TRUE BELIEVER: INTERVIEW WITH MAXINE WALTERS

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-Los Angeles) knows the truth when she sees it.

After she read Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" series in the San Jose Mercury
News, she met with key players in South Central Los Angeles and members of
the L.A. Sheriff's Department, and she flew to Nicaragua to talk with
others implicated in the book and interview Sandinista leaders.

Waters came away from her investigation with "the undeniable conclusion
that the CIA, DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency], DIA [Defense Intelligence
Agency], and FBI knew about drug trafficking in South Central Los Angeles.
They were either part of the trafficking or turned a blind eye to it in an
effort to fund the contra war."

Now she's written the foreword to Webb's book, which she says "completely
and absolutely confirms Gary Webb's devastating series." We interviewed
Waters by phone last week in her Capitol Hill office.

Bay Guardian: You certainly seem convinced of the credibility of Gary
Webb's story.

Maxine Waters: Without question, and history will bear him out. It may take
1 or 5 or 10 or 20 years, but we'll learn for sure he was right. I think
both sides were using drug money to fund their efforts. With so many
documents classified it makes it hard to know exactly what went on, but I
personally interviewed enough people to convince me that Webb nailed the
story.

BG: What's most disturbing about the story?

MW: That so many people have suffered so much from addiction, crime,
prison, and generally ruined lives because the U.S. government, while
purportedly engaged in a "war on drugs," al-lowed the contras to introduce
such a poison in our community for political profit. I'm not easily
astounded, but this just astounds me.

BG: Your interviews corroborated his findings?

MW: Without question. The book really proves how weak the Mercury News
was in essentially firing him under pressure for no reason. They abandoned
him in mid-story, which was just horrible. He got the story right and was
working to get more information. The Mercury News people got it wrong by
vilifying him.

BG: What will you do next to get this information out?

MW: I would love to hold [congressional] hearings using the new
information from the book. I also will work to declassify the documents
that the CIA wants to keep secret. This story is too important not to keep
working on for as long as it takes to prove what really happened.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)