The following article was printed in the Thursday, September 14, 1989
issue of *The Arkansas Gazette* on page 3B.

   ATTORNEY GENERAL TO CHECK INTO MENA DRUG CASE PROGRESS,
   ALEXANDER SAYS

   By Maria Henson

   WASHINGTON - Rep. Bill Alexander, D-Ark., secured a commitment
Wednesday from Attorney General Dick Thornburgh to look into allegations
about a lack of action by the U.S. Attorney's office at Fort Smith
regarding a drug probe in Mena.
   Alexander discussed with Thornburgh the testimony of a former
Internal Revenue Service agent who helped investigate money laundering
and international drug smuggling out of the Mena Airport. He passed along
the written testimony to Thornburgh and received "strong assurance"
from the attorney general that the matter would be examined further,
according to Alexander's press secretary.
   The former IRS agent, William Duncan, testified before a House
subcommittee in July about how IRS attorneys allegedly pressured him
to withhold information from Congress. Duncan alleged that there was a
lack of action in the U.S. Attorney General's office in Fort Smith
in the drug trafficking case.
   Duncan was investigating the activities of the late Barry Seal, a 
convicted drug smuggler turned government informant. Seal operated
out of the Mena Airport from 1984 until he was slain in February 1986
at Baton Rouge, La.
   The activities of Seal have been the subject of numerous federal and
state investigations, none of which has resulted in criminal indictments.
   Alexander has said that Duncan was under orders from then-Attorney
General Ed Meese's office in Washington to withhold information.