"Authentic
journalism is telling people something that the government doesn't want them to
know."--Gary Webb
[Gary
Webb exposed, in his Dark Alliance series,how CIA-led Nicaraguan rebels brought
cocaine to poor L.A. neighborhoods in
the early '80s--and started the
crack epidemic. Profits earned from this
crack market allowed the Los Angeles-based Crips and bloods to expand into other
cities and spread crack use to other black urban areas, turning a bad local
problem into a bad national problem. The San
Francisco Bay Area drug ring then funnelled profits to the Contras for the better part of a decade.
The series traced the drugs to dealers Danilo Blandon and Ricky Ross, leaders of
a CIA-run guerrilla army that terrorised Nicaragua for 10 years.
The milestone in exposing government drug dealing which
ended his career as a mainstream media
journalist, and his life.]
Quotes What I've attempted to demonstrate in my book was how the collapse of a
brutal, pro-American dictatorship in Latin America, combined with a decision by
corrupt CIA agents to raise money for a resistance movement by any means
necessary, led to the formation of the nation's first major crack market in South
Central Los Angeles, which led to the arming and the empowerment of LA's street
gangs, which led to the spread of crack to black neighborhoods across the
country, and to the passage of racially discriminatory sentencing laws that are
locking up thousands of young black men today behind bars for most of their
lives.[1999
Jan] Transcript: Gary Webb Speaks on CIA Connections to Contra Drug
Trafficking (and Related Topics)
The Gary Webb murder. Impossible to commit
suicide by shooting yourself TWICE in the head. The second shot was just
to make sure everyone knew this was a state sanctioned hit, and
to leave it alone. Which everyone did.Old
news, I know, but what the hey.CBSWORK
The three-day series was, at its heart,
a short historical account of the rise and fall of a drug ring and its impact on
black Los Angeles. It attempted to explain how shadowy intelligence agencies,
shady drugs and arms dealers, a political scandal, and a long-simmering Latin
American civil was had crossed paths in South Central Los Angeles, leaving
behind a legacy of crack use. Most important, it challenged the widely held
belief that crack use began in African American neighborhoods not for any
tangible reason but mainly because of the kind of people who lived in them.
Nobody was forcing them to smoke crack, the argument went, so they only have
themselves to blame. They should just say no. That argument never seemed to make
much sense to me because drugs don't just appear magically on street corners in
black neighborhoods. Even the most rabid hustler in the ghetto can't sell what
he doesn't have. If anyone was responsible for the drug problems in a specific
area. I thought, it was the people who were bringing the drugs in.
[2004]
THE MIGHTY WURLITZER PLAYS ONby Gary WebbChapter 14 from In the Buzzsaw
Do we have a free press today? Sure we do. It's free to report all the sex
scandals it wants, all the stock market news we can handle, every new health fad
that comes down the pike, and every celebrity marriage or divorce that happens.
But when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff -- stories like
Tailwind, the
October Surprise, the El Mozote massacre, corporate corruption, or CIA
involvement in drug trafficking -- that's where we begin to see the limits of
our freedoms. In today's media environment, sadly, such stories are not even
open for discussion. Back in 1938, when fascism was sweeping Europe, legendary investigative reporter
George Seldes observed (in his book, The Lords of the Press) that "it is
possible to fool all the people all the time -- when government and press
cooperate." Unfortunately, we have reached that point.[2004]
THE MIGHTY WURLITZER PLAYS ONby Gary WebbChapter 14 from In the Buzzsaw
External Did The
Israelis Pay Gary Webb A Visit? The Real
Truth - There Are No Colombian Cartels. Drugs are a $400 billion dollar a year
business, and it has always been controlled by Jewish traders since the days
when Sassoon ran the Chinese heroin trade in the 1700's. South America has a $50
billion dollar per year cocaine and marijuana trade.
Book Dark Alliance by Gary Webb
Gary Webb on C.I.A. Trafficking of Cocaine
See: Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy
Destroyed Journalist Gary Webbby Nick Schou
[Gary
Webb exposed, in his Dark Alliance series,
how CIA-led Nicaraguan rebels brought
cocaine to poor L.A. neighborhoods in
the early '80s--and started the
crack epidemic. Profits earned from this
crack market allowed the Los Angeles-based Crips and bloods to expand into other
cities and spread crack use to other black urban areas, turning a bad local
problem into a bad national problem. The San
Francisco Bay Area drug ring then funnelled profits to the Contras for the better part of a decade.
The series traced the drugs to dealers Danilo Blandon and Ricky Ross, leaders of
a CIA-run guerrilla army that terrorised
Nicaragua for 10 years.
The milestone in exposing government drug dealing which
ended his career as a mainstream media
journalist, and his life.]
