Suit Threatened Over CIA-Crack Charges

Delegates to the first National African American Leadership Summit said they planned to sue the government over allegations the CIA deliberately introduced crack into black communities. “You can go to jail for conspiracy. But this is not just a conspiracy theory--this is reality,” Nation of Islam lawyer Arif Muhammad told several hundred delegates who stayed for the end of the three-day summit. Muhammad urged blacks to make lists of people who had been adversely affected by crack cocaine. He said he and several attorneys were preparing to file a class-action conspiracy lawsuit against the government. The convention was billed as a push to get Democrats and Republicans to pay more attention to the concerns of black Americans. Attendance fell far short of expectations, but about 3,000 people attended one session.