CIA and Drugs

It’s truly a shame that the CIA isn’t a public corporation. If it were, it could be charged under the RICO statute and forced to disband by a federal judge. I’m specifically referring to the Oct. 22 Column Left by Alexander Cockburn that refers to a recently released inspector general’s office report which essentially sustains the truth of a 1996 story that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News. The news story detailed the agency’s activities from 1982 to 1984 that supported the Nicaraguan Contras’ efforts to barter cocaine to this country for weapons to further their revolution in Nicaragua. Furthermore, I do not believe the agency would have engaged in this action without the blessings of President Reagan and Vice President George Bush. The agency went one step further by obstructing justice when it intervened in a 1984 drug case in the Bay Area. We almost impeached Richard Nixon for a far less significant obstruction of justice in 1973.

We have two notorious, uncharged criminal masterminds loose in our society, Bush and Reagan. We also have a rogue agency that answers to nobody and observes only the laws it wants to. This is not what democracy is about! It’s long past time for a change. I say abolish the CIA!

PATRICK SULLIVAN

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