Dark alliance: the CIA, the CONTRAS, and the CRACK COCAINE EXPLOSION

583 Pages·2.755 MB·English

by  Gary Webb

IN PRAISE OF GARY WEBB'S DARK ALLIANCE:

"Today, it is hard to say how Webb will be remembered by history. But if there is
any justice, he will be remembered favorably. His book demonstrates that the
original expose was on the right track. Rather than going too far by implicating
U.S. government officials in illegal activities, it seems to me the newspaper
series did not go far enough.
Based on the evidence in Webb's book, news organizations—especially the
Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times—should re-examine
their knockdown stories. They owe such a re-examination not only to Webb, but
also to their readers."
—Steve Weinberg in the Baltimore Sun (June 14, 1998)

"Two years ago Gary Webb touched off a national controversy with his news
stories linking the CIA and the Nicaraguan Contras to the rise of the crack
epidemic in Los Angeles and elsewhere. His gripping new book, richly
researched and documented, deserves an even wider audience and discussion."
—Peter Dale Scott in the San Francisco Chronicle (June 28, 1998)

"Webb reminds us that the Reagan approved contra program attracted lowlifes
and thugs the way manure draws flies. He guides the reader through a nether
world 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. . .All in all, it's a disgraceful picture—
one that should permanently taint the happy-face hues of the Reagan years."
—David Corn in the Washington Post (August 9, 1998)

"Webb [is] a highly regarded investigative reporter. . .. Dark Alliance is his effort
to tell his side of the story and set the record straight."
—James Adams in the New York Times Book Review (September 27, 1998)

"An excellent new book. . ."
—Norman Solomon in the San Francisco Bay Guardian (July 22, 1998)

"The Central Intelligence Agency continued to work with about two dozen
Nicaraguan rebels and their supporters during the 1980s despite allegations that
they were trafficking in drugs, according to a classified study by the C.I.A. The
new study has found that the agency's decision to keep those paid agents, or to
continue dealing with them in some less formal relationship, was made by top
officials at headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in the midst of the war waged by
the CIA-backed contras against Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista Government."
—James Risen, page one of the New York Times (July 17, 1998)

"Two years ago, Gary Webb wrote a series of articles that said some bad things
about the CIA and drug traffickers. The CIA denied the charges, and every major
newspaper in the country took the agency's word for it. Gary Webb was ruined.
Which is a shame, because he was right."
—Charles Bowden in Esquire (September 1998)

"A standing room only crowd of several hundred people jammed a meeting hall
in mid-town Manhattan on Thursday night to hear the details of a news story that
refuses to die. . ."
—Juan Gonzalez in the New York Daily News (June 16, 1998)

"[It is an] issue that feels like a dagger in the heart of African Americans. . ..
Even if the CIA's motive proves less malevolent, any evidence that it supported
drug trafficking would indeed be the crime of the century."
—Barbara Reynolds in USA Today (February 26, 1997)

"After thousands of hours of work by investigative reporters at several
newspapers—almost all of them predisposed to proving that Gary Webb was
wrong—none has succeeded in doing so."
—Jill Stewart in New Times Los Angeles (June 5, 1997)

"Gary Webb brought back before the American public one of the darkest secrets
of the 1980s—the cocaine smuggling by the Nicaraguan contra forces—and paid
for this service with his job."
—Robert Parry, winner of the George Polk Award for National Reporting

"This story challenges the moral authority of our government."
—Rev. Jesse L. Jackson
"Absolute garbage."
—Lt. Col. Oliver North

"No story in recent memory had generated the intense controversy or exposed
cultural-political fault lines the way the San Jose Mercury News' 'Dark Alliance'
series has. If you judge journalism by its ability to stir up the pot, then this series
—with its explosive suggestion of CIA complicity in the crack cocaine epidemic
that paralyzed black neighborhoods in Los Angeles and subsidized the Contra
war in Nicaragua in the '80s—deserves some kind of an award."
—Mark Jurkowitz, ombudsman, the Boston Globe (November 13, 1996)

"It may be the most significant news story you've never heard."
—Michael Paul Williams in the Richmond Times-Dispatch
(September 16, 1996)

"A copiously researched tale of how two Nicaraguan drug dealers with
connections to the CIA-backed contra army moved tons of drugs into Los
Angeles."
—Newsweek (November 11, 1996)

"The hottest topic in black America."
—Jack E. White in Time (September 30, 1996)
DARK ALLIANCE

The CIA, the CONTRAS, and the CRACK COCAINE
EXPLOSION
GARY WEBB

SEVEN STORIES PRESS
New York
Copyright © 1998, 1999 by Gary Webb
Foreword © 1998 by Maxine Waters
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including mechanical,
electric, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
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College professors may order examination copies of
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To order, visit www.sevenstories.com/textbook or send a
fax on school letterhead to [phone].
Webb, Gary.
Dark alliance: the CIA, the contras, and the crack cocaine explosion / Gary
Webb.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-888363-93-7
1. Crack (Drug)—California—Los Angeles. 2. Cocaine habit—California—Los
Angeles. 3. Counterrevolutionaries—Nicaragua. 4. United States. Central
Intelligence Agency.
I. Title
HV5833.L67W43 1998
363.45'09794—dc21 97-52612
CIP

TO SUE, WITH LOVE AND THANKS
Contents

Foreword Congresswoman Maxine Waters

Acknowledgments

Author's Note

PART ONE

PROLOGUE

1 "A Pretty secret kind of thing"

2 "We were the first"

3 "The brotherhood of military minds"

4 "I never sent cash"

5 "God, Fatherland and Freedom"

6 "They were doing their patriotic duty"

7 "Something happened to Ivan"

8 "A million hits is not enough"

9 "He would have had me by the tail"