Congressional Inquiry Probes CIA Allegations

Conflicting strands of evidence emerged Saturday at a congressional inquiry into allegations of Central Intelligence Ageny culpability in the crack cocaine epidemic that has ravaged South-Central Los Angeles and other urban areas.

An audience of some 800 listened intently in the Compton Community College gymnasium as a parade of researchers, legal professionals, writers, law enforcement officials and community activists testified about a controversy that has set off a tidal wave of anger in the African American community.

The daylong hearing, conducted by Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Carson), was billed as a fact-finding effort--although many in the crowd appeared long-since convinced the CIA and government were partners in the birth and nurturing of the crack plague.

“I do believe that the government was involved,” said 27-year-old Keith Nathaniel, as he arrived at the hearing. In a comment typical of several interviewed, the educator said: “The American government has to own up to its responsibility.”

Such suspicions were firmed up for many by a recent series of reports in the San Jose Mercury News that alleged a Nicaraguan drug network with ties to the CIA-backed Contra rebels opened the first cocaine pipeline to the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

However, a Times investigation (See story, A1) has found that the epidemic followed no blueprint or master plan in Los Angeles and was not orchestrated by the Contras, the CIA or any single drug ring. Rather, the explosion of cheap, smokable cocaine in the mid-1980s was a hugely diversified phenomenon built by large numbers of dope-dealing operations.

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For many in the audience, the opening thrust of Saturday’s testimony--one cited repeatedly in the current controversy--seemed to lend support to the government-conspiracy theory.

Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at a nonpartisan research group that examines declassified documents, told the congressional panel there is “concrete documentation” that high government officials, including some in the White House knew of drug dealing. He cited diaries kept by former national security advisor Oliver North, which made a series of references to possible drug running by those associated with the CIA-backed Contra insurgency.

Together, he said, the diaries, other documents and the failure to crack down on the alleged drug running show the cavalier “attitudes and actions” of high government officials when it came to drug-dealing CIA allies.

That information has been widely examined and publicly available for several years. A Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, which examined the diaries and allegations of drug dealing by the Contras, concluded in 1988 that North and others in the U.S. government turned a blind eye to links between the CIA-backed rebels and drug traffickers.

However, there has been no direct link made between the references in the North diaries and the crack trade in Los Angeles, and Kornbluh did not make one Saturday.

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The audience gave a chilly reception to law enforcement officials, some of whom said they had found no evidence of CIA involvement in the crack trade. Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Greg Berg drew moans from the crowd when he said his department has turned up no one who could shed light on a CIA connection.

A phone call was patched in from former cocaine kingpin “Freeway” Ricky Ross, whom the Mercury News reported introduced crack to South Los Angeles after linking up with drug-dealing Contra associates. Ross, who is awaiting sentencing on cocaine conspiracy charges in San Diego, described selling up to 100 kilograms of cocaine a day.

He said he realized during his federal trial that the CIA might be behind his drug connection. He said former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush should be held accountable for the crack problem, as well. “If nothing else, they should be in here with me,” he said in a comment that drew sounds of approval from the crowd.

At this hearing, which was more orderly and controlled than a Crenshaw town hall gathering attended by 2,000 people earlier this month, Ross was treated with deference. One speaker told the panel Ross should be released because his testimony is central to the investigation of possible CIA links. Congresswoman Millender-McDonald didn’t go that far, but she assured Ross that the group was with him, praying for him and ready to fight to ensure he is treated fairly.