BLACK LEADERS ARE NOT SWAYED

An inhouse probe that exonerated the CIA of helping to spark the nation's
crack epidemic did nothing to erase widespread suspicions in the black
community that the agency introduced the drug to inner cities, some local
AfricanAmerican leaders said Thursday.

``It doesn't carry a lot of weight with me,'' said Tommy Fulcher, head of a
Santa Clara County antipoverty organization. ``They've investigated
themselves.''

Gayle Tiller, first vice president of the San Jose chapter of the NAACP,
compared the CIA investigators to a pack of wolves probing who killed the
chickens in a hen house.

``It doesn't make any sense,'' she said.

The probe was conducted by the CIA's inspector general, an independent
investigative unit within the agency. The investigation was ordered after
the Mercury News reported in an August 1996 series that a decade before,
two Nicaraguan drug dealers sold tons of cocaine that was converted into
crack and sold in predominantly black neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The
proceeds were then used to help fund CIAbacked rebels in Nicaragua, the
series said.

The stories sparked outrage among blacks around the country because of
persistent rumors that the government had brought crack to black
neighborhoods.

Although the CIA condemned the series and denied any involvement in the
crack trade, the series led to Senate hearings and investigations by the
CIA and the Justice Department.

But all along, AfricanAmericans had been rallying for a truly independent
probe.

``If there was any case of alleged abuse of power against a government
entity, then this is such a case,'' said Fulcher, president of Economic and
Social Opportunities.

Tiller said South Bay members of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People are disappointed and upset because the
reporter who researched and wrote the series, Gary Webb, is no longer with
the paper.

``The sentiment is basically that he was forced out because he dared to
challenge the system and he dared to report something that is not
mainstream,'' Tiller said.

Webb resigned earlier this month.

Ron McPherson, president of the board of the Santa Clara County Black
Chamber of Commerce, said that those seeking an independent investigation
do not necessarily believe the CIA did anything wrong.

``But just from a point of integrity,'' he said, ``it would seem to me an
agency outside the CIA should be responsible.''

But Neil Croskey, program director of Daytop Village Inc., a drug
counseling center in East Palo Alto, said that he didn't think the
government would ever admit to such wrongdoing.

He said he believes ``it's possible'' that the government was involved with
the drug epidemic, but that to admit involvement would open a ``Pandora's
box.''

Charlie Mae Knight, superintendent of the Ravenswood City School District,
said it would be hard for such an insidious drug to spread to every ``nook
and cranny'' of America without governmental influence.

A few years ago, Knight went back to her hometown of Valdosta, Ga. She was
amazed to find that crack was prevalent in Valdosta's poor, rural
neighborhoods.

``Most blacks probably feel that the investigation that was conducted would
not erase the notion that somehow somebody has to be responsible for
bringing this into the country,'' she said. ``We don't want to indict the
CIA, but we want to find out who's responsible.''