Pubdate: Fri, 9 Oct 1998
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: (c) 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Author: John Diamond 

CONTRA DRUG LINK UNVEILED

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA failed to fully inform Congress and law
enforcement agencies of reports that Nicaraguan Contras were involved
in drug trafficking, according to a newly declassified agency study.

While congressional oversight committees got some briefings during the
U.S.-backed Contra wars of the 1980s, ``CIA did not inform Congress of
all allegations'' linking Contras to drug trafficking, the CIA
Inspector General L. Britt Snider concluded.

``No information has been found to indicate that any U.S. law
enforcement entity or executive branch agency was informed by CIA of
drug trafficking allegations'' concerning 11 Contra-related
individuals who worked with the CIA, the report said.

The 410-page declassified version of the report, posted on the CIA's
Web site late Thursday, provides new insights into U.S. intelligence
during the Reagan years as it aided the anti-Communist Nicaraguan
Contra forces. Throughout those years, House and Senate Democrats --
then the majority party in Congress -- regularly questioned the CIA
about persistent rumors that the Contras were trafficking in narcotics
to finance their effort to overthrow the Sandinista government.

In classified briefings on Capitol Hill, CIA officials typically
acknowledged only one major case of narcotics involvement by an
anti-Sandinista group -- the so-called ADREN 15th of September group,
which had been disbanded in 1982. But the newly declassified report
links to drug allegations 58 other individuals belonging to various
Contra groups.

For example, the CIA had information linking 14 pilots and two other
individuals involved in transport to drug trafficking. In 1984, the
CIA broke off contact with one member of the Contra Sandino
Revolutionary Front linked to known drug trafficker Jorge Morales but
``continued to have contact through 1987-87 with four of the (other)
individuals involved with Morales,'' the report said.

In the fall of 1986 and all of 1987, Congress prohibited the Reagan
administration from funding any Contra group with members known to be
involved in drug smuggling. In response, the IG report says, the CIA
did not investigate such allegations and thus avoided invoking the
funding cutoff.

At a time when CIA files contained numerous cases of suspected drug
trafficking by Contra-connected individuals, Alan Fiers, then chief of
the CIA's Central American Task Force, was telling the Senate
Intelligence Committee in 1987, ``We have uncovered no indications
that any of these individuals are involved or have been involved in
narcotics trafficking.''

In 1988, Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., were
pressuring John Helgerson, the CIA's chief liaison to Congress, to
produce information on alleged Contra drug activity. In a memo to
senior CIA officials, Helgerson wrote, ``Realistically, we are likely
to have to respond somehow -- fairly quickly -- to the Kerry and Pell
requests regarding when we knew what.'' But Helgerson advised against
passing on ``raw reporting or operational traffic'' to the lawmakers.

The CIA apparently had allies on the Senate Intelligence Committee who
``were not 'taken' with the topic and were very frustrated by the
tasking from Senators Kerry and Pell,'' the IG report said. Current
CIA Director George Tenet and Inspector General Snider were then on
the committee's staff.

Then-acting CIA Director Robert Gates did try to get tough regarding
contacts with drug traffickers. The IG report describes an April 9,
1987, memo from Gates to his operations chief, Clair George. Gates
said it was ``absolutely imperative'' that the CIA and its Central
American operatives ``avoid any kind of involvement with individuals
or companies that are even suspected of involvement in narcotics
trafficking.'' Apparently the memo never made it past George.

``No information has been found to indicate that this memorandum, in
its entirety, was disseminated to anyone at CIA headquarters other
than DDO George,'' the report states.

This IG report grew out of a CIA inquiry following a newspaper series
that alleged a connection between the agency and Contra-connected
crack cocaine dealers. The CIA has disavowed any such connection, and
the inspector general did as well in an earlier report.
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Checked-by: Patrick Henry