CIACRACK SERIES REPORTER QUITS NEWSPAPER

SAN JOSEReporter Gary Webb, whose series in the San Jose Mercury News
linked crack cocaine sales in Los Angeles with the CIA, has resigned from
the newspaper. The newspaper announced his departure Friday.

The "Dark Alliance" series, published in August 1996, suggested that a San
Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold crack cocaine in SouthCentral Los
Angeles in the 1980s, then funneled profits to the CIAbacked Contras in
Nicaragua. Webb implied that highlevel CIA officials knew of the
connection. After initial praise, Webb faced widespread criticism from
other newspapers and U.S. officials. Newspapers including the Washington
Post and the New York Times disputed his findings, and sheriff's
investigators found no evidence that the CIA was involved in cocaine
dealing in Los Angeles. Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos later
acknowledged several shortcomings, calling the series "oversimplified."

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