Alternative Press Review 9 - Lead Editorial

Editorial from APR Vol.3,#1 - Spring/Summer 1998

Two recent US government reports of internal investigations reveal once again how contemptuously the political bureaucracy in Washington views the general populace. And, not surprisingly, the corporate press has largely played the role of security-state watchdog in its news accounts of these investigations.

Anyone who pays much attention to the corporate-controlled mass media had to be shocked by the original appearance of reporter Gary Webb's courageous "Dark Alliance" article series in the San Jose Mercury News in 1996. The series documented clear ties between a California drug dealer (Ricky Ross, who sold tons of cocaine to L.A. street gangs) and the US/CIA-controlled Contra army which had been organized to destroy the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. Webb argued in the series that, while this massive drug-dealing went on under the noses of CIA agents, the cocaine involved fueled the incipient crack epidemic in L.A. while profits flowed to fund the illegal, semi-secret US war the CIA was directing in Nicaragua. This was real, investigative journalism, exposing the tragic connections between the callous internal and oppressive international practices of the US government, a government which was cynically willing to stand by protecting the birth of the crack epidemic in order to help fund a terrorist war by proxy against a popular Nicaraguan government. What was most surprising, however, was that a CIA exposé like the "Dark Alliance" series ever was allowed to appear in the mainstream press in the first place, when most of the economic and political forces controlling the mass media constantly militate against such leaks.

Unsurprisingly, since the original appearance of Gary Webb's revelations, he has lost his job, the San Jose Mercury News has been forced to apologize for running the story, and the rest of the corporate press has closed ranks to systematically attack, belittle and successfully marginalize this challenge to officially accepted US government and CIA cover stories. Predictably, the attack on the "Dark Alliance" was led by the Washington Post, a newspaper with longstanding CIA ties, and pursued with especial vengeance by other corporate media with CIA connections.

And now the final strategic piece of the cover-up has appeared, a new 500-page review compiled by the CIA on its own activities, which supposedly (at least, so the CIA and the mainstream press report) exonerates the CIA of the major charges. However, you won't be able to read this review. It remains classified due to the corroborating evidence it contains for the massive CIA-Contra-drug ties which neither the CIA nor most of the mainstream press wish to reveal.

Even more shocking, however, was the very recent appearance of a joint Cable News Network (CNN) and Time magazine report on the US-Vietnam War-era "Operation Tailwind," charging that US military deserters were secretly targeted and hunted down for assassination, and that deadly Sarin nerve gas was employed in the operation. Once again, this story wasn't shocking because of actual charges made, since the charges themselves are very plausible for anyone remotely familiar with the genocidal strategies and tactics employed by the US in its Indochina invasions and wars—including the mass civilian assassinations by the CIA-directed Phoenix program. The real shock was that such a report was allowed to air in the corporate media, obviously the result of a miscalculation (on the part of the reporters and producers involved) of how much official government cover stories can be questioned in the pursuit of higher media ratings.

Since the story came out, the reporters have been fired, CNN has apologized for airing it, and the the rest of the corporate press has closed ranks to systematically attack, belittle and successfully marginalize this challenge to officially accepted US government cover stories. Sound familiar?

And much more efficiently than with the lengthy, long-delayed and ultimately still classified CIA reviews of the "Dark Alliance" charges, the Pentagon has swiftly issued a review of itself absolving the US military of all charges. Wasting little time, the Pentagon report was issued shortly over a month after the CNN/Time "Operation Tailwind" revelations appeared. This time the (cover-up) review is a brief 77 pages, completely denying any document that was examined—"military order, after-action report, briefing paper or official military history—mentions pursuit of US defectors as Tailwind's mission" or that any document checked mentions the use of Sarin nerve gas by US troops, all with the advantage that the Pentagon review isn't classified because (unlike the CIA's "Dark Alliance" review) it doesn't make the mistake of actually revealing anything.

But lucky for us, stories like these can't be completely covered-up as long as a few courageous reporters continue to sneak them into the mainstream media, and an alternative press exists to pursue them outside the control of corporations and state. You can find out the details of Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" series in his new book from Seven Stories Press, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. While more details of the CNN/Time "Operation Tailwind" story continue to appear as the former CNN reporters fight the Pentagon/press cover-up. We haven't heard the last of either. Stay tuned to alternative media for further revelations.

Jason McQuinn

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Updated: 11/28/2000