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Webb put in a call to Robert Parry. .article-native-ad p { "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. So he blew her off. [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. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. [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. The review was conducted primarily by editor Jonathan Krim and reporter Pete Carey, who had written the paper's first published analysis of the series. He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. Gary Webb, Into the Buzzsaw, CH 13, Prometheus Books. Dr. Gary A. Webb is a geriatrician in Marco Island, Florida. The new movie Kill the Messenger, based in part on a 2006 book by a former student of mine, eulogizes Webb . 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. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". It was also posted on The Mercury News website with additional information, including documents cited in the series and audio recordings of people quoted in the articles. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. He was born June 18, 1943, in Appleton, son of the late Wilford and Helen (Hauskey) Webb. Writing on the Los Angeles Times opinion page, Schou said, "Webb asserted, improbably, that the Blandn-Meneses-Ross drug ring opened 'the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles,' helping to 'spark a crack explosion in urban America.' She was a native of Minden, LA, but a resident of Crossett for 65 years. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." E&P Staff. The second article described Blandn's background and how he began smuggling cocaine to support the Contras. Going to the CIA to ask if they've ever profited from drug sales in Los Angeles, I suggested to Kornbluh, is rather like asking Fagin if he has ever picked a pocket. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. I believe that we fell short at every step of our process: in the writing, editing and production of our work. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Its pointed to as one of the clearer cases of CIA intervention as revenge for Webb revealing damaging secrets about the agencies involvement in drug smuggling. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. reports. [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." A passing motorist - a heavily tattooed young man - gave him a lift home, then returned and stole the motorcycle, which police recovered from him three days after Webb's death. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. ", The significant legacy of the Webb case, "the reason this whole affair remains so significant today," Blum says, "is this: the knowledge that, if one individual dares raise such serious issues, they risk confronting a tremendous apparatus that is prepared to whack them hard, and there is very little they can expect by way of support. Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. After the series's publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996. This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. 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. Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. Ross was also released early after cooperating in an investigation of police corruption, but was rearrested a few months later in a sting operation arranged with Blandn's help. Webb began to shift from cynicism to curiosity. Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. We had this huge team of people at the L.A. Times and kind of piled on to one lone muckraker up in Northern California." "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. . He was taken to hospital by air ambulance. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" With Baca's encouragement, he started to investigate a large-scale Nicaraguan cocaine dealer named Oscar Danilo Blandn. Army. Gary Stephen Webb was a Pulitzer prize winning American investigative reporter who exposed cocaine trafficking by the CIA.He wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, which initially backed his articles but later dropped him.Webb was put under pressure most certainly from the CIA under John Deutch for his reporting. According to Walt Bogdanich, a former colleague on the Plain Dealer who has won two Pulitzers and now works for The New York Times, Webb was the best retriever of information from public records he has ever seen. 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. Her husband began his career on The Kentucky Post, and rapidly proved himself to be the sort of character who can be a secretive agency's worst nightmare: a full-blooded provocateur who liked to put the hours in at the library. Gary Webb famously died of two gun shot wounds to the head and his death that was ruled a suicide, is the common sense notion that this was clearly assassination true? When he was engaged, he worked hard. color: #ddd; "For the better part of a decade," it began, "a San Francisco drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funnelled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the US Central Intelligence Agency.". . By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. In a three-part expos, investigative journalist Gary Webb reported that a guerrilla army in Nicaragua had used crack cocaine sales in Los Angeles' black neighborhoods to fund an attempted coup of Nicaragua's socialist government in the 1980s and that the CIA had purposefully funded it. When his body was found, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was on the DVD machine, and his favourite CD, Ian Hunter's live album Welcome to the Club, was in the CD player. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. After the announcement of federal investigations into the claims made in the series, other newspapers began investigating, and several papers published articles suggesting the series' claims were overstated. "He was sleeping more, he hated to get up in the morning, he started having a lot of motorcycle. Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. padding-bottom: 20px; Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. Blandn and Meneses' high-volume supply of low-priced high-purity cocaine "allowed Ross to sew up the Los Angeles market and move on. [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. A January 1997 article in American Journalism Review noted that a 1994 series Webb wrote had also been the subject of a Mercury News internal review that criticized Webb's reporting. Webb became a staff reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in 1988. A jury awarded the plaintiffs over 13 million dollars and the case was later settled. According to the report's "Epilogue," the report was completed in December 1997 but was not released because the DEA was still attempting to use Danilo Blandn in an investigation of international drug dealers and was concerned that the report would affect the viability of the investigation. By a fortunate coincidence of timing, the report was released on a day when the Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated every front page in the country. [68], In August 2004, Webb joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. This did not happen in Webb's case. The couple got married recently in November of 2020 after dating for some time. In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? 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. The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. A secret deal allowed drugs to go unreported by the DCI. "If I had one dream for you," he wrote, "it was that you would go into journalism and carry on the kind of work I did - fighting, with all your might, the oppression and bigotry and stupidity and greed that surrounds us. She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. Webb had become, as somebody put it, "radioactive". What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". "The second bullet," adds Bell, who has worked for more than 20 years in the area of respiratory therapy, "struck his carotid artery. Shortly before I left for Sacramento, Moreira, who knew Webb, had shown me unbroadcast footage which shows the French reporter making a phone call to a media commentator in the US, asking him about Webb's death. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. The first one, "The California Story," was issued in a classified version on December 17, 1997, and in an unclassified version on January 29, 1998. [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 Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . ", "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.