Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: James Risen

ON TRIAL: FIGHTING DRUGS VS. FIGHTING DICTATORS

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 - When the competing foreign policy objectives of 
federal agencies collide overseas, internal struggles often roil the 
cramped confines of an American embassy. But rarely do those testy 
little fights take on the bitterness, suspicion and prolonged legal 
wrangling that have marked the case of Richard Horn, a former agent 
of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mr. Horn, the drug agency's attache in Myanmar during the early 
1990's, says his home was illegally wiretapped in 1993, probably by 
the Central Intelligence Agency. A 54- year-old career D.E.A. agent 
who retired in December, Mr. Horn has sued both the C.I.A. station 
chief for Myanmar and the State Department's chief of mission at the 
embassy when he was there, seeking monetary damages for violations of 
his civil rights.

The government is defending both officials and has sought to dismiss 
his lawsuit, which the federal court, in the District of Columbia, 
has placed under seal. The suit has been stuck in court for seven 
years.

The facts are hotly disputed, and Mr. Horn's opponents say the 
wiretapping never happened. "There is absolutely nothing to it," said 
Franklin Huddle, Jr., who was the embassy chief of mission at the 
time.

Even so, the government has invoked a provision of the national 
security law known as the state-secrets privilege to prevent the 
disclosure of classified information in a civil lawsuit. A federal 
judge has approved the use of such privilege, and asked Mr. Horn's 
attorneys to explain how they can proceed without access to 
classified material.

Because the case is under seal, officials at the agencies involved 
say they are limited in what they can say about it. A drug agency 
spokesman declined comment. A State Department spokesman said, "It 
has always been our steadfast position that there is no merit" to the 
case. A spokeswoman for Central Intelligence said, "It's not the 
mission or part of its operations for the C.I.A. to surveil other 
U.S. officials or U.S. citizens at home or abroad."

The government's tactics have frustrated Mr. Horn and his lawyers.

"The extraordinary efforts they have taken to conceal the records and 
prevent discovery make their claims that no unlawful actions were 
taken against Mr. Horn very, very suspicious," said Janine Brookner, 
a former C.I.A. officer who represents Mr. Horn.

By the time Mr. Horn arrived in Myanmar in 1992, the United States 
had already become harshly critical of the government's record on 
democracy and human rights. Under pressure from Congress, American 
officials kept their distance.

But Myanmar, formerly Burma, was a leading producer of heroin, and 
the D.E.A. wanted to stem the flow of drugs. Mr. Horn says he felt 
that the only way he could do his job was to try to gain the 
cooperation of the government and tribal leaders involved in the drug 
trade.

But State Department officials felt that Mr. Horn, in his eagerness 
to do his job, was flouting policy guidelines. "You had foreign 
policy obligations running up against law enforcement obligations," 
said a former Clinton administration official who was involved in 
antidrug policy then. "You had human rights running up against 
counternarcotics."

In an August 1993 cable to the State Department, Mr. Huddle 
recommended a "nonpunitive" recall of Mr. Horn, though he sympathized 
with the difficulties Mr. Horn faced. "Rick is a hard-charging cop 
who just wants to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as 
possible," Mr. Huddle wrote.

Mr. Horn's complaint centers on an incident in August 1993, just as 
he was forced to leave Myanmar.

Late one night, Mr. Horn was talking to another drug agent, David B. 
Sikorra, about how Mr. Horn was being pushed out of the country. The 
next day, part of their conversation was quoted in a cable Mr. Huddle 
sent to Washington, which read: "Horn shows increasing signs of 
evident strain. Late last night, for example, he telephoned his 
junior agent to say that `I am bringing the whole D.E.A. operation 
down here. You will be leaving with me. . . . We'll all leave 
together.' "

Mr. Horn says the quotation is evidence that his phone was bugged.

Mr. Huddle denies that Mr. Horn was ever wiretapped. "The reality is 
that I heard about it from his own people, not by wiretapping him," 
Mr. Huddle said.

The former Clinton antidrug official said that as the United States 
has expanded its law enforcement presence overseas, there have been a 
number of problem cases pitting American law enforcement officials 
against diplomats.

Even as Mr. Horn's lawsuit sits idling in federal court here, the 
United States has finally concluded that it can deal in a limited way 
with Myanmar in fighting drugs.

"In the last two or three years, there has been a shift in thinking," 
said Derek Mitchell, an Asia specialist at the Pentagon during the 
Clinton administration. "They have been willing to work with us to 
some degree, and there is a feeling that we can do some antinarcotics 
work with them."
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