It's not a conspiracy. Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" proved the CIA's connection to the crack explosion in urban Los Angelos. Webb committed suicide last year I believe.
Thanks for recommending the book. Should be an interesting read. I'll post my thoughts as soon as I'm finished.
To my knowledge, it's not in book form. Atleast it wasn't originally. Webb's paper, the San Jose Mercury News, published a series of articles online which was revolutionary at the time.
It's been a long time since I learned about this in college so my memory is sketchy on the details. After the series was run, Webb was discredited by fellow journalists in the industry even though the facts were never disproven. He was systematically boycotted from the industry up until his suicide last year. I'll try to do a quick search online right now and see if I can find the best explanation of this premise.
For the sake of credibility, I have elected to paste the wikipedia entry on Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance", as it's simply an unbiased, factual explanation from a source on whose validity we can all agree upon. If anyone is further interested on the details, I would recommend they delve further into this through their own research: _________ "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 imply that the CIA were aware of the transactions (Webb's 1999 book, Dark Alliance, substantiated these allegations with copious references). "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." 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 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." Almost immediately, denials began to emerge of the assertions Webb made in "Dark Alliance". Subsequent reports in the Washington Post (Oct 4, 1996), Los Angeles Times, New York Times (Oct 21, 1996) tried to debunk the link between the Contras and the crack epidemic. However, as Richard Thieme observed, the major news outlets focused primarily on attacking him or criticizing irrelevant parts of the story itself, leaving Webb's thesis virtually intact. Because of these attacks, Webb created a web site that contained primary documents, transcripts, and audio interviews so that people could examine the evidence for themselves. However, under mounting pressure, San Jose Mercury News executive editor Jerry Ceppos published a retraction on May 11, 1997, claiming the Dark Alliance series fell short of his standards. Webb was reassigned to a suburban bureau one hundred fifty miles from his home. Because of the long commute, Webb quit the paper in December, 1997, but by then his marriage had fallen apart and his career had been destroyed. CIA 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 revealed how the Reagan-Bush administration had conducted the contra war: * On Jan. 29, 1998, CIA Inspector General Frederick 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. * On March 16, 1998, CIA I.G. 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." (Pincus, Washington Post, Mar. 17, 1998) Senator John Kerry had reached similar conclusions a decade earlier in 1987 (see the so-called Kerry Report: Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy), but his findings as well as the surprising admissions from the CIA were generally ignored by the media. * On May 7, 1998, Rep. Maxine Waters, revealed a letter between the CIA and the Justice Department. 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. * 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 revealed 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. * 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, deliberately 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. 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. More importantly, the internal CIA report documented a cover-up of evidence which had led to false intelligence assessments. According to Robert Parry, these erroneous assessments were passed on to Congress and eventually, major media outlets, which used the false datasets to criticize the accuracy of Webb's Dark Alliance expose. Dark Alliance: the book In 1999, Webb published the controversial Dark Alliance series in its full, uncensored form, complete with extensive source citations. The book entitled, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, received mixed reviews. Although moved to investigate itself concerning Webb's premise of a "Dark Alliance" between the Contras and elements of the CIA, Inspector General Hitz found "no direct or indirect" links between the CIA and the cocaine traffickers. 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. 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. On December 10, 2004, he was found dead from gunshot wounds to the head. While acknowledging that the two fatal shots that had entered through the back of his head was unusual, coroner Robert Lyons determined that it was suicide. It subsequently became known that Webb had been suffering from clinical depression for many years. This information was ascertained only after the fact.
Wow, this is all pretty interesting. Not that it really matters. But the conspiracy I orginally meant is the belief that the CIA INVENTED crack to control black urban populations. Given the CIA's long history of shadiness from Colombia to Afghanistan I can't say drug smuggling surprised me. But I would be shocked if the CIA invented crack for domestic purposes.
There's alot of conspiracy theories out there man, one behind every crisis in the world. Some shocking and some offensive. Who knows what to believe anymore? There's a popular theory regarding the authenticity of Dr. Martin Luther King which postulates that he plagiarized his doctoral thesis. There are claims of his sexual deviance in a book whose title I forget. Offensive, I know, yes. Especially about a man who is held in the highest esteem on a pedestal in this country. Any website you read about this will start out with "ever wonder why Martin Luther King Jr. is the only figure in United States history to garner his own holiday?" Not saying I buy into it, but I sometimes do wonder if King was lifted in an attempt to quell the voices and struggles of other black leaders, namely Malcolm X. Mention Malcolm X to 10 people in this country and I can guarantee you 9 out of 10 will associate a very negative connotation to him, though I think his overall message of self suffiency would have gone further for blacks in this country. A liberal judge has locked the FBI's file on Martin Luther King Jr. until 2017 I believe.
There are several books worth reading concerning this- Whiteout the CIA Drugs and the Press Drugging America a Trojan Horse Crossing the Rubicon etc,etc Don't forget who was head of the CIA during Iran-Contra Scandal.
More info about this here and here. Looks like he did plagiarize a ton of stuff, including the "let freedom ring" closing portions of the "I have a dream" speech which he seems to have plagiarized from Archibald Carey, Jr.
Wow. An unprecedented 3 times we concur in a two week period. Ad far as the other ones in the poll I am in the minority on all of them. I think you people believe the governement is something that it is not. It's a group of people just like you and me. It's not a mysterious entity. People are blabbermouths and there is NO WAY a massive consiracy on the AIDS/Crack/Oil company level could happen. There are too many people to disrupt it and leak. I think LHO had backing from Cuba and there was another non US governmental paarty involved. Oh and I think freemasons are creepy.
Careful.... Watergate.... The Iran-Contra Affair... With items like these that became public, try to imagine the scope and quantity of other items that didn't.
A group of people like you and me, except, unlike 98% of you and me, they are rarely held accountable for their many failures.
