You want my opinion? You got it. This is a statement that my colleague Georg Hodel, a Managua based journalist, and I are issuing. Feel free to post it where you want. The only "shortcoming" in our Dark Alliance series is that it didn't go far enough. What Mr. Ceppos' column fails to mention is that, as a result of our continuing investigation, we DO have evidence of direct CIA involvement with this Contra drug operation. We have evidence that at least one top CIA official in Washington was aware of the drug ring's activities in El Salvador. We also know that these traffickers were more deeply involved with the U.S. intelligence community than we reported last year. Perhaps one day Mr. Ceppos will allow us to share this information with the public. Despite the efforts of the biggest newspapers in the country to discredit our work, our central findings remain unchallenged: After being instructed by a CIA agent to raise money in California for the Contras, two Contra drug dealers began selling vast amounts of cocaine in inner-city Los Angeles, primarily to the Crips and Bloods. Some of the profits went to pay for the CIA's covert war against the Sandinistas. We wrote last year that the amounts were in the millions and we stand by that statement. We have confirmation from an eyewitness that our figure is accurate. The drug ring's main customers, the LA gangs, introduced crack to more than 110 cities across the U.S. by the end of the 1980s according to federal reports. Only a fool could argue that this wasn't a critical factor in the spread of crack from South Central to the rest of the country. If we as journalists have to take a beating for publicly exposing these truths, so be it. We believe it is a beating worth taking. Gary Webb, reporter, San Jose Mercury News Georg Hodel, journalist, Managua, Nicaragua -- [10 lines left ... full text available at <url:http://www.reference.com/cgi-bin/pn/go?choice=message&table=05_1997&mid=3211764&hilit=CIA> ] -------------------------------- Article-ID: 05_1997&3216048 Score: 84 Subject: POLSKI OBYWATEL, ALE NIEKOSZERNY