From: "William Bottoms" <bbottoms@hoss.rouge.net>
To: "CIA Drugs mailing list" <ciadrugs@mars.galstar.com>
Subject: ciadrugs] Part 1 The Mena Myth Unravelled
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997 14:45:36 -0600
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THE MENA MYTH UNRAVELED Part 1
by William Bottoms

It is easy to find people these days who have heard of a little 
airport in southwest Arkansas called the Mena Intermountain 
Municipal Airport.  This airport was first made famous by 
Barry Seal, an infamous drug smuggler who was slain in 
Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Medellin Drug Cartel hitmen.  
This was a result of the Federal Government placing Seal on 
a silver platter for them to do so, in breach of agreements 
made with Seal.  Seal had single handedly placed the Medellin 
Cartel on a silver platter for the Federal Government as a result 
his becoming an informant and setting up a drug sting in 
Nicaragua.  Oliver North blew the cover on this sting operation 
in 1984 in hopes of winning funding for the Contras.  As a 
result, the Medellin Cartel went on to become the most ruthless 
and successful criminal cartel of its time.  Further intelligence 
collection of Sandinista complicity in illegal drug activity was 
thwarted.

Seal had used the Mena airport as a storage and repair facility 
for his fleet of aircraft utilized in his smuggling operation from 
the spring of 1982 until the fall of 1983.  After the fall of 1983, 
Seal began attempting to become an informant for the Federal 
Government as a result of legal problems from his illegal drug 
activity.  The notoriety of this airport grew as the years passed 
until a full blown conspiracy was developed in early 1988, the 
author of which was Eugene Wheaton.  Eugene Wheaton is a 
retired military intelligence investigator who seems to pop up 
in hot spots around the country.  His apparent intent is to find 
truth, but when he leaves, things are in a shambles.  His driving 
force is one of the mysteries of Mena.  Wheaton is the person 
who presented the fabricated story of Seal, Mena, CIA, Contras, 
and guns-for-drugs at the little airport.  It is not true.

I was Barry Seal's brother-in-law and chief pilot.  Seal and I 
connected in mid 1980 when he was released from a Honduran 
prison, and I had recently been released from active duty as a 
Navy pilot.  Barry met Emile Camp while he was in prison in 
Honduras.  Barry Seal, Emile Camp, and I comprised the 
primary structure of Seal's smuggling organization.  We began 
a cocaine air smuggling enterprise in late 1980 and conducted 
illegal drug flights for transportation fees until mid 1983.  I 
would fly to Colombia with Camp as my co-pilot and return to 
Louisiana.  I would airdrop the drugs at a remote spot in 
Louisiana to Seal who would retrieve them with a helicopter.  
He would transfer the drugs to trunks of automobiles and send 
them on to Miami or Los Angeles.  For this, we were paid a 
transportation fee by the owners of the drugs.  

Our cocaine operation was never penetrated by enforcement.  
Seal's legal problems extended from an event unrelated to our 
operations in which he attempted to sell fake Quaaludes to an 
undercover agent in Miami in late 1980.  Seal had obtained 
these Quaaludes prior to his arrest in Honduras and was trying 
to recoup his losses after receiving bad merchandise.  Seal did 
not become aware of his mistake until he heard of immanent 
indictments from Operation Screamer in early 1983.  Our illegal 
activity ceased at this time.

Seal began seeking relief from what appeared to be certain 
incarceration related to his indictment from Operation 
Screamer.  He had a difficult time achieving this.  He 
eventually flew his Lear Jet to Washington DC and gained 
an audience with Vice President Bush's Anti Drug Task 
Force.  This event resulted in his assignment to DEA Group 6 
in Miami, Florida as an informant.  He put together a drug 
sting involving the leadership of the Medellin Cartel and 
resulted in the now infamous Nicaraguan drug string.  After 
Seal's Nicaraguan operations cover was blown, he put together 
a case commonly know as the Norman Saunders, Prime 
Minister of Turks and Caicos Islands, case.  Seal was not 
allowed to fly this mission and I volunteered to do so.  I was 
not under investigation, indictment, or arrest at the time.  For 
my role in this dangerous mission, I was granted immunity for 
my previous crimes.  Shortly after the final trials from this 
highly successful drug sting, Barry Seal was killed.  This was 
the complete and total extent of Seal's involvement in any 
government operations.  The rest is myth.  I voluntarily 
continued working as a contract pilot for the government 
until 1990.  I performed over 30 high level drug stings as a
contract pilot, testified in many trials as a government witness,
and suffered attempts on my life, as well as, the dangers of
being out front as a deep undercover operative.

The purpose of this story addresses what I call the Mena Myth.  
Conspiracy theories have abounded over the years about Mena, 
and over 10 major investigations have been conducted all to no 
conclusion.  These stories and investigations have fueled the 
conspiracy flames and have been used by our government, both 
political parties, the news media, and Internet conspiracy fanatics 
to fan these flames.  Why?  Money, fame, a good story, hide 
personal wrongdoing behind Barry Seal's band wagon, obfuscation 
of the truth regarding the source of huge amounts of money that 
flowed through Arkansas in the 1980s.  The truth has always been 
available for any credible investigator to substantially and 
definitively douse the flames of fabrication and the illegitimate 
jumps to false conclusions.  In short, the wool has been pulled 
over the public's eyes.  I have attempted since October 1996 via 
the Internet to reveal the Mena Myth.  This attempt has met with 
extreme resistance and culminated in my decision to have a face 
to face meeting with Russell Welch in an attempt to finally settle 
the issue.  Russell and I are the two most knowledgeable people 
concerning Mena, Arkansas.  This event was filmed by Daniel 
Hopsicker.

I will give a brief background concerning some of the players in 
the following story.  I, William Bottoms, am described in the 
above.  Russell Welch was a criminal investigative Arkansas 
State Trooper assigned by a Federal Grand Jury to investigate 
Mena.  Bill Duncan was an IRS Criminal Investigator assigned 
by the same Federal Grand Jury to investigate Mena.  Fred 
Hampton was owner of Rich Mountain Aviation at Mena from 
whom Seal leased a hangar and received aircraft repair and 
modification services from.  Daniel Hopsicker is a producer from 
California involved with Economic Television and Global 2000.
Jean Duffey was a prosecutor in Saline County Arkansas who 
investigated the train deaths of two boys and has erroneously 
attempted to link them indirectly to Seal's organization.

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