Kerry Committee report

The Kerry Committee report were hearings chaired by Senator John Kerry which found the United States Department of State had paid drug traffickers. Some of these payments were after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges or while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. The Kerry investigation lasted two and a half years and heard scores of witnesses; its report was released on April 13, 1989. [cite web
author =Peter Kornbluh
date =January/February 1997
url =http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/storm.htm
title =Anatomy of a Story, Crack the Contras and the CIA: The Storm Over Dark Alliance
format =HTML
work =
publisher =Columbia Journalism Review
accessdate =April 22
accessyear =2006 "Hosted on National Security Archives"] The final report was 400 pages, with an additional 600 page appendix. The committee stated "It is clear that individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking...and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers." cite book
last =Cockburn
first =Alexander
authorlink =
coauthors =Jeffrey St Clair
date =October 1, 1999
title =Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press
publisher =Verso
location =
id =ISBN 1-85984-258-5]

Background

In the wake of press accounts concerning links between the Contras and drug traffickers' beginning December, 1985 with a story by the Associated Press, both Houses of the Congress began to raise questions about the drug-related allegations associated with the Contras, causing a review in the spring of 1986 of the allegations by the United States Department of State, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice and relevant U.S. intelligence agencies.cite web
author =
year =
url = http://www.pinknoiz.com/covert/contracoke.html
title =Selections from the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy chaired by Senator John F. Kerry
format =
work =HTML
publisher =
accessdate =April 21
accessyear =2006]

Following that review, the State Department told Congress in April, 1986 that it had at that time "evidence of a limited number of incidents in which known drug traffickers tried to establish connections with Nicaraguan resistance groups."

Hearings begin

In April 1986, John Kerry and Senator Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, proposed that hearings be conducted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding charges of Contra involvement in cocaine and marijuana trafficking. Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the Republican chairman of the committee, agreed to conduct the hearings.

Kerry's findings

Meanwhile, Kerry's staff began their own investigations, and on October 14, 1986 issued a report which exposed illegal activities on the part of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who had set up a private network involving the National Security Council and the CIA to deliver military equipment to right-wing Nicaraguan rebels (Contras). In effect, North and certain members of the President's administration were accused by Kerry's report of illegally funding and supplying armed militants without the authorization of Congress. [cite journal
first =Stephen
last =Engelberg
authorlink =
coauthors =
year =1986
month =October 16
title =Report Links Ex-Senate Aide To Contras
journal =The New York Times
volume =
issue =
pages = p. 6
id =
url =http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/81510.html]

Kerrys staff investigation, based on a yearlong inquiry and interviews with 50 unnamed sources, is said to raise "serious questions about whether the United States has abided by the law in its handling of the contras over the past three years." [cite journal
first =Author
last =Unknown
authorlink =
coauthors =
year =1986
month =October 15
title =White House Official Linked To Arms Deliveries to Contras
journal =The New York Times
volume =
issue =
pages = p. 6
id =
url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE3D71339F936A25753C1A960948260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fK%2fKerry%2c%20John]

Kerry Committee report

The Kerry Committee report found that "the Contra drug links included...payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies." The US State Department paid over $806,000 to known drug traffickers to carry humanitarian assistance to the Contras.

Public reaction

Kerry's findings provoked little reaction in the media and official Washington. cite journal
first =
last =
authorlink = David Corn
coauthors =
year = 2001
month =July 16
title =Defining John Kerry
journal =The Nation
volume =
issue =
pages =
id =
url =http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010716/dcorn/2
format =subscription required] When the report was released on April 13, 1989, coverage was buried in the back pages of the major newspapers and all but ignored by the three major networks. The Washington Post ran a short article on page A20 that focused as much on the infighting within the committee as on its findings; the New York Times ran a short piece on A8; the Los Angeles Times ran a 589-word story on A11. ABC's Nightline chose not to cover the release of the report. According to Doyle McManus, the Washington bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, the report "did not get the coverage that it deserved." This was in sharp contrast to those same newspapers' lengthy rebuttals to the Gary Webb "Dark Alliance" series seven years later in the Mercury News, which collectively totalled over 30,000 words. [cite web
author =Peter Kornbluh
date =January/February 1997
url =http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/storm.htm
title =Anatomy of a Story, Crack the Contras and the CIA: The Storm Over Dark Alliance
format =HTML
work =
publisher =Columbia Journalism Review
accessdate =April 22
accessyear =2006 "Hosted on National Security Archives"]

Outcome

On May 4, 1989, North was convicted of charges relating to the Iran/Contra controversy, including three felonies. On September 16, 1991, however, North's convictions were overturned on appeal because North's testimony before Congress under immunity may have affected testimony in the trial. [cite journal
first =David
last =Johnston
authorlink =
coauthors =
year =1992
month =December 24
title =Bush Pardons 6 In Iran Affair, Aborting A Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor Assails 'Cover-Up' Bush Diary at Issue 6-Year Inquiry Into Deal of Arms for Hostages All but Swept Away
journal =New York Times
volume =
issue =
pages =
id =
url =http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/991224onthisday_big.html]

Almost a decade later, the CIA inspector general would release a study confirming the conclusions of the Kerry Committee report.

Notes

ee also

*CIA and Contra's cocaine trafficking in the US
*CIA drug trafficking

Further reading

*cite web
author =
year =
url = http://www.pinknoiz.com/covert/contracoke.html
title =Selections from the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy chaired by Senator John F. Kerry
format =
work =HTML
publisher =
accessdate =April 21
accessyear =2006
*cite book
last = McCoy
first = Alfred W.
authorlink =Alfred W. McCoy
coauthors =
date =May 1, 2003
title =
publisher =Lawrence Hill Books
location =
id =ISBN 1-55652-483-8