Reno withholds inspector general report on CIA and drugs
5.18 p.m. ET (2215 GMT) January 23, 1998
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press
 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Over the Justice inspector general's objection, Attorney
General Janet Reno ordered him Friday to keep secret indefinitely a report
on how the department dealt with people and allegations described in a
newspaper series on the CIA, Nicaraguan rebels and crack cocaine dealers.

It was the first time an attorney general had ever invoked provisions of the
inspector general act that allow a report to be withheld from the public if
its release would reveal sensitive information.

The 400-page report, "A CIA-Contra Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of
the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions,'' is the product
of a 15-month investigation triggered by August 1996 articles in the San
Jose, Calif., Mercury News, Inspector General Michael R. Bromwich said in a
statement.

In a letter to Bromwich, Reno said her decision was prompted by "law
enforcement concerns unrelated to the ultimate conclusions reached in your
report.'' She did not elaborate on the reasons, but it was learned that
department officials feared release might compromise an undercover operation
that is expected to last an extended period.

"I disagree with her decision,'' Bromwich said in a statement. But he added,
"It is her decision to make under the law. I ... must abide by it.''

The law allows her to restrict any inspector general activity involving
sensitive information about civil or criminal investigations, undercover
operations, the identity of confidential sources or protected witnesses,
intelligence matters or data damaging to national security.

Reno said the report will remain secret "until I determine that the law
enforcement concerns ... no longer warrant deferral of its public release.''
She did not estimate when that would be.

Both Reno and Bromwich said the report would not be altered.

Bromwich evaluated the potential risk of damage from public release of his
document as less harmful than Reno believed and he objected because the
open-ended secrecy "could last many months,'' said one Justice official, who
requested anonymity.

The Mercury News series concluded that a San Francisco Bay area drug ring
sold cocaine in South Central Los Angeles and funneled profits to the
Nicaraguan Contra rebels for the better part of a decade. It traced the
drugs to dealers who were also leaders of a CIA-run guerrilla army in
Nicaragua during the 1980s.

The series prompted a separate investigation by the CIA inspector general.
Although the CIA inspector general report also is still secret, a senior
official said last month that it found no evidence CIA employees or agents
colluded with allies of the Nicaraguan Contra rebels involved in crack
cocaine sales in the United States.

A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the
CIA inspector general report found no link between the CIA and two
Nicaraguan cocaine dealers, Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses. The newspaper
series had said the two were civilian leaders of an anti-communist commando
group formed and run by the CIA during the 1980s.

The newspaper articles traced the origin of the crack cocaine explosion in
the United States to a crack dealer named Ricky Donnell Ross, saying he got
his supply through Blandon and Meneses.

The CIA inspector general found "nothing to indicate that CIA people or
people working for the CIA or on CIA's behalf had any dealings directly or
indirectly with those people, Ross, Blandon or Meneses,'' the senior
official said.

The newspaper series generated widespread anger in the black community
toward the CIA, as well as federal investigations into whether the CIA took
part in or countenanced the selling of crack to raise money for the Contras.

Several newspapers disputed the Mercury News report. In an open letter to
readers in May, the Mercury News' executive editor, Jerry Ceppos, said the
series had shortcomings.

Reporter Gary Webb, who produced the series, was transferred to a smaller
bureau 10 months after it was published. He resigned from the newspaper last
month.