SUIT BLAMES CIA FOR CRACK EPIDEMIC

OAKLAND - Two class action lawsuits filed Monday allege the Central
Intelligence Agency and the Department of Justice play a major role in the
1980s crack epidemic in California.

The suits seek billions in damages for poor inter-cities neighborhoods,
including several on Oakland, which suffered from both drug abuse and the
violence associated with it.

Attorney Bill Simpich, who filed the lawsuit along with attorney Tatya
Komisaruk, said the litigation is unprecedented.

The lawsuits are based on testimony from CIA Inspector General Frederick
Hitz when he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee a year ago
today.

At the time, Hitz said that the CIA had entered into a secret agreement with
prosecutors in refrain from reporting drug trafficking by its "agents85 and
non-staff employees."

At the least, the two government agencies are responsible for not bearing
down hard enough when California's cities were inundated with crack in the
1980s, the lawsuit alleges.

At most, the agencies were helping an alleged conspiracy in which proceeds
from drug sales were used to supply the Contra rebels, the suit alleges.

Those allegations, most recently published in a series (of) San Jose Mercury
News reports, have been denied by every government agency implicated.
Portions of the series were later retracted by the paper.