Has anyone here read "The Dark Alliance" by the late Gary Webb?

[shoot that beast]

In July 1995, San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb found the Big One--the blockbuster story every journalist secretly dreams about--without even looking for it. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional pending drug trial turned into a massive conspiracy involving the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, L.A. and Bay Area crack cocaine dealers, and the Central Intelligence Agency. For several years during the 1980s, Webb discovered, Contra elements shuttled thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States, with the profits going toward the funding of Contra rebels attempting a counterrevolution in their Nicaraguan homeland. Even more chilling, Webb quickly realized, was that the massive drug-dealing operation had the implicit approval--and occasional outright support--of the CIA, the very organization entrusted to prevent illegal drugs from being brought into the United States.

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Alliance-Contras-Cocaine-Explosion/dp/18...

I'm gonna order it since it's apparently back in print/stock.

[Daoud]

I have not read it but I intend to. I've heard about it referenced in several documentaries and news sources. Even with my crazy stack of unread books to get to, this needs to move to the top. Gotta go wear out the B & N card again. I didn't Webb had died, i hope it wasn't foul play considering the sensitive info he exposed. Thanks for the heads up

[jahluv]

Gary Webb comitted suicide back in 2004. His stories in the San Jose Mercury-News were excellent. I wonder if any of Ricky Ross' cash stuffed houses are still sitting in South LA, with the gardner pushing mower every week waiting for him to get out...

[Compound Egret]

Freeway Rick is on American Gangster on the dreaded BETJazz tonight. It gets replayed at 12:00AM Eastern. There is footage from Webb somewhere in the hour.

[Daoud]

I did catch that American Gangster with Ross and Webb on it, very interesting. The y covered the Contra scandal and the info about the government setting up Ricky business and then scapgoating him.