Reading Time: 8 minutes
(From top left) Barry Seal, Compromised, Doug Liman, Tom Cruise, Bill Clinton, H.W. Bush, G.W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Barry & ‘the boys’, Beechcraft King Air, Lt. Col. Oliver North
(From top left) Barry Seal, Compromised, Doug Liman, Tom Cruise, Bill Clinton, H.W. Bush, G.W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Barry & ‘the boys’, Beechcraft King Air, Lt. Col. Oliver North

Alan Jones | February 5, 2015

(1776 Channel) — Hollywood actor Tom Cruise is reportedly in talks to portray hefty renegade drug pilot Adler ‘Barry’ Seal, a central figure in a true story that involves one of America’s darkest secrets since the Kennedy assassination: CIA-sanctioned cocaine import/weapons export smuggling between Central America and Arkansas during the 1980s Iran-Contra affair. The project, tentatively titled Mena, will be distributed by Universal Pictures and directed by Doug Liman of Bourne Identity fame.

This studio theatrical release of the Barry Seal story featuring A-List actor Cruise could spell disaster for the 2016 presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush if the producers choose not to expunge politically explosive details from Seal’s clandestine life.

Governor William Jefferson Clinton (husband of Hillary Clinton) is alleged by an FBI/CIA whistleblower to have protected Seal’s Mena, Arkansas air base and flight operations and to have subsequently received quid pro quo CIA support that secured his meteoric rise to the U.S. Presidency.

Bill Clinton publicly denied those allegations when confronted by legendary White House correspondent Sarah McClendon.

Seal is alleged to have blackmailed Vice President Herbert Walker Bush by threatening to release surveillance video of brothers George Walker and Jeb Bush using the family’s Beechcraft King Air turboprop to accept delivery of two kilos of cocaine during a 1985 DEA drug sting at an airport near Miami. Seal was brutally assassinated by members of the Medellin Cartel in Baton Rouge, Louisiana a short time later. Some reports claim that Seal’s body was found with Vice President Bush’s personal phone number still in his wallet.

Miami Executive Airport (formerly known as Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport). It is alleged that brothers G.W. and Jeb Bush were caught here with the Bush family’s Beechcraft King AIr attempting to purchase two kilos of cocaine during a 1985 DEA sting operation (Image credit: Miami-Dade Aviation Department)
Miami Executive Airport (formerly known as Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport). It is alleged that brothers G.W. and Jeb Bush were caught here with the Bush family’s Beechcraft King AIr attempting to purchase two kilos of cocaine during a 1985 DEA sting operation (Image credit: Miami-Dade Aviation Department)

Barry Seal was a talented pilot who worked for TWA during his 20s. Seal later set up his own flight operations base at a remote airport in tiny Mena, Arkansas using several airplanes equipped with state-of-the-art radar and encrypted communication systems.

Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport aerial view and business directory listing three aircraft painting facilities (Source: Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport)
Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport aerial view and business directory listing three aircraft painting facilities (Source: Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport)

A U.S. intelligence community whistle blower as well as several investigative journalists concede that Seal used his base in Mena at the behest of the CIA to import cocaine to the U.S. and export untraceable (no serial numbers) heavy weapons to Honduran-based Contras engaged in a guerilla war against communist Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The CIA denies those allegations.

C-123 flown by Barry Seal, converted to a restaurant in Costa Rica (Images credit: Maggie Koerth-Baker, BoingBoing)
C-123 flown by Barry Seal, converted to a restaurant in Costa Rica (Images credit: Maggie Koerth-Baker, BoingBoing)
C-123 flown by Barry Seal, converted to a restaurant in Costa Rica
C-123 flown by Barry Seal, converted to a restaurant in Costa Rica

This controversial history was revealed by former FBI counterintelligence and CIA asset-turned-whistleblower Terry Reed, who served in U.S. Air Force intelligence in Vietnam and later wrote a book called Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA. Reed is also a skilled pilot and claims to have flown with Seal aboard clandestine flights. Reed described Seal as his CIA handler. Reed also came into contact with a fellow Vietnam veteran who would become a central figure in the Iran-Contra Affair: U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North.

The wider Iran-Contra affair encompassed an array of covert operations in Central America and the Middle East which were directed by the National Security Council during the Reagan Administration and not authorized by Congress.

Contras in the Nueva Guinea zone of southeast Nicaragua, 1987 (Image credit: Wikipedia)
Contras in the Nueva Guinea zone of southeast Nicaragua, 1987 (Image credit: Wikipedia)

Barry Seal allegedly boasted possession of the ultimate blackmail ‘insurance’ to dig his way out from a slew of criminal charges and IRS liabilities levied against his multimillion dollar drug smuggling profits: surveillance video proving that George W. Bush and his brother Jeb flew from Texas aboard the Bush family‘s King Air turboprop and landed at a small airport near Miami where they subsequently accepted delivery of two kilos of cocaine. The young Bush brothers apparently didn’t realize that they were flying directly into a DEA sting operation while the DEA seemingly lacked advance intelligence alerting the agency that these wealthy ‘customers’ were actually members of one of America’s most powerful political families.

Terry, I’ve been working with several federal
agencies,” Seal began. “In the course of that business,
a person can’t help but run across some *very* sensitive
information. It seems some major players in the Medellin
cartel, whom I personally know, ran across some
knowledge that’s very valuable to both Republicans and
the Democratic party. It seems some of the, George
Bush’s kids, just can’t say ‘no’ to drugs. A guy in
Florida, who ‘flipped’ for the DEA, has got the goods on
the Bush boys. Now I heard this earlier from a very
reliable source in Columbia. But I just sat on it then,
waiting to use it as my ‘trump card’. I got names,
dates, places, even got some tape recordings. I even got
surveillance videos catching the Bush boys red-handed. I
consider this stuff *my* ‘insurance policy’. It makes
me, and my ‘mole’ on the inside that’s feedin’ the stuff
to me, invincible. – Excerpt from Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA

By the time the DEA and FBI realized that the cocaine buyers just snared in this sting operation were Vice President H.W. Bush’s sons, surveillance video had already been recorded. The investigation was subsequently buried: the whereabouts of the video evidence and any paper DEA and FBI records remain unknown.

Seal is alleged to have later blackmailed Vice President Bush, threatening to go public about the catch-and-release DEA sting that snared G.W. and Jeb as well as details of the wider Iran-Contra operations if the Vice President didn’t get the IRS off of Seal’s back, Reed claims.

Shortly thereafter, Seal was assassinated on February 19, 1986 by the Medellin cartel. Some researchers have speculated that the hit was ordered by the Bush family and/or Oliver North.

Barry Seal was assassinated while sitting in his car outside a Salvation Army in Baton Rouge, LA on February 19, 1986
Barry Seal was assassinated while sitting in his car outside a Salvation Army in Baton Rouge, LA on February 19, 1986

It has been reported that Vice President Bush’s private phone number was found with Seal’s body after Seal was gunned down while sitting in his Cadillac outside a Baton Rouge, Louisiana Salvation Army halfway home where he had been residing under court order. The legal restriction on his movements left Seal a sitting duck for assassination. He left behind a wife.

Investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker also has chronicled much of the Mena story and self-published a book about Seal called Barry & ‘the boys’: THE CIA, THE MOB AND AMERICA’S SECRET HISTORY.

Hopsicker has also investigated and written about the backgrounds of Mohammad Atta and other alleged 9/11 hijackers and their connections to a similar clandestine drug smuggling operation based out the Venice, Florida airport, where the hijackers received flying lessons.

The timing of the film’s release could become an edge-of-your-seat political thriller just as engaging as any Miami Vice style screen action: If the film publicly connects the Clinton and Bush families to 1980s cocaine trafficking amid the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, that could serve a devastating blow to both the Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton campaigns. Although the project appears to be moving steadily forward, principal photography has yet to begin.

A more sanitized and whitewashed version of events in Barry Seal’s life, on the other hand, might keep audiences entertained and fill box office coffers while shielding America’s Democratic and Republican royal families from a direct hit.

Universal’s legal team will likely have a say in what content makes it into the final cut of the film. And others.

A 1991 television movie based on Barry Seal’s life story first aired three years before the publication of Reed’s book Comporomised. HBO’s Doublecrossed stars Dennis Hopper as Seal.

The 109 minute film highlights Seal’s transition from an outlaw drug pilot to a star informant who risks his life for the DEA and CIA. Seal provides the CIA with photos of communist Sandinista regime leaders loading drugs onto his plane, an intelligence coup which Oliver North subsequently leaks to the Washington Times. The cartel places a bounty on Seal’s life. When the DEA fails to show up at a Louisiana court hearing to testify on Seal’s behalf, a local judge orders Seal to report daily to a job at the Baton Rouge Salvation Army. The judge also denies Seal all forms of armed protection. The judge’s sentence is essentially a death sentence for Seal.

The film concludes with a clip of President Reagan showing the American people a photo taken by Seal of the Sandinistas loading a C-123 plane. Although Seal has already been assassinated. the President does not mention Seal’s name.

The producers of Mena have at their disposal politically sensitive details about Seal’s life that the creators of Doublecrossed did not. The publication of Compromised was a game changer that the next generation of Hollywood filmmakers cannot afford to ignore. If Liman, Cruise and the studio choose to detour the politically dangerous elephants in the room which comprise Seal’s life story as it is understood post-Compromised, they risk appearing dishonest or COMPROMISED themselves.

The enormity of the responsibility resting on the shoulders of Hollywood right now cannot be underestimated. As Mena enters the production cycle, Hollywood will have to examine itself.

If the powerful (some insiders would argue dangerous) Clinton and Bush political machines are rewarded with a Wiffle ball movie that ignores Clinton’s protection of Seal’s CIA activities and Reed’s claim that Seal knew about the Bush brothers DEA sting, the country will be worse off than before Universal optioned the screenplay.

Last year saw the theatrical release of Kill the Messenger, a movie based on the life of San Jose Mercury News investigative reporter Gary Webb, whose groundbreaking research in California and Nicaragua led to the publication of the infamous Dark Alliance exposé. In a series of front-page exclusives, Webb uncovered how CIA-endorsed trafficking of cocaine from Nicaraguan contras to San Francisco, California was fueling the 1980s crack cocaine explosion in Los Angeles.

The articles caused uproar within Southern California’s African-American community, represented by Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA). The CIA took the extraordinary action of flying the agency’s director to Los Angeles for a rare face-to face meeting with angry community citizens in late 1996. “CIA Director John M. Deutch denied charges that his agency helped or turned a blind eye to Latin American cocaine dealers” wrote the Los Angeles Times.

Webb’s findings in Nicaragua, which led him to the name Oliver North, were relentlessly attacked by the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, destroying his marriage and his career. Webb eventually committed suicide by way of two gunshots to his head; an improbable event many speculate was a murder. A professional firearms instructor contacted by 1776 Channel states that the likely of someone shooting themselves twice in the head, even as the result of a weapon malfunction, was ‘close to zero’.

Mena is not the first time Tom Cruise has waded into controversial subject matter. The actor starred in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, which features a secretive orgy sex scene involving high-society elites and expensive prostitutes. The scene takes place at a New York City area mansion where all the participants don masks to conceal their identities. Some have suggested Kubrick was portraying a closely-guarded ritual of the Illuminati. Kubrick died during the final stages of post production and never saw the final release. Some speculate Kubrick was murdered. Others maintain that the seventy year old genius simply worked himself to death while perfecting his final opus.

Cruise also starred in Stanley Kubrick's controversial 'Eyes Wide Shut' (Courtesy of Warner Brothers)
Cruise also starred in Stanley Kubrick’s controversial ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (Courtesy of Warner Brothers)

Ron Howard was originally slated to direct Mena, but was reportedly replaced by Liman. The screenplay, penned by Gary Spinelli, was sold to Universal in a one million dollar spec deal preceded by an intense bidding war.

Facebook Comments

comments

39 COMMENTS

  11. … [Trackback]

    […] Find More on|Find More|Read More Informations here|Here you will find 56538 additional Informations|Informations on that Topic: 1776channel.com/2015/02/06/entertainment/movies/tom-cruise-is-cias-barry-seal-in-mena-movie-could-derail-hillary-clint…

  12. … [Trackback]

    […] Read More on|Read More|Find More Informations here|There you will find 39053 more Informations|Informations to that Topic: 1776channel.com/2015/02/06/entertainment/movies/tom-cruise-is-cias-barry-seal-in-mena-movie-could-derail-hillary-clinton-je…

  15. … [Trackback]

    […] Read More on|Read More|Read More Informations here|There you will find 89086 additional Informations|Informations on that Topic: 1776channel.com/2015/02/06/entertainment/movies/tom-cruise-is-cias-barry-seal-in-mena-movie-could-derail-hillary-clin…

  16. … [Trackback]

    […] Find More here|Find More|Read More Informations here|There you will find 19645 additional Informations|Informations to that Topic: 1776channel.com/2015/02/06/entertainment/movies/tom-cruise-is-cias-barry-seal-in-mena-movie-could-derail-hillary-cl…

  18. … [Trackback]

    […] Read More here|Read More|Find More Infos here|Here you can find 65639 additional Infos|Informations on that Topic: 1776channel.com/2015/02/06/entertainment/movies/tom-cruise-is-cias-barry-seal-in-mena-movie-could-derail-hillary-clinton-jeb-bush/…

  20. … [Trackback]

    […] Read More on|Read More|Find More Infos here|Here you can find 93236 additional Infos|Informations on that Topic: 1776channel.com/2015/02/06/entertainment/movies/tom-cruise-is-cias-barry-seal-in-mena-movie-could-derail-hillary-clinton-jeb-bush/ [.…

  21. […] This collage offers advance notice of a film, starring Tom Cruise that is currently being shot by Universal and which was initially titled ‘Mena.’ The name has recently been changed to ‘American Made.’ It was scheduled for release in January 2017. It has now been put back to September 2017, by which time, should it be Hillary in office, one can assume that the script will have been subject to review.http://1776channel.com/2015/02/06/entertainment/movies/tom-cruise-is-cias-barry-seal-in-mena-mo… […]

  27. What is the motive of this producer? Was he approached by the CIA to taint the story like Time magazine did on Terry Reed? If not, he is putting his hand in a rattlesnake hole. Interesting that Vanity Fair magazine wrote an article this week on Tom Cruise in the process of being blacklisted by Hollywood. Anyone who tried to tie Mena with Clinton/Bush ends up paying a very big price. Real life events that will occur as this film is being created, if the film is truthful, will be more interesting than the movie itself!

  28. What is the motive of this producer? Was he approached by the CIA to taint the story like Time magazine did on Terry Reed? If not, he is putting his hand in a rattlesnake hole. Interesting that Vanity Fair magazine wrote an article this week on Tom Cruise in the process of being blacklisted by Hollywood. Anyone who tried to tie Mena with Clinton/Bush ends up paying a very big price. Real life events that will occur as this film is being created, if the film is truthful, will be more interesting than the movie itself!

  33. The fact that the studio replaced Ron Howard is a sign that they are attempting to stick to the facts of the story. I like Ron Howard’s movies, and I would probably like him as a person. However, he produced that doctored “Andy Griffith Show” video on YouTube in support of Obama’s re-election. The fact that Howard would use his substantial movie-making talent to carry water for Obama — and, apparently, free-of-charge — tells me that he would likely try to paint over any facts that are damaging to either of the Clintons. And, there is no way to tell the truth about the Mena Airport without damaging the Clintons. (The first two people on the “Bill Clinton body count” list were killed just outside the Mena Airport property.) If all of the facts about Mena and the Iran-Contra scandal became widely known, it would be almost equally damaging to BOTH of the Big Two political parties. (One more reason to join America’s Party instead….) For example, Terry Reed’s book has a photograph of Bush-1 and Bill Clinton standing in a hallway together at the Mena Airport. They are obviously having a friendly chat.
    Terry Reed narrowly escaped being killed by the team that Bill Clinton sent to silence him, after Reed threatened to blow the whistle on the cocaine-smuggling operation. That only came in later, after the team’s successes at getting into and out of Central America undetected. Reed was not happy. His book documents that Bill Clinton’s personal financial advisor, Dan Lassiter, would make deposits into Clinton’s account the day after each cocaine shipment arrived. Several of the people with detailed knowledge of Clinton’s nefarious activities fell victim to “Arkancide”. Vince Foster was merely the best-known on that list. I’m curious as to how accurately the movie will portray the recruiting for the “kickers” for the missions aboard the “Fat Lady” — the C-123 pictured above.

  34. The fact that the studio axed Ron Howard — a loyal Democrat, who created the widely-circulated “Andy Griffith Show” doctored video on YouTube to support the Obama reelection — is a sign that they might actually try to stick to the truth. (I like Ron Howard’s work, and I’d probably like him as a person. But, the fact that he put his screen talents to work for Obama — and, apparently, for free — means that there is little likelihood that Terry Reed’s account of the facts would’ve made it to the screen under Ron Howard’s direction.) I’m also quite surprised that Tom Cruise is involved in this project, as I thought that he was another loyal supporter of the Democratic Party. The fact is that the truth of this story could put a serious dent in the credibility of BOTH of the Big Two political parties. Reed’s book contains photos of Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush standing and talking together at the Mena airport during the Contra supply flights.
    There is a lot more to the Iran-Contra story than most people realize. The good intentions of Ronald Reagan to rid the West of the spread of Communism were hijacked by nefarious people that used their “license to smuggle” for their own crooked purposes. Terry Reed was almost killed by a team that was sent to silence him before his whistleblowing became public. If the movie sticks to the truth (or, at least, as much of the truth as can be pried from the tentacles of our government), then it will be an eye-opener for a lot of rank-and-file voters from both sides of the proverbial aisle.

    • The fact that you think this is a right/left problem instead of a right/wrong one, is actually disconcerting. You look smart enough, why don’t you just call him a nigger. I know that’s what you mean. You come out of the gate trying to discredit Ron Howard only on the basis that he votes democrat. Honestly, who gives a crap who he votes for or spends HIS hard earned money supporting?
      It’s better than him misappropriating taxpayer funds like others who are named here and not named here do on frivolous or otherwise immoral or illegall activities. That’s his god given right as an American and truly it’s none of your business who he votes for. But then you come out and call him dishonest simply because he votes blue? I am by no means a democrat or even a progressive voter in the aisle, but your comments are what’s so sad and wrong with our party. Close minded ness and the sheer fact that you don’t object to simple minded “rank and file voters”. That blind allegiance is dangerous. It’s akin to a goathumper wanting to blow himself up for “allah”.

      • You call yourself “Occam’s razor” (a term that describes the application of facts & logic), yet you jump to so many conclusions that it’s a wonder you don’t have sore feet.
        Ron Howard is free to spend his time & money any way that he pleases. But, when he created that propaganda video in support of Obama, he lost a lot of credibility. My point was simply that the studio making “Mena” must’ve come to the same conclusion. (They are also free to spend their money as they see fit, and firing Ron Howard was what they chose. I simply supported their decision.)

Comments are closed.