Delays Hamper Credibility of Drug Probes, Waters Says

Rep. Maxine Waters charged Thursday that delays in two reports investigating the flow of crack cocaine into South-Central Los Angeles have damaged the credibility of both investigations.

The first portion of the CIA’s report was expected to be released Thursday, but officials announced Wednesday that it would be delayed at the request of the Justice Department. That agency has completed its own study but has yet to release it.

At issue is the volatile accusation, fueled by a series of 1996 newspaper reports, that the CIA eased the way for drug smugglers who introduced crack to South-Central Los Angeles in the early 1980s. The accusations were embraced by many inner-city residents who had long searched for an explanation why crack had a disproportionate effect on many poor neighborhoods.

Knowledgeable officials told The Times on Wednesday that the CIA investigation concludes that charges that the CIA actively protected drug traffickers in California were “without foundation.”

Sources also said that a study of CIA conduct by Justice Department Inspector General Michael R. Bromwich reached similar conclusions, but that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno also ordered a delay in the release of that report for law enforcement reasons.

Waters, a Los Angeles Democrat, was one of the first to demand a full investigation of the charges raised last year by the San Jose Mercury News. On Thursday, she called upon Reno in a written statement to release both reports.

“The Justice Department has never had any credibility in the investigation of drug trafficking by the CIA or any other intelligence agency,” said Waters, accusing Reno of continuing a pattern of protecting government agencies from public scrutiny.

“The Justice Department is making the sad mistake of attempting to manage what information gets out to the public and what information is delayed,” she said. “It is clear that the Justice Department has put a hold on all investigative findings.

“They have allowed the conclusion of the CIA report to be leaked--a conclusion that there was no connection between the CIA and drug trafficking in South-Central Los Angeles.”

The Mercury News articles focused on charges that two Nicaraguan cocaine dealers in California “opened the first pipeline” between Colombia’s cocaine cartels and L.A.’s black neighborhoods and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras while the CIA stood by.

Other newspapers, including The Times, investigated the same allegations and found evidence that cocaine traffickers had contributed much smaller amounts of money to the Contras, but no proof that the CIA knew of the transactions. The Mercury News later said its allegations had been oversimplified.

CIA critics reacted Thursday with bitter skepticism to news that the CIA’s report cleared the agency.

“So after a thorough investigation, the fox concluded that it didn’t eat any chicken,” said Assemblyman Roderick Wright, a Los Angeles Democrat whose district includes South-Central. “Anyone who suspected that they were going to find themselves responsible had to be dreaming.”

The CIA’s top brass made an unprecedented public effort to rebut the allegations, including a visit last year by then-CIA Director John M. Deutch to South-Central Los Angeles. Deutch said Wednesday that he had read the CIA report and found it convincing.

Some saw the debate over the merits of the Mercury News series as a distraction that drew attention from the question of why crack had devastated poor neighborhoods more seriously than other drugs.

“Personally, I think how crack was introduced was complex and a lot of factors were involved,” said Karen Bass, executive director of the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment. “It’s more complex than appeared in the San Jose Mercury News.”

Bass said she did not expect honesty from the CIA. “I don’t know anywhere in history where the CIA has admitted responsibility for its activities,” she said.

Democratic Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald of Carson, whose invitation led to Deutch’s South-Central visit, refused to comment on the investigation until she has had a chance to read the report.

“It is up to the CIA to prove it was not involved,” she said.