Gary Webb

Gary Webb (August 31, 1955 – December 10, 2004) was a controversial American investigative journalist, best known for his 1996 "Dark Alliance" investigative report series, written for the San Jose Mercury News. In the three-part series (later published as a book), Webb investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had allegedly distributed crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras. Webb also alleged that this influx of Nicaraguan supplied cocaine sparked and significantly fueled the widespread crack epidemic that swept through urban areas. Webb's reporting generated a large controversy and the Mercury News backed away from the story, effectively ending Webb's career as a mainstream media journalist. Gary Webb (1955–2004) American investigative journalist Source: http://www. ... Gary Webb (1955–2004) American investigative journalist Source: http://www. ... August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Investigative journalism is a branch of journalism that usually concentrates on a very specific topic, and typically requires a lot of work to yield results. ... The Mercs sections vary by day of the week, but Business, Sports, and The Valley are standard daily fare. ... The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Government. ... The Contras (from the Spanish term La Contra, short for movement of the contrarrevolucionarios) were the armed opponents of Nicaraguas Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle (which ended the Somoza dynasty), and continuing throughout the following decade. ... Cocaine is a crystalline alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ...

Early life

Webb was born to a military family in Corona, California. At 15, Webb began writing editorials for his suburban Indianapolis high school newspaper. At the height of the protests against the Vietnam War he created his first controversy when he criticized the use of a female drill team to rally students for the war effort. Nickname: The Circle City Coordinates: Country United States State California County Riverside Mayor Karen Spiegel Area    - City 91. ... An editorial is a statement or article by a news organization (generally a newspaper) that expresses an opinion rather than attempting to simply report news, as the latter should ideally be done without bias. ... The Indianapolis skyline Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength ~1,200,000 (1968) ~520,000 (1968) Casualties South Vietnamese dead... In the United States, a drill team is a marching unit that performs military style maneuvers in parades, at air shows, football half-time shows, and other ceremonies. ...

Webb attended journalism school at Northern Kentucky University, where he was on staff at the student newspaper The Northerner, but dropped out. He started his professional career at the Kentucky Post, then worked as a statehouse correspondent for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Webb found a lifelong passion in investigating government and private sector corruption. Northern Kentucky University is a state university located in Highland Heights, Kentucky, seven miles (11 km) southeast of Cincinnati. ... Scripps Center, the corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. ... The Plain Dealer is the major daily newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio. ... In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes either committed by a corporation, i. ...

In 1988 Webb joined the San Jose Mercury News as a staff writer. He helped expose freeway retrofitting problems in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and wrote stories about computer software problems at the California DMV. The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on October 17, 1989, in the greater San Francisco Bay Area in California at 5:04 p. ... In the United States of America, Department of Motor Vehicles (or DMV) is the most common name of the government agency of a U.S. state which administers the registration of automobiles (e. ...

Dark Alliance

In August of 1996 the San Jose Mercury News published Webb's "Dark Alliance", a 20,000 word, three-part investigative series which alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold and distributed crack cocaine in Los Angeles during the 1980s, and that drug profits were used to fund the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras. Webb never asserted that the CIA directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras, but he did document that the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of cocaine into the U.S. by the Contra personnel (Webb's 1999 book, Dark Alliance, substantiated these allegations with copious references). Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... The Contras (from the Spanish term La Contra, short for movement of the contrarrevolucionarios) were the armed opponents of Nicaraguas Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle (which ended the Somoza dynasty), and continuing throughout the following decade. ...

"Dark Alliance" received national attention. At the height of the interest, the web version of it on San Jose Mercury News website received 1.3 million hits a day. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, the series became "the most talked-about piece of journalism in 1996 and arguably the most famous -- some would say infamous -- set of articles of the decade."[2] The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) is an American magazine for professional journalists published bimonthly by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. ...

Webb supported his story with documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, including a 450-page declassified version of an October 1998 report by CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz. According to Webb and his supporters, the evidence demonstrates that White House officials, including Oliver North, knew about and supported using money from drug trafficking to fund the contras, and these officials neglected to pass any information along to the DEA. The 1988 report from the Senate Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations led by Sen. John Kerry commented that there were "serious questions as to whether or not US officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war effort against Nicaragua." ^[1] Nearly sixty countries around the world have implemented some form of freedom of information legislation, which sets rules on governmental secrecy. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Frederick Hitz served as Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1990 until May 1998. ... Lt-Col. ... Since 1973, the DEA has enforced the drug laws in the United States. ... This article is 79 kilobytes or more in size. ...

Almost immediately, denials began to emerge of the assertions Webb made in "Dark Alliance". Reports in the Washington Post (Oct 4, 1996), Los Angeles Times, and New York Times (Oct 21, 1996), tried to debunk the link between the Contras and the crack epidemic. ... The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the Western United States. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Post ombudsman Geneva Overholser agreed with critics that her paper's response to Webb's series showed "misdirected zeal" and "more passion for sniffing out the flaws in San Jose's answer than for sniffing out a better answer themselves."[3] Richard Thieme argued in an opinion piece that the major news outlets focused on attacking Webb or less relevant parts of the story, leaving Webb's thesis largely intact. ^[2] An ombudsman is an official, usually (but not always) appointed by the government or by parliament, who is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individual citizens. ... Richard Thieme (born 1944), is a noted business consultant, author, media commentator and speaker. ...

Overholser concluded there was "[s]trong previous evidence that the CIA at least chose to overlook contra involvement in the drug trade.... Would that we had welcomed the surge of public interest as an occasion to return to a subject the Post and the public had given short shrift. Alas, dismissing someone else's story as old news comes more naturally." ^[3]

Robert Parry, who in 1985 became the first reporter to accuse the Contras of involvement in drug trafficking,[4] wrote that the Post's denunciation of Webb was ironic, because the paper "had long pooh-poohed earlier allegations that the Contras were implicated in drug shipments" but now "the newspaper was finally accepting the reality of Contra cocaine trafficking, albeit in a backhanded way." ^[4] Robert Parry is an American investigative journalist who has written extensively about the Iran-Contra scandal, among other things. ... These lollipops were found to contain heroin when inspected by the US DEA The illegal drug trade is a global black market activity consisting of production, distribution, packaging and sale of illegal psychoactive substances. ...

In response to these attacks, Webb created a web site that contained primary documents, transcripts, and audio interviews.

By January 1997, Webb's editors no longer contacted him about his stories. In March, Webb was informed that the paper was going to address the readers about his series.

On May 11, 1997, Mercury News executive editor Jerry Ceppos published an editorial describing the series as an "important work" and "solidly documented," but criticized the series for: a reliance on one interpretation of complicated, sometimes-conflicting pieces of evidence; failing to estimate the amount of money involved; for oversimplifying the crack epidemic; and for creating impressions that were open to misinterpretation through imprecise language and graphics. ^[5] Webb was reassigned to a suburban bureau 150 miles from his home. Because of the long commute, Webb quit the paper in December 1997. His marriage had by then fallen apart, and his career was destroyed. May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (132nd in leap years). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On December 18, 1997, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz's investigation found no links between the CIA and the cocaine traffickers. December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Webb alleged that the 1997 backlash was a form of media manipulation. "The government side of the story is coming through the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post," Webb 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." ^[5] The process of media manipulation is the way in which individuals or groups use various tricks in dealing with the media in order to create an image of their side of an argument that is most favorable to the receiver. ...

James Aucoin, a communications professor who specializes in the history of investigative reporting, wrote: "In the case of Gary Webb's charges against the CIA and the Contras, the major dailies came after him. Media institutions are now part of the establishment and they have a lot invested in that establishment." ^[5]

Investigations

Facing increasing public scrutiny from the fallout after Webb's "Dark Alliance" series, the CIA conducted its own internal investigations. Investigative journalist Robert Parry credits Webb for being responsible for the following government investigations which into the Reagan-Bush administration's conduct of the Contra war: Robert Parry is an American investigative journalist who has written extensively about the Iran-Contra scandal, among other things. ... Headed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989, the Reagan Administration was conservative, steadfastly anti-Communist and in favor of tax cuts and smaller government. ...

• On December 10, 1996, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block announced the conclusion of his investigation into the issue, publishing a summary of the investigation at a press conference. He announced at the press conference that the inquiry had cleared the CIA of involvement in cocaine trafficking to Los Angeles: "We have found no evidence that the government was involved in drug trafficking in South-Central." Nevertheless, the report included information that supported some of the charges. Charles Rappleye reported in the L.A. Weekly that Block's "unequivocal statement is not backed up by the report itself, which raises many questions." ^[6] Much of the LASD investigation centered on allegations made in a postscript article to the newspaper's "Dark Alliance" series.
• On January 29, 1998, Hitz published Volume One of his internal investigation. This was the first of two CIA reports that eventually substantiated many of Webb's claims about cocaine smugglers, the Nicaraguan contra movement, and their ability to freely operate without the threat of law enforcement.[5]
• On March 16, 1998, Hitz admitted that the CIA had maintained relationships with companies and individuals the CIA knew were involved in the drug business. Hitz told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that "there are instances where CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug-trafficking activity or take action to resolve the allegations." ^[7] Senator John Kerry had reached similar conclusions a decade earlier in 1987. (See: ^[1])
• On May 7, 1998, Rep. Maxine Waters, revealed a memorandum of understanding between the CIA and the Justice Department from 1982, which was entered into the Congressional Record. This letter had freed the CIA from legally reporting drug smuggling by CIA assets, a provision that covered the Nicaraguan contras and the Afghan rebels.[6]
• On July 23, 1998, the Justice Department released a report by its Inspector General, Michael Bromwich. The Bromwich report claimed that the Reagan-Bush administration was aware of cocaine traffickers in the Contra movement and did nothing to stop the criminal activity. The report also alleged a pattern of discarded leads and witnesses, sabotaged investigations, instances of the CIA working with drug traffickers, and the discouragement of DEA investigations into Contra-cocaine shipments. The CIA's refusal to share information about contra drug trafficking with law-enforcement agencies was also documented. The Bromwich report corroborated Webb's investigation into Norwin Meneses, a Nicaraguan drug smuggler. ^{[citation needed]}
• On October 8, 1998, CIA I.G. Hitz published Volume Two of his internal investigation. The report described how the Reagan-Bush administration had protected more than 50 Contras and other drug traffickers, and by so doing thwarted federal investigations into drug crimes. Hitz published evidence that drug trafficking and money laundering had made its way into Reagan's National Security Council where Oliver North oversaw the operations of the contras.^{[citation needed]} According to the report, the Contra war took precedence over law enforcement. To that end, the internal investigation revealed that the CIA routinely withheld evidence of Contra crimes from the Justice Department, Congress and even the analytical division of the CIA itself. Further, the report confirmed Webb's claims regarding the origins and the relationship of contra fundraising and drug trafficking. The report also included information about CIA ties to other drug traffickers not discussed in the Webb series, including Moises Nunez and Ivan Gomez. More importantly, the internal CIA report documented a cover-up of evidence which had led to false intelligence assessments.

December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Map of California showing Los Angeles County. ... Look up Sheriff in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The L.A. Weekly is a weekly free paper in Los Angeles. ... This article is 79 kilobytes or more in size. ... Maxine Waters Maxine Waters (born Maxine Moore Carr on August 15, 1938), United States politician, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1991, representing the 35th District of California (map). ... The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. ... The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. ... DEA is an abbreviation of the following, among others: Dance Educators of America Drug Enforcement Administration (USA) TheDEA.org, a harm reduction web site. ... Norwin Meneses Cantarero was a drug kingpin in Nicaragua who held power under Anastasio Somoza. ... The National Security Council (NSC) of the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and cabinet officials. ... Lt-Col. ...

Dark Alliance: the book

In 1999, Webb published Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, complete with extensive source citations. The book received mixed reviews.

The book includes an account of a meeting between a pilot (who was making drug/arms runs between San Francisco and Costa Rica) with two Contra leaders who were also partners with the San Francisco-based Contra/drug smuggler Norwin Meneses. According to eyewitnesses, Ivan Gomez, identified by one of the Contras as a CIA agent, was allegedly present at the drug transactions. The pilot told Hitz that Gomez said he was there to "ensure that the profits from the cocaine went to the Contras and not into someone's pocket."

According to Webb, Judd Iverson, a San Francisco defense attorney who represented former Contra Julio Zavala, discovered compelling evidence demonstrating that "agents of the U.S. government were intricately involved in sanctioning cocaine trafficking to raise funds for Contra revolutionary activity". (Dark Alliance, pp. 92-95) Soon after, members of the Justice Department persuaded U.S. District Court Judge Robert Peckham to seal the documents in the case.

Critics

Webb’s reporting on the CIA’s dealings with cocaine dealers was not without its critics. The Nation magazine contributor David Corn, while crediting Webb for spurring the CIA and Congress into addressing the issues raised by Webb’s work, also criticized Webb for overstating the case and not providing evidence to back some of his claims. [7] This article is about the U.S publication. ... David Corn is a political correspondent for The Nation and author of the book as well as the political novel Deep Background and the biography Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIAs Crusades. ...

Columnist and neoconservative Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes wrote in his book “The Hidden Hand”, that Daniel Pipes Daniel Pipes (born September 9, 1949) is an American neoconservative[1] columnist, author, counter-terrorism analyst, and scholar of Middle Eastern history. ...

In addition to reviews by the CIA, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the Los Angeles sheriff that found no evidence to support Webb's conspiracy theory, several investigative articles found his evidence lacking. The Washington Post determined that "available information does not support the conclusion that the CIA-backed contras - or Nicaraguans in general - played a major role in the emergence of crack as a narcotic in widespread use across the United States." The Los Angeles Times stated flatly that "The crack epidemic in Los Angeles followed no blueprint or master plan. It was not orchestrated by the Contras or the CIA or any single drug ring." The New York Times found "scant proof" to support the allegations. These and other debunkings did force the Mercury News to backtrack somewhat; the editor insisted that "Dark Alliance" had only stated that individuals associated with the CIA sold cocaine that ended up on the streets of Los Angeles, not that the CIA approved of the sales. In addition, the CIA insignia disappeared from the World Wide Web site.[8]

Reason magazine’s Glenn Garvin was also critical of Webb’s sources and of the evidence he presented. Garvin wrote that Webb’s evidence that the Contra leadership was selling cocaine is almost entirely drawn from the claims of a few Nicaraguan traffickers facing long jail terms, and argued that they were using the CIA as a convenient scapegoat. Garvin also wrote that every guerilla group, including the mujahideen, FARC and Shining Path, has used the narcotics trade as a way of bolstering its funding efforts, and that far from the Contra-related drug trade being widespread it came down to a small handful of Contra pilots and their associates who were involved in narcotics. He also argued that while these covert narcotic relationships were alleged to be most rampant, the Contras had the least need for funds, as the United States was supplying them with millions of dollars a year in support.[9] The libertarian Reason Magazine dedicated an issue to Ayn Rands influence one hundred years after her birth. ... Mujahideen (Arabic: ‎, , strugglers) is an Islamic term for Muslim holy-warriors. ... The FARC-EPs flag The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – Peoples Army, or FARC-EP) is a militant and revolutionary guerrilla group established in 1964-1966 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, and is Colombias... Shining Path poster supporting an electoral boycott The Communist Party of Peru (Spanish: El Partido Comunista del Perú), more commonly known as the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), is a Maoist guerrilla organization in Peru. ...

Aftermath

After leaving San Jose Mercury News Webb went to work for the California Assembly Speaker's Office of Member Services and served as a consultant to the California State legislature Task Force on Government Oversight. As a member of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Webb investigated charges that the Oracle Corporation received a no-bid contract award of $95 million in 2001 from former California Governor Gray Davis. Webb was hired by the Sacramento News and Review, after being laid off in 2003 with the rest of the former Speaker's staff as part of a house-cleaning when the new House speaker took over. Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) is one of the major companies developing database management systems, tools for database development, middle-tier software (Fusion Middleware), enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management software (CRM) and supply chain planning (SCM) software. ... Joseph Graham Davis Jr. ... Sacramento News and Review is an alternative weekly newspaper in Sacramento, California. ...

On December 10, 2004, he was found dead from two gunshot wounds to the head. Sacramento County coroner Robert Lyons determined that it was suicide. Webb's ex-wife, Sue Bell, said that Webb had been depressed for some time over his inability to get a job at another major newspaper. ^[8] December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A coroner is either the presiding officer of a special court, a medical officer or an officer of law responsible for investigating deaths, particularly those happening under unusual circumstances. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ...

Awards

Reporting awards

• 1980 -- Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) Award, small newspaper division.
• 1980 -- Laurel, Columbia Journalism Review.
• 1980 -- Gerald M. White Memorial Prize for Investigative Reporting, Cincinnati SDX.
• 1980 -- Investigative Reporters and Editors Award(IRE), for co-authoring a 17-part series at the Kentucky Post in Covington, KY with Tom Scheffey on organized crime in the American coal industry. [10]
• 1981 -- First place, investigative reporting, Kentucky Press Assn.
• 1981 -- Second place, deadline news reporting, Cincinnati SDX.
• 1981 -- Third place, investigative reporting, Cincinnati SDX.
• 1982 -- Third place, investigative reporting, Kentucky Press Assn.
• 1983 -- First place, municipal reporting, Kentucky Municipal League.
• 1983 -- Reporter of the Month, Scripps Howard Newspapers.
• 1984 -- Second place, series, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1984 -- Third place, series, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1985 -- Laurel, Columbia Journalism Review.
• 1985 -- First place, investigative reporting, Northeast Ohio SDX.
• 1986 -- Honorable mention, enterprise reporting, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1986 -- Honorable mention, series, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1986 -- First place, investigative reporting, Northeast Ohio SDX.
• 1986 -- Gold Medal, health reporting, American Chiropractic Assn.
• 1987 -- First place, legal reporting, Ohio Bar Assn.
• 1987 -- Second place, spot news, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1987 -- Third place, projects, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1987 -- Honorable mention, features, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1987 -- Freedom of Information Award, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1987 -- First place, investigative reporting, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1988 -- First place, investigative reporting, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1989 -- Honorable mention, features, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1989 -- First place, series, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1990 -- Pulitzer Prize, in General News Reporting, awarded to the Staff of the San Jose Mercury News for its detailed coverage of the October 17, 1989, Bay Area earthquake and its aftermath. [11]
• 1993 -- Second place, series, Peninsula Press Club.
• 1994 -- H.L. Mencken Award, by The Free Press Association for the series in the San Jose Mercury News on abuses in the state of California's drug asset forfeiture program. 1995 -- California Journalism Award, Center for California Studies, CSU.
• 1995 -- Honorable mention, Gerald Loeb Award, UCLA School of Business.
• 1995 -- First Place, local news reporting, Peninsula Press Club.
• 1996 -- Freedom Fighter Award, California NAACP.
• 1996 -- Journalist of the Year, Bay Area Society of Professional Journalists.
• 1997 -- Media Hero Award, from the 2nd Annual Media & Democracy Congress.

Covington is a city located in Kenton County, Kentucky. ... The gold medal awarded for Public Service in Journalism The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical compositions. ...

Literary awards

• 1998 -- Firecracker Alternative Book (FAB) Award, politics, Dark Alliance
• 1998 -- Nominee, Best Nonfiction Book, Bay Area Book Reviewers Association, Dark Alliance.
• 1998 – Finalist, PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award, Dark Alliance.
• 1999 -- Oakland PEN First Amendment Award, Dark Alliance.
• 2002 – 25 Books to Remember, New York Public Library, Into the Buzzsaw (contributor)
• 2003 – Rouse Award for Press Criticism, National Press Club, Into the Buzzsaw (contributor)

College journalism awards

• 1975 -- First place, specialty column, Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Assn.
• 1977 -- Third place, specialty column, Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Assn.
• 1977 -- Third place, non-editorial cartooning, Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Assn.

Bibliography

• Borjesson, Kristina (Ed.) (2002). Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-972-7. Includes chapter 14 by Gary Webb.
  • Quote: "If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me ... I was winning awards, getting raises, lecturing college classes, appearing on TV shows, and judging journalism contests. So how could I possibly agree with people like Noam Chomsky and Ben Bagdikian, who were claiming the system didn't work, that it was steered by powerful special interests and corporations, and existed to protect the power elite? 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."
• Celerino III Castillo & Dave Harmon (1994). Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War. Sundial. ISBN 0-88962-578-6 (paperback) ISBN 0-8095-4855-0 (hardcover; Borgo Pr; 3rd ed.; 1995).
• Alexander Cockburn & Jeffrey St. Clair (1999). Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. Verso. ISBN 1-85984-139-2 (cloth), ISBN 1-85984-258-5 (paperback). Cites 116 books.
• Frederick P. Hitz (1999). "Obscuring Propriety: The CIA and Drugs". International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 12 (4): 448-462. DOI:10.1080/088506099304990. Note: Hitz, then CIA Inspector General, was the person who first mentioned the secret agreement between CIA and the Department of Justice, in March 1988, when testifying before the House Intelligence Committee.
• Robert Parry (1999). Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & "Project Truth". Media Consortium. ISBN 1-893517-00-4.
• Nick Schou (Charles Bowden, preface) (2006). Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Gary Webb. Nation Books. ISBN 1-56025-930-2.
• Peter Dale Scott & Jonathan Marshall (1991). Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21449-8 (paperback, 1998 reprint), ISBN 0-520-07312-6 (hardcover, 1991), ISBN 0-520-07781-4 (paperback, 1992 reprint).
• Webb, Gary (1998). Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1-888363-68-1 (hardcover, 1998), ISBN 1-888363-93-2 (paperback, 1999).

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... Ben H. Bagdikian Ben Haig Bagdikian (born 1920, MaraÅŸ, Ottoman Empire; now in Turkey) is an American educator and journalist of Armenian descent. ... Alexander Claud Cockburn (pronounced , co-burn), born June 6, 1941, is a self-described radical Irish journalist who has lived and worked in the United States since 1973. ... Jeffrey St. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a permanent identifier (permalink) given to a World Wide Web file or other Internet document so that if its Internet address changes, users will be redirected to its new address. ...

See also

• Iran-Contra Affair
• Oscar Danilo Blandon
• Norwin Meneses Cantarero
• William J. Casey
• Chilling effect
• Conspiracy theory
• Danny Casolaro
• Mark Lombardi
• James Hatfield
• Ricky Ross (drug trafficker)
• CIA and Contra's cocaine trafficking in the US
• List of proven conspiracies

The Iran-Contra Affair (also called the Iran-Contra Matter and Iran-gate) was one of the largest political scandals in the United States during the 1980s. ... Norwin Meneses Cantarero was a drug kingpin in Nicaragua who held power under Anastasio Somoza. ... William Joseph Casey (March 13, 1913 – May 6, 1987) was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1981 to 1987. ... A chilling effect is a situation where speech or conduct is suppressed or limited by fear of penalization at the hands of an individual or group. ... A conspiracy theory attempts to explain the ultimate cause of an event (usually a political, social, or historical event) as a secret, and often deceptive, plot by a covert alliance of powerful people or organizations rather than as an overt activity or as natural occurrence. ... Joseph Daniel Danny Casolaro (June 16, 1947–August 10, 1991) was an American freelance journalist, who was found dead in a bathtub in the Sheraton Inn, Martinsburg, West Virginia, one day after allegedly arranging to meet a source in connection with an investigation he had referred to as the octopus. ... Mark Lombardi (born 1951 in Syracuse, New York; † March 22, 2000 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City) was an American abstract painter. ... James Howard Hatfield (January 7, 1958 - July 18, 2001) was an American author. ... Ricky Ross Ricky Ross was a drug trafficker whom many consider responsible for beginning the cocaine epidemic in the U.S. during the 1980s. ... Between 1996 to 1998 the Central Intelligence Agency investigated and then published a report about its alleged involvment in cocaine sales in the US. This was prompted by the journalist Gary Webb report in the Mercury News which alledged that the CIA was behind the 1980s crack epidemic. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Notes

To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Richard Thieme (born 1944), is a noted business consultant, author, media commentator and speaker. ... CounterPunch is a biweekly newsletter published in the United States that covers politics from a radical left-wing point of view. ... Norman Solomon is a Jewish American journalist from Maryland who writes frequently about media and politics. ... Extra! is a bimonthly magazine of media criticism published by the media watch group FAIR. First published in 1987, its first full-time editor was Martin A. Lee. ... Internet Archive headquarters. ... Robert Parry is an American investigative journalist who has written extensively about the Iran-Contra scandal, among other things. ... The L.A. Weekly is a weekly free paper in Los Angeles, owned by the same parent company as New York Citys Village Voice. ... A state-funded university in Northridge, California, part of the California State University System, formerly the San Fernando Valley State College. ... ... The Sacramento Bee is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Gary Webb

• "Dark Alliance" archive, San Jose Mercury News
• Dark Alliance: Day One, San Jose Mercury News Archive with multimedia.
• "Online NewsHour Forum: Gary Webb - Crack and The Contras", PBS November 5, 1996
• Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States, Volume I: The California Story, CIA
• Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States, Volume II: The Contra Story, CIA
• The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations: Documentation of Official U.S. Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras, A collection of declassified documents at the National Security Archive
• Oliver North declassified documents at the National Security Archive.
• Snow Job: The Establishment's Papers Do Damage Control for the CIA, By Norman Solomon, in Extra!, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's magazine
• "The Crack-UP: What the CIA knew about the drug trade, in its own words", by Gary Webb, Orange County Weekly, November 6 - 12, 1998
• "Bush Pardons 6 In Iran Affair", by David Johnston, The New York Times, December 24, 1992
• Department of Justice: The CIA-Contra-Crack cocaine controversy: A review of the Justice Department's investigations and prosecutions (December, 1997)

• Epilogue (July, 1998)
• Executive Summary
• Table of contents

• "Gary Webb: In His Own Words (2004)", Video of Interview with Gary Webb by Guerrilla News Network

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Commentaries

• "Gary Webb: a Great Reporter", Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch
• "America's Debt to Journalist Gary Webb", Robert Parry, Consortiumnews
• "Gary Webb: Do What He Did", Al Giordano, Narco News
• "Gary Webb: In his own words". video (length 8:07min) - Webb discusses the media battle that erupted in the aftermath of his investigations. Produced at School of Authentic Journalism. Mirror site: Archive.org.
• "Gary Webb is Dead", David Corn, The Nation
• "Gary Webb's Death Confirmed as Suicide by two shots", E&P Staff, Editor & Publisher December 15, 2004
• "Gary Webb's Final Days", Joe Strupp, Editor & Publisher, January 25, 2005.
• "Gary Webb - Dead Of Reported Suicide", Michael C. Ruppert, From The Wilderness
• "Gary Webb, RIP: No thanks to the L.A. Times", Marc Cooper, LA Weekly, December 17 - 23, 2004.
• "Kill The Messenger Gary Webb, 1955-2004", Nick Schou, Orange County Weekly, December 17 - 23, 2004.
• Gary Webb, 1955 - 2004, ed., Esquire. Obituary with reprint of the article The Pariah, Charles Bowden, 1988.
• "Gary Webb Speaks", by Charles Overbeck
• "R.I.P. Gary Webb -- Unembedded Reporter", Jeff Cohen, Dissident Voice
• "R.I.P. Gary Webb -- Unembedded Reporter", Badtux (pseudonym), Kuro5hin
• "Saying Goodbye to a Giant", Michael C. Ruppert, From The Wilderness
• "The day the writing died" Chrisanne Beckner, December 23rd, 2004, Sacramento News & Review
• "Why They Hated Gary Webb", Alexander Cockburn, CounterPunch, December 18/19, 2004
• "Written in pain", Tina Daunt, March 16, 2005, Los Angeles Times