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Michael Levine
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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

by Michael Levine (Author), Laura Kavanau-Levine (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,206 ratings
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THE REAL HISTORY OF THE DRUG EPIDEMIC 

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.
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Thunder's Mouth Pr
  3. Publication date
    January 1, 1994
  4. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1.5 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1560250844
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1560250845
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This hair-raising memoir by a former undercover DEA agent points out the U.S. government's failure to uphold anti-drug laws.
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)

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
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,206 ratings

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  1. Michael Levine

    Michael Levine

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  2. Michael Levine

    Michael Levine

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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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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
1,206 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jeff Francis
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a dense, heavy and snappy, as well as a difficult story to read through, it's complicated!
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2024
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I like the sizing of the book, the font, the story telling style, factual, yet personal. As I know some aspects of persons who operated in this shadowy world, have some sense that what you think that you know about stuff isn't really the whole truth about that stuff, but it seems to be a generous attempt to tell a significant semblance of that murky truth: You better have a long weekend without a whole lot else to do, to digest this story in full. I would probably group this novel with https://www.amazon.com/Kidnapping-Vintage-International-Gabriel-Márquez/dp/1400034930, which was a singular non fiction work by one of Latin America's greatest writers. I did read News of a Kidnapping in one go and found it fascinating, honestly, I need a road trip to get into this Michael Levine book, the Big White Lie, but I am looking forward to that road trip indeed !
One person found this helpful
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ArchTriumph
4.0 out of 5 stars Go Undercover in America's Drug War
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2012
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The three fundamental problems in America's drug war are: 1) like terrorism it includes an overseas war brought to our home front and not a simple law enforcement problem, 2) the endless bureaucracies that run on autopilot by unquestioning drones and throughout changing administrations presents unique problems for strategic consistency and unity of command, and 3) as Levine notes the real solution to this drug problem is people who refuse to be victims of white powder and drug dealers but take personal responsibility to avoid and correction their own truly deadly and venomous addictions.

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.
5 people found this helpful
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Coolfire
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely important, very well written
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2013
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Levine wrote this book several years ago, but it has just recently come out in eBook form.

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.
23 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Richard Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Great real life read
Reviewed in Canada on February 5, 2024
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A well written real life account of the so called War on Drugs.
Mi he's book is a must read.
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Mr B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, ming boggling truths.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2014
Verified Purchase
So it isn't a myth after all, the CIA were totally complicit in drug trafficking. Excellent book very well laid out, kind of feel almost desperate for the Author who was put in such a ridiculous position that I don't know how he had the sensibility to carry on or indeed survive, but he did, so you should read his book! I can't get the "Yellow Coke" out of my head, I mean they may as well have given him a weapon to shoot himself with. Ballsy dude.
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Ross
5.0 out of 5 stars Read it
Reviewed in Australia on May 5, 2014
Verified Purchase
A very interesting and entertaining read about political corruption and the phoney war on drugs from a man that lived it and tried to fight it throughout his long career with the DEA, while being harassed by the very government he worked for. No surprises there. The world needs more people like Mike.
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Bruce Morrison
4.0 out of 5 stars Educational
Reviewed in Canada on February 8, 2020
Verified Purchase
This book gave me a different way of looking at the drug wars and a little regarding how politics play such a big part. It had me gripped and glad l bought it.
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Mr Keith A Barlow
4.0 out of 5 stars a Revaluation
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2014
Verified Purchase
A good read! More like a novel in its style but nevertheless very enjoyable. The book exposes a duplicitous US government duping the American population. The U.S. federal government has lost all morality in its war against drugs and historians will no doubt look to place their actions in context with other great crimes by governments on its own population.
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