There is a movie that the CIA does not want you to see. The movie is "Killing the Messenger", which is about the Crack Cocaine Epidemic and the Contras. This was put in the San Jose Mercury News by investigative reporter Gary Webb. It is difficult to find the movie. There is no theater within 20 miles of me that are showing it. Just outside of that radius there is one that has one showing every night at 10:35 PM. We had to drive about 40 miles to see it in the afternoon. See it is worth seeing.
Here is the beginning of his articles:
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Dealer's sentencing postponedLawyer gets time to seek documents on alleged CIA-crack link Published: Sept. 14, 1996 BY GARY WEBBMercury News Staff Writer | |
SAN DIEGO -- U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff postponed the
sentencing of former Los Angeles cocaine king ''Freeway'' Rick Ross on Friday
and agreed to allow Ross' attorney to seek classified government documents
relating to the potential involvement of CIA operatives in selling cocaine in
black neighborhoods during the 1980s.
Huff, who said it ''would be outrageous for the government to infect this
country with drugs,'' also suggested that federal prosecutors seek a sworn
statement from CIA Director John Deutch regarding the spy agency's knowledge of
such activities.
Deutch, in a press release last week, disclaimed any CIA involvement in
cocaine trafficking.
Ross' defense lawyer, Alan Fenster of Los Angeles, filed motions this week
seeking a dismissal of Ross' recent cocaine-trafficking conviction, based on the
Mercury News series ''Dark Alliance,'' which detailed how members of a CIA-run
guerrilla army imported thousands of kilos of cocaine into South-Central Los
Angeles during the past decade, helping touch off the nation's crack cocaine
epidemic.
Dealer was key witness
One of those drug dealers, former Nicaraguan government official Danilo Blandon, was the key witness against Ross
during his trial last March. Blandon, who now works as an undercover informant
for the Drug Enforcement Administration, has admitted under oath that he began
selling cocaine in Los Angeles in 1982 to raise money for the Nicaraguan
Democratic Force, the largest component of the rebel force commonly known as the
Contras.
Fenster, during a three-hour
court hearing Friday, argued that Ross' conviction
should be thrown out on the grounds of outrageous government conduct, because
Justice Department lawyers withheld information about Blandon's involvement with
the Contras and cocaine until it was too late for him to make any use of it at
trial.
The only reason he had any idea of Blandon's past activities, Fenster said,
was because one of his investigators spoke to a Mercury News reporter about
Blandon two weeks before the trial.
''If I had had that information when I needed it, I could have convinced a
jury of 12 U.S. attorneys to dismiss this case,'' Fenster argued. Instead, he
said, the Justice Department ''stonewalled it. They kept you in the dark and
they kept me in the dark. (Ross) is a victim of the most outrageous government
conduct known to man.''
Government lawyer scoffs
But Assistant U.S. Attorney L.J. O'Neale scoffed at Fenster's claims of CIA
involvement, calling them ''the worst sort of supposition ... it's all innuendo
and supposition.'' He also said the Mercury News' series did ''not make a solid
case'' of CIA involvement.
Moments later, though, O'Neale acknowledged that ''when Blandon says he sold
cocaine for the Contras, yeah, he did ... we have never found his credibility to
be lacking in the slightest.''
O'Neale also agreed that ''Mr. Blandon thought the CIA was running things.
Whether that's accurate or not, I don't know, but that's what he thought.''
In March, Blandon testified that before he began selling drugs for the CIA's
army, he met in Honduras with Col. Enrique
Bermudez, a longtime CIA operative who was selected by the agency to be the
Contras' military commander. Also attending that meeting, Blandon testified, was
Nicaraguan cocaine trafficker Norwin Meneses, who
was the head of intelligence and security for the Contras in California.
|
Sept. 13, 1996 Pair arrested while urging probePublished: Sept. 12, 1996 Jackson calls for investigationPublished: Sept. 8, 1996 Series leads to CIA probePublished: Sept. 6, 1996 Waters calls on Attorney GeneralPublished: Sept. 4, 1996 Boxer calls for CIA probePublished: Aug. 29, 1996 Black groups seek probe of CIA drug linksPublished: Aug. 24, 1996 Editorial: Another CIA disgrace: Helping the crack flowPublished: Aug. 21, 1996 Gary Webb radio and TV appearancesLast updated: Sept. 16, 1996 Biographical information on Oscar Danilo Blandon, Norwin Meneses, Enrique Bermudez and Rick Ross More photos of Rick Ross |
| Inner-city dealings Blandon said Bermudez told him the Contras needed money and that ''the ends justified the means,'' after which he began dealing cocaine in inner-city Los Angeles. During that time, he testified, he was receiving instructions ''from ... other people.'' He told a federal grand jury in 1994 that at some point the CIA decided it didn't need any more drug money because the Reagan administration had begun giving the Contras taxpayer dollars. While O'Neale strenuously denied that the CIA was in any way involved with Blandon or his cocaine dealing, he also admitted to Judge Huff that he did not know if any CIA documents existed regarding Blandon or Meneses, who was Blandon's boss in the Contra drug ring. ''Whatever files the CIA has are not available to an assistant U.S. attorney,'' O'Neale said. ''I'm not privy to that.'' |
Blandon's testimony Grand jury testimony of Danilo Blandon |
| Before Blandon's testimony at Ross' trial, O'Neale filed a motion asking the judge to bar defense lawyers from questioning Blandon about his involvement with the CIA, saying that if it were true, ''it would be classified and if false, should not be allowed.'' Huff told Fenster on Friday that she had taken the motion under submission and had never actually made a formal ruling; Fenster said he was under the impression that he was not allowed to ask about the CIA, and he never did. |
Motion to preclude references to CIA |
| Huff agreed to let Fenster file a motion under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) seeking documents regarding the CIA's connections to Blandon. Timing at issue But O'Neale argued that it didn't have any bearing on Ross' case if Blandon was involved with the spy agency, since Ross' conviction involved crimes committed in 1994 and 1995, not during the Nicaraguan civil war. | |
| Ross, whom O'Neale called ''the Wal-Mart of crack cocaine,'' was arrested after Blandon lured him into a DEA sting involving 100 kilos of cocaine. No matter what Blandon did in the past, O'Neale argued, it did not excuse Ross' involvement in crack dealing. ''If there was great evil, and there was, regardless of who started that evil, (Ross) was Santa's little helper,'' O'Neale said. |
Drugs used in DEA's bust |
| ''If the United States government was involved in selling cocaine
in the United States,'' Huff asked, ''don't you think that would be outrageous
government conduct?''
''In this case, no,'' O'Neale answered, prompting laughter and loud grumbling
from the courtroom spectators.
Huff set another hearing for Nov. 19. We will continue to post the rest of the stories. |

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