He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. Gary Webb Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. Gary Webb was at his desk in the Mercury News's Sacramento office, in July 1995, when he received a message to call Coral Baca, a Hispanic woman from the San Francisco Bay area, allegedly connected to a Colombian drug cartel. "Although Ross had become a millionaire by 1984," Katz now wrote, "the market was so huge by then that even a dealer of his stature could seem dwarfed How the crack epidemic reached that extreme, on some level," he continues, "had nothing to do with Ross". On one road trip, in 2001, he came off the motorcycle and split his helmet open. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. .article-native-ad strong { [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. It found that CIA officials ignored information about possible Contra drug dealing; that they continued to work with Contra supporters despite allegations that they were trafficking drugs, and further asserted that officials from the CIA instructed Drug Enforcement Agency officers to refrain from investigating alleged dealers connected with the Contras. And "we really didn't do anything to advance his work or illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry exercise. "He thought I was being cowardly. [22], The lede of the first article set out the series' basic claims: "For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency." Sheriff: Fatal Blue Grass house fire rule 'undetermined, but accidental' The CIA Inspector General's report, commissioned in response to the allegations in "Dark Alliance", was published in the autumn of 1998. He was born at Emmanuel Hospital in. But the report was correct. Man Donates Liver To Ex-Wife - CBS News Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. Emma Lee Webb. Gary Webb's painstaking investigation and the incindiary conclusions he drew from it were based mostly on public records, as detailed in the "notes on sources" section in "Dark Alliance", including: undercover audio tapes, declassified government documents from the CIA, DEA, FBI, L.A. Sheriff's Department, files from the Iran-Contra . He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. "[62] It also found no evidence to support Webb's suggestion that several other drug smugglers mentioned in the series were associated with the CIA, or that anyone associated with the CIA or other intelligence agencies was involved in supplying or selling drugs in Los Angeles.[62]. Walter Bogdanich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who worked with Webb on The Plain Dealer, told American Journalism Review editor Susan Paterno "He was brilliant; he knew more about public records than anybody I've ever known. Gary Webb, (born August 31, 1955, Corona, California, U.S.died December 10, 2004, Carmichael, California), American investigative journalist who wrote a three-part series for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 on connections between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S.-backed Contra army seeking to overthrow Nicaragua's leftist [65], Within "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On" essay Webb stated he believed there was an active "collusion between the press and the powerful" to report freely on inconsequential matters, "but when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff We begin to see the limits of our freedoms". He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. He really did believe that," she says. [66] He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. There is a CIA connection and I can demonstrate it.'". "[79], Writing after Webb's death in 2005, The Nation magazine's former Washington Editor David Corn said that Webb "was on to something but botched part of how he handled it." His erstwhile editors on the Mercury News, meanwhile, saw their careers thrive. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. Dispelling the Rumors: Gary Webb's Death Confirmed As Suicide Relationships with other women ended badly. By a fortunate coincidence of timing, the report was released on a day when the Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated every front page in the country. Dark Alliance: Gary Webb, Christian Rummel: 9781522694397: Amazon.com Gary Webb famously died of two gun shot wounds to the head and his death that was ruled a suicide, is the common sense notion that this was clearly assassination true? Dr. Gary A. Webb, MD | Marco Island, FL | Geriatrician | US News Doctors Both Gary's ex-wife Susan and his brother Kurt viewed the body and they confirmed the location of the wounds to me when I met them. It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel, right? A secret deal allowed drugs to go unreported by the DCI. While police were preparing the case against her boyfriend, Baca alleged, officers had disclosed documents which revealed that one of her lover's associates had been working for the Contras. Jeff Leen, assistant managing editor for investigative reporting at The Washington Post, wrote in a 2014 opinion page article that "the report found no CIA relationship with the drug ring Webb had written about." Evidence Begins To Indicate Gary Webb Was Murdered - BSNEWS [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. The Man Who Exposed The Crips, Bloods & CIA Connection to - YouTube I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. When his body was found, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was on the DVD machine, and his favourite CD, Ian Hunter's live album Welcome to the Club, was in the CD player. Cuts and amendments were made at the request of Ceppos, executive editor of the Mercury News, and Webb's immediate editor Dawn Garcia, among others. Investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories in 1996 for the San Jose Mercury News that documented the US-government-backed Contra insurgents' drug pipeline into Los Angeles. The Warning in Gary Webb's Death - Consortium News Special Reports - Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories And The Cia In - PBS By 1997, Bell tells me, Webb - whose 30-year career had earned him more awards than there is room for in her study - had been reassigned to the Mercury News's office in Cupertino. Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? When Webb pressed the Mercury News to allow him to investigate the LA connection further, his own newspaper issued a retraction which earned its editor, Jerry Ceppos, wide praise from rival publications, but effectively disowned Webb, who then suffered the kind of corporate lynching that reporters are usually expected to dispense rather than endure. A flood of inquiries about Gary Webb's shooting death prompts statement. font-weight:500; After the announcement of federal investigations into the claims made in the series, other newspapers began investigating, and several papers published articles suggesting the series' claims were overstated. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. Attorneys' Offices. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." Gary Webb Resigns from the San Jose Mercury News Webb's ex-wife, Sue Bell, discounted theories Tuesday that her husband had been murdered, saying the 49-year-old Webb had been distraught for some time over his inability to get . margin: 0 45px; and Drugs Has a Life of Its Own", "Pivotal Figures of Newspaper Series May Be Only Bit Players", "Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade", "Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales", "History Fuels Outrage Over Crack Allegations", "Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks", "Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos' Letter to the Washington Post", "Washington Post response to Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos", "Despite critics, a good story Crack and the contras", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Epilogue", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Conclusions", United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career? The article discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 - Gary Webb, a reporter who won national attention with a series of articles, later discredited, linking the Central Intelligence Agency to the spread of crack . It concluded, however, that these problems were "a far cry from the type of broad manipulation and corruption of the federal criminal justice system suggested by the original allegations.". When he was engaged, he worked hard. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". color:rgb(46,179,178); He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Gary Webb and 'Kill the Messenger': Reporter played by - cleveland Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . Webb, whose plans to become a journalist had begun when he was 13, but never included equine death notices, resigned from the Mercury News a few months later. "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the CIA. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I am scared," the voice replies. [16] As part of The Mercury News team that covered the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Webb and his colleague Pete Carey wrote a story examining the causes of the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct. His assignments included investigating racial profiling by the California Highway Patrol and charges that the Oracle Corporation had received a no-bid contract award of $95 million in 2001. Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. Army. In the final few months of his life, Bell says, Webb became increasingly withdrawn. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. When removal men arrived, on the morning of 10 December 2004, they found a sign on his front door, which read: ''Please do not enter. My wife has kept me grounded for . Going to the CIA to ask if they've ever profited from drug sales in Los Angeles, I suggested to Kornbluh, is rather like asking Fagin if he has ever picked a pocket. Gary Webb - Spartacus Educational Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". Parry, the first reporter to write about the US authorities' drug-running on behalf of the Contras, had survived a campaign by the White House to discredit first his story, then his reputation. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. Kill the Messenger review - what really happened to Gary Webb "[72] California Representative Maxine Waters, who was Webb's strongest supporter in Congress after the "Dark Alliance" controversy broke, issued a statement after Webb's death calling him "one of the finest investigative journalists that our country has ever seen. GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. The reports of the three federal investigations into the claims of "Dark Alliance" were not released until over a year after the series's publication. But as Krim told Webb's biographer Nick Schou, "The zeal that helped make Gary a relentless reporter was coupled with an inability to question himself, to entertain the notion that he might have erred. "He definitely was depressed. "People told me that," she says. Gary E. Webb, a dedicated husband, dad, pappy, coach, mentor, teacher, supporter, hero, and best friend, was called home by the Lord while surrounded by family. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. In a 2013 article in the LA Weekly, Schou wrote that Webb was "vindicated by a 1998 CIA Inspector General report, which revealed that for more than a decade the agency had covered up a business relationship it had with Nicaraguan drug dealers like Blandn. To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. "He was sleeping more, he hated to get up in the morning, he started having a lot of motorcycle. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told.
Franciscan Sisters Obituaries, Spring Hill Fl Dixie Youth Baseball, Rosewood Funeral Home Porter, Tx Obituaries, Defensive Analyst Football Salary, Articles G
Franciscan Sisters Obituaries, Spring Hill Fl Dixie Youth Baseball, Rosewood Funeral Home Porter, Tx Obituaries, Defensive Analyst Football Salary, Articles G