Series On Cia, Cocaine Spawns Probes

Responding to requests from California’s two U.S. senators and a Los Angeles congresswoman, the Justice Department, the CIA and a key House committee have begun separate investigations into charges that the CIA blocked efforts to curb cocaine shipments to South Los Angeles.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., on Friday released a letter from House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., stating that the House Intelligence Committee is reviewing charges raised by the San Jose Mercury News of a drug pipeline during the 1980s from Colombian drug cartels to Los Angeles’ black neighborhoods.

Also, CIA Director John Deutch, under pressure from Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer as well as the Congressional Black Caucus, has ordered the agency’s inspector general to probe whether the CIA was involved in the alleged drug network.

And at the request of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office has begun its own questioning of the CIA’s alleged involvement in the drug network.