In this weekend’s mainstream media reports on Gary Webb’s death, it’s no surprise that a key point has been overlooked — that the CIA’s internal investigation sparked by the Webb series and resulting furor contained startling admissions. CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz reported in October 1998 that the CIA indeed had knowledge of the allegations linking many Contras and Contra associates to cocaine trafficking, that Contra leaders were arranging drug connections from the beginning and that a CIA informant told the agency about the activity.
When Webb stumbled onto the Contra-cocaine story, he couldn’t have imagined the fury with which big-foot reporters from national dailies would come at him — a barrage that ultimately drove him out of mainstream journalism. But he fought back with courage and dignity, writing a book (Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion) with his side of the story and insisting that facts matter more than established power or ideology. He deserves to be remembered in the proud tradition of muckrakers like Ida Tarbell, George Seldes and I.F. Stone.
BY TOM TOMORROW