
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 4, 1990                   TAG: 9005040764
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TONY EQUALE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PRESS IGNORES CIA-S&L LINK

ON FEB. 4, The Houston Post began publishing a series of articles detailing what it claimed to be evidence of Central Intelligence Agency involvement in the collapse of 22 savings and loans associations across the United States, 16 in Texas. Staff journalist Pete Brewton, who did the research and authored most of the 15 or so articles printed since that date, claimed to have spent more than nine months gathering data and testimony.

Brewton's investigations uncovered a grim tale of bank failures caused by fraudulent dealings with individuals who had links to the CIA. In one celebrated case, Brewton found that federal prosecution of an individual for fraud in the collapse of an S&L in Kansas was called off because the U.S. prosecuting attorney was told that the person was connected to the CIA.

The apparent reason, Brewton claims to have discovered, was the CIA's attempt to find money for the Nicaraguan Contras when public support for that purpose had been cut off by Congress. The S&Ls were an easy source of cash. When challenged by a congressional banking committee to answer the charges made in the articles, the CIA refused to appear.

While this may seem astounding information, what is equally astounding is that few of us have even heard of it.

As it's becoming clear that the S&L bailout promises to cost American taxpayers the astronomical sum of $500 billion (that's 500,000 millions of dollars, or around $12,000 for the average American family of four), it seems particularly appalling that the allegations made by The Houston Post have gone virtually unreported in the U.S. press. Why?

It is certainly relevant information on a topic of keen interest for most Americans, who face the bill for this debacle. Furthermore, we're not dealing with someone's paranoid speculation. Quite the contrary: The Post's material is the product of research carried out by a professional journalist working for a respected metropolitan daily, published in detail and backed up by his newspaper.

"There's no final proof of these allegations," one might say. Yes, but final determination always rests with a jury of one's peers. If the news as reported were restricted exclusively to what has already been proven in a court of law, our newspapers would contain little more than commercial advertising and crossword puzzles.

In these days when we are treated to front-page pap about Donald Trump's sexual vagaries, is it too much to ask that the documented research of a serious journalist on a topic of national concern be reported? For the fact is that the allegations themselves, coming as they do from a credible and responsible source, are a news story in their own right. Why haven't we heard of them?

It would seem an absolutely minimum requirement in the exercise of journalistic responsibility would be the reporting of relevant information. We must hold our media accountable for the failure to provide us this.

by CNB