A-Infos (en) Inspector: CIA Kept Ties with Alleged Traffickers

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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     INSPECTOR: CIA KEPT TIES WITH ALLEGED TRAFFICKERS
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     By Walter Pincus
     Washington Post Staff Writer
     Tuesday, March 17, 1998; Page A12
     http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/17/
 
     The CIA did not "expeditiously" cut off relations with
alleged drug traffickers who supported contra Nicaraguan rebels
in the 1980s, CIA Inspector General Frederick R. Hitz told the
House intelligence committee yesterday.
   
     Hitz for the first time said publicly that the CIA was aware
of allegations that "dozens of people and a number of companies
connected in some fashion to the contra program" were involved in
drug trafficking.
   
     "Let me be frank," Hitz added, "there are instances where
CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off
relationships with individuals supporting the contra program who
were alleged to have engaged in drug-trafficking activity or take
action to resolve the allegations."
   
     Hitz said some of the alleged trafficking involved bringing
drugs into the United States. But, he added, investigators "found
no evidence . . . of any conspiracy by CIA or its employees to
bring drugs into the United States."
   
     The allegations about drug traffickers linked to the CIA and
the U.S.-backed anti-Sandinista rebels, as well as the response
to the charges by CIA case officers and top officials, will be
detailed in a 600-page classified report scheduled to be sent to
Congress later this month, Hitz said.
   
     The inspector general also said that under an agreement in
1982 between then-Attorney General William French Smith and the
CIA, agency officers were not required to report allegations of
drug trafficking involving non-employees, which was defined as
meaning paid and non-paid "assets [meaning agents], pilots who
ferried supplies to the contras, as well as contra officials and
others."
   
     This agreement, which has not previously been revealed, came
at a time when there were allegations that the CIA was using drug
dealers in its controversial covert operation to bring down the
leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
   
     According to Hitz, this policy was modified in 1986 when the
agency was prohibited from paying U.S. dollars to any individual
or company found to be involved in drug dealing.
   
     Where the allegations "were flimsy," he said, agency
officers continued operating with the individuals involved and
investigations into whether they were dealing in drugs were not
done "as expeditiously as they should have been."
   
     Yesterday's hearing was called to review the inspector
general's report, which was triggered by a series of articles
published in the San Jose Mercury News in August 1996 that
alleged a CIA connection to the introduction of crack cocaine
into South Central Los Angeles by Nicaraguan drug dealers. Hitz
has reported he found "no evidence" to indicate that past or
present CIA employees, or agents acting for the agency were
associated with the drug dealers mentioned in the newspaper's
series.
   
     Yesterday Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Hitz's initial
report "lacks credibility and its conclusions should be
dismissed."
   
     Hitz's disclosures led Rep. Norman D. Dicks (Wash.), the
ranking Democrat on the intelligence panel, to call for more
committee hearings, including possible testimony from former
Reagan White House aide Oliver L. North, who coordinated
fund-raising for the contras.
 
     Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
 
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