In 1996, journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of articles that forced a long-overdue investigation of a very dark chapter of recent U.S. foreign policy – the Reagan-Bush administration’s protection of cocaine traffickers who operated under the cover of the Nicaraguan contra war in the 1980s.

For his brave reporting at the San Jose Mercury News, Webb paid a high price.

Susan Bell Looks Back on a Shameful Secret History

by Robert Chalmers

In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. His widow, Susan Bell, looks back on a shameful secret history.

When the big story arrives, Susan Bell recalls her late husband saying, "it will be like a bullet with your name on it. You won't even hear it coming." It was a remark that Gary Webb overheard early in his career, from an older reporter, and would repeat, ironically, to the point that the phrase "It's the Big One" became a standing joke on his news desk. And yet for Webb, the idea that a journalist could be killed by his own story turned out to be no laughing matter. The only difference in Gary Webb's case was that his life was ended not by one bullet, but two.

[Be sure to read this entire story - via: Common Dreams.org]

Hung Out to Dry: 'Dark Alliance' Series Dies Under pressure from the Big Media [by Georg Hodel]. San Jose Mercury News editors pulled reporter Gary Webb off the contra-drug story. But in a first-person account, Webb's co-author in Nicaragua warns about dangers to others who worked on the story. (6/30/97)

Analysis of C.I.A. Report On Its Involvement in Drug Trafficking - "Amidst the media frenzy over the Clinton sex scandal, the C.I.A. quietlyreleased its report on allegations the agency was involved in drugtrafficking. To no-one's surprise, the C.I.A. inspector general concluded there was no connection." ~ ( Democracy Now, Wednesday, February 4th, 1998 )

The CIA-Contra Cocaine Connection - Guests: Bob Parry is the editor of "Consortium" and a former reporter for Associated Press and Newsweek who broke the Iran-Contra story. Gary Webb is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, formerly of the San Jose Mercury News, and the author of "Dark Alliance; The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion", published by Seven Stories Press.

Last week, the New York Times reported the CIA's own investigation of its activities revealed that agency officials knew that the Nicaraguan contras they were working with were running drugs. The new report is the long-delayed second volume of the CIA's internal investigation into possible connections between the Contras and Central American drug traffickers. The investigation was originally prompted by a 1996 series in the San Jose Mercury News which asserted that a "dark alliance" between the CIA, the contras, and drug traffickers had helped finance the contra war with profits from drug smuggling. The first volume of the CIA report was released in January. It confirmed that the CIA had blocked federal criminal investigations of contra-drug activities in California. Volume two, a broader look at the problem, is considered far more damaging to the CIA. It is said to reveal a large drug network and direct tie-ins to Reagan administration officials. Journalist Bob Parry spoke with sources within the agency who saw the classified report. ~ ( Democracy Now, Monday, July 20th, 1998 )

Gary Webb -- Dark Alliance Interview Part II In August 1996, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb stunned the world... ~ ( Democracy Now, Wednesday, May 20th, 1998 )