43 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
43 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Intelligence & Government"
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tags:
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- Person
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- Person/Intelligence
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- CIA
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- United_States
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- 1990s
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- Dark_Alliance_Investigation
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summary: CIA Inspector General whose 1998 investigation and congressional testimony revealed the agency's secret 1982 agreement with the Justice Department exempting CIA assets from drug crimes reporting.
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born: 1939-10-14
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location: "Washington, D.C."
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updated: 2026-10-12
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---
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Fred P. Hitz was the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Inspector General who conducted the agency's internal investigation into Contra drug trafficking and testified before Congress in March 1998 about his findings.[^1]
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### Congressional Testimony
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Appearing before the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] in March 1998, Hitz delivered some of the most damaging admissions in the agency's history. "Let me be frank about what we are finding," Hitz testified. "There are instances where CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity." When Congressman Norman Dicks asked whether any of these allegations involved trafficking in the [[United States]], Hitz answered: "Yes."[^1]
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### The 1954 Origin and the 1975 Regulation
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The arrangement that the 1982 agreement later formalized dated from 1954. According to a memorandum by [[Lawrence Houston]], the CIA's general counsel, Houston discussed the reporting of federal crimes with Deputy Attorney General [[William P. Rogers]] on February 18, 1954, and the two agreed that the CIA would determine whether a potential violation by persons associated with the agency was referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. The memorandum states that the arrangement rested on the belief that the CIA was in the best position to determine whether classified information might be revealed in such a prosecution.[^2]
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In July 1975 [[Richard Thornburgh]], then assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, reminded the agency of its duty under 28 U.S.C. 535, and the CIA general counsel, [[John Warner]], replied that any informal referral agreement from the past had been abrogated. The agency's headquarters regulation of November 28, 1975 provided that crimes by government officers would be reported to the Attorney General and added that "CIA will not exercise a prosecutorial function."[^3][^4]
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In an interview for PBS Frontline (Drug Wars), Hitz said his staff "weren't ever able to find a memorandum of conversation or any evidence that indicated why it was done," and: "We didn't find any evidence of an understanding that official Washington was going to look the other way with respect to allegations of drug trafficking."[^5]
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### The Secret 1982 Agreement
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Hitz revealed that from 1982 to 1995, the CIA operated under a secret agreement with the Justice Department that exempted the agency from reporting drug crimes committed by its non-employees, a category defined to include agents, assets, and non-staff employees. The agreement was "hammered out" between CIA director William Casey and U.S. Attorney General William French Smith in 1982. "The period of 1982 to 1995 was one in which there was no official requirement to report on allegations of drug trafficking with respect to non-employees of the agency," Hitz testified.[^1]
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### Inspector General's Report
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Hitz's 400-page report, released in late 1998, was filled with examples of CIA collusion with drug traffickers, money launderers, and drug pilots. The [[New York Times]] reported on its front page in July 1998 that the agency had working relationships with dozens of suspected drug traffickers during the Nicaraguan conflict and that CIA higher-ups knew it. "The new study has found that the Agency's decision to keep those paid agents, or to continue dealing with them in some less formal relationship, was made by top officials at headquarters," the Times reported. The [[Washington Post]] buried the story deep inside the paper, and the [[Los Angeles Times|L.A. Times]] printed nothing.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Epilogue: "The damage that has been done"
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[^2]: CIA Office of Inspector General, *Report of Investigation: Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States* (96-0143-IG), Vol. II, *The Contra Story*, Findings paragraph 42. https://archive.org/details/nps56-111612-04
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[^3]: Same report, Findings paragraph 43 (letter of July 24, 1975; reply of July 29, 1975).
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[^4]: Same report, Findings paragraph 44.
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[^5]: PBS Frontline, *Drug Wars,* interview with Frederick P. Hitz, CIA Inspector General 1990 to 1998. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/hitz.html
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