-Caveat Lector- See also http://www.copvcia.com for details on following multifaceted issue/story: (anti-war, government secrecy, human rights, drug policy reform, prison reform, etc.) Subject: CIA-DOJ Case: Cracks Opening Wider, Daylight Shining In (from Dayton Daily News, Ohio) On Thu, 08 Apr 1999, Floyd Landrath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> reported the following to the DRCTalk Reformers' Forum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, under "Subject: CIA Complicity in Cocaine Distribution" <http://activedayton.com/news/1999/02/16/drug.html> Drug figure entrapped, lawyer says By Wes Hills A Dayton attorney will seek a reduced sentence for a major drug dealer by claiming the U.S. government permitted crack cocaine to sweep America's inner cities to finance Ronald Reagan's covert war against Nicaragua. Attorney Jon Paul Rion said he will seek testimony from political and civil rights leaders and people affiliated with the CIA and FBI. He said Gary Webb, author of a newspaper series and book titled Dark Alliance, which claimed CIA complicity in crack cocaine distribution, has agreed to testify. Rion will raise what he calls an "urban entrapment defense" on behalf of Charles Goff Jr. in a sentencing hearing March 19 before Chief U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice. Rion will try to persuade Rice to depart from federal sentencing guidelines calling for Goff to get a prison sentence of 16 to 19 years. (He faces a mandatory 10 years). Goff was arrested in October 1996; police netted nearly $1 million and 80 pounds of cocaine. Rion concedes that his defense, if it succeeds, will open the floodgates in virtually all crack cocaine sentencings. "That's the intent," he said. Rice, who strongly opposes the sentencing guidelines, declined comment on Rion's unprecedented defense. Rion said he will seek to prove that the "U.S. government, through the CIA and DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), knew of and turned their heads from the importation of 55,000 kilos (about 60 tons) of cocaine" to finance the contras in their covert war against Nicaragua starting in the early 1980s. After Webb raised this claim in his August 1996 series in the San Jose Mercury News, the newspaper reassigned Webb and issued a "clarification" saying parts of the series didn't meet journalistic standards. The series was widely assailed by the government and others in the media. Last October, the CIA released an unclassified version of a secret report. It concluded that "no information has been found to indicate that the CIA as an organization or its employees conspired with, or assisted, contra-related organizations or individuals in drug trafficking to raise funds for the contras or for any other purpose." Rion insists that newly released Information by the U.S. Justice Department and other sources supports Webb's series. Prior to contra importation of cocaine in the early 1980s, Rion said, a kilo of cocaine cost about $100,000, confining its use largely to the "upper class." The price plunged to $10,000 a kilo as the contras, using U.S. government planes and bases, "established a nationwide distribution network among the middle and lower economic classes," Rion said, citing Webb's reporting and other sources. The introduction of cheap crack cocaine in about 1981 gave the contras "a way to distribute large amounts of cocaine to low-income people," he said "All of a sudden, crack cocaine was everywhere in this country," especially in the black community, Rion said. Worse, he said, the contras and their allies introduced large amounts of weapons to the drug trade, creating such violence that the U.S. Senate quickly passed laws calling for much longer sentences for drug offenses involving crack. A drug offense involving 5 grams of crack cocaine carries a mandatory sentence of five years in prison. It takes 100 times that amount of powdered cocaine to trigger the same sentence. Barry McCaffrey, the retired Army general who is President Clinton's drug policy adviser, has noted that while blacks represent only 12 percent of the U.S. population and just 14 percent of the drug users, they make up 33 percent of the drug arrests and 48 percent of those in prison for drug offenses. These statistics have led Rev. Jesse Jackson, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and others to challenge the sentencing guidelines and rally to Webb's defense. Jackson has asserted Webb's series "challenges the moral authority of our government." Waters, who wrote the foreword to Webb's book, has said the book "brings to light one of the worst official abuses in our nation's history." While stopping short of Webb's contentions, others have raised serious questions about the CIA's behavior. Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental, nonprofit institution that maintains a library of declassified documents, noted in an Aug. 30 column published by The Sun of Baltimore: According to the Justice Department, the CIA and the attorney general's office in 1982 worked out a "memorandum of understanding" that exempted the CIA from having to report drug smuggling by its people to DEA, Customs and FBI. "The CIA, despite repeated denial, did, in fact, interfere with law enforcement proceedings in the 1983 San Francisco 'Frogman Case' -- at the time the biggest cocaine bust in California history. After two Nicaraguans were arrested and more than $30,000 in cash seized from their safe house, the suspects claimed the money was contra funds rather than drug revenue. The CIA, according to newly disclosed documents, made a 'discreet approach' to high-level Justice Department officials and dispatched an agency lawyer to San Francisco 'to avoid inquiry into activities or other (CIA) interests' in Central America. After the meeting, the U.S. attorney's office returned the confiscated cash to the contra/drug traffickers.'" "High-level officials at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., made the strategic decision to keep known contra drug traffickers on its payroll. In a briefing to the still-secret report before the House Intelligence Committee last March, CIA Inspector General Fred Hitz admitted that 'there are instances where the CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relations with individuals supporting the contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity.'" CONTACT Wes Hills at 225-2261 or e-mail him at [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # # # # # Drug Crimes Allegation Leads To CIA, Justice Suit Tue, 16 Mar 1999 San Francisco Examiner, Page: A6 Author: Robert Selna Policy To Not Report Suspicions Had Role In Crack Epidemic, Lawyer Contends OAKLAND - Civil rights attorneys have filed lawsuits in Oakland and Los Angeles claiming the CIA's policy to not report drug crimes to the U.S. Department of Justice played a significant role in the crack epidemic of the 1980s. Oakland lawyer William Simpich filed a class action suit in federal court, and attorneys filed a similar suit in Los Angeles Monday. Both suits seek an acknowledgment that the 1982 agreement that said the CIA had no duty to report drug crimes to the Justice department was illegal; an injunction requiring the CIA to report all possible drug crimes to the Department of Justice; and an unspecified amount of money to "rebuild community and fund drug treatment." "Cocaine was used as a tool in the counter-intelligence game and because of the agreement between the CIA and the DOJ, and the special access the CIA had to information and sources, a lot of cocaine ended up in this country that could have been stopped," Simpich said. Simpich said he believed the CIA policy had been a "key component" in the crack epidemic of the 1980s. Simpich likens his case to recent suits against tobacco companies and gun manufacturers. He said it was the CIA's responsibility to protect U.S. citizens from the intrusion of drugs into their communities and that the agency needed to take responsibility for at least part of the devastation caused by crack cocaine. "This (case) is based on a social policy nuisance theory," Simpich said. "What the CIA did is similar to a city police force saying, "We're not going to try to enforce laws against prostitution in our city.' " The named plaintiffs in the case are two longtime East Bay residents who say their families have been destroyed because of crack cocaine. Olivia Woods, 71, said her son and grandson had both died of crack cocaine overdoses. "I have two granddaughters and grandsons who are victims now, and I need to do something for my people who are suffering," Woods said in reference to her involvement in the case. Rosemary Lyons, 43, said her sister has been a crack addict for 13 years and was unable to take care of her own children. "In this country the number of children going into foster care has gone way up," Lyons said. "It is a terrible shame that this (crack) has come into our communities and destroyed families." Simpich said some details of his case were related to San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb's 1996 series "Dark Alliance." In that series, Webb suggested that a Bay Area drug ring had sold crack in Los Angeles in the 1980s, then funneled profits to the contras, the CIA-backed rebel force in Nicaragua. Webb implied that high-level CIA officials had known of the connection. However, other newspapers disputed his findings, and sheriff's investigators found no evidence the CIA was involved in cocaine dealing in Los Angeles. Simpich emphasized that his claim in no way insinuated that CIA agents were involved in drug smuggling, but said that he and others might not have been aware of the CIA's agreement with the Department of Justice without the article. The Department of Justice and the CIA could not be reached for comment regarding the lawsuit. ### ---------------- Global Emergency Alert Response http://www.angelfire.com/on/GEAR2000 ********************************************************* [EMAIL PROTECTED] GENERAL AGENCY SERVICES David Crockett Williams 661-822-3309 20411 Steeple Court, Tehachapi CA 93561 USA ********************************************************* The Global Peace Walk 1999-2000 1999: 22APR Taos, NM, ---> Santa Fe 26APR 2000: 15JAN San Francisco --> New York 24OCT 19SEP* Washington, DC, Ceremony Rededicating The Washington Monument as a Symbol of Peace. *3rd Tuesday of September is annual opening of UN General Assembly & International Day of Peace October 24th is United Nations Day "GLOBAL PEACE NOW!" 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