The Same Gen Secords? ***This IS GETTING FREAKY!!!!
ubject: Re: What did Ollie know and when did he know it?
From: lar-jen@interaccess.com (Larry-Jennie)
Date: 1996/10/06
Message-Id: <lar-jen.2725.0087651B@interaccess.com>
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United States Senator John Kerry (Dem., Mass.), chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Narcotics and Terrorism, has
been investigating allegations that profits from drug sales were used
to finance the Nicaraguan rebels after Congress prohibited military
aid to them.
Jack Blum, special counsel for the Senate subcommittee, said last
week that the subcommittee investigation would deal with Seal, the
Mena airport, a contra air supply operation organized by North and
"allegations of narcotics trafficking related to air operation."
Blum said the subcommittee has asked "a number of questions, but
only in a preliminary way." The House subcommittee, he said, is
"much farther along" in its investigation.
"We've heard quite a bit about Mena recently," he said. "It seems
to be a very lively place."
Haydon Gregorie, general counsel for the House subcommittee, said
the investigation generally centered on allegations of drug
trafficking by the contra rebels in Nicaragua. The investigation
also would touch on Seal's activities, he said.
"We were asked to look into allegations that drug trafficking
involved the contras and their supporters," Gregorie said, "and
allegations that prosecutions were not pursued as they might have
been if not for political connections."
Media accused of fueling rumors
Jerry Montgomery, the Mena mayor, said the news media had fueled
the rumors about Seal's activities in Mena by publishing stories on
the subject every few months.
"They are trying a case on a lot of apparent rumors," he said.
"This has been going on for about three years. It surfaced for the
third time in November and December of last year."
Fred L. Hampton, the owner of Rich Mountain Aviation where Seal
had work performed on his planes, said he is "sick to death" of the
attention the business has received because of Seal.
He said he thought "only a fraction of what was said about Barry
Seal" was true.
He said much of Seal's bragging was a "publicity stunt to make
him look like he was a big smuggler" so his testimony could be used
to get convictions.
Allegations about the Mena Airport and a rural airstrip near the
Nella community in southern Scott County were to be part of the
testimony offered in the trial of a complex $24 million federal
lawsuit that was to have begun Monday at Miami.
The Christic Institute, a liberal Washington, D. C., law and
public policy center, filed the suit in 1986 alleging racketeering
and a 25-year worldwide criminal conspiracy by a "secret team" of
former military and intelligence officers.
The 29 defendants, the suit alleged, carried out assassinations,
drug smuggling, gun running, money laundering and other illegal
activities in support of United States foreign policy. The "secret
team," the suit said, has operated in Southeast Asia, Australia,
Iran, Chile and Central America.
Hakim, Secord named
Among the defendants were former Maj. Gen. Richard Secord and
Albert Hakim, both figures in the Iran-contra affair; Theodore
Shackley, the former CIA operations director; former Maj. Gen. John
K. Singlaub and members of the Colombian drug cartel.
The suit alleged that sales of cocaine from the cartel were used
to buy guns. The guns were then flown to the contras in Nicaragua,
the suit said.
Federal Judge James Lawrence King dismissed the case Thursday,
saying the plaintiffs failed to prove their basic contention that the
alleged conspiracy carried out the 1984 bombing of a news conference
in Nicaragua.
In a pretrial deposition, Eugene Wheaton, a former military
criminal investigator, alleged that Seal used Rich Mountain Aviation
and a rural airstrip once owned by Hampton to smuggle guns and drugs.
Hampton denied the allegations. |
