DRUG CONNECTION

To The Editor:

Gary Webb - Pulitzer Prize winner, dead of reported suicide.

Gary Webb's August 1996 series Dark Alliance for the San Jose Mercury
News pulled deep covers away from US covert operations and American
denial about connections between the CIA and drugs. His reporting was
meticulous and produced hard records that could not be effectively
denied. Webb dug up and documented the direct connection between the
CIA and cocaine smuggling/trafficking as crack cocaine ravaged Los
Angeles in the 1980s and the Contra war decimated Central America.

His documents backed claims by Retired DEA agent Cele Castillo who had
reported on direct CIA drug involvement from Honduras and El Salvador
in the early 1980s.

His hard records forced congressional hearings that put Lt. Col.
Oliver North's back against the wall! Just when Mr. North was to
squeal like a pig to save his butt and name his superiors, it was
declared an issue of national security and to the relief of our
congressional leaders all hearing were stopped. Oliver North's own
diaries and subsequent investigations by the CIA Inspector-General
have irrevocably tied him directly to cocaine smuggling during the
1980s, moving four tons of cocaine a month into the U.S. in exchange
for guns for Nicaragua.

Since 9/11 the American people have been told that profits from
illegal drugs support terrorism. We presently have military operations
against drugs in the two major drug producers in the world, Colombia
(cocaine) and Afghanistan (heroin). We can eliminate profits by
legalization and regulation. Instead we have record amounts, cheaper,
and stronger coming into the U.S.

Who or what is profiting from the drug war?

Larry Seguin

Lisbon