Dark alliance
Subtitle: the CIA, the Contras, and the crack cocaine explosion
By: Gary Webb
Edition: Seven Stories Press 1st ed.
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 548
Subjects: United States; Crack (Drug); Cocaine abuse; United States. Central Intelligence Agency; Counterrevolutionaries
Description: Gary Webb draws from thousands of pages of once-secret files from the CIA, DEA, and FBI, the L.A. Sheriff's Department, and recently declassified papers from the Iran-Contra investigation. Together with Nicaraguan journalist Georg Hodel, Webb interviewed former members of the Contra drug ring, as well as former federal prosecutors, CIA and DEA agents, and former Central American police officials.

This book shows how the L.A. crack market flourished through a breathtaking combination of government negligence, greed, and criminal conduct. It also demonstrates that the U.S. goverment agencies, including the CIA, the DEA, and the FBI, were aware of the activities of this well-connected drug network throughout its long existence and did little or nothing to stop it.

Indeed, in several instances documented here, the Justice Department, the CIA, and the secret National Security Council unit run by Oliver North, took extraordinary steps to protect the ring from public exposure.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 469-536) and index.