-Caveat Lector-
Newsmax.com-October 29, 1999
The Boys on the Tracks
NewsMax.com Interviews Mara Leveritt
In the early morning of August 23, 1987, two teenage boys died on
the railroad tracks in northern Saline County in central
Arkansas. Close observers of Arkansas politics quickly became
aware that the official ruling — that the boys passed out from
marijuana intoxication and were run over by a train — was highly
questionable.
Over the years Linda Ives, the mother of one of the boys, fought
valiantly to expose the official cover-up and find the truth
about what happened to her son Kevin and his friend, Don Henry.
The story of the boys on the tracks has received little attention
from journalists outside Arkansas. The major exception has been
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a reporter for the London Telegraph. One
section of his book, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, touched on
the story and its implications for Arkansas and the nation. That
was, until recently, the most detailed account of the story by a
professional journalist.
Last week St. Martin's Press released a new book, The Boys on
the Tracks, by Mara Leveritt. Leveritt, a contributing editor and
columnist for the Arkansas Times, has won many awards for her
investigative reporting. In the following interview with
NewsMax.com, Leveritt discusses some of the new information she
uncovered in the process of writing the book.
NewsMax.com: Why did you first become interested in the story of
the boys on the tracks?
Leveritt: It was a bizarre story from the very first. It remains
bizarre to this day. I learned a long time ago that criminal
investigations are supposed to follow certain procedures. If
those procedures are followed the investigation moves along in an
orderly and logical fashion.
The more I learned about this investigation, the less logic in it
I saw. It followed a crooked path that led in many strange
directions. The further I looked at this case the more curious I
became. So I devoted several years looking as far down that
crooked path as I could.
NewsMax.com: Do you believe that at this point you know what
happened to the boys?
Leveritt: No. I do concur with the conclusion that the Saline
County grand jury came to in 1988, that their deaths were
associated with drug activity.
NewsMax.com: What is the biggest revelation in your book, in your
opinion?
Leveritt: I'd say there are three. One concerns the FBI's highly
unusual position in this case. Another relates to what the U.S.
Justice Department knew as far back as 1983 about the drug
smuggler Barry Seal. And the third concerns some information
about Bill Clinton, his mother Virginia Kelley, and Arkansas
State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak. It was Malak, of course, who
declared that Don Henry and Kevin Ives had smoked themselves into
a marijuana-induced stupor, and were then run over by the train.
Virginia Kelley was a nurse anesthetist in a Hot Springs
hospital. There were two cases in which patients died while she
was administering anesthesia during an operation. While the
family of the first patient was preparing to sue her, the second
death occurred. The body of the second patient, Susie Deer, was
sent to Dr. Malak for autopsy. Malak declared that Kelley was not
responsible for the death.
Kelley lost her job at the hospital after this and brought suit
against several of the administrators. In the course of my
research I uncovered a heretofore unknown deposition she'd given
in that case. In the deposition Kelley was asked: "Have you ever
consulted Bill Clinton as an attorney regarding the subject
matter of the autopsy in the Deer case?" She said, "Yes, I have."
"Did you do that before or after the report was filed?" She said,
"I don't recall."
Throughout the deposition she repeatedly denied any recollection
of the timing of her discussions with Clinton concerning the Deer
case. At other times she refused to answer questions, claiming
attorney-client privilege.
Eight years after that deposition, Bill Clinton was running for
President. Reporters for the Los Angeles Times asked him about
the Deer case, and whether he had intervened with Malak on his
mother's behalf. Clinton responded, "There has never been any
connection between my mother's professional experiences and
actions I have taken or not taken as Governor of Arkansas, and I
resent any implications otherwise."
Clinton lost the 1980 election to Frank White, and did not serve
as Governor again until he took office in 1983. Malak's autopsy
of Susie Deer took place while Clinton was out of the Governor's
office. No one picked up on this at the time, but essentially he
had parsed words the same way he did during his troubles in
Washington.
NewsMax.com: What is the significance of this to the boys on the
tracks?
Leveritt: Linda Ives and others have always wondered why Clinton
supported Malak so resolutely. After the boys were killed, there
was a huge outcry against Malak in Arkansas over his ruling that
the boys had fallen asleep on the tracks due to marijuana
intoxication. The ruling was widely ridiculed, and the families
were appalled by it.
They had the bodies exhumed and brought in a well-respected
medical examiner and pathologist from Atlanta, Georgia, for a
second round of autopsies. That pathologist pointed out evidence
that was later corroborated by employees in the Arkansas Medical
Examiner's office. The evidence showed that both boys had wounds
indicating they'd been murdered.
That evidence persuaded the Saline County grand jury to overturn
Malak's ruling about the cause and manner of death. That drew a
lot of attention to other Malak rulings. As Linda Ives campaigned
to have him removed from office, other people began to come
forward and bring to light other, equally questionable rulings he
had made.
The public distrust of Malak became intense. Yet Bill Clinton
steadfastly, resolutely refused to do anything to remove him from
office. Dr. Joycelyn Elders was the head of the State Health
Department at the time. She had authority regarding Malak's
employment, but instead of removing him she was vocal in her
support. So Malak stayed until just weeks before Bill Clinton
announced he was going to run for President. At that point the
landscape shifted dramatically.
After protesting that he would not resign, Malak suddenly did
resign and was offered a job at the State Health Department,
under Dr. Elders. I should add that Malak received a couple of
raises between the time of his ruling on the boys' deaths and his
subsequent removal as Medical Examiner.
The significance of Virginia Kelley's deposition is that it sheds
new light on the relationship between Bill Clinton and Malak.
Although the Los Angeles Times questioned Clinton about the link
between the Deer case, his mother, and Malak, Clinton denied any
involvement and that was the end of the story at that time.
Kelley's deposition suggests, however, that Clinton's involvement
in that case was greater than he acknowledged.
NewsMax.com: Do you believe there was a connection between what
happened to the boys and the activities at Mena, Arkansas?
Leveritt: One cannot overlook the fact that at roughly the same
time that the boys were murdered, Barry Seal, a major cocaine
importer, was operating at Mena airport.
NewsMax.com: Is there any hard evidence that the CIA was in fact
sponsoring Barry Seal's activities?
Leveritt: A few weeks ago I got a box of records, a portion of
the FBI files on Barry Seal. Much of it was redacted. Several
hundred pages were withheld. In a cover letter sent with the
portion I did receive, the FBI explained the reasons for blacking
out several parts and for not sending the other pages. The
exemptions claimed were based on the CIA Act of 1949 and the
National Security Act of 1947.
NewsMax.com: What conclusions do you draw from that?
Leveritt: It certainly raises some serious questions. First, what
is the national security interest at this point in keeping from
the American public what was going on with this documented
cocaine smuggler who has been dead now for 13 years? Second, how
did his activities trigger the CIA Act of 1949?
NewsMax.com: You had previously contacted members of Congress to
aid in your request for documents. [1] Were the documents you
just received the ones you had been seeking when you contacted
the members of Congress?
Leveritt: Yes. I never speak of this without acknowledging the
help of Congressman Vic Snyder (D-Ark.). He was diligent in
trying to get these documents released, simply in the interest of
freedom of information. I doubt I would ever have gotten them
without his help.
NewsMax.com: You wrote a story early this year in which you
mentioned Representative Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) and his role in
investigating Mena. You reported that you had asked for his help
in obtaining the documents. What sort of help did you get from
his office?
Leveritt: They sent to me a copy of a federal publication written
to help people who were trying to submit a freedom of information
request.
NewsMax.com: Did his office contact the FBI on your behalf?
Leveritt: They said they would, but I have no way of knowing if
they did or not.
NewsMax.com: There are accounts that Mena-related air drops were
taking place on the railroad tracks near Bryant, Arkansas, and
that a drop had come up missing. According to this account, the
boys' deaths were related to this missing drop. In your research,
did you find information to substantiate this?
Leveritt: In this book I tried to tell what we know to be true
and to avoid the fuzzy areas. There has been a lot of
misinformation spread about the activities at Mena and the boys'
deaths. I have probably done more work on these two subjects than
anyone else has. My interest was to get on the record what we
know for sure. I have done that, and that story alone is amazing.
As for the fuzzy areas, I refer to questions that Linda Ives had
to consider — questions that face us all. One of the things I say
is that if we have a pattern of A, B and D, we might speculate
that the missing letter is C, and we might have good reasons for
concluding that. But I tried to avoid speculation in the book.
So, the answer to your question is I did not pin down definitive
information about a missing drug or money drop and I did not
report speculation as fact.
This story deserves serious mainstream interest. And I am a
serious journalist. So I tried to be cautious in this book and
not get into things about which we do not have definitive
information.
NewsMax.com: What has researching and writing this book meant to
you personally?
Leveritt: I was dismayed to run into some of the same walls that
have blocked others seeking information on these matters. The
Department of Justice has erected these walls to hide what should
be public information. At the same time, I am proud of what I was
able to discover and report about these dark affairs.
Notes [1] Mara Leveritt, "A selective passion for truth,"
Arkansas Times, February 12, 1999. Available at: Arktimes.com
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
