The Big White Lie: The CIA and the Cocaine/Crack Epidemic [Hardcover]

Michael Levine (Author), Laura Kavanau-Levine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1993

A former DEA agent exposes the U.S. government's "war on drugs" as a lie, describing how U.S. tax dollars fund the flow of drugs into America and the role the CIA plays in this crime. 35,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a shocking expose, Michael Levine--former undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and author of the 1990 nonfiction bestseller Deep Cover --rips the lid off the sewer of what he argues is America's phony "war on drugs." Levine, writing with his wife, charges that the CIA and the Pentagon have for decades protected and supported the world's biggest drug dealers, and that the U.S. government has allowed top-level dealers and criminals to escape punishment. This first-person account reads like an edge-of-the-seat thriller--complete with reconstructed conversations. Levine recounts his deep-cover assignments, particularly Operation Hun, which resulted in prison terms for key players in Colombia's cocaine industry and for Bolivia's drug-pushing minister of the interior, Luis Arce-Gomez. Many high-level traffickers went free, however, and Levine berates the U.S. government for failing to investigate or prosecute them, blaming this failure on the CIA and other federal agencies' policy of courting criminals in order to gain information, win influence and fund further U.S. covert operations. Levine also tells how Bolivia's booming cocaine industry was protected by paramilitary goons led by Klaus Altmann, "a/k/a Klaus Barbie, a fugitive Nazi war criminal and long-time CIA asset." Revealing the personal motivation that fuels his story, Levine writes about his brother, a heroin addict who committed suicide, and about his own daughter's struggle with drug addiction. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Reading more like a novel than serious nonfiction, The Big White Lie tells a former Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent's story of dealing with cocaine traffickers in both the U.S. and South America. Levine, who has written two previous books on similar subjects, admits to considerable disenchantment with the "suits" running the DEA and to family involvement with drugs (a couple of fatal addictions), a combination that could hamper his objectivity. He was, nevertheless, involved with some major drug operations in which one U.S. government agency (the DEA) was trying to ensnare drug dealers while another (the CIA) was using the same people as sources: a delicate game that Levine found not only offensive, but also unplayable. While often a good read with numerous unsavory but believable characters and rich reconstructed dialogue, the book seems more a kvetch than a well-documented expos{‚}e; an introduction or some endorsements from objective experts would enhance its authoritativeness. Connie Goddard

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Pr; 1st edition (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156025064X
• ISBN-13: 978-1560250647
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Was This Book "Privished?", August 7, 2002

By 

Graham H. Seibert (Kiev, Ukraine) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big White Lie: The CIA and the Cocaine/Crack Epidemic (Hardcover)

Note that this review is 4 years after publication... four years of silence.

A book that tears the mask off the fraudulent "War on Drugs". It exposes the growth of the war from two (highly mutually destructive) agencies in 1971 (Customs and DEA) to 55 and counting. It describes very extensive, high-volume CIA involvement in smuggling itself to obtain unaccountable funding.

It documents the cost of the fraudulent war. In dollars misspent, in innocent lives lost through raids gone amok and witnesses silenced, in the credibility of government agencies and the news media, and in the harm resulting from the 5-fold increase (his figures) in drug usage during the time $1 trillion has been wasted in the fight.

Recommend finding this book used or in a library, or reading Levine's chapter in "Into the Buzzsaw" by Kristina Borjesson.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A true American hero., January 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War : An Undercover Odyssey (Paperback)

I rank this book with "Dark Alliance" and "C.I.A.: Cocaine In America" as the most telling indictment of America's pseudo-war on drugs. Unlike most suthors who pontificate solutions from ivory towers and exhort stratagem with quill pens, Mr. Levine, not unlike Mr. VesBucci, for that matter, advises from hard-fought experience.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book written by a very courageous individual, June 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War : An Undercover Odyssey (Paperback)

Michael Levine is a former DEA agent who, throughout the 1980's, worked to uncover, expose and convict many of the leading suppliers of cocaine to the United States. Unfortunately for Levine, many of the most powerful cocaine dealers proved to be CIA assets, supported and even bankrolled by the American government in pursuit of shadowy foreign policy objectives. Levine's diligence in fighting the so-called "drugs war" brought him the ruination of his reputation within the DEA and ultimately the destruction of his career. The cynicism that Levine exposes within the highest levels of American government is breathtaking - and profoundly depressing.