Source: Los Angeles Times; San Jose Mercury News Contact: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 (NOTE: The complete Dark Alliance series can be found at http://www.mercurycenter.com/drugs/start.htm) CIA CLEARS ITSELF IN CRACK PROBE Connection was alleged in Mercury News series; critics skeptical of government investigation BY PETE CAREY Mercury News Staff Writer WASHINGTON The Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that it played no role in launching America's crack epidemic, contradicting a key assertion in a Mercury News series published last year. That conclusion was reached after a yearlong investigation described by knowledgeable sources as ``the most extensive'' probe of itself ever conducted by knowledgeable sources as ``the most extensive'' probe of itself ever conducted by the CIA. The investigation was performed by a dozen investigators and included several hundred interviews and a review of 200,000 pages of documents, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The investigation was ordered by former CIA Director John Deutch after the Mercury News published a series in August 1996 that documented extensive drug dealings by two Nicaraguans in SouthCentral Los Angeles in the early 1980s. The series charged that the Nicaraguans, who had ties to the CIAbacked Contra rebel forces fighting to overthrow the leftist government in Nicaragua at the time, used millions of dollars of profits from the drug deals to help fund the Contras. It strongly suggested that CIA officials knew of the operation. The series further alleged that tons of cocaine sold by the Nicaraguans to a midlevel dealer in SouthCentral Los Angeles was converted to crack, launching the crack plague that devastated largely AfricanAmerican neighborhoods in the inner cities across the country. Deutch met the charges with a strong denial of any CIA knowledge of or complicity in the drug operation but ordered an internal investigation by the CIA inspector general. The report detailing the inspector general's findings was scheduled for release today but was delayed. The delay came after the Department of Justice announced it would not release its own report on the matter, which also was to be revealed this week. While sources described the CIA investigation as exhaustive, some critics remained skeptical. One source who was present when a witness was interviewed by CIA and Justice investigators said the CIA investigators argued with the witness. The disagreement occurred when the witness said that he had been told on numerous occasions that CIA personnel knew about drug dealings by people who were being used by the agency for various assignments. ``You guys don't want to know the truth,'' the witness reportedly replied. According to today's Los Angeles Times, former CIA officers who were interviewed by the agency's investigators said the inquiry did not seem very exacting and some of its targets provided little or no cooperation. ``They sent me questions that were a bunch of bullshit, and I wrote back that they were a bunch of bullshit,'' Duane R. Clarridge, a retired CIA officer who ran the covert Contra war against Nicaragua's leftist government in the early 1980s, told the Times. Clarridge, now an executive with General Dynamics Corp. in San Diego, said he refused to be interviewed by the agency's investigators. The Justice Department's report was delayed by Attorney General Janet Reno for unexplained ``lawenforcement reasons.'' Knowledgeable sources said that the release of some information in the Justice Department report might have compromised an ongoing narcotics case in California. The Justice Department also has examined allegations that the CIA or other intelligence agencies intervened in the prosecution of the two Nicaraguans profiled by the Mercury News. But its investigation was broadened early on to include instances of intelligence agency interference with the prosecution of other narcotics traffickers. According to the Times, Justice Department Inspector General Michael R. Bromwich's investigation, like the CIA's, concluded that most of the charges were groundless, officials said. The CIA apparently delayed the release of its report in deference to the Justice Department. But the delay proved to be too much for some sources, who confirmed the broad findings of the CIA report. The CIA report is the first of two parts and examines the allegations in the Mercury News series. A second part will look at the broader issue of whether the agency ever dealt with suspected narcotics traffickers. When the reports are released, several Congress members and historians of the Contra war plan to issue a call for declassification of all documents related to the investigation. While knowledgeable sources described the investigation as the most thorough ever done by the CIA of its own operations, some critics remained skeptical. The Mercury News series galvanized a number of experts, former government officials and politicians who have pushed vainly for years for a reform of intelligenceagency relationships with people used by the agency overseas. Few, if any, of those arguing for declassification expected the CIA report to conclude that it had a crucial role in the crack epidemic. Most, however, are waiting to see the completed report to determine whether investigators made a thorough effort to uncover other relationships with narcotics traffickers, beyond those profiled in the Mercury News series. The series alarmed many AfricanAmericans, who believed their neighborhoods had been exploited by crack dealers and led to Senate hearings and the CIA and Justice Department investigations. It also prompted unequivocal denial from U.S. officials and scrupulous reexamination and criticism by other major newspapers. In a May 11 column examining the series, Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos acknowledged shortcomings in the articles after an extensive internal reexamination. ``In such complex situations, good journalism requires us . . . to deal in the `grays,' the ambiguities, of life. I believe that we should have done better in presenting those gray areas,'' Ceppos wrote. ``There is evidence to support the specific assertions and conclusions of our series as well as conflicting evidence on many points.'' He concluded that the series did not sufficiently include that conflicting evidence and did not meet the newspaper's standards. Gary Webb, the reporter who researched and wrote the series, was transferred from the paper's Sacramento bureau to its Cupertino bureau 10 months after the series was published. He resigned from the Mercury News last week.