-Caveat Lector-
Newsmax-Inside Cover
Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 12:44 p.m. EST
Probe of Roger's Pardoned Cocaine Buddy Could Spotlight Bill's Past
The decision of chief House Pardongate prober Dan Burton to question
Roger Clinton about his brother's pardon of Mitchell C. Wood means that
the burgeoning clemency-for-cash scandal could turn very ugly, very
fast.
On Feb. 9, 10 days before reports surfaced that Roger might be involved
in pardon peddling, the Wall Street Journal noted, "Why Mr. Wood was
pardoned is a mystery."
What isn't a mystery is Wood's connection to the ex-president's
brother. Wood testified in 1986 that Roger supplied him with cocaine,
and copped a four-month sentence for his cooperation.
Wood told the Journal that he hadn't seen Roger in 15 years and that
the president "would not have any idea who I was."
But reports reviewed by NewsMax.com suggest that, to the contrary,
ex-President Clinton has reason to remember Mitchell Wood very well
indeed.
It turns out that Wood first popped up on Clinton's radar screen in
1986, nine days before his election to a fourth term as governor. His
name was in a newspaper report chock full of bad news for Arkansas'
then-rising political star.
"Investment banker Dan Lasater, George E. 'Butch' Locke, David Collins,
partners in the defunct Little Rock bond house Collins, Locke and
Lasater, Inc., were among 11 people charged Friday by the U.S.
attorney's office with cocaine violations," reported the Arkansas
Democrat (as the paper was known before its merger with the Arkansas
Gazette).
Others indicted were among the cream of the Little Rock business
community. Locke, in fact, was a former state senator.
But the paragraph in the Arkansas Democrat's report that sent Clinton
into a purple rage was this one:
"Roger Clinton, the younger brother of Gov. Bill Clinton, was named as
an unindicted co-conspirator in an indictment that cited Mitchell Wood
of Little Rock, an industrial training manager with the Arkansas
Department of Education, with conspiracy to possess cocaine for
distribution."
Witnesses described the governor's reaction to the report for "Clinton
Confidential" author George Carpozi:
"Why the hell do those bastards pull such s--t just before the
election! Jesus H. Christ!" Clinton reportedly shouted.
Fifteen years later, could it be that Clinton has forgotten all about
him, as Wood told the Journal two weeks ago? The ex-president himself
isn't saying.
"A spokesman for the former president declined to comment" on Wood's
pardon, the paper reported.
U.S. Attorney George Proctor, who brought the indictment, said at the
time that the governor himself was clean.
"There is nothing that would pull the governor into this," Proctor
assured the Arkansas Democrat.
But others, like former Gov. Frank White, Clinton's then-opponent in
the governor's race, weren't so sure.
In a speech to Little Rock's Kiwanis Club White pointed out that Clinton
had favored the recently indicted Mr. Lasater with hundreds of millions
of dollars in state bond business.
"He's one of Bill Clinton's biggest financial backers," White railed.
"And because he is, his firm has underwritten $649 million in bonds for
the Arkansas Development and Finance Authority." ("Clinton Confidential"
- Carpozi)
In fact, by the time Roger Clinton was named an unindicted
co-conspirator in the Arkansas coke ring, he'd already pleaded guilty to
two counts of distribution and had begun cooperating with investigators.
Complicating matters, Roger's 1985 plea bargain was quickly followed by
his rearrest on charges of selling coke to Hot Springs attorney Sam
Anderson Jr., one of his brother's closest friends.
If Roger did play a role in getting his brother to pardon Mitchell
Wood, it would only be part of his long history of influence peddling.
One such episode was captured on a police surveillance videotape, where
the younger Clinton discusses a payoff to arrange a government sewer
project.
"I need $10,000 for my brother to take care of EPA regs and other
environmental oversight problems," Roger tells an undercover officer.
("Partners in Power" - Roger Morris)
Then there's the legendary passage reputed to be on another
surveillance tape shot by police probing the cocaine ring.
"Got to get some for my brother, he's got a nose like a vacuum
cleaner," Roger reportedly said.
According to Clinton biographer Roger Morris, "It was clear from the
evidence [gathered by police] that Roger Clinton was hardly one more
petty drug dealer and addict.
"As his own trial and related ones would reveal, the drug trade
flourishing around him involved some of the most noted figures in Little
Rock and around the state. New York and Medellin suppliers began
extending credit to Roger Clinton on learning 'who his brother was.'"
Does Bill Clinton's mystery pardonee Mitchell C. Wood know more about
Roger than he testified to in 1986? Does he perhaps have anything on the
ex-president himself?
As governor, Clinton pardoned Dan Lasater, too. As president, Clinton
made Lasater's chief lieutenant Patsy Thomasson director of White House
personnel.
Does Wood know why?
After all, why would Clinton pardon somebody who so enraged him by
fingering his brother to the feds as a cocaine kingpin?
All good questions, to which Dan Burton's committee - and the American
people - need answers.
Wood has since moved from Little Rock to Sherwood, Ark., where he
retains a state position with the Arkansas Department of Economic
Development.
Burton's House Government Reform and Oversight Committee was still
unable to locate Roger Clinton as of Friday morning.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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