The Skeptic Tank Chairman comments: I have received this material from +quot;Larry-Jennie+

    The Skeptic Tank Chairman comments:  I have received this material
    from "Larry-Jennie", (lar-jen@interaccess.com) on Sat, 11 Jan 1997
    at 08:37:59 -0600, under the subject heading "CIA drugs: Urban
    legend?"  It came in with various other files which I've enumerated
    below.  There is further materials of the same nature to be found
    at ftp://pencil.cs.missouri.edu/pub/mena/ though I have not examined
    them.

    I have left the text alone however I have reformatted it to make it
    easier to read.

    - Fredric L. Rice, (frice@stbbs.com) (818) 335-9601 24 hours

         C:\WWFILES\NORTH6IC.TXT, C:\WWFILES\BLUMCIA.TXT,
         C:\WWFILES\UPI11106.TXT, C:\WWFILES\CAQ59.TXT,
         C:\WWFILES\SJMREBUT.TXT, C:\WWFILES\SJMCIA26.TXT

-=- Begin text -=-   

   DALLAS, Nov. 10, 1996 (UPI) -- The CIA denies slain alleged cocaine
smuggler Barry Seal worked for the agency, but it did acknowledge
he worked as an informant for the Drug Enforcement
Administration, a newspaper reported Sunday.

   The Dallas Morning News cited a newly released CIA document in
which it admits ties to the Inter mountain Regional Airport, near
Mena, Ark., from which Seal operated.

   The CIA said it only contracted out "for routine aviation
services" on its aircraft without revealing to local companies
who they were.

   Suspicions about CIA involvement in cocaine smuggling in black
communities has ignited anger among civil rights activists and
sparked calls for investigations.

   The papers released Friday and referred to by the CIA as "an
unclassified summary," said Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal became an
informant for the DEA after being arrested for smuggling cocaine.

   He made a deal with the government after convincing Reagan
Administration officials he could provide proof that Communist
Sandanistas were running drugs to the United States.

   He had been flying out of Mena, picking up drugs, and
returning to drop points in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, where
ground crew collected the contraband, retired Arkansas State
Police investigator Russell Welch told The News.

   Seal agreed to work with the DEA on March 24, 1984. The DEA
gave Seal immunity from prosecution for any narcotics smuggling
he was involved in while being debriefed by the DEA, said Welch.

   His plane -- a C-123 military transport -- was festooned with
sophisticated surveillance cameras.

   Seal returned to the United States from one trip with a load
of drugs and claims he had photos of a top Sandanista official
and uniformed Sandanista soldiers loading drugs onto the
airplane.

   Seal was gunned down by Colombian contract killers at age 42
outside a New Orleans Salvation Army halfway house in February
1986.

   After his death Seal was described in a heavily censured
document called a "Summary of Contra Participants, Confidential
Witness List," and obtained from the FBI under the Freedom of
Information Act as having "had deep and unknown ties" with CIA
officials, The News reported.

   The C-123 registered to Seal and used in the DEA-CIA
Sandanista sting was shot down seven months later over Nicaragua
while flying supplies to the anti-Communist Contras.

   At the controls was Eugene Hasenfus, who was the lone
survivor.

   His admissions in captivity cracked open the Iran-Contra
scandal, which rocked the Reagan Administration.