Today we will be continuing our series on the dark and sordid history of the Clinton administration for the young and perpetually uninformed. The man in this picture is named Barry Seal. Mr. Seal was an American aircraft pilot and drug smuggler who repeatedly transported large quantities of cocaine for the Medellin Cartel of Colombia.
Barry Seal began his career flying for TWA in 1964. He was fired in 1972 on charges of flying illegal explosives into Mexico. His life soon turned to drug smuggling and in 1981, Seal would find his base of operations inside an airport facility in Mena, Arkansas. In March of 1984, Mr. Seal would be caught by federal agents and “flipped”. He would secretly become a covert government informant for the DEA.
Investigators and Barry Seal soon uncovered multiple powerful government officials who secretly fostered this cocaine trade. Investigators believed that this small airport in Mena was being used by our own government as a part of what soon would be known to everyone as the “Iran-Contra affair.” This was a plot devised during the Reagan administration to free seven American hostages in Lebanon by using Israel as a proxy in order to sell illegal weapons to Iran in exchange for the hostage release. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North reportedly decided later to use the profits from these weapons sales to fund the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua. Mena Regional Airport appeared to be doing more than just flying cocaine into the United States… it appeared to also be supplying unauthorized weapons to forces inside Nicaragua at Oliver North’s direction.
This investigation suggested some sort of involvement with George H.W. Bush’s family, Oliver North, and the CIA itself. Barry Seal was beginning to tell people that Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton knowingly provided protection for all of this illegal activity going on at the Mena airport in exchange for assistance with his political aspirations. It appeared that some covert DEA operations accidentally ran into CIA operations and government corruption with Barry Seal caught in the middle. Barry Seal was beginning to reveal the darkest secrets of some very powerful people.
On February the 19th, 1986, Barry Seal was returning to a Salvation Army halfway house at precisely 6:00 PM as part of his probation for a recent drug convictions. A man with a machine gun approached his Cadillac. Two quick bursts hit Barry Seal’s head and a third struck his body. He died instantly. Seal was murdered just before he was supposed to testify in front of an Arkansas grand jury. If anyone is interested in learning more about the life and death of Barry Seal, Tom Cruise will be playing him on the big screen in a movie called “American Made” set for release next September.
Bill Clinton has always denied any involvement with Barry Seal and the massive cocaine smuggling operation in Mena, Arkansas. However, it should be noted that in March of 1992, during Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign, members of Clinton’s staff were instructed to remove all documents pertaining to the Mena cocaine trafficking investigation from the Attorney General’s office after word got out that the media was in the process of filing official Freedom of Information Act requests. It should also be noted that Bill Clinton’s brother Roger and one of Bill’s close personal friends named Dan Lasater, both went to prison for cocaine related crimes. Roger Clinton went to prison for selling cocaine to an undercover officer. Arkansas State Trooper L.D. Brown reportedly once told Bill Clinton that he had personally seen drugs on flights going out of Mena to which Mr. Clinton responded, “that is Lasater’s deal.” Dan Lasater would eventually be quoted as saying that Bill and Roger Clinton both regularly brought huge piles of cocaine to parties and usually provided these drugs to young girls. Dan Lasater and Roger Clinton, along with twelve other convicted cocaine dealers, were eventually pardoned by President Clinton.
Remember the name Dan Lasater. He is not just your every day run-of-the-mill cocaine dealer. He has a suspicious and controversial past with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
