More friends of Bill with peculiar backgrounds

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 9, 1998 | by Jamie Dettmer

Drugs and the White House--again. For an administration that likes to keep close tabs on its friends and financial contributors via a highly sophisticated computer database, it is odd how lacking in vigilance the White House has been during the years in its invitations for coffee receptions, fund-raising events and even sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom. All sorts of odd types have been allowed in and sometimes encouraged to rub shoulders with the first family. Embarrassments have followed.

Take for example old Clinton supporter Woody Futrell, who during a 25-year period has attracted much interest from the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, and the U.S. Customs Service.

Despite being described as a "trafficking suspect" in a DEA investigative report and in at least two intelligence entries in a Customs database, the Treasury, Enforcement and Control System, or TECS, Arkansas aircraft dealer Futrell and his wife had a night in the Lincoln Bedroom during Clinton's first term.

And they continue to be close pals of the first family. It is a friendship that dates back to the 1970s and has been reinforced by Futrell campaign contributions in the 1980s and 1990s. For Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, Futrell served as the then candidate's coordinator in Arkansas' Howard County.

The favors haven't all been one way. Courtesy of Bill Clinton, Futrell got appointed to the Arkansas State Police Commission in January 1993 -- an appointment made by then governor Jim Guy Tucker on Clinton's recommendation, say Little Rock sources. That appointment prompted raised eyebrows in state-police circles.

Futrell, who lives in Nashville, Ark., and runs an aircraft and aircraft-parts dealership started by his father, Dan, has never been indicted with any offense but he admits he has been interviewed by law-enforcement officials about some of the people who've bought planes from him. "The DEA have been in here and checked my books," he told news alert! by telephone. He wouldn't expound further on what questions he was asked -- nor why the DEA felt visits were necessary.

According to DEA reports seen by news alert!, federal law-enforcement officials have been concerned by how during the last 25 years Futrell's business has sold aircraft to suspected traffickers on several documented occasions, starting back in 1973 when Dan Futrell sold a plane to the late Lee Chagra an attorney in El Paso, Texas, linked with drugs-smuggling organizations.

And at least three times aircraft sold by Futrell were seized within weeks of sale with large marijuana loads on them: in 1972, a Goldstar with 2,700 pounds of marijuana, in 1985 a plane in Brazil and in 1995 another aircraft in Jamaica with more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana aboard.

"I have never done anything illegal and I won't do anything illegal," Woody Futrell told news alert!. "You don't have to worry about that."

He added: "I can't know who the people are who've bought my planes. I just don't know. I have testified for the DEA against some of my pilots who were involved in trafficking. But I didn't know they were involved." Several aircraft-industry sources argue that dealers need to be careful about who they sell to and to watch out for warning signs -- they shouldn't be surprised if they attract DEA attention.

RELATED ARTICLE: Justice Department Assembles Its Own Plumbers to Fix Leaks

There is nothing like a presidential scandal to get Washington all abuzz. Downtown bars and restaurants are doing great business. The chattering classes are chattering. And everyone is investigating everyone else -- no one wants to be left out in the great scoopfest. Especially the Justice Department, which one would have thought already had its hands full enough with its probe into party fund-raising. No, not a bit of it.

Last month, Justice began a secret leaks inquiry in a bid to identify who leaked embarrassing information to the Washington Post about the out-going head of the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, Michael Shaheen.

In an effort to ensure no one would leak about the leaks probe, which is being directed by aides in the office of Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, federal attorneys from outside the department have been brought in to man the investigation. The tight-knit team, which includes a couple of assistant U.S. attorneys from the District of Columbia, have been instructed to take down few written notes to avoid any Freedom of Information Act requests for details of the inquiry.