Letter to James A. Leach From Frederick P. Hitz Regarding Inquiries on Mena and Contras

Central Intelligence Agency [wt juby (wits) - APPROVED FOR RELEASEUDATE: 23-Sep-2009 Inspector General 703-874-2555 The Honorable James A. Leach Chairman Committee on Banking and Financial Services House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 Dear Mr. Chairman: . Thank you and your staff for taking the time to meet with me on 30 March and for your 1 April 1998 letter clarifying and adding priorities to the categories of information you originally requested in your letter of 26 March. We have provided your requests to the Agency's - Office of Congressional Affairs (OCA), which will provide them to the responsible Agency components for appropriate. responses and monitor their progress on your behalf. As was explained during our meeting, most of the questions that are raised in your letters are outside the scope of the investigation we completed in November 1996 into several issues relating to events at Mena, Arkansas. They also, with few exceptions, are outside the scope of the investigation that is nearing completion into allegations that the CIA was complicit in narcotics trafficking by the: Nicaraguan Resistance Movement, i.e., the Contras. Since we are not reopening or expanding those investigations, these additional requests for information will be managed by Agency officials through OCA, as are all congressional requests for information from Agency files on any subject. This is the distinction between this Office and the Agency that I attempted to draw in our discussion. Any information in the possession of CIA that is responsive to your questions and relates to issues this Office has not specifically investigated will be located in Agency files, not the. files of this Office. An Agency review of its files and response to you regarding those issues is the most expeditious and efficient means of providing answers to your questions. arn | a 40) 716) The Honorable James A. Leach As I explained in our meeting, all the information that we developed in our earlier investigation into specif ic issues relating to Mena, Arkansas and- Barry Seal is set forth in our November 1996 Report of Investigation. A copy of that Report has been made available to your staff and we are preparing a written version of the oral respon ses we provided at our meeting to the questions you have asked that relate to that Report. The broader questions and additional information provided in your letters may lead the Agency and OCA to additional information in Agency files, but this Office has no additional information in its files concerning these matters at this time. As also mentioned in our meeting, the second volume of our Report of Investigation into the CIA/Contra/Cocaine allegations is nearing completion and should be released in Classified form within the next three weeks.. Information from that Report regarding a few of the subjects identi fied in question II-3 of your 26 March letter will then be available to you and your staff through the House Perman ent Select Committee on Intelligence. Finally, you may rest assured that this Office is fully committed to fulfilling its Statutory obligations under 50 U.S.C. §403q(d) (3) (c) to report "immediately" to the intelligence committees any instance where this Office is. unable to obtain information and to pursue administrati ve action under 50 U.S.C. §403q(e) (2) regardinanyg failure of an employee to cooperate with this Office. I will undertake to advise you also if any difficulties of this nature are encountered in regard to your requests for inform ation. Sincerelv. a CK P. Hitz ye ny The Honorable James A. Leach DIG/INV: (2 Apr 98) Distribution: Original - Addressee (via FAX and courier) 1 - bee: OCA 1 - beac: DO 1 - IG Chrono 1 - INV Chrono 1 - INV Subject