Rep. Alexander's Mena documents at Arkansas State 

A good stock tip: Buy long in bicarbonate of soda
By: Wesley Pruden 
         
Washington Times (WT) 
Friday, March 15,1996


   Bill  Alexander,  the  12-term  Democratic congressman from 
Arkansas and chief  deputy whip of the House until he was 
defeated in a primary in 1992, will donate  his private papers to 
Arkansas State University at a luncheon today at the university in 
Jonesboro.

  This could give some people considerable bipartisan 
indigestion, since most of the papers will then be available for 
inspection.

   His    papers    include   considerable   documents,   depositions
and correspondence  about  Latin America, which was one of Mr. 
Alexander's keen interests,  and  particularly  some  historical  
details  of  the  American involvement in the successful 
resistance to Nicaragua's Marxist revolution.

   Mr.  Alexander,  who  practices  law  now in Washington and 
in Arkansas, staunchly  opposed  U.S. support for the Contras and 
was one of the signers of Jim  Wright's famous "Dear 
Comandante" letter. No right-wing conspiracy nut he. But what 
may interest reporters and others more are papers relating to  that 
famous little airport in Mena, Ark., from which arms were 
shipped to  the Contras,  and  which  became  a transit point for 
drugs from Latin America. Speculation persists that there was a 
connection between the arms and  the drugs - that lots of drugs, 
cash and arms intersected at Mena, far from prying eyes, deep in 
the rugged Ouachita National Forest.

   Mr. Alexander has been trying for years to get to the bottom of 
whatever was going on at Mena, insisting that no partisan favor 
be shown to anyone. There may  be  clues,  if  not answers, in his 
congressional papers to the questions that  persist,  like  stubborn 
wisps of early-morning fog in the hollows  of the lonely hills, 
about the tales of drug trafficking and money laundering  in 
Arkansas  in  the '80s, when Bill Clinton was el supremo in Little  
Rock  and Ronald  Reagan  and  George  Bush  were  presiding  
over Washington.

   What  was  the response of federal and state law enforcement 
agencies to this persistent speculation, enhancing but not 
confirming the known facts? Why  did a federal grand jury 
empaneled to investigate drug trafficking and money laundering  
do  nothing?  Who  authorized the order countermanding a search 
warrant  and  seizure  of  illegal  drugs  and  aircraft  at Mena's 
Inter-Mountain Airport? Who was protected, and why? Why was 
a special agent for the  IRS  directed to lie to Congress about 
what he had learned in his investigation?  Where  did the trail of 
dirty money lead? To Washington via Little  Rock?  Why  did the 
National Security Council in 1988 order federal agencies  not  to  
cooperate with Mr. Alexander's congressional inquiry? To what 
extent was Arkansas used as a place to launder drug money? And 
to what extent, if any, has U.S. policy in Latin America 
contributed to the loss of the "war on drugs" in the United States?

   Mena  has  fascinated  Jim Leach, too. The chairman of the 
House Banking Committee,  the methodical Republican from 
sober Iowa, has been prying into some of  the  dark  and  
wondrous  corners  of Arkansas, trying, like Bill Alexander 
before  him, to sort through the tales to find a few facts. This is 
not always easy in the Gothic culture of Arkansas, where the 
unlikely is usually the likeliest explanation for the tallest of
tales.

   The man who could tell all, or at least a lot, is Barry Seal, a 
sometime airline pilot, gun runner and drug trafficker who is 
thought to have worked for the  Drug  Enforcement  
Administration, the CIA and maybe the National Security 
Council during the Reagan years. But Mr. Seal, like Vince Foster, 
is conveniently dead, having been slain by Colombian drug-cartel 
enforcers. Another man who might be called as a witness is Dan 
Lasater, a Little Rock bond  broker who  served  time  for  
dealing  drugs.  The lady who ran his operation  while he  was in 
prison is now a senior aide to Bill Clinton at the White House.  A 
wee world down there.

   Whatever  misdemeanors  and  felonies, if any, may lie in his 
past, Bill Clinton  is  clearly  counting  on  infinite  reality to
save him. The more incredible  the  Arkansas  of his past appears to 
be, the more credible his protestations of innocence may sound. 
How could all that stuff be true? And if it's not, how could any of 
it be true?

   An  alternate  juror  got  bounced  yesterday  from the 
Whitewater trial because  she  gave  an  unauthorized  interview  
to tabloid TV. Some people thought  she  was  a  weenie  because  
she showed up for nine straight days dressed   in   the  maroon-
and-black  uniform  of  Star  Trek's  good  ship Enterprise.  She  
had her phaser, tricorder and communicator badge attached to her 
belt, ready to go whenever Scotty wants to beam her up.

   This  is  not  so odd in Arkansas, though it does not necessarily 
happen every  day.  But don't take my word for it. You could 
consult the Alexander papers at Arkansas State.