As far as Barry Seal bringing cocaine to Mena.... There were a couple of good informant statements that Barry brought cocaine into Mena a couple of different times. The informants could not be corroborated, but it didn't make any difference. If Barry did bring any dope into Mena, it was an exception to the way he did things. Barry's method of smuggling was almost flawless. When the airplane carrying the dope got over the main land, the pilot (whoever it would be, at the time) would pick a random spot to kick the bags out. All communications were in code. Coded Loran coordinates, of the drop spot, would be radioed to a ground crew, which would go in, with a helicopter, and pick up the cocaine. Barry didn't fly cocaine into any airports. According to Barry, he learned this system from the Ochoa's. It didn't make any difference where the dope was kicked, whether Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma,... anywhere. This method made it more difficult to catch them, but everybody involved in Seal's organization was just as guilty of involvement in the Conspiracy, and were taking part in a Continuing Criminal Interprize. There was plenty of reason to believe that Seal was making some of his drops close to Mena, because the helicopters were here for several months, and a fictitious business was developed around them, and the smuggling planes were making regular trips. The helicopters are short range. The fictitious business was taking a fuel truck to other airports and buying aviation fuel, under false pretenses, to fuel Seal's helicopters. Everything was done in secret. The day that Seal rolled over and started snitching, his entire operation changed. On a chart, the difference between March 23, 1984, and March 24, 1984, are like black and white. Seal started using larger aircraft and did it in the open. No more going to other airports and clandestinely purchasing aviation fuel. Seal would pull his larger aircraft up to the FBO, fill up with 600+ gallons and go on his way. I got the before-and-after fuel tickets. They would secretly tell friends and associates at the airport that they were working on secret stuff for the government. Barry Seal's "grace period," as we called it, started on March 24, 1984. That was the date typed on his first "Plea Agreement," in Florida. That was the day that he became a snitch for the DEA. It would have been fruitless for me to try to make a case on anybody in his organization after that date, because he was working on stings for the DEA. Unfortunately, he was, also, being allowed to travel freely in Arkansas, without any controls. The DEA, in Florida, later argued that they had to do it that way to maintain the security of their investigation. [147 lines left ... full text available at <url:http://www.reference.com/cgi-bin/pn/go?choice=message&table=04_1997&mid=3968160&hilit=CIA> ] -------------------------------- Article-ID: 04_1997&3896162 Score: 82 Subject: Re: NY Times article on Iran 4/19