textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/drug-cia.xml

<xml><p>
<ent type='ORG'>WBAI Pacifica</ent> Radio <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent>
Interview with <ent type='PERSON'>Mark Swaney</ent>
By: Paul DeRienzo.</p>

<div>--------------------------------</div>

<p><ent type='ORG'>WBAI</ent> radio interview with <ent type='PERSON'>Mark Swaney</ent> from "Faithful <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent>"
a citizens group, speaking of <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Clinton</ent>'s and <ent type='PERSON'>George Bush</ent>'s
connection with the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> covert drug smuggling operation in
<ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> in support of the <ent type='NORP'>Contras</ent>.

MARK SWANEY:
. . . . [they] set up a front company in <ent type='GPE'>Guadalahara Mexico</ent>.
The purpose of which, he was told, was to smuggle weapons to
the Contra's in <ent type='LOC'>Central America</ent>. And he was to be the front man
-- he was to provide the front cover for this company, but he
was given to know that behind the scenes they [the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>] would
be using this company to smuggle weapons. So he was ok with
that and he went down to Guadalahara and was down there until
the summer of '87 --actually the plane was shot down in '86
so this operation in <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent> continued for a year after the
<ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>-<ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> story was breaking and that's something that a
lot of people don't know --they think that <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>-<ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent>/<ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent>
Resupply stopped when the revelations were made in '86, but
they actually continued.

Anyway in the summer of '87, even as the hearings were going
on in <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Terry Reed</ent> began to suspect they were using
his front company for something other than smuggling weapons.
And one day he was looking for a lathe in one of his warehouses
by the airport there in Guadalahara and he went in and opened
up an air freight shipping container (which are very large,
they're about 28 feet long, 7 feet high, 8 feet wide), and he
found it packed full of <ent type='ORG'>Cocaine</ent> when he opened it up. He immediately
realized he was in a very precarious situation because he was
the only one on paper who had anything to do with that company,
and if they had ever gotten caught -- there was nobody to stand
up and say well this guy didn't know anything -- he was going
to be a patsy if anything went wrong. So he decided he wasn't
going to play the part of the patsy. The man who was his contact
man for the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent> was <ent type='PERSON'>Felix Rodrigez</ent>. So he confronted
<ent type='PERSON'>Felix Rodrigez</ent> and said well listen I didn't bargain on getting
into Narcotics smuggling and I'm outa this all together guys
-- I'm leaving now -- I refuse to have anything further to do
with this. And <ent type='PERSON'>Felix Rodrigez</ent> said ok fine if you want to be
out your out. Now before he was able to return even to Little
Rock <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> where his home was at the time, Governor Clinton's
Chief of Security, a man named <ent type='PERSON'>Raymond Buddy Young</ent>, and
another man <ent type='PERSON'>Tommy Baker</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Private Investigator</ent> and I'm told
former member of the <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> State Police, were framing
<ent type='PERSON'>Terry Reid</ent> for mail fraud. What this involved was the so
called project donation that Oliver <ent type='PERSON'>North</ent> had set up. Terry
Reid's plane had been stolen a number of years earlier
-- and used in drug missions and such without his knowledge
-- and he claimed the insurance money for his plane being stolen
-- and so to set him up what they did was took the airplane
and put it back in his hangar before he got back to <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent>.
Governor Clinton's Chief of Security just supposedly happened
--and this is what he tells the press -- he say's "one day I
just happened to be walking by this hangar, and the wind just
happened to blow the door open and I just happened to look in
and see this airplane that was stolen four years earlier in
another state and I realized -that was the plane." And so this
is how the case got started.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

How would he have known that was the plane?

MARK SWANEY: </p>

<p>Oh that's never been explained. Along with a number of aspects
in this famous story. We're in contact with <ent type='PERSON'>Terry Reid</ent>'s defense
attorney in <ent type='PERSON'>Witchita</ent> and she's promised to send us all of the
documents --we have some of the documents already that indicate
--he was found not guilty --well he never went to trial.


PAUL DeRIENZO:</p>

<p>Is that the same <ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> by the way who's head of Governor
Clinton's security detail.

MARK SWANEY:</p>

<p>Yes he is.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

<ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent>, let's keep his name in mind because I want to come
back to him. Let's jump now to the sight in <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> that was
used as the landing sight, the airport in <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> in the town
of <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> --that was determinates of a lot of these
<ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>-<ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> resupply flights.

MARK SWANEY:</p>

<p>Yes, in fact <ent type='PERSON'>Terry Reid</ent> has stated in that same article that
you have that it was the *hub* of the <ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> resupply effort.
Many people are not aware that <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> was very heavily and
very deeply involved in the <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>-<ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> affair all during the
time that Governor <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> ???? Governor of the state.
And there were numerous stories written about it in the press.
Well the story about <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> is that <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> is a very small town
in the middle of the the Washitah (sp) mountains in Southwestern
<ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> and not coincidentally it happens to be in <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent>man
<ent type='PERSON'>John Paul Hammerschmidt</ent>'s district, the Third <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent>ional
district. <ent type='PERSON'>John Paul Hammerschmidt</ent> just happens to be one
of <ent type='PERSON'>George Bush</ent>'s very closest friend's. He was <ent type='PERSON'>George Bush</ent>'s
Presidential Campaign Manager for Bush's campaign in '76 and
again in 1980. The two people are very close. Anyway <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent>
has an airport and it looks from the outside like an ordinary,
normal airport. The thing that separates Mena's airport from
any other is the fact that there are row upon row of hangars
--buildings which house aircraft refitting facilities. Now
aircraft refitting is an industry that is in demand by two
principal paying customers. One of them is the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>, and the
other one are drug smugglers. And the reason is, is because if
you're a <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> guy and you're going to do covert actions overseas
-- they're almost entirely relying on air transport of some kind.
Particularly if you're going to covertly resupply an army that's
over a thousand miles away.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

Hassenfusse's plane was based there.

MARK SWANEY: </p>

<p>Pardon me.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

Hassenfusse's plane, the plane that was shot down, was based
in <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent>.

MARK SWANEY:</p>

<p>That plane was based there formally before <ent type='PERSON'>Barry Seal</ent> was
murdered just a few months before it was shot down. That
was <ent type='PERSON'>Barry Seal</ent>'s own personal airplane. But anyway what
you need to do, if you're a <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> or a drug smuggler is you
need an airplane that can do things that normally airplanes
of the civilian variety are not allowed to do. Things like
have cargo doors that open to the inside of the airplane so
that you can make in-flight drops - so that you can drop
things out of the airplane while it's flying -- which is
illegal on a commercial or civilian type of aircraft. You
need to do things like install advanced navigational equipment
sometimes even ??? You need things like roller matts to put
down on the floor so that you can roll the crates forward
in the fuselage of the airplane to kick them out. You need
to be able to modify a civilian aircraft that is not legally
allowed to have such capability so that it does have those
capabilities.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

And this was done in <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> -- a smalltown airport.

MARK SWANEY:

Right. Now <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> has the second or third largest --I don't
know which, but one of the largest aircraft refitting
facilities in <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States. And as such it was --long
before the <ent type='ORG'>Nicaruguan</ent> episode happened, it was a base of <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>
covert operation and remains to this very minute a base of
<ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> covert operation.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

Let's jump to another name that comes up in this -- a fella
by the name of <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent>, former employee of the state
of <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent>. He was a employee of the <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> Development
and Finance Authority now I have an Associated Press article
that came out just a couple of days ago that <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent>
has dropped a lawsuit that he had instituted in 1990 against
Governor <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> that came after his 1988 dismissal from that
state job for miss-use of agency telephones.</p>

<p>Can you tell us who <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> was.

MARK SWANEY:

Yeah this is probably the most interesting part of the story
-- you see <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> is the source of all these rumors
and the <ent type='PERSON'>Jennifer Flowers</ent> thing and the Governor's sex life.
The story that the press has yet not picked up on is the
fact that <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> was a big time <ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> supporter.
He has close connections to <ent type='PERSON'>Mario Collero</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Adolpho Collero</ent>
and <ent type='PERSON'>Jack Singlove</ent>. In fact he served with General Singlove
in <ent type='GPE'>Vietnam</ent>. He spent the first half of the decade working
for the <ent type='NORP'>Contras</ent> in a connection with an organization that
General Singlove had. He spent time with the Contra's on the
ground in <ent type='GPE'>Honduras</ent>. His job was to collect military information.
Now I've met with <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> -- this information that I'm
about to give you he has told me directly. And we have checked
out a great deal of what he's told us and everything that he
has told us has checked out totally accurate.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

So what we're seeing here is a connection between the mistress
sex scandal and the <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>-<ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> and the Governor of <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent>.
There's a connection.

MARK SWANEY:

Well what you find out here in a minute is that the sex
scandals really have nothing to do with it. I saw his lawsuit
several months ago when I was in <ent type='GPE'>Little Rock</ent> and it was of
no interest to me I didn't even bother to make a copy of it.
But <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent>, the man, and his relationship to the
Governor is extremely interesting. You see what it is --is
that his job was to make military analysis of the situation
in <ent type='GPE'>Honduras</ent> with the <ent type='NORP'>Contras</ent>. And to take that information
back to <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States and package it and present it to
<ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent>men who are in favor of <ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> Aid with a view toward
convincing them that the Contra's were an effective military
fighting force --that they could win militarily against the
<ent type='ORG'>Sandanistas</ent>. At some point around '85 I believe this job for
<ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> ran out, and he didn't have any money and he approached
Governor <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent>. Now according to <ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent>, he and Governor <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent>
are close friends, have known each other for a long time. In
fact before the Governor was the Governor. He asked Governor
<ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> --hey I'm broke I need a job. Well it's not too usual
that somebody could just call up the Governor and say I want
a job and the Governor says sure we'll make you Marketing
Director for <ent type='ORG'>ADFA</ent>. That's the <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> Development Finance
Authority --which figures centrally in <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Clinton</ent>'s
relationship to the <ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> Resupply network that the state
of <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> was so heavily involved in. In any case he was
there working at <ent type='ORG'>ADFA</ent> and someone at <ent type='ORG'>ADFA</ent> a fellow employee
had found out about this guy that was working with them who
was this romantic jungle fighter type of character. And
eventually she began to talk to some friends about it and
word reached the ears of a reporter and a reporter began
to investigate <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> --wondering what this big <ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent>
supporter was doing working for <ent type='ORG'>ADFA</ent>. Everyone who holds a
top position at <ent type='ORG'>ADFA</ent> is directly appointed by <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Clinton</ent> --in
fact <ent type='ORG'>ADFA</ent> is a total invention of <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Clinton</ent>'s --he created
the agency out of thin air and appoints all of the top
directors. In any case a reporter approached <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Clinton</ent>
in <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> and started to question him about <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent>
--wanted to know what this guy was doing on state payroll
--if he was lobbying for the Contra's or just what the story
was. Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent>, rather precipitously fired <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent>
directly after that. And the story that was put out was that
he was fired for misusing state telephones that he'd supposedly
made hundreds of calls to the <ent type='NORP'>Contras</ent> and ran up thousands of
dollars worth of bills to the <ent type='NORP'>Contras</ent> -- uhmm that is an
unsubstantiated allegation --in fact on <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> suggestion
the organization I work with received his entire phone records
from <ent type='ORG'>ADFA</ent> through freedom of information act and went over
those phone records with him call by call and we did not find
any records of calls by him outside <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States on
those phone records so it was a phony charge and <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent>
was in fact wrongfully fired and they made up this story that
he was calling the <ent type='NORP'>Contras</ent> in order to get rid of him.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

Why do you think that was?

MARK SWANEY:

Well I don't know the exact reason but I can tell you this
that <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> and <ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> the man I mentioned earlier,
are very close friends.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

Well that's a point that you just mentioned that <ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> was
the State Security man who discovered the airplane -- the allegedly
stolen airplane belonging to <ent type='PERSON'>Terry Reid</ent> was in fact in a certain
airport hangar.


MARK SWANEY:

Everything to do with that in fact the federal judge is on record
for calling <ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> a liar in <ent type='PERSON'>Terry Reid</ent>'s trial. But see <ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent>
<ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> knew each other and are close friends
according to the newspaper accounts that were in the newspaper
down here in <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> yesterday -- they're old buddies.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

Yes, well that's what the Associated Press report that I'm looking
at right now says that <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent> dropped his lawsuit after consulting
with <ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent>.

MARK SWANEY:

Yes, Now I'm going to say something right now which is rather
shocking -- this is the first time this has been made public
to my knowledge. A member of my organization who is going to
be at a press conference that we're having tomorrow --spoke
with <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> --we've been in contact with him for several
months off and on on the telephone, and he's had a conversation
with him sometime around the first week of January -- during
which <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> tolde this member of my organization -- that
<ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> had called him and told him that he in fact was a
dead man -- that was under threat of death.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

<ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> was?

MARK SWANEY:

No. <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent>. And at that time <ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> was frightened
-- he was not threatening <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> personally he was saying
that we're all in trouble with this because there's a move in
the Governor's office to get rid of me. So <ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> was
afraid that Governor <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> was about to axe him in the same
way that he axed <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent>. And so serious did he take
this possibility that he informed <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> directly that
he was a dead man.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

So <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> is now saying that <ent type='ORG'>Buddy Young</ent> the Chief of
Governor Clinton's gubernatorial campaign has told him that
he's a dead man.

MARK SWANEY:

Yes, that is the information that <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> gave to us
-- now as I say that has not been reported anywhere else and
I would not bet a lot right now on Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent> backing that
statement up, but I back it up.

PAUL DeRIENZO:

And this is prior to him dropping this lawsuit against Governor
<ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent>.

MARK SWANEY:

Yes, the timing of his dropping the lawsuit is interesting to
us too, because we just recently were in contact with the Nation
Magazine, and it was approximately two days after the Nation
Magazine actually decided to take the information that we had
collected on this case very seriously and in fact are now
pursuing their own investigative journalism on this, it was
about two days after that that <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Larry</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Nichols</ent></ent> declared that he
was going to drop his lawsuit. Uh, so there's some very strange
things that are going on. There's a great deal of other
information --uh, connecting Governor <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> to the operation
in <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent>. We don't have what you'd call a smoking gun on this
-- I have in front of me a piece of paper that I've written
17 questions for the Governor on that the media has totally
overlooked in their haste to salivate over all these sexual
stories --they've totally missed what's available. For example,
the organization that I work for has been --I don't say I work for,
nobody pays us we're getting broke doing this, but in any case
we've collected just about everything that's publicly available
about <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> and all of its ramifications and its a tremendous
story, and I'd like to emphasize right now that Governor
Clinton's part in this is very minor -- the real big fish in this
story is <ent type='PERSON'>George Bush</ent>. The damage that could come from this
information coming out is in fact far more damaging to George
<ent type='PERSON'>Bush</ent> than anyone else, because he's directly responsible for this
-- this operation was run out of the then Vice President George
Bush's office. And I'd also like to add that the <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> chapter
of the <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>-<ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> story was the one that was most heavily
covered up at the time -- it was part of the story they had
that they took the most care to see to it that nothing ever
came out about it. And that was for two reasons: 1) because
it involves massive cocaine smuggling -- we had one pilot that
came to the <ent type='ORG'>University</ent> and spoke directly to us and said
"I personally flew for the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>, guns, <ent type='NORP'>Panamanian</ent> Defense
forces and approximately one ton of cocaine per flight.
I flew seven of these flights into <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent>." So they
wanted to cover it up because it was the one thing that would
have exposed the drug connection within <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States
most heavily. 2) And the other reason that they were very
anxious to coverup Mena's involvement was because the base
of operations that the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> was using was in fact still active
at the time the hearings were going on. And that base of
operations supports covert operations all around the world
not just in <ent type='LOC'>Central America</ent>. For example, there's a current
covert operation that was going on there at least as late as
May of last year that killed a man from <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Angola</ent> --
so the entire time that <ent type='PERSON'>Barry Seal</ent> was operating out of that
airport the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> was supporting there covert war with <ent type='ORG'>Jonason</ent>(sp)
and <ent type='ORG'>Manunita</ent>(sp) in <ent type='GPE'>Angola</ent>. And we have sources within the
United States government that there is covert activity going on
in it this very day.


PAUL DeRIENZO:

Thank you very much <ent type='PERSON'>Mark Swaney</ent> --this is an amazing story and
the amazing thing about it is that this is the *real* story about
Governor <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Clinton</ent> and that what we're getting served to us from
all the media from start to finish from morning to night headlines
in all the <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent> papers, is this thing about Governor <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent>
and this woman <ent type='PERSON'>Jennifer Flowers</ent> and her association with the
Governor who is married for 14 years, and the real story which
you get on <ent type='ORG'>WBAI</ent> underneath it all from our contacts in <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent>
is that in fact the Governor of <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> is covering up an illegal
operation that began in the Vice President's office who is now
President of <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States -- <ent type='PERSON'>George Bush</ent>. Which makes me
wonder why should I even bother voting -- who's there to vote for.
I mean both sides the <ent type='NORP'>Democrats</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Republicans</ent> are involved.

MARK SWANEY: </p>

<p>That's another part of the story --you know the best way to buy
off an election is to pay off both candidates. There's significant
<ent type='NORP'>Republican</ent> interest in seeing <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Clinton</ent> get the nomination
from the standpoint that they will be assured then that none
of the issues of the <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>-<ent type='ORG'>Contra</ent> affair are likely to be talked
about. Certainly <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> doesn't want to talk about them.</p>

<p>We tried before we knew that Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> was involved in this --
we only came across this information 5 or 6 months ago and
for two years now we've been doing demonstrations, writing
letters collecting petitions holding informational gatherings
to try to get this story to the people, and we have on several
occasions sent <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Clinton</ent> signatures, petitions of Arkansan's
asking for a state investigation and he refused to do anything
about them he would do nothing more than have an aide send us a
two sentence letter saying we have received your petition and
then this last September just one week before he decided to
run for the Presidency we contacted his office and said listen
we'd be willing to talk to you or any one of your aides so that
we could talk to you about this major crime problem in our state
that we're concerned about that we'd like to get to the bottom
of -- and he refused that. During the 4 or 5 years now that
the press has covered this story about <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Barry Seal</ent> --
you know this is a story about people who have been murdered --
this is a very, very serious affair and during all of this time
talk of massive <ent type='ORG'>Cocaine</ent> smuggling, corruption of local officials
corruption of <ent type='ORG'>Federal and</ent> State judicial system on and on and on
there was total silence from the Governor, not a word. And it
was not until our organization had a large demonstration
-- it wasn't really a large demonstration but it was very well
covered in the <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> press --that reporters approached
Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> about <ent type='PERSON'>Mena</ent>. He talked about it for the first time
in 4 or 5 years and what he had to say at that time was that
he had in fact authorized some money for lonely little <ent type='GPE'>Polk County</ent>,
which is a poor county in Southwestern <ent type='GPE'>Arkansas</ent> to run an
investigation and so we asked him for back up from the
Governor's office we said -freedom of information act
-- we'd like to know if you have any documentation whatsoever
to back up your statement that you are willing to help the
<ent type='GPE'>Polk County</ent> investigators do their own state investigation
in this affair. And he could not produce a single thing.</p>

<div>---------------------------</div>

<p>"Why of course the people don't want war... It is the leaders...who
determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the
people along...all you have to do is tell them they are being attacked
and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the
country to danger. It works the same in any country.</p>

<p><ent type='PERSON'>Hermann Goering</ent>, 1936

</p></xml>