[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 131 (Friday, September 20, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10724-H10730]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COCAINE IN SOUTH-CENTRAL LOS ANGELES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters] is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I come today to continue my discussion on
the matter of the San Jose Mercury News article that revealed the
dumping of cocaine into south-central Los Angeles by CIA operatives,
cocaine that was spread among the Cripps and Bloods gang members and
eventually in cities throughout this Nation.
I am spending a lot of time on this issue because I believe it is
important for the citizens of this country to know and understand how
this country finds itself with crack addiction, crime, crack-born
babies, hospitals overloaded with overdoses of crack cocaine, turf
wars, all of this devastation. Where did it come from? Who caused it?
This article, or these series of articles that were done by the San
Jose Mercury News must be focused on. Mr. Gary Webb, the author of the
series, is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.
This is not a fly-by-night journalist. This is not someone who just
thought this up and decided they would write something. He spent over a
year investigating the leads that came to him. And what did he uncover?
It is absolutely startling. Mr. Gary Webb discovered that in the late
1970's, 1979, early 1980's, two CIA operatives, Mr. Danilo Blandon and
one other gentlemen found their way into south-central Los Angeles.
They connected up with a gentleman, a young man named Ricky ``Freeway''
Ross. They began to supply him with tons of cocaine. That cocaine was
cooked into crack. Those are the rocks that plague our communities
today.
Prior to the introduction of cocaine by Mr. Blandon and Mr. Meneses,
cocaine was not a factor in minority neighborhoods, in the inner
cities. Cocaine was the drug of the elite, of the more well-to-do, of
kind of the rich and the famous. It was expensive. It could not be
afforded by poor people, and it was really not a factor in poor
communities. It was only when the CIA operatives, working with Ricky
Ross, discovered that you could cook it and you could put it into crack
form, that it could be sold cheaply because you could spread it around.
You could get more out of it.
And so they began to cook up the crack. They put it out into the
communities on consignment. What does that mean? Prior to this time,
you had to have money to get into the drug business. If you wanted to
be a drug dealer, you had to go and buy cocaine. You bought it by the
kilos oftentimes. But when these CIA operatives started to work with
Ricky Ross, they eliminated the need to have money to invest to become
a drug dealer. They put it out on consignment.
{time} 0915
When you understand this consignment spread of cocaine and crack,
then you understand why they also brought the guns in with them.
We wondered in south central Los Angeles, where are these guns coming
from? They were not simply handguns, they are Uzis and AK-47's,
sophisticated weapons brought in by the same CIA operatives because
they had to enforce bringing the profits back in.
About this time when you saw more and more guns coming into the
community, you also saw more and more killings, more and more violence.
Now we know what was going on. The drugs out in our communities on
consignment were being put out to the gangs and others; if they did not
bring the profits back, the guns were brought in so that they could
enforce the control.
You got killed. People were sent out to kill others. The killings
just mounted in south central Los Angeles, and people said what are
they fighting about? What are these drive-by shootings about? What is
this gang warfare about? And people said oh, it is about the colors;
some like red, some like blue, well, you know it was about drugs. It
was about crack cocaine introduced into our communities by people who
brought it in with a purpose.
Why did they do this? According to Mr. Blandon, he is on record under
oath testifying at a trial that, yes, he was a CIA operative but he was
also engaged in funding the war in Nicaragua. He was one of those that
helped form the army of the Contras, the FDN. He came from Nicaragua.
He was the son of a very rich Nicaraguan. They were involved with
Somoza and part of the Somoza government. When they were overthrown by
the Sandinistas, they went out and formed their own army working with
our Government.
They formed their own army and then they had to supply them. They had
to get the guns to them; they had to feed the soldiers; they had to
clothe the soldiers. They had to put together an Army. And, yes, they
had a lot of support from the right wing, from conservatives right here
in the Congress of the United States who set out to get the citizens of
this Nation to use their hard-earned dollars to help fund that war.
That effort was resisted by many in this House, but they persisted.
But long before they got any dollars, there was money flowing to the
FDN and to the so-called resistance armies.
Where did that money come from? We know now that that money was
coming from the sale of drugs to the citizens of America, the profits
of which went back down to fund the FDN, working with Nicaraguans
connected with Somoza, Nicaraguans that were embraced by the right wing
of America.
America's children, American citizens exposed, crack cocaine fed into
the neighborhoods in order to get money to fund the FDN and the other
armies resisting, fighting against the Sandinistas.
It is an outrageous plot. It is an unconscionable plot. How would
anybody
[[Page H10725]]
ever dream up this kind of madness? Mr. Maneses, directly connected to
the Cali drug cartel, got into this country and was given citizenship,
even though people in our Government knew he was a murderer.
Since when do we let murderers and criminals into this Nation? I
guess we let them in when they are going to do the bidding of those who
have decided they can get support by allowing criminals and crooks to
come in to sell drugs to fund the Army that they want to fund.
Everybody needs to read the San Jose Mercury news series under the
banner of ``The Dark Alliance.'' This is not simply a story about
allegations; these are facts, names, places, dates.
I decided once I had read it that I was going to find out more. I
have developed a communication with Gary Webb who wrote the story. I am
in touch with him almost daily, asking questions.
Following the Democratic Convention, after I read the information, I
flew back to Los Angeles and I went to San Diego and I visited Ricky
``Freeway'' Ross, one of the young men who is a principal in this
story, an African-American young male who sold drugs, who got his drugs
from Blandon and Maneses, a young man who had a 10-year relationship
with Blandon, a young man who had been to Blandon's homes both in
Rialto, CA, and in Florida, a young man who knew Blandon's wife, who
had done business with both of them. The young man who had a long-term
relationship because he was the recipient of the many kilos and the
tons of cocaine that had been brought into south central Los Angeles.
I went to San Diego. I went to the San Diego metropolitan detention
facility, a Federal facility where Mr. Rick ``Freeway'' Ross is now
incarcerated. I spent time with him and I asked him about the article.
I asked him about details in the article. He confirmed that and more.
He described to me the first time he had ever seen an Uzi and how it
was given to him and his friends. And then he described how they
continued to bring in the arms, and they had an extensive arsenal. It
went so far until Mr. Blandon and his friends even tried to give them a
grenade launcher. Ricky Ross said, ``My God, what do we need with a
grenade launcher?''
They had everything they needed. They had scramblers so that when
they talked on the telephone they could not be eavesdropped on. They
had money counters. They counted money 24 hours a day. At one point in
this 10-year period, they made $54 million in 1 year. They were making
$2 million a day oftentimes, $1 to $2 million a day just with Blandon
and this gentleman who was selling drugs.
And the story goes on and on and on naming individuals, identifying
situations.
Ricky Ross is in prison not because he was apprehended during the
time he was selling all of these drugs. He is in prison now because he
was set up by the man who was selling him the drugs.
Ricky Ross was contacted by Mr. Blandon years later, just a couple of
years ago, asking him to get back into the trade. Ricky Ross said to me
that he told him, ``I do not want to get back in the trade.'' He was
called any number of times by Mr. Blandon, who told him how easy it
would be. Ricky Ross told me, he said to him, ``I am trying to go
straight. I am trying to build a studio. I am trying to have a cultural
program. I am trying to find dollars to bring the young people in and
work with them and get some programs and activities going for the many
young man who are very vulnerable, young men who could be approached by
drug dealers who would take a chance.''
Mr. Blandon continued until Ricky Ross and two of his friends decided
they were going to take another chance, and they went down to San Diego
to pick up a truck loaded with 100 kilos of drugs supplied to them
again by Mr. Blandon. When they got to the appointed spot, Mr. Blandon
handed him the keys, they opened the truck, stepped in, and the DEA
agents and others swooped down upon them, arresting him. He has been
convicted and he is awaiting his sentence.
Ricky Ross should have known better. You do not get to go off without
punishment when you perform these kinds of criminal acts. He should not
have been involved in the trafficking of drugs. And he is going to have
to do time, and so be it.
But what about Blandon? He has been selling, he is in the records if
you check them. They have known about him since 1974. He is now on the
payroll of the DEA. He is an informant now for the DEA.
Oh, they paid him $166,000 in the past year. Mr. Blandon, the drug
dealer who introduced cocaine in large amounts into the black community
into south central Los Angeles, that spread across this Nation, now in
many cities whether we are talking about Harlem or the Bronx, St.
Louis, Philadelphia, in southern cities, Mr. Blandon connected to Mr.
Maneses and the Cali Cartel who flew drugs from Colombia, airplanes
that land in Texas, in Arkansas, right in our own country, is free. He
is under the protection of the DEA. He is one of their people. He is
hired by them. He is an informant.
And so I guess Mr. Blandon goes free because he can go and encourage,
solicit, and get another young black male involved in selling drugs,
point the DEA to them, get a bust as if he has done something, while he
remains free to do what he wants to do.
It is outrageous. We have got to do something about it. The
Congressional Black Caucus has decided to appoint me chair of a special
task force, and we are going to move to get investigations. We have got
some updating that we are going to do, and we are going to come to this
floor on a regular basis and we are going to give those updates.
At this time, before continuing, however, I would like to yield to
the gentleman from New York, another one that is engaged in this
battle, Congressman Major Owens.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from
California for taking up this special order.
It is very not that we understand that this is a window of
opportunity; the San Diego Mercury has given us that opportunity by
bringing together some very important facts by exploring some court
records and doing some interviews, and they have the embryo here of a
truth that is very important for our community.
I was asked a question by several reporters yesterday, Why is this
matter so important now? What difference does it make? The crack
cocaine epidemic is out there. What difference is it going to make it
these people are punished or not?
This is not about punishing a handful of people; this is about
seizing this window of opportunity to fully expose one of the ways in
which the African-American community has been victimized, one of the
ways in which the inner-city community has been victimized. We have
been victimized in so many different ways, starting with 232 years of
slavery for which nobody was compensated, that free labor, 232 years
where we could not acquire property, 232 years where family structures
were not permitted. You could not pass down traditions. That is just
one of the ways we were victimized.
Now the colored victimization takes place in various forms. We have
the victimization through neglect. They do not have any policies or
programs which allow our cities to get their fair share of the tax
dollar. We do not have any programs which can help cities, although
cities are where most of the people in America live. We have an
anticity attitude in part of the Congress, especially the other body,
and then we are victimized by blunders by Government programs and
Government agencies. They make mistakes that mess up programs, and then
the people who are the beneficiaries of those programs, they are the
ones who suffer as a result of badly run programs.
{time} 0930
Here is victimization again, probably by conspiracy, conspiracy.
There was an agenda that they had, an agenda which they felt was more
important than the welfare of the people in the inner cities, more
important than the welfare of people in the African American
communities. So masses of people in the inner cities and African
American communities have been put at jeopardy because they felt it was
necessary to make an emergency deal in order to get funds to finance a
war in Nicaragua, the Contras against the Sandinista government.
Let us just take a look at the sequence when the Contras first
launched their war against the Nicaraguan Government which was in
control of the
[[Page H10726]]
Sandinistas. At that time there was no American aid. There was no aid
from this country officially, no American aid passed by the Congress.
When they first launched the war, we certainly supplied money through
the various back door mechanisms that are available, through the CIA,
their pockets deep but not deep enough to keep financing a war in
Nicaragua interminably without some kind of new device. We certainly
probably supplied money to the Contras through El Salvador, where we
were funding the El Salvador Government, and the records show that the
connection between the El Salvador drug trade and the key people in El
Salvador with the Nicaraguan drug trade and the people involved in this
story is a very close knit record. There is a connection there that
comes up again and again.
So we were doing that through these back door methods, but that was
not enough. They needed more money. This is then the first period of
the Contra war against the Sandinistas. They needed more money. So here
was an opportunity to sell drugs in the cities of America and take
those profits and fund the Contras. And the CIA and American Government
agents were needed to allow the Contras to get this avenue of funding
from the cities of America.
We were all surprised at the swiftness with which crack cocaine came
into the inner-city communities. Yes, there had been a drug problem for
years, we have a problem with marijuana, a problem with heroin. It took
decades for the problems of marijuana and heroin to really take a
foothold in the communities. They were actually on their way out. You
had a decline in the use of drugs in inner city communities at the
point where crack cocaine entered.
Crack cocaine entered, and for $5 you could get that high, and it
began this spread as an epidemic which continues until this day.
Probably the Nicaraguan forces are not financing it or behind it today,
but what happened was they had an opportunity to fund an
infrastructure. They built their own infrastructure as a result of the
opportunities given them by the CIA and Nicaraguan drug connection in
the early days of the distribution of the crack cocaine.
So you had that era and then you had a period where we officially,
Congress, authorized money for the Contras. $100 million we started out
with under Reagan, authorizing money for the Contras, $100 million. So
we officially, openly began to fund the Contras for a period.
And then we cut that off. I was in the Congress at that time. We cut
off the funding for the Contras. The $100 million plus was cut off. It
was no more. And then what happened? We had the Iran Contra deal from
the basement of the White House, we know as a fact.
It is important to know that these facts because these facts have
been clearly established by the special prosecutor, they have been
clearly established by the joint investigation and the joint hearings
of the Senate and the House. They are clearly established. Nobody
refutes the fact that Oliver North was the mastermind of a scheme,
hatched in the basement of the White House and then carried out, which
was to supply money to fund the Contras.
How did they do it then? They went to sell weapons to Iran. While
public policies were protesting that Iran was an evil empire, Iran was
a terrorist nation and we would do no business with Iran, the deal was
being hatched in the basement of the White House to sell weapons to
Iran.
And they did it. They sold weapons to Iran, and they used the profits
from the weapons sold to Iran to fund the Contras. That is in phase 3.
That is so well established in fact.
Nobody was punished for it. Oliver North came into the hearings and
acted as if he was America's chief Boy Scout. He stood up to them and
flabbergasted a set of people that should not have been flabbergasted
by his tactics, but he stood up to them and said he did it and he did
it for America, but it was done. Nobody denied the fact that we went so
far as to develop a deal with the evil Iranian Government in order to
generate profits for the Contras, to fund the war in Nicaragua.
If we did it on the tail end, there is no reason to believe we did
not have the same kind of fanaticism and the same kind of extremist
reasoning did not take place at the beginning. Only they did not have
an Iran Contra deal. They had a crack cocaine deal that started in Los
Angeles with one set. I am sure at the same time they had another set
of people who started in New York, on the east coast. It was not
necessarily spread from Los Angeles. They probably spread from both
ends of the Nation.
But this was to earn money when there was no other means to earn
money, given the fact that at the tail end they were willing to go so
far, and almost got an indictment of the President of the United
States, who kept saying he did not remember, and I will not go into all
that. Of course Oliver North came in and was pretty much exonerated in
terms of, ``He did it, but so what?'' He ran for Senator and almost won
a Senate seat in a neighboring State here. Things were that bad.
But he did it, and we know that profits to fund the Contras was the
objective. So why can we not believe, why can we not accept the fact
that profits to fund the Contras was also an objective at the beginning
of the Contra war, and that objective was met on the backs of the
people of the African-American community, the inner city communities.
Crack cocaine, a drug epidemic unlike any that has ever probably
existed in the history of the world. For $5 you can get a high. For $5
you can begin the process of addicting people so that they have got to
have it, and then on and on it goes to the point where they become
murderers, prostitutes, they war against each other, they kill each
other, shoot down innocent people. Murder on a mass scale in our big
cities, and policymakers look at the cities and say there is something
genetically wrong with the African-American people. You have the bell
curve theory being promulgated, that they have low IQ's. There is
nothing you can do about it.
All these theories are there because the truth is not known. So what
Congresswoman Waters is doing is important, to just get the truth out
there, the fact that the inner-city collapse of the social order,
collapse of families is partially due to the blunders of the
Government, partially due to the neglect of the Government and
partially due to the conspiracy, a conspiracy in which the Government
has participated. Dealing drugs is probably the lowest form of
conspiracy that we have seen yet that our Government has participated
in.
I would like to come back later and talk about reparations and why it
is important to talk about this, so we can talk about getting to the
bottom of this with an investigation that the CIA director, Mr.
Deutsch, has said he has already launched. But there will be other
investigations, getting to the bottom of it, so that we can establish
that a great deal of harm has been done here, a great wrong has been
done and some reparations are necessary for this reason; many other
reasons why reparations are necessary, but certainly for this reason.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms.
Jackson-Lee].
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank the gentlewoman from California. I
could not help as I was working in my office, to hear the gentlewoman
from California and then my colleague, the gentleman from New York,
speak about a topic that is moving fast across the Nation. For those
individuals who are not un-American but simply are asking the question,
who does the flag fly for. Who does the flag fly for? I want to commend
the gentlewoman from California for her leadership and her persistence
and perseverance on trying to answer the question for many young
Americans across the Nation, African-Americans, Hispanics, Anglos,
Asians, anyone who wants to believe that this country does work for us.
This is a frightening expose that has come out in the recent weeks,
and we recognize that this Nation has many responsibilities. In fact,
in the Constitution it indicates that it has a responsibility of
commerce. In the Constitution it indicates that there is a
constitutional responsibility to defend the safety and sanctity of this
Nation.
So certainly anyone who would argue, as Major Owens has said, and
come before congressional hearings and
[[Page H10727]]
talk about the need for clandestine operations to protect the sanctity
of this Nation, would cause individuals in Congress and others to try
to be sensitive to that, to try to understand what the needs were to
protect this Nation, why we needed to be in Nicaragua and why we needed
to be doing clandestine operations. But behind those words by the likes
of an Oliver North, behind the White House of the 1980's, controlled by
the Republicans, we now find a devastating and decided and directed
effort to poison the lives of young African-Americans, inner-city
youths in this Nation.
I know that we can be accused of crying wolf, making hysterical calls
for investigations, suggesting that this country is in the hands of
those on the other side of the law.
I would hope that good thinking people would just take a moment, and
I think, as the Congresswoman has indicated, and my colleague from New
York, Gary Webb is not a fly-by-night writing for purposes of grandeur.
This is a well researched report. That report clearly names the names
and focuses us on the issues.
``Danilo Blandon is the Johnny Appleseed of crack cocaine in
California,'' so noted in the report written in the San Jose Mercury
News, ``The Crips' and Bloods' first direct-connect to the cocaine
cartels of Colombia.'' This Danilo Blandon, the first connect to inner-
city gangs of crack cocaine or cocaine out of Colombia.
Remember when we begin to talk about a drug structure? There is
really no drug structure that can really compare to the cartels in
Colombia, cartels signifying major corporate structure, an
infrastructure that permeates the entire Nation. This was their
contact. Not someone down the street, not someone across the country in
New York, but Danilo Blandon out of Columbia.
``The tons of cut-rate cocaine he brought into black L.A. in the
1980's and early 1990's became millions of rocks of crack, which
spawned new crack markets wherever they landed.
``On a tape made by the Drug Enforcement Administration in July 1990,
Blandon casually mentioned the flood of cocaine that corresponded
through the streets of South-Central Los Angeles during the previous
decade,'' in the 1980's.
`` `These people have been working with me 10 years,' Blandon said.
`I've sold them about 2,000 or 4,000 kilos. I do not know. I do not
remember how many.' '' Some 2,000 to 4,000 kilos of drugs coming in
from Colombia into one community then permeate, go throughout the
Nation.
``But unlike the thousands of young blacks now serving long Federal
prison sentences for selling mere handfuls of the drug, Blandon is a
free man. He has a spacious new home in Nicaragua and a business
exporting precious woods, courtesy of the United States Government.''
What would we say about that? What would you say if crimes were done
in Iowa, blatant crimes, and someone is set up in a fabulous house in
Florida? Here we have got the story, right here, clearly exposing this
situation.
Interestingly enough, this gentleman, Mr. Blandon, was paid more than
$166,000 over the past 18 months, records show, for his help in the war
on drugs. The help in the war on drugs, I would imagine that may be,
though this is not a time and place for frivolity or humor, his help is
to direct it into communities
``Nothing epitomizes the drug war's uneven impact on black Americans
more clearly that the intertwined lives,'' here we come with the other
player, ``of Ricky Donnelly Ross, a high school dropout who became
L.A.'s premier crack wholesaler, and his suave cocaine supplier,''
remember now, direct from Colombia, ``Danilo Blandon, who has a
master's degree in marketing,'' as written by Gary Webb, ``and was one
of the top civilian leaders in California of an anti-Communist
guerrilla Army formed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency called
the FDN. It became known to most Americans as the Contras.''
There goes the very connection that drives our message day after day.
That is why as we go home to our districts, as I will leave today, and
face constituents on talk shows and in town hall meetings, the cry
becomes, ``Why us?''
{time} 0945
The cry becomes, why us? The cry becomes, who does the flag fly for?
And so I am here to support the gentlewoman from California, Ms.
Waters, and Senator Boxer and join my colleagues who believe there is a
better America and would want a thorough investigation.
In a meeting with the CIA Director yesterday we have both requested
and received commitment for a very strong, positive, and a noncoverup
investigation. The words I used was to leave no stone unturned, for
that would be the only basis upon which we have a better America.
Now, let me simply say as I close, this is not an indictment across
the board, from my perspective, of all agencies who are responsible for
upholding the law. It does say that behavior caused actions which we
would not be proud of, and so I think it is important that the CIA's
Inspector General announced on August 6 that it will conduct an
internal inquiry into an air base at Mena, AR, that was reportedly used
in the mid-1980's to fly guns to the Contras and drugs into Louisiana.
There is another location, Houston, in Texas, close to the border and
also a city that may be subject to this kind of intrusion. The base,
according to former national security officer, staffer, Roger Morris,
was run by the CIA and DEA informant named Barry Seale, who was
murdered by Colombian gun men in Baton Rouge in 1996.
And as I said, to close, Congresswoman Waters, it is interesting to
read this article and to note when we begin to think of the so-called
changes in welfare and the vigorous debate that many of us raised to
disagree with this welfare reform because it did not address educating
and providing bridges for changes, here we are noted by this article
out of the San Jose Mercury News that it was not uncommon to move 2 to
3 million dollars' worth of crack in 1 day. It was not unusual to move
this amount of money, and our good friend, Mr. Ross, who is here,
indicated that the biggest problem they had was counting the money.
Now we say that the new policy of many of my Republican friends,
``just say no or do not do it,'' we have been saying that. We join you
in that. That is not a drug policy. That has nothing to do with this
blatant activity that causes the need for our work to ensure that this
never happens again and that, as well, the truth be told for our young
people.
Mr. OWENS. This ``just say no'' slogan; was it not originated about
the same time that the other hand of the Government, the CIA, was
encouraging the sale of drugs?
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Absolutely. In the 1980's the big cry was--
--
Mr. OWENS. The 1980's, same time.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Same time, ``just say no,'' while at the
same time we had a Government orchestrating, bringing in tons and tons
of drugs and at the cost of some $2 million a day, resulting in the
amounts of about 2 million to $3 million a day.
And let me say to you, Congresswoman Waters, I really take my hat off
to you because when I see these numbers, and as you have said, we do
not know where it will lead, we are talking about 2 to 3 million
dollars' worth of crack in 1 day in one community, and I think that is
the magnitude of what you have been saying, what we join you in saying,
what I have been saying and what we need to have all of America
understand.
Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentlewoman for joining us in the sharing of
information in this particular hour, and I appreciate the cooperation
from all of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus
and particularly from those of you who would take time from your
schedules to make sure we share this information with the people of the
United States.
Let me just continue here sharing the information of the series
because it is so important to understand why we must ask for an
investigation.
We have not just asked for an investigation because we do not know
what we are able to get from whom. We have asked the Justice Department
for an investigation, we have asked the CIA for an investigation, we
asked the Speaker of this House to get an investigation going with the
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. We have asked other
committee chairs
[[Page H10728]]
who we believe have some oversight to join in the investigation.
We also have a resolution, or resolutions, asking for a select
committee, which we may have to have at some point if we find that we
run into roadblocks.
It is important for us to go in all of these directions so that we
can reap information and get to the bottom of what is going on. Let me
tell you----
Mr. OWENS. Will the gentlewoman yield for 1 minute?
Ms. WATERS. Yes, I yield.
Mr. OWENS. Is it true that the Justice Department has already
concluded that they do not need to investigate?
Ms. WATERS. The first response we received from the Justice
Department was their preliminary inquiry did not reveal any of the
facts of this article. However, they were going to start an
investigation with the Inspector General, and of course when we met
with the CIA Director last evening, he confirmed that that
investigation had started. We talked to him about our concerns about
that investigation. We said that nobody believes that the CIA, first of
all, will investigate itself, and he assured us that the Inspector
General was independent.
We also said to him that attempts in the past had only gotten the
kind of response that said we cannot respond because of national
security, and we did not want an investigation that would come back
telling us that we cannot get information because of national security
interests.
Third, we said to him we do not want an investigation where you come
back with the report under national security interests you can only
share with us and not with the public. It is important for it to be
shared with the public. We discovered that the CIA Director has the
authority to make that public. He also has the authority not to make it
public, and this is one thing we are going to have to insist on.
Mr. OWENS. So the Justice Department will not conduct its own
independent investigation; it is going to cooperate with the CIA
Inspector General?
Ms. WATERS. That is right, that is exactly what is going on. When we
first heard a response from Janet Reno of the Justice Department, she
indicated that she could not comment because of an open case. Now what
we are hearing is, oh, since the CIA has decided that indeed it would
hold an investigation by way of the Inspector General, she is now
saying that she supports that investigation and would await the
results, the results of which we are supposed to get in 60 days.
Why an investigation, why must we insist on this? People say but you
have done this before, you had investigations before. Let us take a
look for a moment at what happened.
In 1988 one 1988 investigation by a U.S. Senate subcommittee ran into
a wall of official secrecy at the Justice Department. In that case
congressional records show Senate investigators were trying to
determine why the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, Joseph Rosanello, had
given $36,000 back to a Nicaragua cocaine dealer arrested by the FBI.
The money was returned, court records show, after two Contra leaders--
unbelievable--two Contra leaders sent letters to the court swearing
that the drug dealer had given the cash to buy weapons for guerrillas,
had been given the cash to buy weapons for guerrillas. Rosanello said
it was cheaper to give the money back than to disprove that claim. The
Justice Department flipped out to prevent us from getting access to
people, records, finding out anything about it, recalled Jack Blum,
former chief counsel to the Senate subcommittee that investigated
allegations of cocaine Contra trafficking. ``It was one of the most
frustrating exercises that I could ever recall,'' said Jack Blum.
Now, Jack Blum was the former chief counsel to the Senate
subcommittee that investigated these allegations of Contra cocaine
trafficking. Again let me repeat. He said, ``It was one of the most
frustrating exercises that I can ever recall.'' It was not until 1989,
a few months after the Contra Sandinista war ended and 5 years after
Meneses, the big drug dealer, moved from the peninsula to a ranch in
Costa Rica that the U.S. Government decided, oh, it is time to take
some action, sort of, with a wink. Federal prosecutors in San Francisco
finally charged Mr. Meneses with conspiracy to distribute, they said, 1
kilo of cocaine in 1984, a year in which he was working publicly with
FDA.
So, when we talk about investigation, we know what we are going to
run into, walls of secrecy, Justice Department shutdown. So we do not
trust anybody.
I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. If the gentlewoman will yield, I imagine,
and I just want to pose a question to you in being complete, therefore,
as you mention these stumbling blocks that have occurred in times past.
I recall the Select Committee on Assassinations that dealt with the
assassinations of King and Kennedy, and people are still having
questions about those issues, that it is necesary then to cast a broad
net to try and reach every agency that might be involved: CIA, DEA,
FBI, Justice Department, and then hearings.
Is that my understanding that you think is necessary after reviewing
those materials with us of past investigations?
Ms. WATERS. Well, I think we have to be in this for the long haul.
This is not something that is going to reap us any substantial answers
in the short period of time. We are going to run into walls of secrecy;
I just anticipate that. I anticipate that we are not going to be
satisfied.
However, we have gotten representations of cooperation from the CIA
Director. Everybody wants to cooperate, they say. The proof of the
pudding is in the eating.
I think we have to be prepared to move at the right time to do
whatever we have to do I order to continue, in order to approach it
from a different direction, and so this is a beginning. We start with
this possibility of investigation by the CIA, or rather by the
Inspector General. We have gotten word from Newt Gingrich, who
responded to me and wrote me a letter indicating that he indeed was
going to proceed with the chair of the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Combest, in opening an
investigation. I am very pleased, and I would like to thank Mr. Newt
Gingrich, and I would like to read that letter into the Record. He
says:
Dear Maxine: Thank you for your letter regarding a recent
series of articles that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News
that alleged CIA involvement in the introduction, financing
and distribution of crack cocaine in Los Angeles. I have
asked House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
chairman, Larry Combest, to investigate the allegations
contained in these articles, and I understand he has already
begun to do so. In addition, I understand the Director of
Central Intelligence, John Deutch, has asked the CIA
Inspector General to investigate this matter despite his own
rejection of the substance of the allegations. Assuming the
Clinton administration will cooperate with our efforts, I am
hopeful that the chairman Combest investigation as well as
the CIA IG inquiry, will reveal whether or not the
allegations contained in the Mercury News articles are true
or false. Thank you again for your interest in this matter.
Sincerely, Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House.
{time} 1000
Let me just say to the gentleman from New York that, because of our
persistence, things are beginning to happen. As you know, the drug czar
came out and called for an investigation. As you know, not only do we
have this letter and this movement by the gentleman from Georgia, Newt
Gingrich, and the movement by the CIA. Civil rights organizations, the
NAACP, Mr. Kweisi Mfume; mayors, Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Mayor Wellington
Webb; many groups up in Pennsylvania. In Los Angeles, the county board
of supervisors just passed a resolution calling on the President to get
involved in an investigation.
So because of our persistence, even though the major media tried to
ignore us, would not carry the stories, when we held the Congressional
Black Caucus weekend, 3,000 people showed up to our workshop demanding
hearings, demanding investigations. My own paper, the Los Angeles
Times, did not even carry that meeting, even though a Member from Los
Angeles was in the forefront of the effort.
Mr. Speaker, we finally are getting a little bit of network
attention, but so far most people are not able to read about this in
their local newspapers. It has not been reproduced. It has not
[[Page H10729]]
been paid attention to. But because of our persistence, we are finally
making something happen.
Again, we are going to have to be in this for the long haul. We are
going to have to organize in our communities. We are going to have to
get our labor organizations, our community groups, our church groups,
to reproduce this and pass it out, reproduce. We have already printed
thousands of copies. People are clamoring for them.
Their local newspapers will not carry the story. Their local
television stations will not carry the story. But we are getting it
out, and I would like the Congressional Black Caucus to continue to
develop this network, working through the churches, working through
private organizations, to spread the word, to get the information out.
I would like to ask the gentleman, in a colloquy here, the gentleman
from New York, to describe, if he will, even though he alluded to it
and spoke to the devastation in our communities, and I have alluded to
it or talked about it, and I will continue to talk about it. I do not
know if people really understand what is going on in many of these
cities, perhaps in parts of your own district, with crack cocaine
addiction. How bad is it? I yield to the gentleman from New York [Mr.
Owens].
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the serious problems we face with the
African-American community in most inner cities, one of the problems is
no jobs. But I think more important than the fact that there are no
jobs is the drug problem, which is more devastating, because the drug
problem leads to criminal activity, including murder.
The drug problem decimates families. The drug problem leaves a legacy
of babies. We are back to a problem of babies in the hospitals who are
being abandoned, and many of these babies have problems as a result of
their mothers being addicted, and there are high health costs. It
devastates the community in many ways.
Mr. Speaker, we have had people on the one hand in the housing
projects call for a National Guard to intervene in order to deal with
the fact that the housing projects, certain projects are inundated with
drug dealers. At the same time, other factions within the housing
projects would be very much against it because it is their sons, their
sons who are involved in the drug trade.
It is a problem that is interwoven so much into the community until
you cannot separate it out. There is a lot of money flowing from the
drug dealers that is held out to people for investment, and on and on
it goes. They are in charge. They are the kingpins. They have an
infrastructure now.
What started with the Nicaraguan trade and the encouragement of the
CIA, the CIA does not have to be involved anymore. They allowed it to
make enough money to build their own infrastructure, so they have an
infrastructure which has a seemingly unlimited amount of money, and
they have all these gangs that they can play against each other. There
are the Colombians and the Dominicans in New York, and the so-called
Jamaican Posse. What is happening is that the people behind all this,
they play one group off against another. When it gets too hot for one,
they shift the action to another, and it just goes on and on forever.
I do want to caution the gentlewoman from California that we must
keep the heat on, because the CIA is quite a formidable foe. We may
have a seeming acceptance of cooperation now. They want to investigate
this fully. Certainly you may be confronted with a stone wall, as you
were in the case of Haiti, where the CIA actually financed the people
who stopped our troops from going in early in the implementation of the
President's Haitian policy, and we had to wait for months and months
after that. More and more people died, because we have been stopped
from initiating a peaceful process for changing the government in
Haiti.
The very person who did that, Emanuel Constans, who confessed that
the CIA paid him to do it, and he was in charge, was held in jail for a
while in this country and now he has been released. He is free in
Queens, NY, for some strange reason. They do not explain why he is
released. They will not explain why the papers that were captured from
this same organization when the United States troops went into Haiti,
why those papers will not be released to the Haitian Government. They
have a way of suddenly deciding that whatever is not in the interests
of national security they will withhold.
The danger is that we will get a stone wall here if the outrage of
the American people is not expressed. If we do not understand the
connection between what has happened here and the present political cry
that President Clinton is the cause of drugs being used by more young
people now, and just do not do it, please just say no; if you are going
to deal with that kind of surface political situation without going
deep and thoroughly investigating this, you are really not dealing with
what is not jeopardizing just the inner cities, but it is jeopardizing
youth everywhere. It spreads from the inner cities all over. I hope we
will pursue it relentlessly.
Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentleman for reminding us of the kind of
work and the kind of time we are going to have to put in on this issue.
Let me just say this, are your warnings about the stonewalling joined
with warnings that I am getting all over about the danger of being
involved in this kind of issue? People are wondering about my security
and whether or not I am afraid that something may not happen.
Let me just say this from the floor of Congress: I do not fear
anybody. I am aware, as we look through the records, that people have
died mysteriously who are involved in investigations. But I want to put
everybody on record, as we move through these investigations, that I
had better not see any attempts, any attempts to violate me or anybody
else involved in this work. We are not going to move with fear, we are
not going to stop doing our work, because of anybody who tries to
intimidate us. I just want to put anybody on record who thinks they may
be able to stop us with intimidation that I have no fear.
Mr. OWENS. You have the overwhelming support of the African-American
community. Our community overwhelmingly supports this effort. They want
to see the truth come out. They want to get to the heart of this
problem.
Ms. WATERS. That is absolutely correct. Let me also just say that,
while Mr. Dole is making a part of his campaign, the priority part of
his campaign, a discussion on drugs, I do not understand how he can
talk about drugs and not even mention this revelation that came out
August 18, 19, and 20. If you want to talk about drugs, you cannot
dismiss this revelation, this series entitled ``The Dark Alliance.'' It
names names, dates, and places.
Mr. Speaker, I know what is going on. Mr. Dole is using this as a
campaign issue, and they are playing with us one more time, the ``just
say no'' kind of attitude. It is time to find another political issue
to whip people up about.
I do not want Mr. Dole or anybody else playing with my community on
this issue. We have been harmed enough. We have been harmed by a lack
of a war, we have been harmed by the Reagan policies, we have been
harmed by the Bush policies, we have been harmed by a policy that
allowed the funding of a war, the FDN, the Contras, on the backs of my
children, on the backs of the young people of the inner cities. I do
not want anybody playing with me on this issue.
Let me just send a warning to Mr. Dole: If you stay out on that
campaign trail, you ignore this issue, I am going to find you, Mr.
Dole, and I am going to ask you publicly, why, then, are you not
talking about the genesis of crack cocaine? Why are you not talking
about the spread of cocaine in the inner city by CIA operatives under
Reagan and under Bush? Why do you ignore the fact that we now have
something that we can investigate?
If you are serious about why young people have increased their use of
drugs, if you are serious about getting at the bottom of this, you will
take up this issue. Not only will you join us in the investigation, you
will tell the Republicans further, who are in charge, not only
investigate it in the Select Committee on Intelligence but all the
committees that have any kind of oversight, any kind of jurisdiction.
I challenge you today, Mr. Dole, to not just play with this issue,
but to do the right thing and help us get to the
[[Page H10730]]
bottom, and help us to understand how we are going to repair the harm,
how we are going to deal with the devastation, how we are going to deal
with the crack-addicted babies, how we are going to deal with the guns
that you support being used in this country, coming into our
communities.
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