LETTER TO JAMES A. LEACH FROM FREDERICK P. HITZ RE PROVIDED YOUR REQUESTS TO THE AGENCY'S OFFICE OF CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS (OCA)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Keywords: SEAL BARRY
• Keywords: MENA ARKANSAS
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0001289865
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: June 22, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 30, 2009
• Case Number: F-2002-01499
• Publication Date: April 3, 1998

APPROVED FOR
RELEASE DATE:
23-Sep-2009
Central Intelligence Agency
3 April 1998
The Honorable James A. Leach
Chairman
Committee on Banking and
Financial Services
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
JU
Inspector General
703-874-2555
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. ~-- --~
 The Honorable James A. Leach
As I explained in our meeting, all the information that
we developed in our earlier investigation into specific
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 responses 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 identified
in question 11-3 of your 26 March letter will then be
available to you and your staff through the-House Permanent
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 administrative
action under 50 U.S.C. ?403q(e)(2) regarding.any 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 information.
 DIG/INV:
(2 Apr 98)
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