http://tinyurl.com/eyewitnessaccounts
‘Kill the Messenger’ is a 2014 film based on a true story, the work of journalist Gary Webb in uncovering the circumstances behind the CIA’s, Nicaraguan Contras’, and organized crime’s roles in massive drug trafficking, leading to the early 1980s crack cocaine epidemic. This in turn led to the USA’s over-incarceration binge, which has imprisoned black Americans in numbers vastly out of proportion to their percentage of the general population.
[Gary Webb’s original journalistic revelations in these matters were originally published in the San Jose (CA) Mercury News, and he later compiled them into his 1998-99 book ‘Dark Alliance: the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion’.]
The following five paragraphs are quotes from Maxine Waters, who is the U.S. Congressperson for California’s 43rd C.D., is the most senior of the 12 black women currently serving in the United States Congress, and is also a member and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus:
“The saddest part of these revelations is the wrecked lives and lost possibilities of so many people who got caught up in selling drugs, went to prison, ended up addicted, dead, or walking zombies from drugs.”
“… the CIA, DEA, DIA, and FBI knew about drug trafficking in South Central Los Angeles. They were either part of the trafficking or turned a blind eye to it, in an effort to fund the Contra war. I am convinced that drug money played an important role in the Contra war and that drug money was used by both sides.
“I had the opportunity to question Contra leaders Adolfo Calero and Eden Pastora in a Senate investigative hearing … I forced Calero to admit he had a relationship with the CIA through the United States Embassy …”
“It may take time, but I am convinced that history is going to record that Gary Webb wrote the truth. The establishment refused to give Gary Webb the credit that he deserved. They teamed up in an effort to destroy the story — and very nearly succeeded.”
“This book (‘Dark Alliance’) completely and absolutely confirms Gary Webb’s devastating series (of articles for the San Jose Mercury News — JVW). This book is the final chapter in this sordid tale, and brings to light one of the worst official abuses in our nation’s history. We all owe Gary Webb a debt of gratitude for his brave work.”
[End of Maxine Waters quotes, from the Foreword to the 1999 edition of ‘Dark Alliance’.]
From Gary Webb’s Author’s Note for the 1999 edition:
“Dark Alliance does not propound a conspiracy theory; there is nothing theoretical about history. In this case, it is undeniable that a wildly successful conspiracy to import cocaine existed for many years, and that innumerable American citizens — most of them poor and black — paid an enormous price as a result. This book was written for them, so that they may know upon what altars their communities were sacrificed.” — Gary Webb, Author of ‘Dark Alliance: the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion’, Seven Stories Press, 1998-99
From Chapter 6, ‘They Were Doing Their Patriotic Duty’:
“A former TWA airline pilot, Adler Berriman ‘Barry’ Seal moved in 1982 from Baton Rouge to a tiny airport in isolated Mena, Arkansas … and began running drugs and weapons.
[Bill Clinton was Arkansas Governor from 1979-1981 and 1983-1992, and is Attorney General from 1977-79. — JVW]
“In the early 1980s, Barry Seal was one of the biggest cocaine and marijuana importers in the southern United States, flying loads in directly for the Medellin cartel and air-dropping them with pinpoint precision across Louisiana, Arkansas, and other southern states.”
“”Seal detailed his cocaine-smuggling activities in ’81, ’82 and ’83. What he testified to was that he was involved in 50 trips during those three years,” IRS spokesman Henry Holms told the Baton Rouge State Times in 1986, explaining a $29 million lien that the IRS filed against Seal for back taxes. A letter that year from Louisiana’s attorney general to U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese said Seal “smuggled between $3 billion and $5 billion worth of drugs into the U.S.”
“Seal’s ‘personal records showed him to be a contract CIA operative both before and during his years of drug-running in Mena in the 1980s,’ historian Roger Morris, a former National Security Council staffer, wrote in a 1996 book, ‘Partners in Power’, about Bill and Hillary Clinton.
“(a) Senate subcommittee that looked into the Contras’ connections in 1988 also poked around at Mena and concluded that
“associates of Seal who operated aircraft service businesses at the Mena, Arkansas airport were also the targets of grand jury probes into narcotics trafficking. Despite the availability of evidence sufficient for an indictment on money laundering charges, and over the strong protest of State and federal law enforcement officials, the cases were dropped. The apparent reason was that the prosecution might have revealed national security information.”
“Clinton’s critics have charged that it was impossible for the governor of Arkansas to have been unaware of Seal’s activities at Mena. Indeed, Reed and former Arkansas state troopers L. D. Brown and Larry Patterson, both of whom have been critical of Clinton, insist he knew quite a bit about it — including the fact that cocaine was involved. Patterson, a member of Governor Clinton’s security detail, testified that he and other troopers were aware ‘that there was large quantities of money, large quantities of guns, that there was an ongoing operation training foreign people in that area. That it was a CIA operation.'”
“A mechanic at Mena airport, John Bender, swore in a deposition that he saw Clinton there three times in 1985. Ex-trooper Brown said that when he confronted Clinton about the cocaine flights Seal was involved in, Governor Clinton replied, ‘That’s Lasater’s deal,’ referring to his close friend and campaign contributor, Little Rock bond broker Danny Ray Lasater. In 1986, Lasater was indicted by a federal grand jury in Little Rock on drug charges, and Clinton’s brother Roger, a cocaine addict, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. Lasater pleaded guilty to drug trafficking; he received a thirty-month prison sentence but served only six months in prison. Clinton pardoned him in 1990.”
“According to the FBI’s description of its investigation, Lasater was part of a huge drug ring. ‘In December 1986, the Little Rock, Arkansas office of the FBI concluded a four-year Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation involving the cocaine trafficking activities of a prominent Little Rock businessman who operated several banking investment firms and brokerages in Arkansas and Florida,’ the FBI report stated. ‘The investigation revealed that this businessman was the main supplier of cocaine to the investment banking and bond community in the Little Rock area, which had the largest bond community in the United States outside of New York City. This task force investigation resulted in the conviction of this businessman and 24 co-defendants to jail sentences ranging from four months to 10 years, as well as the seizure of cocaine, marijuana, an automobile, an airplane, and $77,000.’
Interesting side stories:
Webb committed suicide on December 10, 2004. He was found dead in his Carmichael home with two (2) gunshot wounds to the head. After a local paper reported that he had died from multiple gunshots, the Sacramento County coroner’s office received so many calls asking about Webb’s death that Sacramento County Coroner Robert Lyons issued a statement confirming Webb had committed suicide. When asked by local reporters about the possibility of two gunshots being a suicide, Lyons replied: “It’s unusual in a suicide case to have two shots, but it has been done in the past, and it is in fact a distinct possibility.” News coverage noted that there were widespread rumors on the internet at the time that Webb had been killed as retribution for his ‘Dark Alliance’ series, published eight years before, but Webb’s ex-wife Susan Bell told reporters that she believed Webb had committed suicide. “The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide,” she said. According to Bell, Webb had been unhappy for some time over his inability to get a job at another major newspaper. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage. [Wikipedia]
On another note:
Michael C. Ruppert was working for LAPD when he uncovered evidence of the CIA’s dealing in drugs. After raising the matter, he was threatened with death, and survived 3 assassination attempts. His most famous video moment was on November 15th, 1996, at a town hall meeting at Locke High School in Los Angeles to allay citizen’s fears about drug dealing.
Ruppert stood up and said, “I am a former Los Angeles Police narcotics detective. I worked South Central Los Angeles and I can tell you, Director Deutch, emphatically and without equivocation, that the Agency has dealt drugs in this country for a long time.” Deutch, visibly shocked by the forthrightness of Mikel Ruppert’s denunciation, feigned interest and stuttered out a reply, but although Ruppert submitted documents to the Select Intelligence Committees of both Houses, it remains only a document submitted in advance of testimony and has not been placed in the Congressional Record.
On April 13, 2014, Ruppert was found dead in Napa County at home just outside the Calistoga, California city limits. Ruppert died of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. This has been confirmed by close friend and property owner and landlord Jack Martin.
Michael Ruppert
I had not been aware that Ruppert had died. He may have once been onto some truths about the crack cocaine epidemic, but I remember him more for harboring some wild and implausible theories about 9/11.
For months after 9/11, I was curious exactly how it had come to pass, but relatively quickly I realized that it was dwarfed by the humongous crime of what the USA did in 9/11’s name. Trillions spent, millions upon millions died. We, the people of the USA, allowed this to happen in the name of a crime which cost a couple of thousand lives and cost a few hundred thousand for pilot lessons, box cutters, etc.
I cut off my correspondence with Ruppert when I realized he was intent upon barking up the wrong tree.
“Arf, arf!”
Hey Mike, there ain’t nuthin’ up there!”
“Arf, Arf!”