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'Dark Alliance' - both as journalism and as a book - is a convoluted narrative, but the crucial link it establishes is between the "agricultural salesman" Oscar Danilo Blandn, a Contra sympathiser with close CIA links, and his best customer, an LA drug dealer known as "Freeway" Ricky Ross. That was just the way he was.". Calling the Post's overall focus "misplaced", Overholser expressed regret that the paper had not taken the opportunity to re-examine whether the CIA had overlooked Contra involvement in drug smuggling, "a subject The Post and the public had given short shrift. Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to finance their fight against the government in Nicaragua. And yet, for all his Easy Rider tendencies, he was also a dedicated family man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae. "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. It would have been our 25th wedding anniversary," Bell recalls. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. During and immediately after the controversy over "Dark Alliance," Webb's earlier writing was examined closely. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. [43] He did this in a column that appeared on November 3, defending the series, but also committing the paper to a review of major criticisms. Shortly before his death, his motorcycle had been stolen (it was recovered by his family after his death). He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. The CIA Inspector General's report, commissioned in response to the allegations in "Dark Alliance", was published in the autumn of 1998. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. It concluded, however, that these problems were "a far cry from the type of broad manipulation and corruption of the federal criminal justice system suggested by the original allegations.". [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. Gary E. Webb, a dedicated husband, dad, pappy, coach, mentor, teacher, supporter, hero, and best friend, was called home by the Lord while surrounded by family. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. After his resignation from The Mercury News, Webb expanded the "Dark Alliance" series into a book that responded to the criticism of the series and described his experiences writing the story and dealing with the controversy. His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. ", The significant legacy of the Webb case, "the reason this whole affair remains so significant today," Blum says, "is this: the knowledge that, if one individual dares raise such serious issues, they risk confronting a tremendous apparatus that is prepared to whack them hard, and there is very little they can expect by way of support. The first shot went through his face, and exited at his left cheek. But you say - dear God. ", "Reporter's suicide confirmed by coroner", "Repercussions From Flawed News Articles", "Herhold: Thinking back on journalist Gary Webb and the CIA", Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks, "Gary Webb was no journalism hero, despite what 'Kill the Messenger' says", "Jeremy Renner's 'Kill the Messenger' Gets Fall Release Date", The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions, United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Report of Investigation Concerning Allegations of Connections Between CIA and The Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States, Central Intelligence Agency Office of the Inspector General, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, "Secrecy, Conspiracy, and the Media During the CIA-Contra Affair", Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography, "Inside the Dark Alliance: Gary Webb on the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion", 'A NATURAL STORY': Tribute to 'Dark Alliance' and Journalist Gary Webb, San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, Archive of Gary Webb stories at Sacramento News and Review, "Frontline: Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. font-size: 34px; The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. Because Blandn cooperated with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he spent only 28 months in prison, became a paid government informant, and received permanent resident status. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. Webb's ex-wife, Sue Bell, discounted theories Tuesday that her husband had been murdered, saying the 49-year-old Webb had been distraught for some time over his inability to get . It was just more than he could take.". One of these was a 1986 raid on Blandn's drug organization by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which the article suggested had produced evidence of CIA ties to drug smuggling that was later suppressed. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. Gary Webb passed away on March 2, 2019. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere By Richard Horgan October 8, 2014 Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint O'Connor had a solid feature the other day about Kill the. He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. The response from the American press took two months to arrive. In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. Film of this encounter survives. Family (1) But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". [37], In 2013, Jesse Katz, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, said of the newspaper's coverage "As an L.A. Times reporter, we saw this series in the San Jose Mercury News and kind of wonder[ed] how legit it was and kind of put it under a microscope, and we did it in a way that most of us who were involved in it, I think, would look back on that and say it was overkill. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. Regarding issues raised in the series's shorter sidebar stories, it found that some in the government were "not eager" to have DEA agent Celerino Castillo "openly probe" activities at Ilopango Airport in El Salvador, where covert operations in support of the Contras were undertaken, and that the CIA had indeed intervened in a case involving smuggler Julio Zavala. It was written by Jesse Katz, the same reporter who, less than two years earlier, had described Ross's conglomerate as "the Wal-Mart of crack dealing". Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. He is survived by his loving wife, Wendie, of Elgin; grandmother, Eileen Carrier of Elgin;. Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. [50] By January, Webb filed drafts of four more articles based on his trip, but his editors concluded that the new articles would not help shore up the original series's claims. Both Gary's ex-wife Susan and his brother Kurt viewed the body and they confirmed the location of the wounds to me when I met them. "Ross," his report went on, dealt "on a scale never before conceived," with "a staggering turnover" of "50 to 100 kilos of cocaine a day". "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the CIA. And "we really didn't do anything to advance his work or illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry exercise. After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. Ross, currently serving life, was already infamous; he had been profiled in the LA Times in December 1994, by writer Jesse Katz, at a time when Ross was at liberty and in penitent mood. In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. This did not happen in Webb's case. "[72] California Representative Maxine Waters, who was Webb's strongest supporter in Congress after the "Dark Alliance" controversy broke, issued a statement after Webb's death calling him "one of the finest investigative journalists that our country has ever seen. . [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. Corrie had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that already had. This drug ring "opened the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles" and, as a result, "The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America."[23]. Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . He was born at Emmanuel Hospital in. Webb may indeed be physically dead, but his research is more alive today than ever before, and continues to haunt the shadow government and snowball into a monster that will undoubtedly have its eventual revenge. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. Famously known by the Family name Gary Stephen Webb, was a great Engineer.He was born on August 31, 1955, in Carmichael, California.Carmichael is a beautiful and populous city located in Carmichael, California United States of America.. Gary Webb Early Life Story, Family Background and Education. Gary was born May 5, 1954, to his parents Worley and Margaret Webb, who preceded him in death as well as his brother, David Webb. On Dec. 9, 2004, the 49-year-old Gary Stephen Webb, Pulitzer prize-winning US investigative journalist, typed out suicide notes to his ex-wife and his three children; he laid out a certificate for his cremation; he taped a note on the door telling movers - who were coming the next morning to move him out of his rental house near Sacramento - to The article discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. At that time, Webb (pictured) was best known for the controversial three-part CIA 1996 expose he wrote the San Jose Mercury News called "Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the . "The government side of the story is coming through the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post", he stated. Webb was born in Corona, California. margin: 0 45px; Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. Investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories in 1996 for the San Jose Mercury News that documented the US-government-backed Contra insurgents' drug pipeline into Los Angeles. The article suggested this was in retribution for Ross' testimony in the corruption case. George Webb and Paul Cottrell have begun a weekly series on CoronaVirus now, Mondays at 5PM, EST on paul Cottrell's Rumble Channel. "[58], It also concluded that "the claims that Blandn and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." Leen, who covered the cocaine trade for the Miami Herald in the 1980s, rejects the claim that "because the report uncovered an agency mindset of indifference to drug-smuggling allegations", it vindicated Webb's reporting. ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. Views on Webb's journalism have been polarized. Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. } GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. What was new about Webb's reports, published under the title "Dark Alliance" in the Californian paper the San Jose Mercury News, was that for the first time it brought the story back home. Gary Webb, Into the Buzzsaw, CH 13, Prometheus Books. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. The Los Angeles Times and other major papers published articles suggesting the "Dark Alliance" claims were overstated and, in November 1996, Jerome Ceppos, the executive editor at Mercury News, wrote about being "in the eye of the storm". Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Melinda Welsh September 29, 2014 This one has all the ingredients of a dreamed-up Hollywood. [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. It found that CIA officials ignored information about possible Contra drug dealing; that they continued to work with Contra supporters despite allegations that they were trafficking drugs, and further asserted that officials from the CIA instructed Drug Enforcement Agency officers to refrain from investigating alleged dealers connected with the Contras. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles Black community to the stories, described the series's evidence as "thin". The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. [22], The lede of the first article set out the series' basic claims: "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." He wrote that the series likely "oversimplified" the crack epidemic in America and the supposed "critical role" the dealers written about in the series played in it. He received his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than. [51], The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed. The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. But the report was correct. Attorneys' Offices. As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. So he blew her off. California senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein also took note and wrote to CIA director John Deutch and Attorney General Janet Reno, asking for investigations into the articles' allegations. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. Gary Webb became, quite unfairly, the victim of one of the most extraordinary examples of piling on by the mainstream press, ever.". "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". [66] Talking about his wife, Mariah Webb is a nurse who also educates about essential products . He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. "[78], While finding this part of the series unsupported, Schou said that some of the series's claims on CIA involvement are supported, writing that "The CIA conducted an internal investigation that acknowledged in March 1998 that the agency had covered up Contra drug trafficking for more than a decade." Family and friends will gather to celebrate his life of 59 years at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 7, 2019, at Lamesa Continue Reading Leave a Message, Share a Memory