Reply #54: Excerpt explains it

[lostnfound]

"In 1996, Webb wrote a series of stories entitled Dark Alliances. The series reported how a US-backed terrorist army, the Nicaraguan Contras, had financed their activities by selling crack cocaine in the ghettos of Los Angeles to the city's biggest crack dealer. The series documented direct contact between drug traffickers bringing drugs into Los Angeles and two Nicaraguan CIA agents who were administering the Contras in Central America. Moreover, it revealed how elements of the US government knew about this drug ring's activities at the time and did little, if anything, to stop it. The evidence included sworn testimony from one of the drug traffickers - a government informant - that a CIA agent specifically instructed them to raise money for the Contras in California. "


As additional information subsequently came to light, Webb recognised that he had indeed been in error:

"The CIA's knowledge and involvement had been far greater than I'd ever imagined. The drug ring was even bigger than I had portrayed. The involvement between the CIA agents running the Contras and drug traffickers was closer than I had written." (p.307)

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/Edwards_Watchdog1.htm

If you have doubts about whether such stories get squelched, read "Into the Buzzsaw", a collection of essays by award-winning journalists whose careers got slaughtered for writing the wrong stuff.