by Lisa Ashkenaz Croke
CROAZ@aol.com
On November 11, 1998, I received a most unwelcome reply to an e-mail I had
sent to Jean Duffey, the former administrator of the Saline County Drug
Task Force in Arkansas. After reading what she wrote over and over, one
thought repeated in my head: My God, it’s real.
A month earlier, I had finally sat down to read a copy of The Clinton Body
Count List. As an ardent Democrat and outspoken Clinton supporter for
almost eight years, my only concerns regarding the President’s scandalous
exploits were focused on the fact that our Republican representatives
might impeach a successful, popular president over partisan politics. With
my best friend, Sue, and her computer at our side, we used the internet to
research Ken Starr (talk about a conflict of interest), and to write our
representatives in DC to protest Starr’s ludicrous grounds for
impeachment.
We even discussed putting up a website to inform people on the steps they
could take to end this madness, and we signed petitions - anything we
could think of to help “Save Bill.”
When Sue first read me the list over the phone in September; we laughed.
Not at the deaths, but at the ridiculous and seemingly desperate
allegations. I remember saying that there seemed to be an awful lot of
people in Arkansas committing suicide by shooting themselves in the back
of the head.
October 19...I read the list for myself and became curious. Surfing the
net, I found body count lists with anywhere from 80-20 victims. A search
for a site not associated with the “Right” or with the “Nuts,” yielded few
results.
It was the word Mena that caught my attention. Every list posted on the
most conservative websites included deaths linked to a drug- smuggling
operation at the rural airport in Mena, Arkansas, and named then-Governor
Clinton as the operation’s protector. At first glance, I assumed I’d
discover some bizarre attempt to blame Clinton for the drug-smuggling and
gun-running that supported the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, while absolving
Reagan, Bush, and Ollie North. Yet, this was not the case. Not one
website, from the Wallstreet Weekly to the American Spectator, refuted
Reagan and Bush’s actions in the operation, not that many accounts even
mentioned the former presidents, but their involvement was not denied..
Why? Why, oh why, would any conservative right-winger [I took out
“Republican” here, because Republican Senators and Representatives ARE
trying to hide Mena.] want to dredge up the Iran-Contra scandal o get Bill
Clinton? By their own allegations, these sites acknowledge Clinton’s
comparatively small participation in the biggest “Whew!” of Republican
politics. No big secrets here; just the pathetic truth that they all got
away with it (Wake-up call to the media and politicians everywhere - THIS
is why no one cares about Clinton committing perjury).
Clinton accuser, Terry Reed, says the Governor took a 10% kick-back of
cash and coke for looking the other way. It boggles the mind, Reed who
claims to be an ex-CIA operative writes such a detailed account in his
book “Compromised: Clinton, Bush, the CIA,” that shrugging it aside seems
irresponsible. Which is why I’m writing. At the end of that
night-day-night in October, utterly exhausted in body and soul, I faced an
undeniable truth that something may be horribly wrong with our president.
Since that day, I’ve reviewed court cases, read books, and visited sites
hoping, desperately hoping, to be proven wrong. Unfortunately, as in my
search for a left-wing website refuting the Body Count List, I’ve been
unable to find any satisfactory answer other than “it’s a vast
right-winged conspiracy, ” which just doesn’t do it for me anymore.
Now I’m not asking for the life upheaval experienced by investigators
Russell Welch and Bill Duncan, or the unwitting victims of Mena crimes,
but I want answers. I demand them, and I demand that the press give them
to me.
In twelve hours I was able to find enough information to turn my blood
cold. In four months, I’ve been able to find enough verification to compel
me to put my name to this editorial.
There are two dead boys on those Body Count Lists. Kevin Ives and Don
Henry, who were found on the railroad tracks near a drop- sight of drugs,
money, or both. The FBI acknowledged that the boys’ murders were related
to the Mena operation, but later changed it’s position, saying now the
deaths were accidental, the absurd ruling of State Medical Examiner Fahmy
Malak who was supported by Governor Clinton in the face of severe media
ridicule.
Two grieving families want to know why state and federal investigations of
the murders have been either stalled or shut down all together. Why won’t
the FBI give them a consistent answer? Why, despite the accounts of
investigators such as Jean Duffey, has mainstream medai backed off of this
story?
With the amount of information and evidence regarding Mena-related
activities, no reason exists as to why responsible journalists should be
disallowed to report these stories. The job of the media is not to shelter
us from harsh truths, but to serve as a watchdog for the people. No
opinions or judgment calls are necessary, thank you - just report the
information.
It was about two months after initially stumbling onto all of this that I
once more sat before Sue’s computer, trying to make sense of the whole
mess. Looking for information dated after 1996 (when these stories wafted
in and out of the media), I found the “train deaths” website where Jean
Duffey and Linda Ives update the public on their quest for answers. After
browsing through links, reviewing Duffey’s experience with the Drug Task
Force, and reading the heartbreaking account of Linda Ives, I sat back
dejectedly on the verge of tears. “It can’t be real,” I thought.
I decided to write Jean Duffey; to tell her that I was a Clinton
supporter, that I was frightened about the information I’d come across,
and to offer support to the Ives and Henry families. I never expected to
receive a reply, but several days later, Duffey wrote me back. Not a form
letter giving me more information about the site, nor a request for a
donation to help the families. She said she was writing because like me,
she too is liberal and she too had found her way “to the truth” about
Clinton.
Duffey’s reply brought me up short. You see, I’m still desperately hoping
to be proved wrong, and when one of the figures that I’ve been researching
turns out to be a real person, it distresses me. More than a purveyor of a
website reprinting information, Jean Duffey has actually been a
participant in these events, and with her reply, the last pane of
rose-tinted glass crashed to the ground.
I’m still a liberal, and I still think that Kenneth Starr and the House
Republicans are wrong, wrong, wrong. Sue suggested that perhaps the
Republicans are using Monica Lewinsky the way Elliott Ness used tax
evasion on Capone. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. When Ken Starr
spends our time and money investigating sex and perjury, while ignoring
Mena , he tramples the justice he so stridently and hypocritically
promised to obtain.
So, what happens next? That’s up to you, to us. I would suggest writing
your representatives in Washington, the editors of your newspapers, hosts
of talk radio shows, and the managers of your local news affiliates, and
demand investigations. There are people willing to talk, begging to have
their stories told - let your media and your public servants know that you
need to hear what these people have to say.