House Banking Committee taking Mena depositions

The following article was printed in the Monday, April 22, 1996 issue of 
*The Wall Street Journal* on page A16 (Western edition).

      MENA CYNICS

      The Associated Press reported last week that investigators
   for the House Banking Committee have been taking depositions
   in Mena, Arkansas. As readers of this page know, Mena is at the
   center of a swirl of allegations involving covert U.S. activities,
   cocaine smuggling, and money laundering. Among those deposed was
   Charles Black, a former area prosecutor who once attempted to
   investigate Mena. "My cynical belief is that there is a lack of
   motivation in either party to fully and properly investigate," 
   Mr. Black told the AP, "because the results will damage as many
   Republicans as Democrats." Let's hope the House committee has
   the courage to prove the Mena cynics wrong.