--- aliases: - Senate Committee on Foreign Relations - Kerry subcommittee - Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations category: Intelligence & Government created: 2026-09-22 location: Washington, D.C. relations: - end: 1981 fn: 2 reverse: true role: chairman start: 1979 type: head_of with: '[[Frank Church]]' - fn: 8 reverse: true role: chairman, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations type: member_of with: '[[John Kerry]]' - fn: 8 reverse: true role: special counsel to the Kerry subcommittee type: employed_by with: '[[Jack Blum]]' - end: 1988-12 fn: 9 type: investigated with: '[[Contras]]' start: 1816 summary: Senate standing committee since 1816, hearing diplomatic nominations and CIA testimony on Chile, whose Kerry subcommittee reported in 1988 that the State Department had selected companies owned by drug traffickers to supply the Contras. tags: - Organization - Government - Congress - Contras - BCCI updated: 2026-09-22 --- The Senate established the Committee on Foreign Relations in 1816 as one of its original ten standing committees; it considers treaties and all diplomatic nominations.[^1] [Frank Church](/people/frank-church/) chaired it from 1979 to 1981.[^2] ### Hearings On January 6, 1961, Secretary of State [Christian A. Herter](/people/christian-a-herter/) gave his farewell briefing to a closed session of the committee and spoke of a "disturbing" new element in the [Middle East](/places/middle-east/), the reactor at [Dimona](/places/dimona/).[^3] At his confirmation hearing of 1966 as assistant secretary for inter-American affairs, [Lincoln Gordon](/people/lincoln-gordon/) testified that "Neither the American Embassy nor I personally played any part" in the 1964 coup in Brazil.[^4] The committee held hearings on the [American Institute for Free Labor Development](/organizations/aifld/) on August 1, 1969.[^5] On February 7 and March 6, 1973, [Richard Helms](/people/richard-helms/), newly ambassador to Iran, testified to it about Chile and [ITT](/organizations/itt-corporation/), stating under oath that the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) had not "tried to overthrow the government of Chile" and had not "passed money to the opponents of Allende"; in 1977 he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of misleading Congress.[^6][^13] At the hearing of July 26, 1983, on [Thomas F. Ellis](/people/thomas-f-ellis/), nominated to the Board for International Broadcasting, Senators Paul Tsongas and [Joseph Biden](/people/joe-biden/) questioned him about his service on the board of the [Pioneer Fund](/organizations/pioneer-fund/); he withdrew.[^7] It confirmed [Donald Gregg](/people/donald-gregg/)'s ambassadorial nomination in June 1989 after hearings in which Kerry pressed him on what he had known of Contra operations.[^10] ### The Kerry Subcommittee The Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations under [John Kerry](/people/john-kerry/), with [Jack Blum](/people/jack-blum/) as special counsel, took testimony in 1987 and 1988 from traffickers, pilots and officials, among them [Ramon Milian Rodriguez](/people/ramon-milian-rodriguez/) and, in February 1988, José Blandón.[^8] Its report of December 1988, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,* stated: "The Subcommittee did not find that the Contra leaders personally were involved in drug trafficking. There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and Contra supporters throughout the region." It found that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contra's funding problems," citing [Oliver North](/people/oliver-north/)'s suggestion to the [DEA](/organizations/dea/) in June 1985 that 1.5 million dollars from [Barry Seal](/people/barry-seal/)'s sting be given to the Contras, and that "the [State Department](/organizations/state-department/) selected four companies owned and operated by narcotics traffickers to supply humanitarian assistance to the Contras," among them [SETCO](/organizations/setco/) Air, set up by [Ramón Matta Ballesteros](/people/juan-matta-ballesteros/), and [DIACSA](/organizations/diacsa/).[^9] The subcommittee's investigation of the [Bank of Credit and Commerce International](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/) led to *[The BCCI Affair](/events/bcci-kerry-brown-senate-report/),* the report of Kerry and Senator Hank Brown of December 1992.[^11] In 1992 a subcommittee of the committee investigated the [October Surprise](/events/october-surprise/) allegations and found that [William J. Casey](/people/william-j-casey/) had made "potentially dangerous" unauthorized efforts to collect intelligence on the Carter administration's negotiations for the release of the hostages in Iran, without finding a deal.[^12] [^1]: Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, "History." https://www.foreign.senate.gov/about/history [^2]: As cited on the Frank Church page. [^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. [^4]: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hearing on the nomination of Lincoln Gordon as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, 1966, as quoted on the Lincoln Gordon page. [^5]: University of Maryland Special Collections, finding aid, "Senate Foreign Relations Committee, American Institute for Free Labor Development hearings," as cited on the AIFLD page. [^6]: Powers, Thomas. *The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA.* Knopf, 1979; Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, "Richard Helms' Eligibility Under 5 U.S.C. Section 8314 To Receive an Annuity," as cited on the Project FUBELT page. [^7]: United Press International, dispatch on the withdrawal of Thomas Ellis, Washington, July 28, 1983; United States Senate, nomination PN59-1, 98th Congress. [^8]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993; as cited on the John Kerry, Ramon Milian Rodriguez and Mike Harari pages. [^9]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations. *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,* S. Prt. 100-165, December 1988. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras [^10]: As cited on the Donald Gregg page. [^11]: Kerry, John, and Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate,* December 1992, as cited on the BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report page. [^13]: Powers, Thomas, *The Man Who Kept the Secrets,* as cited on the Richard Helms page. [^12]: U.S. House of Representatives, October Surprise Task Force, *Joint Report of the Task Force to Investigate Certain Allegations Concerning the Holding of American Hostages by Iran in 1980,* 1993, as cited on the October Surprise page.