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The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War : An Undercover Odyssey Paperback – January 1, 1994
In The Big White Lie, Michael Levine, former DEA agent and bestselling author of Deep Cover, leads the reader through a decade of undercover work.
Levine's prose is fast-moving, highly readable, and hard-hitting. He tells how the beautiful South American "Queen of Cocaine" seduced the CIA into protecting her from prosecution as she sold drugs to Americans; how CIA-sponsored paramilitary ousted, tortured, and killed members of a pro-DEA Bolivian ruling party; and how the CIA created La Corporacion, the "General Motors of cocaine," which led directly to the current cocaine/crack epidemic.
As a 25-year veteran agent for the DEA, Michael Levine worked deep-cover cases from Bangkok to Buenos Aires, and witnessed firsthand scandalous violations of drug laws by U.S. officials.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThunder's Mouth Pr
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1994
- Dimensions6.25 x 1.5 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101560250844
- ISBN-13978-1560250845
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
- "Hair raising. . . . moves with the sped of a first-rate thriller."-The New York Times Book Review
- "A good read with numerous unsavory but believable characters and rich reconstructed dialogue."-Book List
- "A shocking exposé...his first person account reads like an edge-of-the-seat thriller."-Publisher's Weekly (Starred review)
About the Author
Laura Kavanau-Levine is the coauthor of The Big White Lie and Triangle of Death as well as the screenplays for HBO Pictures and Deutsche Colombia Pictures. She holds an MFA from New York University and a MSW from Fordham University.
Product details
- Publisher : Thunder's Mouth Pr; 1st edition (January 1, 1994)
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1560250844
- ISBN-13 : 978-1560250845
- Item Weight : 1.6 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.5 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #6,703,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #24,818 in Communication & Media Studies
- #86,401 in Sociology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

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Michael Levine, called "America's top undercover agent for 25 years" by 60 Minutes, is the New York Times bestselling author of Deep Cover, The Big White Lie and Triangle of Death, and one of the most decorated undercover agents in the history of the Drug Enforcement Administration. He is active as a court qualified expert and trail consultant in Covert Operations, International Narcotics Trafficking, Informant Handling and Police Use-of-force. He is currently lecturing on Undercover Survival Tactics & Informant Handling for the US State Department in Brazil. His New York City radio show can be heard on WBAI 99.5 FM as well as Sticher.com and iTunes.
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Michael Levine's expose on the DEA and CIA involvement in the War on Drugs is telling. It reads like a TV crime drama or blockbuster heist film. I have no doubt about DoD influence in South America and CIA direct support for military coups and unsavory characters. The fact that we had a choice between a dealing with a leftist government which supposedly was helping us bring to justice drug lords, who they were threatened by and who's drugs they would sell to support their own government and military suppression of freedom, and military dictators who were willing to do anything including wanton murder and torture to supplying drugs to America children to gain and hold power tell you all you need to know about the pervasive nature of evil, Real Politik and hard choices in leadership.
While I sympathize with Levine's plight, at times I get the impression that his story is a personal vendetta. However dealing with endless and inane bureaucratic nightmares is enough to drive anyone to desire some form of revenge. He reveals a lot of the inner workings of government agencies and provides and compelling story line.
Overall it is a compelling story and I appreciate his insight and passion for serving our country. Levine is one of the good guys. Thank you Michael Savage for introducing me to this author.
It's an extremely important, very well written book. He exposes the falseness of our so called, but phoney, "War on Drugs." He speaks first person, as a 25 year high level DEA undercover agent, of the undercutting of his and other DEA agents, by not only the CIA, but high level DEA management and Justice Dpt. US Attorneys. This book is a condemnation of the drug war, from someone who had believed in it thoroughly, until he experienced, time after time, of his efforts gathering indisputable evidence against the highest levels of international drug leadership being deliberately negated by the CIA and his own management in order to insure that these drug lords remained free to continue their business. Not only the CIA, but the DEA own management violated our laws by deliberately destroying evidence against top drug lords.
The DEA management so little appreciated his efforts to bring prosecutions that although he had a $200,000 contract out on his head by drug lords, the DEA would not give him protection. It even spent three years trying to find some administrative oversight for which to prosecute him.
In 1996 the annual profit to international crime, due to the war itself, was about $400 billion. A couple years ago it was about $800 billion. I would expect it to be about one billion dollars by this time. And, of course, we as US taxpayers, have probably paid about $100 billion of our own dollars to insure the continuance of this phoney, destructive outrage, for the profit of the elite.
In two or three places Levine alludes to the bankers. He does to get into this aspect, but these enormous profits, which would not exist in this magnitude without our "war," flow through the international banking system(s), thereby deriving further profits for the financial community and as a further derivative, Wall Street, due to price / earning ratios. These hundreds of billions of dollars are not buried in back yards - commercial, civil, political, and governmental leverage and control is purchased annually.
Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, who was Joint Chief's liaison with the CIA, in one of his books, independently corroborates with more details, Levine's accusation of CIA role in Bolivia, e.g., Prouty: "Following an abrupt [Bolivia] coup d'état engineered by the CIA, ... "
I want to here add recognition to the author Gary Webb, who in 1996 published his expose of the CIA involvement in the drug trade in his " Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion." Webb committed suicide (?) in 2004 (two! Shots to the head) after having been hounded out of his profession, as a Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist, for daring to write about the CIA and the drug trade. As I read Levine's first hand experiences and condemnation of the CIA role, I couldn't help but recall the fate of Webb who should be honored by our nation.
Both Webb and Levine blame the CIA for the 1980's cocaine explosion in the US.
Top reviews from other countries
Mi he's book is a must read.






