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.