In August of 1996, the San Jose Mercury News published a three-part investigation by Gary Webb into the U.S. government's links to the trade in crack cocaine in South Central Los Angeles. Webb's investigation uncovered links between the Central Intelligence Agency's covert war against Nicaragua and convicted Los Angeles drug dealer "Freeway" Ricky Ross, whom the Los Angeles Times in 1994 had dubbed the "one outlaw capitalist most responsible for flooding Los Angeles' streets with mass-marketed cocaine." (20 December 1994 p. A20)
The (admittedly sensationalized, but basically accurate) story generated much controversy, and heated denials from the mainstream media (in particular the local paper of record, whose editor Shelby Coffey III couldn't bear the thought of someone else beating his paper out on a major story in his own backyard). This vehement denegation, however, is largely inconsistent with the historical record (some of which has been, and continues to be, reported in these same papers).
This web site is part of a long-standing research project of mine. As a scholar working at the interstices of speech communication and cultural studies, I have been investigating the public discourse surrounding the "war on drugs" as an exercise in disciplinary social control. This site is a database of information, evidence, and other resources that have helped guide me in this research project, and will hopefully help others working along the same lines.
The 1997 CIA budget was 26.6 billion dollars. This year (1998) their budget is $26.7 billion. What the hell do we get for our money?
Obdisclaimer: The links below point to documents here and all over the web. My including a link to something, it should be obvious, does not necessarily mean that I endorse what you read there. And of course my opinions are solely my own, not the opinions of my employer, web provider, or therapist. Finally, any previously copyrighted material included on this site is there for fair use only.
Site Index:
The Scandal Unfolds: The San Jose Mercury News article and its aftermath.
- Memorandum of Understanding between former CIA Director and Attorney General inserted into Congressional Record (07 May 1998) by Maxine Waters. This evidence that the CIA engineered a legal exemption from requirements to report drug smuggling suggests not only that the CIA director was well aware of such activity on the part of CIA assets but that he actively sought to keep this information away from public and legal scrutiny. [The relevant documents are also archived here.]
See also Robert Parry's commentary on the above, from The Consortium 3:11 (01 June 1998), reprinted in the Antifa Bulletin (03 June 1998). Parry calls the memo "evidence of premeditation." Whether or not that will be the official conclusion of the Congressional investigation, there is little question that this marks a turning point in elite attitudes toward this story.
- Written Statement of Celerino Castillo for the House Select Committee on Intelligence (27 April 1998): Former DEA Agent sets the record of CIA involvement in drug trafficking straight. [Mirrored here]
- Gary Webb's new book Dark Alliance published by Seven Stories Press! On its heels comes Alexander Cockburn and Jeffery St. Clair's excellent book Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press.
Webb's book tour has drawn more attention to the story. Coupled with the Congressional investigation, there is some possibility that this story will finally get the media attention it deserves. What remains to be seen is whether this attention will result in sweeping government reform or whether the slight fractures produced in elite consensus will be managed with little impact on the underlying structures. In any case, here is some of the recent attention drawn to the story as a result of the book tour:
- Chapter 1 of Webb's book (from the New York Times website; requires free registration. Chapter One of Whiteout is also available.
James Adams, "Moonlighting," New York Times (28 September 1998). Cowardly review of Webb's book and of Whiteout. I doubt the author read either book all the way through, for he simply replays the same tired old arguments that the mainstream media undermined the Webb story. (Note that this article also requires free registration.)
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Robert Parry, "New York Times' New Contra Lies" The Consortium (01 October 1998). Excellent piece dissecting the above book review.
- Nick Shou, "Rage Against the Webb," Orange County Weekly (12 June 1998).
- Dark Alliance Book Tour information from High Times
- Juan Gonzalez, "Crack-Contra Story Won't Die," New York Daily News (16 June 1998)
- Steve Weinberg, "'Dark Alliance' reinforces Gary Webb's crack expose," Baltimore Sun (14 June 1998)
- Alexander Cockburn, "South Africa'S Dirty Secrets Have Echoes," L.A. Times (21 June 1998). Editorial. Cockburn is the coauthor of the book Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the Press, soon to be published by Verso.
- Michael Ruppert's CASEFILE: The CIA and Drugs
Mike Ruppert is a former LAPD narcotics officer who has been investigating the CIA/drug connection for 18 years. You may have seen his lively exchange with former CIA Director John Deutch in South Central Los Angeles. His site publishes his newsletter addressing the scandal, links to further contra-cocaine information, and offers the following prediction:
At minimum there will be a convoluted admission that CIA personnel were touched by drugs and some sacrifices will be offered. Other committees in Congress will start looking at CIA's usefulness. CIA will be disbanded and intelligence gathering placed in the Pentagon by the year 2004. NSA will reign supreme. Unrelated predictions: Clinton is toast. So is Gore. Beneficiaries of Clinton's demise are Colin Powell and George W. Bush.
- Walter Pincus, "CIA Kept Ties With Alleged Traffickers," Washington Post (17 March 1998). Even long-time CIA advocate (well, sort of) Walter Pincus admits here that the Inspector General's report "clearing" the CIA of any wrongdoing is hogwash.
- Nick Schou, "Secret Agent Men": More on Lister and his intelligence and corporate connections. Published in the Orange County Weekly (05 November 1997).
- Nick Schou, "Tracks in the Snow": Schou uncovers new evidence about Ron Lister's connections to Blandon, responding to the Ceppos apology in the process. (LA/OC Weekly 22 May 1997). Schou writes:
"This new information on Lister's ties to the shadowy world of covert operations falls just short of being the smoking gun that reporter Webb sought for his Dark Alliance series. But Lister's story does add weight to the very assertions that the mainstream press judged to be deficient in Webb's work. And it underscores the point that it is the CIA, not Webb, that still has the most to answer for on this matter."
- San Jose Mercury News Editor Backpeddles! Editor Jerry Ceppos is now refuting the significance of the Webb series, and in a breach of every journalistic ethic I can think of, has turned on reporter Gary Webb. The mainstream media, of course, joined him in ridiculing Webb and have all but buried the story.
- Interview with Gary Webb with the Revolutionary Worker (22 June 1997)
- Dark Alliance: The August 1996 San Jose Mercury News exposé. This web site presents the evidence in a series of compelling articles, along with photographs and sound clips from testimony about the CIA's involvement in the crack trade in South Central. Now they have defaced every page on the site with a link to Ceppos' mea culpa, attempting to give the overall impression that the story was an error. Who knows how long before they take the entire web site offline.
- Dark Alliance: A mirror and index to the above site which is a little easier to navigate. It contains some information not included above.
- New Dope on the CIA-Crack Connection:
From the LA Weekly (20 December 1996). Nick Schou discusses the mysterious Scott Weekly and his connections to Lister (the man who told DEA agents that he was untouchable because of his CIA connections). Also see Schou's excellent article "Who Is Ron Lister?", also from the Weekly (22 November 1996).
- Contras Crop Up in L.A. Courts, by Kevin Uhrich for the LA Weekly. (04 October 1996). Uhrich digs through LA court documents and uncovers more evidence (none of which has been addressed specifically by any of the major papers).
- Crackwatch, by Robert Knight. New URL! This site explaions the case of the disappearing graphic. Includes links to the following stories by Robert Knight and Dennis Bernstein, who have been following the CIA-Contra-Cocaine story for over ten years:
- Closing the Loop on the Contra-CIA-Drug Connection, from Z Magazine (November 1996).
- Leading Edge Research Projects' CIA-Cocaine site
- SNOWBLIND: How Contras Corrupted the US Government. By Richard Bernstein and Robert Knight (21 November 1996)
- Anatomy of a Coverup: Part II of above (28 November 1996). Also posted here.
- Let's Make a Deal, by the same authors (December 1996)
- Christopher Reed, "Dirty Hands," report on Contra Drug-Running by the Guardian (19 November 1996).
- The CIA Drug Pipeline: How the US Government Spread Crack Cocaine in the Black Ghettos.
Stories from the Final Call, the voice of the Nation of Islam.
- America's Secret War: From Rachel's Weekly.
- The Threat to Our Children, by Michael Rivero.
- The Smuggler's Trail, from the LA Weekly (04 October 1996).
- Tales of CIA Drug Link Pulse Through L.A.: From LatinoLink.
- CRACKWATCH: A Secret History of the clandestine establishment of Narcocracy in the Americas. The CIA-contra-crack-cocaine connection, by Robert Knight. Discusses the case of the "disappearing graphic" (which appears above). NOTE: This site has been removed temporarily (at least I hope it's temporary).
- Dark Alliance: Reprint of the SJMercury article with commentary from Arm the Spirit.
- Netizen Special Report on the CIA/crack connection
- CIA's Contras Linked to Crack Trade: nice summary of the San Jose Mercury News exposé
- CIA under Pressure, from the Christian Science Monitor. Report on the SJMercury story.
- Propaganda/Narco-Politics: collection of links on the Webb revelations from Disinformation
- "CIA, Contras, and Crack," October editorial from the Christian Science Monitor.
- How the CIA Created the Crack Epidemic, story from the Revolutionary Worker.
- House Panel Hears Allegations: CNN Report (19 October 1996).
- George Bush: Crack Kingpin of the 1980s, by Jefferey Steinberg for Executive Intelligence Review. Despite its impressive-sounding title, don't be fooled -- the EIR is is a Lyndon LaRouche-scam. The entire 116-page report can be ordered from Lyndon LaRouche's web site for a mere $100 (yeesh). Almost a buck a page -- what a deal, folks. Despite their inscrutable obsessions (which range from conspiracy theories involving the pope, the queen, and the kitchen sink to fearmongering about a Soviet nuclear strike in the 1980s to a 1985 report that warned that AIDS would prove more devastating than a full-scale nuclear war), however, LaRouche's hypothetical question is food for thought: "How many thousands of federal prisoners are doing former Vice President George Bush's prison-time?"
Official Denials: With the CIA investigating itself, is it any wonder that they can look at documents that say one thing and then officially conclude the exact opposite?
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New CIA self-report released! Volume II: The Contra Story (08 October 1998): Another weak attempt to whitewash CIA involvement. Like Volume I, the report starts with the "Key Finding" that "No information has been found to indicate that CIA as an organization or its employees conspired with, or assisted, Contra-related organizations or individuals in drug trafficking to raise funds for the Contras or for any other purpose," yet later in this section admits that "CIA acted inconsistently in handling allegations or information indicating that Contra-related organizations and individuals were involved in drug trafficking. In some five cases, CIA pursued confirmation of allegations or information of drug allegations. In other acted to end a relationship after receiving drug trafficking allegations or information. In another six cases, CIA knowledge of allegations or information indicating that organizations or individuals had been involved in drug trafficking did not deter their useemployment by CIA. In other at least two of those cases, CIA did not act to verify drug trafficking allegations or information even when it had the opportunity to do so." And that is only the introduction! While the mainstream media is unlikely to look beyond the first sentence of the findings, there is little question that the evidence in this volume combined with what has already been admitted makes a compelling case for CIA malfeasance -- and this is just what CIA admits in their own report!
- FAS has another copy of Volume II, along with some convenient links to damning admissions: Oliver North (as yet unnamed) essentially authorizing drug trafficking by Moises Nunez, CIA knowledge and lack of action regarding the drug trafficking activities of Ivan Gomez, and North's airline Southern Air Transport's involvement in money laundering.
- Robert Parry, "CIA's Drug Confession," The Consortium (11 October 1998). Parry unpacks the most recent CIA admissions with his trademark even-handed clarity.
- "CIA didn't always report contra drug-dealing," says the San Jose Mercury News (09 October 1998), in spite of editor Ceppos' weasly back-peddling last year.
- CIA Clears Itself! Well, of course they do. This link is to "The California Story," Part 1 of a promised 2-part report of the Inspector General of the CIA (who later admitted to Congress that the details in the CIA report suggest the exact opposite of the parts of the "executive summary" leaked to newspapers prior to the full report. Is it any wonder the mainstream media never bothered to read the rest of the report? One journalist who did, long-time contra-coke muckraker Robert Parry, published "Contra Coke: Bad to Worse in the (16 February 1998) issue of the Consortium, which can be accessed at http://www.consortiumnews.com/ with a subscription. Parry points out glaring evidence in Inspector General Hitz's own report that the CIA obstructed major drug investigations, in one case returning tens of thousands of dollars in confiscated money to known drug traffickers.
- Martha Honey, "Don't Ask Don't Tell," In These Times (17 May 1998) discusses the Hitz report and the government's basic acknowledgement of the fundamental facts -- the CIA was aware of the extensive contra drug trade. See also Peter Zirnite, "CIA Admits Knowing About Contra Drug Trafficking" (18 March 1998).
- Maxine Waters Responds: Testimony of Rep. Maxine Waters Before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (16 March 1998). Waters takes apart the Inspector General's report piece by piece.
- Pasadena Police Chief Finds no Link to Crack (12 February 1997).
- Sherman's Contra-Diction: Sheriff Block makes a statement contradicting the file it is attached to, and the L.A. Weekly's Charles Rappleye points it out. (13 December 1996).
Related Stories:
- Sheriff Block's Investigation: The Executive Summary, which raises more questions then it answers with regard to Danilo Blandon, Ron Lister, et al. Archived at the Mercury News website. They have thoughtfully included a copy of the ten page document referred to by Attorney Harold Braun--handwritten notes by Ron Lister which may establish the CIA/DIA/cocaine connection.
- Original LA Times report of Block's denials. (11 December 1996).
- New York Times Report on Sheriff Block's Denials. (12 December 1996).
- Investigation shows no CIA ties: Sheriff Block's denials reported uncritically by the Dallas Morning News (12 December 1996).
- CIA and False Rumors: For the Omaha World Herald, Sherriff Block's denials should put this whole business to rest. (13 December 1996).
- Amid Doubters, CIA Begins Crack Probe: From the LA Times (30 December 1996). Report on the CIA's investigation of itself; strangely Orwellian in its matter-of-fact discussion of CIA operatives stymied by an investigation of their own agency. A couple of gems are highlighted.
- Contra Leaders Say CIA Not Involved. CNN Report (26 November 1996). Of course they do.
- Deutch Confronts Angry L.A. Residents: CNN is kind enough to bring us video coverage of Deutch's confrontation with former LAPD officer Michael Ruppert, who has been trying to make information about CIA drug trafficking public for eighteen years. Deutch told Ruppert to bring his documents to the LAPD or to Congress (as if Ruppert hadn't thought of that in 18 years). Video clip requires an obscure Nutscrape video plugin called Vivo. Those less electronically indulgent among us can hear a brief wav file of Ruppert's statement. CNN's print story is here.
Also:
- CIA Says it Finds No Link after looking at evidence that provides one. (6 November 1996).
- Top Ten Reasons to Believe the CIA, satire from the Nation (23 December 1996).
The Scandal and the Mainstream Media: How the corporate press is playing into the hands of the CIA by covering up the significance of these revelations.
Interviews and Radio Broadcasts: These files require a RealAudio-capable browser to access.
- Michael Levine Speaks (07 April 1998): Former DEA agent discusses the evidence. Levine is author of Deep Cover and Big White Lie, 2 books which expose CIA protection of drug kingpins under DEA investigation during the 1980s. See also CIA Admits To Deal With Justice Department To Obstruct Justice, which links to other interviews.
- Drugs and the CIA: Dick Gregory and Dr.Joseph Lawrey (SCLC) Press Conference
- Free Speech TV maintains several RealAudio broadcasts, such as:
- Peter Dale Scott: Cocaine Politics The United States government has been involved in drug trafficking at least since the Vietnam War, according to this noted author and historian. Produced by Mike Thornton.
- Corporate Media Cover for the CIA, part 1
An interview with Norman Solomon of the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting on the backlash against the San Jose Mercury News story Dark Alliance, uncovering CIA involvement in the emergence of crack cocaine in the United States. Produced by Mike Thornton.
- Corporate Media Cover for the CIA, part 2 Produced by Mike Thornton.
- Gary Webb Interview An interview with the reporter who broke the Dark Alliance story in the San Jose Mercury News, uncovering CIA involvement in the drug trade. Mike spoke to Mr. Webb shortly after the story hit the streets, before the media firestorm ensued. Produced by Mike Thornton.
- "CIA Crack Affects Nicaragua, Too" An interview with Georg Hodel, one of San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webbıs Nicaraguan sources for the Dark Alliance series. Produced by Mike Thornton.
- Dr. Jocelyn Elders Drugs, AIDS, and the CIA Produced by Andrew Dieringer.
- Michael Rupert: The CIA, Drugs, and Me An interview with a former LAPD narcotics officer who says he was solicited by the CIA to deal drugs. Produced by Glen Lynch.
- Cover-Up: Behind Iran-Contra (excerpt) A tale of politics, drugs, hostages, weapons, covert operations, and the ultimate plan to suspend the U.S. Constitution. Produced by Barbara Trent.
- Michael Ruppert Speaks! Cafe Luna Sol in LA. Warning: this is a 10-Meg non-streaming RealAudio file. (13 August 1997)
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Peter Dale Scott talks to Jerry Brown on "We the People" (19 November 1996). Discusses the history of CIA drug trafficking and the sad state of American "intelligence." Scott is persuasive and eloquent both in his elaboration of CIA involvement in the cocaine trade and his defense of Webb's article. Listen from 05:28 on where he argues the story was "much more accurately and much more cautiously reported" by Gary Webb than by the New York Times and Washington Post. No longer online! Write Jerry Brown and tell him to put it back up!
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The CIA's Complicity With Drug Lords: Real Audio file of a radio show from CounterSpin. (25 October 1996) Includes commentary from Robert Parry dissecting the media coverage and the "investigations." Fast forward to 07:24 to hear the story. At 14:40 hear Parry point out how Blum's testimony has been blatantly wrenched out of context by the mainstream mass media. After 17:20 there is a story about Afghanistan that mentions CIA support of the heroin trade as well.
- Which Way LA (24 October 1996), from LA's KCRW, discusses the controversy. Some excellent comments from Ricky Ross' attorney and Nation writer Robert Parry destroy the L.A. Times coverup. No longer online :( Write KRCW and tell them you want it back online! For now you can read a report in the Christian Science Monitor congratulating host Warren Olney that mentions some of the questions he asked in this interview.
- Listen to a CounterSpin Radio radio interview with Gary Webb (13 September 1996). Requires RealAudio. Fast forward to 08:20 to hear the interview.
- RealAudio From Free Speech TV:
- NPR report of 23 October 1996. Requires RealAudio.
Other Recent Evidence: Besides the Webb Series.
The mainstream media responded only to the straw-man argument that the CIA directly dealt crack in South Central L.A. Looking at this evidence from a broader perspective uncovers CIA links to the cocaine trade throughout Central and South America. The following links help document CIA drug-related activity around the world.
- CIA Narco-Colonialism: This excellent site not only provides links to the relevant evidence, but also attempts to situate CIA activity in the context of Western imperialist domination of the third world.
- The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations: An "Electronic Briefing Book" of primary government documents that have been declassified through the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive. Lots of primary evidence from the government's own sources is here to help convince anyone who still thinks the criminal activity is deniable. Neatly summarized and organized for your reading pleasure!
- Another Nicaragua Connection: Was Jose Francisco Guasch CIA, as Nicaraguan authorities claim? Facts on File gives us a teaser.
- Brian Downing Quig's "DCIA Diary": From his De-Central Intelligence Agency site. Quig comments:
Although the Webb material is more detailed it is but a small footnote
to what I have posted. Just look at the dollar amounts. The attempted
rip of of the 105 A-10s is a billion dollar crime in and of itself.
This diary includes pictures of US government planes that have been used in drug operations. These pictures may be the most damning evidence to date of CIA drug-dealing, although so far the press is kowtowing to the government spin on the intelligence connection (and oddly enough even the 12/06 AP wire report posted here has been removed from LEXIS/NEXIS). In January 1993 whistleblower Gary Eitel filed suit on behalf of the US government against T&G; Aviation, a company that may be a CIA front company for an airbase. The huge airbase is conveniently located on an Indian reservation, far from Customs inspectors and other pesky bureaucrats who like to interfere with drugrunning and other illegal covert operations. An internal government memo admits that at least one C-130 "ended up in the possession of drug runners." (Arizona Republic 24 February 1997, B1). Keep your eyes open for more news about this airstrip!
- Top Secret CIA Drug Smuggling Operations. Compiled by We the People, includes links to the sworn affadavit of Edward Cutolo and a scan of an NSA letter to CIA regarding "Operation Whale Watch," during which drugs were allegedly smuggled in oil rigs owned by Zapata Corporation (partly owned by former president George Bush). All from the We the People Website: Dedicated to exposing CIA drug trafficking; lots of links to primary documents.
- Foreign Policy in Focus: a collection of policy briefs developed by the Interhemispheric Resource Center and the Institute for Policy Studies. Includes gems such as "The CIA, Contras, Gangs, and Crack" by William Blum and "US Drug Control Policy" by Peter Andreas. See also Kit Gage and James Morrel, "The Intelligence Apparatus"
- John Elliston's Guide to Contra/Drug Documents Online, from the Dossier at www.parascope.com.
- Contra/Coke Connection surfaces, then disappears, in Milwaukee. Short report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (22 December 1996) discussing the possibility of another fugitive with possible connections both to the CIA and to the cocaine trade. Is Detlaf Thomas Wisconsin's "Freeway Rick"? (Click here for a 1987 Chicago Tribune article mentioning Detlaf Thomas).
- The Snow Lady: Inmate Accuses Clinton family of Drug involvement. (09 March 1997)
- Miami Jury Indicts CIA Assets In a Cocaine-Sex Scandal Involving 20,000 Kilos!
Reported in the Wall Street Journal (22 November 1996) and sent to me by Joe Horman.
Now let me get this straight. A couple days before this indictment is reported CIA director Deutch is swearing up and down he has seen no evidence of CIA drug connections. Yet the indictment gets very little coverage in the mainstream press. See also "New Dirt on CIA Drug Operations": Why was the recent Miami trial of Venezuelan CIA assets and DEA agents ignored in the mainstream press coverage of the Webb story? Also see "The CIA: An Unfunny Joke" by Larry Taylor.
Update! Jose Fernandez may get New Trial! Allegations of CIA involvement in Venezuelan drug trafficking may receive more serious national attention now as a result of a decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on 17 March 1998. Stay tuned for more on this.
Also related to the Venezuela connection: The August 1998 issue of High Times (not yet online) is carrying an article by Bill Weinberg, "Were CIA Cocaine Routes used by Iraq's Spies" which points to Majid al-Samarrai, Iraqi ambassador to Venezuela in the early 1990s, as a new source of important information on this incident. According to the London Sunday Times, al-Samarrai, arrested at Heathrow airport in December 1997 and cooperating with British intelligence agents, kept lengthy and explicit ledgers of cocaine sales aided by the Iraqis bringing cocaine from Venezuela into Europe. An anonymous "senior Iraqi opposition source" told the Times that during this time al-Samarrai was secretly working for the CIA. al-Samarrai's response to this claim: "I am an Iraqi diplomat and ex-ambassador. I came here to seek asylum." Yeah but the question was, did you work for the CIA while smuggling drugs?
Related Stories:
This story first broke in 1993. Here are the original Wire Reports (20 November 1993).
And the mainstream news stories:
- A Kentucky Connection? Read what the Courier Journal has to say. (28 January 1997)
- What the hell is going on in Montana??
- US-Mexico Drug Connection: Documents compiled by We the People
- Gabriella Gamini, "CIA Set up Death Squads in Colombia," from the Times of London (05 December 1996).
- People of the Opiate: The CIA and Heroin in Burma. From The Nation (02 December 1996). See also John Pilger's article "The Burmese Gulag" from Covert Action Quarterly.
- Drugs and Burma: Part of The Burma Project of the Open Society Institute. Stay up to date on the unfolding events.
- Colombian CIA Drug Dealing: a DEA agent explains. From the Colombian newspaper Cambio. Another article here. Both articles are from CSN's site on Hypocrisy in the Drug War against Colombia.
- The Guatemala Connection: Joe Horman discusses current developments.
- Guatemalan Death Squad Kingpin Linked to CIA and Drugs, a 1995 High Times article.
- More on Guatemala's Drug Lords, by Frank Smyth.
- Castro Drug Probe Collapses: From the Miami Herald (24 November 1996). You gotta love this. While the U.S. government comes under scrutiny for having ties to the Central American drug trade, its attempt to charge official enemy Fidel Castro with precisely such connections is exposed as a complete fabrication.
- Martha Honey documents further evidence of CIA cocaine connections.
- About Drugs And The CIA by Chris Stevenson. Short report on Michael Levine and Celerino Castillo. (07 December 1996).
- Espionage and Psychic Abuse: Seargent of USAF claims to have been subject to electroshock therapy as a result of reporting CIA drug dealing.
- "A Matter of Irrelevance" is what Federal Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. said about evidence of CIA drug trafficking in the trial of a Florida couple. From Chip Tatum of the Big Sky Patriot. (24 October 1996)
- "The Banks, The Government, and the Drug Trade," article in an October issue of Worker's World exposes the money-laundering business. Also see "CIA Pushes Drugs" in the same issue.
- U.S. Officials Joined Mexican Drug Smugglers, from the Sacramento Bee in February of 1996.
- Ex-DEA Agent Castillo Tells All: Excerpt from Castillo's book Powderburns.
- Ollie North and Drugs: More on the Castillo revelations.
- Ex-DEA Agent Celerino Castillo announced his intention to confess about the CIA/DEA connection to the drug trade over a year ago. When he told former president George Bush of his intentions, Bush "smiled and walked away." More on the story here.
- Chronology of Events outlining the CIA/Contra Drug Dealing Connection. Note that this chronology was developed in 1990, six years before the most recent revelations.
- Haiti's Nightmare: The Haiti connection to the CIA/Contra Drug Operation. See also "Haiti, Thugs, and Drugs."
- Haitian Police Chief indicted: While the LA Times is only too happy to spin the CIA's involvement in LA cocaine dealing, they report without a hint of irony that the CIA's long time favorite police chief in Haiti is now under indictment for shipping tons of heroin and cocaine into the US. (08 March 1997) See also the New York Times report.
- The Mena Controversy: Did CIA operatives and assets use the Mena Arkansas airport to import tons of cocaine under the nose of then governor Bill Clinton? As the claims and counterclaims mount I have moved this section to a separate page.
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Drug Money Times: A publication of Mad Cow Productions, producer of Daniel Hopsicker's Mena video The Secret Heartbeat of America. See also Brazen Thugs in Daylight Car Crash, a report of the deliberate harassment of a television producer airing Hopsicker's video on television (13 May 1998).
What to Do? What some people are doing to make policy-makers pay attention, and how you can help.
A History of Drug Dealing: Evidence of CIA complicity in the international drug trade. While the mainstream media hatchet job has focused only on the most recent revelations, scholars have documented U.S. complicity in the drug trade for decades. While it may not be evidence of a "conspiracy" to destroy black America, there is no question that the result of U.S. policies have been precisely that.
Intelligence Links: Dealing drugs is just one of the many crimes the CIA has been extensively involved in. Among their other tasks are overthrowing popular governments, fixing elections, covering up human rights violations, assassinating political figures, and generally ensuring the worldwide dominance of U.S. business interests.
- The 1998 CIA Budget is $26.7 billion (Released via FOIA 20 March 1998). That's $100 million higher than the 1997
CIA Budget of $26.6 billion. Are we getting our money's worth? The budget was declassified courtesy of a lawsuit by the Federation of American Scientists, which their website (accurately, in my mind) terms "one of the few notable intelligence reforms achieved since the end of the Cold War." How many schools could 26.7 billion dollars save in 1998?
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Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 1999
That wretched smell is your tax dollars going up in smoke. Be sure to check out the Senate Report too. (13 May 1998)
- State Department Historical Advisory Committee annual report that without more declassification of CIA covert actions, the government's version of history would constitute "an official lie." !!! Well, this is really no surprise but having the State Department come out and say it is nice :) Thanks, FAS! (April 1998)
- Jim Wolf, "CIA study blasts own Vietnam-era performance," Reuter's (09 June 1998)
- Scathing Critique of CIA role in Bay of Pigs Declassified (22 February 1998)
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My Case Against the CIA
Former CIA officer Kenneth C. Stahl delivers an extensive and persuasive case against his former employer. Read his most recent letter to Bill Clinton.
- Carla Anne Robbins, "At Secret Factory, CIA Edits Files for Public Consumption," Wall Street Journal (19 March 1998): Robbins discusses the boring labor involved in the active destruction of history.
- Intelligence Research Tools
Keep abreast of current developments from the following sites:
- David Phinney, "CIA Toasts its
50th Birthday," from ABC News. One of the few mainstream media
accounts of the CIA's 50th anniversary that is not utterly
sycophantic; even quotes a CIA critic (a practice almost unheard of
in the mainstream press, especially at such self-congratulatory rituals staged by overpaid blowhards as agency anniversaries.
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Global Intelligence Challenges in the 1990s
Military briefing from Open Source Solutions, Inc., a high tech think tank for government spooks and their friends in the corporate world. There are tons of interesting documents, memos, and reports here that reveal both the paranoia of the intelligence elite and its unabashed equation of "freedom" with the unbridled expansion of monopoly capitalism.
My favorite passage:
Revolutionary Warfare Is Just That: Revolutionary. It Does Not Respond To Negotiation Or Reason As We Understand The Terms
-- When Revolutionaries "Negotiate" They Do So To Buy Time And Improve Their Position
-- Intelligence In The 1990'S Must Be Able To Document Revolutionary Deception In Terms Stark Enough To Support The Employment Of Force Where Appropriate
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Council on Foreign Relations, "The Future of the CIA" (18 February 1997)
- CIADRUGS.COM! A new website dedicated to exposing CIA drug trafficking.
- CIA Misdeeds, from Ralph Nader's site.
- Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII
Table of Contents for this excellent book by William Blum, detailing the history of US covert action.
- Daniel Jeffreys, "I'm Guilty": Former CIA operative Julia B tries to quit the Agency, calling it "state-sponsored sadism." From the Independent (05 March 1997)
- Lisa Haugaard, "Textbook Repression" Covert Action Quarterly (Summer 1997). CIA training manuals declassified and their implications discussed.
- Philip Colangelo, "The Secret FISA Court: Rubber Stamping on Rights" Covert Action Quarterly (Summer 1995). FISA is a secret court that approves surveillance, wiretaps, and other covert activities within the US. They have been approving more and more domestic surveillance applications recently.
- The CIA and the Third World: from Third World Traveler
- CIA Covert Operations throughout the years. A brief historical account.
- The CIA: Collection of links from the Serendipity home page.
- The Octopus Conspiracy: Why the U.S. government spies on bank accounts, and the connection to drug money laundering. Journalists have already been murdered for trying to get this story out.
- The De-Central Intelligence Agency, a site dedicated to ending the media blackout on the CIA's involvement in heroin and cocaine trafficking. Now mirrored here!
- Life Without the Old CIA, by Robert Scheer
- The Intelligence Connection, designed for the "incurably informed" by the De-Central Intelligence Agency.
- Want More Information on CIA Covert Operations Domestically (in explicit violation of Federal Law)? Check out this site for details.
- Confessions of a CIA Brat II, form SOURCES eJournal.
- Hacking the CIA: This is what the CIA's home page looked like when it got hacked.
- Cops Sell Crack: A California Court upheld a sting operation in which the polica actually manufactured and sold their own crack. Los Angeles Times (16 August 1997) Not totally relevant to this page but interesting.
- Kill the Drug Addicts: Infoseek reviews Kyle Mills' Rising Phoenix, a Tom Clancy- and William Webster-approved dystopic fantasy of poisoning drug users to end the drug war. Also not fully relevant to the issue of the CIA and drugs but it is a useful and interesting peek into the dangerous mentality at work in U.S. public discourse about drugs.
- Pictures of crack cocaine
If you have visited this site before, you will notice some changes. I've moved my pedantic ranting out of the introduction to this page since some people found it too strident for their tastes, but I've kept it here for those who find the above too tame. Also, I've included the site index on a frame for easier navigation; if anyone with non-frame browsers has trouble loading this page please email me and I will try to fix any problems. I've somewhat shamelessly stolen the frame structure from the Macintosh resource page, an excellent news page for the Macintosh-using community.
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These pages maintained by Ben Attias
All copyrighted material included for fair use only.
Last Update: 5:18 PM on Monday, October 26, 1998.
Please Send Comments, Suggestions, etc. to
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