("Quid coniuratio est?")
[From an interview with the former marketing director of the Arkansas Development and Finance Authority, and former associate of Bill Clinton, Larry Nichols. This interview took place on the May 5, 1994 "America's Town Forum" radio show, hosted by Tom Donahue. The show is broadcast most weekday evenings at 7 pm (cst) on shortwave frequency 5.810 mHz. (Nichols speaks via telephone with Donahue.)]
TOM DONAHUE: I want to tell our listeners about a special guest we have today; as a matter of fact, return guest: Larry Nichols. Larry Nichols appears in the video Clinton's Circle of Power, and a soon-to-be-released video, The Clinton Chronicles.
Larry, thanks so much for joining us back, on "America's Town Forum."
LARRY NICHOLS: Yes, good mornin'. I can barely hear ya.
DONAHUE: O.K. Bob, you're gonna have to give him some more input; some more volume.
Larry, can you hear us now?
NICHOLS: Uh... barely.
DONAHUE: O.K. We've made...
NICHOLS: Now! Now.
DONAHUE: Good. Good.
NICHOLS: You're there.
DONAHUE: All right, wonderful.
How are you feeling these days? Rumor had it that you were, uh, food poisoned.
NICHOLS: Um... Well, of course, my demise was greatly exaggerated.
DONAHUE: All right.
NICHOLS: I had... um, it is an interesting thing that happened. I developed a rash, much like you would get from, like, touching something you were allergic to. Except it manifested in my lungs. And I come to find out it is somethin' from a pesticide. Of course, I had nothing to do with pesticides. I don't know where I got it, but everybody sort of put 2 and 2 together since Welch, the investigator at Mena, was being poisoned and had similar symptoms, people started assuming that I had been poisoned. Uh, I find that probably not to be true. Um, you know, I don't think that's true.
DONAHUE: Was this gentleman, Mr. Welch, was he poisoned?
NICHOLS: Yessir.
DONAHUE: He was. And for what reason and by whom?
NICHOLS: He was investigating Mena back in the early '80s. And he was the main investigator and people in Mena play rough. And they did not want him to continue on with his investigation. So, I mean, I don't know exactly who poisoned him. I have to be careful what I say so that I can justify, legally, everything I say. So, I mean, I can only tell you...
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[Here's what Welch himself says. The following is an excerpt from a television show called "The Conspiracy Tapes." My thanks to one of the readers of "Conspiracy Nation" for sending me a videotape of this show.]
NARRATOR: Arkansas state police officer Russell Welch tried to find out who knew what. It nearly got him fatally poisoned.
WELCH: I was sick. I was originally diagnosed as poisoned.
NARRATOR: And what was the poison that almost cost him his life?
WELCH: Military biological agent: anthrax.
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DONAHUE: Right. How long ago was that? When did that occur?
NICHOLS: Uh that would have been probably, uh, '85.
DONAHUE: O.K. So it did happen back then. So that's not a recent occurrence.
O.K. Let me, for our listeners who've never heard you or missed the program when you were on with us, um, let's talk about your association with Bill Clinton back in the '80s. What is the connection. And I understand: the Arkansas Development and Finance Authority. But you knew him prior to that as well.
NICHOLS: Yessir. I've known Bill Clinton since probably the mid- 80s to late-80s. As a matter of fact, I do spot marketing projects for he and Hillary during the early '80s. As a matter of fact, I helped package their educational standards package. And it was only in 1988 that they created the job of marketing director -- it was not there before me and it's not there now -- um, for me to come into that agency. I thought, ostensibly, I was coming in to do what a marketing person does, which is market the agency. What I found out was I was there simply as "damage control" and to "put out fires."
DONAHUE: Hmm... Let's, let's talk...
NICHOLS: ...umm...
DONAHUE: O.K. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
NICHOLS: So anyway, I mean, that's the extent of my involvement there.
DONAHUE: O.K.
NICHOLS: I mean, it gets a lot worse. But that's how I ended up at the agency. And then while I was at the agency is when I discovered the wrongs that were going on there. And then that caused my problem, because I started to blow the whistle.
DONAHUE: How long did it take before you blew the whistle? And tell us about the lawsuit.
NICHOLS: Well the whistle was blown... Excuse me one second. Hold on. [Leaves the phone]
DONAHUE: O.K. We're talking... Let's do a break now, Bob. Quickly go to a break. We'll come back with our guest and we'll take calls soon. 1-800-298-8255.
(to be continued)
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