The Electronic Telegraph Sunday 17 March 1996 World News
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THE ruling of a US federal judge in Arkansas has derailed an explosive lawsuit linked to President Clinton, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are crying foul. They claim that the decision came as the case was becoming dangerous for the President, threatening to expose alleged ties between organized crime, drug trafficking, and CIA covert operations.
The case involves a civil rights suit filed by a former Air Force intelligence operative named Terry Reed. On Thursday, the judge ordered that it could not touch anything dealing with the CIA, the FBI, or Bill and Hillary Clinton. "It amounts to a dismissal of our case," said Robert Meloni, one of Reed's lawyers.
Reed claims that he was part of an undercover mission to help the Nicaraguan Contra rebels at a time when US government aid had been prohibited by Congress. The operation was based in Arkansas from 1984 to 1986 and, he alleges, Mr. Clinton, then governor, was personally involved.
Reed says that the Contra supply operation was infected with cocaine smuggling, but when he tried to blow the whistle he and his wife were indicted on federal fraud charges. They were ultimately acquited.
The couple claim that the prosecution was instigated by Captain Raymond "Buddy" Young of the Arkansas State Police, the former head of Governor Clinton's personal security detail. In 1991, they filed suit alleging that Young "manufactured, altered, tampered, removed, and planted evidence against the plaintiffs."
An Arkansas State Trooper, L.D. Brown, testified that he was recruited into the CIA with help of Mr. Clinton in 1984. Shortly afterwards he accompanied Barry Seal, the notorious drug smuggler, on two missions to deliver weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua, setting out from Mena Airport in western Arkansas. When he told the Governor cocaine was being brought into Mena on the return journey, Brown said Clinton told him not to worry.
The Reed lawsuit has hit a brick wall, but the scandal is not going to go away. The House Banking Committee currently has a team of investigators in Arkansas that has begun to follow up the allegations.
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