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"He was sleeping more, he hated to get up in the morning, he started having a lot of motorcycle. ", "Reporter's suicide confirmed by coroner", "Repercussions From Flawed News Articles", "Herhold: Thinking back on journalist Gary Webb and the CIA", Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks, "Gary Webb was no journalism hero, despite what 'Kill the Messenger' says", "Jeremy Renner's 'Kill the Messenger' Gets Fall Release Date", The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions, United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Report of Investigation Concerning Allegations of Connections Between CIA and The Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States, Central Intelligence Agency Office of the Inspector General, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, "Secrecy, Conspiracy, and the Media During the CIA-Contra Affair", Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography, "Inside the Dark Alliance: Gary Webb on the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion", 'A NATURAL STORY': Tribute to 'Dark Alliance' and Journalist Gary Webb, San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, Archive of Gary Webb stories at Sacramento News and Review, "Frontline: Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. "You do not understand the power of these people," he adds, referring to the US intelligence services. The series follows the stories of several characters whose lives are fated to intersect including CIA operative Teddy McDonald who helps to secure guns for the Contras. 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. His. Much of the article highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies to successfully prosecute them and stated that this was largely due to their Contra and CIA connections. The drugs went to South Central LA. [48] 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. Gary was born May 5, 1954, to his parents Worley and Margaret Webb, who preceded him in death as well as his brother, David Webb. [28] 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. "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. Jack Blum, who was the lead investigator for Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, which produced a highly damning 1989 report on drug-smuggling in the guise of national security, is one of several commentators to have questioned aspects of Webb's original reporting. Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. After a local newspaper reported that Webb 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 died by suicide. And it ruined that reporter's career. It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel, right? "He definitely was depressed. Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. Webb may indeed be physically dead, but his research is more alive today than ever before, and continues to haunt the shadow government and snowball into a monster that will undoubtedly have its eventual revenge. He was a former member of Bethlehem . Leen, who covered the cocaine trade for the Miami Herald in the 1980s, rejects the claim that "because the report uncovered an agency mindset of indifference to drug-smuggling allegations", it vindicated Webb's reporting. 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. "[78], While finding this part of the series unsupported, Schou said that some of the series's 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." And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". A time of fellowship and remembrance is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at Lake Ridge Chapel and Memorial Designers. 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 in Nicaragua. [63]Dark Alliance was a 1998 Pen/Newman's Own First Amendment Award Finalist, 1998 San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, 1999 Bay Area Book Reviewers Award Finalist, and 1999 Firecracker Alternative Booksellers Award Winner in the Politics category. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He is survived by his loving wife, Wendie, of Elgin; grandmother, Eileen Carrier of Elgin;. George Webb and Paul Cottrell have begun a weekly series on CoronaVirus now, Mondays at 5PM, EST on paul Cottrell's Rumble Channel. His erstwhile editors on the Mercury News, meanwhile, saw their careers thrive. color:rgb(46,179,178); His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. He made that very clear. Like Schou, Corn cites the inspector general's report, which he says "acknowledged that the CIA had indeed worked with suspected drugrunners (sic) while supporting the contras. 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. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. In February, Gary Webb gave his ex-wife. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. Investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories in 1996 for the San Jose Mercury News that documented the US-government-backed Contra insurgents' drug pipeline into Los Angeles. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: One instalment of the LA Times's 18,000-word rebuttal of Webb's piece, published in October 1996, sought to minimise the importance of his key witness, Ricky Ross. Maxine Waters found a govt employee ran the South Central LA drug ring & The DOJ removed that section of the report : r/conspiracy 3 yr. ago Posted by shylock92008 This did not happen in Webb's case. Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.[83]. But they underestimated the paradigm shifting power of the internet, and the intelligence of Webb, who not only listed the explosive story online . In a three-part series published in the San Jose Mercury News, "Dark Alliance," Webb alleges that not only was the CIA aware cocaine sold in the U.S. during the 1980s was funding the Nicaraguan Contras, they were complicit in its distribution. It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the CIA. Ricky Donnell "Freeway Rick" Ross (born January 26, 1960) is an American author and convicted drug trafficker best known for the drug empire he established in Los Angeles, California, in the early to mid 1980s. Asking why crack became so prevalent in the Black community of Los Angeles, the article credited Blandn, referring to him as "the Johnny Appleseed of crack in California. Corrie had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that already had. By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. The attack on Gary Webb and his series in the San Jose Mercury News remains one of the most venomous and factually inane assaults on a professional journalist's competence in living memory . In the column, Ceppos defended 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. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. [57], 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. "[25] It also found disparities in the treatment of Black and White traffickers in the justice system, contrasting the treatment of Blandn and Ross after their arrests for drug trafficking. He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. With hindsight, Bell says, "the signs were there. On Dec. 9, 2004, the 49-year-old Gary Stephen Webb, Pulitzer prize-winning US investigative journalist, typed out suicide notes to his ex-wife and his three children; he laid out a certificate for his cremation; he taped a note on the door telling movers - who were coming the next morning to move him out of his rental house near Sacramento - to In a 2013 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 Blandn. Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; [66] margin-bottom: 20px; Webb had become, as somebody put it, "radioactive". It was just more than he could take.". [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst with the George Washington University's National Security Archive, was one of the first to suggest that Webb had overplayed his hand in the Mercury News version of "Dark Alliance". font-size: 34px; In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. Can these things possibly be? [54] Editors at the paper, on the other hand, felt that Webb had failed to tell them about information that contradicted the series's claims and that he "responded to concerns not with reasoned argument, but with accusations of us selling him out. Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. Attorneys' Offices. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. Dec. 13, 2004. I'm glad that I didn't dissuade him, because it was important to get the truth out but for Gary Webb, there was a very high price to pay." When I first heard the news, I tell Bell, I was inclined to believe the conspiracy theories that still proliferate on the internet, suggesting that Webb had been assassinated - either by one of the drug dealers he'd met while writing Dark Alliance, or by the intelligence services who were supposed to police them. His career ended, his livelihood was destroyed and certain games were started to be . "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. On one road trip, in 2001, he came off the motorcycle and split his helmet open. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. 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. Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. I ask Bell. Relationships with other women ended badly. "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. 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. "Gary Webb was left to fend for himself. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. If he could have chosen his own epitaph, it might have been a line from the letter he posted to Bell, immediately before he killed himself: "I do not regret," Webb told her, "anything that I have written." He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere By Richard Horgan October 8, 2014 Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint O'Connor had a solid feature the other day about Kill the. His death was especially traumatic to the family since - as the coroner said - it could not be established whether he died instantly, or bled to death. Film of this encounter survives. His series of articles - which prompted the distinguished reporter and former Newsweek Washington correspondent Robert Parry to describe Webb as "an American hero" - incited fury among the African-American community, many of whom took his investigation as proof that the White House saw crack as a way of bringing genocide to the ghetto. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. 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." Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. Within weeks, the site was attracting up to 1.3m hits per day. Views on Webb's journalism have been polarized. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. "To get back at his editors?". Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. } In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. He is from United States. LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 - Gary Webb, a reporter who won national attention with a series of articles, later discredited, linking the Central Intelligence Agency to the spread of crack . He wrote well. There has been speculation that he may have met with foul play because he had received two gunshot wounds to the head, The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". } He was born at Emmanuel Hospital in. "I am scared," the voice replies. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. "As a PhD student, McCoy went to Vietnam and built an absolutely damning case about the CIA's involvement with trafficking heroin. color: #ddd; Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. [71] 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." [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. }. Because Blandn cooperated with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he spent only 28 months in prison, became a paid government informant, and received permanent resident status. He really did believe that," she says. 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."[23]. Webb became a staff reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in 1988. Webb was an assertive figure who drove fast cars and powerful motorcycles, hung heavy metal posters in his office and, at certain times in his life, smoked a fair amount of cannabis. Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. The link between drug-running and the Reagan regime's support for the right-wing terrorist group throughout the 1980s had been public knowledge for over a decade. Last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, "To readers of our 'Dark Alliance' series", "America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war", "War on drugs has unequal impact on black Americans", "Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Inquiry Findings", "The CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking Of Alleged Plot", "Though Evidence Is Thin, Tale of C.I.A.