LIBEL SUIT THREATENS FUTURE OF ONLINE DRUG-WAR PUBLICATION

For much of the '80s and '90s, Al Giordano cut a wide swath among
Massachusetts journalists and political junkies. An antinuclear
activist who became the Boston Phoenix's political reporter, Giordano
was sometimes abrasive, usually controversial, always passionate, and
invariably innovative. (Who else would have sent GOP pundit Mary
Matalin a little tie-dyed T-shirt from a Grateful Dead concert as a
baby gift?)

Giordano seemed to drop off the radar screen after departing the
Phoenix in 1996 and then leaving the country. A year ago, he surfaced
as publisher of the online publication The Narco News Bulletin
(www.narconews.com), which sees its mandate as challenging ''the
illusion that the drug war is about combating drugs.''

Later this month, Giordano will return to New York from his
undisclosed base of operations in Latin America to celebrate the
first anniversary of Narco News. He will also formally respond to
what could potentially become one of the most riveting libel cases in
recent history - if it actually goes to trial.

The suit, filed in New York by Banco Nacional de Mexico (known as
Banamex) against Narco News, Giordano, and Mexican journalist Mario
Renato Menendez Rodriguez, pits the law firm of such ex-presidential
intimates as Robert Strauss and Vernon Jordan against two notable
First Amendment attorneys. And it happens to focus on the subject
that has captivated Academy Awards voters who recently honored the
film ''Traffic'': the drug smuggling trade.

''For us, `Traffic' is not a movie,'' Giordano said in a phone
interview this week. ''We live it every day.''

The suit charges the journalists with ''defamation and interference
with prospective economic advantage,'' accusing them of ''maliciously
smear[ing] Banamex with accusations that, among other things, it is
controlled and operated by narcotics traffickers and has engaged in
illegal activity.'' It claims that the defamation occurred in New
York last year in a Menendez interview with The Village Voice; in a
Giordano and Menendez interview on a radio show; in remarks by the
defendants at conference at the Columbia University School of Law;
and in Narco News articles.

The defense attorneys say the case is another effort to challenge
Menendez, following unsuccessful legal proceedings against the
journalist in Mexico. At the heart of the dispute are articles
published by Menendez alleging involvement by Banamex owner Roberto
Hernandez Ramirez in drug smuggling.

In a statement released to the Globe, Banamex attorney Thomas McLish,
of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, said, ''Menendez and Giordano
have been engaged in a campaign to convince people that Banamex and
its chairman are involved in criminal conduct.''

''The Mexican courts dismissed the claims on technicalities,'' the
statement continued. Yet ''the defamatory statements Menendez and
Giordano made in New York have not been addressed by any court.''
Banamex filed a lawsuit in New York to ''clear its name'' of
''ludicrous'' charges, the statement added.

Giordano calls the suit an attempt to stifle his First Amendment
rights. ''They're trying to exhaust us out of existence,'' he said in
the interview. ''It's an attempt to silence freedom of the press,
freedom of the Internet, freedom of speech.''

While Giordano plans on representing himself, Narco News itself will
be defended by Northampton attorney Thomas Lesser, best known for
successfully defending Abbie Hoffman and Amy Carter in a 1987 case
stemming from their participation in a protest against the CIA at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Lesser challenges the Banamex
suit on the grounds that, among other things, the defendants' New
York appearances did not interfere with the bank's ''economic
advantage,'' and because there's ''no question, in Mr. Menendez's
mind or Mr. Giordano's mind, that these allegations are, in fact,
true.''

Menendez is defended by New York attorney Martin Garbus, whose client
list has included Lenny Bruce and Timothy Leary. Garbus has filed a
motion to dismiss, which is being opposed by Akin, Gump. ''There have
already been two cases brought by Banamex against Menendez, and they
lost,'' Garbus said. He also argues, as does Lesser, that the only
rightful plaintiff is Hernandez, not his bank. ''If I call Bill Gates
a crook, can Microsoft sue me?'' Garbus said. ''I don't think so.''

Meanwhile, the battle goes on for Giordano. (In the interests of
disclosure, he is a former Phoenix colleague of this writer and a
nephew of Globe editor Matthew V. Storin.) On Narco News, he is
publicizing his legal defense fund, which he calls ''Drug War on
Trial.'' One backer is Gary Webb, author of the explosive and highly
controversial 1996 San Jose Mercury News ''Dark Alliance'' series
that alleged CIA complicity in a Los Angeles crack epidemic.

Last fall, Giordano gained media attention when an Associated Press
correspondent in Bolivia resigned after Narco News reported that the
AP writer had lobbied the government there on a water project. Now
the fate of Narco News, which he calls ''an act of participatory
citizens' journalism,'' hangs very much in the balance.

This story ran on page C05 of the Boston Globe on 4/4/2001.