Kill the Messenger

NATION BOOKS
  
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www.nationbooks.org
  
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New York

Kill the Messenger:
How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb

Published by Nation Books

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

116 East 16th Street, 8th Floor

New York, NY 10003

www.nationbooks.org

Nation Books is a co-publishing venture of the Nation Institute and the Perseus Books Group

Copyright © Nick Schou 2006

Introduction © Charles Bowden 2006

Portions of Chapter 10 previously appeared in the
OC Weekly
and the
LA Weekly

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. For information, address the Perseus Books Group, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.

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Book design by Pauline Neuwirth, Neuwirth & Associates, Inc.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

LCCN: 2007275820

ISBN 978-0-78673-526-6 (e-book)

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To Claudia and Erik, for their love, support, and inspiration

CONTENTS

Introduction by Charles Bowden

Dramatis Personae

ONE
  
Moving Day

TWO
  
Guns and Girls

THREE
  
Sin City

FOUR
  
The Big One

FIVE
  
Drug Stories

SIX
  
Trial and Error

SEVEN
  
Crack in America

EIGHT
  
Feeding Frenzy

NINE
  
Mea Culpa

TEN
  
Lister

ELEVEN
  
Exile

TWELVE
  
Withdrawal

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Photo section appears after Chapter 7

INTRODUCTION

I MET HIM
in a bar in Sacramento in April, 1998. His series on the CIA was almost two years old, and officially repudiated by the
Los Angeles Times, New York Times
and
Washington Post
. He'd lost his job and no one in the news business would hire him. I remember he entered the hotel saloon with a kind of swagger. I remember that he ordered Maker's Mark. And I remember idly mentioning conspiracy theories and that he instantly flared up and said, “I don't believe in fucking conspiracy theories, I'm talking about a fucking conspiracy.”

I'd arrived there because early that winter at a New York restaurant I'd told a magazine editor that the only story worth writing about was: What in the hell had happened to Gary Webb? At that moment, I'd also said I thought his
series was true and the editor snapped, “Of course, it is.” So I'd spent months interviewing former DEA agents who'd brushed against the CIA, devoured mountains of documents and become convinced that Webb's discredited series was true. And that the papers and reporters who had destroyed him were wrong.

I'd spent years bumbling around the drug world and anyone who does that runs into whiffs of the CIA that can never be completely documented and that never seem to really go away. I know a narc in Dallas who had seized over twenty million dollars cash at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport from a courier flying out of Miami and was told by the Justice Department to return the money and let the man continue on his way. I have a friend who witnessed the first non-stop flight of cocaine and marijuana from Colombia to northern Mexico in 1986, a full-bodied plane without seats that landed at a desert airstrip. The pilot was from a CIA proprietary company in Florida. My friend got time in a federal prison. The pilot continued flying. I've talked to a DEA agent who saw a plane full of cocaine land at a U.S. Air Force base in the '80s. I've talked to a DEA agent who knew of numerous drug fields in Mexico that handled drug flights from Central America during the contra war and that were never bothered by DEA.

You either dismiss these stories out of hand as impossible or you look into them and slowly but surely become convinced. I became convinced and accept the implication that the CIA has for decades knowingly dealt with drug dealers and justified these actions by citing national security. Just as they have dealt with other criminal syndicates. Gary
Webb stumbled upon one such instance, pursued it with tenacity, willed his account into print, and consequentially, was run out of the news business.

That's the guy I talked with in the bar in Sacramento. And that is the person you will meet in this book. He was the best investigative reporter I've ever known. But that hardly matters if you mess with our government's secret world without its consent.

When I met Webb I was deep into a book on the drug world of the U.S./Mexico border, a book that consumed almost eight years of my life. I amassed a lot of stuff on the CIA and drugs during those years, material I basically left out of the book because I did not want to become another Gary Webb and have my work pitched into the trash for the high crime of calling into question our national security bureaucracy.

So that's the deal: we now live in a country where reporters dread becoming Gary Webb. God help us.

When I first learned of his suicide, I shut down my life for two days, sat in my yard and drank. I'm not sure if I drank for Gary Webb or for the rest of us.

But I know Gary Webb got it right and that was the worst possible thing he could have done.

—C
HARLES
B
OWDEN

2006

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

THE CONSPIRATORS

Danilo Blandon:
Nicaraguan exile and cocaine trafficker, supplier of South Central dealer “Freeway” Ricky Ross. Became government informant against Ross.

Ronald Lister:
Former Laguna Beach police detective, international arms merchant, security consultant and drug dealer with Blandon. Claimed to work for CIA.

Norwin Meneses:
Known as King of drugs in Nicaragua during 1970s, major drug smuggler and supplier of Blandon.

“Freeway” Ricky Ross:
First South Central crack dealer to become millionaire in 1980s. Sentenced to life in prison in 1996, but scheduled to be released from Lompoc Federal Penitentiary for good behavior in 2008.

THE OPERATORS

Adolfo Calero:
CIA asset and political director of Nicaraguan Contras. Photographed with Meneses in San Francisco. Denied knowledge of drug dealing.

Roberto D'Aubuisson:
Head of paramilitary death squads in El Salvador, business contact of Lister.

Enrique Bermudez:
Contra commander and CIA asset who met with Blandon and Meneses in Honduras about fundraising, allegedly told them “ends justify the means.” Shot to death in 1991 by unknown assailants in Nicaragua.

Tim Lafrance:
San Diego weapons dealer who has worked with CIA. Traveled to El Salvador with Lister.

Bill Nelson:
Former security director at Fluor Corp. in Orange County, ex-deputy director of operations for CIA. Business contact of Lister in 1980s. Died of natural causes in 1995.

Eden Pastora:
Former Sandinista turned contra commander. Associate of Blandon.

Scott Weekly:
U.S. intelligence operative, ex-soldier of fortune. Traveled to El Salvador with Lister.

THE WHISTLEBLOWERS

Jack Blum:
Lead prosecutor for Senator John Kerry's probe of contra cocaine activity in 1980s.

Martha Honey:
Former
New York Times
stringer based in Costa Rica. Unsuccessfully sued Reagan administration officials for role in bombing injuries suffered by her husband.

Peter Kornbluh:
Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which has declassified countless government documents from Iran contra era.

Bob Parry:
Former AP and
Newsweek
reporter who authored the first stories involving contras and cocaine.

Michael Ruppert:
Former Los Angeles police detective. Claimed he uncovered CIA ties to city's drug epidemic;
confronted CIA director John Deutch at South Central, L.A. town hall meeting.

Maxine Waters:
L.A. Congresswoman who held hearings into CIA complicity with drug traffickers after “Dark Alliance.”

THE MERCURY NEWS

Pete Carey:
Veteran reporter assigned to investigate “Dark Alliance” after other papers criticized the series. Found no evidence of CIA involvement in drug ring.

Jerry Ceppos:
Executive Editor who defended Webb, then published letter to readers backing away from “Dark Alliance.”

Dawn Garcia:
State Editor who worked directly with Webb on “Dark Alliance.”

David Yarnold:
Managing Editor who supervised “Dark Alliance.” Stopped reading drafts halfway through editing process.

THE CRITICS

David Corn:
Washington, D.C., editor of
The Nation
. Both criticized and defended “Dark Alliance.”

Tim Golden:
Former Central America correspondent for
Miami Herald
, wrote articles for
New York Times
, critical of “Dark Alliance.”

Jesse Katz:
Los Angeles Times
writer who called Ross “mastermind” of crack cocaine two years before “Dark Alliance.”

Joe Madison:
National radio host also known as the “Black Eagle.” Dedicated six months of daily coverage to “Dark Alliance,” arrested outside CIA headquarters.

Doyle McManus:
Washington Bureau Chief of the
Los Angeles Times
. Directed paper's response to “Dark Alliance.”

Walter Pincus:
Wrote articles critical of “Dark Alliance” for the
Washington Post
. Spied on student groups for CIA in 1950s.