MORE QUESTIONS

CIA probe of its alleged drug trafficking role suspect

The CIA described it as the most intensive investigation in the agency's
history. But the result of the yearlong probe into the CIA's reported role
in introducing crack cocaine into black neighborhoods in Los Angeles left
more questions than good answers.

Officially, the CIA investigators say they found zero evidence to support
the allegations raised in a controversial threepart series published in
1996 in the San Jose Mercury News. The newspaper reported that the spy
agency aided and abetted a drug pipeline between Colombia and the San
Francisco Bay area that operated for almost a decade. The newspaper said
that two civilian supporters of the Nicaraguan Contras sold large amounts
of crack cocaine to gangs in Los Angeles starting in 1981. Profits from
those drug sales, according to the newspaper series, were funneled to
CIAbacked Contra rebels fighting Nicaragua's leftist government.

The CIA proclaimed innocence and took issue with the paper's evidence. Thus
the investigation.

Further clouding the investigation, conducted by the inspector generals at
the CIA and the Justice Department, is the last minute decision to delay
release of both reports indefinitely citing "ongoing law enforcement
concerns."

The real truth about whether the CIA was involved in the drug trafficking
scheme may never be known, particularly with some of its former agents
questioning the agency's selfdescribed "intensive investigation." That,
coupled with the spy agency's decision to hoard the reports, does not help
its already fragile credibility on this issue.