Allies’ Narcotics Ties Allegedly Ignored Under Reagan : U.S. Contra Policy Stalled Drug War, Panel Says

The Reagan Administration severely hindered its own war on drugs as it “delayed, halted or interfered” with anti-drug operations that clashed with its determination to aid rebel forces in Nicaragua, a Senate subcommittee concluded Thursday.

The panel said that the Administration repeatedly ignored evidence that its allies in the effort to oust Nicaragua’s Sandinista government--including members of the Honduran military, Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega and the Contras themselves--were actively providing support and protection to drug trafficking.

Most of the evidence amassed in the 437-page report of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on narcotics, released by Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), was made public previously.

Kerry contended that it documents a pattern of duplicity so glaring as to justify immediate remedies.

‘Valuable Support’

“The war on drugs must not in the future be sacrificed to other foreign policy considerations,” the report says.

The document notes that at one point in 1985, the late CIA Director William J. Casey explained that he did not denounce Noriega for his relationship with drug traffickers because the strongman “was providing valuable support for our policies in Central America, especially Nicaragua.”

Noriega later took advantage of his close relationship with the Drug Enforcement Administration by providing confidential DEA intelligence to drug traffickers, the report says.

The ranking Republican on the panel, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, distanced himself from the findings. He said that the subcommittee had been trying to prepare a “consensus, bipartisan draft” but that Kerry had used his chairman’s prerogative to release the version preferred by the Democratic majority.

‘Inaccuracies’ Criticized

McConnell said he agreed with “substantial portions” of the document, but criticized what he said were “inaccuracies” in reports about extensive participation by Contra fighters in drug smuggling.

The allegations, he said, were “old news” that had been extensively explored and largely refuted.

The contention that anti-drug efforts were given short shrift in relation to other foreign policy goals is widely accepted.

An earlier report produced by the State Department, for example, stated that during 1988 “political and economic instability in drug-producing areas . . . have resulted in the subordination of our drug control agenda to other pressing concerns.”

The Kerry report argued that such subordination had a considerable impact on the efforts of law enforcement agencies “to keep narcotics out of the United States.”

‘Protected’ Trade

It noted that the Honduran military, which has won U.S. backing because of its consistent support for U.S. policies in Central America, included elements that “protected the cocaine trade.”

As one remedy, the report recommended that the President be given the option to impose measured sanctions against countries involved in the production and transit of drugs. Such an approach would allow the government to apply pressure without resorting to all-out sanctions. Such severe penalties are only rarely imposed.

In another proposal, the subcommittee recommended that the State Department be required to notify Congress within 10 days after deciding for reasons of national security or foreign policy to deny a request from law enforcement agencies.

The provision, the report noted, “would ensure that Congress remain in a position to exercise oversight over such decisions.”