Whiteout

Having admitted that much, the CIA report is then said to "dismiss" Webb's findings, concluding that the drug dealers he profiled had nothing to do with the agency. This bit of legerdemain appears intended to defuse critics who say the government is covering up its involvement in the crack epidemic. Along with most documents pertaining to CIA operations in Central America in the '80s, the report remains classified, supposedly in the interest of national security. What little is known of its contents appears to have been leaked to the New York Times.

"They just don't want to be embarrassed," Webb says of the CIA report. "The problem is they sort of dug their own grave. They demonized drug trafficking to the extent that they could never admit that they were involved in it themselves. They've spent so much on the war on drugs that people would be outraged to find out that while we were paying billions out of one end, cargo planes full of dope were flying in the other end."

It's easy to attack the reporter. It's a lot harder to attack the facts head-on.": Dark Alliance author Gary Webb

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More About

• Gary Webb
• Central Intelligence Agency
• U.S. Department of Justice
• Illegal Drugs
• Drug Trafficking

Gary Webb reads fromDark Alliance 7:30 p.m. August 18 at Borders Uptown; call 825-0336.