CIA DIRECTOR TO SPEAK AT WATTS SCHOOL.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

George Bush, Al Gore, Edward James Olmos, Herbie Hancock and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have all spoken at Locke High School in Watts in recent years, taking on such thorny topics as cutting crime, bridging racial divides and improving education.

But none of those illustrious speakers ever tackled a tougher subject, or a more hostile crowd, than the one John Deutch will face at a town hall meeting beginning at 3 p.m. next Friday in Locke's multipurpose room.

For those who don't know who Deutch is - and there are a lot of them, based on the blank stares of some interviewees Friday - he's the nation's No. 1 spy. At CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., they call him the ``Director.''

Next Friday, Deutch will leave his Langley lair and travel to ground zero of one of the biggest bombshells ever to hit inner-city Los Angeles or the CIA.

Deutch will be in the back yard of ``Freeway'' Rick Ross, the former Los Angeles drug kingpin whose nickname came from the narcotics-financed properties he owned along the Harbor Freeway, just a mile west of Locke High.

A recent San Jose Mercury News series named Ross as the man who took over Los Angeles' crack trade with cheap, plentiful cocaine supplied by CIA-connected Nicaraguans. Ross' suppliers then reportedly plowed their profits into the CIA-backed Contra insurgency against the Nicaraguan government during the early 1980s.

``What better person should come (speak), in light of the topic?'' asks Annie L. Webb, Locke's principal. ``People really haven't had a chance to ask questions.''

What connection the CIA had, if any, to the debilitating crack epidemic has dominated discussions in inner-city Los Angeles, filling the pages of African-American-owned newspapers, the air time of African-American radio shows and the minds of African-American residents, community leaders and others.

``It's a huge story,'' said Joe Hicks, executive director of the Multicultural Collaborative. ``While some of us are still waiting for the facts to come out, there have been these suspicions for years that there was some government involvement (in bringing crack to the inner city). The story and the reverberations of that story have acted to confirm those suspicions.''

And neither the CIA's denials before Congress and the federal judge who will sentence Ross, nor critical articles about the Mercury News series in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post have dimmed African-American concerns about the CIA's role.

``I think they did it,'' said Watts resident Ray Wright, 51, who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, when the CIA was accused of helping Southeast Asian heroin traffickers. ``I was in the military; I know they did it.''

Given that prevailing sentiment, what are the chances that Deutch will be able to defuse a hostile and suspicious crowd at the town meeting?

``On a scale of one to 10? I'd say zero,'' said Henry Porter, president of the Southwest Community Association and an activist in the unincorporated neighborhoods west of Watts. ``It's admirable that he's coming. But I don't think he's going to change anyone's mind.''

Alex Smith and Tony Sayd of Watts said they have known Ross since they were all kids, and Smith said he even spent time in county jail with Ross. They can't wait for Deutch to show up, but they said there's no way he'll tell the truth.

``He's coming to cover his own self,'' Smith said. ``I believe he knows what's up. He knows what time it is.''

Principal Webb is more circumspect about her school's latest prominent visitor.

``I think when a topic of that magnitude is exposed, I think it's incumbent on somebody to respond,'' Webb said. ``That's good that he's willing to do that.''

Rick Oborn, the CIA spokesman, said his boss ``got a request to do a town meeting and said, OK, I'll do it. I don't know that he's ever done it before.''

Deutch was invited by U.S. Rep. Juanita Millender-MacDonald, D-Carson, who represents the area, said Vincent Harris, her administrative director.

``We wanted to give constituents a chance to discuss this with agency officials,'' Harris said of the lawmaker's decision to ask Deutch.

Easing Deutch's quick acceptance was the fact that Deutch was nowhere near the agency when Ross was allegedly getting Contra cocaine, Oborn said. A former deputy defense secretary, Deutch took over the CIA only last year.

``I don't think there was any deep thought about'' coming to the town hall meeting, Oborn said. ``The subject has been on a lot of people's minds. He certainly has nothing to hide. He wasn't around when this all supposedly happened.''

Webb promises her students ``really know how to roll out the red carpet'' for prominent visitors.

But Hicks predicts: ``I don't think there will be many objective minds in that audience. I can't think of any tougher sell.''

Wright, the Air Force veteran, has a few words of advice for Deutch: ``All I can do is tell him to take his best shot. People will always listen to you once. But if they don't believe you, that's it.''