Pubdate: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 Source: New York Times (NY) Contact: (c) 1998 The New York Times Company Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Author: Associated Press CIA ADMITS NOT INFORMING ON CONTRAS The CIA failed to fully inform Congress and law enforcement agencies of reports that Nicaraguan Contras were involved in drug trafficking, according to a newly declassified agency study. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA failed to fully inform Congress and law enforcement agencies of reports that Nicaraguan Contras were involved in drug trafficking, according to a newly declassified agency study. While congressional oversight committees got some briefings during the U.S.-backed Contra wars of the 1980s, ``CIA did not inform Congress of all allegations'' linking Contras to drug trafficking, the CIA Inspector General L. Britt Snider concluded.``No information has been found to indicate that any U.S. law enforcement entity or executive branch agency was informed by CIA of drug trafficking allegations'' concerning 11 Contra-related individuals who worked with the CIA, the report said. The 410-page declassified version of the report, posted on the CIA's Web site late Thursday, provides new insights into U.S. intelligence during the Reagan years as it aided the anti-Communist Nicaraguan Contra forces. Throughout those years, House and Senate Democrats -- then the majority party in Congress -- regularly questioned the CIA about persistent rumors that the Contras were trafficking in narcotics to finance their effort to overthrow the Sandinista government. In classified briefings on Capitol Hill, CIA officials typically acknowledged only one major case of narcotics involvement by an anti-Sandinista group -- the so-called ADREN 15th of September group, which had been disbanded in 1982. But the newly declassified report links to drug allegations 58 other individuals belonging to various Contra groups. For example, the CIA had information linking 14 pilots and two other individuals involved in transport to drug trafficking. In 1984, the CIA broke off contact with one member of the Contra Sandino Revolutionary Front linked to known drug trafficker Jorge Morales but ``continued to have contact through 1986-87 with four of the (other) individuals involved with Morales,'' the report said. In the fall of 1986 and all of 1987, Congress prohibited the Reagan administration from funding any Contra group with members known to be involved in drug smuggling. In response, the IG report says, the CIA did not investigate such allegations and thus avoided invoking the funding cutoff. At a time when CIA files contained numerous cases of suspected drug trafficking by Contra-connected individuals, Alan Fiers, then chief of the CIA's Central American Task Force, was telling the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1987, ``We have uncovered no indications that any of these individuals are involved or have been involved in narcotics trafficking.'' In 1988, Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., were pressuring John Helgerson, the CIA's chief liaison to Congress, to produce information on alleged Contra drug activity. In a memo to senior CIA officials, Helgerson wrote, ``Realistically, we are likely to have to respond somehow -- fairly quickly -- to the Kerry and Pell requests regarding when we knew what.'' But Helgerson advised against passing on ``raw reporting or operational traffic'' to the lawmakers. The CIA apparently had allies on the Senate Intelligence Committee who ``were not 'taken' with the topic and were very frustrated by the tasking from Senators Kerry and Pell,'' the IG report said. Current CIA Director George Tenet and Inspector General Snider were then on the committee's staff. Then-acting CIA Director Robert Gates did try to get tough regarding contacts with drug traffickers. The IG report describes an April 9, 1987, memo from Gates to his operations chief, Clair George. Gates said it was ``absolutely imperative'' that the CIA and its Central American operatives ``avoid any kind of involvement with individuals or companies that are even suspected of involvement in narcotics trafficking.'' Apparently the memo never made it past George. ``No information has been found to indicate that this memorandum, in its entirety, was disseminated to anyone at CIA headquarters other than DDO George,'' the report states. This IG report grew out of a CIA inquiry following a newspaper series that alleged a connection between the agency and Contra-connected crack cocaine dealers. The CIA has disavowed any such connection, and the inspector general did as well in an earlier report. ``No information has been found to indicate that any U.S. law enforcement entity or executive branch agency was informed by CIA of drug trafficking allegations'' concerning 11 Contra-related individuals who worked with the CIA, the report said. The 410-page declassified version of the report, posted on the CIA's Web site late Thursday, provides new insights into U.S. intelligence during the Reagan years as it aided the anti-Communist Nicaraguan Contra forces. Throughout those years, House and Senate Democrats -- then the majority party in Congress -- regularly questioned the CIA about persistent rumors that the Contras were trafficking in narcotics to finance their effort to overthrow the Sandinista government. In classified briefings on Capitol Hill, CIA officials typically acknowledged only one major case of narcotics involvement by an anti-Sandinista group -- the so-called ADREN 15th of September group, which had been disbanded in 1982. But the newly declassified report links to drug allegations 58 other individuals belonging to various Contra groups. For example, the CIA had information linking 14 pilots and two other individuals involved in transport to drug trafficking. In 1984, the CIA broke off contact with one member of the Contra Sandino Revolutionary Front linked to known drug trafficker Jorge Morales but ``continued to have contact through 1986-87 with four of the (other) individuals involved with Morales,'' the report said. - --- Checked-by: Don Beck