The culprit behind the crack plague
Gary Webb is dead. But the crack cocaine plague that devastated much of urban America - including Milwaukee - is still alive and well. We may never know exactly where it came from but at least Webb tried. Webb, 49, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a controversial series of stories in 1996 linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles. He was found dead last Friday at his home near Sacramento from an apparent suicide. According to a coroner's report, Webb died from two gunshot wounds to the head. There's been much chatter by conspiracy buffs on the Internet and elsewhere about the "suspicious" nature of Webb's death. Which seems reasonable; when was the last time you heard about someone shooting himself in the head twice? But Webb's wife says he was depressed over the turn his career had taken. [more]
- The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times each ran stories dismissing Webb's research, discrediting his reporting and essentially exonerating the CIA of any wrongdoing. Even the Mercury-News buckled under the pressure, with Managing Editor Jerry Ceppos distancing himself and the paper from Webb and his story. Webb quit soon after being transferred out of the Mercury-News newsroom and wrote a book, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. [more]
- R.I.P. Gary Webb -- Unembedded Reporter [more]
- Gary Webb R.I.P. [more]