Spitfire List Web site and blog of anti-fascist researcher and radio personality Dave Emory.

Recommended Reading  

Dark Alliance

The CIA, the Con­tras, and the Crack Cocaine Explo­sion
by Gary Webb
1999, Sev­en Sto­ries Press
ISBN 1888363932
548 pages

From Amazon.com
In July 1995, San Jose Mer­cury-News reporter Gary Webb found the Big One—the block­buster sto­ry every jour­nal­ist secret­ly dreams about—without even look­ing for it. A sim­ple phone call con­cern­ing an unex­cep­tion­al pend­ing drug tri­al turned into a mas­sive con­spir­a­cy involv­ing the Nicaraguan Con­tra rebels, L.A. and Bay Area crack cocaine deal­ers, and the Cen­tral Intel­li­gence Agency. For sev­er­al years dur­ing the 1980s, Webb dis­cov­ered, Con­tra ele­ments shut­tled thou­sands of tons of cocaine into the Unit­ed States, with the prof­its going toward the fund­ing of Con­tra rebels attempt­ing a coun­ter­rev­o­lu­tion in their Nicaraguan home­land. Even more chill­ing, Webb quick­ly real­ized, was that the mas­sive drug-deal­ing oper­a­tion had the implic­it approval–and occa­sion­al out­right support—of the CIA, the very orga­ni­za­tion entrust­ed to pre­vent ille­gal drugs from being brought into the Unit­ed States.

With­in the pages of Dark Alliance, Webb pro­duces a mas­sive amount of evi­dence that sug­gests that such a sce­nario did take place, and more dis­turb­ing evi­dence that the pow­ers that be that allowed such an alliance are still deter­mined to ruth­less­ly guard their secrets. Web­b’s research is impeccable—names, dates, places, and dol­lar amounts gath­er and mount with every page, even­tu­al­ly build­ing a tow­er­ing wall of evi­dence in sup­port of his the­o­ries. After the orig­i­nal series of arti­cles ran in the Mer­cury-News in late 1996, both Webb and his paper were so severe­ly crit­i­cized by polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tors, gov­ern­ment offi­cials, and oth­er mem­bers of the press that his own news­pa­per decid­ed it best not to stand behind the series, in effect apol­o­giz­ing for the asser­tions and dis­avow­ing his work. Webb quit the paper in dis­gust in Novem­ber 1997. His book serves as both a com­plex mem­oir of the time of the Con­tras and an indict­ment of the cur­rent state of Amer­i­ca’s press; Dark Alliance is as nec­es­sary and valu­able as it is hor­ri­fy­ing and grim. —Tjames Madi­son

THIS BOOK IS IN PRINT
Avail­able com­mer­cial­ly. Learn more about Gary Webb.

Discussion

One comment for “Dark Alliance”

  1. http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/12/5182944/the-buzz-jeremy-renner-may-play.html

    The Buzz:: Jere­my Ren­ner may play late reporter Gary Webb in movie
    Pub­lished: Tues­day, Feb. 12, 2013 — 12:00 am | Page 3A
    Last Mod­i­fied: Wednes­day, Feb. 13, 2013 — 3:10 pm

    Modesto native Jere­my Ren­ner, star of “The Hurt Lock­er,” is set to play the late Capi­tol inves­tiga­tive reporter Gary Webb in the upcom­ing film “Kill the Mes­sen­ger,” accord­ing to news reports.

    Webb worked in the Capi­tol press corps for the San Jose Mer­cury News, which pub­lished the 1996 “Dark Alliance” series alleg­ing CIA ties to the U.S. crack cocaine mar­ket. Web­b’s series assert­ed that drug deal­ers flood­ed African Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ties with cut-rate cocaine, using prof­its to finance Cen­tral Amer­i­can guer­ril­las backed by the CIA.

    After sev­er­al major pub­li­ca­tions dis­put­ed Web­b’s claims, the Mer­cury News reas­signed him and he ulti­mate­ly left the paper in 1997.

    He pub­lished a book in 1999, “Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Con­tras and the Crack Cocaine Explo­sion,” that fur­ther detailed his sto­ry.

    Webb lat­er worked in the Assem­bly as a com­mit­tee con­sul­tant, inves­ti­gat­ing sub­jects such as a failed state Ora­cle Corp. con­tract, and at the Sacra­men­to News & Review.

    He com­mit­ted sui­cide in 2004 at his Carmichael home.

    OC Week­ly man­ag­ing edi­tor Nick Schou wrote the 2006 book “Kill the Mes­sen­ger: How the CIA’s Crack-Cocaine Con­tro­ver­sy Destroyed Jour­nal­ist Gary Webb” that serves as the basis for the new film.

    Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/12/5182944/the-buzz-jeremy-renner-may-play.html#storylink=cpy

    Posted by Vanfield | February 23, 2013, 7:03 pm

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