Terry Reed barred from presenting Mena evidence

The following article was printed on page 28 of the Sunday, March 17, 1996
issue of *The Sunday Telegraph* (London) in the International Section.

   ARKANSAS CASE HALTED

   By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

   THE ruling of a US federal judge in Arkansas has derailed an explosive 
lawsuit linked to President Clinton, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. 
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are crying foul. They claim that the decision 
came as the case was becoming dangerous for the President, threatening to 
expose alleged ties between organized crime, drug trafficking, and CIA 
covert operations. The case involves a civil rights suit filed by a 
former Air Force intelligence operative named Terry Reed. On Thursday, 
the judge ordered that it could not touch anything dealing with the CIA, 
the FBI, or Bill and Hillary Clinton. "It amounts to a dismissal of our 
case," said Robert Meloni, one of Reed's lawyers. Reed claims that he was 
part of an undercover mission to help the Nicaraguan Contra rebels at a 
time when US government aid had been prohibited by Congress. The 
operation was based in Arkansas from 1984 to 1986 and, he alleges, Mr. 
Clinton, then governor, was personally involved. Reed says that the 
Contra supply operation was infected with cocaine smuggling, but when he 
tried to blow the whistle he and his wife were indicted on federal fraud 
charges. They were ultimately acquited. The couple claim that the 
prosecution was instigated by Captain Raymond "Buddy" Young of the 
Arkansas State Police, the former head of Governor Clinton's personal 
security detail. In 1991, they filed suit alleging that Young 
"manufactured, altered, tampered, removed, and planted evidence against 
the plaintiffs." An Arkansas State Trooper, L.D. Brown, testified that he 
was recruited into the CIA with help of Mr. Clinton in 1984. Shortly 
afterwards he accompanied Barry Seal, the notorious drug smuggler, on two 
missions to deliver weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua, setting out from 
Mena Airport in western Arkansas. When he told the Governor cocaine was 
being brought into Mena on the return journey, Brown said Clinton told 
him not to worry. The Reed lawsuit has hit a brick wall, but the scandal 
is not going to go away. The House Banking Committee currently has a team 
of investigators in Arkansas that has begun to follow up the allegations.