Source: San Jose Mercury News Contact: Sun, 21 Dec 1997 Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: PETER KORNBLUH DISAPPEARING ACT FAILS TO LAY CIA QUESTIONS TO REST There are magicians within the U.S. government. Last week, they played a dirty trick, causing two official reports on allegations of a Contracrack cocaine connection to vanish into bureaucratic thin air. These reports one by the Department of Justice, and one by the Central Intelligence Agency are the result of more than a year of internal investigation into allegations of government complicity in the crack cocaine trade. Yielding to public outcry sparked by the ``Dark Alliance'' series that appeared in the Mercury News in August 1996, the government agreed to conduct a fullfledged inquiry into what U.S. officials know, when they knew it, and what they did about drug smuggling during the CIAsponsored Contra war in Nicaragua. Both reports were scheduled to be released last Thursday. But one day before the press conference, Attorney General Janet Reno's office abruptly canceled distribution of the 400page Justice Department report on the vague grounds that it would compromise an ongoing lawenforcement operation. The CIA then decided not to release volume one of a twovolume study it has prepared. Neither agency would say specifically when the stillsecret reports would be released. In their place come the selective leaks that are an inevitable part of the Washington spin game. Unidentified CIA officials told reporters that the CIA found ``no information to indicate that the CIA coordinated or condoned drug trafficking or had dealings with crack dealers.'' Justice Department sources asserted that there is no evidence that two prominent Nicaraguan drug dealers in California had been protected from prosecution by their alleged association with the Contras. End of story. Scandal laid to rest. But the scope of the issue has always been far broader than whether the CIA knew about the drug trafficking of Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses, as the ``Dark Alliance'' series implied. And public concern over what happened during the covert war against Nicaragua will not be allayed until the CIA and Justice Department answer a slew of questions: How did highranking U.S. officials justify consorting with major drug kingpins such as Manuel Noriega during the Contra operations? Why did CIA agents authorize certain Contra groups to take funds and equipment from known drug smugglers? How did indicted drug runners gain U.S. government contacts to ferry supplies to the rebels? Why was $32,000 seized in a drug raid of two Nicaraguan smugglers readily returned by U.S. prosecutors on the specious claims that it was Contra funds? What kept the Justice Department from expeditiously prosecuting Meneses and Blandon, two of California's most notorious cocaine wholesalers? Even though the Mercury News itself has acknowledged serious shortcomings in the series, answers to these and other questions are required to lay the matter to rest. Yet there are already signs the CIA has failed to thoroughly cover all its bases. For example, the former CIA agent in charge of the Contra war, Duane Clarridge, shows up in declassified electronic memos and White House notes as a participant in one effort to get a major Honduran drug smuggler a reduced sentence, and another effort to arrange a quid pro quo deal with Noriega. Yet Clarridge rejected the CIA inquiry as ``a bunch of bullshit.'' Such views on the part of a former official once entrusted with the security of America are hardly likely to instill confidence in this investigation. Indeed, the sudden delay in releasing the reports can only add fuel to the fire of public skepticism and cynicism about the CIA's and Justice Department's conclusions. ``It raises questions and suspicions,'' said Rep. Maxine Waters, DLos Angeles, who has been outspoken on the issue. ``In the minds of some people, it stinks.'' Indeed, although the two reports were meant to restore integrity to the process of the government, their publication when and if that occurs will not be enough to overcome charges of coverup and whitewash. Only full disclosure of the documentation upon which the reports are based can provide the credibility and accountability demanded by the issue. The CIA is reported to have gathered more than 200,000 pages of secret cables, reports and memos; the Justice Department compiled some 40,000 classified documents during its inquiry. It is imperative that both agencies release these documents to allow for informed public evaluation of their conclusions. Already three freedom of information organizations the National Security Archive, the Center for National Security Studies and the Federation of American Scientists have jointly requested ``the most complete and candid disclosure of evidence possible.'' In a letter to both agencies, Reps. Waters, John Conyers, DMich., and Ron Dellums, DOakland, have warned that closure on this issue requires the most overt display of openness on the part of the government. ``It is regrettable,'' Dellums wrote, ``that the majority of Americans currently believe that it is routine procedure for the `government' to obfuscate matters; not to confuse our enemies, but to prevent our citizens from learning about possibly shameful public acts.'' There were a number of shameful acts associated with the CIA's Contra war. And if the full reports and internal records of this history are finally declassified, it should be considered a victory for the American public's right to know what was done in its name. Anything less than full disclosure on an issue this sensitive would be a mistake; not even a Houdini could make this scandal disappear. Peter Kornbluh is a senior analyst at the National Security Archive and coauthor of ``The IranContra Scandal: A Declassified History.'' He wrote this article for Perspective in the San Jose Mercury News.