ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:96102303.LAR
DATE:10/23/96
TITLE:23-10-96  INSPECTORS SAY NO EVIDENCE TO DATE ON CIA DRUG LINK TO CONTRAS

TEXT:
(Testimony to Senate Intelligence Committee)  (710)
By Bruce Carey
USIA Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- The inspectors general of the Justice Department and
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said Oct. 23 they have found no
evidence to date to support allegations that money from the sale of
illicit drugs in the United States was routed to support the former
Nicaraguan contra rebels.

Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, CIA Inspector
General Frederick Hitz said "review of information available to the
intelligence community gives no indication that anti-Sandinista groups
that have received support from the U.S. government have engaged in
drug trafficking to fund their operations."

"Some allegations ... have surfaced over the past few years ... but no
credible information exists to support such allegations," Hitz said.

In August, the San Jose (California) Mercury News published a series
of three articles about crack cocaine distribution in California,
alleging that some drug dealers routed illegal profits to the contras.
Although the newspaper did not allege any U.S. government involvement,
widespread speculation began that the profits found their way to the
contras with CIA help.

The Senate Intelligence Committee asked the CIA and Justice inspectors
general, who have independent authority within their agencies, to find
out whether the CIA was involved and whether Justice Department agents
at the Drug Enforcement Administration knew about it.

But the two officials told the committee that their thus far
incomplete investigation has provided no indication that the CIA had
any role in such drug activities.

Hitz told the panel that CIA Director John Deutch responded to the
press reports by asking him Sept. 3 to begin to "immediately resolve
any question" about the issue, setting a 60-day deadline for the
report.

"We recognized the seriousness of these allegations," Hitz told the
senators, but the CIA documents relating to the contra era turned out
to be massive and "there is no chance that we will be able to meet a
60-day deadline" for examining them all.

Justice's inspector general, Michael Bromwich, said he is coordinating
his probe with that of Hitz. While the CIA investigation shows no
evidence thus far to support the allegations, he said, the Justice
Department investigation has not yet even received any responses from
department elements under investigation. Accordingly, Bromwich said he
could not give the Senate panel any information to either support or
deny suggestions of such CIA actions.

Committee chairman Arlen Specter and vice chairman Robert Kerrey were
displeased at the suggestion of delay. They offered the help of the
committee, with its special congressional subpoena power, to expedite
the process. Hitz responded that the problem rested more on the volume
of material to be examined and less on the question of cooperation by
CIA elements.

Jack Blum, a former special counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, told the senators that there was a larger issue than the
truth or falsehood of the allegations.

"The issues before the committee are at the heart of the unfinished
work of post-Cold War intelligence reform," he said.

"I hope that the discussion will lead to a fundamental change in the
way the United States deals with covert operations. That change is
essential if public confidence in the integrity of the confidential
international dealings of the United States government is to be
restored," he added.

Blum said that in his tenure with the Senate during from 1987 to 1989,
"we found no evidence to suggest ... a policy of supporting the
contras by encouraging drug sales." However, "there was plenty of
evidence that policymakers closed their eyes to the criminal behavior
of some of America's allies and supporters in the contra war.
Policymakers ignored their drug dealing, their stealing, their human
rights violations.

"If the question is whether the CIA sold crack cocaine to support the
contra war, the answer is no. If you ask whether the United States
ignored the drug problem and subverted law enforcement to prevent
embarrassment and to reward our allies in the contra war, the answer
is yes."

Specter and Kerrey said they would call another hearing on the subject
when the inspectors general have issued their reports.
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