Gary Webb, reporter who exposed CIA, dies

Seattle Post ^ | 12/13/04

[KidGlock]

Gary Webb, reporter who exposed CIA, dies

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a controversial series of stories linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles, has died at age 49.

Webb was found Friday morning at his home in Sacramento County, dead of an apparent suicide. Moving-company workers called authorities after discovering a note posted on his front door that read, "Please do not enter. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance."

Webb died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Sacramento County coroner's office.

Webb was part of the San Jose Mercury News reporting team that won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

Webb's 1996 series in the Mercury News alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold tons of crack cocaine in Los Angeles and funneled millions of dollars in profits to the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras during the 1980s.

The articles did not accuse the CIA of directly aiding drug dealers to raise money for the Contras, but implied that the agency was aware of the activity.

Major parts of Webb's reporting were later discredited by other newspaper investigations. An investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department found no evidence of a connection between the CIA and the drug traffickers.

In 1997, then-Mercury News executive editor Jerry Ceppos backed away from the series, saying "we fell short at every step of our process." Webb was transferred to one of the paper's suburban bureaus.

"This is just harassment," Webb said after his demotion. "This isn't the first time that a reporter went after the CIA and lost his job over it."

After quitting the newspaper in December 1997, Webb continued to defend his reporting with his 1999 book "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion."

Born in Corona, Calif., to a military family, Webb dropped out of journalism school and went to work for the Kentucky Post and the Cleveland Plain Dealer before landing at the Mercury News.

Webb worked in state government after leaving the paper, most prominently as a member of an audit committee investigating former Gov. Gray Davis' controversial award of a $95 million no-bid contract to Oracle Corp. in 2001.

Earlier this year, Webb was one of a group of employees fired from the Assembly Speaker's Office of Member Services for failing to show up for work. He continued writing occasionally for various publications.

"All he ever wanted to do was write," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell.

Webb is survived by two sons and a daughter.

[orionblamblam]

Uh-oh... get ready for the stampede of conspiracists...

[Rodney King]

Major parts of Webb's reporting were later discredited by other newspaper investigations. An investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department found no evidence of a connection between the CIA and the drug traffickers

So doesn't that mean that the headline is inaccurate?

[Semper Paratus]

I believe there was also a connection with this story, to the 'Christic Institute' that was active in promoting 'liberation theology' and damaging US interests in Latin America and it's biggest advocate in Congress John Kerry.

[Red Badger]

The sad part is, many in the black community (Maxine Waters, et al) still believe this man's lies. His damage has created a gulf of distrust that will take generations to bridge......

[KidGlock]

Title should have read:

"DISCREDITED Reporter Who TRIED to Expose CIA Dies"

[Red Badger]

Consider the souse.....er source.....er souse.....

[G.Mason]

" So doesn't that mean that the headline is inaccurate?"

Not for AP purposes. ;)

[1Old Pro]

Major parts of Webb's reporting were later discredited by other newspaper investigations

Another activist reporter bites the dust.

[Not A Snowbird]

Uh-oh... get ready for the stampede of conspiracists...

It's already started. The DUmmie Ant Farm is in a frenzy.

[Larry Lucido]

Californicide?

[montag813]

Good riddance to this scumbag liar who did great harm to inner-city Blacks' trust of the government and Republicans, and gave Maxine Waters one of her most notorious propaganda lies. May he rot in hell.

[KidGlock]

Any discussion on DU regarding Webb's views on gun control?

[wbill]

Where was Clinton at the time?

[El Gran Salseron]

"An investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department found no evidence of a connection between the CIA and the drug traffickers."

AHA! That PROVES beyond the shadow of a doubt that the CIA was involved in drug trafficking, doesn't it?

[skip_intro]

So doesn't that mean that the headline is inaccurate?

The media is quite aware that many people never get past the headline, so this gives them yet another chance to plant a false assumption.

Goebbels would have been so proud of how his methods have become the media's standard operating procedure

[Redbob]

"Major parts of Webb's reporting were later discredited by other newspaper investigations."

Buried well down in the story

"All he ever wanted to do was write," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell.

Fiction, apparently.

He needed to have studied how Carl Hiaasen carefully restricts his fiction to his books, and labels it as such.

[sausageseller]

Title should read: Gary Webb, Who lied about the CIA, Commits Suicide.

[Alexander Nevsky]

"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 drugs being flown into the Mena airport, large quantities of money, large quantities of guns, that there was an ongoing operation training foreign people in that area. That is was a CIA operation.'"

Gary Webb, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion (New York; Seven Stories Press; 1998) 116-17