CIA Drug Trafficking Allegations – Sale of Cocaine in Los Angeles – Part 6 (1998)

March 16, 1998 www.amazon.com Watch the full program: thefilmarchived.blogspot.com Robert Parry, who in 1985 became the first reporter to accuse the Contras of involvement in drug trafficking, wrote that the Post’s denunciation of Webb was ironic, because the paper “had long pooh-poohed earlier allegations that the Contras were implicated in drug shipments” but now “the newspaper was finally accepting the reality of Contra cocaine trafficking, albeit in a backhanded way.” In response to these attacks, Webb created a web site that contained primary documents, transcripts, and audio interviews. By January 1997, Webb’s editors no longer contacted him about his stories. In March, Webb was informed that the paper was going to address the readers about his series. On May 11, 1997, Mercury News executive editor Jerry Ceppos published an editorial describing the series as an “important work” and “solidly documented,” but criticized the series for: a reliance on one interpretation of complicated, sometimes-conflicting pieces of evidence; failing to estimate the amount of money involved; for oversimplifying the crack epidemic; and for creating impressions that were open to misinterpretation through imprecise language and graphics. Webb was reassigned to a suburban bureau 150 miles from his home. Because of the long commute, Webb quit the paper in December 1997. On December 18, 1997, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz’s …
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