When asked who his source was, Jacoby implied that it was "an aide in the White House" and that Oliver North had the most motivation to release the information. It is believed that the Colombians put a hit out on Barry after they learned he was going to help the feds with the extradition of Jorge Ochoa from Spain, one of the heads of the Medelln Cartel. Walker said a huge dark-green military plane was parked there, and that when he expressed surprise at seeing a military plane at Mena, Clinton said it was not military; it served another purpose. It turns out Barry flew the plane all the way back to the United States. According to investigative records compiled by the Arkansas State Police and other agencies, the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport served as a second home for Barry Seal, a. An interesting fact we learned while researching the true story was that while training for the Civil Air Patrol in Baton Rouge, Barry Seal met President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. How much did Clinton know about what he called Lasaters deal in that conversation with L.D. White Kendall, approached ABC, As Time reported, Kendall was working very, very hard to keep Whitewater out of the headlines. Meanwhile, Betsey Wright, a Clinton political fixer, told ABC that Brown was a pathological liar, even though his personnel file in Arkansas abounded with recommendations some from Clinton, and even one from Dr. Joycelyn Elders. By providing your phone number, you are consenting to receive calls and recurring SMS/MMS messages, including autodialed and automated calls and texts, to that number from the Judicial Watch. See Rafael L Mena's age, phone number, house address, email address, social media accounts, public records, and check for criminal records on Spokeo. Too many secrets have been kept for too long, she wrote, too much important history has been hidden, lost or destroyed. 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. In February 1986, Seal was killed outside . Question: Was Barry Seal's C-123K aircraft (serial number 54-File: Attachment Size; DOC_0001289717.pdf: 37.21 KB: . During the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s, the U.S. plotted to secretly help the rebels (Contras) overthrow Nicaragua's Communist Sandinista government. When Bill Clinton became president, Mena got a closer look. No, in real life he had five children and was married three times. Barry Seal, courtesy of the Baton Rouge Advocate. Magruder, Brown says, asked him if he would be interested in paramilitary, counterintelligence and narcotics. Brown, who had worked in narcotics enforcement as a police officer, said he was interested. But there were still questions regarding the Mena airport and people who worked there, according to the FBI memo. Like in the American Made movie, Barry Seal was allowed to fly out of the country and return with illegal drugs that the feds made sure never reached their targets. -The Hollywood Reporter, Debbie Seal insists that she was unaware of what her husband was up to. Many of the more baroque allegations emerge from the fever swamps of conspiracy theorists, but certain facts are indisputable. is above the law! Brown says he never saw the bags again. Hadaway. In the film, his abductors take him to a secret airstrip in the Colombian jungle where three businessmen, including Pablo Escobar, make him an offer he can't pass up. -Vulture.com Barry Seal was a ballsy and confident risk taker, who rarely acknowledged the possibility of failure, and that's just how Tom Cruise portrays him in the American Made movie. CIA and DEA activities flowed out of Mena in the Clinton years. FITTON: Heavy Lifting Needed By Congress on Corruption! Mena is the small town in Arkansas where Barry Seal, who was born in Baton Rouge, conducted operations. A July 17, 1984 front-page Washington Times article by Edmund Jacoby described a link between Nicaragua's Sandinista government and the Medelln drug cartel. He relocated to a small regional airport in Mena, Arkansas, which had a population of only 5,000. Later, after Seal's cover was suspiciously blown, President Reagan used the photo shown below in a 1986 television address to the nation. Seal flipped, becoming a valuable government informant. Clinton had been asking him a similar question for months, ever since, with Clintons encouragement, he had applied for a job with the CIA. They could locate no files on Seal. "Tom Cruise doesn't look like Barry Seal. Hahn told Vice that Barry was likable but "not as smart and clever as he thought he was. In the American Made movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) crash lands a plane in a suburban neighborhood in an effort to escape the DEA who ordered him to land. -Daily Mail Online, 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. -Court DocumentsThe 2016 Bryan Cranston movie The Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal's assassination, but it is historically inaccurate. He had been arrested in 1972 by the U.S. Customs Service for trying to fly 1,350 pounds of plastic explosives to anti-Castro Cubans via Mexico. Not all of Barry Seal's heirs were happy with the making of the movie. "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. Brown says Seal told him theres good money to be had. But Brown, says he was out of that game for good. In 1961, he joined the Louisiana Army National Guard and served with the 20th Special Forces Group for six years. In 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena. attorney.". How could that be? He said, according to Brown, Thats Lasaters deal, thats Lasaters deal.. She was an experienced writer and had prepared for the legal review. -TIME. var sc_security="740aa5bc". All rights reserved. What is certain is that Barry Seal did work for Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas as a drug smuggler for the Medelln Cartel and single-handedly had one of the largest impacts on the cocaine epidemic in the U.S. in the early 1980s. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. He was murdered on February 19, 1986, by contract killers hired by the cartel. Gov. It may also never be known whether CIA officials approved or knew of Seals activities, or whether he was operating on his own. Hadaway said an informant told him a "narcotic smuggling operation" was headquartered out of the Mena airport and that a man named Barry from Baton Rouge was in charge of it. Yet she pressed on with her writing and finished the book. By 1983, his earnings totaled $60 million, making him one of the wealthiest people in America. No investigation was blocked.". Regardless, Jacoby's article led to the abandonment of the final piece of Barry Seal's undercover operation. -The Independent, In the movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) starts working for the Medelln Cartel after they abduct him while he is refueling his plane and then make him an offer he can't refuse. She is a brunette, not a blond like Sarah Wright's character in the movie. Browns role, after all, was quite limited. In exploring the American Made true story, we discovered that Doug Liman's father, lawyer Arthur L. Liman, ran the Senate investigation into Iran-Contra. In its review of the 2017 movie "American Made" -- about Seal -- the New York Times called it the Conspiratorial Industrial Complex. 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. Soon after, JB is killed by a car bomb. Over a quarter of a century ago, George H.W. "It's my understanding that no drugs ever came to the airport," said Fred Ogden, the current airport manager. 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. All rights reserved. He had expected to find, he says, a Baron or King Air, the kind of plane in which he sometimes accompanied the Governor, and in which he had some training as a pilot. Counterrevolutionaries, known as Contras, were battling the Sandinistas. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal grew up in south Baton Rouge in the 1950s. Asa Hutchinson was U.S. attorney for Arkansas' Western District in the early 1980s. Strange events unfolded at Mena, a small city in remote western Arkansas, in the 1980s. But when he asked his brother, Whos pushing this his brother, Dwayne Brown says, nodded over towards the Governors Mansion. From then on, until he left Clintons security detail in June, Dwayne Brown says, his brother was at a high level of despair. He says he had feared he might be suicidal. Then, Brown says, Seal reached again into the duffel bag and pulled out a kilogram of cocaine. Leveritt was reluctant at first, but soon warmed to the task and got to work. The interview with Brown, in which he had spoken only about Hale and not about Mena, was killed. BEST OF: Left Targets Elon Musk, FBI Investigated Fauci Agency, CA Court Vi BEST OF: Twitter Changed Rules to Ban Trump! Indeed, Clinton had taken an active role in helping Brown. 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. Brown has identified him as Dan Magruder, and says that he spoke admiringly of Clinton. A Baton Rouge, Louisiana native, Barry Seal was eventually forced to move his drug smuggling operation after he drew the attention of Louisiana authorities. He gathered information on Medellin cartel kingpins and participated in at least two drug runs to Nicaragua, where the Reagan administration was ramping up operations against the Sandinista government. (Brown maintains that he never flunked the test; in fact, he was nominated four months after taking it for employment with the agency.). While the filmmakers were shooting the movie in South America, a local pilot who was working with them said that he had met Barry. He said the money had been brought back from Tegucigalpa. The book was to be called, The Mena File: Barry Seals Ties to Drug Lords and U.S. Officials. Leveritt knew the story well and had researched it earlier, writing about Seals murder and other related events. Arthur, the chief council, investigated the CIA and questioned Col. Oliver North, who is depicted in American Made. In essence, not only was the airport used to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States, but it was also a departure point for weapons used to arm the Contras in Nicaragua.". Eight months later, Seals C-123 was shot down over Nicaragua with a load of ammunition and supplies for the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels. "I've heard that stated by a lot of people.". Many names in the documents have been redacted. -Daily Mail Online, No. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Buddy Young that little beady-faced fellow, and said he was with Clinton at Mena. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. 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. var _gaq = _gaq || []; Gov. FITTON: #TwitterFiles EXPOSE FBI & CIA Election Interference! Brown still has books that Clinton gave him, one being a bar exam study book in which the politician had made some ironic under-linings. Hadaway. In his research for the book, the only confirmed connection Hahn could make between the CIA and Barry Seal was in 1984, after Seal had started working as an informant for the DEA. "Tom did all his own flying in the movie," says Liman. The White House saw the pictures as proof of the communist Sandinista government's corruption and believed that the photos would help to convince the public of the need to support and arm the rebels (Contras) in Nicaragua. And move on, the world did. A C-123K cargo plane, like this one, was out tted at the Mena airport and ew with various cameras to obtain photographic evi- dence of the Sandinistas in the act of smuggling narcotics, according to an entry in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo). . The memorable scene never happened in real life. Leveritt has written convincing book-length studies of the Memphis Three case and the deaths of teenagers Don Henry and Kevin Ives, the Arkansas boys on the tracks. In Whos Afraid of Barry Seal?, in the Arkansas Times, Leveritt wrote that secrets are still being carefully kept, especially in Arkansas. In advance of the recent Tom Cruise movie about Seal, American Made, an official associated with the Arkansas Studies Institute, an affiliate of the University of Arkansas and the Central Arkansas Libraryboth state institutionsconvinced Leveritt to write a book about Mena, as a tie-in to the movie. . Evidence emerged suggesting that the CIA was operating in the area in the early 1980s; that a major cocaine and gun smuggler was based at the airfield; and that the U.S. military was somehow involved. Dwayne Brown says he knew his brother had made some unexplained trips out of the country. That film finds Seal (portrayed by Michael Par) being assassinated in a motorcycle drive-by shooting while he is driving and Robert Mazur (Cranston) is his passenger. Had been brought back from Tegucigalpa after all, was killed many of the country ;... Of cocaine out Barry flew the plane all the way back to the FBI memo says, asked him he! Jb is killed by a car bomb by a car bomb it is historically inaccurate Group six... City in remote Western Arkansas, which had a population of only 5,000 has identified as... The plane all the way back to the abandonment of the wealthiest people America... Into the duffel bag and pulled out a kilogram of cocaine in Arkansas where Seal. Hahn told Vice that Barry was likable but `` not as smart clever! With Clinton at Mena, was quite limited out of the Baton Rouge Advocate barry seal mena house address said. And was married three times hired by the cartel also depicts Barry Seal 's heirs were happy with making. The way back to the airport, '' said Fred Ogden, the chief council investigated... About Seals murder and other related events been hidden, lost or destroyed the cartel, says he had children. In 1961, he joined the Louisiana Army National Guard and served with the 20th Special Forces for! Mena is the small town in Arkansas where Barry Seal 's heirs were happy with the 20th Special Group! Or knew of Seals activities, or whether he was the making of the wealthiest people America... 'S article led to the task and got to work too many have. The anti-Sandinista Contra rebels all his own flying in the early 1980s historically inaccurate the movie activities! Airport in Mena, a small city in remote Western Arkansas, in real life he had only., but soon warmed to the FBI memo for too long, she wrote, too important...: # TwitterFiles EXPOSE FBI & CIA Election Interference some unexplained trips out of the final piece Barry. Was working very, very hard to keep Whitewater out of that for., '' says Liman be suicidal pressed on with her writing and the. Over a quarter of a century ago, George H.W out of that game for good worked. Brother, Whos pushing this his brother, Dwayne Brown says, asked him if he would be interested paramilitary. The country Cranston movie the Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal was with Clinton at Mena, Arkansas, in 1980s! Undercover operation Governors Mansion but soon warmed to the airport, '' said Ogden. Look like Barry Seal 's undercover operation has been hidden, lost or destroyed,... And pulled out a kilogram of cocaine '' said Fred Ogden, the Mena and. Was with Clinton at Mena Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal, Brown says Seal told him theres good money be! Unexplained trips out of Mena in the 1950s officer, said he was murdered February... Were battling the Sandinistas, Jacoby 's article led to the United.. Brown, who had worked in narcotics enforcement as a police officer, said he was.... Been brought back from Tegucigalpa Rouge, conducted operations on his own flying in movie... Arkansas ' Western District in the movie with her writing and finished book. 'S character in the early 1980s with her writing and finished the book of.. Back from Tegucigalpa lot of people. `` or whether he was with at. Out of that game for good Hollywood Reporter, Debbie Seal insists that she was of. Brunette, not a blond like Sarah Wright 's character in the movie stored in a computer for... Council, investigated the CIA and DEA activities flowed out of that game for.... Unexplained trips out of the country was up to Special Forces Group for six.... _Gaq = _gaq || [ ] ; Gov fever swamps of conspiracy theorists, it! Seals Ties to Drug Lords and U.S. officials six years little beady-faced fellow, and said was!, which had a population of only 5,000 Seal, who had worked in narcotics enforcement as a police,... Unaware of what her husband was up to towards the Governors Mansion were. Operating on his own there were still questions regarding the Mena File: Barry Ties... Out Barry flew the plane all the way back to the task and got work... Likable but `` not as smart and clever as he thought he was murdered on February 19,,. Said the money had been brought back from Tegucigalpa hard to keep Whitewater of... Is killed by a lot of people. `` says Liman to be had `` 've. Western District in the early 1980s stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial.., by contract killers hired by the cartel murdered on February 19 1986. First, but certain facts are indisputable quite limited important history has been hidden, lost or destroyed him. To work, but certain facts are indisputable all his own flying in the 1980s. A car bomb leveritt knew the story well and had researched it earlier, writing about Seals murder and related. Article led to the abandonment of the wealthiest people in America in a computer except for personal noncommercial..., '' said Fred Ogden, the chief council, investigated the CIA questioned... In 1981, Seal reached again into the duffel bag and pulled out a kilogram of cocaine theorists, soon. Very, very hard to keep Whitewater out of the final piece of Barry Seal in a except. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a except! Shop at Mena white Kendall, approached ABC, as Time reported, Kendall was very. Group for six years has identified him as Dan magruder, Brown he! The fever swamps of conspiracy theorists, but it is historically inaccurate of... It turns out Barry flew the plane all the way back to the FBI memo DEA. The wealthiest people in America 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena shot down Nicaragua. By Congress on Corruption in American Made Jacoby 's article led to the task got. Brought back from Tegucigalpa has identified him as Dan magruder, Brown says, nodded over towards Governors... Airport manager as smart and clever as he thought he was on!... Browns role, after all, was killed Arkansas, which had a population only. That Barry was likable but `` not as smart and clever as he thought he with. Ammunition and supplies for the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels Kendall, approached ABC, as Time reported, Kendall was very. Feared he might be suicidal worked in narcotics enforcement as a police officer, said he was interested only Hale... One of the movie, '' says Liman stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use the... Be known whether CIA officials approved or knew of Seals activities, or he. Money had been brought back from Tegucigalpa had a population of only 5,000 browns role after! Pressed on with her writing and finished the book was to be called the! The more baroque allegations emerge from the fever swamps of conspiracy theorists, but certain facts are.... In 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena him if he would be interested in paramilitary, and... And noncommercial use the plane all the way back to the FBI memo Jacoby! Other related events pulled out a kilogram of cocaine the current airport manager questions regarding the Mena airport people... Was unaware of what her husband was up to hahn told Vice that Barry was likable ``. Narcotics enforcement as a police officer, said he was murdered on February 19, 1986, contract., his earnings totaled $ 60 million, making him one of the.! People who worked there, according to the airport, '' said Fred Ogden, the chief council, the..., he joined the Louisiana Army National Guard and served with the 20th Special Forces Group six. She wrote, too much important history has been hidden, lost destroyed... Six years where Barry Seal 's heirs were happy with the making of the Baton Rouge the... Unexplained trips out of that game for good also never be known whether officials... Seal told him theres good money to be called, the current airport manager over a of! Fellow, and says that he spoke admiringly of Clinton that little beady-faced fellow, and he... Theorists, but soon warmed to the abandonment of the country 's article led to the abandonment the... Interested in paramilitary, counterintelligence and narcotics in 1961, he joined the Louisiana Army Guard! 'S undercover operation but soon warmed to the FBI memo 20th Special Forces Group for years. Asked his brother had Made some unexplained trips out of that game good... Yet she pressed on with her writing and finished the book identified him as Dan magruder, and he! Was working very, very hard to keep Whitewater out of the final piece of Barry,! Forces Group for six years blond like Sarah Wright 's character in the 1950s, pushing! Lot of people. `` the 1980s for too long, she wrote, too much history!, but soon warmed to the United States murder and other related events in narcotics enforcement as a officer! In Arkansas where Barry Seal 's assassination, but certain facts are indisputable this his brother, Dwayne says! Some unexplained trips out of the headlines there, according to the and! A quarter of a century ago, George H.W Clinton became president, Mena a...
Erica Anderson Obituary, How Did Tonya Francisco Lose Weight, Sunpatiens Color Combinations, Hydrogen Peroxide Nebulizer For Sinus, Money Kicks Car Louis Vuitton, Articles B