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CRACK AND THE CONTRAS Gary Webb, San Jose Mercury News November 5, 1996 |
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Read Gary Webb's answers.
LATEST NEWS
Oct. 31, 1996:
The Washington Post digs up further evidence linking the Contras to Drug dealers in the U.S.BACKGROUND LINKS
Aug. 18, 19, 20, 1996:
Read "Dark Alliance," Gary Webb's three part series linking the proliferation of crack cocaine in America to the CIA backed Contras in Nicaragua.
Oct. 20, 21, 22, 1996:
Read The Cocaine Trail. The L.A. Times three part series following up the evidence raised in Gary Webb's articles.
November 1996:
The American Journalism Review weighs in with their view of the story.
October 12, 1996:
The San Jose Mercury News answers criticism of the "Dark Alliance" series.OTHER LINKS
Selections from the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy chaired by Senator John F. Kerry.
The Central Intelligence Agency home page.
The U.S. Department of Justice home page.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency home page.
"For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency." So begins the controversial three part series, published last August, by Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury News.
The story makes the allegation that beyond selling drugs in America in the 1980's, the U.S.-backed Contra rebels, fighting a Cuban-backed Nicaraguan regime, were largely responsible for introducing crack-cocaine into the U.S. This issue has raised interest to the point that a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has begun hearings on it.
The story has been picked up by other news organizations, notably The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. These two papers question some of Mr. Webb's sources and his findings, especially regarding the introduction of crack into America, the targetting by Contra dealers of African-American communities and the involvement of the CIA.
In his defense, Mr. Webb told The Washington Post that "this (series) doesn't prove the CIA targeted black communities. It doesn't say this was ordered by the CIA... Essentially our trail stopped at the door of the CIA."
A 1989 Senate Foreign Relations Committee report that looked into this issue also stopped just short of implicating the CIA. It stated, "There are some serious questions as to whether or not U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war effort against Nicaragua."
Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of that sub-Committee, had this to say about the recent allegations raised by Mr. Webb and others, "There is no question in my mind that people affiliated with, or on the payroll of the CIA were involved in drug trafficking while involved in support of the Contras, but it is also important to note that we never found any evidence to suggest that these traffickers ever targeted any one geographic area or population group."
The CIA is investigating the matter further as is the Justice Department. In 1988 the Deputy Director of the CIA, Robert Gates, led a three day investigation into the affair concluding that "all allegations that the CIA condoned, abetted or participated in narcotics trafficking are absolutely false."
With such differing views coming from within government, clearly some issues remain to be answered.
Our Forum asks? Was the government involved in alleged drug sales by the Contras in the U.S.? Are you satisfied that Mr. Webb's research supports his allegations of widespread Contra involvement in the American crack trade? Has the government been diligent enough in it's investigation of this issue? What should happen if proof of CIA involvement arises?
Gary Webb's answers are below.
Questions asked in this forum:
- A question about continued CIA denials.
- Would there be a better investigation with a Republican or Democratic administration?
- What about the evidence coming out of Costa Rica?
- What were your biggest obstacles in covering this story?
- Why have the major media outlets downplayed this story?
- What are the connections between this case and the airstrip at the Hull Ranch?
A question from Douglas Couvertier of FT. Lauderdale FL :
The CIA has denied the selling of drugs to anyone. What proof is there that the government actual took part in the selling of cocaine?
And if such proof exists, why aren't there any prosecutions going on?
Gary Webb responds:
The CIA has denied an accusation that was never made. What they have not denied is that men working for the CIA-run army were selling vast quantities of cocaine to American citizens and using some of the drug profits to arm and equip that army. The CIA has also not denied that the drug dealers were meeting with CIA-paid commanders during this time and getting fundraising requests from them.
A question from Daniel Berg of Grand Rapids, MI:
Do you feel their would be a better investigation with a Republican administration or Democratic one?
Gary Webb responds:
I think that both parties would be happy to blame the other for this. Historically, neither party has seemed particularly eager to delve into this can of worms.
A question from Joe Horman of Houston, Texas:
In 1989, after a Costa Rican Congressional investigation concluded that the contra resupply network in Costa Rica that Oliver North coordinated from the White House doubled as a drug smuggling operation, Nobel Prize winner, President Oscar Arias, banned North, CIA agent Joseph Fernandez, Ambassador Tambs, Admiral Poindexter, and Richard Secord from the nation. "These requests for contra help were initiated by Colonel North to General Noriega," the commission reported. "They opened a gate so their henchmen could utilize [Costa Rican] territory for trafficking in arms and drugs." (Costa Rican Tico Times, 7/28/89) Were these activities connected to the Los Angeles distribution, and if so, why did you not include the Costa Rican findings in your report?
Gary Webb responds:
The Costa Rica angle is something that we are currently investigating. The reason it was not included in the original series, aside from space, is that we did not have a chance to investigate these allegations for ourselves.
A question from Phil Wright of Concord, MA:
What were your biggest obstacles in reporting on this story? I can only imagine that dealing with such a cloak and dagger issue, ie, involving the CIA and crack dealers, you had a lot to overcome. Did you ever feel threatened?
Gary Webb responds:
The biggest obstacles were the total lack of cooperation and candor for the U.S. government. All but one of Freedom of Information Act requests were denied, often for the most absurd reasons, ie, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI didn't want to invade the privacy of these international drug lords. Not a single government official with personal knowledge these activities would agree to answer to questions. We had public records disappear from court files. We had a witness disappear from a Nicaraguan prison. I was told that I would endanger the lives of DEA agents if we disclosed certain matters. I never felt threatened personally, but as my Nicaraguan colleague, George Hodell, noted at one point, "Things are moving all around us."
A question from Pearl Gladstone of Bensalem, PA :
Why are all the larger newspapers, pooh, poohing the story by shortchanging the information, and using the technique of failing to tell the story, just criticizing it, and also using name-calling techniques like Conspiracy theorist for anyone who dares to ask a question?
Gary Webb responds:
It helps to realize that, for the past ten years, the major media outlets have studiously ignored or dismissed this topic, with very few exceptions. Now that it has been proven that the Contras were indeed selling drugs to Americans, I think they are hard pressed to explain their lack of attention to a topic that millions of Americans care very deeply about. To accept this story now is a tacit admission that the biggest media outlets in this country have been asleep at the switch for a decade - or worse.
A question from Bonnie Perry of Mundelein, IL:
Does any of your research lead you back to the allegations raised in the past regarding flights late at night into the airstrip by the Hull ranch (was his name, David?) that were discussed on several reports during the end of the Bush era on NPR? They interviewed some local residents who became alarmed at all of these late flights and noise. Investigations showed that the activities were very hush, hush and local people were systematically reprimanded for asking questions. The report as I remember it, alleged that this was the drop-off point for the Contras and that the "payment" for the trips was actually free passage of cocaine to the U.S. under the watch of our government, CIA, operatives, etc. Further, that Mr. Hull did very well by his little flying missions and was compensated by the CIA.
I don't remember hearing any of this brought up in the Clinton years. Thanks for your work on this.
Gary Webb responds:
See the answer to #3. The Hull ranch was in northern Costa Rica.
Additional Comments:
Carl Jensen of Cotati, CA. Founder of Project Censored.
The CIA and its contra-drug connection was the #2 Censored story of 1987 as cited by Project Censored at Sonoma State University.
Despite nearly a decade of charges about the CIA and its contra drug smuggling connection, the mainstream media did not put the issue on the national agenda ... until the San Jose Mercury News published its extraordinary three-part series starting August 18, 1996.
Using the FOIA, newly declassified federal reports, court testimony, and interviews, it documented and exposed the the contra drug smuggling network, the CIA's role, and, possibly most important, made the important connection between the flawed foreign policy of Reagan and Bush in the 1980s and America's drug-devastated streets of today. The Mercury News series prompted long overdue investigations by the CIA, Justice Department, Congress, and the mass media. Not surprisingly, three of the nation's largest newspapers (The New York Times, 10/20/96; Washington Post,10/4/96; and the Los Angeles Times, 10/20/96) which hadn't investigated and reported the original charges by the Christic Institute in 1987, were quick to investigate the Mercury News charges in a transparent effort to discredit them. The old "not exposed here" process was embarassingly evident in their belated efforts.
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Cinque Maroon of Chicago, IL
If the CIA supported Contras were being financed by drug trafficking in California, and the CIA had no knowledge, than how good at intelligence gathering is the CIA? Is the CIA dumbfounded about how the Contras were financed? Is the CIA completely in the dark about how and where drugs, which are not grown in the United States, get here? I think the CIA insults themselves by claiming lack of knowledge concerning these issues.
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Sharlene Franks of Hopatcong, NJ
Given that the allegations of CIA driven genocide of black Americans has been alleged for a decade, how can Mr. Webb claim that he did not intend to stir this debate up with his research?
Also, since the CIA must have at least some African-Americans on staff, how could this plan have been executed without substantiated proof for so long? The CIA has been used as a bogeyman by many people and groups for a long time, and I believe it is irresponsible on Mr. Webb's part to make allegations without solid proof. The African American community has enough to deal with without an author cashing in on the paranoia in certain sectors.
If he has verifiable proof, he should produce it, and if not, he should have left specualtion out of his article, or made it clear that speculation was all he had.
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Scott Eissfeldt of Portland, OR
There has always been a gut feeling about the Contra/Crack connection although it seems, as William Weld has stated during the U.S. Senate campaign here, "nutty" to think that the CIA would want to pollute this country with cocaine. Nevertheless, the crack epidemic has somehow always seemed to have been orchestrated by an unseen hand and is probably more an effect of an act of war against this country rather than a simple health issue.
I began studying it in 1988 shortly after the appearance of "Prisoners of Crack", an article in Rolling Stone Magazine RS545 p.61 by Lewis Cole which details malevalent neglect under Ronald Reagan. In that case, it was more fear and complacency with respect to dealing with people of color among the nearly all-white Washington Republican Party establishment, which really exists throughout history. It is an extremely difficult issue, as are tobacco and alcohol which go to the heart of the centuries long argument of laissez-faire vs. managed social systems.
Thank you for your persistence and brave reporting.
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