Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press by Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press
Book Review: a wake-up call
Summary: 5 Stars
Although this book was written long before September 11, it's more than ever pertinent. With the CIA now working in a context in which everything is justifiable, given the administration's absolutist rhetoric of the "war" against terrorism, abuses are inevitable. And one can't assume that our complacent national media will do an effective job of investigating and revealing such abuses.Book Review: A disturbing paradigm-shifting vision of 20th cen. history
Summary: 5 Stars
"Down the decades the CIA has approached perfection in one particular art, which we might term the 'uncover-up.' This is a process whereby, with all due delay, the Agency first denies with passion, then concedes in profoundly muffled tones, charges leveled against it. Such charges have included the Agency's recruitment of Nazi scientists and SS officials; experiments on unwitting American citizens; efforts to assassinate Fidel Castro; alliances with opium lords in Burma, Thailand and Laos; an assassination program in Vietnam; complicity in the toppling of Salvador Allende in Chile; the arming of opium traffickers and religious fanatics in Afghanistan; the training of murderous police in Guatemala and El Salvador; and involvement in drugs-and-arms shuttles between Latin America and the US.... Charges are raised against the CIA. The Agency leaks its denials to favored journalists, who hasten to inform the public that after intense self-examination, the Agency has discovered that it has clean hands. Then, when the hubbub has died down, the Agency issues a report in which, after patient excavation the resolute reader discovers that, yes, the CIA did indeed do more or less exactly what it had been accused of." Alexander Cockburn and
Jefferey St. Clair
WHITEOUT: THE CIA, DRUGS AND THE PRESS
From Chapter 15: "The Uncover-up"
Two strange feelings came over me as I finished this book, which I could not put down when I picked it up until I spent an entire weekend devouring and digesting its contents until my eyes hurt. First was a complete and total numbing. No matter politically sophisticated or cynical you think you are, left, right or center, the contents of this book will kick you in the stomach repeatedly. The next feeling that comes however, is similar to the feeling of spending time in a foreign country and beginning to learn the language by rote and exposure; hearing familiar words and sounds and piecing together their meaning and social context. Only it is even more subtle. It is like traveling to England or Scotland, and hearing people speak English, but not an English to which you are accustomed... realizing that a "fag" for them is a cigarette and a "shag" is anything but a carpet...knowing that some of the most familiar words and phrases mean something totally different to what you know them to mean.
After reading WHITEOUT: THE CIA, DRUGS AND THE PRESS you will have no choice but to listen to the rhetoric of politicians and the catch phrases that dominate the airwaves like "War on Drugs," "War on Terrorism," "Operation [fill in the blank] Freedom" and know that you are not just being lied to: A FAMILIAR SOUNDING BUT ENTIRELY DIFFERENT LANGUAGE IS BEING SPOKEN. Politicians and the CIA don't just simply tell lies. They SPEAK the LANGUAGE *lie*. And though it as a language sounds like English, without a book of definitions and catch phrases the likes of which you would buy for your trip through Italy or France (Which is what WHITEOUT becomes by the third chapter), this secret dialect of English that the CIA speaks would never reveal itself. "War on Drugs," for example, is a catch phrase for social control, along socio-economic and racial lines...created by the most powerful drug dealers on earth. Nothing else.
"This is largely a story of criminal conduct, much of it by the Central Intelligence Agency. It is a story of how many in the US press have been complicit in covering the Agency's tracks. When compelled to concede the Agency's criminal activities such journalists often take refuge in the notion of 'rogue agents' or, as a last resort, of a 'rogue agency.' we do not accept this separation of the CIA's activities from the policies and directives of the US government. Whether it was Truman's meddling in China, which created the Burmese opium kings; or the Kennedy brothers' obsession with killing Fidel Castro; or Nixon's command for 'more assassinations' in Vietnam, the CIA has always been the obedient executor of the will of the US government, starting with the White House."
From the Preface
Chapter One of WHITEOUT sets the theme and tone of the entire book via describing the career assassination attempts on Gary Webb, an investigative journalist for the San Jose Mercury News who uncovered unavoidable proof of the CIA's involvement in the Nicaraguan Contra drug trade of the 80's. They, with the help of the CIA, deliberately planted tons of cocaine into the Black communities of Los Angeles which became converted and marketed in its cheap, hard rock form--ushering in the Crack era from which the whole of Black America has never recovered. (The leading newspapers of our nation, from the New York Times to the Washington Post, as opposed to supporting his work, attacked him; purposely ignoring his evidence and his sources proving the validity of his findings.) From there journalists Alexander Cockburn and Jefferey St. Clair give a fifty year history of the CIA that indirectly redefines both world history and current events and becomes more and more disturbing--even stomach turning--with every page. Collusion with and protection of Nazis; drug trading throughout the world; partnerships with the Mafia; leader assassinations and destabilizations of democracies that didn't support US interests; efforts at mind control and the testing of chemical/biological weapons on prisoners of war AND unknowing US citizens; and more. This book in fact obliterates so many Pollyanna and racist views of history since World War Two that the views themselves are revealed to be more catch phrases and ideas in this language of lies; phrases meant only to be defined according to the propagandistic symbolism of the secret society for which they were actually developed at the expense of the common people--and democracy itself.
This book is not for the faint of heart--and that includes more people than you think. And because of it, and the painstaking, probably dangerous research these journalists took on to write this, I cannot recommend it enough.
Book Review: Expansive and authoritative
Summary: 5 Stars
Whiteout expertly puts together a lot of the stories you may be vaguely familiar with and condenses them all down into one mesmerizing book. Ranging from Lucky Luciano and his vicious control of the New York City dockworkers to Barry Seal (the portly narcotics pilot who ended up being gunned down in the late 1980's when it appeared he was going to implicate CIA and upper federal government conspirators in cocaine smuggling) and "Freeway" Ricky Ross, Whiteout succinctly organizes and presents all the stories pertaining to U.S. intelligence and national security state operatives cultivating and often dealing in heroin and cocaine trafficking.
Cockburn and St. Claire throw an array of sleazy characters into the mix which makes it read in parts like good fiction as opposed to actual American history, of course much of it hidden history.
The finest and most astounding chapter deals with the mainstream press and their treatment of Gary Webb -- the heroic journalist who broke the initial story of CIA complicity in introducing crack cocaine into the California underworld in the early 1980's -- and their reaction and damage control attempts towards his explosive story. So called "black paranoia" is also touched on in this section, specifically the way in which the corporate owned media labeled angry blacks as being irrationally paranoid for rightly being up in arms over Webb's startling tale.
All of this is presented in more of structural analysis and academic style, as opposed to a conspiratorial spin, with a myriad of sources to back up and document every assertion. For those naive enough to believe organized crime doesn't exist anymore, all they need to do is read Cockburn and St. Clair's Whiteout to realize it's thriving and sometimes reaches into the highest areas of the Executive branch. Truly frightening stuff. You'll leave the book hoping retribution eventually catches up with all those involved in profitting from the decimation of once relatively vibrant communities.
Book Review: fascinating but depressing
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is almost too detailed. With so many references and stories taken from other books, this book's writing is very dense and not a quick read. The book is a bit too sensationalistic, but the stories of CIA corruption, drug-smuggling, and human medical experiments are darkly fascinating. In these trying times with the "War on Terror", these CIA stories need to be read and heeded!Book Review: Gary Webb vindicated
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most shocking books I have read. It proves what Gary Webb has been trying to tell the American people for years. That the CIA sponsored contras were little more that a organized crime unit that funneled narcotics. Read this book