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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Fri Oct 10, 2014, 09:08 AM Oct 2014

The Sordid Contra-Cocaine Saga

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Sordid-Contra-Cocaine-by-Robert-Parry-CIA_Gary-Webb_Iran-Contra-Scandal_LIES-141009-41.html

The Sordid Contra-Cocaine Saga
By Robert Parry
OpEdNews Op Eds 10/9/2014 at 19:35:45

The movie, "Kill the Messenger," is forcing the mainstream U.S. media to confront one of its most shameful episodes, the suppression of a major national security scandal implicating Ronald Reagan's CIA in aiding and abetting cocaine trafficking by the Nicaraguan Contra rebels in the 1980s and then the systematic destruction of journalist Gary Webb when he revived the scandal in the 1990s.

Hollywood's treatment of this sordid affair will likely draw another defensive or dismissive response from some of the big news outlets that still don't want to face up to their disgraceful behavior. The New York Times and other major newspapers mocked the Contra-cocaine scandal when Brian Barger and I first exposed it in 1985 for the Associated Press and then savaged Webb in 1996 when he traced some of the Contra-cocaine into the manufacture of crack which ravaged American cities.

So, when you're watching this movie or responding to questions from friends about whether they should believe its storyline, you might want to know what is or is not fact. What is remarkable about this tale is that so much of it now has been established by official government documents. In other words, you don't have to believe me and my dozens of sources; you can turn to the admissions by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general or to evidence in the National Archives.

For instance, last year at the National Archives annex in College Park, Maryland, I discovered a "secret" U.S. law enforcement report that detailed how top Contra leader Adolfo Calero was casually associating with Norwin Meneses, described as "a well-reputed drug dealer."
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The Sordid Contra-Cocaine Saga (Original Post) unhappycamper Oct 2014 OP
His CIA cronies didn't nickname him 'Poppy' Bush for nothing. blm Oct 2014 #1
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