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: Rehash anfd recycle.
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is a rehash of some not so great Nation columns. Big on rhetoric, poor on follow through and no real research. Read Webb's book instead.Book Review: A brilliant indictment of the CIA and the press
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an extraordinarily effective and comprehensive indictment of both the role of the CIA in abetting the international narcotics trade for half a century and, no less shocking, the wilful collusion of the U.S. press in suppressing -- usually through mendacious misrepresentation -- any informed discussion of the topic. What becomes clear from reading White Out is that the debate is closed. There are enough confirmations from the CIA's own officials, past and present, to establish beyond a shadow of doubt a fact that the New York Times and others find too terrible to admit. See for example the passage where Tony Po, who led the CIA's secret war in northern Laos, concedes -- on videotape! -- that the agency supplied a friendly local warlord with a plane in which to transport his heroin. Mark the fact that the CIA's own Inspector General confirmed the allegations printed -- and hysterically derided by the "mainstream press" -- by the San Jose Mercury News. It is absolutely essential for all Americans who wish to know what has been done in their name to read this book.Book Review: Unforgettable, and very important.
Summary: 5 Stars
In Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press, authors Alex Cockburn and Jeff St Clair have synthesized a vast amount of information into an easy to read, cogent history of the CIA's involvement in the illicit trafficking of narcotics. This unforgettable and very important book proves several things. First, that the CIA has been the world's biggest drug trafficker for the past 50 years. Second, that the major newspapers and TV networks have always known about it, but have chosen not to report it, under the aegis of national security. Third, that the end result of CIA drug dealing and the attendant media "whiteout" is the pacification of minority communities in America. And last but not least, Whiteout proves that when independent journalists like Gary Webb report the truth, they are inevitably smeared by the same powerful forces that put this unjust system into motion.
Whiteout is a volatile book and is sure to arouse the wrath of both Big Media and Big Brother. But it has been meticuously researched, and it is so well written that the case it makes is beyond any reasonable doubt. Authors Cockburn and St Clair are to be commended for their courage in providing such a valuable public service. Five stars for covering all the bases.