Webb je imao pravo: CIA je stvorila krek
Page 1 of 1
Webb je imao pravo: CIA je stvorila krek
http://rt.com/usa/194992-cia-crack-scandal-webb/
http://disinfo.com/2014/10/resurrection-gary-webb-will-hollywood-give-journalist-last-word-cias-media-apologists/
http://disinfo.com/2014/10/resurrection-gary-webb-will-hollywood-give-journalist-last-word-cias-media-apologists/
Kermit-
Posts : 26479
2014-04-17
Re: Webb je imao pravo: CIA je stvorila krek
The Resurrection of Gary Webb: Will Hollywood Give Journalist Last Word Against CIA’s Media Apologists?
by Good German on October 11, 2014 in History, News
The new film, “Kill the Messenger,” dramatizes Gary Webb’s investigation of Contra-allied Nicaraguan cocaine traffickers Norwin Meneses and Danilo Blandon (whose drug activities were apparently protected for reasons of U.S. “national security”) and their connection to L.A.’s biggest crack dealer, “Freeway” Ricky Ross. (Public domain)
Jeff Cohen writes at Common Dreams:
- See more at: http://disinfo.com/2014/10/resurrection-gary-webb-will-hollywood-give-journalist-last-word-cias-media-apologists/#sthash.FpgkvcjH.dpuf
by Good German on October 11, 2014 in History, News
The new film, “Kill the Messenger,” dramatizes Gary Webb’s investigation of Contra-allied Nicaraguan cocaine traffickers Norwin Meneses and Danilo Blandon (whose drug activities were apparently protected for reasons of U.S. “national security”) and their connection to L.A.’s biggest crack dealer, “Freeway” Ricky Ross. (Public domain)
Jeff Cohen writes at Common Dreams:
It’s been almost a decade since once-luminous investigative journalist Gary Webb extinguished his own life.
It’s been 18 years since Webb’s “Dark Alliance” series in the San Jose Mercury News exploded across a new medium – the Internet – and definitively linked crack cocaine in Los Angeles and elsewhere to drug traffickers allied with the CIA’s rightwing Contra army in Nicaragua. Webb’s revelations sparked anger across the country, especially in black communities.
But the 1996 series (which was accompanied by unprecedented online documentation) also sparked one of the most ferocious media assaults ever on an individual reporter – a less-than-honest backlash against Webb by elite newspapers that had long ignored or suppressed evidence of CIA/Contra/cocaine connections.
The assault by the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times drove Webb out of the newspaper business, and ultimately to his death.
Beginning this Friday, the ghost of Gary Webb will haunt his tormenters from movie screens across the country, with the opening of the dramatic film “Kill the Messenger” – based partly on Webb’s 1998 “Dark Alliance” book.
The movie dramatizes Webb’s investigation of Contra-allied Nicaraguan cocaine traffickers Norwin Meneses and Danilo Blandon (whose drug activities were apparently protected for reasons of U.S. “national security”) and their connection to L.A.’s biggest crack dealer, “Freeway” Ricky Ross.
The original “Dark Alliance” series was powerful in naming names, backed by court documents. Webb added specifics and personalities to the story of Contra drug trafficking first broken by Associated Press in 1985 (ignored by major newspapers) and then expanded in 1989 by John Kerry’s Senate subcommittee report which found that Contra drug dealing was tolerated in the U.S. frenzy to overthrow Nicaragua’s leftwing Sandinista government. Kerry’s work was ignored or attacked in big media — Newsweek labeled him a “randy conspiracy buff.”
There were some flaws and overstatements in the Webb series, mostly in editing and presentation; a controversial graphic had a crack smoker embedded in the CIA seal. But in light of history – and much smoke has cleared since 1996 – Webb’s series stands up far better as journalism than the hatchet jobs from the three establishment newspapers.
Don’t take my word for it. A player in the backlash against Webb was Jesse Katz, one of 17 reporters assigned by L.A. Times editors to produce a three-day, 20,000 word takedown of “Dark Alliance.” Last year, Katz referred to what his paper did as “kind of a tawdry exercise” which “ruined that reporter’s career” – explaining during a radio interview: “Most of us who were involved in it, I think, would look back on that and say it was overkill. We had this huge team of people at the L.A. Times and kind of piled onto one lone muckraker up in Northern California.”
Katz deserves credit for expressing regrets about the “overkill.”
His role in the backlash was to minimize the importance of Ricky Ross, who received large shipments of cocaine from Contra-funder Blandon. In the wake of Webb’s series, Katz described Ross as just one of many “interchangeable characters” in the crack deluge, “dwarfed” by other dealers.
But 20 months before Webb’s series – before the public knew of any Contra (or CIA) link to Ross’ cocaine supply – Katz had written quite the opposite in an L.A. Times profile of Ross: “If there was a criminal mastermind behind crack’s decade-long reign, if there was one outlaw capitalist most responsible for flooding Los Angeles’ streets with mass-marketed cocaine, his name was Freeway Rick.” Katz’s piece referred to Ross as “South-Central’s first millionaire crack lord” and was headlined: “Deposed King of Crack.”
One of the more absurd aspects of the backlash against Webb – prominent in the Washington Post and elsewhere — was criticism over his labeling of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), a Contra army supported by Blandon and Meneses, as “the CIA’s army.” As I wrote in an obituary when Webb died: “By all accounts, including those of Contra leaders, the CIA set up the group, selected its leaders and paid their salaries, and directed its day-to-day battlefield strategies.” The CIA also supervised the FDN’s day-to-day propaganda in U.S. media.
It was as much “the CIA’s army” as the force that invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
- See more at: http://disinfo.com/2014/10/resurrection-gary-webb-will-hollywood-give-journalist-last-word-cias-media-apologists/#sthash.FpgkvcjH.dpuf
Kermit-
Posts : 26479
2014-04-17
Re: Webb je imao pravo: CIA je stvorila krek
Nearly two decades after a US reporter was humiliated for connecting the CIA to a drug-trafficking trade that funded the Nicaraguan Contras, important players in the scandal – which led to the journalist’s suicide – are coming forward to back his claims.
Back in 1996, Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News broke a story stating not only that the Nicaraguan Contras – supported by the United States in a rebellion against their left-leaning government – were involved in the US crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, but also that the CIA knew and turned a blind eye to the operation.
As a result, Webb concluded, the CIA was complicit in a drug trade that was wreaking havoc on African American communities in Los Angeles.
The bombshell report sparked outrage across the country, but when national newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Washington Post weighed in on the matter, they dismissed Webb and attacked his story to the point that it was disowned by the Mercury News. Webb was forced out of journalism and ultimately committed suicide in 2004.
Now, however, the whole ordeal is being looked at with fresh eyes in the form of two new films: “Kill the Messenger” and a documentary called, “Freeway: Crack in the System.” Additionally, several figures involved in the operation have recently spoken out, lending further credibility to Webb’s original reporting.
Coral Baca, who had a close relationship with prominent Nicaraguan drug dealer Rafael Cornejo, told the Huffington Post that she remembered numerous occasions in which she meet Contra leader Adolfo Calero near San Francisco. During these meetings, she said Calero handled bags full of money, and he clearly knew that money was made through the drug trade.
“If he was stupid and had a lobotomy,” he might not have realized, Baca added. “He knew exactly what it was. He didn't care. He was there to fund the Contras, period.”
If true, the news would contradict multiple reports made by national media outlets at the time, which doubted just how much cash was going to the Contras – or even if the Contras knew it was coming from crack cocaine sales.
Meanwhile, Nicaraguan drug importer Danilo Blandon recently confirmed to documentary filmmaker Marc Levin that he was involved in drug trafficking, and that he supported the Contras. Back in 1996, Blandon was asked in court if he ran the LA drug operation, which he confirmed. Then, too, he said all the profits went to the Contras.
Despite a 1986 LA County arrest warrant detailing allegations that Brandon “filtered” drug money to the Contras, other newspapers dismissed Webb’s allegation that the Contras’ drug trafficking operation directly impacted the increased use of crack in the US – primarily, they said, because Blandon split off from the group and ran his own drug venture.
Last year, though, former LA Times reporter Jesse Katz apologized for attacking Webb’s story and reputation.
“As an L.A. Times reporter, we saw this series in the San Jose Mercury News and kind of wonder[ed] how legit it was and kind of put it under a microscope,” Katz said, according to LA Weekly. “And we did it in a way that most of us who were involved in it, I think, would look back on that and say it was overkill. 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.”
“We really didn't do anything to advance his work or illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry exercise. ... And it ruined that reporter's career.”
While Webb was also criticized for suggesting the CIA intentionally devastated African American communities with crack, he defended himself saying that was not the case.
“It’s not a situation where the government or the CIA sat down and said, 'Okay, let’s invent crack, let’s sell it in black neighborhoods, let’s decimate black America,’” Webb reportedly says in the upcoming documentary. “It was a situation where, 'We need money for a covert operation, the quickest way to raise it is sell cocaine, you guys go sell it somewhere, we don’t want to know anything about it.'”
Following the scandal, in 1998 the CIA quietly published an internal inspector general’s report into the matter, which prior to its release was much-touted for whitewashing the agency’s reputation. Instead, it seemed to add legitimacy to the accusations, saying, “CIA knowledge of allegations or information indicating that organizations or individuals had been involved in drug trafficking did not deter their use by CIA.” At other times, the “CIA did not act to verify drug trafficking allegations or information even when it had the opportunity to do so.”
“No information has been found to indicate that CIA informed Congress of eight of the ten Contra-related individuals concerning whom CIA had received drug trafficking allegations or information,” the report added.
In a new post on Democracy Now, a transcript from the documentary “Shadows of Liberty” reveals investigative journalist Robert Parry saying this watchdog report was even more damning for the CIA than the original story.
“The contents of the reports, if you go into the actual nitty-gritty of them,” he said, “what you find is that there was a serious problem, that the US government knew about, and that the Contras were far more guilty of drug trafficking and the CIA was more guilty of looking the other way than even Gary Webb had suggested.”
Back in 1996, Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News broke a story stating not only that the Nicaraguan Contras – supported by the United States in a rebellion against their left-leaning government – were involved in the US crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, but also that the CIA knew and turned a blind eye to the operation.
As a result, Webb concluded, the CIA was complicit in a drug trade that was wreaking havoc on African American communities in Los Angeles.
The bombshell report sparked outrage across the country, but when national newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Washington Post weighed in on the matter, they dismissed Webb and attacked his story to the point that it was disowned by the Mercury News. Webb was forced out of journalism and ultimately committed suicide in 2004.
Now, however, the whole ordeal is being looked at with fresh eyes in the form of two new films: “Kill the Messenger” and a documentary called, “Freeway: Crack in the System.” Additionally, several figures involved in the operation have recently spoken out, lending further credibility to Webb’s original reporting.
Coral Baca, who had a close relationship with prominent Nicaraguan drug dealer Rafael Cornejo, told the Huffington Post that she remembered numerous occasions in which she meet Contra leader Adolfo Calero near San Francisco. During these meetings, she said Calero handled bags full of money, and he clearly knew that money was made through the drug trade.
“If he was stupid and had a lobotomy,” he might not have realized, Baca added. “He knew exactly what it was. He didn't care. He was there to fund the Contras, period.”
If true, the news would contradict multiple reports made by national media outlets at the time, which doubted just how much cash was going to the Contras – or even if the Contras knew it was coming from crack cocaine sales.
Meanwhile, Nicaraguan drug importer Danilo Blandon recently confirmed to documentary filmmaker Marc Levin that he was involved in drug trafficking, and that he supported the Contras. Back in 1996, Blandon was asked in court if he ran the LA drug operation, which he confirmed. Then, too, he said all the profits went to the Contras.
Despite a 1986 LA County arrest warrant detailing allegations that Brandon “filtered” drug money to the Contras, other newspapers dismissed Webb’s allegation that the Contras’ drug trafficking operation directly impacted the increased use of crack in the US – primarily, they said, because Blandon split off from the group and ran his own drug venture.
Last year, though, former LA Times reporter Jesse Katz apologized for attacking Webb’s story and reputation.
“As an L.A. Times reporter, we saw this series in the San Jose Mercury News and kind of wonder[ed] how legit it was and kind of put it under a microscope,” Katz said, according to LA Weekly. “And we did it in a way that most of us who were involved in it, I think, would look back on that and say it was overkill. 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.”
“We really didn't do anything to advance his work or illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry exercise. ... And it ruined that reporter's career.”
While Webb was also criticized for suggesting the CIA intentionally devastated African American communities with crack, he defended himself saying that was not the case.
“It’s not a situation where the government or the CIA sat down and said, 'Okay, let’s invent crack, let’s sell it in black neighborhoods, let’s decimate black America,’” Webb reportedly says in the upcoming documentary. “It was a situation where, 'We need money for a covert operation, the quickest way to raise it is sell cocaine, you guys go sell it somewhere, we don’t want to know anything about it.'”
Following the scandal, in 1998 the CIA quietly published an internal inspector general’s report into the matter, which prior to its release was much-touted for whitewashing the agency’s reputation. Instead, it seemed to add legitimacy to the accusations, saying, “CIA knowledge of allegations or information indicating that organizations or individuals had been involved in drug trafficking did not deter their use by CIA.” At other times, the “CIA did not act to verify drug trafficking allegations or information even when it had the opportunity to do so.”
“No information has been found to indicate that CIA informed Congress of eight of the ten Contra-related individuals concerning whom CIA had received drug trafficking allegations or information,” the report added.
In a new post on Democracy Now, a transcript from the documentary “Shadows of Liberty” reveals investigative journalist Robert Parry saying this watchdog report was even more damning for the CIA than the original story.
“The contents of the reports, if you go into the actual nitty-gritty of them,” he said, “what you find is that there was a serious problem, that the US government knew about, and that the Contras were far more guilty of drug trafficking and the CIA was more guilty of looking the other way than even Gary Webb had suggested.”
Kermit-
Posts : 26479
2014-04-17
Re: Webb je imao pravo: CIA je stvorila krek
_________________
И показа ми чисту реку воде живота, бистру као кристал, која излажаше од престола Божијег и Јагњетовог.
Winter is coming-
Posts : 9181
2014-04-14
Re: Webb je imao pravo: CIA je stvorila krek
Bilo kako bilo, nitko nikoga ne sili na uzimanje droga. A posebno toga smeća .
Yehudi- Posts : 14715
2014-04-20
Re: Webb je imao pravo: CIA je stvorila krek
I ovi islamo-koljači 8 isis) se kljukaju amfetamnima na lopate. To je valda jasno. Droga je tamo sveprisutna. Heroin dolazi iz Afganistana na tone a Koka iz J. Amerike (minjaju je za H.)
Yehudi- Posts : 14715
2014-04-20
Re: Webb je imao pravo: CIA je stvorila krek
Rusi su prije par godina ponudili amerima da o svom trosku iz zraka potruju polja Opijuma,koke i kojeg sve ne kurca tamo nema,ovi su naravno to odbili,jebiga nece da im Ruje kvare dobar biznis,a i 80% drogetine odatle truje bas Ruse,treba im ubaciti neki virus undercower
_________________
И показа ми чисту реку воде живота, бистру као кристал, која излажаше од престола Божијег и Јагњетовог.
Winter is coming-
Posts : 9181
2014-04-14
Similar topics
» Kao i obično marčelo je imao pravo
» Jutarnji-Izgleda da je glavni švedski epidemiolog Anders Tegnell imao pravo...
» Vuk Drašković: Imamo pravo da ne priznamo Kosovo, ali nemamo pravo da hipnotišemo narod da nezavisnosti nema
» Papa Franjo : Pederi imaju pravo na obitelj i posvajanje djece
» Pariški metro u štrajku zbog najezde krek ovisnika i bandi
» Jutarnji-Izgleda da je glavni švedski epidemiolog Anders Tegnell imao pravo...
» Vuk Drašković: Imamo pravo da ne priznamo Kosovo, ali nemamo pravo da hipnotišemo narod da nezavisnosti nema
» Papa Franjo : Pederi imaju pravo na obitelj i posvajanje djece
» Pariški metro u štrajku zbog najezde krek ovisnika i bandi
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum