From the May 1998 Idaho Observer:

CIA Head Admits to Justice Obstruction Deal With DOJ

Have you noticed how federal agencies, agency heads and agents as well as elected officials and cabinet ministers are admitting to all sorts of illegal, unconstitutional, immoral, despotic, tyrannical, insensitive and unethical behavior lately? Have you noticed that nothing happens to them after their public admissions? Where is the press? Where are the American people? Why aren't these people being held accountable for the horrible things that they are doing and even admit to publicly?

by Mike Levine

As an ex-DEA agent I found the complete lack of coverage by mainstream media of what I saw during last month's congressional hearings into CIA drug trafficking both depressing and frightening.

I sat gape-mouthed as I heard the CIA Inspector General testify that there has existed a secret agreement between CIA and the Justice Department, wherein "during the years 1982 to 1995, CIA did not have to report the drug trafficking by its assets to the Justice Department."

To a trained DEA agent this literally means that the CIA had been granted a license to obstruct justice in our so-called war on drugs; a license that lasted, so the CIA claims, from 1982 to 1995, a time during which Americans paid almost $150 billion in taxes to "fight" drugs. Of course the evidence indicates that they did not stop obstructing justice in 1995 either, but that I suppose is going to be another congressional hearing.

As far as the current hearings go, this Catch 22 "revelation" means that all the present hearings are for nothing; that if they are caught violating the drug laws they have been given "secret" license to do so by our Justice Department. This might also explain Janet Reno's recent and unprecedented move in blocking the release of a Justice Department investigation into CIA drug trafficking.

God, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

It is now clear that this agreement began with the events described in THE BIG WHITE LIE; that the top drug traffickers in Bolivia, then supplying virtually all the world's cocaine (including Sonia Atala) were CIA assets that had to be protected from our deep cover probe.

Those watching the hearings cannot have helped but notice the snickering on the part of Chairman Porter Goss, an ex-CIA officer, as Congresswoman Maxine Waters spoke. Now here's the reason why: Sources of mine, who speak to me from inside this veil of secrecy out of conscience and because I am cheaper and more reliable than a psychiatrist, have told me the following:

1. There is secret communication between CIA and members of the congressional staff indicating that the whole hearing is just a smoke and mirror show so that the American people_particularly the black community_can "blow off some steam" without doing any damage to CIA. The CIA has been assured that nothing real will be done, other than some embarrassing questions being asked.

2. That the hearings will result in the CIA receiving an even larger budget than the current $26 billion that they admit to.

One of the most distressing things for me as a 25-year-veteran of this business to listen to was when Congresswoman Waters said that the hearings were not about CIA officers being indicted and going to jail. "That is not going to happen," she said.

Almost in the same breath she spoke of a recent case in Miami wherein a Venezuelan National Guard general was caught by customs agents smuggling more than a ton of cocaine into the U.S. Despite named CIA officers being involved in the plot, as Congresswoman Waters stated, the Justice Department will not tell her anything about the case because of "secrecy laws."

No wonder chairman Goss was snickering. She could not have played more neatly into CIA hands than to surrender before the battle was engaged.

Mr. Levine is the author of "The Big White Lie" and "Deep Cover" and is the host of THE EXPERT WITNESS radio show WBAI, New York City, 99.5 FM, Tuesdays, 7-8 p.m.

Published in the April 6, 1998 issue of The Washington Weekly.

Copyright © 1998 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com).

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