CIA Drug Trafficking Allegations Hearing (1998) | w/ Maxine Waters Gary Webb

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allegations

of CIA

drug

trafficking

On Monday, the Select Committee on Health Intelligence heard testimony about a report alleging the agency's involvement in

trafficking

cocaine to the Los Angeles area. Florida Congressman Porter Goss chaired yesterday's

hearing

that included testimony from California Representatives Maxine Waters and Juanita Melander McDonald. this is better, no, that's difficult, the committee will be in order, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, the permanent House Select Committee on Intelligence is here today to review the CIA Inspector General's report on the

allegations

made in a 1996 newspaper series that the CIA was involved in trafficking crack cocaine to California during the 1980s before it began.

I would like to inform members of the public today about how we intend to proceed with a

hearing

. The House Homeland Security Committee has graciously allowed us the use of this room. this afternoon and we appreciate it and we thank you for it. However, we have been informed that our lease on this basis expires at approximately five o'clock, so we are planning that our proceedings will be finalized accordingly at the conclusion of my opening statement. I will acknowledge my committee colleagues for any opening comments they wish to make and advise them to do so, then we will proceed to hear from members of Congress who are not on our committee and who have indicated that they are interested in sharing their assessment of the CIA IG report then we will proceed with the testimony of mr.

Frederick P hits the CIA Inspector General by starting his presentation no later than 4:00 p.m. I thank everyone here today for helping us meet this schedule. Today's hearing marks an important step in the ongoing investigative process that the Intelligence Committee has undertaken to evaluate the validity of very serious allegations presented in a series of three published newspaper articles. In the San Jose Mercury News in the late summer of 1996, those articles detailed allegations that the CIA was involved in or somehow complicit in the trafficking of crack cocaine to California during the 1980s. The articles further alleged that profits from those transactions.

To help finance the activities of the resistance movement in Nicaragua known to most of us simply as the Contras, this committee undertook an investigation into these charges in the fall of 1996, since then we have interviewed more than two dozen people who may have knowledge or information relevant to the allegations presented in the San Jose Mercury News stories, in addition, we have reviewed thousands of pages of original CIA documents that have direct relevance to our investigation during his time as separate inspector general. Investigations have been conducted into CIA IDs. The review that is the subject of today's hearing resulted in the public publication in January this year of volume one of an expected two-volume report.

A second volume that goes beyond the allegations related to the California story, we are told is almost finished, there has also been an investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, although that investigation has not concluded, we are told that we have also been informed that the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, is for the time being withholding public release of the IG report based on the law. Concerns about law enforcement As we move forward with our own investigation, our committee appreciates the work of the CIA IG on the matter before us. Based on a careful reading of volume one of the report, which is a public document, I believe it is comprehensive and represents months of careful review of the allegations and relevant facts related to the allegations raised in the San Jose Mercury News given the seriousness of the allegations. that had been raised, this investigation has to be particularly thorough and persistent, we will of course continue to carry out our own independent investigation into this matter as part of our proper oversight responsibilities, we are very aware that this entire episode has fueled suspicions that some people have about the arrival of the scourge of crack cocaine in the United States, any suggestion of government complicity, and that terrible outcome. is an answer that must be seriously considered, it is our obligation as the committee charged with oversight of the CIA to address these concerns and examine the facts as thoroughly as possible, it will be extremely difficult to find an absolute answer that will remove all doubt, such is the nature of these cases which said: I believe the American people have a right to expect us to do a thorough job of understanding the facts and offering conclusions from this committee about the allegations that have been made.

I believe that the IG of the CIA has presented to our committee a solid body of work that will help us in that regard and we intend to consider his conclusions very carefully, that is exactly what we are doing today and what we will continue to do until We are satisfied that we have completely reviewed this matter. Our investigation will continue as we proceed to conduct interviews and investigations as necessary. We will review the CIA IG's additional work product when it is available to us, as well as the DOJ IG's report when it is released by the Attorney General.

Additional hearings. and public statements by this committee on the progress of our work will be made as we in the committee deem appropriate, so let me again welcome our testimony today, my colleagues and I defer to mr. dicks for any opening remarks you may wish to make and also for other members, we welcome Ms. Herman and mr. Gibbons who have been coming since the gavel fell, dicks mr. President, it would be difficult to overstate the seriousness of the accusations generated by the series of articles that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News in August 1996 that any government agency would be accused of being associated with illegal activities is bad enough that the accusations would involve the CIA, whose activities must necessarily be carried out in secret and are therefore generally not scrutinized by the public.

It would make it worse to add the fact that the illegal activity involved narcotics trafficking, one of the main security and law enforcement challenges facing the nation and the reason for the concern in Congress within the administration to include the president and in the country should be obvious in early September 1996, after being assured by Director of Central Intelligence John Deutsch that the CIA's Inspector General would conduct a thorough investigation of the issues raised by Renu's obscure report. . This series I asked former committee chairman Congressman Larry Combats for our panel to conduct its own investigation. I congratulate mr. combis on his decision to authorize a review of the committee and I congratulate our current president, mr. gauss for his decision in March 1997, when he became debt chairman, to rededicate the committee to this effort as a priority in the one hundred and fiftieth Congress.

I continue to believe that just as important as the CIA reports and those of the Department of Justice inspector general are the committee's independent investigation is essential. I have seen mr. comes to his investigation characterized as the most extensive conducted by the Inspector General The statistics on the number of pages of documents reviewed and the number of people interviewed are impressive The task of proving a denial is always daunting, at least in part, because You begin with the certain knowledge that you cannot reach conclusions that everyone agrees with; However, the best defense against unjustifiable criticism of such an investigation is to ensure that it is as comprehensive as possible in the two-page summary of volume one published by the CIA on January 29,

1998

. the sentence has not been found information was used nine times.

I want to be sure that this phrase was intended to convey the message that information was not found at a certain point because it did not exist rather than the message that the information was not found because the effort to discover that the judgment was not thorough enough. of the public about the adequacy of the work of the inspector general's investigators will ultimately sustain or question the conclusions of this report criticism has been published from at least one of those contacted by Mr. He tells his staff that the interview appeared to be designed to go through the motions that he wants Mr.

Hits whom I know and for whom I have great respect to make sure he is satisfied that the investigation was as thorough as necessary to uncover the facts about the matter in question. I understand that several people, almost all of them former CIA officials, refused to be interviewed or attempted to limit interviews. At least one of the people who refused to be interviewed by the Inspector General did not show a similar reluctance to be interviewed by the press. I believe that these people did not assist the Inspector General in this investigation. To be unforgivable, the President, the Attorney General, and the Director of Central Intelligence promised the American people in 1996 that the executive branch investigation would get to the bottom of the Mercury News-related allegations;

That effort was not helped by the decision of some individuals not to cooperate. I hope to soon discuss with these individuals the reasons for their decisions and any information they may have on the subject of the Inspector General's investigation when DCI Tennant released the report vol .1. On January 29 he noted concern at the CIA that the allegations had left an indelible impression that the CIA was somehow responsible for the inner-city

drug

scourge and that nothing could be done to repair the damage. caused by that false impression; It is truly unfortunate that what was at stake for the CIA's reputation in this matter was not seen more clearly by all those from whom the Inspector General sought cooperation.

One of my main concerns in this matter has been that the research is not too focused. I wrote to DCI Deutsche in September 1996 informing them that I was particularly interested in the degree of knowledge that CIA officials had about any involvement of members of the Nicaraguan Contras or individuals associated with them in drug trafficking activities when that knowledge was obtained. and what was done with the information that a CIA agent assured me. official on September 17 that the director shares his view that the extent and disposition of any knowledge by CIA officials about contra involvement and drug trafficking should be evaluated.

I understand that much of that evaluation takes place in volume 2, and I look forward to discussing it with the inspector general when that volume is available to us, sir. President. I also look forward to the comments our Congressional committee will have on Mr. hits the work of him I encourage you to make available to us any information you may have on the matters before us. I welcome you and I welcome mr. successes and presentation of him Thank you sir. president Thank you mr. dicks a lot. I have been informed that other members wish to have opening comments at this time.

I recognize the distinguished gentleman from California, mr. Julian Dixon thank you very much mr. President, I join you and the ranking member of the minority in welcoming members of Congress and mr. Fred hits the Inspector General of Intelligence a Central Intelligence Agency let me start by saying that I have read the inspector general's report titled Allegations of Connections Between the CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking in the United States Volume One The California Story I Find the The section of the report that recounts the political history of Nicaragua from 1912, when US Marines occupied Nicaragua to protect US economic interests until the Violation Morra elections on February 25, 1990, was extremely valuable and insightful because it is important to know that the Cons were never a single group. unitary organization The term Contras, meaning counterrevolutionaries, was used to identify the organized forces opposing the Sandinista regime.

In my opinion, one cannot begin to understand the forces at play in the Nicaraguan revolution without having this historical account as a basis. It is evident to me that Nicaraguans from various countries Some of these contributions were undoubtedly the result of income from illegal activities such as narcotics trafficking; However, the mere fact that a nation organization receives support from the fruits of illegal activities does not necessarily mean that the organization itself or its causes are illegitimate, for example, Ricky Ross acknowledges having donated some of the profits from crack cocaine to programscommunities in the city center. These programs provide alternative after-school activities for our youth and are worthwhile and valuable and in no way diminish our decline due to the fact that some drug revenues contributed to operational capabilities, as stated by the president and member high-ranking officials, we are here today as a result of a three-part series of articles titled Dark Alliance published in the San Jose Mercury News this A series of articles alleged that the CIA, along with the Nicaraguan Drug Network, smuggled crack cocaine into Los Angeles and then funneled profits from crack sales to the Contras to help finance their war against the ruling Sandanista government in the high speed of the digital age. information technology the Dark Alliance series quickly spread beyond Mercury News readers the series was placed on the newspaper's Internet website where, according to Mercury News, it received more than a thousand views per week, plus the broadcast stations interviews made it their top story for weeks, and television networks spent considerable time reporting the story on the evening news.

The fact that the story has resonated so strongly outside of minority communities should come as no surprise that the crack plague is no different from the way alcohol and other drugs have infiltrated communities across the United States leaving a path of death and destruction in its wake. There is no soul. alliances between crack and minority communities The spread of crack and predominantly majority suburban communities is well documented and it no longer remains a secret whether drug use occurs in minority or majority communities is not the question. I firmly believe that both we in Congress and the Administration have placed tremendous emphasis and dedicated resources to efforts designed to combat narcotic drug terrorism into the very fabric of our nation.

The cohesion of the family structure. Impatient African American and Hispanic families have begun to become unsettled by the rugs, resulting in the loss of generations of our youth and raising drug-related crimes, the allegation that a federal government entity may have been involved in trafficking of crack cocaine in any community in America are serious accusations and deserve attention arrest at the highest level of government as a demonstration of the seriousness given to the mercury-news accusations as said by mr. Dicks has indicated that the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John fucking Dortch, made an appearance in South Central Los Angeles to reaffirm his commitment to conduct a thorough internal investigation and definitively answer all questions related to this issue.

Harry's hearing today is an extension of this committee's work. commitment to effectively fulfill our oversight responsibilities and independently investigate the allegations raised in this series of articles Following the Mercury News series, several newspapers launched their own investigation into allegations of CIA involvement and drug trafficking in support of the Cons. The Los Angeles Times was a newspaper and it concluded, quote, that the crack epidemic in Los Angeles did not follow any pattern or master plan, it was not orchestrated by the Contras or the CIA or any drug ring, not even a dealer, not even the King Ting pins that sold thousands of kilos and pocketed millions of dollars were once on the verge of monopolizing the trade.

The point of citing the New York Times and the Washington Post to reach similar conclusions as a result of their own independent investigation after allegations raised in a Mercury News postscript article is that within 48 hours of the execution of a search warrant by by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department against several alleged contra sympathizers. CIA agents showed up at the Sheriff's Department and removed evidence that had been seized. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has investigated these allegations along with the claims. that local anti-narcotics agents knew that a drug trafficking network operated by the Nicaraguan Contras was selling large quantities of cocaine and using the profits to support the armed conflict in Nicaragua.

The Sheriff's Department investigation concluded that no evidence had been found and no materials had been removed from anyone's custody and that there was no evidence to support the claim that local law enforcement officials were aware of a Nicaraguan BAC cocaine ring. The House Intelligence Committee is in possession of a four-volume sheriff's report totaling more than 4,000 documents on Sunday, May 11 in San Jose Mercury News executive editor Jerry Seps wrote an article titled for readers of our Dark Alliance series who identified some brief company news in the Dark Alliance article, specifically Mr. sepsis erta that quote in some of the cases we presented was just an interpretation of complicated and sometimes contradictory pieces of evidence;

In one case we did not include information that contradicted a central claim of the series; We gave our best estimate of how much money was involved, but by not labeling it as an estimate and instead reporting it as fact, we oversimplified the complex question of how the crack epidemic grew in America and, through imprecise language in the graphs, we believed in oppressions that were open to misinterpretation despite mr. president for several newspapers the sets are equal the internal investigation of the Sheriff's Department and the inspector general of the CIA this committee firmly has the responsibility to independently review the Dark Alliance series our investigator our investigations do not replace the role this committee has in reviewing these serious allegations we have convened today for a hearing as a single step in our Ori investigation process and we are determined to fulfill our oversight responsibilities in a thorough and professional manner and recognize that no matter how or any investigation, such There may be skeptics who will challenge any conclusion reached, it is not possible to persuade every individual with predetermined conclusions to change them, what we will do is present the facts as we find them and then draw conclusions based on these facts, mr . president, as noted above, although the San Jose Mercury News Dark Alliance series is about the African American community in South Central Los Angeles, this in this issue affects all Americans, the possibility that the government may have been involved in activities drug trafficking threatens everyone's credibility.

Government agencies and entities, a government of the people and by the people, should not be permitted to engage in such activities. When allegations of government abuse come to our attention, we are obligated to use all necessary resources to fully and professionally investigate the charges and Finally, Mr. Chairman I would like to thank the committee staff who, in my opinion, have worked diligently on this investigation to date. There is a lot of work to do, but I appreciate the cooperation we have received from our staff. Thank you, Mr. Dix and I would like to point out that I too are grateful for the particular attention you have given to this matter.

Surely, due to their many tasks, the extra work they have put into this is well noticed and greatly appreciated. I would like to advise members. It's late that we have two speakers. I know one or two of our colleagues who wish to address us and they have been informed that they will have about ten minutes each. We were trying to get started with mr. It's four o'clock. If he looks at the clock on the wall, he'll understand my warning to keep opening statements within reason, please, mr. Skelton thank you mr. president I joined my colleagues in welcoming our congressional witnesses: the inspector general of the Central Intelligence Agency, mr.

Fred addresses our Committee this afternoon as the ranking Democratic Committee on the Homeland Security Committee. I am well aware of the commitment that our nation's defense establishment has made to combat the importation of drugs into our country, an allegation that a federal government agency is alleged to have been involved in trafficking cocaine into the United States, while other federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, are dedicating personnel and resources to waging a war on drugs. president is horrendous. I am pleased that this committee is investigating these allegations and, to the fullest extent possible, holding hearings in a public forum so that the American public can review our procedures.

It is important that any investigation to first obtain all the facts is necessary once the facts are collected they can be analyzed and conclusions can be reached today's hearing is part of the information gathering process the facts presented at this hearing will become part of the factual basis that this committee uses to reach a final conclusion as has already been stated by My colleagues, the CI Inspector General is working on volume two of his report which addresses issues related to the CIA's knowledge of the drug trafficking by the Contras, are people associated with the Contras. In addition, the inspector general of the Department of Justice has completed his report and the committee is awaiting receipt.

I do not believe that it will be possible to reach conclusions until all the facts have been received. I look forward to today's testimony in the hopes that it will shed more light on this matter. I also want to congratulate mr. Fred hits him and thanks him for his service and dedication as the CIA's Inspector General in possession of the Inspector General. He is often a lonely and lonely person. Inspectors general are often criticized by the public when their reports fail to verify alleged misconduct and then their objectivity is questioned. Within an agency, the Inspector General is sometimes seen as the villain seeking to damage the agency's image and reputation. he successes, he has resisted all kinds of criticism and has always maintained a professional attitude.

I wish you all the best and whatever the future holds and thank you again for your service, mr. president thank you thank you mr. Skelton Miss Harmon from California Thank you Mr. President, I have a statement that I would like to place on the record, but first I would like to make a couple of summary points. I would like to point out to the audience that the majority of the committee members are here and I think that speaks to the importance we attach to this issue and I would also like to congratulate our colleague mr. Dixon for his enormous personal attention on behalf of us all.

Second point. I participated in two community forums organized by our colleague, Miss Melinda McDonald. I would like to congratulate her for the work she did and the abuse she suffered and the effect it had on this member to clarify for me how truly explosive this issue is in a community that has been devastated by cocaine abuse and I want her to tell all of you How seriously do I take this issue finally, Mr. President, I just want to say that at the root of all this there is one word: trust, a democratic society simply cannot function if people believe that officials of government agencies participate in or tolerate activities illegal acts and restoring trust will not be easy, but it is nevertheless an essential exercise for this committee speaking on behalf of a member, we cannot shirk that responsibility nor am I afraid to feel that we will and I want to thank you for a few minutes of time, please return it, thank you very much Miss Harmon, Miss Blessing, thank you very much, Mr.

Chairman, i want to congratulate you and our ranking member for holding this public hearing, which is unusual for us on this committee, and i also want to congratulate mr. Dixon for the attention he has given and the leadership he has provided on this issue. I still have many questions and I look forward to the inspector general's presentation, as well as the other witnesses here today, this is an issue of great concern and the right San Francisco community that I represented in Congress for a long time, before When this issue came to light, there was a suspicion in our community that the African-American community was a target, particularly women in the African-American community were the target of a campaign to provide them with crack cocaine. suspicions were that this would lead to undermining the African American community by undermining the family.

It's a terrible, terrible thought, but people gathered in large meetings in our community about the issue long before the issue we are discussing today arose. Those involved joined in at about the same time that on the 8th the debate on the Contra question was in full swing in the United States Congress. We know how long the Iran-Contra hearings lasted to see if there was a sale of weapons to Iran and profits from which to be diverted to the Contras bypassing Congress on that issue, so when this issue became public alreadythere was a foundation of distrust and while we all know that many of us know more about the valuable contribution that the Central Intelligence Agency has made, we also know of some shortcomings. in the Department of trust between the American people and the agency, so there is a climate where people say what is happening to our community is broken, how cheap it is, our availability is undermining our community , who is doing this to us, secondly, why doesn't someone know how?

Can we stop it, so when this story came out, there was a climate that made it a credible story? I myself don't think the extent of the San Jose Mercury News' so-called retraction outside of the cat was that important, you know? On a few occasions we did this, we made a statement, we didn't include a statement that contradicted an error about money and an oversimplification, that's not exactly a major retraction, so I still have, and my constituents, more importantly, my Voters still have some serious questions about this. In addition to our particular interest in the frogman, less attention has been paid to the allegations relating to Northern California, particularly the so-called frogman case.

During the prosecution of this case, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California agreed to return approximately thirty-six thousand dollars in cash confiscated from a defendant in this narcotics proceeding after two exiled Contra supporters wrote letters filed in court saying that the money was for the reestablishment of democracy in Nicaragua and that is in quotes, so I hope to hear from the inspector. general about his conclusions that there is no information that the CIA had any connection with the defendants in the frogman case and that there is no information that the Contras profited from the drug trafficking of the frogman case and also advance questions about whether CIA officials in any way impeded the prosecution's investigation of this matter because it affects us so directly in our community in Northern California.

I still have some questions even though I have reviewed the report once again, Mr. President, thank you for allowing us to put these questions openly. Thank you Miss Polly, Mr. Skaggs Thank you mr. President I will be very brief. I join in thanking the president for calling these hearings. I also want to express my respect and appreciation for mr. Dixon's contribution to this effort, but I want to place special emphasis on recognizing Fred Hits public service to the country and the Central Intelligence Agency. I have known him for some time, regardless of his current position and I believe what I have to say.

You really capture Ms. Harmon's comment. Regarding trust, even this committee authorized and assisted by trained personnel to investigate the workings of the intelligence community, ultimately we have to trust ourselves to separate fact from fiction. the insinuations. The key individual with respect to the Central Intelligence Agency in establishing and nurturing a sense of reliability in all of this is the Inspector General in the person of Mr. hits I believe that your conduct in office and execution of your responsibilities have been absolutely key during my service on the committee in establishing the kind of two-way trustworthiness that allows us to do our jobs for our colleagues and for the American people and Fred I .I just want to say thank you very much and good luck, thank you Miss Gibbons.

Thank my Lord. The Chairman and I join my colleagues in congratulating you for holding this hearing today and we want to thank you for bringing it before the public, as well as the importance and seriousness of the allegations that have been brought before this committee on this matter warrant this type of hearing. . and especially the proper resolution that this hearing can give to this matter is critical both to the confidence of the American people in their agencies and to this Oversight Committee in the work it must do in examining these types of issues with which our nation is familiar. depends on this information and must have confidence that the information is not tainted by any illegal act, an act that could undermine our ability to trust this information and must not have any taint of illegality for the agency itself those agencies that provide valuable intelligence For the fight against drugs, economic or military information must, as I said before, not be contaminated by illegal acts or even insinuations of illegality;

Hopefully the importance of this hearing today will clear the air on these issues and restore trust between the citizens of this country and our intelligence agencies and ultimately help in an equally important matter to rebuild credibility and our confidence in the information and intelligence we receive from these agencies. The men and women of our intelligence collection agencies deserve nothing less than our complete Confidence in their work to promote a better America. I look forward to the testimony of the witnesses who welcome you here today. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Given that the opening statements are complete it is at this time that we welcome colleagues who are not on the committee for their comments on the report that is the subject of this hearing is the report of the investigation into the allegations of connections between the CIA and the Contras and cocaine trafficking. to the United States Volume One to the California History of January 29,

1998

, as presented by Frederick, the previous hits we were listening to had been my intention to call the members in order of seniority, but I was informed that the member main of - that we expected I have heard from Juanita Melinda McDonald to come forward first, as you have been on the front lines of trying to help us with this man and confront him and that, in fact, you have had hearings in your district and you have had a direct participation, and we welcome you. today we appreciate your comments on the report and any observations you may have for us thank you thank you sir.

Chairman and members of the committee, before I begin my testimony, allow me a moment to express my gratitude to you, Chairman Goss, and your idiotic ranking members, for your efforts and those of your colleagues on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. the House for waiting through the swamp. of allegations stemming from press reports about the Central Intelligence Agency's involvement in drug trafficking in South Central Los Angeles. I would like to especially thank my Southern California colleagues on the committee, Members of Congress Jerry Lewis Julian Dixon and Jane Harman, as well as Congressional Black Caucus Chair Maxine.

Waters and California delegation co-chair Lucille Roybal-Allard, their support of my efforts to voice the concerns of my constituents in the immediate aftermath of controversial press reports alleging CIA wrongdoing was encouraging and meant a lot to me. and the residents. of California's 37th Congressional District, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee congratulate the Chairman for fulfilling his commitment to hold this hearing as the Chairman. I was also deeply disturbed by allegations, as reported in the San Jose Mercury News in August 1996, of the involvement of a Central Intelligence Agency in the introduction of crack financing and distribution in the 1980s, consequently, I contacted administration officials, the relevant House of Representatives leaders, and even the former UN Secretary General to ask their respective organizations to investigate these allegations.

I also wrote to the mayors of major urban cities, many of whom responded confirming that their cities witnessed a significant increase in drug trafficking and the proliferation of cocaine use and abuse during the same period. On September 11, I introduced House Resolution 518 to establish a special Select Committee to investigate these allegations. That's what I did, mr. president, not with the intention of doing away with the permanent Select Committee, but because I believe that the persistence of the questions raised by this and other controversies about the CIA's responsibility, the agency's ability to investigate itself, the desire and the public's need to know the truth and the agency's mission in a The post-Cold War world requires much broader congressional participation in these important proceedings, as many of you know, I convened two public meetings in the fall of 1996 in response to widespread feelings of anxiety, public outrage and concern throughout my district in the wake of news accounts that appear to implicate the CIA in drug trafficking in the early and mid-1980s in south-central Los Angeles and in urban areas of the United States.

The first town meeting at Compton Community College on October 19, 1996 was attended by hundreds of residents from my drug-ravaged area. community, the purpose of the Compton Congressional Inquiry was to educate myself and other members of Congress about the Pacific issues raised by allegations of American attacks. government involvement and awareness of drug trafficking in South Central Los Angeles. I also looked at how the local community responded to the widespread harm caused by the scourge of substance abuse, regardless of the source of the cause, and allowed them to seek answers to these accusations. The Inspector General of Justice, Michael Bromwich, came to meet with community leaders and members so they could express his concerns.

Brown Ouack observed the proceedings of the Congressional investigation and took notes with several panelists who testified, including Ricky Ross's mother and Ricky Ross himself, by telephone from the San Jose Detention Center on November 15 in response to my invitation which was made by the then Director of Central Intelligence, John Dortch. an unprecedented visit to Ellen Locke High School in the Watts section of my district to directly address the concerns raised by my constituents and me generated by these allegations also at a public meeting. Her visit illustrated a new openness within the agency to grapple with the issues raised by the San Jose Mercury News Press reports, as well as the persistent skepticism with which the public has greeted CIA denials of wrongdoing;

Those media reports, some of which have since been retracted, suggested that the crack cocaine trade that has devastated entire communities was enacted by official government activities under the auspices of the Central Intelligence Committee agency Sorry one of The public forums received extensive media coverage and a private meeting with community leaders, activists, and elected officials gave them the opportunity to express their concerns and post questions directly to former Director Dortch. I am here today to express some of the concerns that my constituents and I have about this report and the ongoing controversy. First, this report is simply the first volume of - and focuses on allegations of connections between the CIA and the Contras as alleged in the San Jose Mercury News - an unpublished second volume purports to address findings related to the CIA's knowledge of any other alleged drug trafficking by countries or other persons associated with the operation Against publication of a third report prepared by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice has been by order of the Attorney General, consequently, the results of the internal investigations from the CIA and the Department of Justice have not yet materialized, so the report is limited in scope, however, several questions remain related to this first volume.

If it is suggested that CIA personnel or assets have any involvement in supplying or assisting drug traffickers in South Central Los Angeles or elsewhere, the report answers this question in the negative, however, what should we do? do with the questions posed by defense attorney Howard Harold Braun? panelist in the Oct. 19 investigation alleging that a suspect in the custody of a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was allowed to make a long-distance phone call to Virginia after claiming he worked for the CIA. What evidence do we have in this report that this The allegation was or is being pursued given that the report does not mention the investigation of phone records and, if so, it says that the CIA is aggressively pursuing its role by concluding the charge of collecting, producing and disseminating intelligence on foreign aspects of narcotics production and trafficking when he received information about possible Contra involvement in drug trafficking apparently we have to wait until volume 2 to find out the answer to this question;

However, the information provided in this report suggests that the CIA turned a blind eye, at best, to information suggesting that drug trafficking by Contra agents was carried out by CIA personnel. . intercede on behalf ofany Nicaraguan in the Nicaraguan or national Contras opposed to the Sandinista government in any drug-related investigation or prosecution by local, state or federal personnel. This report responds to specific allegations, but does not address what the CIA could or should have done. Continuing with the part of the agency's charges related to the collection, production and dissemination of intelligence on foreign aspects of narcotics production and trafficking, it is not clear to me what the CIA actually did to investigate or direct its intelligence assets To determine whether any Contras were involved in drug trafficking the quarter million pages of documents reviewed for this first volume be declassified and made available for public inspection and the final question is whether the CIA can investigate itself.

Central Intelligence is unique among government agencies by its very nature. The secrets of the CIA and the Confidentiality rules make investigations difficult Investigations into irregularities begin with a disadvantage that upends the usual norms of American justice, as the presumption of innocence is compromised by the agency's secrecy and the classification of documents that we are asked to entrust to the agency's career employees to classify and report the truth in the name of national security, in fact, the news reports that followed the leaks about the contents of this report last December suggest that some CIA personnel were neither seriously interviewed nor questioned at all about what they knew as results the public remains skeptical some will perceive this hearing to be premature and that this report alone does not adequately address the accusations from the San Jose Mercury News that sparked public outcry on its merit that the series shed light on some very real problems that require real solutions, from substance abuse to CIA accountability.

I look forward to the further hearings of this committee once the other reports are published, at which time we will all be in a better position to make judgements; However, I hope that the Select Committee will give its content methodologies and results the scrutiny they deserve and, in a similar spirit of openness, make themselves available to my constituents to answer any questions these reports raise. I believe that such openness is essential to restore the credibility and public trust necessary to allow intelligence gathering activities that, by their nature, are reserved for things with democracy. Thank you mr.

President and members thank you very much mr. Melania McDonald, that was a polished statement and it raised some specific questions for the committee to consider and we will just need to inform you of her observation that some may consider this hearing premature. Curiously, there are some who also consider that it is too late. It's hard to do everything right all the time. One of the reasons we felt it was important to have this hearing at this time is because Mr. hits is on his way to greater glories with a new job, we are advised and we wanted to make sure we had the opportunity for him to explain his information to us to the best of his ability and that is why we decided to do this today and mr. president, there are some of the problems that my constituents have, they said that when you get used to a person, then they leave and there is a new person on your horizon and so, not only are they true, they are not really sure if those People or not really have their teeth in the feelings of emotions that have been raised by my constituents is a fair observation.

I'm sure from the point of view of your previous constituents I assure you that we intend to keep our teeth in this until we're done and I don't plan on calling it quits, don't say that to any of my other colleagues, well, none of my other colleagues plan to leave, except that it is also premature to remain involved in any way that might be profitable for the good of the public service. Thank you very much for the testimony thank you very much ma'am at this time then I would call Maxine Waters from the 35th district of California and we are pleased to have her before us today, Maxine, to talk about the report that has been provided to us by mr. success, thank you very much sir.

President and members. I would like to thank you for holding this hearing. It is certainly not what is expected of the Intelligence Committee and I am very pleased that we have so many members present today. I would like to ask your indulgence. I know they talked about that. There is a time limit, but it is very difficult to talk about all this information in ten minutes, but I will try to do it as quickly as possible, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am here today to testify about the failure of the Central Intelligence Agency to When it comes to conducting a serious and thorough investigation into allegations of CIA involvement in cocaine trafficking to finance its anti-war activities, unfortunately my fear that the CIA will not be able to investigate itself has been confirmed with this report The Inspector General's report lacks credibility is riddled with contradictions and illogical conclusions In a September 3, 1996 memo CIA Director John Dodge set the framework for this investigation in his instructions to the CIA Inspector General The CIA Chief Director Dortch stated that I have no reason to believe there is any substance to the allegations published in Mercury News, despite their premature conclusion.

A serious, substantial and credible investigation and interview process would have proven him wrong if the CIA director's premature conclusion had been the intention. To direct the end result that this report has achieved the radical denial of the CIA's knowledge of Contra-related drug trafficking defies the evidence and logic that the CIA should have known since the days of the CIA's first response to accusations raised in the Dark Alliance series Many skeptics believe that the CIA could never produce a credible or truthful review of its own agency's wrongdoing. These skeptics might point out that they would like this Sunday's Los Angeles Times to confirm their fears.

The Times reported in another case that after 37 years the CIA finally publicly admitted the deepest hoax imaginable about an American family Thomas Pete Ray and his top-secret squadron of National Guard bombers were shot down during a CIA bombing mission in the Bay of Pigs debacle for 37 years the CIA denied that Mr. Ray and his squad didn't even exist much less were shot down by Cuban troops in 1961, just this month I was confronted with a document obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archives that the CIA finally admitted the truth 37 years after my deep concern about The accusations raised in the Dark Alliance series that my government might have been somehow involved in or had knowledge of drug trafficking have caused me to dedicate much of my time and resources to uncovering More about these accusations after reading the Dark Alliance series.

I interviewed Gary Webb on the right of the series and by the way mr. president and members mr. Gary Webb is here today, he's sitting here in this seat and I invited him to come. He's put a lot of time and work into this research and I've been working with him since the first day I read it and I think I should. I will be aware of all information as he continues his work in this area. I interviewed Gary Webb on the right side of the series. I invited him to come to my district in South Central Los Angeles to answer questions from local residents.

My community encouraged my research and supported me. In my efforts to delve deeper into these allegations, I personally interviewed several key figures from the Dark Alliance series whom I met and interviewed for the first time. Allen Finster, who was Wicked Rose's attorney, then drove to tell him to go to the Metropolitan Detention Center where I interviewed Mr. Ricky Ross, the young man who was dealing drugs in South Central Los Angeles that Mr. Norwin Meneses and Mr. Danilo Blandón was detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center on drug charges. I then drove to a restaurant in the valley where I met with Mr.

Sol Salarino Castillo, the DEA agent who had investigated the drug trafficking operation at the Illa Pongo airfield in El Salvador. Castillo had documented that the CIA ran this drug trafficking operation from two hangars using the Contour supply network as a route to ship drugs to the United States. He then interviewed former LAPD tender officer Mike Ruppert, who claims that he was forced to leave the LAPD after discovering a connection between the CIA and narcotics trafficking operations in California and Louisiana. Ruppert was also interviewed by the CIA for his report. I met and had numerous telephone conversations with Mr.

Jerry Gizella, a city of Bell detective and key member of the multi-agency task force working with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department investigating Blondo's narcotics operation. Gazeta was a Level 1 informant whose information was the basis of Los Angeles Sheriff Tom's affidavit. Gorton that resulted in the October 1986 raid of Bland's 14 operating sites in Southern California. I visited the Records Division of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and discovered the sheriff's reports on the October 1986 drug raids. I was the first to obtain copies of the documentation on the raids that they had said before that time that they did not they existed, they couldn't be found and I literally walked in and by accident was able to access these documents and they quickly tried to get them back and of course I refused. to leave I had copies of what should have been public documents on January 3, 1997 using my own personal funds I flew to Nicaragua to meet with Enrique Miranda Jaime a former Sandanista official and drug pardon of Norwin Meneses a central figure in the accusations in The Dark Alliance Series I was contacted by someone who had information about the Colombian cartels and their connection to know in Meneses when I arrived in Nicaragua I was taken to the prison in the town of Granada by representatives of the State Department where I met with Miranda Sr. himself .

Miranda told me some of the information he gave to the CIA in this investigation that appears on pages 54 and 55 of Mr. IGS report. Randa is currently in prison after being convicted of smuggling 764 kilos of cocaine with this partner Norwin Meneses Meneses told Miranda in detail that Menezes worked for the Contras and that his drug trafficking operation had the support of the CIA. Meneses also told Miranda that he was receiving direct support from Oliver North and transfer of funds to support groups of countries. I met with mr. Thomas Jorge, former Sandanista interior minister and head of intelligence, mr.

Boray came to meet me from Nicaragua to South Central Los Angeles and waited for hours to complete a one-day schedule and then I spent about four hours with him. I also had numerous telephone conversations with Carrell Talavera Baca, Rafael's girlfriend. Cornejo, who was a relative and part of Norwin Meneses' drug trafficking organization, as well as a long-time business partner of Danilo Blandón, another central figure in the Dark Alliance series. I received information from Miss Baca and Mr. Cornejo who were connected to call a Colombian drug trafficker and co-founder of the Medellín Cartel as a lettera.

It was through the private island letterers that the Midland cartel moved large quantities of cocaine to Miami and the United States. MS Baka had visited the callers later as private. island and have information about the connection between mr. Latura and Norman Meneses I have had more than half a dozen telephone conversations with her and she has sent me information related to that operation. I have investigated many of the major allegations raised in Gary's web series and have thoroughly reviewed the inspector general's statements. Please further report, I have read many letters and reviewed volumes of information sent to me and have visited a large number of people who have claimed to have information regarding drug trafficking in South Central Los Angeles, in my informed opinion, Mr.

President , the CIA IG report and investigation lack credibility and its conclusions should be discarded. Let me turn to some of the details from the inspector general's report. The average reader will probably find the structure of this statement strange and confusing. I also questioned the methodology of the report. broad conclusions are cleverly worded denials and selective citing of documents the report claims 365 interviews were conducted but in the summer alone summarizes statements from 12 people connected to specific South Central Los Angeles allegations. I have a list of over 70 people who should have been interviewed under oath by the CIA if the investigation was to be considered credible, did the CIA interview all of these people because the report does not list who it really was?interviewed?

We have no way of knowing. Furthermore, only 40 pages call this report the history of California. in reality they deal with accusations of the contras' connection with crack, cocaine and the central-south. The report mentions a half-dozen other CIA and Contra officials interviewed, but does not offer even a brief summary of their testimonies, so let me do what the report did not do: The following Individuals associated with the Contras are or they were, say, CIA agents or CIA assets. Now I'm going to name these individuals and I'll say mr. President and members, that although the report cleverly refers to agents, we should talk about agents and our assets.

I'm going to tell you today in very clear terms, mr. Adolfo Calero was a CIA asset and he didn't just start with Norwin Meneses, he started working with the US Embassy as a CIA asset and a lot of the aid funds were funneled through him, Mr. Enrique Bermúdez was a CIA asset Mr. Marcos Aguado contra pilot and accused of drug dealing Mr. Francisco Ávila is a contra official in Costa Rica who is leading the frogman case. Iván Gómez CIA agent who accepted drug money from Mr. Manesis Sr. Doug Oberto Núñez, who ran a shrimp company for Oliver North in Costa Rica.

René Corvo, a Cuban-American who worked with the Contras in Costa Rica. Francisco Sean, owner of the Oliver North shrimp company in Costa Rica, Mr. Edmund O Meneses, US-trained Nicaraguan general and brother of Norwin Meneses, mr. Sebastián González, leader of the contras and Costa Rica and drug trafficking partner of Meneses. I state here today that these are all CIA assets and I would challenge this committee to ask the inspector general and perhaps others in the CIA to document for you whether or not my accusations are true I should give you sworn testimony as to whether or not they have knowledge about of the people I'm presenting to you as CIA assets today.

I am asking this committee to obtain the CIA's written response that categorically confirms our denials. They are CIA assets or agents. Another major problem with the research underlying the report was the CIA's lack of subpoena power. This meant that some of the CIA's most senior officials and other officials were never interviewed. Three anonymous former CIA senior managers responded only in writing. Six other key CIA personnel and former DEA agent Castillo declined to be interviewed. The CIA agents included Duane Clarridge, Joseph Fernandez and Claire George. All of these senior CIA officials had important responsibilities in CIA contra operations.

There cannot be a thorough investigation without the sworn testimony of each person. of these individuals should be cited José Fernández was the former CIA station chief in Costa Rica while the Meneses drug trafficking organization operated from there Duane Dewey Klarich was the CIA officer who helped create the Contras at a time when Meneses' network began trafficking cocaine because the FDA in its name also appeared in Oliver North's notebooks as responsible for making quid pro quo deals with the well-known drug. King Manuel Noriega Clarets summed up how serious he thought this investigation was when he told reporters in December 1997 that the CIA quote sent When I spoke to reporters after the report was published last January, to my surprise, they had to Admitting to me that they had not even read the full report, they admitted that they had only read the brilliant eight-page summary that offered unsubstantiated conclusions about the CIA's innocence and blanket denials of the Dark Alliance's serious accusations.

If you had read the report in its entirety as I did, you would have learned that the allegations of drug trafficking and connections between the Contras and the CIA were not new, in fact, the report even lists and summarizes some of the other investigations. that found contrary involvement and drug trafficking, for example, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, chaired by Senator John Curry, conducted a two-year investigation into the allegations. of contra involvement in drug and arms trafficking the CIA Inspector General's report summarizes some of the Kerry Commission's 1,166-page reports devastating conclusions on pages 35 to 38 these are some of the confessions that drug traffickers They use the Contra war and their links with the Contras as cover for their criminal enterprises in Honduras and Costa Rica, the assistance of the drug lords was crucial for the Contras and the traffickers, in turn, promoted and protected their operations. by associating with the Contra movement.

Drug traffickers provided support to the Contras and used the Contra supply network. knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers; In each case, one U.S. government agency or another had information about these matters, either while they were occurring or immediately afterward, members of the Contra movement were involved in drug trafficking, including pilots who flew in surprised by the Los Contra mercenaries working for the Contras and their supporters throughout Central America, drug traffickers assisted in Contra supply operations through business relationships with Contra groups. Drug traffickers provide cash, weapons, pilots, air supply services and other materials to the Contras. departmental funds authorized by Congress to pay humanitarian assistance to drug traffickers in some cases these drug traffickers received funds from the State Department after they were not indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges in other cases where the subject of pending investigations by those agencies the contra fdn group moved against funds through a drug trafficking and money laundering operation Drug trafficking for the Contra movement was carried out by some because they were told that their actions were in the name or sanctioned by the US government Not included in the CIA inspector general's report Our other key findings from the transportation committee despite widespread trafficking through northern Costa Rica war zones the committee The transportation agency could not find a single case that was filed based on a tip or report from a U.S. intelligence agency official, this despite an executive order requiring intelligence agencies to report about drug trafficking to law enforcement officials and despite direct testimony that drug trafficking on the Southern Front was reported to CIA officials.

US officials involved with the Contras knew that drug traffickers were using counter infrastructure and that the Contras were receiving assistance from drug profits, but they turned a blind eye and did not report these individuals to the appropriate law enforcement agencies, how can this report include these incriminating findings from elected officials, including Senators Kerry Brock and Monahan, while others play nice and others summarily dismiss any CIA action? knowledge of our participation in drug trafficking to the US. This is a scandalous contradiction; furthermore, the report is full of damaging confessions. This report admits that Norwin Meneses was one of the largest drug traffickers in the north and south of the United States and that he supplied Danilo Blandón. was the source that supplied ricky ross and bland and Meneses did so without hindrance from the CIA, it is not reasonable to think that Meneses was connected to the CIA given that the Contras were a creation of the CIA and that the CIA handles all aspects of Contra Operation, pages 23-24 This report confirms that the CIA essentially created, financed, supplied, and trained the Contras and that the CIA was intimately involved in determining their strategy and executing their operations.

Meneses was never arrested by US law enforcement; He was allowed free entry into the United States and even expelled. a visa, how was this allowed and why was it allowed to continue? Let me tell you that Meneses was trafficking drugs in the United States for over ten years or more since 1974, he was a drug trafficker before coming to the United States, even involved in a murder in Nicaragua he trafficked drugs without any interference without any intervention he had assets and businesses in San Francisco, in fact, Congresswoman Pelosi referred to the frogman case when they tracked down some people from Meneses, they tracked them to the same house, that was related to the frogman case in which many of those people were involved.

Ness was well known to the CIA, the DEA, the DIA and everyone in the United States as a drug trafficker who reported to Danilo Blandón, who reported to Ricky Ross, how he stayed in the United States was known all those years since 1970 for selling drugs that ended up helping support the Contras and no one, but no one knew it, it's absolutely shocking. Meneses was never arrested by US authorities. He was allowed free interest back in the United States and even issued a visa how this was allowed and why it was allowed to continue the CIA and DEA records are full of knowledge about Meneses' drug trafficking operation this knowledge was founded on this report even this report the CIA knew of his drug trafficking in 1984 and the DEA knew of his trafficking activities as early as 1974.

Incredibly, the report does not mention anything about Adolfo Calero's activities, it only mentions that he was interviewed. He was the key Contra leader and CIA agent on the Southern Front. Damning public information links Calero to drugs. In a December 1986 interview, Calero told Costa Rican newspaper La Nación that he met with drug trafficker Norwin Meneses at least six times and that he knew Meneses was involved in drug trafficking. Now in our investigations we had discovered that Meneses had met with Adolfo. cholera and that Meneses and the owner of Bland had been attending these meetings in both San Francisco and Los Angeles although these conclusions are var these drug traffickers have no connection with the Contras, thank goodness their report identified six visits by Those of us who only knew two have a photo of Meneses and Adolfo Calera and others at one of those contra meetings that took place throughout California.

Furthermore, there are many other key facts that were confirmed by this report. Drug trafficker Norwin Meneses supported and was involved with the Contras. on page 76 77 narco dillon Norwin Meneses admitted to having given money to the California Contra Chapter of the fdn and that he was involved in the 1985 attempt to obtain material support, medical and general supplies for the Contra movement, now there are many discrepancies about how much I will find in your report that it differs a little from the information that was testified on the Senate side when they held what looked like a hearing there.

I have maintained that it does not matter how much money, it does not matter whether or not it was so Eden Pastora testified on that side that he only received a few thousand dollars in a couple of trucks or is it an omission that Norwin Meneses supplied about $40,000 plus medical supplies and other things , the fact of the matter is why I'm so interested. This and why I am so outraged by this as elected public officials, all of us should be concerned that our government could have been involved in drug trafficking anyway. Drug trafficking is a very, very serious crime against the people of this nation that we cannot afford. so that our government does not care under what pretext a covert operation or any type of operation involved in drug trafficking paid 7271 of the report documents the connection between the assets of the CIA and the FDA and the military leader Enrique Bermudez Meneses and Blendin Blandin and Meneses traveled to Bolivia in 1980 to do a drug deal and stopped en route to Honduras, while in Honduras Blandón and Meneses met with Bermúdez for a second time, Bermúdez was owned by Rubio Hielo y Meneses to help raise money and supplies for the FDN.

He let the drug dealers know that his support would be welcome because I quote in every quote, even the reported quote from him, that he said the ends justify the means. Blandón then describes how he and Meneses work, wooed to the airport by armed Contras after the meeting with Bermúdez. Blendin walked out of the meeting and left this meeting with $100,000. in a drug exchange, the profits from the sale of these drugs would be used to buy supplies and finance the Contras. Insulso himself tells how he had problems at the airport in Honduras when they caught him with the $100,000, but guess what? like in the case of the frogman where they caught them with the drugs and the money and they returned the $36,000 based on that attorney general he had in San Francisco.

They haven't told them it was against money. This man would pay one hundred thousand dollars in drugs. The money to buy more drugs for more supplies was helped by the Contrasat the airport and although he had detained him, they had taken one hundred thousand dollars from his writing with the intervention of the Contras, they returned it to him and he left. the cheerful way he begins to conclude the comments yes, we have been too generous, we are taking time away from Appreciation to Mr. García and I have written the comments well, except for the record without objection, where the 100,000 came from.

Did they return the 100,000 to mingle because of the CIA connection? Well, sir. president and members, it is difficult to refute and help educate in ten minutes. I'm going to put this on the record, but I'm going to close by saying this report is not credible, this report doesn't do the job, mr. President, we owe it to ourselves as public policy makers to do something, why am I doing all this? Because I want to find assets or agents of some CIA operatives and somehow convict them. That's not going to happen and I don't think so and that's not what I'm trying to raise the level of this discussion because we have some work to do as public policy makers.

The least we can do is develop public policies that indicate that drug trafficking can never be used in any covert operation no matter what is attempted we cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand it is a shame what happened with the Kerry report the idea that members of the United States Congress could have presented to us on the Senate side with so much documentation and then years later we have the investigation that the San Jose Mercury did and we found more information about drug trafficking and either the CIA knows it absolutely or it turns head and we still can't come up with a public policy at the same time that we are spending millions of dollars talking about a war on drugs, forgive me, mr.

President and members, we can do better than this. I will not leave, members, I cannot leave. My community has been devastated, as have many communities across this nation as a result of this work. I've been to at least seven or eight states with public meetings. including New York and New Jersey and st. Louis and I continue to receive several requests every week to come and participate in public meetings and radio stations because people are outraged and concerned that somehow this drug problem is not going away and I questioned the idea that the government could be involved. this committee to get involved in public policies that would prevent our government from getting involved in any way and while it does this, why hasn't something been said about General Dávila in Honduras, who was also a CIA asset who was caught putting a ton of drugs on the plane the drugs came to the United States and were sold on the streets and that was recently and we still haven't heard a word when I checked with the Department of Justice and they told me they can't say anything and I guess you have information that you can't say anything about, but I believe that somehow we have to improve the lives of our children and our communities are at stake.

I thank you and I present this for the record and for more information and documents if you wish to have them thank you very much to the lady for her testimony at this time I would like to swear in mr. hits I want to congratulate Congresswoman Waters for the obvious amount of work and effort that is done here and I want you to know that we are certainly willing to meet with you and your staff, we want as much information as you have so that because We are in a, like you You know, we're going to do our own investigation, the Inspector General is going to present his report, but this committee has committed that we will have our own independent investigation, so all the work that you have done.

I would like to benefit from it and I commend you for your efforts. Thank you so much. We would obviously appreciate any comments from either of our two colleagues who are here today or from any other colleagues who may see these proceedings or be interested in this. They have about this report, which is the subject of our hearing and which in fact is now going to be officially presented to us by Mr. headed by mr. Bosses, may I ask you to raise your right hand? Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

I appreciate you joining us today. I would advise members that mr. hits went out of his way to accommodate our schedule. I believe he has been without sleep for at least a couple of days in order to travel back here and we are beholden to that consideration. Well, I'm in Florida and I hope you'll introduce us. any comments you would like on this report. Thank you, sir. The Chair and I assure the committee that I am happy to be here today and look forward to answering your questions regardless of the distance I have traveled. I feel a little like we had dessert first.

They were very serious and thorough. discussion by people in Congress about their views on my report, so I am happy to have the opportunity now to summarize it for you and, although this is a long statement, I ask that you be patient because I think it is very important. For the record, when I appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in an open session on October 23, 1996, I reported that, at the request of the then Director of Central Intelligence, John Deutsch, on September 3, 1996, I immediately initiated An investigation into the allegations arose from a three-part series called Dark Alliance that ran in the San Jose Mercury News in August 96.

That series discussed the drug trafficking activities of several individuals who had been involved in drug trafficking. cocaine in California, as you know, the series also suggested that the Nicaraguan Contras described as the CIA army benefited from the drug trafficking activities of Ricky Ross, Danilo Blandón Norwin Meneses and others and that these activities were responsible for the emergence of crack kein in south-central Los Angeles and other parts of the United States. The series also hinted that the CIA may have been involved in drug trafficking or at least had knowledge of and approval for those activities on October 23, 1996.

I promised Congress and the American people that my office would carry out as exhaustive a review as possible of all available information. and report what we find truthfully and completely. I am pleased to be able to stand before this committee today and say that we have done just that. On December 17, 1997 we published our classified investigative report, a volume called The California Story, which focuses specifically on CIA knowledge and actions taken regarding the people and events that were the focus of The Mercury News series. just over a month ago.Later, on January 29 of this year, we published this report in an unclassified version following a classification review by the agency.

I think those of you on the committee who read the classified version of volume 1 and had the opportunity to compare it to the unclassified version. The version will agree that the information on this matter that is now publicly available does not differ significantly from that presented in the classified report. Our purpose is to provide the American public with the relevant facts without compromising the national security-related information that the DCI is required by law to protect. Our report presents a comprehensive set of facts and allows me to reiterate what I said before the Senate Select Committee at 96: We will present the unvarnished truth as we find it and do it to the best of our ability.

Today I can say that we have done just that: we reviewed approximately 250,000 pages of documents and used the information obtained from these documents to conduct more than 365 interviews with people on four continents. These interviews included current and former directors and deputy directors of Central Intelligence. former senior agency staff staff secretaries communicators logistics staff operations officers lawyers present and former CIA asset contractors law enforcement personnel former counternarcotics leaders convicted drug traffickers and others our investigative team went to great lengths To obtain relevant documents, we sent officers to the National Archives to review records compiled by the Office of the Independent Counsel for Iran-Contra Affairs.

We examined the CIA's own Iran-Contra records, which comprised about 300 linear feet of agency and other documents. executive branch documents we worked directly with the DEA, the FBI, and the Department of Justice IG to obtain relevant information from The files of those organizations that we reviewed reported other intelligence community agencies, including the NSA and the DIA, that had been shared with the CIA. We contact each other. Day. We contacted the DOJ's National Drug Intelligence Center and the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center to seek more information that we reviewed available. congressional records that include relevant information compiled by the Cary Committee and the Intelligence Oversight Committees and spoke with individuals associated with the Joint Iran-Contra Investigative Committee and the Office of the Independent Counsel for Iran-Contra Affairs.

It is important to note that Mr. . president that our investigation was not intended to prove or disprove allegations of drug trafficking by specific individuals or organizations, but rather our team of 17 people worked about 18 months to identify, let me first underline any information in the possession of the CIA related to Danilo Blandón Norwin Meneses or Ricky Ross. Number two, any information in the CIA's possession that leads to possible drug trafficking activities by the Contras in California and elsewhere in the United States and what action, if any, the CIA may have taken upon receiving that information and, third, any contact between the CIA and law enforcement authorities.

Regarding that information, I believe that our investigation is the most complete and exhaustive ever conducted by the CIA Office of Inspector General and that the investigation report accurately reflects what our team found, having said that one may wonder if It is possible that there is some relevant document that we did not find or some relevant person that we did not interview that would alter our conclusions. As for the docs, the answer is yes, it is possible, but I don't think it is likely. As for people, the report explains that six former CIA employees and one former DEA agent declined our request to be interviewed;

We had no power to force them to do so given the effort I have described; However, I do not think it is likely that there was significant information that would have substantially altered the conclusions of this volume. has escaped our attention now let me turn to the conclusions of volume one before continuing. I want to be clear that we found absolutely no evidence to indicate that the CIA as an organization or its employees were involved in any conspiracy to bring drugs into the country. United States, the first half of Volume One discussed the CIA's knowledge of the activities of Ross Bland, owned by Ross Bland, and Manesis, Ross Bland, and many Cs are convicted drug traffickers.

Our investigation found no information indicating that any past or present CIA employee or anyone else acting on behalf of the CIA had any dealings with Ross Insulso or Manesis or had any knowledge of his trafficking activities. Ross was a drug trafficker. drugs which, by his own admission, he says his only motivation was personal financial gain from the illegal drug trade during the 1980s Ross was a major cocaine and crack cocaine trafficker who says he made millions from drug trafficking, his activities They helped fuel the crack epidemic that broke out in South Central Los Angeles, yet Ross told us he never sold drugs for the Contras or donated money to the Contras.

The CIA never had any relationship with Ross, likewise, the owner of Bland and Manesis also trafficked drugs for personal financial gain, while the CIA had no relationship with the owner of Bland and Manesis. Our investigation found that Bland and many Cs were affiliated with California Contra support organizations and each made financial contributions to groups that owned land, and Manesis claimed to have provided between $3,000 and $40,000 in support to the Contras, although we found no Bland himself claims that by donating money, he gave the impression that it was derived from his legitimate business activities, while many C claim that their contributions came from profits from legitimate business activities.

Our investigation found that Bland Own had a personal relationship with contra Lita Eden. Pastora and who provided assistance to Pastora in the form of rent-free housing in Costa Rica and two vehicles used for personal transportation. Much of this assistance was provided to Pastora after she left theContra movement. His estate also claims that Pastora did not know he was involved in drug trafficking, which Pastora confirmed when he testified before the Senate Select Committee in November 1990. Blandón also says that he met with contra Lita Enrique Bermúdez on four occasions between 1981 and 1983. , claims that a meeting occurred in Honduras in 1982 while he and Los Mandeeces were traveling to Bolivia to conduct a drug deal.

Blandón says Bermúdez told them that the Contras were having trouble raising funds and asked him and the Mandeeces to help, stating that the ends justify the means. He himself adds that it is his belief that Bermúdez did not know. that he and Mandeecees were involved in drug trafficking, but he was aware of Moniece's alleged connections to Nicaraguan organized crime. This investigation did not find any further information on this topic. Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain information on Bermúdez as he was murdered in Managua in 1991. No information has been found to indicate that the CIA hindered or otherwise intervened in the investigation arrest prosecution conviction or sentencing of Ross Bland's property or additionally seized money Ronald J Lister or David Scott Weekly who were mentioned in the media in connection with a Bland property had no relationship with the CIA or its employees Lister, a former police officer who dealt drugs for personal gain, admits that people may have We were given the false impression that he was connected to the CIA and that he had done it and that he may have encouraged such misconceptions because our investigation benefited his private security business.

I also found no information that could be weakly connected to the drug trafficking activities of Ross Bland, Manesis himself, or Lister. The second half of our volume one, Northern California story pertains to a case in San Francisco, often referred to as the Frogman case. The case got its name when San Francisco police authorities arrested several swimmers who had disembarked from a Colombian freighter on January 17, 1983. At the time of their arrest, the swimmers were carrying about 430 pounds of cocaine. In total about 12 arrests were made on January 17 and more. shortly after, including the arrests of two Nicaraguans, Julio Ávila and Carlos Cabezas, unlike the events involving Ross Bland or Manesis himself, this was a case in which the CIA became involved because it mistakenly thought it had an interest in protecting .

The CIA first learned of the frogmen case in late July 1984, about a year and a half after Cevallo's arrest, at which time the CIA was informed that two representatives of the U.S. Attorney's Office The United States in San Francisco, which was prosecuting Zavala, planned to attend depositions in Costa Rica of two members of contra organizations who had provided Zavala with letters claiming that some of the $36,000 that authorities had confiscated from him in the At the time of their arrest they belonged to the Contras. CIA officials misidentified one of the contra members as a former CIA asset and there were concerns that the statements could expose a contra support group in which the CIA had an operational interest. found information indicating that the two contra officers who wrote the letters supporting Zavala or the organizations they were affiliated with were involved in drug trafficking, and the main author of the letters was later expelled from the group. against when his leaders learned that he had written a letter supporting Cevallo's claim and that he could not satisfactorily explain the basis for his actions;

In any case, a lawyer from the CIA general counsel's office met with the responsible prosecutor and Paz and the other representatives of the United States Attorney's Office before the CIA lawyers met with the prosecutor, the prosecutor had discussed with one of Savalas' attorneys the possibility of returning the money to Zavala rather than spending the time and money necessary to travel to Costa Rica in connection with statements that such accounts differ as to why the money was returned. to Zavala, the AUSA that prosecuted Zavala, the US attorney at the time, Joseph Russell Yellow and others involved in the prosecution claim that the decision to return the money to Zavala was not based on any CIA representation, but rather based on their own judgment on whether it was worth the time and expense of going to Costa Rica for the depositions;

However, we found a CIA cable that was written shortly after the CIA lawyer met with the responsible prosecutor, the cable indicated that the money was returned to Zavala at the request of the CIA, unfortunately the CIA lawyer cannot remember the facts of the case or the meeting in question in summary. The key points I would like to emphasize regarding the frogman case are that whatever impact the CIA lawyer may have ultimately had. Regarding the US Attorney's decision to return the money to Zavala, we have found no evidence to indicate that returning the money weakened the prosecution's case against Sevilla Savola was convicted and sent to prison Second, Carlos Cabezas, who was also arrested and convicted in connection with the frogman case claims he was part of a network that sold cocaine for the Contras we found no information to support his claim we found no information as stated in the Mercury News series to connect the mandeecees with the case of the frogmen Manesis says that he was never part of the The Sivanna organization that Zavala and Cabezas confirmed confirmed this statement.

We will soon publish volume two of our report, while volume one will focus on drug traffickers in California. Volume two will closely examine any other links between CI, a drug trafficking program, the Contra program, and Contra leaders and organizations. In volume two we will set the background by describing what the CIA's legal and regulatory liability policies and guidelines were at the time governing dealings with individuals and organizations that were subject to drug trafficking allegations. We will also explain the intelligence gathering requirements that existed at the time in relation to drug trafficking, however, the majority of volume 2 (and it is voluminous, approaching 600 pages) will be devoted to a detailed treatment of what Did the CIA know about dozens of people and the number of companies connected in some way to the Contra program or the Contra movement that were the subject of some type of drug trafficking accusation, each of them is closely examined in terms of their relationship with the CIA, the alleged drug trafficking activity, the actions the CIA took in response to the allegations, and the extent of information relating to the allegations that was shared with the U.S.

Law enforcement and Congress, As I said before, we have found no evidence in the course of this long investigation of any conspiracy by the CIA or its employees to bring drugs into the United States; However, during the Contra era, the CIA worked with a variety of people to support the Contra program including active CIA pilots who transported supplies to the Contras, as well as Contra officials and others. Let me be frank about what we are finding: There are cases where the CIA did not expeditiously or consistently cut ties with individuals addressing the Contra Program who allegedly engaged in drug trafficking activities or took steps to resolve allegations.

I went on to qualify the fact that we are talking about accusations here. Volume two will be delivered to the Director of Central Intelligence and intelligence oversight committees. as a classified report near the end of this month, to the extent possible, we and the agency are committed to producing an unclassified version of volume two as well, although the time required for that effort is uncertain to close mr. President, I urge the American public to read Volume One, which is available online at WWDC. I gov slash CIA, that report includes a lot of information and cites many documents;

Those who read it will see the full weight of our effort and will be in a position to judge for themselves about our efforts. Thank you mr. President I am pleased to answer his questions. I have spent a considerable portion of my life recently reading your materials and I can tell you that I do not expect to read another 600 pages, but I do expect to resolve this matter as quickly and thoroughly as possible, so it is good news to know that volume 2 is available. So, I would point out to my colleagues, as I said at the beginning, that we had the room until 5:00, apparently we have been able to negotiate an extension of the lease until 5:15 and if mr. hits might agree to stay until then.

I would be grateful. I would ask that members try to accommodate their questions and keep them as concise as possible in the hope that we give mr. I have the opportunity to respond. I'd like to start by asking for a characterization, if I could. I would like you to characterize the cables and materials that were reviewed in terms of your comments related to people known to be involved in drug trafficking. The cables and materials simply acknowledge the fact that the cables and materials instructed people to stay away from these people if there were any warnings or suggestions that CIA officers should stay away from people who traffic drugs and, in In fact, they should be informed accordingly, as you know, Mr.

President, since at least the calendar year 1986, there was a prohibition in place on CIA money going to individuals or groups that were involved in drug trafficking . As a consequence, I would have to answer his question by saying that for the most part that tone is restrained. on the cables, but it must be recognized that the nature of the accusations varied on many occasions, in some cases they were wild rumors that circulated in the area and some of the accusations were more deeply rooted and, once again, I am afraid You are going to You'll hear this from me in response to a series of questions when we move beyond the specific individuals and acts that were covered in volume one, the history of California.

You will have to be patient and wait for volume two. where, in fact, the allegations that were the subject of some of those that were wired are central to our investigation. Thank you, regardless of what your report says on its own and I know you talk about this a bit generally. The materials used in their investigation were either produced solely by the CIA or included materials from other intelligence agencies. No, we had very good cooperation, as you know, from other agencies, particularly the Department of Justice and the DEA, to the extent that the CIA records contained information from other agencies.

Department of State, for example, that we were able to review that also with respect to the people who refused to be interviewed by your office, did they give you any reason for their unwillingness to participate in this? I assume you don't have subpoena power. I know, no. We don't have the power to subpoena people, thanks to the work of this committee and Congress we now have the power to subpoena documents, but we don't have the power to subpoena individuals. I spoke to several of the people. Those were just a handful who refused to talk to us, in fact I spoke to Claridge.

I think if I could characterize the attitude that I encountered and that my staff encountered it was having gone through the Iran-Contra investigation which was several years ago. they felt they had done enough, they had been through enough, they didn't believe there was any substance to the mercury accusations and they simply decided not to participate in their review, how would you characterize the CIA men's concerns regarding potential deals? with people suspected or known to be trafficking drugs, I think the prohibition on providing money to anyone associated with drug trafficking was foremost on the minds of the managers involved in that period and seemed to be reflected in cable trafficking, but again I will have to wait for volume 2 because you will see that some of the drug trafficking allegations seemed to be more substantial than others and that would weigh and some of the positions taken and ultimately for me, sir. bosses, did you interview any of the following?

Gary Webb no, we didn't Sandra Smith Sorry, sir. President, who was this Sandra Smith? You say, sir. Smith as the lead DEA agent in the first of the Dark Alliance stories, the supposed source of the beginning of this, no, no, no, salarino Castillo, we are trying, together with the Department of Justice, to resolve the circumstances under which we could take mr. Castillo's testimony and we could not do it. Thank you so much. I will have a number of additional questions and I know that all of us who have invested the time and I think all the committee members and obviously the colleagues who are interested in this, Well, we will send you recorded questions in writing if that is okay with you.

Thank you Mr. Mr. Dicks, I wantthank you for your excellent work over the years and your cooperation with this committee. I have had the opportunity to work directly with you, I think, for almost 20 years and, although we are very concerned about this issue, We are also not very happy, but the amount of work and effort that you have put in here and again, as I said before, we will take all the facts that Congresswoman Waters has and has gathered with our committee staff and members will look at it. I urge you, as I understand it, Congresswoman Waters has written you a series of letters so that you have benefited to some extent from some of her concerns.

I have had the pleasure of corresponding with both people in Congress. I am entitled to and congratulate both of our outstanding California representatives for their continued efforts on this matter. I am concerned and I thank you for being frank. I want to read this again. There are cases where the CIA did not do it. in any expeditious or consistent manner, sever relations with people who support the Contra program and who allegedly participated in drug trafficking activities or take steps to resolve the allegations now that that is a concern, can you give us more, yes, more sense that Since you're getting volume 2 before the end of the month, I didn't think it was appropriate to be completely silent about what you might expect to see, it's a preview of sorts, but I have to be very careful and I think the key word in the passage you just read from my testimony is accusations, that's where Mr. dicks is going to fall is on how those accusations were weighed and you are going to make a judgment like my colleagues at this table do when they read the report on whether we respond or not and whether or not the agency responded appropriately in addressing those allegations, but that's why Volume 2 of the report will be 600 pages because we wanted to look at each of these cases in some detail and your view is that there was no consistent policy on how it should be treated or handled well. 86 prohibition of dealing with any individual who was making money available to any individual who was involved in drug trafficking, as I say, was foremost in the minds of the managers and car fondants at headquarters who dealt with these situations, but the point is that they were also in As you remember, there was a significant effort involved in maintaining the Contra movement and what you will see is a situation in which, if the accusation was flimsy or fourth and fifth hand, such Maybe the quest to bring that accusation to the ground was not as expeditious as "I don't want to soften it" might have been, but that seems to be the way these things were handled.

Was there an effort to try to interview Oliver North or any of the other directors involved during the Reagan administration? In the Iran-Contra affair we did not attempt to interview Oliver North and limited our interviews primarily to CIA officials. Let me check with my staff here. Yes, and you must understand Mr. Dix that we felt that we knew a lot about what Oliver North's testimony was because we had access to all the records of his testimony before Iran-Contra. What did you ever question about this topic? No, no, it wasn't. I would urge that You know, that sounds like it's one person, I think we should go interview him or maybe this committee has to interview him, but because of the incredible efforts he went to to fund this operation properly, I think it poses a very serious problem. serious and because of the short time mr. president I will, I will end there thank you for his good work and I want to thank you for his good service to the CIA and the country, thank you mr.

Dix, Miss Louis and my colleagues. I very much appreciate the opportunity to participate in this session today, as I did so in the first of two hearings in Los Angeles. I want to congratulate my Los Angeles colleagues, Ms. Millander McDonald, as well as Maxine Waters for her efforts here, sir. successes I also appreciate that you made the effort to come and be with us today and I want to express our gratitude for your long service to the country and for the challenge and the problem that we face here in dealing with drug trafficking in the United States.

The United States, of course, is a major concern for all of us in Congress. I would like to endorse the statement of my colleague, mr. Dixon who says that it is not just a problem of Congress, but a problem of the nation, because all of our people are affected by the scourge of drugs in our society, Mr. Hidden Side I have a number of questions. I will summarize them, a series of questions related to the activity of Los Angeles and I would ask you to answer them to the best of your ability at this time and you can add something else if you feel like it.

It is appropriate if the CIA had knowledge of drug trafficking by active CIA agents or employees in Los Angeles between the periods of 1979 and 1996 and if any contra organization received any financial support from drug trafficking in the United States during that same period. as you know mr. Lewis, our report indicates what blonde and mini C owners told us they made contributions to contra support groups of between $3,040,000 each regarding the first part of your question again, we were focusing primarily on the San Jose Mercury allegations and the content of the Contra connection and in regards to that we found no knowledge on the part of the CIA of a drug linked to Congress, Mr.

Trump, could I ask you just one additional question and add a few more If you could, mr. At that time, what were the CIA's legal and regulatory responsibilities from 1979 to 1996 with respect to reporting potential crimes and maintaining relationships with people suspected of being involved in drug trafficking, and what did the CIA do with the information about suspected drug trafficking? Well, it was a moving party, so to speak, during part of the period that you were talking, from '76 to '82, it was an issue that was not really addressed, but from '82 to '95, in an agreement, as I understand it, between Attorney General Smith and the During the Reagan administration there was no requirement to report drug trafficking allegations regarding non-employees of intelligence agencies and during that period non-employees did not include CIA agents did not include assets of intelligence agencies.

The CIA that was amended in the 1995 agreement that replaced the 80 to 95 period specifically lists narcotics crimes as reportable regardless of whether or not the agency acquires information that they are being perpetrated by non-employee family assets as a matter practice and you will see once again in Volume 2 that there are extensive instances where we passed news of drug trafficking allegations to authorities during that period, but that defining situation is the one I just described. Thank you very much, Mr. Head Mr. President, I will give you back the rest of my time. We have a long list of questions here and I appreciate the time.

Thank you so much. Mr. president and mr. hits I am, I join those who are sorry to see you go, I understand that you are leaving for Princeton University, but with proper notice, can you remain available for consultations or testimonials if we give you enough notice of course, and I will not be going to nowhere before? on April 30, oh, but in your testimony today and in the frogman case, which I know you spend a lot of time on, you say that the CIA got involved by mistake, as I recall, your report indicates that a CIA lawyer traveled north.

California and I had a conversation with the prosecutor. I think his testimony today reflects that he was unable to find written material from the attorney who actually had that engagement with the prosecutor. What we found, of course, and I think he's familiar with this. Sir. Dixon is the article that the general counsel's office did commenting on that particular exchange that the intervention with the fact associations does not remember it correctly and that the article was not done by the person who was involved well we don't know we don't know who did it he did, that's right, he doesn't remember it, now you come to the conclusion that they interceded because of a mistake and I think the report indicates that it is a mistake, identity of someone with whom the CIA had a relationship, that's correct, sir.

Dixon, one of the signatories, let me back up a little bit and for you and others who may not have delved into the details of this particular part of the report, we don't, the CIA did not get involved in frogman. The case did not take place until several years after the arrest and was a consequence of a State Department cable from Costa Rica that said that a lawyer, a private attorney and lawyers from the United States Attorney's Office in San Francisco, were at about to come to Costa. Rica to take the deposition of two signatories of a letter that had been addressed, I assume, to the United States Attorney's Office to claim the $36,000 that had been confiscated during Savala's arrest and that the stairs we can tell by the way in that the matter was reviewed what documents show in the attorney general's office the letter came from what appeared to be contra support groups or on behalf of contra support groups and one of the signatories misidentified the agency as the one from an asset, was a hispanic name that was remarkably close to the name of an agent who had worked for us on the event, since it was, as you suggest, a case of mistaken identity, the other signer, mr.

Aviles was known to us and, although he was not a CIA agent, he was known to hold a position in a contra support group, so he was unable to locate the active lawyer who was actually involved in this and therefore Therefore, he could not tell him what he thinks, his way of thinking, it seems that what they were trying to do was protect the identity of the GRU connection supporting the contras and in that way see if they could prevent it from being revealed. I guess what I'm asking is, did your investigation make an independent assessment that this was a mistake or is this something that the CIA said that you didn't tell us and in fact we were the ones who found out that the identity of the agent was wrong?

Let me focus on another question and that in the case of the frogman there is a gentleman named Gómez Iván Gómez who his report indicates that in fact I assume that he was a contracted employee of the CIA is correct, yes, but I think that if I remember correctly and I'm asking my so she came to find him. I think there was a mistaken identity with the respective Gomez and he was not there well. I want to get to that, that's the point I'm asking this question here. The fact is that he was supposedly named by Cabasa he would have been at a meeting and at least according to the report you did everything possible to try to verify this, you showed Cabasa 16 photographs, yes, and you did not manage to properly identify the gentleman in any way. moment between the exhibition of the photographs and the event. that supposedly happened, but do you have any independent information about where mr.

Gómez was at the time of this meeting, if you'll excuse me, I'll quickly read the section here, since it remembers mr. Dixon in paragraph 233 of the report on page 86 we did stipulate that the reason we believed it was not the same even Gomez was because he was in the United States and not in Costa Rica during the period in which the meeting supposedly occurred that Cabezas described. It happened now, I mean, I think the committee will investigate this, but in 85 at 231 and 86 at 234 you say that maybe these people got this name Ivan could Gomez because it had been published in the newspaper, yes, but it was published in El newspaper after the statement was made is correct I see, so I don't understand how that supports the fact that they could have picked this up from the newspaper or are you suggesting there was some clandestine conversation before it arrived?

My associate here reminded me that, in fact, we were told about this in 1997 when we interviewed Cabezas and that of course, as you suggest, it is not clear in this paragraph and, finally, did you ask mr. Gomez Ivan Gomez did attend this meeting, yes, we attended and what was your response, do not excuse me, water. Thank you, sir. President, yes, to begin with, let me ask you a broad general question: Did your office uncover any information that would have indicated that there was any authorized or unauthorized U.S. government activity that would have facilitated narcotics trafficking in the United States? or abroad?

No, we didn't. I didn't find any information to suggest that it was authorized and me, the unauthorized course, that's the trigger. All we were trying to say here, Mr. Gibbins is that for the most part we go to the written record, the documentation that we were able to find in our own records, that we were able to gather from the transportation committee files, the Walsh committee files Obviously, if it wasn't authorized in the purest sense that there wouldn't be a record of it, what we used the documents for as well, of course, was to shape the way we interrogated the people involved.

We knew what the record was so we could ask intelligent questions, that was our methodology, but I found no evidence of a plan to promote the Contra effort by selling drugs. CIA employees? Thank you, Sir. Did your investigation uncover anything and evidence indicating that the CIA had a relationship with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department? Could you excuse me for a minute? I want to make surethat I am right and answer the question: do you mean mr. Gibbons in relation to the Contras or just in general, well, what I'm looking for is to find out if the CIA played any fundamental role or any role in a process, whether judicial or administrative, in the prosecution of former Los County sheriff's deputies Angels or deputies on corruption charges no, we did not do it.

Thank you mr. President and I give you back the rest of my time again. I want to congratulate you for having this hearing open, but I would request that we have another opportunity to question the Inspector General about this report because the room will not be available long enough for all of us to ask even a substantial portion of our questions. I agree with that and we will agree with the observation that we will not have the opportunity to ask all the questions and mr. Hitch agreed to take something in writing and I know there will be many, I have several, I know others will and I said in my opening remarks that the committee will proceed as the committee sees fit so that the options remain.

I appreciate that mr. Chairman because I think if we engage when the committee does it is while the committee is doing its own investigation, the information, the answers to these questions, I think would be very helpful and, in fact, might even save time at that time, mr. Bosses, I would like to know what the ground rules were during this period of contact between the attorneys in the CIA Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Offices when a prosecution might involve matters related to CIA operations and after that. yes the Indians but and in their own judgment, the contact between the CIA and the United States Attorney's Office in this case was appropriate, we were trying to find what the precise guidelines were that governed the contact during this period and I don't think that has been successful where not.

I don't think there was anyone who accepted good judgment, and obviously the CIA's responsibility to report crimes to the Department of Justice is specific and detailed and has existed for a long period of time. As to your second question, you can see from our report, which is one of the reasons we looked at it in such detail, that there appears to have been a difference in the interpretation of the appropriateness of the contact between the individual attorney who participated in it. and what was stated in its wording. that he felt he was entering an area that could cause embarrassment to the president's covert action activity in the Contra affair and on drugs, his superior several months later, writing a report on the status of this entire event, felt that he was a howler of calamities, I certainly believe There would have been better and more diligent performance of the task if they had avoided the initial mistake if they had known that the author of the letter committed the crime, the person who filled out the affidavit that he drew or was potentially going to bring out the The federal prosecutor in Costa Rica to carry out the statement was not actually a CIA asset, but in fact, concern over information that came to light about a contra support group appears to have been as close as can be seen in the written record, an honest mistake.

You are very generous Mr. general Inspector. You made the reference that, of course, the CIA would have to report any potential violations of the law to the Department of Justice. I wasn't really worried about that direction. I was concerned whether the United States Attorney's Office would perhaps not proceed in a way for the reason that you just said not to jeopardize the activities of the CIA. I'm worried about the opposite, well, I don't think so. I think we're probably splitting it up too much. There I can, my experience with the US attorneys' offices. Miss Pelosi has said that if the United States Attorney felt that he or she had a case in this matter, no CIA intervention would have warned them that they would have done so and I think that is appropriate, but in this case at least it The written record suggests that they were trying to get some accommodations that the general counsel's office was trying to get some accommodations on the issue of the information that was coming out about the Contra Support Group.

We found no evidence that Contra support group in this context was involved. in drug trafficking I appreciate that while we're drawing fine lines, we wanted to interpret your response to one of the previous questions about contact between the CIA and the sheriff's office in Los Angeles County, you said in general or in this case . and then responded specifically in this case with an assumption that generally there is well, again, my experience is not extensive in the area of ​​law enforcement on how the general counsel's office relates to the Sheriff's Department, not even one . as important as Los Angeles County, so I wanted to be specific about that particular issue, but frankly, the guidelines from the early '80s probably weren't as explicit as they are today because there's a lot more interaction on drug issues and terrorism and other law enforcement. questions mr.

President, I know we don't have much more time so I'm not going to ask any more questions, but I would like to make a couple of observations that would have been reflected in my questions and that is that I certainly hope Oh, that this report is true because I would hate for it to come to the conclusion that the federal government was involved in drug trafficking to benefit the Contras at the expense of the American people, especially the vulnerable communities that were attacked, but as I hear what you say, Mr. Hyde and I appreciate that you set out your limitations, you don't have the power to subpoena people, the guidelines were not clear, certain things were not reportable at the time, for example if an asset we were and were committed to was involved in drug trafficking and that leads me to conclude that it is possible that unintentionally and I use that word generously we have been subsidizing assets that are dedicated to drug trafficking and at our own risk.

I'm glad that the law has changed, that now at least it's reportable but me for the moment. I cannot for the life of me understand why, as you say in your statement, that we, the CIA did not know if these assets, if these people were involved in drug trafficking, we should at least know if it is reportable or not, we know that we are pretty new as cih and we know this listening to pence thing is our business or something. Well, we are quite categorical. Oh, Miss Pelosi, on the issue of property land and seized money and your lack of relationship with the CIA, Ricky Ross.

Also, you'll have to bear with us because in volume 2 we'll be tackling a greater volume of accusations and moving away from those central figures, but I think you can accept that volume one is pretty categorical to the point of being bland. own manesis Ricky Ross weekly and Lister well, I just think maybe in our investigation we can talk to the people you couldn't quote, we can find out why it wasn't worth thirty-five thousand dollars or thirty-six thousand dollars to go to Costa . Rich for a statement and we can find out if the CIA misidentified someone they want, if they hadn't misidentified someone as well, if they can make a mistake in one direction, they could make one in another direction as well, that doesn't mean that within the limitations that the inspector general has, which has not made a good effort to make a presentation to us, but I am afraid that it leaves open some questions that I hope will be closed, but in any case, I thank you for your testimony today.

Thank you mr. president Thank you mr. president of heaven, I think it is appropriate to make the observation that this exercise runs up against the inherent impossibility of proving the negative that we are trying to establish that something did not happen and that is always a ripe field for people who for whatever reason want see conspiracy or deception or whatever, so they have a heavy burden to overcome, in that sense most of us are familiar with what the inspectors general are, but certainly not all of us with what the country is like and with the attention paid In this matter I thought it would be helpful to invite you to explain who you are officially who you work for who you report to who you report to Do you know if you are an agent of the Director of Central Intelligence will be happy to try, Congressman Skaggs and I appreciate your previous comments.

We have had a long friendship and I hope it continues even after you leave Congress and I leave this job. I was appointed to this position in 1990 by President Bush. I am the first statutory Inspector General of the CIA. This committee played a huge role in creating the statute that gave rise to the position. I think it's fair to say that it arose from some of the limitations that the administrative IG was seen to suffer from because the Iran-Contra affair revealed that we are supposed to be elected on a non-partisan basis. You specifically instruct us to follow the trail wherever it leads.

We have independent contracting authority, although we obviously adhere to CIA security rules and I report. to the Director of Central Intelligence I am an employee of the executive branch but my reports do not end there. This committee benefits from a semi-annual report of our activities that sets out what inspections, investigations and audits we have carried out during the previous six-month period and we come to this committee on extraordinary occasions, we have done so twice to report significant violations of the rules and, frankly, without the legislative branch's interest in the work we do, I'm sure we couldn't do it now.

We have the authority to compel depositions, not by subpoena, of all current CIA employees. They are subject to dismissal if they do not respond to our questions and there are no files or other materials that are beyond the scope of our search. The Director of Central Intelligence could stop them. an audit or investigation for vital national security reasons if you choose, but you would have to state your reasons for doing so and report to this committee and that has not happened during my tenure, so I appreciate your question so I can lay that out. The director of Central Intelligence cannot, or at least in this case he did not attempt, to control the investigation of him in any way.

He did not do it. The IGS office staff who assisted in this investigation. Can you give us a sense of the extent to which those individuals are IG career staff, as opposed to people who may return to the agency after touring with you, we are 90% career cadre in terms of the makeup of our Research Committee and I suspect the other 10% will choose to stay. with us too the point is that, and one of the things that hasn't been mentioned here, this was a 17 person effort, it took us 18 months, it's a prodigious amount of work and, as you suggest, it's difficult simply because of the difficulty in trying to prove or at least face an accusation and determine if it is well founded or not, but no, ours is a career chart and I think it is appropriate that it remains that way, so we should not be afraid that some of the people that worked on this, we are taking action because eventually there will be next year or the year after or whenever we return to the agency to work with colleagues who might be critical of what is right and in most cases they will. to be able to make a hit, they would have had to do a full view of some of their colleagues on this team and it wouldn't have been washed out and we would have seen it in terms of the sources of the reviews, no, I don't have.

No, I am not at all concerned that blows have been struck here, thank you sir, thank you sir. Scalli mr. Bishop, good afternoon, no, and thank you very much, sir. President, please allow me to apologize for my misdeeds in arriving here. I had a two-hour mechanical delay with my flight and the holding of this hearing and I welcome the witnesses. I also want to congratulate Mr. Visits I have read the report I have a statement that I will submit for the record but I would like to make several comments, the first of which I very much appreciate the scope and level of detail of your report in volume one sir . hits and I want to join my colleagues in congratulating him on his retirement from the CIA and I wanted to take this opportunity to join them in thanking him for his service to the agency in our country.

I would also like to make the observation that the allegations of CIA involvement in the introduction and distribution of crack cocaine, as alleged in the Mercury articles, are very, very serious and really created a firestorm and in minority communities It immediately drew comparisons to the Tuskegee syphilis study, which of course you know. The border cones were injected with syphilis germs and were not treated for study purposes and injecting this type of communicable disease into our community is horrible and it is a terrible thing for the government to do in these times. the introduction of drugs are the allegations of the introduction of drugs, cocaine, crack cocaine into our community, is equally bad and reprehensible and we certainly think it is appropriate that this committee and the agency and all interested parties really get to the bottom of the matter and I commend them.

For himeffort, I want to ask you a couple of questions about it. I note that the investigation report indicates that he reviewed more than a quarter of a million pages of documents between September of '96 and December of '97. He interviewed more than 365 people. and with all the interviewing and reviewing documents and obtaining what we believe to be relevant information, let me ask you in doing all of this, did your office receive the full and complete cooperation and support of the Central Intelligence Agency management? yes we did mr. Bishop and I believe we did so, at least in part and in no small measure, because of the concern you expressed earlier in your comments.

I believe the allegations were taken extremely seriously by CIA senior management when the San José Mercury pieces first appeared. This committee has clearly taken them seriously and put as many people into the investigation as we have. I have been equally concerned, so my cooperation was complete. Did current employees provide information cooperatively? Has any government agency official, state agency, or individual tried to influence you? an investigation in no way, no, we had good cooperation and no one tried to pressure us, a fellow CIA prosecutor who couldn't remember the facts of the case or the meeting and a question that doesn't seem like full cooperation to me, well, again, Sir. .

Dix is ​​edible in the sense that we would like to have gotten his if he was the person who wrote the document and he is the person who made the intervention with the US attorney's office, it would have been helpful if he had remembered it, but we had a pretty good written record and actually that's what we were stuck with thanks for relenting you're welcome could you tell me what the CIA's legal and regulatory responsibilities were from '79 to '96 with respect to reporting on possible crimes and maintaining relationships? with people suspected of being involved in drug trafficking in areas of Los Angeles.

I think just before you arrived I told a rather strange story; in fact, the period from 82 to 95 was one in which there was no obligation to report. regarding drug trafficking allegations regarding non-employees of the agency and were defined to include agents, assets, non-staff employees that has since changed since 95, that being said, I want to say that it was the agreement that was reached between the then Attorney General Smith. and the agency there are numerous cases of referral of allegations of criminal activity to law enforcement during that period that in fact turned out to involve assets. I was also going to ask if the CIA intervened or played a role in any of the judicial investigation processes. involving the prosecution of former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies on corruption charges No, we did not uncover any evidence about the agency's attempts to recruit my partner Rupert, who was a former Los Angeles police officer who claims to recognize the CIA ties to the one we found that we found There is no evidence of efforts like the CIA ever made in a relationship with Mr.

Robert, and if so, what was the nature of that? I think it's detailed in the report, not any, none, and I assume you've already covered this, regardless of whether or not the CIA had any information about drug trafficking activities in Los Angeles. Individuals affiliated with the Contra movement assume they've already covered it, and to repeat, our focus on this California story was the involvement of CIA employees with whatever assets were trafficking drugs and the Contras, so as you know , we have been informed about the statements of both Mandeeces in their own right that they made the profits of their drug operations between 3040 thousand dollars available to support groups of the contra, but there was no participation of the CIA in that yes in the procedures that You Outland indicated that there were several people that you did not interview because they refused to give information.

That is correct, excuse me, yes, and do you think that the result of the investigation would have been different if you had been able to have access to them and that testimony? We do not believe so. We would like to have taken your testimony to be absolutely sure, but we don't believe it at the moment. I appreciate that the chairpersons indicated that we will continue this at the discretion of the committee at a later time and with that I will leave my questioning and thank you very much, sir, yes. Thank my Lord. Bishop Miss Bishop, thank you.

I wanted to make a very brief final comment to Mr. idiots, but before I do that I wanted to also point out once again that we are very grateful to our colleague, a member of this committee, a very valuable member of this committee and a member of Congress who was also a high-ranking and valued member, the Mr. Julian Dixon for the extraordinary amount of work done, it is not to say that all the other members have not performed very honorably and have not done their duties either, but mr. Dixon has been preeminent but I wanted to thank him publicly for that and I will hand him over very briefly to respond to Mr. president, but I don't want to give the impression that I don't believe in the committee, that the job is done and, honestly, nothing good.

Actually, I was preparing you for what's coming next, mr. Penises agree with those very good comments from Mr. The chairman, Congressman Dixon, has done an excellent job going back to the question I asked him about the second report. You indicated that his research found cases in which the CIA did not cut ties quickly and consistently. with people who supported the Contras and who had allegedly engaged in drug trafficking, did any of these accusations involve trafficking in the United States? Yes, did any of these allegations involve trafficking in California? I knew that was covered by Not specifically Did your investigation attempt to resolve these allegations well frankly mr.

Dicks, we wanted, we wanted to highlight the accusations and the exchange of information. I don't think we've taken any position on that, but you'll see that when we put them out there, I think they'll be in a position. to make your own decision about the seriousness of the allegations and reach your own conclusions. Thank you, mr. president thank you mr. Dicks, we're past the appointed time and I know we've added even more to the length of your already long day, sir. hits book we are very grateful, since you can see that there is a lot of interest; indeed, there will be several follow-up questions on this topic as we move forward with our investigation at the Select Committee.

I want some of those areas of questions that I'll ask you. I want to give you a little heads up. I don't know if you've done any costing work, but we're interested in how much this is costing and realizing that you have so many hundreds. of thousands of pages of documents, we are looking at it a little bit from the point of view of the fairness of our staff, and the second thing I would like to point out to members is that I have promised that we are going to move forward, we all know that we are and No We are necessarily going to suggest that we are tall, this will be done publicly.

However, I would say to members that there has been a lot of testimony and concern about these seven members who refused to participate, mr. Hudson's efforts that we have been in contact with, I understand with all seven of them and we have varying degrees of response, so I offer it just as a sign of commitment to moving forward with this if you are talking about mr. Strickland of this report without any objection. Finally, I would like to ask one last question, mr. head, so if I could, I have read this report very closely, it is a limited report, it focuses, as you say, on a specific set of accusations, the report I think is very clear and what it says is signed by you, If he did? sign this report without reservation and support what this report says that I did and that I do thank you very much I appreciate everyone's attention and participation in this meeting it has concluded