Price placed Webb as the shooter. "[78], While finding this part of the series unsupported, Schou said that some of the series's claims on CIA involvement are supported, writing that "The CIA conducted an internal investigation that acknowledged in March 1998 that the agency had covered up Contra drug trafficking for more than a decade." He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. After being reassigned to the Mercury News's office in Curpertino, where they had him writing death notices, Gary Webb resigned and fell into depression. This drug ring "opened the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles" and, as a result, "The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America."[23]. He was born January 28, 1950 in Middletown, OH to Paul and Dorothy (Hawkins) Webb. Gary Webb was an investigative reporter, focusing on government and private sector corruption and winning more than 30 journalism awards. Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. "Gary Webb was left to fend for himself. Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. [32], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all.". Webb, a former San Jose Mercury News reporter, was found dead in his Carmichael home Friday morning. He was born in Jacksonville, Texas, on March 13, 1954, to Carroll and Waldine Webb, the younger brother of Diane Webb. Both sides were left angry and disappointed. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. Film of this encounter survives. Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? The series follows the stories of several characters whose lives are fated to intersect including CIA operative Teddy McDonald who helps to secure guns for the Contras. "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". Uncharacteristically, Persia added her vocals to her father's 2017 song, 'My Name is Ruin'. "He had six in a short period of time." [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. Webb was put under pressure most certainly from the CIA under John Deutch for his reporting. In May 1997, after an internal review, Ceppos stated that, although the story was right on many important points, there were shortcomings in the writing, editing and production of the series. "He definitely was depressed. [63]Dark Alliance was a 1998 Pen/Newman's Own First Amendment Award Finalist, 1998 San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, 1999 Bay Area Book Reviewers Award Finalist, and 1999 Firecracker Alternative Booksellers Award Winner in the Politics category. Much of the article highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies to successfully prosecute them and stated that this was largely due to their Contra and CIA connections. After a lengthy battle with cancer, Beth Webb, wife of Pastor Gary Webb at Grace Polaris Church, Westerville, Ohio, was released from her earthly suffering and passed into the presence of Jesus on Wednesday afternoon. Webb put in a call to Robert Parry. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. "But that," pointed out Blum, who is now a Washington attorney, "in no way - in no way - diminishes the wrongness of what these bastards did. Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandn how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. The Real Housewives of Atlanta The Bachelor Sister Wives 90 Day Fiance Wife Swap The Amazing Race Australia Married at First Sight The Real Housewives of Dallas My 600-lb Life Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. Pictured as a teenage fan: Gary Numan with Gemma, his now wife, getting his autograph in 1985 years before they got together Gary was 600,000 in debt, and on the verge of going under in. 1) It presented only one interpretation of conflicting evidence and in one case "did not include information that contradicted a central assertion of the series." "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. [36] McManus wrote that Blandn's and Meneses's contributions to Contra organizations were significantly less than the "millions" claimed in the series, and stated there was no evidence that the CIA had tried to protect them. I mean - please.". He was taken to hospital by air ambulance. Celebrezze eventually sued the Plain Dealer and won an undisclosed out of court settlement. In . And yet, for all his Easy Rider tendencies, he was also a dedicated family man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae. He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. I have also followed up on key topics raised by Paul Cottrell will leading industry experts like Dr. Peter McCollough on the Tommy Carrigan Show, weekly in 2021 and 2022. Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst with the George Washington University's National Security Archive, was one of the first to suggest that Webb had overplayed his hand in the Mercury News version of "Dark Alliance". Webb, according to Bell, was a man who, more than most, found that his mood and self-esteem fluctuated in accordance with his professional fortunes. [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. "[74] Mary Anne Sharkey, Webb's editor at The Plain Dealer, told writer Alicia Shepard in 1997 that Webb was known as 'the carpenter' "because he had everything nailed down. One of these was a 1986 raid on Blandn's drug organization by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which the article suggested had produced evidence of CIA ties to drug smuggling that was later suppressed. What was new about Webb's reports, published under the title "Dark Alliance" in the Californian paper the San Jose Mercury News, was that for the first time it brought the story back home. Numan's real name is Gary Anthony James Webb, and he was born on March 8, 1958. Webb discusses the "Dark Alliance" controversy, including the government's refusal to respond to his story and the media's desire to kill it. In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. Webb became a staff reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in 1988. Twitter. "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. The article suggested this was in retribution for Ross' testimony in the corruption case. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. Asking why crack became so prevalent in the Black community of Los Angeles, the article credited Blandn, referring to him as "the Johnny Appleseed of crack in California. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". [51] After discussions with Webb, the column was published on May 11, 1997.[53]. GARY WEBB: His wife's office was burglarized. Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. The Sad Saga of Gary Webb. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." After divorcing his wife, being unable to obtain work from newspapers and facing increasing debts, Gary was forced to sell his home. Eventually, the media would mostly turn against Webb, attempting to discredit him. Mrs. Suzette Thomas Webb. He became an investigator for the California State Legislature, published a book based on the "Dark Alliance" series in 1998, and did freelance investigative reporting. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. The mainstream press, now known as the legacy. So he blew her off. Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. An investigative journalist, Webb became interested in the covert activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. The consensus, insofar as one exists, is that he probably overstated both the amount of drug money made by Ross and Blandn, and the percentage of those profits diverted to the Contras. As The Independent reported, in an interview with Gary's ex-wife Susan Webb: Webb's reports prompted three official investigations, including one by the CIA itself which - astonishingly for an organisation rarely praised for its transparency - confirmed the substance of his findings (published at length in Webb's 1998 book, also entitled Dark Alliance). Gary Webb was born on March 21, 1959 to Wayne and Peggy Davie Webb in Lamesa, Texas. He recently told the American Journalism Review (whose scrupulously researched piece, by Susan Paterno, is the only serious documentation of the Webb case I could find anywhere in the orthodox American media) that Webb's critics in rival newspapers, "quoted these CIA guys - who had a tremendous amount to hide - as though they were telling the truth. Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. Noting that most of the activities discussed in the report had nothing to do with the people Webb reported on, Kornbluh told Schou, "I can't say it's a vindication. The third article, by Mitchell and Fulwood, covered the effects of crack on African-Americans and how it affected their reaction to some of the rumors that arose after the "Dark Alliance" series. According to the report's "Epilogue," the report was completed in December 1997 but was not released because the DEA was still attempting to use Danilo Blandn in an investigation of international drug dealers and was concerned that the report would affect the viability of the investigation. But while calling the flaws in the series "unforgivably careless journalism," Overholser also criticized the Post's refusal to print Ceppos' letter defending the series and sharply criticized the Post's coverage of the story. When Gary originally broke this mind blowing story, the arrogant authority's assumed they could simply ignore him and hope he'd go away. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. The Media Turns On Gary Webb. ", The report called several of its findings "troubling." "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. He wrote well. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. He wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, which initially backed his articles but later dropped him. 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? reports. After examining the investigations and prosecutions of the main figures in the series, Blandn, Meneses and Ross, it concluded that "Although the investigations suffered from various problems of communication and coordination, their successes and failures were determined by the normal dynamics that affect the success of scores of investigations of high-level drug traffickers These factors, rather than anything as spectacular as a systematic effort by the CIA or any other intelligence agency to protect the drug trafficking activities of Contra supporters, determined what occurred in the cases we examined. 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. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? "[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." 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. [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. [45], The Post's response came from the paper's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. Call 911 for assistance. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. Beth Ann Webb May 10, 1962 - May 22, 2019. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. A 1985 series, "Doctoring the Truth," uncovered problems in the State Medical Board[12] and led to an Ohio House investigation which resulted in major revisions to the state Medical Practice Act. Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles Black community to the stories, described the series's evidence as "thin". [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. But you say - dear God. Webb was an assertive figure who drove fast cars and powerful motorcycles, hung heavy metal posters in his office and, at certain times in his life, smoked a fair amount of cannabis. Furthermore, the duo has been blessed with two daughters, Persia Numan and Raven Numan. "He walked in one day," Bell recalls, "and said, 'You are not going to believe what I just found out.' It's . "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. It reads: "There should be no fetters on reporters, nor must they tamper with the truth, but give light so the people will find their own way." But his central thesis - that the CIA, having participated in narcotics trafficking in central America, had, at best, turned a blind eye to the activities of drug dealers in LA - has never been in question. Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. 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. 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. I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. He was no hero either. The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. 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 . Reporter Robert Parry says thing was so fresh s then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the CIA helped introduce into. 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