Editing Contras (section)

===Illegal covert operations===
{{See also|Iran–Contra affair}}
With Congress blocking further aid to the Contras, the Reagan administration sought to arrange funding and military supplies by means of third countries and private sources.<ref name="Lee et al. 1987, p. 4">Lee et al. 1987, p. 4</ref> Between 1984 and 1986, $34 million from third countries and $2.7 million from private sources were raised this way.<ref name="Lee et al. 1987, p. 4"/> The secret contra assistance was run by the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]], with officer [[Lieutenant Colonel|Lt. Col.]] [[Oliver North]] in charge.<ref name="Lee et al. 1987, p. 4"/> With the third-party funds, North created an organization called ''The Enterprise'', which served as the secret arm of the NSC staff and had its own airplanes, pilots, airfield, ship, operatives, and secret Swiss bank accounts.<ref name="Lee et al. 1987, p. 4"/> It also received assistance from personnel from other government agencies, especially from CIA personnel in Central America.<ref name="Lee et al. 1987, p. 4"/> This operation functioned, however, without any of the accountability required of U.S. government activities.<ref name="Lee et al. 1987, p. 4"/> The Enterprise's efforts culminated in the [[Iran Contra affair|Iran–Contra Affair of 1986–1987]], which facilitated contra funding through the proceeds of arms sales to Iran.

According to the London Spectator, U.S. journalists in Central America had long known that the CIA was flying in supplies to the Contras inside Nicaragua before the scandal broke. No journalist paid it any attention until the alleged CIA supply man, [[Eugene Hasenfus]], was shot down and captured by the Nicaraguan army. Similarly, reporters neglected to investigate many leads indicating that Oliver North was running the Contra operation from his office in the National Security Council.<ref>[http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/16th-may-1987/13/who-helped-oliver-north "Who Helped Oliver North?"] ''[[The Spectator]]'', 15 May 1987</ref>

According to the [[National Security Archive]], Oliver North had been in contact with [[Manuel Noriega]], the military leader of [[Panama]] later convicted on drug charges, whom he personally met. The issue of drug money and its importance in funding the Nicaraguan conflict was the subject of various reports and publications. The contras were funded by drug trafficking, of which the United States was aware.<ref name="archive">{{cite web|title =  The Contras, cocaine, and covert operations: Documentation of official U.S. knowledge of drug trafficking and the Contras|publisher= The [[National Security Archive]] / [[George Washington University]]|date = c. 1990|url = http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm }}</ref> [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[John Kerry]]'s 1988 [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Committee on Foreign Relations]] report on Contra drug links concluded that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB113/index.htm |title=The Oliver North File |publisher=Gwu.edu |access-date=17 August 2011}}</ref>

The Reagan administration's support for the Contras continued to stir controversy well into the 1990s. In August 1996, ''[[San Jose Mercury News]]'' reporter [[Gary Webb]] published a series titled ''Dark Alliance'', alleging that the contras contributed to the rise of [[crack cocaine]] in California.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm|title=The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations|work=gwu.edu}}</ref>

Gary Webb's career as a journalist was subsequently discredited by the leading U.S. papers, ''The New York Times'', the Washington Post, and the ''Los Angeles Times''. An internal CIA report, entitled, "Managing a Nightmare", shows the agency used "a ground base of already productive relations with journalists" to help counter what it called "a genuine public relations crisis."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Devereaux |first1=Ryan |title=How the CIA Watched Over the Destruction of Gary Webb |url=https://theintercept.com/2014/09/25/managing-nightmare-cia-media-destruction-gary-webb/|work=The Intercept |date=25 September 2014}}</ref> In the 1980s, Douglas Farah worked as a journalist, covering the civil wars in Central America for the Washington Post. According to Farah, while it was common knowledge that the Contras were involved in cocaine trafficking, the editors of the Washington Post refused to take it seriously:

<blockquote>If you're talking about our intelligence community tolerating — if not promoting — drugs to pay for black ops, it's rather an uncomfortable thing to do when you're an establishment paper like the Post. If you were going to be directly rubbing up against the government, they wanted it more solid than it could probably ever be done.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/10/kill-the-messenger_n_5962708.html "Kill The Messenger: How The Media Destroyed Gary Webb"] Huffington Post, 10/10/2014</ref></blockquote>

An investigation by the [[United States Department of Justice]] also stated that their "review did not substantiate the main allegations stated and implied in the ''Mercury News'' articles." Regarding the specific charges towards the CIA, the DOJ wrote "the implication that the drug trafficking by the individuals discussed in the ''Mercury News'' articles was connected to the CIA was also not supported by the facts."<ref name="oig.justice.gov">{{Cite web|url=https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/archive/special/9712/exsump1.htm|title=CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy|website=oig.justice.gov}}</ref> The CIA also investigated and rejected the allegations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/cocaine/report/conclusions.html|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20100327062446/https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/cocaine/report/conclusions.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 March 2010|title=Conclusions — Central Intelligence Agency}}</ref>