Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion

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Summary: The missed major story of the past 20 years.
Review: Gary Webb has uncovered the biggest story of the past twenty years. It covers three Presidential adminstrations and uncovers the corruption of our government and the few officials who abuse the power entrusted with them. It also shows how bad modern media has gotten in its responsibility to do true "journalism." Gary Webb has gathered "hard" edvidence, organized it and made sense of lengthy and complex conspiracy of our and central american governments plan to fund a private war through drugs sales. The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The New York Times denounced his findings without a shred of contrary evidence or with just statements from the CIA saying it was a lie and they all just took the CIA's statement as fact. The major news media reporters have just become stenographers for the big, corrupt government in Washington and they will swallow anything that is spoon fed to them. The biggest loser in all of this is the American public, the people who have become addicted to drugs and the truth. But thanks to Gary Webb the truth wasn't lost but placed in a forum where the WHOLE story could be told, "Dark Alliance."

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Summary: Fact or Fiction
Review: Mr. Gary Webb may well be the very best "Fiction writer" of all times.....he has the unigue ability to take fibers of truth and weave it into a full fledged story..He never allows the truth to get in the way of a good story. It doesn't matter who he hurts, what he destroy's, what carnage he leaves behind. Just so long as he see's his by-line. Take this book as a piece of the true fiction. This was just another example of how Mr. Webb spins his little tales. But this time his ego forgot to check who his victim was, It was "The United States Government" who like Mr. Web, buys there ink by the truck full. Congradulations Gary, you finally self destructed ....your former victims all cheered....from the statehouse to the courthouse and remember all the times you lost your slander suits.

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Summary: Sometimes Conspiracies do Happen
Review: This is a remarkable book. My first inclination was to disregard it as another conspiracy theory. After reading it and checking some of the sources, however, I have concluded that it is accurate. Gary Webb traces the introduction of crack cocaine into Los Angeles in the early 1980's and followed its rise to a full blown epidemic by the mid to late 80's. Undoubtedly, agents of the CIA and DEA, and most certainly Oliver North and his Contra operation were aware of the source of the cocaine. Indeed, it is apparent that the White House knew and acted to protect the drug pipeline in order to keep the money flowing to the Contra organization. Ronald Reagan was clearly more interested in fighting the war on communism than the war on drugs. The hypocrisy of the Reagan administration is apparent when we realize that Reagan declared illicit drugs a national security issue and championed the most draconian drug laws written to that date. Would crack cocaine have become an epidemic without CIA support? Probably, Webb points out that the development of a similar drug in Latin America by the 1970's had been studied and scientists warned that a similar epidemic in the U.S. was imminent. Would it have happened as fast or been as bad without government protection? No one knows the answer to that question. Ultimately, there were two big losers. Inner city dwellers were hit hardest. Not only were they exposed to this incredibly addicting drug, but they bore the brunt of the government crack-down on illicit drugs. The other loser was Ronald Reagan, whose legacy of integrity and honor is destroyed in his ends justifies the means approach to government. Anyone who reads this book will never look at Ronald Reagan or Oliver North in quite the same way.