Did you know that in 1996 CIA investigates itself regarding its alleged role in smuggling drugs through the Mena Intermountain Airport, finding no wrongdoing

The CIA was accused smuggling drugs through a small Arkansas airport with connections to then governor Bill Clinton. The CIA investigated itself (lol) finding no wrongdoing, claiming that their invovlement concerned: “a joint training operation at the airport with another federal agency” and contracting “with businesses at the airport ‘to perform routine aviation-related services on equipment owned by the CIA.”
 

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INVESTIGATION ABSOLVES CIA IN ALLEGED DRUG SMUGGLING

DONALD M. ROTHBERG, Associated Press

Nov. 9, 1996 1:02 AM ET

 (AP) _ An internal investigation absolved the CIA of involvement in alleged drug smuggling and other illegal activities at a northern Arkansas airport.

Frederick Hitz, the intelligence agency’s inspector general, said “no evidence has been found to indicate that CIA or anyone acting on its behalf participated in, or otherwise had knowledge of, any illegal or improper activities in Mena, Ark., or the area north of Mena known as Nella, Ark.”

The agency released a six-page, unclassified summary of his findings on Friday.

CIA Director John Deutch ordered the investigation last spring in response to a request in February by Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, chairman of the House Banking Committee. Leach’s panel is conducting its own investigation of money laundering in the Mena area, stemming from the committee’s Whitewater inquiry and related issues.

Dave Runkel, a spokesman for the banking committee, said the allegations that the CIA was somehow involved in running guns to Nicaragua and that agency-chartered planes may have been used to smuggle cocaine into the United States date back to the Reagan and Bush administrations.

“No evidence has been found that the CIA was associated with money laundering, narcotics trafficking, arms smuggling or other illegal activities at or around Mena, Ark., at any time,” said Hitz.

 
h/t Roddick_Is_Amazing

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