More on Webb

Dave from Center for an Informed America...I mean an anonymous reader, sent me this link to Mike Ruppert's site and his opinions about Gary Webb's recent death/murder/suicide. He derides "journalists" for leaping to conclusions that just because it was two shots to the head and Webb spent his career exposing the CIA that it was a hit job. I guess Ruppert's was a friend of Webb's, so he has some insider knowledge. And, evidently, Webb was depressed. With friend's like Ruppert who proclaim that the only way to avoid massive human die-off from "peak oil" is to go ahead and begin pre-emptively committing systematic genocide...err..."population reduction", one might be a tad blue.

Now first off, though I do, in fact, have journalistic training, this blog is certainly not journalism. It doesn't even rise to the level of Gonzo journalism. Maybe Bonzo journalism...I can accept that. I'm capable of good investigative reporting, but I've had an awful lot on my plate as regular readers know, so I've confined myself to commenting on what others have written or giving quick takes on events as they happen and maybe noticing a few oddities here and there.

So Ruppert isn't talking about me. But here's what I think. The story is that Webb was dismayed that he was no longer getting mainstream media jobs after his expose on the CIA was trashed by the mainstream media (despite the fact that much of what he said was vindicated in later reports and even CIA documents and internal investigations.) Let's accept that this was the case and let us learn from it. If you are thinking of becoming a top rate investigative journalist, you should know a few things.

First off, the CIA, in significant ways, controls much of the mainstream media. With hundreds of journalists on their payroll, a few phone calls can usually get a story placed. Another tactic is to get a story placed in a small foreign paper and then have it picked up into the "giant Wurlitzer" as I think Ralph McGehee called it.

Secondly, most all of the media is owned by large corporations, who really don't like establishment threatening stories. To dis the rogue CIA agent is fine, but let's not say that CIA nastiness is a matter of standing government policy.

Third, is that even some organs of the "left" are compromised for reasons that are pretty complicated. An easy one to grasp is that some of the foundations that provide funding to "left" causes are actually pretty establishment and work to keep those ole lefties from going too far. You can also spend a great deal of time reading about the KPFK battles and the battles of the Pacifica network with what, to all intents and purposes, look like corporate raiders trying to gut the place of any relevant content. And some of them like to pretend they work for the CIA, like David Corn of the Nation.

Also, you should know, before you make this move into truly revolutionary journalism, that the CIA, does, in fact, assassinate people. They even have manuals on how to do it.

You can also look at the death of David Kelly in England. While he was no doubt killed by local intelligence, it will give you an idea of how these things work. The suicide cover story there, however, is starting to fall apart as even the paramedics say that suicide could not have been the cause of death.

So, if you are going to do investigative journalism....REAL investigative journalism, please do not expect to work for large, mainstream newspapers ever again. I'm sorry, but that's the way it will work until the revolution comes. Then, depending on who wins the revolution, you'll have the right to publish freely or will be summarily executed.

Now, it seems to me that Webb would have realized this too. I'm sorry if he persisted with the delusion that his story was going to be his entree into bigtime journalism. Perhaps he didn't uncover the CIA/media connections when he was investigating the CIA/drug connections. But I doubt this. I'm sure he understood the way the real world works.

Webb would surely also have realized how his death would be interpreted by his many admirers and followers. Probably some of the very people who were in his circle of contacts have been suicided in ways closely resembling the way he allegedly decided to take his own life. He surely saw through the David Kelly story. He understood about Danny Casolaro and his "suicide" for exposing similar sorts of dealings.

So it is a little surprising to me that Webb would take his life in such a way. It's possible he thought the suicide notes would eliminate such suspicions, but those would never be public. Or perhaps he wanted people to think he was assassinated to add a certain heroic romance to his legacy. However, the details of the death scene suggested he was making it easy for the cops to make a finding of suicide.

Anyway, if you get into this business, you must pledge not to commit suicide as it REALLY, REALLY frightens other reporters who might want to do similar stories. If we can't be sure that you weren't assassinated, it tends to have a CHILLING EFFECT on future such reporting. Like when the mob knocks off one witness before a trial. The others tend to go into hiding.

Strange that Gary wouldn't have thought of that aspect of things. But you must be aware of it and you must never commit suicide in a way that looks like a CIA hit. Since they can kill you in so many ways, you'll have to forego suicide altogether.

I, myself, hereby firmly pledge NEVER to kill myself except, perhaps, in the event of well documented terminal illness. So if I end up on the losing end of a bullet race, please know it weren't me what done it.

Now, as for Ruppert, as always, he can go to hell. It is quite natural that one would make certain assumptions when an anti-CIA journalist allegedly kills himself with two shots to the head. Especially given the number of politically helpful deaths in recent years (yeah...Wellstone's plane went down in an accident. Whatever.). Not that Ruppert would mind, of course, as his agenda for the reduction of the human population is far more ambitious.

Hey, you know what just occurred to me? If we really do run out of oil, there are lots of people on this planet who'll be just fine. There are billions of people on this planet who already survive at a near subsistence level with no use of oil whatsoever! They're gonna make it. It's the people in the gas guzzling countries that will have problems. I guess Ruppert wants to make sure the RIGHT people experience the die off.

But as I was saying, such mysterious deaths are racking up these days. Microbiologists are dropping like flies, for example. I don't know why. (Start here to get started. One of them was whacked...err, committed suicide while attending a conference right here in Tennessee. Drove his car the wrong way over a bridge and then just hopped into the Mississippi. )

So we are a bit on edge. Then we hear from Alex Jones that Rick Ross was a source for information that Webb was being harrassed by gov't types who were even burgling his home. However, Rick Ross is a known drug dealer AND a known Negro, so his testimony is obviously irrelevant. However, in case you think that a drug dealer directly involved in the CIA drug running uncovered by Webb might actually have some useful information, you can check out Jones' website. This link is to his rebuttal of Ruppert.

Anyway, I couldn't go investigate the scene of the crime myself, but it sure looked like a message was being sent. And the vitriol of Ruppert's attacks make me suspect that perhaps I was right.

Quick Correction

A quick revision. I'm nothing if not a stickler for accuracy. Earlier I said Gary Webb was suicided, implying that he had been murdered and the crime scene manipulated to look like a suicide. However, I stand corrected. Helpful reader Joe has sent this link in which the coroner confirms that it was, in fact, a suicide, because, you see there was a suicide note there.

He also confirmed that it is rather unusual for a person to commit suicide with TWO shots to the head, but hey, these things do happen.

Somehow, though, I think Joe sent me the link because he is still suspicious about the death. Don't be Joe...he sent notes to everyone and even put his baby shoes in his mother's shed...whatever the fuck that means. It was an unfortunate and tragic suicide. Get it, Joe? Come on, work with me here....they just might be reading.

RIP Gary Webb: Suicided on Friday

These are scary times. One of the most famous reporters ever to earn a very large scale "discrediting" by the establishment press (CIA does NOT run cocaine into U.S. to fund contras, so there....) was found dead of a gunshot wound Friday. I find no mention in the L.A. Times article as to why police assumed it was suicide. Probably because they found the gun in his hand. See...it's not physically possible for an assassin to shoot someone in the head and then put the gun in the victim's hand. Nor is it possible to drug someone and then slit their wrists and let them bleed to death (David Kelly, Danny Casolaro). So, no need for those pesky autopsies. Anyway, here's the freakin' article. I post it here because you have to register to read it. If they give me any trouble, I'll remove it. Unless they have me killed.



Gary Webb, 49; Wrote Series Linking CIA, Drugs



OBITUARIES





By Nita Lelyveld and Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writers

Gary Webb, an investigative reporter who wrote a widely criticized series linking the CIA to the explosion of crack cocaine in Los Angeles, was found dead in his Sacramento-area home Friday. He apparently killed himself, authorities said.

Webb had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Sacramento County coroner's office. He was 49.

His 1996 San Jose Mercury News series contended that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold tons of crack cocaine from Colombian cartels in Los Angeles' black neighborhoods and then funneled millions in profits back to the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras.

Three months after the series was published, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said it conducted an exhaustive investigation but found no evidence of a connection between the CIA and Southern California drug traffickers.

Major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Washington Post, wrote reports discrediting elements of Webb's reporting. The Los Angeles Times report looked into Webb's charges "that a CIA-related drug ring sent 'millions' of dollars to the Contras; that it launched an epidemic of cocaine use in South-Central Los Angeles and America's other inner cities; and that the agency either approved the scheme or deliberately turned a blind eye."

"But the available evidence, based on an extensive review of court documents and more than 100 interviews in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington and Managua, fails to support any of those allegations," The Times reported.

Months later, the Mercury News also backed away from the series, publishing an open letter to its readers, admitting to flaws.

"We oversimplified the complex issue of how the crack epidemic in America grew," wrote the paper's executive editor, Jerry Ceppos, adding, "I believe that we fell short at every step of our process — in the writing, editing and production of our work."

The paper reassigned Webb to a suburban bureau. In December 1997, he quit.

"All he ever wanted to do was write," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell, who met him when they were both high school students in Indiana. "He never really recovered from it."

Webb was born in Corona to a military family and moved around the country throughout his youth. He dropped out of journalism school just shy of graduating to accept his first newspaper job at the Kentucky Post, then went to the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Mercury News.

Within two years of arriving at the paper, Webb was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

Webb continued to defend his reporting, most notably in a 548-page book, "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion," which was published in 1999.

After leaving the Mercury News, Webb worked in state government, including the Joint Legislative Audit Committee's investigation into then-Gov. Gray Davis' controversial award of a $95-million, no-bid contract to Oracle in 2001.

"The guy had a fierce commitment to justice and truth. He cared deeply about the people who are forgotten, that we try to shove into the dark recesses of our minds and world," said Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for the California attorney general's office who worked with Webb on the Oracle investigation.

But Webb's career remained troubled. While working for another legislative committee in Sacramento, Webb wrote a report accusing the California Highway Patrol of unofficially condoning and even encouraging racial profiling in its drug interdiction program.

Legislative officials released the report in 1999 but cautioned that it was based mainly on assumptions and anecdotes. Earlier this year, Webb was one of a group of employees fired from the Assembly speaker's Office of Member Services for failing to show up for work.

Webb, who lived in Carmichael, continued to write occasionally for a variety of publications. Last summer, the weekly Sacramento News & Review hired Webb to cover government and politics. He had recently written two cover stories, including one on how much money Sacramento County was making off the use of red-light cameras.

"He's obviously a skilled reporter and writer and he was doing good work for us and the evidence was on the page," said News & Review Editor Tom Walsh.

Webb is survived by two sons, Ian and Eric; and a daughter, Christine.

Masterful sleight of hand?

I used to love to watch magicians. Not so much anymore, because the stage shows are more about elaborately built illusions requiring no skill from the performer. Except, of course, for close up magic. Sleight of hand. These guys still fascinate me. No gadgets, or very few at least. Just an understanding of human psychology and a well honed ability to make people look exactly where you want them to for just long enough to accomplish what needs to be done.

I think we may be in the midst of just such a sleight of hand right now. I pointed out on this website some time ago that this guy Wayne Madsen, who currently publishes on sites like Counterpunch and the Online Journal but formerly was in the National Security Administration under Reagan (?), had received insider information that if the '04 elections were rigged, some in the military were planning to take over the government. Just long enough, you understand, to establish a legitimate government. What's more, ol' Wayne was urging us to be supportive of this move as the only real way to restore democracy. Here is the link .

I found this article curious. He discusses the potential military action as soldiers' "upholding the Constitution." I guess he never heard of Pinochet and the host of other dictators our fine military has installed over the last century or so. Whatever. But the scary thing is he claims to be getting info from senior military officials that this counter-coup, if you will, is, in fact, the plan.

Actually, in looking for the above article again, I found another article by Madsen calling for a military coup written back in February '03. This guy is really into military takeovers and dismisses concerns about such coups as driven by Hollywood hysteria. And I quoteth:

"While most of these cinematic presentations focused on power-hungry generals seizing control from democratically-elected presidents, no one in Hollywood ever really considered the possibility of generals imbued with democratic values ousting a President who was bent on seizing unconstitutional powers."

Maybe we don't consider that possibility, Wayne...buddy...pal, because IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED IN U.S. HISTORY DESPITE OVER 100 SMALL AND LARGE SCALE MILITARY INTERVENTIONS. Just a thought.

Anywhooooo... I also happened to remember another article, subtly titled "Martial Law Now!" that suggested martial law was our best option. Quotarooni:

"It's the only way we're ever going to find peace again. And the only way we're really ever going to be able to defend our country."

And, of course, there is this interview with a Colonel that no one seems to have heard of except for this interview, detailing how the military is planning a coup...and gosh how great would that be.

Now here's the point, as Ross Perot used to bark. I can look past Kaminsky and Col. What's-his-face, but Madsen has intelligence connections. Either this stuff is true or he's been assigned to make us think it is true. Now here comes the misdirection.

You see, the most specific, detailed information about the recent election fraud that names names and follows the money is here at Online Journal by.....oh, you guys know me too well. That's right, by Wayne Madsen.

So here's my concern. This political David Blaine got us all ready for a military takeover, which most of us (and I'd imagine a vast majority of the people who read the websites he publishes on) would be opposed to. The trigger, he told us, would be fraudulent elections. Then, we had a day where people pushed buttons and poked holes in what used to be called an election and there is pretty blatant fraud (no matter how little the mainstream media covers it.) Now here comes Madsen with THE SMOKING GUN that is, in fact, the very trigger (if I may artlessly mix my metaphors) he previously and enthusiastically reported would launch a military coup.

The misdirection is that, we are all going to be so caught up in exposing this charade and embracing those who oppose the elections, we will become less cautious about our choice of allies. Madsen himself said it is disaffected CIA types (Remember, all the DEMOCRATICALLY MINDED spooks are being rushed out of the agency to be replaced by evil, ANTI-DEMOCRATIC spooks. I love that. CIA agents concerned about democracy. Go ahead...pull the other one.) who are revealing this information. Ipso Facto, Quid Erat Demonstratum, Abra Cadabra and its Ukraine 2, only this time it's the U.S. military that comes to the rescue. Hey, and did you notice how much coverage the UKRAINIAN elections are getting. What's the last headline story about UKRAINE that YOU remember on CNN?

Clearly, the intelligence community is playing some kind of game here. Whether the game is setting up an actual "popularly supported" military coup or there is some other agenda at work, I'll be damned if I know. But in poker, this would definitely be called "slow playing your hand." Slow build up of evidence until....

Stay tuned.