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. With Baca's encouragement, he started to investigate a large-scale Nicaraguan cocaine dealer named Oscar Danilo Blandn. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. [44], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. This did not happen in Webb's case. And the importance of exposing them. Jeremy Renner plays Gary Webb in "Kill the Messenger." (Chuck Zlotnick/Focus Features) Webb resigned and wrote a book defending his reporting. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. The article discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. 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. "He walked in one day," Bell recalls, "and said, 'You are not going to believe what I just found out.' "Which was that, if he wanted a future within the political establishment of the United States, then he should concentrate on other aspects of life.". The Media Turns On Gary Webb. 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. By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. When Gary originally broke this mind blowing story, the arrogant authority's assumed they could simply ignore him and hope he'd go away. "Although Ross had become a millionaire by 1984," Katz now wrote, "the market was so huge by then that even a dealer of his stature could seem dwarfed How the crack epidemic reached that extreme, on some level," he continues, "had nothing to do with Ross". [45], The Post's response came from the paper's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser. After examining the investigations and prosecutions of the main figures in the series, Blandn, Meneses and Ross, it concluded that "Although the investigations suffered from various problems of communication and coordination, their successes and failures were determined by the normal dynamics that affect the success of scores of investigations of high-level drug traffickers These factors, rather than anything as spectacular as a systematic effort by the CIA or any other intelligence agency to protect the drug trafficking activities of Contra supporters, determined what occurred in the cases we examined. We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. 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. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. While police were preparing the case against her boyfriend, Baca alleged, officers had disclosed documents which revealed that one of her lover's associates had been working for the Contras. 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.' After being reassigned to the Mercury News's office in Curpertino, where they had him writing death notices, Gary Webb resigned and fell into depression. [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". Although Blandn's cartel was undoubtedly one of the first to bring crack to LA, Webb was almost certainly suffering a rush of blood when he described the group as "the first pipeline" into the city. Although it did find that both men were major drug dealers, "guilty of enriching themselves at the expense of countless drug users," and that they had contributed money to the Contra cause, "we did not find that their activities were responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic in South Central Los Angeles, much less the rise of crack throughout the nation, or that they were a significant source of support for the Contras. ", As Webb would tell a friend, after he had been ostracised: "You have to look out, when the big dog gets off the porch.". 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. In 1986, Webb wrote an article saying that the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Frank D. Celebrezze accepted contributions from groups with organized crime connections. It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. He was born January 28, 1950 in Middletown, OH to Paul and Dorothy (Hawkins) Webb. "It was like someone had made a terrible noise, or a terrible smell, in a small room," recalls Jonathan Winer, Kerry's chief senate staff investigator . [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. Jeff Leen, assistant managing editor for investigative reporting at The Washington Post, wrote in a 2014 opinion page article that "the report found no CIA relationship with the drug ring Webb had written about." He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. WEBB, Mr. Gary Lee, our beloved son, husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle went home with his heavenly Father Monday, August 29, 2011 at University of Michigan Hospital. Webb disagreed with this conclusion.[1][2]. In May 1997, after an internal review, Ceppos stated that, although the story was right on many important points, there were shortcomings in the writing, editing and production of the series. He said: 'No. 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. 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. * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. His resurrected website died with him: the company hosting it was bought out and the files lost. 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. But the report was correct. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. Gary Webb was an investigative reporter, focusing on government and private sector corruption and winning more than 30 journalism awards. 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. [43] He did this in a column that appeared on November 3, defending the series, but also committing the paper to a review of major criticisms. This emotive last phrase refers to Webb's experience in the immediate aftermath of publication of his three lengthy articles, in the summer of 1996. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. The second article described Blandn's background and how he began smuggling cocaine to support the Contras. It was truthful. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. With hindsight, Bell says, "the signs were there. "If there was an eye to the storm," Katz wrote, "if there was a mastermind behind crack's decade-long reign, if there was one outlaw most responsible for flooding LA's streets with mass-marketed cocaine, his name was Freeway Rick. After gaining access to secret grand jury transcripts in 1996, and following the subsequent paper trail that followed therein, Gary Webb made the shocking discovery that government informant, Oscar Danilo Blandn, was covertly selling tons of cocaine for the Central Intelligence Agency in South Central Los Angeles, and other parts of the country. Webb, according to Bell, was a man who, more than most, found that his mood and self-esteem fluctuated in accordance with his professional fortunes. Critics view the series' claims as inaccurate or overstated, while supporters point to the results of a later CIA investigation as vindicating the series. Work with a bunch of drug dealers to run guns? [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. Celebrity. 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. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. And he finallyyou know, they finally left the country. What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". When they married, she was aged just 21. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? [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. Webb's experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. Gary and Karla James Webb married and blended their families on January 7, 1989 in O'Donnell, Texas. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. Depressed, he became increasingly unpredictable in his behaviour and embarked on a series of affairs; he was divorced from Bell in 2000, though he remained close to her throughout his life and lived in a house in nearby Carmichael. Gary's ex-wife Susan Bell states: "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide." An interesting OPINION, but she supplies no convincing evidence to illustrate what she means by this. [59], The first volume of the report found no evidence that "any past or present employee of CIA, or anyone acting on behalf of CIA, had any direct or indirect dealing" with Ross, Blandn, or Meneses or that any of the other figures mentioned in "Dark Alliance" were ever employed by or associated with or contacted by the agency. [61] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." 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. Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. "I'd get discouraged," she said, "but I never really gave up hope." Back in 1997, SN&R brought the controversy about Gary Webb to readers with "Secrets and Lies," a cover story about why the mainstream media attacked . Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? The legendary civil-rights activist Dick Gregory was arrested while he protested outside the CIA's headquarters; Gregory began referring to the organisation as "Crack in America". [65], Within "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On" essay Webb stated he believed there was an active "collusion between the press and the powerful" to report freely on inconsequential matters, "but when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff We begin to see the limits of our freedoms". His wife is Sue Webb (m. 1979-2000) Gary Webb Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. It was just more than he could take.". "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. 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. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. It also sparked an . There is a CIA connection and I can demonstrate it.'". Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. In the six years he worked at its Sacramento office, he won the HL Mencken award, for a story exposing corruption in California's drug enforcement agency, and his Pulitzer prize - won jointly, as part of a Mercury News team covering the 1990 Loma Prieta earthquake. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. His behavior became increasingly unpredictable and he embarked on a series of affairs, eventually divorcing from his wife Sue in 2000. . [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. Five years ago, a tragedy occurred in American journalism: Investigative reporter Gary Webb - who had been ostracized by his own colleagues for forcing a spotlight back onto an ugly government scandal they wanted to ignore - was driven to commit suicide. Managed by: Pam Wilson (may be slow to respond) Last Updated: [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. ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. in Central America", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gary_Webb&oldid=1149653447, This page was last edited on 13 April 2023, at 15:41. 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". To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. As The Independent reported, in an interview with Gary's ex-wife Susan Webb: 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. Film of this encounter survives. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. 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." In August 1996, Gary Webb published in the San Jose Mercury News a 20,000 word, three-part series entitled "Dark Alliance".The articles detailed the nexus between a California coke kingpin, CIA officials and assets and the Nicaraguan Contra army, whose . [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. . He was previously married to Sue Bell. 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. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. He was no villain: He genuinely believed his thesis about the CIA. She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. The first detailed article on the series's claims appeared in The Washington Post in early October. 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. When he was engaged, he worked hard. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. "It was the worst day of my life." But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. [14] In 1984, Webb wrote a story titled Driving Off With Profits which claimed that the promoters of a race in Cleveland paid themselves nearly a million dollars from funds that should have gone to the city of Cleveland. 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