Investigation

By Sally B. Donnelly/Washington

The Department of Justice is supposed to pursue the truth. It may have, but it certainly isn't going to publish it soon. Last December, the DOJ announced with great fanfare that it would finally reveal the results of an investigation into allegations that the U.S. government, and in particular the Central Intelligence Agency, collaborated with drug smugglers to funnel cocaine into inner-city neighborhoods. Many of those claims had been laid out in a three-part series in the San Jose Mercury News in 1996. The most outrageous allegations were later proved wrong, and the reporter who wrote the story, Gary Webb, resigned. Justice abruptly pulled the report at the last minute, citing catch-all "law-enforcement concerns," and now says it has "no immediate plans" to release the report. Such secrecy only fuels those like Congresswoman MAXINE WATERS, who want to know more. "The Department of Justice is keeping something from the American public," says Waters. "There's something there that would help support the charges of cocaine-trafficking connections." Whether that's true or not, we may never know.

--By Sally B. Donnelly/Washington