It could not be determined from the C.I.A.'s records how many of the 50 cases were fully investigated. Some of the allegations may have been specious, the result of Sandinista propaganda, American intelligence officials said. received allegations of drug involvement against about 50 contras or supporters during the war against the Sandinistas, the report said. officers did report on drug trafficking by the contras, but that there were no clear guidelines given to field officers about how intensively they should investigate or act upon the allegations. officials involved in the contra program were so focused on the fight against the Sandinistas that they gave relatively low priority to collecting information about the possible drug involvement of contra rebels. is reluctant to release the complete 500-page second volume because it deals directly with contras the agency did work with.Īccording to the report, C.I.A. Many allegations in the second volume track closely with charges that first surfaced in a 1987 Senate investigation.
In the declassified version of the C.I.A.'s first volume, the agency said the Mercury-News charges were baseless and mentioned drug dealers who had nothing to do with the C.I.A.
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The Mercury-News subsequently admitted that the series was flawed and reassigned the reporter. It prompted an enormous outcry, especially among blacks, many of whom said they saw it as confirmation of a Government-backed conspiracy to keep blacks dependent and impoverished.
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The series charged that the alliance created a drug trafficking network that introduced crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles. The second volume dismisses those specific charges, as did the first volume, released in January. The investigation was originally prompted by a 1996 series in The San Jose Mercury-News, which asserted that a ''dark alliance'' between the C.I.A., the contras and drug traffickers had helped finance the contra war with profits from drug smuggling.
The new report is the long-delayed second volume of the C.I.A.'s internal investigation into possible connections between the contras and Central American drug traffickers. employees ever conspired with any contra organizations or individuals involved with the contras for purposes of drug trafficking,'' a United States intelligence official said.
''The fundamental finding of the report is that there is no information that the C.I.A.