a cornucopia of conspiracy theories. "Tom did all his own flying in the movie," says Liman. MENA NOIR: Aircraft pilot Barry Seal, a Baton Rouge native who smuggled drugs into the U.S. for the Medellin Cartel during the 1980s, used this airport in Me. In the 1980s the smallairportin Arkansas known as Mena became part of the largest covert operation in history. They married in 1974. Asa Hutchinson was U.S. attorney for Arkansas' Western District in the early 1980s. But Brown says he is lying. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. But I was in for a shock, Leveritt writes. (Brown maintains that he never flunked the test; in fact, he was nominated four months after taking it for employment with the agency.). Meanwhile, others are now coming forward to confirm a Clinton connection to Mena. "I've heard that stated by a lot of people.". The FBI in Little Rock began investigating Seal's operation at the Mena airport in February 1984, according to the recently released FBI document. Then, he says, they regained altitude, by then they descended again, and thats when these two crazy bastards got these palettes and roll them out on casters. Parachutes opened from the palettes. Young has since been made head of the Federal Emergency Management Administration in Denton, Texas. 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. It must be noted now that Clintons efforts to distance himself from Mena have persisted for years. Purwin was a passenger in a plane that went down, killing both Purwin and Venezuelan pilot Carlos Berl. She was an experienced writer and had prepared for the legal review. 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 . "I resigned from the office in November of 1985, and my successor took over the investigation. 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. In other words: nothing to see here, move on. In 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena. var _gaq = _gaq || []; That film finds Seal (portrayed by Michael Par) being assassinated in a motorcycle drive-by shooting while he is driving and Robert Mazur (Cranston) is his passenger. foundations, and corporations and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. The movie's loose interpretation of the true story is echoed in the trailer when a voice-over by Tom Cruise as Barry Seal tells us that only "some of this sh*t really happened." Hadaway said an informant told him a "narcotic smuggling operation" was headquartered out of the Mena airport and that a man named Barry from Baton Rouge was in charge of it. Judicial Watch is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. He was unaware that a Colombian assassin was hiding behind one of the donation drop boxes. One passage discusses the deductibility of charitable donations, and another the length of residency required in Washington before tax liability is incurred. 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. Then Brown says, Seal and the kickers returned, carrying four duffel bags. The C-123K also had a history. Gov. "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. var sc_invisible=1; 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. Browns break with Clinton came after Brown made what he says was his second flight from Mena to Central America. Hadaway said an informant told him a "narcotic smuggling operation" was headquartered out of the Mena airport and that a man named Barry from Baton Rouge was in charge of it. "The estimated value of the narcotics smuggled through the facility is $3 [billion] to $5 billion. "Little Rock [FBI] is attempting to establish that [redacted] modified, maintained and stored Seal's aircraft with the knowledge that he was involved in cocaine smuggling activities prior to Seal's plea bargaining agreement on March 24, 1984," according to the memo. 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. In fact, even the Wikipedia links Ive included in this paragraph are mostly lies. The real Barry Seal never had a brother-in-law who was killed by a car bomb. Other photos like the one below show Federico Vaughan (center, striped shirt), a man that Seal claimed was a top aide of Tomas Borge, the Sandinista Minister of the Interior. _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); Browns role, after all, was quite limited. 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. 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. Many names in the documents have been redacted. However, some still allege the opposite, that the government turned a blind eye to Seal's drug running in order to use him to deliver weapons to the Nicaraguan rebels. He hands wads of cash to a kid on a bike, telling the boy, "You never saw me." Ultimately, we may find out, as Brown tells us that he has been repeatedly questioned by lawyers working for the Whitewater independent counsel about Clintons association with Lasater at a time when illicit drugs allegedly were flowing into Mena airport. Later Seal confirmed Browns suspicions: the palettes contained M-16s for the Contras. 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. 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. He identified him as Capt. "The estimated value of the narcotics smuggled through the facility is $3 [billion] to $5 billion. Barry Seal, courtesy of the Baton Rouge Advocate. In a fruitless effort to curb irregular migration from Central America the Biden administration is sending the region hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian funding with From Breitbart: The irony is that he might have remained reluctant, but then the White House itself intervened. He had previously been married to Barbara Bottoms (m. 1963-1971) and Lynn Ross (m. 1971-1972). "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. 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. He said the money had been brought back from Tegucigalpa. As Slate notes, Seal stuck a plea deal, where he testified in three major drug trials and got five years' probation and six months at a halfway house. Seal, Brown says, talked knowledgeably about airplanes, and spoke of an operation he was planning. He carries it around and begins spending it, which attracts the attention of the local authorities. Election Law Update, Heavy Lifting Ne NYC Cleans Voter Rolls Thanks To Judicial Watch. Alexander said he has been meeting weekly with the GAO investigating team and has been in touch with the House and Senate subcommittees . In 1961, he joined the Louisiana Army National Guard and served with the 20th Special Forces Group for six years. A July 17, 1984 front-page Washington Times article by Edmund Jacoby described a link between Nicaragua's Sandinista government and the Medelln drug cartel. individuals, Too many secrets have been kept for too long, she wrote, too much important history has been hidden, lost or destroyed. "At the time Seal started cooperating with DEA Miami, he had an established base at Rich Mountain Aviation and had frequent contact with subjects," according to the document. Its now referred to as theIran-Contrascandal. Subsequently, the special prosecutor investigating Whitewater subpoenaed Brown to disclose what he knew about Clintons connections to David L. Hale. The White House saw the pictures as proof of the communist Sandinista government's corruption and believed that the photos would help to convince the public of the need to support and arm the rebels (Contras) in Nicaragua. -Court DocumentsThe 2016 Bryan Cranston movie The Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal's assassination, but it is historically inaccurate.
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