CIA, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUED OVER COCAINE DAMAGE

OAKLAND, Calif. - Two class-action lawsuits were filed yesterday in U.S.
District Court accusing the Central Intelligence Agency of refusing to
report drug trafficking in the 1980s by supporters of the Nicaraguan contra
rebels.

The suits claim the CIA ignored the criminal acts of contra operatives who
helped introduce crack cocaine to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay
Area, resulting in the "death of men, women and children . . . and the
collapse of whole neighborhoods."

The suit also accuses the Justice Department of failing to demand that the
CIA report drug trafficking to federal prosecutors.

Justice Department officials said they had not seen the suit and refused to
comment. CIA officials were unavailable for comment.

The suits seek damages for residents of the Bay Area and Los Angeles whose
lives were ravaged by crack and for taxpayers forced to shoulder the costs
of the epidemic.

"This is not some sort of litigation lottery ticket," attorney Katya
Komisaruk said. "The government contributed to what happened to us, so now
we need the government to come and help us."

The lawsuits were prompted in part by last year's disclosure of a 1982
agreement between the late CIA Director William Casey and former Attorney
General William French Smith that the spy agency had no duty to report drug
crimes to the Justice Department.

The contras waged a U.S.-funded guerrilla war in the 1980s to unseat the
leftist government in Nicaragua.

The complaints are the latest result of a 1996 San Jose Mercury News series
that claimed a drug ring funneled profits to the contras for the better part
of a decade.

The executive editor of the Mercury News, Jerry Ceppos, later acknowledged
in a letter to readers that the series had shortcomings.

Last summer, an 800-page internal Justice Department report exonerated the
department and the CIA.