Changes

Staff writer Gary Webb for the ''San Jose Mercury News'' published a series of articles detailing that at the time Seal was operating a [[San Francisco]] Bay area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to [[Los Angeles]] street gangs and funneled profits to Contra groups affiliated with the Mena operation. According to Webb, the CIA had thwarted repeated attempts to prosecute the ring's kingpin possibly to cover-up ties between traffickers and Contra leaders.<ref>''Dark Alliance, the CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion'', Seven Stories Press, New York, 1999. </ref>

Staff writer Gary Webb for the ''San Jose Mercury News'' published a series of articles detailing that at the time Seal was operating a [[San Francisco]] Bay area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to [[Los Angeles]] street gangs and funneled profits to Contra groups affiliated with the Mena operation. According to Webb, the CIA had thwarted repeated attempts to prosecute the ring's kingpin possibly to cover-up ties between traffickers and Contra leaders.<ref>''Dark Alliance, the CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion'', Seven Stories Press, New York, 1999. </ref>

A later CIA inspector general's declassified report<ref>November 1996</ref> admitted the CIA had been at Mena for routine aviation related services, and that L.D. Brown, an Arkansas state policeman assigned to security at the governor mansion and Governor [[Bill Clinton]]'s driver, had been a candidate for CIA employment in 1984 at the suggestion of Bill Clinton. The report also stated the CIA installed cameras on his plane had limited contact with Seal.

A later CIA inspector general's declassified report<ref>November 1996</ref> admitted the CIA had been at Mena for routine aviation related services, and that L.D. Brown, an Arkansas state policeman assigned to security at the governor mansion and Governor [[Bill Clinton]]'s driver, had been a candidate for CIA employment in 1984 at the suggestion of Bill Clinton. The report also stated the CIA installed cameras on his plane had limited contact with Seal. The camara's had been used for an anti-Sandinista [[propaganda]] video widely circulated in the United States.

Brown noticed an ad in the paper for CIA employment and discussed it with Bill Clinton who encouraged him to apply. As part of the interview process, Brown was asked to write an essay. Bill Clinton even suggested the topic of the essay, drug smuggling in Central America, and edited the essay for him. An individual at the CIA headquarters in [[Dallas]] interviewed Brown then told Brown he would be getting a phone call from someone he needed to meet. The call came  from Barry Seal who invited him to Mena. Seal then invited Brown to take an airplane flight to Central America on a C-123 in 1984 which he did. On this flight some [[Hispanic]]s kicked some containers out of the plane. At the flight's end they loaded duffel bags and flew them back to Mena. Seal showed Brown cocaine in the duffel bags.<ref>L.D. Brown, ''Cross-fire: Witness in the Clinton Investigation'', Black Forest Press, San Diego, California 1999 </ref>

Brown noticed an ad in the paper for CIA employment and discussed it with Bill Clinton who encouraged him to apply. As part of the interview process, Brown was asked to write an essay. Bill Clinton even suggested the topic of the essay, drug smuggling in Central America, and edited the essay for him. An individual at the CIA headquarters in [[Dallas]] interviewed Brown then told Brown he would be getting a phone call from someone he needed to meet. The call came  from Barry Seal who invited him to Mena. Seal then invited Brown to take an airplane flight to Central America on a C-123 in 1984 which he did. On this flight some [[Hispanic]]s kicked some containers out of the plane. At the flight's end they loaded duffel bags and flew them back to Mena. Seal showed Brown cocaine in the duffel bags.<ref>L.D. Brown, ''Cross-fire: Witness in the Clinton Investigation'', Black Forest Press, San Diego, California 1999 </ref>