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Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion Hardcover – June 9, 1998

by Gary Webb (Author), Maxine Waters (Foreword)

4.9 54 ratings

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Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Cocaine Explosion
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Major Motion Picture based on Dark Alliance and starring Jeremy Renner, "Kill the Messenger," to be be released in Fall 2014

In August 1996, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb stunned the world with a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News reporting the results of his year-long investigation into the roots of the crack cocaine epidemic in America, specifically in Los Angeles. The series, titled “Dark Alliance,” revealed that for the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras.

Gary Webb pushed his investigation even further in his book, Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Drawing from then newly declassified documents, undercover DEA audio and videotapes that had never been publicly released, federal court testimony, and interviews, Webb demonstrates how our government knowingly allowed massive amounts of drugs and money to change hands at the expense of our communities.

Webb’s own stranger-than-fiction experience is also woven into the book. His excoriation by the media—not because of any wrongdoing on his part, but by an insidious process of innuendo and suggestion that in effect blamed Webb for the implications of the story—had been all but predicted. Webb was warned off doing a CIA expose by a former Associated Press journalist who lost his job when, years before, he had stumbled onto the germ of the “Dark Alliance” story. And though Internal investigations by both the CIA and the Justice Department eventually vindicated Webb, he had by then been pushed out of the Mercury News and gone to work for the California State Legislature Task Force on Government Oversight. He died in 2004.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In July 1995, San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb found the Big One--the blockbuster story every journalist secretly dreams about--without even looking for it. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional pending drug trial turned into a massive conspiracy involving the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, L.A. and Bay Area crack cocaine dealers, and the Central Intelligence Agency. For several years during the 1980s, Webb discovered, Contra elements shuttled thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States, with the profits going toward the funding of Contra rebels attempting a counterrevolution in their Nicaraguan homeland. Even more chilling, Webb quickly realized, was that the massive drug-dealing operation had the implicit approval--and occasional outright support--of the CIA, the very organization entrusted to prevent illegal drugs from being brought into the United States.

Within the pages of Dark Alliance, Webb produces a massive amount of evidence that suggests that such a scenario did take place, and more disturbing evidence that the powers that be that allowed such an alliance are still determined to ruthlessly guard their secrets. Webb's research is impeccable--names, dates, places, and dollar amounts gather and mount with every page, eventually building a towering wall of evidence in support of his theories. After the original series of articles ran in the Mercury-News in late 1996, both Webb and his paper were so severely criticized by political commentators, government officials, and other members of the press that his own newspaper decided it best not to stand behind the series, in effect apologizing for the assertions and disavowing his work. Webb quit the paper in disgust in November 1997. His book serves as both a complex memoir of the time of the Contras and an indictment of the current state of America's press; Dark Alliance is as necessary and valuable as it is horrifying and grim. --Tjames Madison

Review

"…a densely researched, passionately argued, acronym-laden 548-page volume." —Michael Massing, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review

"I find his argument to be very well documented, very careful and very convincing. In fact, the readability of the book suffers a bit from what seems to have been a fear that if he didn't include absolutely every bit of evidence he had unearthed, he would open himself up to new criticisms of inadequate reporting—but this editor's quibble shouldn't stop anyone from buying and reading Dark Alliance. Long-time followers of the contra tale are likely to find new revelations in the book…" —Jo Ann Kawell, The Nation

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Seven Stories Press; First Edition (June 9, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1888363681
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1888363685
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.11 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.72 x 9.26 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,293,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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4.9 54 ratings

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Gary Webb

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Gary Webb was an investigative reporter, focusing on government and private sector corruption and winning more than 30 journalism awards. He was one of six reporters at the San Jose Mercury News to win a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting for a series of stories on the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct during northern California's 1989 earthquake. He also received the 1997 Media Hero Award from the Institute for Alternative Journalism and in 1996 was named Journalist of the Year by the Bay Area Society of Professional Journalists. Webb is currently a consultant to the California State legislature Task Force on Government Oversight and a regular feature contributor to Esquire. In 1998, his book Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion (Seven Stories Press), revealed that for the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras. He died in 2004.

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gift

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2024

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gave as gift and liked

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2001

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How did this happen to Gary webb? A prize winning reporter,a middle of the road news reporter from a conservative stable backround suddenly becomes the pariah of the press? I read this book with great trepidition,seeing the JFK conspiracy folks running around ...well, i was surprised, shocked,horrified.Perhaps i shouldnt have been...Mr Webb ahs laid out, simply, forcibly a case so damning that most simply wont look.The case he sets forth is so damning infact, that if true, and I think it is, then we need to overhaul our entire system. The absurd "war on drugs'[which doesnt really exist,except in political newspeak]is shattered by Mr Webb in the first 100 pages. 3 administrations,and countless pols either ignored or knew what was happening. Oliver North comes off none too well, though he is an easy target, and not even close to one of the important folks here. This is a searing piece of journalism,and one wonders why My Webb has been consigned to the far left by the celebrated organs of media, THe NY TIMES, THE WASHINGTO POST and The LA TIMES?. When these 3 folks stand up to criticise at once, well, i smell soemthing...where is the uproar from the 'mainstream press' ?After all, I thought the war on drugs was a family values issue. One of the most disturbing books I have ever read.

104 people found this helpful

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Derek

Really Good! Thank you!

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2021

Verified Purchase

Really Good! Thank you!

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Amazon Customer

Extremely well written and captivating, page by page. ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2017

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Extremely well written and captivating, page by page. This book reveals the surpressed truth that needs to be heard by everyone.

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2013

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this book explains alot about the tragic account of Gary Webb and his journalistic reporting and is the basis for the movie filmed in Atlanta "Kill The Messenger" in which I was an extra

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gron4u

Cloak and Dagger US Government style

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2008

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Gary Webb uncovered a secret government backed scheme to flood the Black and Latino/Hispanic communities with cocaine and crack in the 1990's. He worked as a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. He was contacted by an informant. He is drawn in first by the fact that he is in every sense an investigative reporter.More and more the speculation becomes fact and the facts spun into a web of truth that this government can not deny.The real and the real real is that Gary Webb was harrassed by the government to the point where he could take no more. He took his own life. THIS IS A TRUE STORY.THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU WHEN YOU KNOW TOO MUCH.DARK ALLIANCE is intrigue at its best. The characters and the consequences are are realistic because they ARE real.THIS REALLY DID HAPPEN.

9 people found this helpful

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Jennifer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2018

great book