Four years before the WALL STREET JOURNAL, the ARKANSAS 
GAZETTE called for a complete investigation of the Mena cocaine.
Quite naively, the paper expected Independent Counsel Lawrence 
Walsh to conduct an honest investigation.  History has shown
that trusting Lawrence Walsh to reveal dirty CIA secrets was a
foolish assumption.

Larry
_____________________

"Let's get to the bottom of it"
THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE
Editorial
September 11, 1991

       What exactly was going on at the Mena Airport in the 1980s, we
don't know, but we'd like to. So would many other people, we
suspect. Allegations have been made that cry out for full
investigation.
      And perhaps now it will be forthcoming. Attorney General
Winston Bryant and U.S. Rep. Bill Alexander will meet next week with
Lawrence Walsh, the Iran-Contra special prosecutor, to present
evidence that the CIA ran drugs into and guns out of the Mena
Airport, in gross violation of the law.
       Bryant and Alexander have conducted sworn interviews with an
ex-CIA pilot, a former IRS agent, a state policeman who investigated
activities at the airport, and others. Bryant says these interviews
have produced "credible evidence" that government operatives shipped
guns to the contras and that the planes brought back drugs. He and
Alexander will ask that Walsh include the Mena airport in his
investigation. Last week, a top CIA official was indicted in the
investigation.
     Stories about strange doings at the Mena Airport have circulated
for years. Many of them involved Barry Seal, a convicted cocaine
smuggler who worked out of the airport as a government informant.
Seal was murdered in Baton Rouge in 1986. Charges have been made
that the Justice Department shirked its duty by not fully
investigating the Contra supply network.
     Although Bryant raised the issue in his attorney general
campaign last year against Asa Hutchinson, formerly U.S. attorney for
the Mena area, and Alexander also has shown interest previously, the
recent involvement by the two was initiated by a group of University
of Arkansas students, who urged them two to pursue the matter. The
students have called for Gov. Clinton and the Arkansas congressional
delegation to press Walsh to include the Mena Airport in his
investigation. Theirs looks like a case of good citizenship,
whatever happens from here on.