
Managing a Nightmare: CIA Reveals How It Watched Over Destruction of Gary Webb - etiam
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/25/managing-nightmare-cia-media-destruction-gary-webb/
======
dmix
While the Contra-LA ghetto connection might be controversial, one thing
everyone agrees with is that the American invasion of Afghanistan has turned
it into the largest producer of heroin in the world. Creating an explosion of
heroin addictions in many countries such as in Russia, southern Europe and the
middle-east (Vice also did a great documentary on Iran):

> Since NATO began its ‘War on Terror’ in 2001, heroin production in
> Afghanistan has increased 40-fold, according to the head of Russia’s Federal
> Drug Control Service. “Afghan heroin has killed more than 1 million people
> worldwide since ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ began, and over $1 trillion has
> been invested in transnational organized crime from drug sales,” Viktor
> Ivanov said earlier at a conference on the Afghan drug problem in 2013.

[http://rt.com/news/156128-afghanistan-drugs-usa-
heroin/](http://rt.com/news/156128-afghanistan-drugs-usa-heroin/)
[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-24919056](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
asia-24919056)

> Such has been the failure to combat the problem that more than 90 per cent
> of the heroin sold on Britain’s streets is still made using opium from
> Afghanistan. The United Nations yesterday warned that the situation was out
> of control.

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102158/Heroin-
produ...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102158/Heroin-production-
Afghanistan-RISEN-61.html)

The side-effects of instability due to war are massive and severely under-
appreciated.

~~~
lmg643
I've seen a lot of this data - very troubling.

With some familiarity of Gary Webb's work on crack cocaine, it does make me
wonder whether the CIA is also allowing exports of opium to fund additional
covert ops in Afghanistan.

The NYT had reported back in 2001 - just prior to 9/11 - that the Taliban ban
on opium production was a big success:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/world/taliban-s-ban-on-
pop...](http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/world/taliban-s-ban-on-poppy-a-
success-us-aides-say.html)

Think about it - our now sworn enemy, the Taliban, was the only effective
government to shut down drug production inside its borders. Sure, among other
things, but it does make you think. Karzai's family members are major opium
traffickers.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html)

And, apparently in partnership with the CIA. So perhaps I'm not so crazy after
all.

Heroin has won new converts among American youth who used to take oxycontin -
effectively a gateway opiod. Oxy was reformulated to reduce its ability to
produce a high, and heroin is now cheap and everywhere.

Just another wonderful side effect of our misguided overseas adventures.

~~~
A_COMPUTER
If you search Wikipedia for "rendition aircraft" you will find a plane that
crashed in Mexico in 2007 while carrying multiple tons of cocaine. Do a Google
search on the tail number of the aircraft and you'll find a couple sites who
did extensive investigation of the aircraft's previous owners (an empty
business office) and interesting flight history (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.)

~~~
wmil
I'm not so sure about that one, FARC is a marxist group that had ties to
Chavez. I can't see the CIA helping them.

It seems more likely that anyone looking at the flight / maintenance logs
noticed discrepancies. No legitimate buyer would take it.

~~~
tjradcliffe
Why not? The CIA is a highly compartmentalized organization staffed by people
with extremely pragmatic (albeit often relentlessly anti-Bayesian) attitude.
As such, they will--and historically have--ally themselves with pretty much
anyone if it seems like a plausible way to further their immediate, narrowly-
defined mission.

As such, supplying arms to Iran was no big deal for them in the 80's, and
helping FARC today is likewise no big deal. You have to understand that the
typical CIA operative (or at least the ones who get caught doing something
egregiously illegal) has absolutely no moral compass. They are purely
interested in the narrowest possible operational goals, and this unfortunate
reality is extremely well-documented.

------
mturmon
I remember when Webb's story came out and the _L.A. Times_ , my hometown
paper, scrutinized the story. This was back in 1996 when the _LAT_ had a big
investigative staff and was winning prizes at the same rate as the _NYT_.

The _LAT_ 's take on Webb's story was important because South Central LA was
an epicenter of the crack wars, and some of the characters in Webb's story
were LA dealers.

They basically shot the story down. The recollection of one of the lead _LAT_
reporters rings true:

“As an L.A. Times reporter, we saw this series in the _San Jose Mercury News_
and ... kind of put it under a microscope. And we did it in a way that most of
us who were involved in it, I think, would look back on that and say it was
overkill. We had this huge team of people at the L.A. Times and kind of piled
on to one lone muckraker up in Northern California.”

This reaction to a new story is reminiscent of pg's idea of a "middlebrow
dismissal" \-- spending much energy poking holes in something new, but not
really trying to pursue what's interesting about the new idea.

Edited to add: An excellent summary of this story by veteran LA reporter Marc
Cooper, on the occasion of Webb's death:
[http://www.laweekly.com/2004-12-16/news/gary-webb-
rip/](http://www.laweekly.com/2004-12-16/news/gary-webb-rip/)

------
Ygg2
So CIA basically tossed some blood, with their "balanced report" and caused
sharks to swarm in. And news worry why people don't trust them.

I loved this quote:

    
    
        “And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how    
        sadly misplaced my bliss had been. The reason I’d 
        enjoyed such smooth sailing for so long hadn’t been, as 
        I’d assumed, because I was careful and diligent and 
        good at my job,” Webb wrote. “The truth was that, in 
        all those years, I hadn’t written anything important 
        enough to suppress.”
    

It seems whenever someone does a moral thing in spite of society, he is often
persecuted for it. From informants revealing secrets of bad government deals,
to leakers, they all seem to be targets.

And it's interesting who often funds the detractors.

~~~
arjie
It's often useful to remember that the New York Times had Judith Miller and
the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek had Joyce Haber. PG spoke about The
Submarine - a strategically placed news article. He paid under seventeen
thousand.

The problem is the opposite of what they worry about. We all trust news too
much. We'll read something in a field we're familiar with, say "what utter
nonsense!" and turn the page and read something about a topic we're unfamiliar
with.

I suppose you don't have to publish a retraction if you aren't caught.

------
ScottBurson
_On December 10, 2004, the journalist was found dead in his apartment, having
ended his eight-year downfall with two .38-caliber bullets to the head._

That's certainly interesting. How do you shoot yourself in the head twice?

~~~
scintill76
Apparently the two shots caused a stir at the time. The coroner acknowledges
it sounds strange, but based on suicide notes, history of depression, suicidal
actions (like getting rid of belongings), and apparent precedent of two shots
in a suicide, they still believe that was the cause.

[0]
[http://web.archive.org/web/20080507054818/http://dwb.sacbee....](http://web.archive.org/web/20080507054818/http://dwb.sacbee.com/content/news/story/11772749p-12657577c.html)

~~~
ZanyProgrammer
How many people commit suicide by being able to shoot themselves twice in the
head? I'm no doctor or firearms expert, but it _seems_ unlikely.

~~~
scintill76
5 out of 138 (3.6%) in one study published in a journal. "Incapacitation by a
shot to the head is achieved when the bullet penetrates the cerebrum; however,
numerous bullet trajectories, including a shot between the eyes, do not
achieve this penetration."[0]

I share the suspicion, but it's apparently likely enough, that you can't
immediately conclude it wasn't suicide just because there were two shots.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_gunshot_suicide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_gunshot_suicide)

~~~
tomp
Well, the other theory would be that 3.6% of suicides are actually murders
disguised as suicides.

------
Rapzid
I love how people display a "boys will be boys" attitude toward the CIA and
media these days. Personally, I find this fucking disgusting.

------
foxylad
No comments? Am I brave or stupid?

~~~
ChrisAntaki
On Reddit, comments are rewarded for appealing to all kinds of human emotions.
A quick one liner that doesn't hint at technically savvy might get the most
upvotes on Reddit. On Hacker News, comments centering around knowledge and its
acquisition tend to be rewarded. While I didn't make your comment any lighter,
I'd assume this is why others did.

