Brown recalls that on the morning of this particular flight, Seal had told him to drive to Mena Intermountain Regional Airport, a remote air strip near the Oklahoma border. In 1996, House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach pressed the CIA for answers about its role at Mena. "You know, we're not making a biopic," said director Doug Liman. It was dark almost black, and had only the minimal tail markings necessary for civilian operation. "The apparent reason was that the prosecution might have revealed national security information, even though all of the crimes which were the focus of the investigation occurred before Seal became a federal informant.". forgave the taxes on hundreds of millions in known drug and gun profits over the ensuing two-year period when Seal was officially admitted to be employed by the government. The FBI in Little Rock began investigating Seal's operation at the Mena airport in February 1984, according to the recently released FBI document. Three early drafts of the essay contain interpolations in Clintons handwriting. While at a small airport in rural Mena, Arkansas, the notorious smuggler Barry Seal was given protection by Governor Bill Clinton to continue his drug-smuggling, gun-running, money laundering operation but now as a DEA informant and a CIA contract pilot, also set up by Bush. However, when a drug shipment was seized by the DEA, the Medellin Cartel blamed Seal for the loss. Seal's exploits brought him into close contact with infamous figures like Medelln cartel kingpins Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa and Panama dictator Manuel Noriega and he was . "He would tell me, 'I'm going to such and such places,' and I wouldn't see him for days. Brown says he realized then that everything is going to come out. Nonetheless, he still seemed reluctant to disclose all he knew. Why arent these pilots who flew trafficked minors arrested and charged? Barry Seal, courtesy of the Baton Rouge Advocate. Past Addresses: See available information. -Daily Mail Online, No. The movie proposes that Barry Seal's first foray into smuggling drugs happened in 1980 after he was kidnapped while refueling his plane in Colombia. Not all of Barry Seal's heirs were happy with the making of the movie. He also referred to Clinton, familiarly, as the guv. In fact, even the Wikipedia links Ive included in this paragraph are mostly lies. Seal, Brown says, had also prescribed the dress code, and insisted that no one carry identification, not even keys or jewelry. "The information indicates that Seal was an informant for DEA at the time but also working as an operative of the CIA. How much did Clinton know about what he called Lasaters deal in that conversation with L.D. Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas were going to be arrested at a celebration of Seal's successful cocaine transport. "The aircraft flew with various cameras used to obtain photographic evidence of the Sandinistas in the act of smuggling narcotics," Sherwood wrote. During the past few years, the activity at the airstrip has aroused the interest of local law enforcement, who then attempted to conduct some investigations but were blocked by the U.S. "According to some reports, the [Mena] airport, from 1981 to 1985, was a major transit point for the entrance of cocaine and heroin into the United States," Sherwood wrote. They referred him to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Purwin was a passenger in a plane that went down, killing both Purwin and Venezuelan pilot Carlos Berl. Approximately 30 minutes later, Brown says, the C-123K landed in what he later learned what Tegucigalpa, Honduras. But I was in for a shock, Leveritt writes. ", No. Arcadia Inc Plant / Vernon. Barry and his wife talked about going into witness protection, but like in the movie, he decided against it. Dwayne Brown says he knew his brother had made some unexplained trips out of the country. The scene was actually inspired by something that happened while director Doug Liman and Tom Cruise were training for the movie. He was not only Gov. "The original information dates back to the activities of a pilot, Barry Seal (now deceased), who is purported to have flown guns to South America from Mena and drugs back into the United States," according to the memo. These are the equivalent of Barry Seal in the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell covert operation. "The apparent reason was that the prosecution might have revealed national security information, even though all of the crimes which were the focus of the investigation occurred before Seal became a federal informant.". All rights reserved. "There are also allegations that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency used the airport as a base of operations to help train pilots and troops for the intervention in the Nicaraguan uprising by the Contras during the 1980s," according to the encyclopedia entry, which was written by Robert Sherwood of Georgia Military College. Barry Seal's widow, Debbie Seal, and others have wondered why the government didn't do more to protect Seal, whether he wanted the protection or not. He spent his spare time hanging around the old Downtown Airport, now Independence Park, working odd jobs in exchange for flight time. An indignant Brown began toying with the idea of exposing the corruption of Arkansas politics. In researching the American Made true story, we learned that Barry Seal was arrested by customs officers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1983 as he tried to smuggle 200,000 units of Quaalude, a recreational drug, into the country. In its review of the 2017 movie "American Made" -- about Seal -- the New York Times called it the Conspiratorial Industrial Complex. For a portion of this time, the alleged ringleader of the drug smuggling, Seal, appeared to have been working with the CIA and the Drug Enforcement Agency. The C-123K also had a history. The gunman hurried into a waiting Buick, which sped away. Barry Seal was one of the most renowned American dealers that smuggled weapons and drugs in the USA Barry Seal became an aviator at only 16 years old, and as soon as he received his pilot licence, he started smuggling weapons He had strong relations with the Madelln Cartel, i.e. (Brown maintains that he never flunked the test; in fact, he was nominated four months after taking it for employment with the agency.). The Sandinistas overthrew Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending 46 years of dictatorship by the Somoza family. He said the money had been brought back from Tegucigalpa. The FBI in Little Rock began investigating Seal's operation at the Mena airport in February 1984, according to the recently released FBI document. With the publication of The American Spectator article, we expect more. It does seem, however, that Clinton was far less cautious. And while Clinton would later correctly note that events at Mena were primarily a matter of federal jurisdictionmeaning that Republicans probably had more to lose than Democrats if the truth was exposedits also true that a Clinton friend and supporter named Dan Lasater was under investigation for drug smuggling at the same time Seal was operating in Arkansas. In the 1980s, the Mena airport was the reported base of a drug-smuggling, money-laundering and arms-smuggling ring run by Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal, according to an Encyclopedia of Arkansas entry on the airport. Terms & conditions/privacy policy apply. An "extensive joint investigation" by the FBI, Arkansas State Police and IRS revealed that Barry Seal used the Mena airport for "smuggling activity" from late 1980 until March 1984, according to an internal FBI document released last week. _qacct="p-571RmQ-B866HQ";quantserve(); Starring Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. People in Mena say the drugs never got there, that the drugs were jettisoned over drop zones in the Louisiana swamps before Seal's planes made it back to Mena. Gov. About 25 pages of that trove refer to Arkansas or Mena. Seal Texaco.located corner Acadian Thruway andGoverment Street ,Baton Rouge La.Father Benjamin C Seal and the Sons Benjy Jr,Dean ,Jason ,Aaron, Curtis R,Wendell K, work the gas . Judicial Watch On Issue: The Battle for Election Integrity, Judicial Watch On Issue: Leading the Battle Against Illegal Immigration, Al Qaeda Plans Plane Attacks Using New Techniques and Tactics as Air Marshals Keep Getting Sent to Mexican Border, Biden staying at St. Croix villa of wealthy donors who got state dinner invite, Tom Fitton's Judicial Watch Weekly Update. Please read our Terms of Use or contact us. On one CIA-involved mission in 1984, a secret camera in Seals C-123 cargo plane snapped photos of an alleged Sandinista official loading cocaine aboard the aircraft. BEST OF: Left Targets Elon Musk, FBI Investigated Fauci Agency, CA Court Vi BEST OF: Twitter Changed Rules to Ban Trump! The Judicial Watch lawsuit seeks the report of a November 1996 CIA investigation into drug running, money laundering and intelligence gathering at Mena. Too many secrets have been kept for too long, she wrote, too much important history has been hidden, lost or destroyed. Big Tech Protected Joe Biden o BEST OF: Big Tech Censorship EXPOSED! Seal, according to Brown, was familiar with the biographical information he had given the agency. Were suing the CIA for the full inspector general report and we want documents from other agencies as well. Seal, a pilot, moved much of his smuggling operation from Baton Rouge to Rich Mountain Aviation at the Mena Intermountain Airport, according to the May 1986 FBI memo. "One day Barry came in and said there was a contract on him - half a million dead, a million alive," says widow Debbie Seal. pennymac insurance claim check tracker. Images like the one earlier on this page show Medelln Cartel boss Pablo Escobar with Sandinista government officials and soldiers, who were loading cocaine onto Seal's plane, nicknamed the Fat Lady. Undercover cameras installed on Seal's plane captured photos on the tarmac of a Nicaraguan airport. The photos quickly leaked, boosting Washingtons anti-Sandinista effort but likely putting a target on Seals back: to his drug-running friends in South America, there could be no question where the photos came from. He had already been flying planes for nearly half his life, earning his student pilot's license at age 15 and pilot's license at 16. "At the time Seal started cooperating with DEA Miami, he had an established base at Rich Mountain Aviation and had frequent contact with subjects," according to the document. I'm a multi-engine, instrument-rated commercial pilot," Cruise said in a Wired interview. Like in the movie, the American Made true story reveals that Barry made a living as a commercial airline pilot for several years. Seal was a DEA informant/operative who was deeply involved in Iran-Contra and Gov. They shared an interest in books, ideas, and night life. He then was able to get a meeting with Vice President George H.W. 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