Arkansas Committee

In the spring of 1990, Mark Swaney, a graduate student in engineering at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County), founded a campus organization called the Arkansas Committee. The organization was originally a discussion group that addressed several topics, including political assassinations in the 1960s and reports of alleged drug trafficking, gunrunning, and money laundering connected to the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport in Mena (Polk County). Swaney was concerned about secret government operations and their threat to representative democracy. Later that year, the committee was recognized as a campus organization and was provided a room at the student union as a meeting and office space.

The Arkansas Committee was especially interested in drug smuggler Barry Seal and the use of the Mena Airport and the nearby airstrip near Nella (Scott County) by the National Security Council (NSC) as a base of operations for training of the Contras, a rightwing Nicaraguan insurgency, during the 1980s.

Charlie Reed, a World War II veteran, was a member of the committee but was not enrolled as a student. On September 9, 1991, he and the committee’s treasurer, Tom Brown, protested in front of the Federal Building in Little Rock (Pulaski County), with Reed holding a sign reading: “Bush-Mena Cocaine Kingpin.” They were calling for the inclusion of the Mena Airport in the Iran-Contra investigation led by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh in Washington DC.

The Arkansas Committee organized a protest of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a major figure in the Iran-Contra Affair, who spoke to a congregation of about 4,000 at First Baptist Church of Springdale (Washington and Benton Counties) on February 23, 1992. It was reported that there were about sixty picketers outside holding signs such as “North survives trading drugs for lives,” “Welcome felon,” and “No more secret government.” Most of the protesters were not members of the committee. North said the demonstrators’ “perspective is dead wrong,” adding, “I’ve never run drugs, I’ve never broken the law. The facts are that I’ve been subject to the most extensive, expensive investigation in the history of the Republic.”

In advance of North’s appearance, Swaney wrote to the church, concluding, “We will be protesting Oliver North and his crimes on the behalf of his victims. We will not be protesting you our friends and neighbors.” On April 27, 1992, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the committee was “about 10 people.”

In 1992, the committee was seeking to make the Mena Airport allegations an issue in the presidential election, in which Bill Clinton was running for president. In April 1992, Time magazine rejected accounts of “a covert ‘resupply network’ that flew arms to the Nicaraguan contras and drugs back to the U.S. using a small airport in rural Arkansas as a base.” After Mena did not become a campaign issue, the committee quit having meetings at UA.

The committee continued to exist as an informal network as late as 1994, when they were investigating the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA). The ADFA’s marketing director, Larry Nichols, was a Contra supporter. Contra officials Adolfo Calero and Mario Calero had visited the ADFA while Clinton was governor, and Nichols arranged for them, as well as an Iran-Contra figure, retired General John Singlaub, to receive Arkansas Traveler Certificates through the governor’s office. The Arkansas Committee’s treasurer, Tom Brown, later sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the three Arkansas Traveler Certificates. Nichols’s requests for the certificates were initialed by Carmen Fowler of Governor Clinton’s office. Fowler’s letter in response to Brown’s request stated, “I authorize the issuance of more than 1,000 of these certificates each year.”

The Arkansas Committee’s legacy was in finding information that news organizations did not and distributing it to interested reporters and investigators. On March 5, 1995, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, following up on work done by the Arkansas Committee, reported that the “ADFA borrowed $5 million from Sanwa Bank of Chicago in 1987 to invest in a Barbados company, Coral Reinsurance Co. Limited. The loan was repaid in 1991. ADFA made about $240,000 on the deal, and, for the most part, officials had forgotten about it.” The shares in Coral were not registered under the Securities Act of 1933, and the investment was done in violation of the Arkansas constitution.

In addition, Swaney’s FOIA request for the state auditor’s working papers from the ADFA was denied because they were in the custody of a law firm. He challenged this in court, and the case was dismissed. He appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor. Swaney explained: “The decision means that state agencies cannot circumvent the Freedom of Information Act by insuring that they are not in possession of sensitive documents.”

For additional information:
Francouer, Mark. “Group Seeks Answers about Seal.” Arkansas Gazette, July 11, 1991, p. 11B.

Hill, Toya. “Students Tie Mena to Drugs: Claim Link to Bush.” Arkansas Gazette, September 9, 1991, pp. 1B, 5B.

Leveritt, Mara. All Quiet at Mena. Little Rock: Bird Call Press, 2021.

Tower, John, Edmund Muskie, and Brent Scowcroft. The Tower Commission Report. New York: Random House, 1987.

Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs. https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/index.php (accessed September 25, 2024).

Allen McMillan
Little Rock, Arkansas