Gary Webb Article: The Spy Who Was Left Out In The Cold

[DUreader]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EK07Ad03.html


Somebody Please Post a Few Paragraphs, I cant copy/paste from this

Website

Thank you

[Barrett808]

1. The spy who was left out in the cold

The spy who was left out in the cold
By Gary Webb

SACRAMENTO, California - As far as can be told, former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Lok Lau may be a genuine American hero, the first agent in FBI history to penetrate the top levels of the Chinese government. But the US Department of Justice is doing everything in its power - and some things that aren't - to prevent even the tiniest detail of Lau's highly classified work from becoming public.

As far as the Justice Department is concerned, Lau is nothing more than a lying, thieving malcontent who was fired for shoplifting $15 worth of merchandise from a California supermarket. And that's the way the US government would like to keep it.

The full truth about Lok Lau and his six-year-long foreign-counterintelligence mission may never be known. But judging from information that briefly became public as a result of an employment-discrimination suit Lau filed against the FBI - and the Justice Department's frantic efforts to purge the public record of what it claims were national-security secrets "illegally" divulged by Lau and his lawyers - the 46-year-old Singapore native was involved in some very heavy, very clandestine and very dangerous work inside the People's Republic of China, on behalf of US intelligence, for years.

It is also clear that once Lau's highly praised undercover assignment was completed, the FBI decided he was a liability and began a concerted effort to get rid of him, which it eventually did.

Why the FBI turned with such vengeance against an agent its own director had personally commended for heroism is not known, but it wasn't because Lok Lau wasn't good at his job. If anything, his problem might have been that he was too good at it.

(more)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EK07Ad03.html

[DUreader]

2. Thanks , B, It is a long Article , Good Stuff in there

[smallprint]

3. Gary Webb info

For those who don't know, Gary Webb was the San Jose Mercury News reporter who wrote in 1996 about the connection between the CIA and the crack explosion in South Central. He was fired and blacklisted from US media, even though no one has ever proved his story false.

Here's the 1996 story that started it all:
http://home.comcast.net/~gary.webb/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

An interesting talk by Webb in 1999:
http://vander.hashish.com/articles/drugs/webb.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. I witnessed

the crack explosion in Miami in the mid 80's. At the time I worked on a research project that involved home visits with our clients who mostly lived in Overtown, Libery City and Little Havanna.

In the early 80's pot was the drug of choice and cocaine was too expensive for most folks living in the ghetto. Marijuana came into south Florida via freighters that would hang out offshore and runners in speed boats would bring back the square groupers.

Then Reagan declared his war on drugs. The Coast Guard went after the freighters with a vengence. Overnight the cheap marijuana supply dried up and the dealers switched to cocaine. You didn't need a freighter to bring in bulky merchandise. A nice brief case to get through customs was much more profitable. Cheap 'crack' cocaine was suddenly everywhere. Crack had a devasting impact on life in the ghetto. Marijuana kept people somewhat mellow. Crack gets people hyped up and crazy. By the time I left Miami in the late 80's there were many places we needed an armed guard to go with us to visit.

During this time Jeb was building his fortune and planting the seeds for his political career by casting his fate with Miami's anti-Castro Cubans. Jeb was very involved in helping Daddy with Iran Contra and directly involved with some of the folks who were part of this drugs for arms business.

[smallprint]

5. Meanwhile, little Georgie...

...was testing the merchandise for "quality control".

on edit: It's easy to joke about this, but it really is a horrible, horrible thing. The War On Drugs has always been a War For Drugs, with the profits going to the elite of our so-called "civilized" society. There is so much evidence now of what is really going on, I just hope enough people get a clue so that we can change the situation...

[KoKo]

6. The reading here on DU the last few days is like reading Ludlum........

This was an interesting article. I'm still pondering the various stories around the NYT's article about supposed last minute efforts by Saddam to stop the Invasion.

I don't know. I was a happier person when I read Ludlum years ago. Then it was escape and fantasy with some reality thrown in. Now, it's all to real for escape.....we live in a Spy Novel today. We know who the bad guys/gals are, though, but not who the good guys/gals are, or if there are any, and which are which. :crazy:

Thanks for the article, it's an interesting read. Curious.

[DUreader]

7. Maybe it was always to real, but, being happier, you didn't notice

I guess cynicism is a family tradition for me and from a young age

it was almost a game to guess the 'real story'

[DUreader]

8. kick for the day crowd

[DUreader]

9. One more kick, it seems Webb's name may ne not well known here

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

10. Mucho gracias

I'd been wondering what had happened to Gary Webb.

[DUreader]

11. De Nada. Vamos a leer el escrito de Al Giordano, aqui:

http://www.bigleftoutside.com/

y tambien al www.narconews.com (now defunct but everything archived)