Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". .article-native-ad { OR was he like Epstein? It was also posted on The Mercury News website with additional information, including documents cited in the series and audio recordings of people quoted in the articles. When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. 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]. The CIA Inspector General's report, commissioned in response to the allegations in "Dark Alliance", was published in the autumn of 1998. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph Maxine Waters found a govt employee ran the South Central LA drug ring & The DOJ removed that section of the report : r/conspiracy 3 yr. ago Posted by shylock92008 [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. When he was engaged, he worked hard. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. Gary's ex-wife Susan Bell states: "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide." An interesting OPINION, but she supplies no convincing evidence to illustrate what she means by this. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. "He rang me up that day. Although Blandn's cartel was undoubtedly one of the first to bring crack to LA, Webb was almost certainly suffering a rush of blood when he described the group as "the first pipeline" into the city. "I told Gary not to go near this story," his source replies, in an emotional voice. .article-native-ad p { [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. Army. "[75], Jonathan Krim, The Mercury News editor who recruited Webb from The Plain Dealer and who supervised The Mercury News internal review of "Dark Alliance," told AJR editor Paterno that Webb "had all the qualities you'd want in a reporter: curious, dogged, a very high sense of wanting to expose wrongdoing and to hold private and public officials accountable." and Drugs Has a Life of Its Own", "Pivotal Figures of Newspaper Series May Be Only Bit Players", "Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade", "Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales", "History Fuels Outrage Over Crack Allegations", "Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks", "Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos' Letter to the Washington Post", "Washington Post response to Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos", "Despite critics, a good story Crack and the contras", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Epilogue", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Conclusions", United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career? The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. The complete lack of desire to ask the difficult questions makes me want to scream. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. Unable to get work from any major US newspaper, he spent the four months before his death writing for * a free-sheet covering the Sacramento area. '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. Gary Webb: Vindicated - Narco News [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. margin: 0 45px; But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". Celebrezze eventually sued the Plain Dealer and won an undisclosed out of court settlement. Gary Webb Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family "[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." The Man Who Exposed The Crips, Bloods & CIA Connection to - YouTube Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere - Adweek [48] Despite the controversy that soon overtook the series, and the request of one board member to reconsider, the branch's board went ahead with the award in November. Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. Emma Lee Webb of Crossett, Arkansas | 1947 - 2023 | Obituary The feeling was that with other news outlets calling for Webb's head, the paper's credibility depended on their joining in on the attacks. [18], Webb began researching "Dark Alliance" in July 1995. 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. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. By: E&P Staff The death of investigative reporter Gary Webb has been confirmed as a suicide, according to a coroner's statement. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" ". 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. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). "As a PhD student, McCoy went to Vietnam and built an absolutely damning case about the CIA's involvement with trafficking heroin. The whole business, I suggested to Blum, has echoes of a classic Alfred Hitchcock plot. I believe that we fell short at every step of our process: in the writing, editing and production of our work. [9], Webb's first major investigative work appeared in 1980, when the Cincinnati Post published "The Coal Connection," a seventeen-part series by Webb and Post reporter Thomas Scheffey. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed: Who Is Professional SX/MX - Halla News Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. OR was he like Epstein Its pointed to as one of the clearer cases of CIA intervention as revenge for Webb revealing damaging secrets about the agencies involvement in drug smuggling. I first heard about Webb eight years ago, I tell Bell, from the Paris-based journalist Paul Moreira. Webb's ex wife, Susan Bell told reporters that she believed Webb had died by suicide. "If I had one dream for you," he wrote, "it was that you would go into journalism and carry on the kind of work I did - fighting, with all your might, the oppression and bigotry and stupidity and greed that surrounds us. Why Journalist Gary Webb Died - LewRockwell [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. 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. Last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, "To readers of our 'Dark Alliance' series", "America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war", "War on drugs has unequal impact on black Americans", "Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Inquiry Findings", "The CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking Of Alleged Plot", "Though Evidence Is Thin, Tale of C.I.A. If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. Gary Webb Resigns from the San Jose Mercury News Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. 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. It found that Blandn received permanent resident status "in a wholly improper manner" and that for some time the Department "was not certain whether to prosecute Meneses, or use him as a cooperating witness." Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. } Cooper and Mariah were engaged before they finally tied the knot. Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. [10] The series, which examined the murder of a coal company president with ties to organized crime, won the national Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for reporting from a small newspaper. He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. So he blew her off. "[62] It also found no evidence to support Webb's suggestion that several other drug smugglers mentioned in the series were associated with the CIA, or that anyone associated with the CIA or other intelligence agencies was involved in supplying or selling drugs in Los Angeles.[62]. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. [66] When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. The couple got married recently in November of 2020 after dating for some time. "Look at what happened to Gary Webb. Dr. Gary A. Webb is a geriatrician in Marco Island, Florida. "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles Black community to the stories, described the series's evidence as "thin". He is from United States. Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. According to Walt Bogdanich, a former colleague on the Plain Dealer who has won two Pulitzers and now works for The New York Times, Webb was the best retriever of information from public records he has ever seen. Depressed, he became increasingly unpredictable in his behaviour and embarked on a series of affairs; he was divorced from Bell in 2000, though he remained close to her throughout his life and lived in a house in nearby Carmichael. The reports of the three federal investigations into the claims of "Dark Alliance" were not released until over a year after the series's publication. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. "[64] Webb's longest response to the controversy was in "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On," a chapter he contributed to an anthology of press criticism: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. When his body was found, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was on the DVD machine, and his favourite CD, Ian Hunter's live album Welcome to the Club, was in the CD player. In a three-part series published in the San Jose Mercury News, "Dark Alliance," Webb alleges that not only was the CIA aware cocaine sold in the U.S. during the 1980s was funding the Nicaraguan Contras, they were complicit in its distribution. Eli Tomac on track during Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, March 3, 2023. Cuts and amendments were made at the request of Ceppos, executive editor of the Mercury News, and Webb's immediate editor Dawn Garcia, among others. [39] Carey's critique appeared in mid-October and went through several of the Post's criticisms of the series, including the importance of Blandn's drug ring in spreading crack, questions about Blandn's testimony in court, and how specific series allegations about CIA involvement had been, giving Webb's responses. "The second bullet," adds Bell, who has worked for more than 20 years in the area of respiratory therapy, "struck his carotid artery. Noting that most of the activities discussed in the report had nothing to do with the people Webb reported on, Kornbluh told Schou, "I can't say it's a vindication. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. Gary Webb and the Iran-Contra-Cocaine Connection | WilderUtopia The CIA/MSM Contra-Cocaine Cover-up - Consortium News What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". } Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. Gary Webb: More Pieces In The Suicided Puzzle - Pt 1 - Rense [65], Within "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On" essay Webb stated he believed there was an active "collusion between the press and the powerful" to report freely on inconsequential matters, "but when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff We begin to see the limits of our freedoms". 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 . By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 15, 2004. . In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. At the end of March, Ceppos told Webb that he was going to present the internal review findings in a column. Emma Lee Webb. [42] The extent of the criticism, however, convinced Ceppos that The Mercury News had to acknowledge to its readers that the series had been subjected to strong criticism. Gary Webb on the CIA's Role in the 1980s LA Crack Epidemic - Citizen Truth Gary Webb's Death Confirmed as Suicide | Editor and Publisher . [68], In August 2004, Webb joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. Man Donates Liver To Ex-Wife - CBS News And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021 Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie. A perceptive, engaging woman of 48, she has turned an adjoining study into a small shrine to her late husband, who would have celebrated his 50th birthday five weeks ago. As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". By 1997, Bell tells me, Webb - whose 30-year career had earned him more awards than there is room for in her study - had been reassigned to the Mercury News's office in Cupertino. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. Age 43 years. In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. .article-native-ad strong { His was the story of a man who gains information of wrongdoing, then, attempting to act in the public interest, seeks protection from his superiors, and the forces of law, and does not receive it. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. Webb began to shift from cynicism to curiosity. If he could have chosen his own epitaph, it might have been a line from the letter he posted to Bell, immediately before he killed himself: "I do not regret," Webb told her, "anything that I have written." Although it did find that both men were major drug dealers, "guilty of enriching themselves at the expense of countless drug users," and that they had contributed money to the Contra cause, "we did not find that their activities were responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic in South Central Los Angeles, much less the rise of crack throughout the nation, or that they were a significant source of support for the Contras. Thank you." Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. His assignments included investigating racial profiling by the California Highway Patrol and charges that the Oracle Corporation had received a no-bid contract award of $95 million in 2001. His series of articles - which prompted the distinguished reporter and former Newsweek Washington correspondent Robert Parry to describe Webb as "an American hero" - incited fury among the African-American community, many of whom took his investigation as proof that the White House saw crack as a way of bringing genocide to the ghetto. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. Kill the Messenger review - what really happened to Gary Webb 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". In 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories exposing the connection between the CIA and the crack cocaine that was being sold in So. He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. Asking why crack became so prevalent in the Black community of Los Angeles, the article credited Blandn, referring to him as "the Johnny Appleseed of crack in California. "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. Kill the Messenger True Story vs. Movie - Real Gary Webb 'It's just good vibes': Cooper Webb, Eli Tomac in tight Supercross Gary Webb famously died of two gun shot wounds to the head and - reddit Family (1) We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. 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.". [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." [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. [72] A New York Times profile of Webb in June 1997 noted that two of his series written for the Cleveland Plain Dealer had resulted in lawsuits that the paper had settled. 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. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. The Tragic 2004 Death Of Investigative Journalist, Gary Webb "He started having motorcycle crashes," Bell says. After examining the investigations and prosecutions of the main figures in the series, Blandn, Meneses and Ross, it concluded that "Although the investigations suffered from various problems of communication and coordination, their successes and failures were determined by the normal dynamics that affect the success of scores of investigations of high-level drug traffickers These factors, rather than anything as spectacular as a systematic effort by the CIA or any other intelligence agency to protect the drug trafficking activities of Contra supporters, determined what occurred in the cases we examined. Save 50% with early-bird passes. 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. I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. "He told me, not long before he died, that he didn't want to get up in the mornings," she says. "He was crying. Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" Returns to the Internet - Narco News Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret . Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. He was born June 18, 1943, in Appleton, son of the late Wilford and Helen (Hauskey) Webb. Herhold: Thinking back on journalist Gary Webb and the CIA When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". Webb was an assertive figure who drove fast cars and powerful motorcycles, hung heavy metal posters in his office and, at certain times in his life, smoked a fair amount of cannabis. Watkins and Debbie (John) Foutch; grandchildren, Makenzie and Ashlynn Fogg. [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. Working in San Jose would have meant daily contact with what Bell describes as "people he did not want to be with". Both sides were left angry and disappointed. Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. Webb moved his wife and two young children to a suburb and continued a tradition he had started in Cleveland, restoring their small house with the help of how-to books, installing wainscoting and custom tile, new cabinets and gardens, while putting in overtime at the paper. How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career Begun 1996, the divorce and battle over cash of Grammy winner Jimmy Webb age 75, father of six, wed 22 years to Patsy, 64, daughter of late actor Barry Sullivan is getting longer. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. [60], It found nothing to support the claim that "the drug trafficking activities of Blandn and Meneses were motivated by any commitment to support the Contra cause or Contra activities undertaken by CIA." After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. "If there was an eye to the storm," Katz wrote, "if there was a mastermind behind crack's decade-long reign, if there was one outlaw most responsible for flooding LA's streets with mass-marketed cocaine, his name was Freeway Rick. It was truthful. A 1985 series, "Doctoring the Truth," uncovered problems in the State Medical Board[12] and led to an Ohio House investigation which resulted in major revisions to the state Medical Practice Act. It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." The review was conducted primarily by editor Jonathan Krim and reporter Pete Carey, who had written the paper's first published analysis of the series. Ricky Ross (drug trafficker) - Wikipedia
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