Rep. Waters said her investigation is intended to create a "climate of suspicion" around the CIA.

Connecting the Dots With Maxine Waters

On the Trail of the CIA-Contra-Crack Connection by Ruffin Prevost Special Assignments Team PSCPRuffin@aol.com Representative Maxine Waters is mad as hell, she's sick and tired, and she's not going to take it any more! She's sick of lies and corruption, including corrupt police departments with cops who deal drugs. She's mad as hell about a justice system that treats crack cocaine 1,000 times more strictly than the powdered variety. She's sick and tired of the devastation crack has brought to her community. And most of all, she's tired of listening to the same old story from the CIA when it comes to crack. But unlike a lot of Americans (and politicians), Maxine Waters is doing something about it all. She's working, as she calls it, to "connect the dots" between the CIA and the explosion of crack in Los Angeles. She's got a lot of folks in high, spooky places very angry, which is almost a sure sign she's on the right track. Maxine Waters is the U.S. Congressional Representative for California's 35th District, covering some of the toughest neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles, including Inglewood, Hawthorne and Gardena. On Thursday, Jan. 27, Waters spoke to a group of students, activists, teachers and community leaders at Cal-State Northridge in north Los Angeles, and let them know just how mad she was. Though none of the usual mainstream media corporations bothered to cover her speech, ParaScope was there.

Amidst a maelstrom of public outcry regarding the CIA-crack-Contra connection, Waters has been particularly outspoken. The crack plague has hit her district harder than anywhere else in America, and she says her constituents are entitled to some answers about their government's involvement with the problem. "The task for all of us -- government agencies, elected officials, community leaders and the media -- is to get to the bottom of the charges, not pooh-pooh them," Waters said. "What we need to find out is who knew what, when did they know it, and how high did it go." Not trusting the CIA Inspector General to conduct a thorough investigation, Waters has launched her own investigation to connect the dots between the CIA and the rise of crack in South Central L.A. She has been a thorn in the side of a wide array of slow-moving federal agencies, investigators, spokespeople and bureaucrats who would just as soon let the whole mess blow over. Though she had heard stories and rumors of CIA ties to the crack trade, Waters points to the San Jose Mercury News "Dark Alliance" series as the catalyst that sparked public debate about the issue and brought it to the forefront of her agenda as an elected representative. "That Dark Alliance series by Gary Webb unleashed some information that made my heart pound," she said. Her conclusion after studying the facts? "The CIA fueled the expansion of the crack cocaine epidemic in America." Maxine Waters spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of individuals, at times raging against the machinery of the federal government that has created such an ugly situation, yet also expressing the need to reconcile past problems and move forward to reach a lasting solution. ParaScope will continue to follow Rep. Maxine Waters and her efforts to "connect the dots" between the CIA, the Contras and the crack cocaine epidemic. Look for future updates on this developing story soon. (c) Copyright 1996 ParaScope, Inc.

The following is a collection of quotes from Waters on a number of topics from her wide-ranging discussion at Cal-State Northridge, including comments made during a question-and-answer session that followed.

Can the CIA Be Trusted to Investigate Itself?

"Of course I'm skeptical of the CIA's own internal investigation, and no, I don't have a great deal of confidence that their inspector general will turn up the information we know is there, but this is just part of the whole process of forcing the truth to light." "[Former CIA Director] John Deutch is gone. Hello. Goodbye. What was that all about? How committed is this agency to answering the questions we've presented before them?" "We will never get George Bush's hands, clearly, where we think they were."

Isn't Secrecy Necessary to Protect National Security?

"A lot of people tell me that, when it comes to these obscure, clandestine federal agencies, that they are doing important work that relates to national security, and that I should not interfere with this important work. Well, I don't care what their work is all about.... Because it appears that the CIA not only is involved with drug dealers, but they're involved with the worst kinds of criminals in all manner of sordid affairs, just so they can say they're out there doing something."

Wasn't the CIA Only Marginally Connected to Drug Dealing?

"A lot of people get hung up on the [dollar] amount, saying that not that much money actually made it to the Contras from their cocaine sales. Well, as far as I'm concerned, one dollar from the sale of drugs funding the Contras should not be tolerated." "Other people argue about the degree to which the CIA may have been involved.... It doesn't matter. The government and the CIA cannot say they had no knowledge that this was happening."

Has Crack Disproportionately Affected the Black Community?

"It's better to have a job at McDonald's than to sell drugs. There is no defense for drug dealing. And

there's no way to be involved with dealing drugs without getting hurt, going to jail, or both." "There is something wrong with our criminal justice system that is causing a disproportionate percentage of young black males to end up rotting away in federal prison on senseless drug charges." "I drive through the streets of South Central and point out to my driver the undercover FBI agents who are standing on the street corners just waiting to arrest people for buying or selling a single rock of crack cocaine.... I'm not going to sit back and let them be thrown into federal prison for selling one rock of cocaine while the big-time drug dealers cuddle up close to government agencies and go free."

Are We Winning the War on Drugs?

"It's time to take a serious look at the so-called 'war on drugs' in this country. We have no more need for PR programs masquerading under cute slogans like 'just say no.' We should make every effort to redirect the $15 billion already spent on federal drug and law enforcement in this country and spend it on ways aimed at cutting off the supply of drugs.... We should not support with foreign aid or in any other way any country that supplies drugs to the U.S." "When law enforcement is involved in drug dealing, they should get enhanced sentencing because they are the ones with the badges and the guns." "All over America, drugs and the money associated with them are some of the most corrupt influences you've ever seen. What you need to do is find out about the drugs that are 'confiscated' by law enforcement and what happens to them."

How Will Your Investigation Help Expose Corruption?

"What we're trying to do with our own investigation is to create a climate of suspicion around the CIA and their activities so that it is not considered crazy to be asking these questions about their involvement in the sale of crack. It may take 10 years' worth of work, but that's the goal." "We don't expect to be able to run our own 'sidebar' investigation and turn up any kind of 'smoking gun' evidence. We don't have the resources to tackle that kind of thing.... But I have gone to Managua... and we have met with shady people in the dead of night in horrible places, and will continue to do that in search of any information that can help us unravel all of this." "I am here to hold their [the CIA's] feet to the fire. I'm doing it in an unofficial capacity, and my efforts are probably unwanted, but that's not going to stop me."

Actor Jeremy Renner will portray Gary Webb in the upcoming 2013 film Kill the Messenger For background on the movie, see Gary Webbs book Dark Alliance: http://www.scribd.com/doc/117076273/Dark-Alliance-Gary-Webb-full-867-page-book-Please-Distribute Maxine Waters investigation http://www.scribd.com/doc/117070568/US-Congresswoman-Maxine-Waters-Investigation-of-CIA-Contras-involvement-indrug-sales-1996-2000 Powderburns by Celerino Castillo III (DEA retired) complete book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/117693611/Powderburns-2012-with-photos www.powderburns.org The Pariah by Charles Bowden Interviews with Mike Holm and Hector Berrellez (DEA Retired) http://www.scribd.com/doc/117078597/The-Pariah-by-Charles-Bowden Essays by Michael Levine (DEA retired) http://www.scribd.com/doc/123124540/Collection-of-Essays-by-Retired-DEA-Agent-Mike-Levine http://www.scribd.com/doc/128180246/Mike-Levine-DEA-retired-CIA-Interference-in-Drug-Cases Full coverage of Gary Webbs story by former AP and Newsweek writer Robert Parry http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/crack.html How John Kerry Exposed the Iran-Contra Scandal and Showed the Cracks in the War on Drugs Posted: 01/14/2013 6:34 pm by Freeway Ricky Ross http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-ross/how-john-kerry-exposed-th_b_2469665.html How John Kerry exposed the Contra-cocaine scandal Derided by the mainstream press and taking on Reagan at the height of his popularity, the freshman senator battled to reveal one of America's ugliest foreign policy secrets. By Robert Parry http://www.salon.com/2004/10/25/contra/ Knight and Bernstein coverage: http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9612a/ciacontra.html The William French Smith Law Enforcement Award http://www.scribd.com/doc/128584423/Law-Enforcement-Award-Named-After-a-Drug-Trafficker

The original Dark Alliance series is now hosted by Bill Conroys NarcoNews.com http://www.narconews.com/darkalliance/drugs/start.htm

Exhibit 1 U.S. Attorney General William French Smith replies to a still classified letter from DCI William Casey requesting exemption from reporting drug crimes by CIA assets,agents and contractors. Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/cocaine/contra-story/01.gif

Exhibit 2: DCI William Casey happily agrees with William French Smith and signs the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) exempting his agency from reporting drug crimes. This agreement covered both the Latin American conflicts and Afghanistan war. It remained in effect until August, 1995 when it was quietly rescinded by Janet Reno after Gary Webb began making inquiries for his series. The 1995 revision of the DOJ-CIA MOU specifically includes narcotics violations among the lists of potential offenses by non-employees that must be reported to DoJ. Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/cocaine/contra-story/13.gif

Exhibit 3: On February 8, 1985, Deputy Chief of DoJ's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR) from 1979 to 1991, A. R. Cinquegrana signed off on this letter approving the MOU. Mark M. Richard, Deputy Assistant Attorney General with responsibility for General Litigation and International Law Enforcement in 1982, states that he was unable to explain why narcotics violations were not on the list of reportable crimes except that the MOU had "other deficiencies, not just drugs." Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/cocaine/contra-story/14.gif