A SELECTIVE PASSION FOR TRUTH

Feb. 12, 1999 Last week I suggested that, rather than probing ad nauseum
the president's lies about his extra-marital alliance(s), Washington could
do us a favor by turning its investigative lights onto a question with some
genuine national significance, to wit: Precisely what was the relationship
between various branches of the government, particularly the CIA, and this
country's super-cocaine kingpins, such as Arkansas's own Barry Seal, during
the 1980s? The column did not exactly provoke a stampede to pick up the
gauntlet. As I had outlined, there are powerful, bipartisan reasons why the
questions about Seal have languished.

Republicans don't want to touch them for fear of where the answers might
lead. The trail already points to the offices of former presidents Ronald
Reagan and George Bush.

Likewise, Democrats are not keen on kicking up a lot of dirt about Barry
Seal, a major cocaine smuggler who, for reasons that remain a mystery, was
allowed to base his multi-million-dollar operation in Arkansas, under the
very eye of the Arkansas State Police, for four years while Bill Clinton
was governor.

What did happen after that column appeared was that a reader called to
remind me of the role played in the Seal saga by our own Republican
Congressman Asa Hutchinson, the House manager who has been lately so
aggressive in his prosecution of Clinton in the Senate. Having listened to
Hutchinson expound repeatedly on his desire only to get at "the truth" of
the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, I am struck (as was my caller) by how
remarkably unaggressive he was -- in fact, how surprisingly hands-off he
was -- back in the 1980s when, as the U.S. attorney for western Arkansas,
Hutchinson had the chance to prosecute Seal, the smuggler. We now know that
during the time that Seal headquartered his operation at Mena he was being
watched by U.S. Customs officials, as well as by agents for the DEA, the
FBI, and the IRS. Former IRS agent William Duncan has testified that
Hutchinson, who was among the first to know of Seal's arrival in Arkansas,
called a meeting in early 1983, at which Duncan was assigned to investigate
Seal's suspected money laundering. Duncan did, and he tried to have members
of Seal's gang indicted.

But when the IRS investigator asked Hutchinson to subpoena 20 witnesses who
were prepared to testify about the alleged drug-trafficking at Mena,
Hutchinson balked. Only three of the 20 were called, and of those, two
later complained that they had not been allowed to present their evidence
to the federal grand jury. The grand jury never indicted Seal or anyone
else involved with him at Mena.

In 1991, five years after Seal was murdered, Duncan testified about his
experience. "Are you stating now under oath that you believe that the
investigation in and around the Mena airport of money laundering was
covered up by the U.S. Attorney in Arkansas," he was asked. "It was covered
up," he said.

Since then, I have spoken with Paul Whitmore, a former Chief of Criminal
Investigation for the IRS, who was Duncan's superior. He oversaw the Seal
investigation and concurs with Duncan's assessment that presentation of
Duncan's evidence was blocked by Hutchinson's office. At the time, and to
this day, however, Hutchinson has cast himself as an anti-drug crusader. In
light of that, I wrote to him after his election to Congress. I explained
that I have had a Freedom of Information request pertaining to Barry Seal
before the FBI for several years -- a request that the FBI has acknowledged
should have been filled a long time ago. In light of that, I asked
Hutchinson if he would intercede on my behalf to get the records released.

I was curious as to how hard Hutchinson would work to bring to light public
records about a politically sensitive investigation in which he had played
a significant part. As it turned out, he was not helpful at all. He replied
that he had contacted the FBI concerning my request and that when he heard
back from the agency he would "be back in touch" with me. That was more
than a year ago. He has not been "back in touch."

By contrast, Rep. Vic Snyder, to whom I placed the same request, has been
diligent in his support of my appeal. It seems to matter to Snyder that the
Justice Department can flaunt a federal law, delaying by years, if it
wants, the release of public information. The agency still hasn't budged on
the Seal records, but Snyder's push for their release distinguishes him in
this otherwise dark affair.

As for Hutchinson? I hope that some day he is held to account, as he would
hold Clinton to account, for certain events of the past -- events that even
this self-proclaimed seeker of truth might prefer would never come to light.