Will Gary Webb's Death bring a renewed interest in the CIA/Crack Story?

[NAO]

I wonder if interest in Webb's "Dark Alliance" series will be renewed, and if the issues he reported and the connections he exposed will be investigated any further?

Or will it just go into the memory hole?

Dark Alliance Material Archived
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/webb.html

Webb wrote a fantastic article for Kristina Borjesson's "Into the Buzzsaw" which explodes the myth of a free press and explains why and how the news ignores and marginalizes stories that are too sensitive.

[intheflow]

1. If it hasn't happened yet,

I wouldn't hold my breath. Sad to say. :(

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Just another name on the long, long, long list of Bush "enemies" who

have conveniently met "unfortunate" ends. Add his name to the "tinfoil hat" conspiracy theory list that is too long to include in this space. (Matsui may even be the latest name on that list.)

[rman]

3. let's make it so

CIA involvment in narcotics trade has been establish by three congressional hearing in the 70's and 80's, one is Iran-Contra.

See and hear Kerry speak on the matter:

"We were complicit as a country, in narcotics traffic at the same time as we're spending countless dollars in this country as we try to get rid of this problem. It's mind-boggling.
I don't know if we got the worst intelligence system in the world, i don't know if we have the best and they knew it all, and just overlooked it.
But no matter how you look at it, something's wrong. Something is really wrong out there."
-- John Kerry, Iran Contra Hearings, 1987

from the documentary "Crack The C.I.A."
http://www.archive.org/download/ctc/ctc_256kb.mov (32MB, 9min)
http://mysite.verizon.net/res7dhyg/slaverevolt.html

[BrotherBuzz]

4. So, where does that leave us?

<snip>
Unfortunately, though, it was true, and what has happened since my series came out is that the CIA was forced to do an internal review. The DEA and Justice Department were forced to do internal reviews. The one thing that I’ve learned from this whole experience is, first of all, you can’t believe the government--on anything. And you especially can’t believe them when they’re talking about important stuff, like this stuff. The other thing is that the media will believe the government before they believe anything.

This has been the most amazing thing to me. You had a situation where you had another newspaper who reported this information. The major news organizations in this country went to the CIA, they went to the Justice Department, and they said, “What about it?” And they said, “Oh, no, it’s not true. Take our word for it.” And they went back and put it in the newspaper! Now, I try to imagine what would happen had reporters come back to their editors and said, “Look. I know the CIA is involved in drug trafficking. And I know the FBI knows about it, and I’ve got a confidential source that’s telling me that. Can I write a story about that?” What do you think the answer would have been? “Get back down to the obit desk. Start cranking out those sports scores.” But, if they go to the government, and the government denies something like that, they’ll put it in the paper with no corroboration whatsoever.

And it’s only since the government has admitted it that now the media is willing to consider that there might be a story here after all. The New York Times, after the CIA report that came out, ran a story on its front page saying, “Gosh, the contras were involved in drugs after all, and gosh, the CIA knew about it.”

Now, you would think--at least I would think--that something like that would warrant congressional investigation. We’re spending millions of dollars to find out how many times Bill Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinsky. Why aren’t we interested in how much the CIA knew about drug traffic? Who was profiting from this drug traffic? Who else knew about it? And why did it take some guy from a California newspaper by accident stumbling over this stuff 10 years later in order for it to be important? I mean, what the hell is going on here?
I’ve been a reporter for almost 20 years. To me, this is a natural story. The CIA is involved in drug trafficking? Let’s know about it. Let’s find out about it. Let’s do something about it. But nobody wants to touch this thing.

Another thing that came out, but was never reported, was that the CIA inspector general went before Congress in 1999 and testified that yes, they knew about it. They found some documents that indicated that they knew about it. Yeah. I was there! And this was funny to watch, because these congressmen were up there, and they were ready to hear the absolution, right? “We had no evidence that this was going on ...” And this guy sort of threw ’em a curve ball and admitted that it had happened.

So, where does that leave us? Well, I think it sort of leaves us to rely on the judgment of history. ... Because they want us to forget about it. They want us to concentrate on sex crimes, because, yeah, it’s titillating. It keeps us occupied. It keeps us diverted. Don’t let them do it. - Gary Webb

http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-12-16/feature.asp

I personally feel any chance of exposing the truth about this and other important stories died with the theft of our recent election, and that's just the way the mandate wants it....