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: -30- "End of Story"
Summary: 4 Stars
The key set-piece of this book is the mid-1990's story by San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb (author of Dark Alliance), of the Nicaraguan Contra connection with the sale of crack cocaine in South Central Los Angeles. The drug war between the "colors", the Bloods and the Crips, complete with at least one drive-by shooting of a middle-class Angeleno, was, in Webb's view the direct result of officially allowing Nicaraguan refugee bigwigs to operate Californian drug labs in order to raise funds for weapons. The obstacle to arming the contras, as one may remember from Iran Contra hearings, and Colonel North's testimony, was the Bolland amendment. Black Los Angeles reacted to the story with restraint. A town meeting was assembled to question then-CIA director Deutch, who took them seriously until he returned to Langley. He had to admit that the CIA would have to investigate itself. If you have any sense of history, Webb's story was plausible, and should have been thoroughly investigated by Congress, as Maxine Waters, L.A. Representative tried to do. The Establishment press,for their part, took their cues from buddies in government on the East Coast, far from the scene of the crime, cravenly seeking to defuse a dangerous situation (riots? "national security" breaches?) by asserting that the Nicaraguan drug magnates were just self-serving rogues, with no common interests with U.S. foreign policy, even though their money did not just line their own pockets, but went directly to arming the contras. At the very least, since our people were doing it too, secretly, the comaraderie was there. For that insight, no smoking gun is required. It's a case based on good circumstantial evidence. The book is weighted down by its authors' perceived necessity to come up with a grand scheme of oppression, to show that interdiction of drugs and draconian prosecution of users, as well as the use of drugs to raise slush funds for secret government purposes, are all about keeping down the underclass. But to accept this is to accept that people who take drugs are not responsible for their own actions, a very hard pill for the naive public to swallow. Nor is class struggle a big item on the agenda these days. These are complacent times, with more and more going on behind closed doors. We bowl alone, and we watch t.v. Contrary to what Jack Nicholson said in "A Few Good Men" - we CAN take the truth. The book has extensive footnotes and bibiliography, and it worth the price of a few SDS-style rants. The alternative to understanding official complicity in drug-cartel operations is to lose all say in government at the most basic community level. We should hold more town meetings with the South Centrals and finally listen. We should do what Deutch tried to do but ultimately failed at.Face our fears at the most basic level and make common cause with - dare I say it? - the oppressed.Book Review: The Criminally Irresponsible Agency
Summary: 5 Stars
What an amazingly damning account of the activities of the CIA since its founding in 1947! If you have any conspiracy theorists in your home, you can finaly tell them they were right. The CIA's history is shown here to be littered with contemptible, inexcusable, not to mention illegal, acts all carried out for dubious ends - and all clandestinely backed by governments, both Democratic and Republican. The history books since World War Two need to be rewritten to reflect what these two authors, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St.Clair, have unearthed and collected in this masterful work. Essential reading! Highly recommended.Book Review: Finally, the TRUTH about the CIA & illicit drugs in America.
Summary: 5 Stars
Are you interested in finding out the TRUTH about the CIA? Well look no further as Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair presents the critical information which Ronald Kessler(Inside The CIA) left out. "Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press" goes into detail about events which most Americans are unaware of such as the relationship between the CIA and Ex-Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie(an important figure in the Bolivian drug trade). For those of you who are war historians, have you ever wondered why the morale was so low among the US troops during the Vietnam War? Of course drug use was one factor which contributed to the decrease of morale among the US troops. However, during the war, very few Americans knew that the CIA was responsible for the shipment of drugs to our troops. In fact, the CIA made huge profits off of the drug trade which took place during the Vietnam War. Do you remember when former President Richard Nixon started the "war on drugs?" The "war on drugs" was nothing more than a hoax. As yourself this question, how can a country proclaim to have a war of drugs, when a certain sector of its government is helping to bring the drugs in? The reason why this country continues to hold the title of being the "greatest illicit drug importer," is because the CIA makes it possible. One thing that all concern Americans must realize is that there has never been a real war on drugs, and considering the fact that the CIA continues to bring in millions off of the drug trade, it is very unlikely that there will ever be one. If you know someone who as died or is currently suffering from the use of illicit drugs, you can thank the CIA for helping to bring the drugs in. Now don't me wrong, the CIA has not (and is not) responsible for all of the illicit drugs which come into this country. However it would not be far-fetched to say that the CIA is responsible for the majority of illicit drugs which come into this country. Do you remember the Iran-Contra affair, well the CIA's main role in that "little dirty war" was about setting up a drug trade in Cental America. Many of the things within this book may shock you, however this book will provide you with the facts about the US involvement in the international drug trade.Book Review: A necessary survey
Summary: 5 Stars
What's amazing about this book is that it includes no groundbreaking revelations. All this stuff has been out there for years, and it is all basically non-controversial (with the exception of the alleged Mena, Arkansas operation--the authors' one possible stretch, although they do show that Mena is not as easily dismissed as some would like to believe).So here it all is. The world's longest continuing drug-running operation is run by the US government. And our response...?
Book Review: compulsively readable-meticulously well-researched
Summary: 5 Stars
Alexander Cockburn does it again. This time in a book exposing the CIA's involvement in drug-trafficking since the birth of the organization. This book will blow you away. I promise.