With Kill the Messenger (Nation Books/Avalon), Nick Schou, an editor at Orange County Weekly, provides a meticulous, balanced account of the life of Gary Webb, the former San Jose Mercury News reporter who, despite minor errors, basically got it right when he wrote the biggest story of his career. That story lifted the rug on a historical episode the mainstream… return to article
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Reader Comments (5)Page 1 of 1 pages“” had documented (among other things) how CIA cargo planes ferried arms to the contras and then carried cocaine back to military bases and remote airfields on the return flights. “”
The above is not a “blind eye"”, it is participation.
“Cocaine to Military Bases” ----- for Godssake. !
Blaming all this on ‘overactive editors’ and ‘mercenary media-killers ‘ ( who now admit they went overboard.....) is weak stuff.
Maybe DOUG is just yet another of those LW Gatekeepers after all.
The substance of this story is that there was so much money in cocaine, and Doug still wishes us to believe that the CIA did not touch a cent of it !
Posted by frog on Oct 16, 2006 at 1:34 PM This is just another way that power can easily be concentrated in the hands of a corrupt executive branch that tries to override congress. Sources of funding from congress are probably a minority of the total quantity of funds available for US government operations. The congressional power of the purse is a myth. There are so many ways around it. One is accruing public debt from the sale of treasury notes and bonds. The other is selling drugs. Look at Afghanistan. Suddenly they have sold 6,100 tons of poppy crop this year from an historically unprecedented 165,000 hectres (400,000 US acres) of land under cultivation with the export crop. The British Tories are calling for complete legalization of the drug. Can anyone think the US is not profiting from the cultivation and sale of Afghan Heroin? In Leiu of a transit ptpeline deal from the Caspean Sea, drugs seem a reasonable alternative. If Kharzai accrues enough money he could help pay for the new pipeline. Certainly we are not above this kind of thing. This is especially true when we see ourselves on a mission to remake the world and capture the rights to a good bit of its resources in the process!!
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Oct 17, 2006 at 2:32 PM Webb was right. Nina Wax and I exposed the Contra Drug connection at
the macro level in Z Magaine, April 1990, “Farmer John’s Homegrown Connections.” Webb brought it down to the street, microlevel in LA
and SF. See his great book.
Posted by blondemike on Nov 6, 2006 at 4:26 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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Posted by frog on Nov 7, 2006 at 1:38 AM 
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