Anyone see 'American Gangster' on BET last night? It covered the Contra Cocaine

[blm]

story in a documentary that gave pretty good accounting of the political network that the Bush loyalist-CIA and their creative drug and armsdealing abetted while flooding the inner cities with cocaine and crack.

The two lawmakers to make it an issue in DC were Maxine Waters in the House, and Kerry in the Senate. The media stacked up against everyone making it a story - Ricky Ross, the dealer who dared to admit the truth, Gary Webb, the reporter who uncovered the story, Waters and Kerry.

The documentary discussed how Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter was demonized by the rest of the corpmedia who promoted the idea that Webb fabricated the story - Webb was CRUSHED in the newspaper business. The program gives us the chronology of how it went down, but failed to mention an important fact - the takedown of Webb and the continuing coverup of Poppy Bush's covert actions was Clinton's White House decision.

I wonder why the black community has chosen to overlook some of these factors, or has the entire problem been successfully swept under the rug now that it is not a focus of newsmedia anymore?

Webb committed suicide in Dec 2004. I believe HE believed at that point the full story would never come to light to bring him the vindication he sought for almost a decade.

Definitely see this program when BET re-airs it. It brings the reality of how the Contra-Cocaine issue is STILL a relevant issue to our foreign policy and especially relevant to the health and welfare of the inner-cities targeted for abuse and certain death as POLICY of our White Houses since 1981 with a continuing coverup that has allowed it to flourish - now with increased opium supply from Afghanistan.

There are some clips available at BET site - I am going to give them a SERIOUS THANKYOU for covering a topic corpmedia has wanted to go away.

http://www.bet.com/BETShows/americangangster.htm?wbc_purpose=Basic&WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Alliance-Contras-Cocaine-Explosion/dp/1888363932

[acmavm]

1. Clinton did a LOT of covering for Poopy. I have not one doubt

in my mind that that is the reason he seems closer to Poopy than his own worthless son, the Decider.

Clinton did a good job covering for him, The Decider has tried to one-up the guy his whole dysfunctional life.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

2. Thank you, I remember that so clearly

Webb wrote for the SJ Merc News, which at the time I was reading every day. Even though it was a fairly liberal paper, I was stunned to see the article on the front page. I was particularly stunned by the content, because I'd followed Iran-Contra when it happened, and figured most of this would come out eventually anyway.

Back in the 80s I had a friend whose dad was a CIA pilot of some sort. He died in a plane crash in California; the plane never even got off the ground. I remember it was briefly news but again the story was buried because of the content. She didn't even know what her father did until after he died, and her mother had to fight for years to get his pension money, because there was so much secrecy around what he was doing. Wish I'd researched that more at the time, but I was about 20.

Gary Webb's story remains a good example of how quickly a reporter can be totally discredited (and tragically destroyed) when the story is damaging to the powers that be.

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4. They target every lawmaker willing to speak the truth the same way.

That is why I will never STOP supporting the anti-corruption, open government Democrats - this country needs them even as the establishment powers work to discredit them and take them down in the public eye.

[shrike]

3. Good book out now on Webb's life

Stunning indictment of American media culture. And accurate, too; I used to work in newsrooms. If anything, the author was too kind.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

6. Is it "Kill the Messenger" by Nick Schou?

Just did a search, is this the book you are talking about?

[shrike]

11. Yes

I just bought it, and recommend it. It's an easy read. As I've said, I don't think it came down nearly hard enough on Webb's editors. Although maybe he was just letting their words stand on their own: most take absolutely no responsibility for what happened. OTOH, he's in the business and may have been striving mightily to be fair.
Robert Parry's quoted in the book.

[blm]

12. I am going to have to get that back - I always get gift cards to bookstores so

I will pick it up after Christmas.

Thanks for the heads up.

What happened to Webb and Parry was EVIL - it instilled FEAR in the press corps that has been very effective in keeping down any REAL INVESTIGATIVE reporting - there must be less than a handful of strong investigative reporters at work these days.

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13. oops - meant get that book.

.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

14. Cool, I just asked for it for Christmas

Looks good, thanks. Though I hate to relive that horrible stuff with so much going on today, it's all connected anyway...

[unpossibles]

5. this makes me so mad

I was "coming of age" during Iran Contra, it got me interested in politics, and I remember being so upset that it just went away quietly with almost no repurcussions (or seemed so at the time) for those involved.

This was a major black mark on Clinton in my eyes, and although I thought he was overall a great President, this (and NAFTA) pissed me off to no end and the pardoning is frankly the reason I've never considered myself officially a Democrat in name, even though I support them in many ways and tend to vote Dem.

It crushed me when Kerry got smeared in the '04 election, and frankly I think mostly because of Iran-Contra fallout. And when so many of the crooks involved ended up back in positions of power.... Ugh. Between this and the Kennedy assassinations (which were before my time) and the current administration's many blunders (9/11, Katrina, shredding the Bill of Rights, Iraq, etc., ad nauseum), is it so wrong of me and many others like me to want to trust our government, but feel I can't? We're supposed to be the government of, by, and for the people but we've been highjacked.

And yes, the Bush maladministration has pushed me back into the fold. I want the Dems to weed out the many problems we're facing, including a few in their own party, but especially the NeoCons and TheoCons who are ruining the country that I love. I have faith they/we can do it too, but I know I for one, will never again stop being vigilant and will work to keep others from being politically lazy because we get what we pay for.

Anyway.... I want to watch this. Sorry for rambling.

[blm]

7. I think both Webb and Hunter Thompson would be alive today if BushInc hadn't stolen 2004

as both of them expected Kerry to open the books when he had the opportunity to do so from the oval office.

[jbnow]

8. Thank you

I wouldn't have known to watch for it.

It is too real and relevant a topic. What they did then will echo on and not just here.

Not just the black community but all of us either didn't really know what happened and don't know what is conspiracy theory from truth and if we feel it is true...what do you do?

I do know some people who state the CIA getting crack into the inner cities as a fact. They will speak angrily, then they shrug. What can they do?

Kerry was also really mocked on this. He was pressured to drop the investigating by both parties, the NY Times and other papers accused him of showboating or following wild theories. He was a bulldog.
When some of Iran-Contra was substantiated and an official investigation was started they didn't even seat Kerry on the committee. That's OK, then he started the investigation into BCCI and made enemies all over the world at the highest levels.

I didn't follow this then but read much more about it in 2004 and never understood why Kerry didn't bring those investigations up.

It must have felt insane to that reporter that people weren't listening to something so important.

It's crazy now how many of the characters from that time are pretty active characters now. cheney really tried to put blocks up to investigating then and wrote a lot of dissenting opinions. Talk about bulldogs...that gang didn't give up and here they are ruining the world today.

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9. In 2004, Kerry needed the support of Dem PARTY and its infrastructure, including

many of the Clinton team who were running the DNC. None of them would go NEAR IranContra, BCCI, CIA drugrunning stories because then Clinton's coverup would become the story as his book had just come out then and he never even mentions one word about BCCI and downplays everything else.

And the documents that have been stashed away are the only ones that will vindicate the people involved, including Kerry - I think that is why BushInc and the Dem powerstructure worked so hard against him.

I am puzzled that the black community leaders never made Clinton's involvement a major issue, and instead, seem oblivious to it.

[blm]

10. here's a link that gives an overview to how covering up brought us Bush2.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

[jbnow]

15. Thanks! (no text)