[51], The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed. After the publication of "Dark Alliance," The Mercury News continued to pursue the story, publishing follow-ups to the original series for the next three months. There were no offers. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. 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. In 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories exposing the connection between the CIA and the crack cocaine that was being sold in So. The Death of Gary Webb - Beyond Chron He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). But as his ex-wife told the . Gary was born May 5, 1954, to his parents Worley and Margaret Webb, who preceded him in death as well as his brother, David Webb. Like the CIA and Justice Department reports, it also found that neither Blandn, Meneses, nor Ross were associated with the CIA. In a 2013 article in the LA Weekly, Schou wrote that Webb was "vindicated by a 1998 CIA Inspector General report, which revealed that for more than a decade the agency had covered up a business relationship it had with Nicaraguan drug dealers like Blandn. ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. [60], It found nothing to support the claim that "the drug trafficking activities of Blandn and Meneses were motivated by any commitment to support the Contra cause or Contra activities undertaken by CIA." I believe that we fell short at every step of our process: in the writing, editing and production of our work. "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". [14] In 1984, Webb wrote a story titled Driving Off With Profits which claimed that the promoters of a race in Cleveland paid themselves nearly a million dollars from funds that should have gone to the city of Cleveland. Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. Blandn and Meneses' high-volume supply of low-priced high-purity cocaine "allowed Ross to sew up the Los Angeles market and move on. } [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. Famously known by the Family name Gary Stephen Webb, was a great Engineer.He was born on August 31, 1955, in Carmichael, California.Carmichael is a beautiful and populous city located in Carmichael, California United States of America.. Gary Webb Early Life Story, Family Background and Education. [48] Despite the controversy that soon overtook the series, and the request of one board member to reconsider, the branch's board went ahead with the award in November. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. There has been speculation that he may have met with foul play because he had received two gunshot wounds to the head, The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday. There is a CIA connection and I can demonstrate it.'". He wrote well. Critics view the series' claims as inaccurate or overstated, while supporters point to the results of a later CIA investigation as vindicating the series. Herhold: Thinking back on journalist Gary Webb and the CIA Webb, Bell explains, had written four letters explaining what he was about to do - one to her, one to each of their three children - and mailed them immediately before he killed himself. One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' He was previously married to Sue Bell. "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. that the "federal government bore some responsibility, however indirect, for the flood of crack that coursed through black neighborhoods in the 1980s"). 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. When they married, she was aged just 21. But the report was correct. WEBB, Mr. Gary Lee, our beloved son, husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle went home with his heavenly Father Monday, August 29, 2011 at University of Michigan Hospital. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." The Tragic 2004 Death Of Investigative Journalist, Gary Webb How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere By Richard Horgan October 8, 2014 Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint O'Connor had a solid feature the other day about Kill the. "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. *, 'Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion' is published in the UK by Seven Stories Press, priced 11.99, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Susan Bell: a shameful secret history - The Independent A time of fellowship and remembrance is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at Lake Ridge Chapel and Memorial Designers. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". Relationships with other women ended badly. . [35] The second article, by McManus, was the longest of the series and dealt with the role of the Contras in the drug trade and CIA knowledge of drug activities by the Contras. The attack on Gary Webb and his series in the San Jose Mercury News remains one of the most venomous and factually inane assaults on a professional journalist's competence in living memory . "I told Gary not to go near this story," his source replies, in an emotional voice. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. Gary Webb | American journalist | Britannica Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandn how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. [61] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. [45], The Post's response came from the paper's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser. We had been here before." 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 drugs went to South Central LA. And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". Webb's experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee. According to Corn, Webb "was wrong on some important details, but he was, in a way, closer to the truth than many of his establishment media critics who neglected the story of the real CIA-contra-cocaine connection." After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. We had this huge team of people at the L.A. Times and kind of piled on to one lone muckraker up in Northern California." Gary Webb was born on August 31, 1955 in Corona, California, USA. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. The Mercury News reporter came under sustained attack from the weightier US newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and, especially, the Los Angeles Times, infuriated at being scooped, on its own patch, by what it saw as a small-town paper. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". [62], Examining the support that Meneses and Blandn gave to the local Contra organization in San Francisco, the report concluded that it was "not sufficient to finance the organization" and did not consist of "millions," contrary to the claims of the "Dark Alliance" series. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. At that time, Webb (pictured) was best known for the controversial three-part CIA 1996 expose he wrote the San Jose Mercury News called "Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the . Her husband began his career on The Kentucky Post, and rapidly proved himself to be the sort of character who can be a secretive agency's worst nightmare: a full-blooded provocateur who liked to put the hours in at the library. "The second bullet," adds Bell, who has worked for more than 20 years in the area of respiratory therapy, "struck his carotid artery. Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. In 1997 Ceppos was awarded the US Society of Professional Journalists' National Ethics Award. He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. Sue remarried two years ago. n 1996, journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of articles under the title "Dark Alliance" for the suggesting a CIA connection between anti-government contras in Nicaragua and monies raised from. Army. Gary Numan's superfan wife had 'body lift' and exploding breasts Two years later, he was promoted to Vice President of Knight Ridder, the Mercury News's parent company; he retired from this position last month. What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". Within weeks, the site was attracting up to 1.3m hits per day. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. [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. Ross was also released early after cooperating in an investigation of police corruption, but was rearrested a few months later in a sting operation arranged with Blandn's help. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. Thank you." Do something else with your life," the voice urges. Gary Webb, 49, Journalist Who Wrote Disputed Articles, Is Dead It found that CIA officials ignored information about possible Contra drug dealing; that they continued to work with Contra supporters despite allegations that they were trafficking drugs, and further asserted that officials from the CIA instructed Drug Enforcement Agency officers to refrain from investigating alleged dealers connected with the Contras. With hindsight, Bell says, "the signs were there. "[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. On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. "He was sleeping more, he hated to get up in the morning, he started having a lot of motorcycle. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. So, this is not something you really make a career out of, nor would you want to. "Do not quote me. "I'd get discouraged," she said, "but I never really gave up hope." Back in 1997, SN&R brought the controversy about Gary Webb to readers with "Secrets and Lies," a cover story about why the mainstream media attacked . font-weight:500; [46] Overholser was harshly critical of the series, "reported by a seemingly hotheaded fellow willing to have people leap to conclusions his reporting couldn't back up." Webb moved his wife and two young children to a suburb and continued a tradition he had started in Cleveland, restoring their small house with the help of how-to books, installing wainscoting and custom tile, new cabinets and gardens, while putting in overtime at the paper. He received his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than. "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. He really did believe that," she says. Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. Gary Stephen Webb was a Pulitzer prize winning American investigative reporter who exposed cocaine trafficking by the CIA.He wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, which initially backed his articles but later dropped him.Webb was put under pressure most certainly from the CIA under John Deutch for his reporting. Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. He said: 'No. One instalment of the LA Times's 18,000-word rebuttal of Webb's piece, published in October 1996, sought to minimise the importance of his key witness, Ricky Ross. The Warning in Gary Webb's Death - Consortium News Emma Lee Webb of Crossett, Arkansas | 1947 - 2023 | Obituary He cites the case of Alfred McCoy, now Professor of South East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. "To get back at his editors?". [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. [51] After discussions with Webb, the column was published on May 11, 1997.[53]. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. Because the gentile (european caucasian, lepers, fake jews) or white folks agenda has always been to destroy the black man, ever since pharaoh tried to murder Christ by murdering Hebrew babies, until now. .article-native-ad svg { It was written by Jesse Katz, the same reporter who, less than two years earlier, had described Ross's conglomerate as "the Wal-Mart of crack dealing". The story had little immediate impact. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. Gary Webb Obituary (2011) - Saginaw, MI - Saginaw News on MLive.com Eli Tomac on track during Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, March 3, 2023. [9], Webb's first major investigative work appeared in 1980, when the Cincinnati Post published "The Coal Connection," a seventeen-part series by Webb and Post reporter Thomas Scheffey. "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. Gary-Webb TL, Walker EA, Realmuto L, Kamler A, Lukin J, Tyson W, Carrasquillo O, Weiss L. Translation of the National Diabetes Prevention Program to Engage Men in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods in New York City: A Description of Power Up for Health. Jack Blum, who was the lead investigator for Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, which produced a highly damning 1989 report on drug-smuggling in the guise of national security, is one of several commentators to have questioned aspects of Webb's original reporting. The link between drug-running and the Reagan regime's support for the right-wing terrorist group throughout the 1980s had been public knowledge for over a decade. Gary Webb, MD, FRCPC, FACC - The Donohue Funeral Homes Inc. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. "[62] It also found no evidence to support Webb's suggestion that several other drug smugglers mentioned in the series were associated with the CIA, or that anyone associated with the CIA or other intelligence agencies was involved in supplying or selling drugs in Los Angeles.[62]. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. Gary Webb FRCPC Obituary (1943 - 2021) - Legacy Remembers He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." [72] A New York Times profile of Webb in June 1997 noted that two of his series written for the Cleveland Plain Dealer had resulted in lawsuits that the paper had settled. [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph OR was he like Epstein? Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. "[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." Last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, "To readers of our 'Dark Alliance' series", "America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war", "War on drugs has unequal impact on black Americans", "Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Inquiry Findings", "The CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking Of Alleged Plot", "Though Evidence Is Thin, Tale of C.I.A. Calling the Post's overall focus "misplaced", Overholser expressed regret that the paper had not taken the opportunity to re-examine whether the CIA had overlooked Contra involvement in drug smuggling, "a subject The Post and the public had given short shrift. 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]. Gary Webb, Into the Buzzsaw, CH 13, Prometheus Books. The first article, by Katz, developed a different picture of the origins of the crack trade than "Dark Alliance" had described, with more gangs and smugglers participating. On Dec. 9, 2004, the 49-year-old Gary Stephen Webb, Pulitzer prize-winning US investigative journalist, typed out suicide notes to his ex-wife and his three children; he laid out a certificate for his cremation; he taped a note on the door telling movers - who were coming the next morning to move him out of his rental house near Sacramento - to [57], The report covered actions by Department of Justice employees in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and U.S. Dispelling the Rumors: Gary Webb's Death Confirmed As Suicide He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 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. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed: Who Is Professional SX/MX - Halla News At the commemorative service for Webb, held at the Doubletree Hotel in Sacramento, Bell read out the letter Webb had written to his son Eric, now 17. She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. Film of this encounter survives. "People told me that," she says. Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. This did not happen in Webb's case. Gary Webb Obituary (1944 - 2022) - Portland, OR - The Oregonian I'm glad that I didn't dissuade him, because it was important to get the truth out but for Gary Webb, there was a very high price to pay." The room is decorated with his trophies: a Pulitzer prize hangs next to his HL Mencken award; also on the wall is a framed advertisement for The Kentucky Post. Gary Webb Obituary (1954 - 2021) - Dorr, MI - Grand Rapids Press Gary Webb Resigns from the San Jose Mercury News Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Melinda Welsh September 29, 2014 This one has all the ingredients of a dreamed-up Hollywood. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. He is from United States. . Dark Alliance: Gary Webb, Christian Rummel: 9781522694397: Amazon.com padding-bottom: 20px; An investigative journalist, Webb became interested in the covert activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. Shortly before his death, his motorcycle had been stolen (it was recovered by his family after his death). 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. [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. Gary Webb, (born August 31, 1955, Corona, California, U.S.died December 10, 2004, Carmichael, California), American investigative journalist who wrote a three-part series for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 on connections between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S.-backed Contra army seeking to overthrow Nicaragua's leftist Steven Webb . Cooper and Mariah were engaged before they finally tied the knot. Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. "That's right," says Blum. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. "The government side of the story is coming through the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post", he stated. [19] The series was published in The Mercury News in three parts, from Sunday, 18 August 1996 to 20 August 1996, with a first long article and one or two shorter articles appearing each day. He accepted Christ at an early age. The second article described Blandn's background and how he began smuggling cocaine to support the Contras. The CIA/MSM Contra-Cocaine Cover-up - Consortium News 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." Family and friends will gather to celebrate his life of 59 years at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 7, 2019, at Lamesa Continue Reading Leave a Message, Share a Memory Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. Parry, the first reporter to write about the US authorities' drug-running on behalf of the Contras, had survived a campaign by the White House to discredit first his story, then his reputation. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. 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? Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. A secret deal allowed drugs to go unreported by the DCI. Gary Webb: More Pieces In The Suicided Puzzle - Pt 1 - Rense She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. The review was conducted primarily by editor Jonathan Krim and reporter Pete Carey, who had written the paper's first published analysis of the series.
Nascar Pit Road Death 2021, Articles G
Nascar Pit Road Death 2021, Articles G