Gary Webb dead of self inflicted gunshot woundS!

I just heard this on Living Room with Larry Bensen.
Anybody have links?
This is terrible.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/11744167p-1263...

self inflicted gunshot WOUNDS to the head?

Not another one! Hope it's not true.

Former Indiana journalist killed while walking dog
Friday December 10, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Beverly Kees, former editor of the Post-Tribune in Gary (Indiana), was killed today in San Francisco when a truck hit her as she walked a friend's dog.

Police say there do not appear to have been any traffic violations and the driver of the truck has not been arrested. An investigation into Kees death continues.

(snip)

Along with Bill Phillips, Kees wrote ``Nothing Sacred: Journalism, Politics and Public Trust in a Tell-All Age.'' She had also served for the Associated Press Managing Editors Association as committee chair, board member and secretary.

http://cbs2chicago.com/indiana/IN--Obit-Kees-inn/resour...

http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-10-14/cover...
We wonder what new threat he posed if he was still around at this point, right?

If Webb was rubbed out (likely, not proven), I think THIS IS WHY:

HE EXPOSED HOW THE ARMY PROFILES AND TRAINS TEENS USING PSY-OPS ON THE INTERNET AND VIDEO GAMES!

Lack of not just fodder, but highly-skilled kids who can kill effectively under stress are what the BFEE/PNAC Empire DESPERATELY NEEDS TO CONQUER THE WORLD by operating the machines of war.

A sophisticated 'first-shooter' game called 'Americas Army' was developed by the US military to both train, indoctrinate, and research the young minds they need. Free on line. Very popular.

Webb had the drop on them for using cocaine money and he had the drop on their NEW SCAM-USING THE DRUG OF VIDEO GAMES TO EXPLORE AND BEND MINDS. (Of course, that's what TV has been doing for over 50 years.)

Read it and weep for both our kids and their victims:

>snip<

If, like the U.S. Army, you need people who can become unflappable killers, there’s no better way of finding them. It’s why the Army has spent more than $10 million in taxpayer funds developing its very own first-person shooter, and why the Navy, the Air Force and the National Guard are following suit.

>snip<

“I have to laugh when someone says, ‘Oh, the people playing these games know it’s not real,’” said Dr. Peter Vorberer, a clinical psychologist and head of the University of Southern California’s computer game research group. “Of course they think it’s real! That’s why people play them for hours and hours. They’re designed to make you believe it’s real. Games are probably the purest example yet of the Internet melding with reality.”

>snip<

Stanford University psychology professor B.J. Fogg isn’t surprised to see such dedication to a computer game.

“Video games, better than anything else in our culture, deliver rewards to people, especially teenage boys," said Fogg, who studies the effects of computer games. “Teenage boys are wired to seek competency. To master our world and get better at stuff. Video games, in dishing out rewards, can convey to people that their competency is growing, you can get better at something second by second."

>snip<

As the number of people playing Counter-Strike soared into the millions, the U.S. Army could only watch wistfully. For years, Army recruiters had diligently pursued the very same demographic-- middle-class teenage males--with dwindling success.

In late 1999, after missing their recruiting goals that year, Army officials got together with the civilian directors of a Navy think tank at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey to discuss ways of luring computer gamers into the military.

Combat gamers not only happened to target the right age for the Army’s purposes but, more importantly, possessed exactly the kind of information-processing skills the Army needed: the ability to think quickly under fire.

“Our military information tends to arrive in a flood ... and it’ll arrive in a flood under stressful conditions, and there’ll be a hell of a lot of noise,” said Col. Casey Wardynski, a military economist who came up with the idea for an official Army computer game. “How do you filter that? What are your tools? What is your facility in doing that? What is your level of comfort? How much load can you bear? Kids who are comfortable with that are going to be real comfortable ... with the Army of the future.”

From an Army report: “Aptitudes related to information handling and information culture values are seen as vital to the effectiveness of the high-tech, network-centric Army of the future, and young American gamers are seen as especially proficient in these capabilities. More importantly, when young Americans enter the Army, they increasingly will find that key information will be conveyed via computer video displays akin to the graphical interfaces found in games.”

With the vast funding of the U.S. government behind them, the Army/Navy team began developing a game that hopefully would turn some of its players into real soldiers. “The overall mission statement ... was to develop a game with appeal similar to the game Counter-Strike,” wrote Michael Zyda, the director of the Navy think tank. “We took Counter-Strike as our model, but with heavy emphasis on realism and Army values and training.”

An experimental psychologist from the Navy helped tweak the game’s sound effects to produce heightened blood pressure, body temperature and heart rate. It was released in digital double surround sound, which few games are. In terms of game play, it was designed as a “tactical” shooter, slower-paced, more deliberate, but with Counter-Strike’s demanding squad tactics and communications--a “serious” game for kids who took their war gaming seriously.

After two years of development, America’s Army was released to the public on the first Fourth of July after 9/11. The gaming world gasped and then cheered. Contrary to expectations, the government-made shooter was every bit as good a $50 retail shooter and, in some ways, better. Plus, it was free--downloadable from the Internet at www.americasarmy.com . That, too, was a calculation--one the Army hoped would weed out people who didn’t know much about computers. The game and its distribution system were difficult by design, Zyda said.

“That was a very key thing. First, they would have to be smart enough to download the game off the Internet. Then, they would have to become good at , which isn’t easy. To attract those kinds of people, that was the mission. That’s what we were looking for.”

The game does a good job separating the wheat from the chaff. Before you’re allowed to join an online game, you must undergo weapons training and send your firing range scores to the Army. If you’re a lousy shot, you can’t play. Once inside the game, it gets no easier. The virtual battlefield is enormous, and your enemy is often hidden under cover of darkness. “Newbies” are quickly cut to pieces. Unlike Counter-Strike, America’s Army players aren’t allowed to be on the terrorists’ side. Your team always looks like American soldiers, and the other team always looks like terrorists (or “OPFORs” in Army lingo, meaning “opposing forces.”)

In the wake of 9/11, the public and media reaction was, in the Army’s words, “overwhelmingly positive.” Salon’s Wagner James Au, for example, gushed that the game would help “create the wartime culture that is so desperately needed now” and excitedly anticipated the day when youngsters raised on America’s Army would pick up real weapons to cleanse the globe of real terrorists. Most media accounts focused on the novelty of using a video game to help find recruits and carried jocular headlines like “Uncle Sim Wants You.”

“We thought we’d have a lot more problems,” Zyda said. “But the country is in this mood where anything the military does is great. ... 9/11 sort of assured the success of this game. I’m not sure what kind of reception it would have received otherwise.”

There are now more than 4 million registered users, more than half of whom have completed weapons training and gone online to play, making it the fourth most-played online shooter. The Army says there are 500 fan sites on the Web, and recruiters have been busy setting up local tournaments and cultivating an America’s Army “community” on the Internet, hoping to replicate the Counter-Strike phenomenon.

“With respect to recruitment, actual results won’t be known for four or five years, when the current raft of 13- and 14-year-olds will be old enough to join,” Zyda wrote.

But not everyone saw the game as a good thing. A Miami attorney named Jack
Thompson went on ABC News and threatened to seek an injunction, saying it
wasn’t the government’s job to provide kill ’em games to youngsters. He was
deluged with angry e-mail and allegedly received death threats.

“The Army and the Defense Department have a very long history of conducting
unethical, illegal experiments upon soldiers and civilians,” Thompson angrily
reminded players in a posting to the official Army Web site. “This 'game’ is yet
another experiment upon the unsuspecting pawns who play it. You are the latest
guinea pigs.”

Thompson was more right than he knew. Recruiting computer gamers was only
one of the goals behind the creation of America’s Army. The other purpose,
aptitude testing of potential recruits, has gotten virtually no publicity.

http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-10-14/cover...

Black water?

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/121304_gary_w...

Webb reminds us that the Reagan-approved contra program attracted lowlifes and thugs the way
manure draws flies. He guides the reader through a netherworld of dope-dealers, gunrunners, and
freelance security consultants, which on occasion overlapped with the U.S. government. He
entertainingly details the honor, dishonor and deals among thieves. (Sometimes the book reads
like a hard-to-follow Russian novel, with a large cast of characters in a series of intricate
episodes.) All in all, it's a disgraceful picture -- one that should permanently taint the happy-face
hues of the Reagan years.

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3...

"When you open that can of worms, as Goldstein pointed out to me, how do you
stop it? How do you stop where those worms are going to go? And pretty soon, if
you keep opening that can of worms, the American people are going to start to
be told the great big truths, that no one in Washington, neither side of the aisle,
no politician wants them to be told; that, in fact, the CIA has long trafficked in
narcotics, that there does exist a military-industrial complex, which was
specifically put together to support a right-wing political cabal and to foster this
cabal within the Republican Party, that there has been countless trillions of
dollars of public monies defrauded by a very small group of people in the
post-war era.

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=4...

investigator?

Damn. That is terrible.

We saw this in this morning's Anchorage Daily News. I don't believe it was a suicide for one second.

"When the Nicaraguan contras began to covertly fund their war against the Sandanistas by selling drugs and guns to California street gangs, the Central Intelligence Agency turned a blind eye. While black neighborhoods were being ravaged by the crack cocaine plague, CIA operatives actively participated in this devastating drug explosion, protected from prosecution by a secret agreement between the Department of Justice and the CIA. The bastards knew it was happening, and they did nothing to stop it. Once again, human rights and human life took a back seat to "national security" considerations.

Nevertheless, thanks to investigative journalists like Bob Parry and Gary Webb, the story got out."

http://www.parascope.com/mx/articles/garywebb/garyWebbS...

I wonder if he was working on something pretty big?

From the Mercury, no less. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/1...

read the whole dark alliance story when it came out inthe merc news. After having lived and work through the "crack" explosion in Detroit in the early nineties - the story was of extreme interest to me. This is very sad news.

even in this article.

"Mr. Webb was perhaps best known for sparking a national controversy with a 1996 story that contended supporters of a CIA-backed guerrilla army in Nicaragua helped trigger America's crack-cocaine epidemic in the 1980s. The ``Dark Alliance'' series in the Mercury News came under fire by other news organizations, and the paper's own investigation concluded the series did not meet its standards.

Mr. Webb resigned a year and a half after the series appeared in the paper."

Yes, the paper 'came under fire' and they might think the story wasn't up to its standards -- but by saying only that, they imply it wasn't true. The story was later confirmed. "Into the Buzzsaw" had some great essays on it.

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST WROTE CONTROVERSIAL SERIES

By Jessica Portner

Mercury News


Gary Webb, a former Mercury News investigative reporter, author and legislative staffer who ignited a firestorm with his controversial stories, died Friday in an apparent suicide in his suburban Sacramento home. He was 49.

The Sacramento County coroner's office said that when A Better Moving Company arrived at Mr. Webb's Carmichael home at about 8:20 a.m. Friday, a worker discovered a note posted to the front door which read: ``Please do not enter. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance.''

Mr. Webb, an award-winning journalist, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head, Sacramento County Deputy Coroner Bill Guillot said Saturday.

Mr. Webb's friends and colleagues described him as a devoted father and a funny, dogged reporter who was passionate about investigative journalism.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/1...

... a worker discovered a note posted to the front door which read: ``Please do not enter. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance.''

If he intended to kill himself, did he make this decision shortly before the van was to arrive? Why didn't he just call the company and cancel?

Also, why the request for an ambulance? The police would be the ones to call, unless he thought he would survive. Why would anyone think they're going to survive a shot to the head?

A gunshot to the head is not a "cry for help." It is a deliberate attempt to end one's life if self-inflicted, and a cold and calculated method of ending someone's life if your intent is homicide.

I am very suspicious of all the "suicides" of those who investigate the BFEE, for they are known to follow the adage: Revenge is a dish which is best served cold. What better cold-blooded time for revenge, a time when they would arouse the least suspicion, than when a man is going through an emotionally difficult time.

After my cousin committed suicide 2 years ago, I did some online research into it. Someone said she had gotten imformation from a website. During the process of my search, I saw on several sites the recommendation that you do just what he did. Put a note on the door indicating that 911 needs to be called to spare any innocent parties from being traumatized by what they will find inside.

Last year I believe, there was a story about two young women who had taken their lives at a hotel and they had done the same thing.

Suicidal courtesy and all..... how sad.

People who are suicidal, if they aren't entirely non compos mentis, are sometimes quite courteous of those who might stumble upon the scene. I know of a woman who rented a hotel room, went into the bathtub and pulled the bedspread over herself before putting a bullet in her head. She made sure not only that no one (hopefully) but the police would see her "remains," but that the cleanup would be easy. Very sad when you think of someone who is so polite putting an end to their life.

My puzzlement stems from the request to call an ambulance, rather than the police. We ask for an ambulance if we are in extremis and want to live.

edit for clarity

The Mercury bailed on Gary Webb.

They folded to the power of the subservient press -- L.A. Times, N.Y. Times and Wash. Post. The major media was so fucking afraid of reagan that they bent over backwards to screw Webb in order to save their access to reagan.

They didn't mention THAT in their lukewarm, lying little screed about Mr. Webb...



bush


and the mendacious maggots of the mass media

Is GHWB really the invisible man? No one ever gives him credit where its due. Ronald Reagan was a doddering old victim of Bush, he had no leadership say in what went down after Hinckley. Reagan wasnt a drug/pharmaceutical energy overlord, just an actor, a B movie chimp exploiter. Funny how life turned that around on him.

Gary Webb, 49, former MN reporter, author

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST WROTE CONTROVERSIAL SERIES

By Jessica Portner

Mercury News


Gary Webb, a former Mercury News investigative reporter, author and legislative staffer who ignited a firestorm with his controversial stories, died Friday in an apparent suicide in his suburban Sacramento home. He was 49.

The Sacramento County coroner's office said that when A Better Moving Company arrived at Mr. Webb's Carmichael home at about 8:20 a.m. Friday, a worker discovered a note posted to the front door which read: ``Please do not enter. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance.''

Mr. Webb, an award-winning journalist, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head, Sacramento County Deputy Coroner Bill Guillot said Saturday.

Mr. Webb's friends and colleagues described him as a devoted father and a funny, dogged reporter who was passionate about investigative journalism.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/1...

.

I know of Pearle but who else has been killed or allegedly committed suicide?

Seems journalists who oppose the BFEE end up in a bad way. Gary Webb "shot himself in the head" Friday morning, according to the police. His own "colleagues" didn't even see fit to put his suspicious death on page A-1. The cowards.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/1...


What Webb did to hurt the BFEE's feelings is he tied the CIA's Iran-Contra gang to the crack cocaine epidemic in America's major metropolitan areas. To the Bush gang, telling the truth made Webb an enemy.

http://www.parascope.com/mx/articles/garywebb/garyWebbS...


Here are a few others who actually had the guts to investigate the Bush Family Evil Empire:

Daniel “Danny” Casolaro — Researched BCCI and the Inslaw/PROMIS Affair, found that George HW Bush had ties going around the world and back through Iran-Contra, Iraq-gate, the October Surprise, Watergate, Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs and Dallas. A “suicide.”

http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/91/6/octopus.asp


Abbie Hoffman — Yippie of the 60s turned into an investigative reporter in the 80s, researched and wrote about “October Surprise” allegations involving George HW Bush, Bill Casey and Robert Gates doing a deal with the Ayatollah Khomeini to delay the release of the hostages in 1980. The pretty good overview appeared in Playboy in 1992. A “suicide.”

http://www.democracyunbound.com/playboy1088.html


Steve Kangas — Researcher and writer who started “Liberal Resurgent” web site dedicated to naming names like Richard Mellon Scaife and telling the truth about what was happening to America. Wrote the seminal “The Origins of the Overclass” which detailed the role of the CIA in preserving the privileged positions of the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations. A “suicide.”

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html


Jim Hatifield — Researcher and writer who penned “Fortunate Son,” an unauthorized biography of George W Bush that included allegations of cocaine use, planted by Karl Rove, who knew that Hatfield, an ex-con would be discredited. The last thing Hatfield wrote “Why Would Osama Want to Kill His Ex-Business Partner?” that detailed bin Laden threatening to crash a plane loaded with explosives into the G-8 summit in Genoa Italy in July 2001. Bush slept offshore aboard a US warship and the meeting was guarded by SAMs. A “suicide.”

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Hatfield-R...


Mark Lombardi— Artist and researcher who developed “Global Networks” or “Social Network Diagrams” which illustrated and chronicled the relationships between many of our day’s shadiest characters, institutions and treasons. One of his works graphically charted Osama bin Laden, Sheik Salim bin Laden, James R Bath, Texas Gov George W Bush and HARKEN Energy. A “suicide.”

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2 ...

There are many more examples of brave journalists who’ve investigated the Octopus and turned up “suicided.” As time permits, I'll add them to the GD thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

nfm

A hearty welcome to DU! The more who know what's going on, the better!



Besides, they can't kill all of us; although they do seem to be trying.

Hi, Octafish -

You pulled together a great short list very quickly. Can you post a Top Ten articles on the Crimes of Bush & Co.?

Thanks for sharing your research!

- Mark

Thanks, Mark. Here's a post from a few weeks back. There are a lot of responses and links galore:

Know your BFEE: A Crime Line of Treason

Some DUers don't believe there's a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy or even a Bush Family Evil Empire.

Hey, I'm a Democrat and respect other's opinions and views.

But I do believe in the VRWC and BFEE, perhaps more accurately termed the Bush Transnational Criminal Enterprise. Here's why:

Bush Crime Line

• Vietnam
• Bay of Pigs
• Chile
• Watergate
• October Surprise
• El Salvador
• Reagan Survives Hinckley and Bush
• NAZI Ethnics for Reagan-Bush
• Voodoo Economics
• INSLAW/Promis
• Haiti
• Iraq-gate / Banca Nazionale del Lavoro arms to Saddam
• BCCI International Money Laundering for Terrorists & Intelligence Community arming Dr AQ Khan
• Savings & Loan scandal in general and Silverado in particular
• Iran-contra Guns/Drugs/Martial Law
• Gulf War I Glaspie Gives Go-Ahead
• Selection 2000 Shreds US Constitution
• Tax Cuts for UltraRich
• Criminal Justice Department
• Suicidal Environmental Policy
• ENRON Energy Policy
• 9-11 Criminal Negligence, at best; Treason, most likely
• Illegal Iraq Invasion
• Paperless Selection 2004

It’s interesting in reviewing the above list, just how much ultra-right, conservative Republican leadership has really been. More than a listing of criminality, the list demonstrates there have been many treasonous activites against “We the People” through “business opportunities” in the finance, energy, and defense industries.

There is one FAMILY name that runs through all the history, the four decades since the JFK administration. Since the very hour of President Kennedy’s death, and through the list of sinister events and unrelenting criminality noted above — a record of infamy stretching back 41 years today — appears the name George Herbert Walker Bush, a tradition continued by his son, George Walker Bush, beard of the BFEE.

CONTINUED...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...



Gulag? What Gulag?

LOL


Btw, for those reading this stuff for the first time it's only FREE only in the sense that those brave enough to read it and to understand is really going on you will never be able to look at the US government with the same grandiose illusions

<<snip>>

Although many people think that the CIA’s primary mission during the Cold War was to "deter communism," Noam Chomksy correctly points out that its real mission was "deterring democracy." From corrupting elections to overthrowing democratic governments, from assassinating elected leaders to installing murderous dictators, the CIA has virtually always replaced democracy with dictatorship. It didn’t help that the CIA was run by businessmen, whose hostility towards democracy is legendary. The reason they overthrew so many democracies is because the people usually voted for policies that multi-national corporations didn't like: land reform, strong labor unions, nationalization of their industries, and greater regulation protecting workers, consumers and the environment.

So the CIA’s greatest "successes" were usually more pro-corporate than anti-communist. Citing a communist threat, the CIA helped overthrow the democratically elected Mohammed Mussadegh government in Iran in 1953. But there was no communist threat — the Soviets stood back and watched the coup from afar. What really happened was that Mussadegh threatened to nationalize British and American oil companies in Iran. Consequently, the CIA and MI6 toppled Mussadegh and replaced him with a puppet government, headed by the Shah of Iran and his murderous secret police, SAVAK. The reason why the Ayatollah Khomeini and his revolutionaries took 52 Americans hostage in Tehran in 1979 was because the CIA had helped SAVAK torture and murder their people.
<<end>>

The biggest lie in America today is that the right stands for freedom.

Thanks to Dulles, Harriman and Bush, the CIA stands for "Capitalism's Invisible Army."

LIBERALISM RESURGENT:
A Response to the Right

© Copyright by Steve Kangas, editor.

This is a memorial mirror site of Steve Kangas' fine web page.
It is as it was when he met death, February 8, 1999.
Rest in peace Steve, your truth lives on.

http://home.att.net/~Resurgence/tenets.htm

in his sites? I do.

Ahnuld just announced possible 'special' elections to redistrict this state.

California is being acquired in the classic CIA way:

1) economic destablization (through Enron's energy scams)
2) topple a democratically-elected leader(Dem Gov. Gray Davis)
3) install a corporate-friendly strong-man (with a Nazi heritage)

The Gropenfuhrer met with Ken Lay back in May 2001 while the black-outs were shaking California up.

If I were Webb, I'd be working to expose Ahnuld.

To twist the knife, Lou Ferigno's boyfriend married a Kennedy.

BTW: Brilliant analysis, on all counts. And your thoughts regarding Webb, IMO, are spot-on. The guy lived in Sack-ch-ra-ment-o.

nothing has changed...

Tha was the short list, any from the Lewinski/Clinton years who all of a sudden "can't live with themselves...'?

Or folks in the regimes good graces. Once again they all seem to favor or in this case unfavor Bush and pals.

Why can't people wake up and smell the shit in Washington? It makes me soooo sick!

BBC articles show he was an ardent Kerry supporter. Might mean nothing or something... I wish I could dig more, but am off to the protest! news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3965163.stm

I could be. I undertand the mindset of Terrorists better now.

now go to sleep

sure have been a lot more of these since bushco came to town.

Do you believe SJMN or the Bee?

was that a trick question?

The Bee's obituary is much better written than the SJMN story, imho.

over two years ago:

http://www.will.uiuc.edu/am/mediamatters /

(scroll down to the May 26, 2002 show)

This is very sad news. There are so few investigative journalists of his caliber.

Check out the link above.

why is it that investigative journalists are all suicidal?

highly motivated and passionate people.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1888363932/qid=1...

How did this happen to Gary webb? A prize winning reporter,a middle of the road news reporter from a conservative stable backround suddenly becomes the pariah of the press? I read this book with great trepidition,seeing the JFK conspiracy folks running around ...well, i was surprised, shocked,horrified.Perhaps i shouldnt have been...Mr Webb ahs laid out, simply, forcibly a case so damning that most simply wont look.The case he sets forth is so damning infact, that if true, and I think it is, then we need to overhaul our entire system. The absurd "war on drugs'is shattered by Mr Webb in the first 100 pages. 3 administrations,and countless pols either ignored or knew what was happening. Oliver North comes off none too well, though he is an easy target, and not even close to one of the important folks here. This is a searing piece of journalism,and one wonders why My Webb has been consigned to the far left by the celebrated organs of media, THe NY TIMES, THE WASHINGTO POST and The LA TIMES?. When these 3 folks stand up to criticise at once, well, i smell soemthing...where is the uproar from the 'mainstream press' ?After all, I thought the war on drugs was a family values issue. One of the most disturbing books I have ever read.

Wait a minute. "Wounds"??? Plural? He shot himself more than once????

Am I wrong in thinking the obituary lacks good information?

but if it doesn't do that, then we're looking at murder, in my opinion.

Haele

They scatter and all.... but up close?

in the head??? Now that is some death wish not to mention kinda difficult.

A moving company?
People who are moving are looking forward,
not for the end.
BFEE.
bhn

if he was working on any new investigating piece?

n/t

Nothing to see here. Stop w/ the conspiracy theories and just watch the news-they are always right.

If the Liberal media sez its a suicide, then its a suicide, CASE CLOSED.

those bloody bastards.

RIP, Gary Webb.

Why would he kill himself? The story's too vague...and I've heard about other journalists "comitting suicide" in the past few days (that guy who was talking to Clinton Curtis before he released the affidavit on vote rigging software)...

My tolerance for burden of proof waits is about up...I think this guy was assassinated for his anti-Bushism.

Not something suicidal people are up for.
You're right- he was killed.
BFEE.
BHN

last few days?

the lives of people like this man's will be mocked. He held a light for us to enable us to recognize what kind of people were running the show.

HOW DARE THE PRESS TO DROP THE BALL.

From a speech he gave in Eugene, Oregon at a Methodist Church:

Many years ago, there was a great series on PBS -- I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember this -- it was called Connections. And it was by a British historian named James Burke. If you don't remember it, it was a marvelous show, very influential on me. And he would take a seemingly inconsequential event in history, and follow it through the ages to see what it spawned as a result. The one show I remember the most clearly was the one he did on how the scarcity of firewood in thirteenth-century Europe led to the development of the steam engine. And you would think, "Well, these things aren't connected at all," and he would show very convincingly that they were.

In the first chapter of the book on which the series is based, Burke wrote that "History is not, as we are so often led to believe, a matter of great men and lonely geniuses pointing the way to the future from their ivory towers. At some point, every member of society is involved in that process by which innovation and change come about. The key to why things change is the key to everything."

What I've attempted to demonstrate in my book was how the collapse of a brutal, pro-American dictatorship in Latin America, combined with a decision by corrupt CIA agents to raise money for a resistance movement by any means necessary, led to he formation of the nation's first major crack market in South Central Los Angeles, which led to the arming and the empowerment of LA's street gangs, which led to the spread of crack to black neighborhoods across the country, and to the passage of racially discriminatory sentencing laws that are locking up thousands of young black men today behind bars for most of their lives.

But it's not so much a conspiracy as a chain reaction. And that's what my whole book is about, this chain reaction. So let me explain the links in this chain a little better.
(snip/....)

http://www.parascope.com/mx/articles/garywebb/garyWebbS...



When they kill, and I completely believe they did, people who are actually trying to do good in the world, and this man was, it's NOT the time to roll over and play dead, and let them win. I'll be praying for one individual man or woman to pick up the gauntlet.

Our current journalists may live to be old, prosperous, comfortable, and die peacefully in their sleep by taking the path of least resistance, but they will have dishonored their profession in looking the other way consistantly. They have forgotten there once was a purpose, an actual FIRE in journalism.

They don't want to be next.

Such an obvious not-suicide was clearly meant as a warning to others.

day stenographers and media whores. I've been reading Dark Alliance for the last few weeks. I recommend it to all.

Consider that many politicians and journalists are successfully terrorized.

They have learned not to point fingers while swimming with sharks because they may lose their arm for the effort.

Silencing the messenger works.

The 'Beltway Sniper' took out an FBI cyber-security specialist named Linda Franklin. She was most likely the reason for the murders with the extra psy-ops of terrorizing DC and the whole country.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ned=us&q=sniper+lind...

We need to start exposing these murders for what they are.

We must not allow any more good, decent, gutsy people to die in vain.

I'm sorry and pissed that is that way, but you and I know damn well that'll be the one and only answer to your quest for truth from any so called mainstream media outlet.

Face it America, you have no journalism, only news.

"If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me. The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress."

R.I.P.

In seventeen years of doing this, nothing bad had happened to me. I was never fired or threatened with dismissal if I kept looking under rocks. I didn't get any death threats that worried me. I was winning awards, getting raises, lecturing college classes, appearing on TV shows, and judging journalism contests. So how could I possibly agree with people like Noam Chomsky and Ben Bagdikian, who were claiming the system didn't work, that it was steered by powerful special interests and corporations, and existed to protect the power elite? Hell, the system worked just fine, as I could tell. It encouraged enterprise. It rewarded muckracking.

And then I wrote some stories that made me realise how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. The reason I'd enjoyed such smooth sailing for so long hadn't been, as I'd assumed, because I was careful and diligent and good at my job. It turned out to have nothing to do with it. The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/Edwards_Watchdo...

Rest in Peace Mr. Webb.

you get very afraid of thinking about it.His book exposed some facts that were brushed over by the media hackys lacks so quickly you know silence was paid for.
To not be worried and very mad about this is very un American.
Kick this into the headlines !

marine. Very sad. What are we becoming in this country?

In the UK they are talking about the phony suicide of Blair's WMD critic David Kelly:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

In the Ukraine there is a similar story about an anti-Russian candidate being poisoned with dioxin:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,69...

And in Palestine, there is increasing evidence that Arafat's death was not due to natural causes as the MSM would have us believe:

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_ea...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/J...

'suicides'
'accidental shootings'
'car accidents on deserted roads'
'cardiac arrest'
'small plane crashes'
'toxic poisonings'

and the list goes on

http://fromthewilderness.com /

yikes

Confronted the CIA at a hearing in LA some years ago. Ruppert is in danger, IMO.

Blessed are the peacemakers and truthtellers.

How many more?

I'm so sorry to lose you, one more light, extinguished in the "1000 points of light" program instituted by GW1.

What is this "drug investigation" business?

hearing in L.A. One of the central charactes involved was a drug dealer named Freeway Ricky something or other who was supposedly set up by the CIA to deal crack cocaine ( a new phenom at the time) and profits supposedly went to finance the Contras (if I remember correctly).

"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_Watchdo...

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.

I use to do home visits in Miami's poorest neighborhoods during that time. In the early 80's pot was cheap and plentiful. They would bring it in on freighters and smaller boats would run out to pick up loads. Then Reagan went after the mother ships.

At the same time people started turning expensive cocaine into cheap crack and the world changed. Crack took the place of pot and everyone went crazy. We could no longer visit many areas without a guard. The effects on the people in the ghettos was devastating.

Cocaine was everywhere. The Latino Boys would be selling for their Uncles or Dad or family members It was crazy. All the young males looked up to Tony Montana from scare face as a role model, It was a crazy time. Many of the boys I knew ended up in jail as adults.

Meanwhile the Blitzers, Isikoffs, Rahters, Dowds and Tweetys will sweep this under the rug!

I worked with Gary at his last job, a free weekly in Sacramento. Here's his author archive (recent work) for that paper: http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/authors/garywebb... . If you read his obit, you'll note that he recently had gone through a divorce, and that he was waiting for the moving company to pick up his stuff. That's because he was forced to sell and vacate the house where he had lived with his ex-wife and three kids. For some people, that would be a very traumatic experience.

Sometimes a suicide is just a tragedy, and it doesn't involve anyone connected to the deaths of Danny Casolaro, James Hatfield or anyone else on the Bush death list. Please let the man rest in peace.

this was a "hit". Suicidal people dont pack up and move.

"Suicidal people don't pack up and move"?

How do you know? Perhaps somewhere in the process of moving out of the house that Gary shared with his wife and three children, it became intolerably painful for him. There's no way of knowing what was going through his head at the time preceding his death--not to you, not to me, not to anyone else here.

Yes, perhaps it was a "hit," as you put it. Perhaps a Hummerload of Arnold's pals pulled up at Gary's house and took him out. But the possibility of that scenario, or one similar to it, is probably quite slim. Sometimes a suicide is just a suicide.

Like I said, I worked with him; I left that job two weeks ago, after nearly five years there. As Gary only started working there in late summer, I didn't know him well; I'm not sure anyone on our editorial staff did, as he was a very private person who preferred to work from home. But my interactions with him were invariably pleasant and positive, and most everyone at the paper is completely broken up about what happened.

Of course, you're certainly welcome to entertain any theories that run contrary to what I just posted. But that doesn't make them fact-based. Please understand the difference.

I agree sometimes a suicide is a suicide. But given the current climate and the fact that he was a controversial investigative reporter, you can see why many find his suicide suspect.
Do you know if he was he working on any news stories at the time?

AFAIK, what he was working on were local and/or California-related stories. He'd left writing for a while and had a job in the California State Capitol, which ended when Gray Davis got replaced by the current incumbent last year. He got a job at the local weekly this year, and wrote two cover stories--one on the first-person-shooter computer game "America's Army," and the other on how Sacramento County is now using red-light cameras as a revenue stream, and the county Sheriff's connection to the Lockheed Martin subsidiary that sells and maintains the cameras. You can read those stories, and the shorter pieces he'd written, at the weblink I posted above.

It's my understanding that Webb had taken some time off to deal with moving out of the house where he'd lived with his wife and kids until their marriage came apart, and I'm not sure what he was working on at the time of his death.

I understand why people jump to conclusions whenever an investigative journalist is found dead, particularly if that journalist has written pieces critical of the regime holding power. These are strange times, and other actions of the current regime, and the profoundly anti-democratic attitudes toward the public that it presents, certainly serve to inflame those suspicions. But sometimes there are other forces in play, which are utterly mundane. Please consider them, and let this man rest in peace.

to agree with you .... and i don't 'trust' anyone-

but i know as a 'failed suicide' survivor, divorce, loosing your job, your kids, and seeing the way this world is headed, i can't blame him-

and i know he's in far more peace where he is than where we are- regardless of how he got there-

The letter on the door was a good example of the kind of man he was- one who wouldn't want his ex, or friends, or people un-trained to walk into find what they did.... a person who couldn't stop feeling......

boy can i relate- especially these days-

...and "discredited" at the national level. Why go after Webb when someone like Robert Parry is still on the beat?

Even so, I have little trouble blaming the BFFE: they'd wrecked his career after Dark Alliance, and not everyone can pick up the pieces and start over.

Gary Webb, RIP

They never let him out of their sight, I am sure, and knew what was going on in his private life.

with memories that never forget, you should study up on it. This ugly shadow also has multifaceted reasoning, and one should not also expect they were watching him all along. For all we know he could have been getting close to a breaking or finding out something very important. This is just another suspicious (so-called) sucicide that could never have made any sense.

INVESTIGATION OF THE VIOLENT CRIME EXEMPLAR

Any investigation into the world of violent crime, such as homicide, suicide, and sex offenses, carries with it some standard procedures of analysis and reconstruction which we'll discuss here in the context of fairly typical and uncomplicated (exemplar or unequivocal) crime scenes. There are a few similarities as well as differences with the crime of arson (sometimes treated a violent crime), but the homicide exemplar is so typical of the investigative process as a whole that it's often the only corpus delecti a student needs to know in learning how to investigate (Axelrod & Antinozzi 2003). Many of the skills involved in conducting a homicide investigation carry over into other crimes, not all, but many. Homicide is therefore considered an exemplar, or good example, to use in the teaching of criminal investigation.

A few caveats are in order before we begin. First of all, just because you find a body at the crime scene doesn't mean you should launch a homicide investigation. Homicide is only the sixth leading cause of death in America. The following table illustrates the odds for average Americans:

Cause of Death Odds of Occurrence
Homicide 1 in 1.3
1 in 3 Disease
1 in 5 Heart Attack
1 in 42 Cancer
1 in 81 Automobile Accident
1 in 84 Suicide

There are times when a preliminary walk-through will tell you that the death is by natural or accidental causes (the top four causes of death), but as a general rule, you should treat all apparent suicides as homicides at first. With suicides, you may or may not find a note left behind for loved ones, but if you do, you should treat it as a questioned document. A suicide can, of course, also be accidental or intentional. The most common accidental ones involve misuse of firearms and drugs. The most common intentional ones involve hanging and jumping (although sexual asphyxiation is usually classified as accidental). The special case of drowning is equally likely to be either accidental or intentional. The following table lists the most frequent order of occurrence for intentional suicides along with a rank order of the most damaging life stressors:

Intentional Suicides
1. Hanging
2. Jumping
3. Carbon monoxide
4. Poisons
5. Slashing wrists
6. Firearms
7. Drug overdose
8. Drowning

Most Serious Stressors
1. Death of spouse
2. Divorce
3. Marital difficulties
4. Trouble with the law
5. Death of friend or family
6. Serious illness or disease
7. Fired at work
8. Retirement

With homicides, a good rule to follow is make the arrest within 72 hours or the chances of ever making it plummet (Morn 2000). Another caveat is that it is not absolutely necessary to have a body to launch a homicide investigation. Missing persons situations are somewhat special, and you should refer to your department's policies on that, but in most cases when you suspect a homicide, it probably is a homicide, and when you suspect an abduction, it probably is an abduction. If you can't find the body, it's most likely buried or underwater somewhere, unless you're dealing with kidnapping, serial killing, or sexual cannibalism (O'Connor 2001). Remember that insects and animals will eat up about 60% of the corpse within a week, and unless they are weighted down or stuck on an underwater eddy obstruction, sunken bodies usually become "floaters" by the end of a week.
(snip)
http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/315/315lect10.htm

on edit: Them stats on cause of death are probably bogus (depending on where you live of course). But some of the reasoning on how to investigate seem sound and make sense

no income? Can't collect insurance for suicide...

Yeah, that sure is some caring father...

So what's your theory? That investigative reporters are too delicate for the normal problems of life? That they're the types that just give up when the going gets rough? Is that your theory?

Or, put so much more reasonably, that personal failure is simply the straw that breaks the camel's back?

Over and over and over again?

Granted, there is a possibility that somebody else whacked him. I'm not privy to the particulars of what is in the police report. But from what I can gather by talking with my former colleagues, the simplest explanation is most likely the best one, and that is that Webb killed himself because of overwhelming personal problems. I may be wrong. If you are so convinced that he was whacked by the Bush Family Evil Empire, please feel free to come to Sacramento and investigate the matter yourself, or pony up the money to pay for an independent investigation.

Just like hundreds of internet forum (not specifically this forum) members that have nothing to do but obstruct an otherwise educational discussion about events ongoing in American government* at all levels, in order to push the Republican lexicon upon other forum members and in order to alter their very perception of reality in order to dissuade them from complaining about and reacting to absolutely awful governance.

*This is an example of the subject matter that my comment applies to, and there are numerous other subjects that fall into the same category when they intersect with the American government, such as big business and international affairs.

I'm very sorry for those who knew and loved him, no matter what the cause of his death.

Yes, in the current climate, the immediate suspicion is that someone with his history could have been killed by the Bush machine.

It would make more sense if he had been killed during the era in which he was reporting the Frog Men cocaine imports, courtesy of Ollie North.

Instead, the powers that be were able to destroy his (and others credibility), while men like Ollie North and Otto Reich, and on and on make millions.

No doubt the inequity of such situations are stressful. But a divorce and the financial hardships that can entail are equally, if not more, stressful.

For whatever reason he's now gone, I'm grateful for the work that he did and I'm sorry he had such troubles.

is a pretty good indication the preliminary assessment may in fact be right.

No kills his/herself by shooting them self in the hand...what a load of crock.

Courageous defender of liberalism ...
Challenger of Richard Scaife ...

MURDERED in Scaife's building by a RIGHT WING assassin (and then his death ruled a "suicide").

They are using real bullets people, and it's a real war.

http://www.psnw.com/~bashford/kang-ev0.html

They are Fascists out for Total Control & they Kill anyone that truly gets in their way.

Death of a patriot:
March 17, 2004

The subject line on yesterday’s email read: “Another mysterious accident solves a Bush problem. Athan Gibbs dead, Diebold lives.” The attached news story briefly described the untimely Friday, March 12th death of perhaps America’s most influential advocate of a verified voting paper trail in the era of touch screen computer voting. Gibbs, an accountant for more than 30 years and the inventor of the TruVote system, died when his vehicle collided with an 18-wheeled truck which rolled his Chevy Blazer several times and forced it over the highway retaining wall where it came to rest on its roof.

Gibbs’ TruVote machine is a marvel. After voters touch the screen, a paper ballot prints out under plexiglass and once the voter compares it to his actual vote and approves it, the ballot drops into a lockbox and is issued a numbered receipt. The voter’s receipt allows the track his particular vote to make sure that it was transferred from the polling place to the election tabulation center.

Gibbs’ death bears heightened scrutiny because of the way he lived his life after the 2000 Florida election debacle. I interviewed Athan Gibbs in January of this year. “I’ve been an accountant, an auditor, for more than thirty years. Electronic voting machines that don’t supply a paper trail go against every principle of accounting and auditing that’s being taught in American business schools,” he insisted.

more http://civilliberty.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?si...

that is fucked... especially that list Octafish posted... wow.

Welcome to DU Octafish is one of the most informed posters here imo

America is in Deep Shit deeper than any previous time in its history
since the MSM is in lock step with these bastards.

Whether accident or murder, Athan Gibbs was a most important voice silenced:

Gibbs was in Columbus, Ohio proudly displaying his TruVote machine that offered a “VVPAT, that’s a voter verified paper audit trail” he noted.

Gibbs also suggested that I look into the “people behind the other machines.” He offered that “Diebold and ES&S are real interesting and all Republicans. If you’re an investigative reporter go ahead and investigate. You’ll find some interesting material.”

http://civilliberty.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?si...

should form an organization that keeps an eye on one another. That makes sure if one of their collegues is "suicided" then the rest can swoop in with information contrary to the story that the global corporatists will want believed. Or even if one of their collegues is feeling "suicidal" they can swoop in and help them get through things.

I think that it is very important to figure out HOW these "suicides" happen and HOW these small planes go down in balls of fire. What are the methods used?

http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/25/contra /

depression and depression sometimes leads to suicide. It should be investigated, of course, but please let's not prejudge the outcome with uninformed notions about who will or will not commit suicide.

Gary Webb knows that he was persistent, tough as nails and that he was a very stable person....I believe his family would have known and he wouldn't have done it in this manner...this doesn't smell right...I think there should be a thorough investigation...

In any other setting, aside from government, you would never accept this many coincidences.

All you wimpy moderates are going to get us killed someday.

Ain't it the truth.

Let's not jump to conclusions...don't be paranoid...this isn't fascism...they're not THAT evil...it's just coincidence....

How much will take for some people to wake the fuck up?

Well, let's not wait to find out. Let them enjoy their sleep. By the time they open their eyes, it'll probably be too late to make a difference.

Like Leonard Cohen says, "There's a war between the ones who say there is a war, and the ones who say there isn't."

Well, there is a war, and we're the only side taking casualties.

Got a link? And who are the other three? Since when does asking that people stick to the facts make one a "wimpy moderate"? Believe it or not, you can turn just about anybody into a serial killer based on "coincidences." Ever hear of the Clinton Chronicles? Just because it is liberals doing it this time doesn't make those of us who want to rely on facts and not emotions "wimpy moderates."

A neighbor of mine upset a tractor on himself and got killed. Cleverly I arranged to be at home with my brothers when it happened so I had an alibi. Someone took a pot shot at our state senator but I was ok because I was in school at the time so no one suspected me. A classmate of mine tried to commit suicide by drinking Draino. No one suspected me even though it was well known that I was familiar with the caustic properties of Draino. Another classmate died when the car he was riding in hit a bridge abutment. I was away at college so no one suspected my involvement even though there was no explanation as to why the car went off the road on a dry straight stretch of pavement in the daytime. A schoolbus I was riding on when I was 16 mysteriously lost its brakes going down a mountain. It was a miracle that no one was killed but fortunately no one ever asked my why I was sitting in the back of the bus when some kid I had had a fight with was sitting near the front of the bus. And it was well known that I did not get along with the bus driver. My brother's car mysteriously drove off a mountain pass in Colorado. He survived but again, no one suspected me even though the road was dry and straight. My mother's cousin blew his brains out with a 12 gauge shotgun. Another kid I knew blew off the back of his brother's head with a 12 gauge shotgun. I owned a 12 gauge but no one suspected me in either case. My sister-in-law committed suicide. No one suspected my involvement because this time I managed to be on the opposite coast. It's a good thing I am not President because then someone might notice all of these "coincidences" and figure out that I have been killing people or trying to kill people right and left all of my life.

You attempt to demean the thought processes of those who are willing to think about possible explanations for apparently interconnected events. For being willing to look beyond the placebo "news" that is supposed to lull us all to sleep as our democracy and freedom are stolen from us by thugs and criminals.

Guess I'm sensitive because I'm a college-educated researcher and professor sick and tired of being painted a "conspiracy theorist" because my analyses of current events cause me to suspect that there IS a conspiracy. Not the first conspiracy in the history of politics, I can assure you!

You try to show how crazy folks are by giving an example. In fact, your "example" does the exact opposite of what people here have done: you try to construct wild explanations in order to connect obviously disconnected events.

Connections from Insignificant You to friend x, friend y, acquaintance z - or from Clinton to death1, death2, death3 is a far different matter from INVESTIGATION of Shrubco (CIA = GHWB) to suicideX, suicideY, suicideZ and counting!

I don't have an opinion about Webb's death, suicide or murder...I don't think I know enough to decide. But neither do you. So, if people have a theory they wish to explore, what's it to you?