Gary Webb on CIA Drug Smuggling - Dark Alliance Interview (Part 7)

August 14, 1998 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888363932?ie=UTF8&tag=doc06-20&link... Watch the full interview: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/09/gary-webb-on-dark-alliance-cia-co...

In 2006 the LA Times published The Truth in `Dark Alliance, in which L.A. Times Managing Editor Leo Wolinsky is quoted saying "in some ways, Gary got too much blame...He did exactly what you expect from a great investigative reporter." The article surveys mainstream reporting at the time of Webb's pieces and states that while Webb had committed "hyperbole" and included some unproven allegations, articles by the New York Times "didnt include the success he achieved or the wrongs he righted and they were considerable" according to Walt Bogdanich, now a New York Times editor, who had known Webb earlier.

The LA Times piece criticizes its own unfair portrayal of Webb -- "we dropped the ball" -- and notes that "spurred on by Webbs story, 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" and concludes that "History will tell if Webb receives the credit hes due for prodding the CIA to acknowledge its shameful collaboration with drug dealers. Meanwhile, the journalistic establishment is only beginning to recognize that the controversy over Dark Alliance had more to do with poor editing than bad reporting [on Webb's part]"

Writing in 2005 in the Chicago Tribune, about "the Dangers of Questioning Government Actions," Don Wycliff, the Tribune's public editor, wrote, "I still think Gary Webb had it mostly right. I think he got the treatment that always comes to those who dare question aloud the bona fides of the establishment: First he got misrepresented -- his suggestion that the CIA tolerated the contras' cocaine trading became an allegation that the agency itself was involved in the drug trade. Then he was ridiculed as a conspiracy-monger.."

Media Critic Norman Solomon's analysis, "The Establishment's Papers Do Damage Control for the CIA," includes various corroborating evidence that a witch-hunt to discredit Webb was pursued more vigorously than the truth of some of Webb's allegations, including corroboration internal to one such paper, the Washington Post.

Robert Russell Garwood (born 1 April 1946 in Greensburg, Indiana) is a controversial former Vietnam War prisoner of war. Garwood was a United States Marine Corps Private First Class when he was captured on September 28, 1965 in Quang Nam province during the Vietnam War. Often cited as the last American POW from the Vietnam War, he was reportedly released in 1973 along with all other American POWs, but did not return to the United States until 1979. He is listed either as having volunteered or been forced into a work group repairing a generator at an unnamed "Island fortress" in North Vietnam, or been kept behind in mainland labour camps as a driver and vehicle mechanic. Garwood was considered by the Department of Defense to have acted as a collaborator with the enemy. In 1998, the Department of Defense changed his status from RETURNEE to AWOL/Deserter/Collaborator.

Garwood denies the charges of collaboration. He accuses the Department of Defense of trying to rewrite history to make him seem like a liar to downplay his claims that he had seen other POWs "left behind" after 1973 and that he had been held prisoner for 14 years, though there are inconsistencies in his story Many former POWs claim to have witnessed Garwood apparently collaborating with the enemy, though most say he should not have been court martialed. Nevertheless, the Marine Corps convicted Garwood of collaboration, reducing him in rank to private and dishonorably discharging him. He forfeited all back pay.

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[Mr6shotns240s]

hell yeah FUCK JEWS mother fucking bitch

[WashagoAce]

@elpinchewey666 Wow, very well put, that is so true. Media is nothing more than a tool of the government, to be used at their whim to keep the mass public in the dark, and they do a damn good job of it too.

[elpinchewey666]

705 views, it makes alot of sense why the drug war is what it is nowadays, noone knows the reality of anything, the power of the mass media truly is the heroin injected into the vein of america....

[ourpangea]

i like to call them repeaters.  stenographer works as well