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crack cocaine

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this is crack and cocaine? heroin?

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https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/1991-09-01/cocaine-politics-drugs-armies-and-cia-central-america

https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520214491/cocaine-politics

Cocaine PoliticsDrugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America, Updated edition, With a new preface

omg

https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/how-elliott-abrams-found-himself-at-the-center-of-a-dark-reagan-era-conspiracy-to-spring-a-cia-linked-trafficker/

When U.S. policymakers needed to spring a convicted CIA-connected drug trafficker doing hard time in federal prison, who did they call?

Trump’s infamous appointed special envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, according to a September 1986 National Security Council email, written by NSC staffer Oliver North.

In a U.S. House Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) scorched Abrams for his covering up of the infamous El Mozote massacre and lying to Congress during the Iran-Contra conspiracy in the 1980s.

Her interrogation drew rebuke from Max Boot, the apostate conservative, and a chorus of right-wing media commentators. Boot described Omar’s comments as a “disgraceful ad hominem attack.”

Actually, the impertinent congresswoman from Minneapolis could have gone much further about Abrams’ untrustworthy behavior. One of the most revealing stories comes from an impeccably right-wing source, Oliver North, former Republican senatorial candidate and Fox News talking head.

Bagman

The year was 1986. Abrams served as assistant secretary of state for Latin America under President Reagan. He was a 39-year-old lawyer and foreign policy polemicist who qualified as neoconservative royalty. (His wife was the daughter of Norman Podhoretz, the perfervid editor of Commentary magazine.) Even then his perennial scowl managed to make him look furtive and self-righteous at the same time.

The Iran-Contra conspiracy was in full swing. The conspiracy, permissively labeled “a scandal,” was a Reagan White House plot to subvert the U.S. Congress’ powers of the purse. North was the coordinator of what can fairly be described as an unconstitutional covert operation, while Abrams played the role of bagman.

To bypass the so-called Boland Amendment, Abrams took payments from the Sultan of Brunei, a petroleum potentate from South Asia, and passed them to the leaders of Reagan’s counter-revolutionary army in Nicaragua. When questioned under oath, Abrams lied. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of deceiving Congress.

As part of the conspiracy, Abrams also put in a good word for a convicted drug trafficker, General Jose Bueso Rosa. He was a Honduran general who had helped the U.S. government with “sensitive operations” in Central America. As Murray Waas and I wrote in the Washington Post, North did “a favor for a felon.”

So did Abrams.

‘Sensitive Operations’

As an episode of CIA-sanctioned drug trafficking, the Bueso story was typical. Bueso, it turns out, had helped put together a CIA-trained military intelligence unit known as Battalion 316, which served as death squad for U.S. policymakers. A Honduran government investigation found that Battalion 316 had captured, tortured and executed some 200 suspected leftists.

Bueso had also trafficked multi-kiloton shipments of cocaine. As CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz documented in Volume 2 of his report on contra drug trafficking, the agency did business with more than 50 suspected drug traffickers in the 1980s.

(Lazy reporters sometimes say that the CIA was cleared of the allegation. They didn’t bother to read the Sections 800-1148 of Hitz’s report, which detailed how the agency took no action against four dozen suspected traffickers who aided Reagan’s—and Abrams’—anticommunist crusade.)

Investigating the story for the Post, I spoke on background with law enforcement officials familiar with Bueso’s case. A wiretap had picked up Bueso repeatedly talking about shipments of “flour” into central Florida, they said. Given Bueso’s connections, no one in the Reagan Justice Department cared to make a big deal of his cocaine shipments, no matter how hefty. They just wanted a conviction that would put him out of business. Bueso got a generous plea bargain. He would only have to serve five years.

Bueso, however, was led to believe his American friends would save him from serving any time all.

In his September 1986 email, later uncovered by Iran-Contra investigators, North worried Bueso might “break his longstanding silence.” He might disclose unpleasant truths about death squads and CIA drug trafficking.

So North “cabal[led] quietly” with Abrams, as well as top Pentagon, CIA and Justice Department officials. A presidential pardon was out of the question, but transfer to a comfortable “Club Fed” facility was arranged.

As time when U.S. prosecutors meted out 10-year sentences to young black men for the possession of a few ounces of cocaine, Abrams was part of a gang that thought a multi-kiloton trafficker should be treated leniently. Such was his advocacy of “human rights.”

Bueso got out of prison early—for “good behavior.” Abrams went on to a long career in U.S. foreign policy. Hundreds of thousands of black men remained in jails for years, if not decades.

Question

Rep. Omar could have asked an even tougher question of Abrams, namely, “Does Trump’s policy toward Latin America today involve protection of drug traffickers as Reagan’s policy did in the 1980s?”

...

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Tom E:

Or consider the report, “Counternarcotics: Lessons from the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan,” issued this June by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR). Its focus:15 years of American efforts to suppress opium growing and the heroin trade in that country (at historic lows, by the way, when the U.S. invaded in 2001). More than eight and a half billion American dollars later, SIGAR found, opium remains the country’s largest cash crop, supporting “590,000 full-time jobs -- which is more people than are employed by Afghanistan’s military and security forces.”Oh, wait, historian Alfred McCoy was writing about just that at TomDispatch back in2010 under the headline “Can Anyone Pacify the World’s Number One Narco-State?” (“In ways that have escaped most observers, the Obama administration is now trapped in an endless cycle of drugs and death in Afghanistan from which there is neither an easy end nor an obvious exit.”)

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/1/26/headlines/ap_honduras_national_police_chief_personally_helped_20m_cocaine_delivery_in_2013

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wiki

The American crack epidemic was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States between 1982 and the early 1990s.[1] This resulted in a number of social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in American inner city neighborhoods, as well as a resulting backlash in the form of tough on crime policies.

History

In the early 1980s, the majority of cocaine being shipped to the United States, landing in Miami, was coming through the Bahamas and Dominican Republic.[1] Soon there was a huge glut of cocaine powder in these islands, which caused the price to drop by as much as 80 percent.[1] Faced with dropping prices for their illegal product, drug dealers made a decision to convert the powder to "crack," a solid smokeable form of cocaine, that could be sold in smaller quantities, to more people. It was cheap, simple to produce, ready to use, and highly profitable for dealers to develop.[1] As early as 1981, reports of crack were appearing in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, Miami, Houston, and in the Caribbean.[1]

Initially, crack had higher purity than street powder.[2] Around 1984, powder cocaine was available on the street at an average of 55 percent purity for $100 per gram (equivalent to $230 in 2016), and crack was sold at average purity levels of 80-plus percent for the same price.[1] In some major cities, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Houston and Detroit, one dosage unit of crack could be obtained for as little as $2.50 (equivalent to $5.76 in 2016).[1]

According to the 1985–1986 National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee Report, crack was available in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Memphis, Philadelphia, New York City, Houston, San Diego, San Antonio, Seattle, Baltimore, Portland, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Atlanta, Oakland, Kansas City, Miami, Newark, Boston, San Francisco, Albany, Buffalo, and Dallas.

In 1985, cocaine-related hospital emergencies rose by 12 percent, from 23,500 to 26,300. In 1986, these incidents increased 110 percent, from 26,300 to 55,200. Between 1984 and 1987, cocaine incidents increased to 94,000. By 1987, crack was reported to be available in the District of Columbia and all but four states in the United States.[1]

Some scholars have cited the crack "epidemic" as an example of a moral panic, noting that the explosion in use and trafficking of the drug actually occurred after the media coverage of the drug as an "epidemic."[3]

Dark Alliance series

San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb sparked national controversy with his 1996 Dark Alliance series which alleged that the influx of Nicaraguan cocaine started and significantly fueled the 1980s crack epidemic.[4] Investigating the lives and connections of Los Angeles crack dealers Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandón, and Norwin Meneses, Webb alleged that profits from these crack sales were funneled to the CIA-supported Contras.[4] Although Webb never claimed that the CIA directly aided drug dealers, it echoed the Kerry Committee conclusion that the CIA was aware of large shipments of cocaine into the U.S. by Contra personnel.[4] Further, Webb alleges the government offered political asylum to known Nicaraguan drug traffickers, like Blandon, which marked a major break of State Department Policy.[5]

Impact by region

Using an index that combined indicators like crack cocaine related deaths and medical emergencies, arrests and seizures, and media coverage, researchers Steven Levitt and Kevin M Murphy found that the drug's worst impact was on the Northeastern and South Atlantic States, headed by New York and Maryland. 70% of the impact of crack was felt in large cities, and the rates per capita were 10 times higher in larger cities than in the rest of the nation. During the time period studied, cities with the worst crack problems were Newark, Philadelphia, New York, Oakland, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle. Other cities that rank high include New Orleans, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.[6]

Crime

Between 1984 and 1989, the homicide rate for black males aged 14 to 17 more than doubled, and the homicide rate for black males aged 18 to 24 increased nearly as much. During this period, the black community also experienced a 20–100% increase in fetal death rates, low birth-weight babies, weapons arrests, and the number of children in foster care.[7] In 1996, approximately 60% of inmates incarcerated in the US were sentenced on drug charges. The United States remains the largest overall consumer of narcotics in the world as of 2014.[6][8]

The reasons for these increases in crime were mostly because distribution for the drug to the end-user occurred mainly in low-income inner city neighborhoods. This gave many inner-city residents the opportunity to move up the "economic ladder" in a drug market that allowed dealers to charge a low minimum price. The basic reason for the rise of crack was economic,[9] though social, non-pecuniary contributing factors have been suggested.[10]

Crack cocaine use and distribution became popular in cities that were in social and economic chaos such as Los Angeles and Atlanta. "As a result of the low-skill levels and minimal initial resource outlay required to sell crack, systemic violence flourished as a growing army of young, enthusiastic inner-city crack sellers attempt to defend their economic investment."[11] Once the drug became embedded in the particular communities, the economic environment that was best suited for its survival caused further social disintegration within that city. An environment that was based on violence and deceit was an avenue for the crack dealers to protect their economic interests.[9]

Sentencing disparities

In 1986, the U.S. Congress passed laws that created a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for the possession or trafficking of crack when compared to penalties for trafficking of powder cocaine,[12][13][14][15] which had been widely criticized as discriminatory against minorities, mostly blacks, who were more likely to use crack than powder cocaine.[16] This 100:1 ratio had been required under federal law since 1986.[17] Persons convicted in federal court of possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine received a minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years in federal prison. On the other hand, possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same sentence.[13][14] In 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act cut the sentencing disparity to 18:1.[16]

Influence on popular culture

Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion is a 1998 book by journalist Gary Webb. The book is based on "Dark Alliance", Webb's three-part investigative series published in the San Jose Mercury News in August 1996. The original series claimed that, in order to help raise funds for efforts against the Nicaraguan Sandinista National Liberation Front Sandinista government, the CIA supported cocaine trafficking into the US by top members of Nicaraguan Contra Rebel organizations and allowed the subsequent crack epidemic to spread in Los Angeles. The book expands on the series and recounts media reaction to Webb's original newspaper expose.

Dark Alliance was published in 1998 by Seven Stories Press, with an introduction by U.S. Representative Maxine Waters. A revised edition was published in 1999. The same year the book won a Pen Oakland Censorship Award[1] and a Firecracker Alternative Book Award.[2] It served as part of the basis for Kill the Messenger, a 2014 film based on Webb's life.

Synopsis

According to Webb, in the 1980s when the CIA exerted a certain amount of control over Contra groups such as the FDN, the agency as well as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) granted amnesty to and put on the agency’s bankroll important Contra supporters and fundraisers who were known to the US Government to be cocaine smugglers. Later, at the behest of Oliver North, the Reagan Administration began to use Contra drug money to support the anti-communist Nicaraguan rebels' efforts against the Sandinista government. The Sandinistas were hated by successive Democratic and Republican U.S. administrations for the 1978-79 Sandinista Revolution (the overthrowing of the U.S.-sponsored brutal dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua) and for their support of worker and peasant revolutions developing throughout Central and South America.

Blandon, a cocaine smuggler who founded an FDN chapter in Los Angeles, was a major supplier for Freeway Ricky Ross. With access to cheap, pure cocaine and the idea to cook the cocaine into crack, Ross established a major drug network and fueled the popularity of crack. By 1983, Ross was purchasing 10 to 15 kilos of cocaine a week from CIA-backed Contra supporter Blandon - according to Blandon.[3] All the while, Webb alleges, the CIA was supporting the Contras supplying him with the cocaine. Meanwhile, the US Justice Department and its agencies - who were aware of the Contra-linked drug trafficking operations of the FDN supporters - derailed local police investigations and blocked the prosecution of the Contra-linked cocaine traffickers.[4]

Webb also discusses his experiences writing the investigative series that the book expands on. He notes that the use of the Internet and the uploading of the documents on which his assertions rest "made it possible to share [the files the story was based on] directly with your readers. If they cared to, they could read and hear exactly what you had read and heard, and make up their own minds about the story. It was raw interactive journalism, perhaps too interactive for some."[5] The release of the "Dark Alliance" series on the San Jose Mercury News' state-of-the-art website, complete with images and facsimiles of the copious official US Government documentary record assembled by Webb and his colleagues broke new ground for both journalism and the Internet. Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia enthused that "The unlimited space of the Web allowed the Mercury News to move forward into a whole new kind of journalism... the Web... let intelligent readers review the source materials and draw their own conclusions. This step, far beyond the traditional role of newspapers, attracted attention and readers from all over the world."[6]

The number of visits or "hits" to the "Dark Alliance" website rapidly climbed to 500,000, then 800,000 and topped out at 1,000,000 a day - phenomenal for this early stage of the development of the modern Internet.[7] In October 1996, two months after the release of the series, a Boston Globe reporter wrote "that the story was 'pulsing through [L.A.'s] black neighborhoods like a shockwave, provoking a stunning, growing level of anger and indignation. Talk-radio stations with predominantly black audiences are deluged with calls on the subject. Demonstrations, candle-lighting ceremonies and town-hall meetings are becoming regular affairs. And people on the street are heatedly discussing the topic.'"[8][9] "Nonetheless, the media slowly turned against Webb and attempted to discredit him. Notably, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times ran articles calling his argument unfounded. The Mercury News originally stood by Webb’s reporting, but, amidst the denunciations by other news sources, executive editor Jerry Ceppos published an apology for much of the series’ content in May 1997.

Critical reception

Reviewers' opinions of the book were mixed. David Corn, Washington editor for The Nation magazine, reviewed the book in The Washington Post.[10] Corn had previously been critical of aspects of the "Dark Alliance" newspaper series, and he found that the book "reflects the positives and negatives of the original series." He noted that Webb "deserves credit for pursuing an important piece of recent history and forcing the CIA and the Justice Department to investigate the contra-drug connection", but remained critical of several aspects of the book, observing that Webb's "threshold of proof is on the low side".

Michael Massing, an investigative reporter and associate editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, reviewed Dark Alliance in The Los Angeles Times.[11] Massing found that Webb "seems on solid ground in arguing that money from Nicaraguan traffickers ended up in Contra coffers," but observed that "the sums involved are in question." He believed that Webb does not demonstrate that the CIA was involved in or sanctioned these activities, but did show that agency officials "heard allegations ... but did little to intervene." For the claim that the CIA and the Contras "helped to set off the nation's crack explosion, Massing claims "Webb's account is at its most shaky", and that Webb's overall thesis "seems fantastic." He is also critical of Webb's contacts with Ricky Ross's lawyer Alan Fenster, as recounted in Dark Alliance.

James Adams, Washington correspondent for the Sunday Times, wrote a largely negative review for the New York Times.[12] Adams was critical of Webb's "failure" to contact the CIA to "cross-check sources and allegations," and concluded that "For investigative reporters determined to uncover the truth, procedures like these are unacceptable. Neither the editors of the San Jose Mercury News nor the publishers of these books should have allowed their writers to take such relaxed approaches to a serious subject."

One of the most negative reviews was written by Glenn Garvin in Reason magazine.[13] Garvin, a reporter who served as Managua bureau chief for the Miami Herald, was highly critical of Webb's treatment of sources and evidence: "No subject is too great, too small, or too far afield for Webb to distort or falsify," Garvin claimed. While Garvin said that "a few contra pilots and their associates, particularly on the so-called south front" were involved with narcotraffickers, he rejected Webb's account of contra involvement with cocaine trafficking, which he said is "almost entirely drawn from the claims of a few Nicaraguan traffickers facing long jail terms who were using a the-CIA-made-me-do-it defense." According to Garvin, Webb substantially overstated both the importance of these dealers to the Contras and their actual role in the cocaine trade.

References

  1. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Pen Oakland Award Winners". Pen Oakland. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  2. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Firecracker Alternative Book Awards". Readers Read. Retrieved 2015-02-01.
  3. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (1998). *Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion*. USA: Seven Stories Press. p. 146. ISBN 1-888363-68-1.
  4. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (1998). *Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion*. USA: Seven Stories Press. p. ix. ISBN 1-888363-68-1.
  5. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (1998). *Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion*. USA: Seven Stories Press. p. 443. ISBN 1-888363-68-1.
  6. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (1998). *Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion*. USA: Seven Stories Press. pp. 443–444. ISBN 1-888363-68-1.
  7. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (1998). *Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion*. USA: Seven Stories Press. pp. 444–447. ISBN 1-888363-68-1.
  8. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (1998). *Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion*. USA: Seven Stories Press. p. 445. ISBN 1-888363-68-1.
  9. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Pertman, Adam (6 October 1996). ""CIA-Drug Link Stories Outrage Blacks in L.A."". Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
  10. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Corn, David (August 9, 1998). "Dark Alliance". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  11. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Massing, Michael (1999-01-24). "Dead End". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-02-01.
  12. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Adams, James (September 27, 1998). "Moonlighting?". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  13. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Garvin, Glenn (Jan 1999). "Hooked on Fantasies". Reason: 66–68.

Categories: 

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Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 – December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist.

He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in the Mercury News in 1996. The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to support their struggle. It also suggested that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges.

The Los Angeles Times and other major papers published articles suggesting the "Dark Alliance" claims were overstated. After an internal review, the Mercury News ultimately published a statement in May 1997 acknowledging shortcomings in the series' reporting and editing. Webb resigned from the Mercury News in December 1997. He became an investigator for the California State Legislature, publishing a book based on the "Dark Alliance" series in 1998, and doing freelance investigative reporting. Webb committed suicide on December 10, 2004. [1]

The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. Critics view the series' claims as inaccurate or overstated, while supporters point to the results of a later CIA investigation as vindicating the series. Criticism has also been directed at the follow up reporting in the Los Angeles Times and other papers for focusing on problems in the series rather than re-examining the earlier CIA-Contra claims.[2]

Early life

Webb was born in Corona, California, one of two children in his family. Webb's father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments.[3] When Webb's father retired from the Marines, the family settled in a suburb of Indianapolis, where Webb and his brother attended high school.[4] After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University.[5]

Webb first began writing on the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis.[6] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. Instead, he found work in 1978 as a reporter at the Kentucky Post, a local paper affiliated with the larger Cincinnati Post.[7] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell and the two eventually had three children.[8]

Early career

Webb's first major investigative work appeared in 1980, when the Post published "The Coal Connection," a seventeen-part series by Webb and Post reporter Thomas Scheffey.[9] The series, which examined the murder of a coal company president with ties to organized crime, won the national Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for reporting from a small newspaper.[10]

In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. A 1985 series, "Doctoring the Truth," uncovered problems in the State Medical Board.[11] It led to an Ohio House investigation which resulted in major revisions to the state Medical Practice Act.[12] Webb then moved to the paper's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues, winning numerous regional journalism awards.[13]

In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories.[14]As part of the Mercury News team that covered the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Webb and his colleague Pete Carey wrote a story examining the reasons for the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct.[15] The Mercury News coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990.[16]

Dark Alliance series

Webb began researching "Dark Alliance" in July 1995.[17] The series was published in the Mercury News in three parts, from August 18–20, 1996, with one long article and one or two shorter articles appearing each day. It was also posted on the Mercury News website with additional information, including documents cited in the series and audio recordings of people quoted in the articles.[18] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal.[19] This artwork proved controversial, and the Mercury News later changed it.

Series claims

The lead of the first article set out the series' basic claims: "For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency." This drug ring "opened the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles" and, as a result, "The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America."[20]

To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandón, and Norwin Meneses. Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. Blandón and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandón and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. Much of the article highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies to successfully prosecute them and suggested that this was largely due to their Contra and CIA connections.

The second article described Blandón's background and how he began smuggling cocaine to support the Contras. Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandón how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandón. Blandón and Meneses' high-volume supply of low-priced cocaine "allowed Ross to sew up the Los Angeles market and move on. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[21]

The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. Asking why crack became so prevalent in the black community of Los Angeles, the article credited Blandón, referring to him as "the Johnny Appleseed of crack in California."[22] It also found disparities in the treatment of black and white traffickers in the justice system, contrasting the treatment of Blandón and Ross after their arrests for drug trafficking. Because Blandón cooperated with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he spent only 28 months in prison, became a paid government informer, and received permanent resident status. Ross was also released early after cooperating in an investigation of police corruption, but was rearrested a few months later in a sting operation arranged with the help of Blandón. The article suggested this was in retribution for Ross' testimony in the corruption case.

Response to the series

After the publication of "Dark Alliance," the Mercury News continued to pursue the story, publishing follow-ups to the original series for the next three months.[23] Other papers were slow to pick up the story, but African-Americans quickly took note, especially in South-Central Los Angeles where the dealers discussed in the series had been active. They responded with outrage to the series' charges.[24]

California senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein also took note and wrote to CIA director John Deutch and Attorney General Janet Reno, asking for investigations into the articles.[25] Maxine Waters, the Representative for California's 35th district, which includes South-Central Los Angeles, was also outraged by the articles and became one of Webb's strongest supporters.[26] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate.

By the end of September, three federal investigations had been announced: an investigation into the CIA allegations conducted by CIA Inspector-General Frederick Hitz, an investigation into the law enforcement allegations by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Bromwich, and a second investigation into the CIA by the House Intelligence Committee.

Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandón and Meneses had mentioned several cases. One of these was a 1986 raid on Blandón's drug organization by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which the article suggested had produced evidence of CIA ties to drug smuggling that was later suppressed. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[27]

Coverage in other papers

After the announcement of federal investigations into the claims made in the series, other newspapers began investigating, and several papers ultimately published articles suggesting the series' claims were overstated.

The first detailed article on the series' claims appeared in the Washington Post in early October.[28] The front-page article, by reporters Roberto Suro and Walter Pincus, found that "available information" did not support the series claims and that "the rise of crack" was "a broad-based phenomenon" driven in numerous places by diverse players. The article also discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series.[29]

The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles black community to the stories, described the series' evidence as "thin."[30] Golden also noted the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. The other article, citing interviews with current and former intelligence and law-enforcement officials, questioned the importance of the drug dealers discussed in the series, both in the crack cocaine trade and in supporting the Nicaraguan Contras' fight against the Sandinista government.[31]

The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, developing its own three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." The series ran from October 20–22, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. The first article, by Katz, developed a different picture of the origins of the crack trade than "Dark Alliance" had described, with more gangs and smugglers participating.[32] The second article, by McManus, was the longest of the series and dealt with the role of the Contras in the drug trade and CIA knowledge of drug activities by the Contras.[33] McManus found Blandón and Meneses' contributions to Contra organizations significantly less than the "millions" claimed in the series, and no evidence that the CIA had tried to protect them. The third article, by Mitchell and Fulwood, covered the effects of crack on African-Americans and how it affected their reaction to some of the rumors that arose after the "Dark Alliance" series.[34]

In 2013, Jesse Katz, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, said of the LA Times coverage: "As an L.A. Times reporter, we saw this series in the San Jose Mercury News and kind of wonder[ed] how legit it was and kind of put it under a microscope, and we did it in a way that most of us who were involved in it, I think, would look back on that and say it was overkill. We had this huge team of people at the L.A. Times and kind of piled on to one lone muckraker up in Northern California." And "we really didn't do anything to advance his work or illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry exercise. ... And it ruined that reporter's career."[35]

Mercury News response

Surprised by the Washington Post article, Mercury News executive editor Jerry Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series.[36] The Post ultimately refused to print his letter.[37] Ceppos also asked reporter Pete Carey to write a critique of the series for publication in the Mercury News, and had the controversial website artwork changed.[36] Carey's critique appeared in mid-October and went through several of the Post criticisms of the series, including the importance of Blandón's drug ring in spreading crack, questions about Blandón's testimony in court, and how specific series allegations about CIA involvement had been, giving Webb's responses.[38]

When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers.[39] The extent of the criticism, however, convinced Ceppos that the Mercury News had to acknowledge to its readers that the series had been subjected to strong criticism.[40] He did this in a column that appeared on November 3, defending the series, but also committing the paper to a review of major criticisms.[41]

Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both the New York Times and Washington Post. An editorial in the Times, while criticizing the series for making "unsubstantiated charges," conceded that it did find "drug-smuggling and dealing by Nicaraguans with at least tentative connections to the Contras" and called for further investigation.[42]

The Post response came from the paper's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser.[43] Overholser was harshly critical of the series, "reported by a seemingly hotheaded fellow willing to have people leap to conclusions his reporting couldn't back up." But while calling the flaws in the series "unforgivably careless journalism," Overholser also criticized the Post's refusal to print Ceppos' letter defending the series and sharply criticized the Post's coverage of the story. Calling the Post's overall focus "misplaced", Overholser expressed regret that the paper had not taken the opportunity to re-examine whether the CIA had overlooked Contra involvement in drug smuggling, "a subject The Post and the public had given short shrift."

In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. In a long review of the series' claims in the Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said: "I think the critics have been far too harsh. Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[44]

After the series' publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists had voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996.[45] Despite the controversy that soon overtook the series, and the request of one board member to reconsider, the branch's board went ahead with the award in November.

End of the series

After Ceppos' column, the Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. The review was conducted primarily by editor Jonathan Krim and reporter Pete Carey, who had written the paper's first published analysis of the series. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings.[46]

The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story.[47] By January, Webb filed drafts of four more articles based on his trip, but his editors concluded that the new articles would not help shore up the original series claims.[48]

The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed.[49] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. At the end of March, however, Ceppos told Webb that he was going to present the internal review findings in a column.[48] After discussions with Webb, the column was published on May 11, 1997.[50]

In the column Ceppos continued to defend parts of the article, writing that the series had "solidly documented" that the drug ring described in the series did have connections with the Contras and did sell large quantities of cocaine in inner-city Los Angeles.

But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. 1) It presented only one interpretation of conflicting evidence and in one case "did not include information that contradicted a central assertion of the series." 2) The series' estimates of the money involved was presented as fact instead of an estimate. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics."[51]

Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. He concluded: "How did these shortcomings occur? ... I believe that we fell short at every step of our process: in the writing, editing and production of our work. Several people here share that burden ... But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine."

Resignation

Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and in interviews was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story.[52] Editors at the paper, on the other hand, felt that Webb had failed to tell them about information that contradicted the series' claims, and that he "responded to concerns not with reasoned argument, but with accusations of us selling him out."[53] In June 1997, the Mercury News told Webb it was transferring him from the paper's Sacramento bureau and offered him a choice between working at the main offices in San Jose under closer editorial supervision, or spot reporting in Cupertino; both locations were long commutes from his home in Sacramento.[53] Webb eventually chose Cupertino, but was unhappy with the routine stories he was reporting there and the long commute.[54] He resigned from the paper in November, 1997.

Federal investigation results

The reports of the three federal investigations into the claims of "Dark Alliance" were not released until over a year after the series' publication. The reports rejected the series' main claims but were critical of some CIA and law enforcement actions.

Justice Department report

The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. According to the report's "Epilogue", the report was completed in December 1997 but was not released because the DEA was still attempting to use Danilo Blandón in an investigation of international drug dealers and was concerned that the report would affect the viability of the investigation. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unchanged.[55]

The report covered actions by Department of Justice employees in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and U.S. Attorneys' Offices. It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." After examining the investigations and prosecutions of the main figures in the series, Blandón, Meneses and Ross, it concluded: "Although the investigations suffered from various problems of communication and coordination, their successes and failures were determined by the normal dynamics that affect the success of scores of investigations of high-level drug traffickers … These factors, rather than anything as spectacular as a systematic effort by the CIA or any other intelligence agency to protect the drug trafficking activities of Contra supporters, determined what occurred in the cases we examined."[56]

It also concluded that "the claims that Blandón and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." Although it did find that both men were major drug dealers, "guilty of enriching themselves at the expense of countless drug users", and that they had contributed money to the Contra cause, "we did not find that their activities were responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic in South Central Los Angeles, much less the rise of crack throughout the nation, or that they were a significant source of support for the Contras."

The report called several of its findings "troubling." It found that Blandón received permanent resident status "in a wholly improper manner" and that for some time the Department "was not certain whether to prosecute Meneses, or use him as a cooperating witness." Regarding issues raised in the series' shorter sidebar stories, it found that some in the government were "not eager" to have DEA agent Celerino Castillo "openly probe" activities at Ilopango Airport in El Salvador, where covert operations in support of the Contras were undertaken, and that the CIA had indeed intervened in a case involving smuggler Julio Zavala. It concluded, however, that these problems were "a far cry from the type of broad manipulation and corruption of the federal criminal justice system suggested by the original allegations."

CIA report

The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. The first one, "The California Story", was issued in a classified version on December 17, 1997, and in an unclassified version on January 29, 1998. The second volume, "The Contra Story," was issued in a classified version on April 27, 1998, and in an unclassified version on October 8, 1998.

According to the report, the Inspector-General's office (OIG) examined all information the agency had "relating to CIA knowledge of drug trafficking allegations in regard to any person directly or indirectly involved in Contra activities." It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support.[57]

The first volume of the report found no evidence that "any past or present employee of CIA, or anyone acting on behalf of CIA, had any direct or indirect dealing" with Ross, Blandón, or Meneses or that any of the other figures mentioned in "Dark Alliance" were ever employed by or associated with or contacted by the agency.[58]

It found nothing to support the claim that "the drug trafficking activities of Blandón and Meneses were motivated by any commitment to support the Contra cause or Contra activities undertaken by CIA." It noted that Blandón and Meneses claimed to have donated money to Contra sympathizers in Los Angeles, but found no information to confirm that it was true or that the agency had heard of it.[58]

It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandón or Meneses.[58]

House committee report

The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000.[59] According to the report, it used Webb’s reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." Like the CIA and Justice Department reports, it also found that neither Blandón, Meneses, nor Ross were associated with the CIA.[60]

Examining the support that Meneses and Blandón gave to the local Contra organization in San Francisco, the report concluded that it was "not sufficient to finance the organization" and did not consist of 'millions', contrary to the claims of the "Dark Alliance" series. This support "was not directed by anyone within the Contra movement who had an association with the CIA," and the Committee found "no evidence that the CIA or the Intelligence Community was aware of these individuals’ support."[60] It also found no evidence to support Webb's suggestion that several other drug smugglers mentioned in the series were associated with the CIA, or that anyone associated with the CIA or other intelligence agencies was involved in supplying or selling drugs in Los Angeles.[60]

Dark Alliance book

Main article: Dark Alliance

After his resignation from the Mercury News, Webb expanded the "Dark Alliance" series into a book that responded to the criticism of the series and described his experiences writing the story and dealing with the controversy. It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims.[61]

Film

In October 2014, a movie based on Webb's life was released. The movie Kill the Messenger was based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. Actor Jeremy Renner portrayed Webb.

Webb's later views

In interviews after leaving the Mercury News, Webb described the 1997 controversy as media manipulation. "The government side of the story is coming through the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post," he stated. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. If you work through friendly reporters on major newspapers, it comes off as The New York Times saying it and not a mouthpiece of the CIA."[62] Webb's longest response to the controversy was in "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On," a chapter he contributed to an award-winning anthology of press criticism:[63]

If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me ... And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. The reason I'd enjoyed such smooth sailing for so long hadn't been, as I'd assumed, because I was careful and diligent and good at my job ... The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress ...

— Gary Webb

Later career

After leaving the Mercury News, Webb worked as an investigator for the California State Legislature. His assignments included investigating racial profiling by the California Highway Patrol and charges that the Oracle Corporation had received a no-bid contract award of $95 million in 2001.[64] While working at the Legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work, such as an article on racial profiling in traffic stops that appeared in Esquire magazine in April 1999.[65]

Webb later moved to the Legislature's Office of Majority Services. He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Núñez was elected Speaker.[66] In August 2004 he joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. Army.[67]

Death

Webb was found dead in his Carmichael home on December 10, 2004 with two gunshot wounds to the head. His death was ruled suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office.[68] After a local paper reported that he had died from multiple gunshots, the coroner's office received so many calls asking about Webb's death that Sacramento County Coroner Robert Lyons issued a statement confirming Webb had committed suicide.[69] When asked by local reporters about the possibility of two gunshots being a suicide, Lyons replied: "It's unusual in a suicide case to have two shots, but it has been done in the past, and it is in fact a distinct possibility." News coverage noted that there were widespread rumors on the Internet at the time that Webb had been killed as retribution for his 'Dark Alliance' series, published eight years before, but Webb's ex-wife Susan Bell told reporters that she believed Webb had committed suicide.[69] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. According to Bell, Webb had been unhappy for some time over his inability to get a job at another major newspaper. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.

After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series were published. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric.

Legacy

Views on Webb's journalism

Views on Webb's journalism have been both strongly positive and negative. During and immediately after the controversy over "Dark Alliance," Webb's earlier writing was examined closely. A January 1997 article in American Journalism Review noted that a 1994 series Webb wrote had also been the subject of a Mercury News internal review that criticized Webb's reporting.[70] A New York Times profile of Webb in June 1997 noted that two of his series written for the Cleveland Plain Dealer had resulted in lawsuits that the paper had settled.[71]

On the other hand, in addition to the numerous prizes Webb's work received, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. Walter Bogdanich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who worked with Webb on the Plain Dealer, told American Journalism Review editor Susan Paterno "He was brilliant; he knew more about public records than anybody I've ever known."[72] Mary Anne Sharkey, Webb's editor at Plain Dealer, told writer Alicia Shepard in 1997 that Webb was known as 'the carpenter' "because he had everything nailed down. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable."[70] California Representative Maxine Waters, who was Webb's strongest supporter in Congress after the "Dark Alliance" controversy broke, issued a statement after Webb's death calling him "one of the finest investigative journalists that our country has ever seen."[73]

Jonathan Krim, the Mercury News editor who recruited Webb from the Plain Dealer and who supervised the Mercury News internal review of "Dark Alliance," told AJR editor Paterno that Webb "had all the qualities you'd want in a reporter: curious, dogged, a very high sense of wanting to expose wrongdoing and to hold private and public officials accountable." But as Krim also told Webb's biographer Nick Schou, "The zeal that helped make Gary a relentless reporter was coupled with an inability to question himself, to entertain the notion that he might have erred."[74] Scott Herhold, Webb’s first editor at the Mercury-News, wrote in a 2013 column that "Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. When he was engaged, he worked hard. He wrote well. But Webb had one huge blind side: He was fundamentally a man of passion, not of fairness. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines."[75]

Views on "Dark Alliance" series

Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandón-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. Writing on the Los Angeles Times opinion page, Schou said, "Webb asserted, improbably, that the Blandón-Meneses-Ross drug ring opened 'the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles,' helping to 'spark a crack explosion in urban America.' The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors."[76]

While finding this part of the series unsupported, Schou said that some of the series' claims on CIA involvement are supported, writing that "The CIA conducted an internal investigation that acknowledged in March 1998 that the agency had covered up Contra drug trafficking for more than a decade." According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." In a later article in the LA Weekly, Schou wrote that Webb was "vindicated by a 1998 CIA Inspector General report, which revealed that for more than a decade the agency had covered up a business relationship it had with Nicaraguan drug dealers like Blandón."[77]

Writing after Webb's death in 2005, The Nation magazine's former Washington Editor David Corn said that Webb "was on to something but botched part of how he handled it." According to Corn, Webb "was wrong on some important details, but he was, in a way, closer to the truth than many of his establishment media critics who neglected the story of the real CIA-contra-cocaine connection." Like Schou, Corn cites the inspector general's report, which he says "acknowledged that the CIA had indeed worked with suspected drugrunners while supporting the contras."[78]

Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series' claims. Jeff Leen, assistant managing editor at the Washington Post for investigative reporting, wrote in a 2014 opinion page article that "the report found no CIA relationship with the drug ring Webb had written about." Leen, who covered the cocaine trade for the Miami Herald in the 1980s, rejects the claim that "because the report uncovered an agency mind-set of indifference to drug-smuggling allegations", it vindicated Webb's reporting.[79]

Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. Noting that most of the activities discussed in the report had nothing to do with the people Webb reported on, Kornbluh told Schou, "I can't say it's a vindication. It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information."[80]

See also

Endnotes

  1. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ The circumstances of Webb's death are described below.
  2. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on Response to the series. Later discussions of the series are described in the section Views on "Dark Alliance" series.
  3. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou, Nick (2006). Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Gary Webb. Nation Books. ISBN 1-56025-930-2., 13-14.
  4. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 15-16.
  5. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 22.
  6. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 20-21.
  7. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 27-29.
  8. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 33.
  9. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb 2011, "The Coal Connection"
  10. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "1980 IRE Award winners". Investigative Reporters and Editors. Retrieved 2015-01-27.
  11. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb 2011, "Doctoring the Truth."
  12. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Porter, S. (October 1986). "The Ohio State Medical Board. An interim report". The Ohio State Medical Journal. 82 (10): 677–683. ISSN 0030-1124. PMID 3785826.
  13. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Paterno 2005, 26.
  14. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 54-55.
  15. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety."
  16. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "General News Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  17. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 65.
  18. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ There is an archived version of the website at the Wayback Machine (archived December 20, 1996) which includes the original series, later updates, and other coverage of the story.
  19. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 107
  20. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (1996-08-18). "America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on December 20, 1996. Retrieved 2015-02-05.
  21. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (1996-08-19). "Shadowy origins of 'crack' epidemic". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on December 20, 1996. Retrieved 2015-02-06.
  22. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (1996-08-20). "War on drugs has unequal impact on black Americans". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on December 20, 1996. Retrieved 2015-02-05.
  23. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Many of these are in the series archive at "Dark Alliance: Update archive". 1996-12-20. Archived from the original on December 20, 1996. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  24. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 112
  25. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 116.
  26. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 115
  27. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Los Angeles Sherrif's Department Inquiry Findings". San Jose Mercury News - Dark Alliance library. 1996-12-10. Archived from the original on April 9, 1997. Retrieved 2015-02-11.
  28. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Suro, Roberto; Walter Pincus (Oct 4, 1996). "The CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking Of Alleged Plot". Washington Post.
  29. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ This is discussed briefly in Schou 2006, 86.
  30. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Golden, Tim (1996-10-21). "Though Evidence Is Thin, Tale of C.I.A. and Drugs Has a Life of Its Own". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-27.
  31. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Golden, Tim (1996-10-21). "Pivotal Figures of Newspaper Series May Be Only Bit Players". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-27.
  32. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Katz, Jesse (1996-10-20). "Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-01-29.
  33. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ McManus, Doyle (1996-10-21). "Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-01-29.
  34. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Mitchell, John L.; Sam Fulwood (1996-10-22). "History Fuels Outrage Over Crack Allegations". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
  35. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou, Nick (2013-05-30). "Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  36. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb#cite_ref-ceplet_36-1) Ceppos, Jerry (Oct 18, 1996). "Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos' Letter to the Washington Post". Dark Alliance: library. Archived from the original on April 9, 1997. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
  37. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Washington Post response to Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos". Oct 24, 1996. Archived from the original on March 30, 1997. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
  38. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Carey, Pete (Oct 13, 1996). ":{':(style="padding-left:0.2em"):}:Dark Alliance' series takes on a life of its own". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on December 20, 1996. Retrieved 2015-02-05.
  39. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 149.
  40. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 153.
  41. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Ceppos, Jerry (Nov 3, 1996). "Perspective: In the eye of the storm". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on April 9, 1997. Retrieved 2015-02-05.
  42. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "The CIA and Drugs". The New York Times. 1996-11-05. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
  43. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Overholser, Geneva (1996-11-10). "The CIA, Drugs And the Press". Washington Post.
  44. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Weinberg, Steve (Nov 17, 1996). "Despite critics, a good story Crack and the contras". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
  45. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Shepard, Alicia C. (Feb 1997). "The web that Gary spun". American Journalism Review. 19 (1). pp. 34–. Retrieved 2015-02-04.
  46. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 153-156.
  47. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 152.
  48. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb#cite_ref-Schou_2006.2C_158_48-1) Schou 2006, 158.
  49. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 156.
  50. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 160.
  51. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Ceppos, Jerry (1997-05-11). "To readers of our 'Dark Alliance' series". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on November 19, 1997. Retrieved 2015-02-11.
  52. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou, 162-163
  53. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb#cite_ref-Schou.2C_164_53-1) Schou, 164.
  54. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou, 165-166.
  55. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Bromwich, Michael R. "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Epilogue". Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  56. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Bromwich, Michael R. "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Conclusions". Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  57. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Hitz, "Scope of investigation."
  58. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb#cite_ref-v1c_58-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb#cite_ref-v1c_58-2) Hitz, Vol. 1, "Conclusions."
  59. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Feb 2000). *Report On the Central Intelligence Agency's Alleged Involvement in Crack Cocaine Trafficking in the Los Angeles Area*.
  60. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb#cite_ref-psci1_60-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb#cite_ref-psci1_60-2) "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43.
  61. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Report on Alleged Involvement", 2.
  62. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Osborn, Barbara Bliss (Mar./Apr. 1998). "Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career?". Extra!. Retrieved 2006-07-21.
  63. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Webb, Gary (2002). "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On". In Borjesson, Kristina. Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press. Prometheus Books. pp. 141–157. ISBN 1-57392-972-7.
  64. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006 196-200
  65. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "DWB (Driving While Black)", Webb 2011.
  66. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 206.
  67. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "The Killing Game", Webb 2011
  68. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ According to a description of Webb's injuries in the Los Angeles Times, he shot himself with a .38 revolver, which he placed near his right ear. The first shot went through his face, and exited at his left cheek. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery. Daunt, Tina (March 16, 2005). "Written In Pain". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-01-29.
  69. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb#cite_ref-sacbeedeath_69-1) Stanton, Sam (December 15, 2004). "Reporter's suicide confirmed by coroner". The Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on May 7, 2008.
  70. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb#cite_ref-shepard_70-1) Shepard, Alicia C. (Jan 1997). "A Hard-charging reporter". American Journalism Review. 19 (1). p. 39. ISSN 1067-8654. Retrieved 2015-02-04.
  71. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Peterson, Iver (June 3, 1997). "Repercussions From Flawed News Articles". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-27.. The details of the suits and settlements are discussed in Schou 2006, 48 and 51.
  72. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Paterno 2005
  73. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Waters statement". newsmakingnews.com. December 13, 2004. Archived from the original on January 3, 2005. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
  74. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 228.
  75. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Herhold, Scott (2 October 2013). "Herhold: Thinking back on journalist Gary Webb and the CIA". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on 2014-07-08. ()
  76. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou, Nick (August 18, 2006). "The truth in 'Dark Alliance:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
  77. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks" Los Angeles Weekly. May 30, 2013. Retrieved on Feb 15, 2015
  78. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Corn, David (2004-12-13). "Gary Webb Is Dead". The Nation - Capital Games. Retrieved 2015-01-25.
  79. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Leen, Jeff (2014-10-17). "Gary Webb was no journalism hero, despite what ‘Kill the Messenger’ says". Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-01-27.
  80. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schou 2006, 185-6.

References

Includes follow up stories and links to coverage from other papers (some of these are broken).

The United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General report on the claims made in the Dark Alliance newspaper series, released on July 22, 1998.

The Central Intelligence Agency Office of the Inspector General report on the claims made in the Dark Alliance newspaper series, released in two volumes, volume 1 on January 29, 1998 and volume 2 on October 8, 1998.

House Intelligence Committee report on the claims made in the Dark Alliance series (excerpt).

Record of Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on Dark Alliance series claims, Oct. 23 and Nov. 26, 1996.

Further reading

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Gary Webb
Authority control

Categories: 

==

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking

A number of writers have alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in cocaine trafficking during the 1980s. These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by the United States House of Representatives, Senate, Department of Justice, and the CIA's Office of the Inspector General. The subject remains controversial.

CIA involvement in trafficking is usually alleged to be connected to the Contra war in Nicaragua and the Iran–Contra affair during the Reagan Administration. In 1986 its spokesman acknowledged that funds from sales of cocaine smuggled into the US had helped fund the Contra rebels, but said that the smuggling was not authorized by the US government or resistance leaders.[1]

A 1986 investigation by a sub-committee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (the Kerry Committee), found that "the Contra drug links included", among other connections, "[...] payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies."[2]

The charges of CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking were revived in 1996, when a newspaper series by reporter Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury Newsclaimed that the trafficking had played an important role in the creation of the crack cocaine drug problem in the United States. Webb's series led to three federal investigations, none of which found evidence of any conspiracy by the CIA or its employees to bring drugs into the United States.

Early reports of Contra cocaine trafficking

In 1984, U.S. officials began receiving reports of Contra cocaine trafficking. Three officials told journalists that they considered these reports "reliable." Former Panamanian deputy health minister Dr. Hugo Spadafora, who had fought with the Contra army, outlined charges of cocaine trafficking to a prominent Panamanian official. Spadafora was later found murdered. The charges linked the Contra trafficking to Sebastián González Mendiola, who was charged with cocaine trafficking on November 26, 1984, in Costa Rica.[3]

In 1985, another Contra leader "told U.S. authorities that his group was being paid $50,000 by Colombian traffickers for help with a 100-kilo cocaine shipment and that the money would go 'for the cause' of fighting the Nicaraguan government." A 1985 National Intelligence Estimate revealed cocaine trafficking links to a top commander working under Contra leader Edén Pastora.[3][4][5] Pastora had complained about such charges as early as March 1985, claiming that "two 'political figures' in Washington told him last week that State Department and CIA personnel were spreading the rumor that he is linked to drug trafficking in order to isolate his movement."[6]

On December 20, 1985, these and other additional charges were laid out in an Associated Press article after an extensive investigation, which included interviews with "officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA), Customs Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Costa Rica's Public Security Ministry, as well as rebels and Americans who work with them". Five American Contra supporters who worked with the rebels confirmed the charges, noting that "two Cuban-Americans used armed rebel troops to guard cocaine at clandestine airfields in northern Costa Rica. They identified the Cuban-Americans as members of Brigade 2506, an anti-Castro group that participated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Several also said they supplied information about the smuggling to U.S. investigators." One of the Americans said "that in one ongoing operation, the cocaine is unloaded from planes at rebel airstrips and taken to an Atlantic coast port where it is concealed on shrimp boats that are later unloaded in the Miami area."[3]

On March 16, 1986, the San Francisco Examiner published a report on the "1983 seizure of 430 pounds of cocaine from a Colombian freighter" in San Francisco; it said that a "cocaine ring in the San Francisco Bay area helped finance Nicaragua's Contra rebels." Carlos Cabezas, convicted of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, said that the profits from his crimes "belonged to ... the Contra revolution." He told the Examiner, "I just wanted to get the Communists out of my country." Julio Zavala, also convicted on trafficking charges, said "that he supplied $500,000 to two Costa Rican-based Contra groups and that the majority of it came from cocaine trafficking in the San Francisco Bay area, Miami and New Orleans."[7]

FBI probe

In April 1986, Associated Press reported on an FBI probe into Contra cocaine trafficking. According to the report, "Twelve American, Nicaraguan and Cuban-American rebel backers interviewed by The Associated Press said they had been questioned over the past several months [about contra cocaine trafficking] by the FBI. In the interviews, some covering several days and being conducted in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado and California, several of the Contra backers told AP of firsthand knowledge of cocaine trafficking."[8]

On April 17, 1986, the Reagan administration released a three-page report stating that there were some Contra-cocaine connections in 1984 and 1985, and that these connections occurred at a time when the rebels were "particularly hard pressed for financial support" because aid from the United States had been cut off.[1] The report said: "We have evidence of a limited number of incidents in which known drug traffickers have tried to establish connections with Nicaraguan resistance groups" and that the drug activity took place "without the authorization of resistance leaders."[1]

Kerry Committee

Main article: Kerry Committee report

Once you set up a covert operation to supply arms and money, it's very difficult to separate it from the kind of people who are involved in other forms of trade, and especially drugs. There is a limited number of planes, pilots and landing strips. By developing a system for supply of the Contras, the US built a road for drug supply into the US.

— Former CIA agent David MacMichael[9]

In 1986, Senator John Kerry and Senator Christopher Dodd proposed a series of hearings at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding charges of Contra involvement in drug trafficking; the hearings were conducted by Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the Republican Chairman of the Committee.

The report of the Committee, released on April 13, 1989, found that

the Contra drug links included:

  • Involvement in narcotics trafficking by individuals associated with the Contra movement.
  • Participation of narcotics traffickers in Contra supply operations through business relationships with Contra organizations.
  • Provision of assistance to the Contras by narcotics traffickers, including cash, weapons, planes, pilots, air supply services and other materials, on a voluntary basis by the traffickers.
  • Payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies.[2]

According to the report, the U.S. State Department paid over $806,000 to "four companies owned and operated by narcotics traffickers" to carry humanitarian assistance to the Contras.[2]

Regarding CIA knowledge of these facts, the report said:

the CIA's Chief of the Central American Task Force went on to say: We knew that everybody around Pastora was involved in cocaine ... His staff and friends (redacted) they were drug smugglers or involved in drug smuggling.[2]

Dark Alliance series

....

==

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking

United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking. Books and investigations on the subject that have received general notice include works by historian Alfred McCoy; professor and diplomat Peter Dale Scott; and journalists Gary Webb, and Alexander Cockburn, as well as by writer Larry Collins. These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by the United States House of Representatives, Senate, Department of Justice, and the CIA's Office of the Inspector General. The subject remains controversial.

Following is a summary of some of the main claims made by geographical area.

Golden Triangle

During the Korean War, the first allegations of CIA drug trafficking surfaced after 1949, stemming from a deal whereby arms were supplied to Chiang Kai-shek's defeated generals in exchange for intelligence.[1] Later in the same region, while the CIA was sponsoring a "Secret War" in Laos from 1961 to 1975, it was openly accused of trafficking heroin in the area then known as the Golden Triangle.

Background

To fight its "Secret War" against the Pathet Lao communist movement of Laos, the CIA used the Miao/Meo (Hmong) population. Because of the war, the Hmong depended upon opium poppy cultivation for hard currency. The Plain of Jars had been captured by Pathet Lao fighters in 1964, which resulted in the Royal Lao Air Force being unable to land its C-47 transport aircraft on the Plain of Jars for opium transport. The Royal Laotian Air Force had almost no light planes that could land on the dirt runways near the mountaintop poppy fields. Having no way to transport their opium, the Hmong were faced with economic ruin. The CIA front Air America was, therefore, the only airline available in northern Laos. "According to several unproven sources, Air America began flying opium from mountain villages north and east of the Plain of Jars to CIA asset Hmong General Vang Pao's headquarters at Long Tieng."[2]

Detailed documentations

Larry Collins' sources alleged that, "During the Vietnam War, US operations in Laos were largely a CIA responsibility. The CIA's surrogate there was a Laotian general, Vang Pao, who commanded Military Region 2 in northern Laos. He enlisted 30,000 Hmong tribesmen in the service of the CIA. These tribesmen continued to grow, as they had for generations, the opium poppy. Before long, someone--there were unproven allegations that it was a Mafia family from Florida--had established a heroin drug refinery lab in Region Two. The lab's production was soon being ferried out on the planes of the CIA's front airline, Air America. A pair of BNDD the predecessor of the US [Drug Enforcement Agency] agents tried to seize an Air America."[1]

Further documentation of CIA-connected Laotian opium trade was provided by Rolling Stone magazine in 1968, and by Alfred W. McCoy in 1972.[3][4]

The CIA's front company, Air America was alleged to have profited from transporting opium and heroin on behalf of Hmong leader Vang Pao,[4][5][6] or of "turning a blind eye" to the Laotian military doing it.[7][8] This allegation has been supported also by former Laos CIA paramilitary Anthony Poshepny (aka Tony Poe), former Air America pilots, and other people involved in the war. It is portrayed in the movie Air America. However, historian William M. Leary, writing on behalf of Air America, claimed that the opium transportation was done without the active participation of airline employees and that the airline did not trade in drugs.[9] Curtis Peeblesdenies that Air America employees actively participated in opium transportation, citing Leary's study as evidence.[10]

Historian Alfred W. McCoy stated that:

In most cases, the CIA's role involved various forms of complicity, tolerance or studied ignorance about the trade, not any direct culpability in the actual trafficking ... [t]he CIA did not handle heroin, but it did provide its drug lord allies with transport, arms, and political protection. In sum, the CIA's role in the Southeast Asian heroin trade involved indirect complicity rather than direct culpability.[11]

CIA response

The CIA made its own internal inquiries of its staff and clients in Laos concerning the drug trade, but never denied the essential allegation. Rather, the CIA took the position that trading in opium was legal in Laos until 1971. The CIA explained that opium served the isolated Lao hill tribes as their sole cash crop and that opium was one of the few medicines available in the primitive living circumstances.[12]

The CIA had its own internal security agents investigating possible commercial opium exports mid-1968 onward. Air America, the CIA's airline, was barred from CIA airfields on suspicion of drug smuggling. One Hmong guerrilla commanding officer was pressured into giving up dealing in opium. The CIA concluded that small amounts of opium might have been smuggled via Air America, given wartime conditions. The Agency's case officers even staged a couple of impromptu raids on drug refineries, but were reined in by the CIA Office of General Counsel.[12]

United States

Mena, Arkansas

Several conspiracy theories exist regarding Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport, its alleged connection to the CIA, and even the involvement of figures such as Oliver North and former presidents George H. W. Bushand Bill Clinton.[13][14]

The CIA's self-investigation, overseen by the CIA's inspector general, concluded that the CIA had no involvement in or knowledge of any illegal activities that may have occurred in Mena. The report said that the agency had conducted a training exercise at the airport in partnership with another Federal agency and that companies located at the airport had performed "routine aviation-related services on equipment owned by the CIA".[15]

The film American Made is a highly fictionalized telling of the story of Barry Seal, a pilot and Medellin cartel drug smuggler who based his operations in Mena.[16]

Mexico

See also: Mexican Drug War

In October 2013, two former federal agents and an ex-CIA contractor told an American television network that CIA operatives were involved in the kidnapping and murder of DEA covert agent Enrique Camarena, because he was a threat to the agency's drug operations in Mexico. According to the three men, the CIA was collaborating with drug traffickers moving cocaine and marijuana to the United States, and using its share of the profits to finance Nicaraguan Contra rebels attempting to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government. A CIA spokesman responded, calling it "ridiculous" to suggest that the Agency had anything to do with the murder of a US federal agent or the escape of his alleged killer.[17]

Honduras

The Honduran drug lord Juan Matta-Ballesteros was the owner of SETCO, an airline which the Nicaraguan Contras used to covertly transport military supplies and personnel in the early 1980s.[18] Writers such as Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall have suggested that the U.S. government's desire to conceal or protect these clandestine shipments led it to close the DEA office in Honduras when an investigation began into SETCO, allowing Matta-Ballesteros to continue and expand his trafficking.[19]

Nicaragua

Main article: CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking

In 1986, the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations began investigating drug trafficking from Central and South America and the Caribbean to the United States. The investigation was conducted by the Sub-Committee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, chaired by Senator John Kerry, so its final 1989 report was known as the Kerry Committee report. The Report concluded that "it is clear that individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the Contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers."[20]

In 1996 Gary Webb wrote a series of articles published in the San Jose Mercury News, which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had smuggled cocaine into the U.S. which was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras. His articles asserted that the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by the Contra personnel and directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras. The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post launched their own investigations and rejected Webb's allegations.[21]In May 1997, The Mercury News executive editor Jerry Ceppos, who had approved the series, published a column that acknowledged shortcomings in the series reporting, editing, and production, while maintaining the story was correct "on many important points."[21] Webb later published a book based on the series, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.[22]

The 2014 movie Kill the Messenger depicted actor Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb.[23]

Panama

See also: Illegal drug trade in Panama

The U.S. military invasion of Panama after which dictator Manuel Noriega was captured.

In 1989, the United States invaded Panama as part of Operation Just Cause, which involved 25,000 American troops. General Manuel Noriega, head of government of Panama, had been giving military assistance to Contra groups in Nicaragua at the request of the U.S.—which, in exchange, allowed him to continue his drug-trafficking activities—which they had known about since the 1960s.[24][25] When the DEA tried to indict Noriega in 1971, the CIA prevented them from doing so.[24] The CIA, which was then directed by future president George H. W. Bush, provided Noriega with hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as payment for his work in Latin America.[24] However, when CIA pilot Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinistas, documents aboard the plane revealed many of the CIA's activities in Latin America, and the CIA's connections with Noriega became a public relations "liability" for the U.S. government, which finally allowed the DEA to indict him for drug trafficking, after decades of allowing his drug operations to proceed unchecked.[24] Operation Just Cause, whose ostensible purpose was to capture Noriega, pushed the former Panamanian leader into the Papal Nuncio where he surrendered to U.S. authorities. His trial took place in Miami, where he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.[24]

Noriega's prison sentence was reduced from 30 years to 17 years for good behavior.[26] After serving 17 years in detention and imprisonment, his prison sentence ended on September 9, 2007.[27] He was held in U.S. custody before being extradited to France where he was sentenced to 7 years for laundering money from Colombian drug cartels.[28] Noriega was extradited to Panama on December 11, 2011 (incarcerated at El Renacer prison, in Gamboa), but hospitalized on February 5, 2012 (diagnosed with a brain tumor), and sent back to prison shortly thereafter. On January 23, 2017 he was released from prison and placed under house arrest (to prepare for surgery). On March 7, 2017 he suffered a brain hemorrhage during surgery which left him in critical condition, to which he succumbed to death on May 29, 2017 (at the age of 83).

Venezuela

See also: Illegal drug trade in Venezuela

A failed CIA anti-drug operation in Venezuela resulted in at least a ton of cocaine being smuggled into the United States and sold on the streets. The incident, which was first made public in 1993, was part of a plan to assist an undercover agent to gain the confidence of a Colombian drug cartel. The plan involved the unsupervised shipment of hundreds of pounds of cocaine from Venezuela. The drug in the shipments was provided by the Venezuelan anti-drug unit which was working with the CIA, using cocaine seized in Venezuela. The shipments took place despite the objections of the U.S. DEA. When the failed plan came to light, the CIA officer in charge of the operation resigned, and his supervisor was transferred.[29]

In addition, the former Venezuelan anti-narcotics chief General Ramon Guillen Davila and his chief civilian aide were both indicted in connection with the shipments.[30] Because Venezuela does not extradite its citizens, Guillen was not tried in the U.S., but his civilian aide was arrested while in the United States and sentenced to 20 years.[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking#cite_ref-nytimes1993_1-1) Collins, Larry. "The CIA Drug Connection Is as Old as the Agency", originally published in the International Herald Tribune, reprinted in the NYTimes, December 3, 1993 https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/03/opinion/03iht-edlarry.html
  2. ^ McCoy, Alfred (1972). *The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia*. Harper & Row. pp. 263–264, . ISBN 0060129018. Air America began flying opium from mountain villages north and east of the Plain of Jars to Gen. Vang Pao's headquarters at Long Tieng.
  3. ^ The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, by Alfred W. McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, 2003, p. 385 ISBN 1-55652-483-8
  4. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking#cite_ref-Opium_Throughout_History_4-1) "Opium Throughout History". PBS.
  5. ^ Cockburn, Alexander; Jeffrey St. Clair (1998). "9". Whiteout, the CIA, drugs and the press. New York: Verso. ISBN 1-85984-258-5.
  6. ^ Blum, William. "The CIA and Drugs: Just say "Why not?:{":(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". Third World Traveller. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
  7. ^ Robbins, Christopher (1985). The Ravens. New York: Crown. p. 94. ISBN 0-9646360-0-X.
  8. ^ "Air America and Drugs in Laos". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  9. ^ "History of CAT/Air America". Air-america.org. Archived from the original on April 24, 2011. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
  10. ^ Peebles, Curtiss. Twilight Warriors: Covert Air Operations Against the USSR. pp. 254–255. ISBN 1591146607.
  11. ^ The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, by McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, 2003, p. 385 ISBN 1-55652-483-8
  12. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking#cite_ref-ahern_12-1) Ahern, Thomas L. Jr. (206). Undercover Armies: CIA and Surrogate Warfare in Laos. Center for the Study of Intelligence. pp. 535–547. Classified control no. C05303949.
  13. ^ Schneider, Howard (July 21, 1994). "Clandestination: Arkansas; Mena Is a Quiet Little Place. So How Did It Become the Cloak-and-Dagger Capital of America?". Washington Post. pp. –01. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  14. ^ Millar, Lindsey. "Ron Howard to direct movie about Arkansas's most notorious drug smuggler, Barry Seal". Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  15. ^ Rothberg, Donald (November 9, 1996). "Investigation Absolves CIA in Alleged Drug Smuggling". Associated Press. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
  16. ^ "American Made (2017)". Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  17. ^ ":{":(style="padding-left:0.2em"):}:Te CIA helped kill DEA agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena," say witnesses". El País (Spain) (in Spanish). October 15, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  18. ^ Bunck, Julie M. & Fowler, Michael R. (2012). *Bribes, Bullets, and Intimidation: Drug Trafficking and the Law in Central America*. Penn State Press. p. 274. ISBN 9780271048666.
  19. ^ Scott, Peter Dale & Marshall, Jonathan (1998). *Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Latin America*. University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780520921283.
  20. ^ "Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations" (April 1989). *Drugs, Law Enforcement And Foreign Policy*. p. 86. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  21. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking#cite_ref-Los_Angeles_Times;March_16,2005_21-1) Daunt, Tina (March 16, 2005). "Written in Pain". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  22. ^ Template:Cite url=http://catalog.sevenstories.com/products/dark-alliance-the-cia-the-contras-and-the-cocaine-explosion-movie-tie-in-edition
  23. ^ "Kill the Messenger (2014)". Retrieved November 12, 2017.
  24. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking#cite_ref-whiteout-noriega_24-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking#cite_ref-whiteout-noriega_24-2) d(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking#cite_ref-whiteout-noriega_24-3) e(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking#cite_ref-whiteout-noriega_24-4) Cockburn, Alexander; Jeffrey St. Clair (1998). Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. New York: Verso. pp. 287–290. ISBN 1-85984-258-5.
  25. ^ Buckley, Kevin (1991). Panama: The Whole Story. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-72794-9.
  26. ^ Schpoliansky, Christophe (April 27, 2010). "Panama's Ex-Dictator Manuel Noriega Extradited from U.S. to France". Abcnews.go.com. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
  27. ^ "Manuel Noriega scheduled for September release". USA Today. January 24, 2007.
  28. ^ "Manuel Noriega sentenced to 7 years". Reuters. July 7, 2010.
  29. ^ Chua, Howard G. (November 29, 1993). "Confidence Games". TIME. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
  30. ^ "Venezuelan pleads innocent to drug-smuggling charges". Tampa Tribune. January 29, 1997. p. 7.
  31. ^ "Man Gets 20 Years in Drug Smuggling". Sun Sentinel (Final ed.). Fort Lauderdale. December 11, 1997. p. 11.

Further reading

CIA & DOJ Reports

  1. Report of Investigation--Volume I: The California Story (January 29, 1998) —The Inspector General's Report of Investigation regarding allegations of connections between CIA and the Contras in cocaine trafficking to the United States. Volume I: The California Story.
  2. Report of Investigation -- Volume II: The Contra Story (October 8, 1998) — The Inspector General's Report of Investigation regarding allegations of connections between CIA and the Contras in cocaine trafficking to the United States. Volume II: The Contra Story.

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