House Intelligence Jammed
on Volume II Close-Out

 Committee Approves Draft Report
Maxine Speaks Out

by
Michael C. Ruppert

[The following article appeared in the January, 2000 issue of From The Wilderness - 
Copyright and Reprint Policy]

           On February 14, after receiving a tip from a network news source who is an FTW subscriber, we confirmed that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) was having a secret meeting the next day to vote on a draft of their long awaited, long overdue, final report on Volume II of the CIA's IG investigation of Contra Drug Trafficking. Using our newly established FTW subscriber information news service we issued a bulletin that night warning that the Committee, for the second time, might be trying to pull a fast one.

FTW readers rallied to the call and soon obtained confidential e-mail addresses of both the majority Staff Director John Millis and Deputy Staff Director Tim Sample. A flood of e-mails hit the Committee before the secret meeting convened.

Other FTW subscribers, including California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, confirmed that a closed door meeting was being held. She asked to be admitted and was denied admittance the same way she was denied admittance last summer when HPSCI held a full hearing on Volume II. She did confirm later that HPSCI approved a draft of its final report in the Feb. 15 meeting.

Signaling that Volume II is not dead and may become an issue in the 2000 Presidential race, Waters issued an angry March 1 Press Release. In it she said, "The Select Committee on Intelligence did not do a thorough job of investigating CIA involvement in Nicaraguan Contra drug

trafficking. The committee should hold public hearings and question individuals aware of the Contras crimes.

"I have been working on this issue for over three years, but I was neither invited to this meeting nor informed of it."

Waters closed her press release by stating, "The people who live in communities that were devastated by the Contra drug operations deserve a thorough investigation. The Select committee on Intelligence has failed to fulfill its responsibilities to the American people."

Bluster? Keeping the paper record complete? Or serious as an earthquake?  FTW has had a love-hate relationship with Maxine on this issue. On the one hand we criticize her for going silent after the release of Volume II as Bill Clinton fought off the Impeachment. On the other hand we admit that she has said more, on the record, than any other Member of Congress on this subject - ever. But to what end? That is the $64,000 question.

If FTW is right, there's a very good chance that Volume II will become an issue in the 2000 Presidential campaign just as the Gary Webb stories, which gave it birth, were a significant factor in the 1996 election. [SEE RELATED STORY THIS ISSUE]

One thing's for sure, FTW and all of its great subscriber base can be proud that we actually made HPSCI blink. We let them know that we are watching. And we let them know that if Chairman Porter Goss tries to close out the investigation without further hearings we have the ability to flood the Committee's computers with e-mails in a heartbeat.