 Funny
I read this for a class and find the fact that people believe this crackpot credible to be humorous. He briefly mentions the Boland amendment which made it illegal to help the Contras, which was a two sentence earmark thrown into the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983, it was seen as a dirty trick. He also spends much of his time making Blandon, Ross and other drug dealers look like decent human beings when in fact they were nothing but criminals; but you understand why he makes them out to be good guys when you realize that they are his primary sources. Let's not forget the gaps where there are absolutely no sources, sometimes up to 8 pages without a source. It is no wonder this fool was fired and attacked by his own peers for his lack of journalistic integrity; he had the journalistic integrity of Dan Rathers. It is a shame he took his own life, I would love nothing more than to watch this idiot try to defend this fictional garbage.
 A must read
From start to finish, this was one of the most compelling books I have ever read.
For those who have seen the American Gangster featuring Freeway Rick Ross, this goes beneath the surface. If you like political documentaries, this is an excellent companion piece.
Ollie North...National joke and disgrace
Suffice it to say if this book wasn't on the mark Gary Webb wouldn't have been ostracized in his own profession and had to look over his shoulder for spooks at every turn. Believe what you want about your own government but know this - anytime one of these bought and paid for talking heads on the tube or in print wants to debunk a story uncovering their heinous acts and all the sordid little details they all trot out these 2 words "Conspiracy theory" Con being the operative word here. One mention of a conspiracy theory and suddenly everything associated with it is automatically BS. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convicing the world he didn't exist.
As for Ollie North...there is not one thing about him that conjures to mind the word patriotic. About the only thing patriotic about about Ollie, Ronnie and the rest of the gang that couldn't shoot straight are their job titles and letterheads.
Excellent, important book
Gary Webb was excommunicated from the professional journalist temple, treated like a pariah, and ultimately died under mysterious circumstances. This is what happens when you say things powerful people don't want said.
The astonishing thing about this book is the massive amount of official, uncontroversial, mainstream sources, documents, and quotes. No person of any political conviction can read this book through and still disagree with Gary Webb. The CIA does import cocaine, and American banks make unbelievable profits off it.
The idea, much like questions surrounding 9/11, is so shocking to people in the way it reveals the government's true nature, that many people dismiss the idea out of hand without looking at the evidence; more because they are scared of what they might learn than because there is not enough evidence to merit a further look. But intelligent people know this really shouldn't be shocking. All governments lie, to quote IF Stone. You don't have to have read Marx to know they not only lie, but do massive harm to their population intentionally, in all places and all periods of history. For those who know a little history, it would be surprising if the government really was the benevolent protector it pretends to be.
But even so, the immense cruelty and avarice involved in the CIA operations Webb describes is shocking. Think of all the lives destroyed by cruel drug laws. Then think of how convenient this mass imprisonment of nonviolent noncriminals is for the wealthy owners of this country. Mass imprisonment to keep the poor and jobless from organizing at home, and money to finance clandestine wars abroad. The drug war also provides an excuse to move us closer and closer to a police state.
Life in the ghettos is hell. The drug war is an extraordinarily clever and extraordinarily effective control system. These are poor mostly black people who have nothing to lose, nothing to gain, and no reason not to organize and rebel. But this system has devastated and enslaved them much more thoroughly than they were under the chattel slavery system. These poor people are brought up with a hatred, contempt, and fear for the police and the government, which they rightly see as being run by rich white men who don't care about them. But then corporations lie to them and sell them this bullshit rapper lifestyle, and they don't realize that this entire 'black culture' has been created by the same rich white men that own BET, Fubu, and the government.
The crack technique is a similar mechanism of social control, to keep poor people working and consuming. These guys feel they are rebelling, since of course the police will arrest them if they are caught, and they have no idea they are enriching these same old white rich men when they spend all their money on crack. This is a deep, deep humiliation and enslavement of people, all done for greedy self-interested profit.
Educate yourself and read this book. Then realize this is nothing new. The CIA does the same stuff with heroin. Heroin is the reason why the US invaded Afghanistan. Afghanistan's poppy fields produce 90% of the world's opium. But then the Taliban, who are crazy religious zealots who like banning random things, decided growing and selling heroin is wrong and started destroying poppy fields. After the 2001 US invasion, Afghanistan heroin production is back on the rise. This is the UN's mainstream, uncontroversial statistics. In spite of this, the same news media that did a blackout on Webb's story, falsely reports that the religiously anti-heroin Taliban is using heroin to make money. Of course, they have to explain the huge numbers of poppy fields somehow.
This is a very important book that will give you insight into how the American government really operates, and what the real priorities of the people who own this country are. Even Noam Chomsky, who always stops short of fully analyzing the drug war, has admitted that it is obvious and undeniable that the big banks are tied up in the drug trade. Think about it. The huge amount of money spent on coke and heroin, where do you think it's all going, under Jose the scummy Mexican gangster's mattress? It's kind of obvious even without reading the book that the only people who could be making the real profits at the top echelon are the same rich white men who are making the real profits off everything else in corporate America.
That scene in Scarface had it right. The rich white men who own this country and much of the rest of the world want these drugs to be illegal because the drug war is the most intelligent, effective mechanism for social control ever devised, and because it's a great way to make obscene amounts of money.
Anyone who's ever smoked pot knows the government isn't being true in their anti-drug propaganda. Webb shows just how deep these lies go. On the face of it, for any good loyal bovine American, his claims are implausible, but if you look deeper, look at his mountains of evidence, and reevaluate the moral character of governments, banks, and corporations, it's not surprising at all.
 Gary Webb book
We need more of these books to keep the people informed what government is up to behind the scenes and eventually make people realize they have the power to make any government's henchmen accountable. Perhaps we'll see the day when people's lives aren't ruined because they are willing to stand up and state the truth without the risk of being made into scapegoats and run over by the political/economic power of a government that is controlled by the greed of a few instead of the power of the people.
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