While on the topic of war crimes and the CIA, recent relevations that the CIA, in the early '80s, was largely responsible for the introduction of crack into U.S. inner cities as a means of funding its Contra wars in Nicaragua have also not yet been picked up by the networks, "official" newspapers like the NY Times and Washington Post, and most other mainstream media. Call, write, fax, e-mail, ask them why not.

The original series of articles appeared three weeks ago in the San Jose Mercury News; locally, the Seattle Times (owned by the same company) reprinted some of the material. All of it--along with original court and government documents and lots of other damning material--is posted at a web site, http://www.sjmercury.com/drugs/start.html, and is well worth the read.

Gary Webb, the reporter who single-handedly broke the story (and deserves at least a Pulitzer, if not a Medal of Honor, for his efforts), was on Dave Ross's KIRO radio talk show last week and made a number of additional good points. His articles trace the CIA's west coast crack supply network from the street level backward through the CIA to Central and South America; he noted on air that Demopublicans are all culpable in the matter, since it was Reagan's war (backed by Dole) and the east coast network ran through Mena, Arkansas, while Bill Clinton was governor (and killed an investigation). Webb listed other reporters who got part of the story over the last ten years (including two AP reporters and the Christic Institute) and were crushed by the feds as a result. He, and his paper, are banking on the advent of the Internet as protection now against a similar fate--by posting the extensive documentation they hope to avoid being stigmatized as crackpots. And Webb noted quite correctly that this is what the government most fears about the Internet, and why the current Net censorship efforts represent only a foot in the door in its dangerous effort to suppress the free flow of information.

In many cities, including Seattle, groups have sprung up to demand government reparations to the primarily black communities ravaged by CIA-introduced crack. It's not as outlandish as it sounds; reparations are a standard punishment when governments are found to have engaged in war crimes, and this surely qualifies. In Seattle, contact the Alliance For Reparation to the People and Communities Victimized By CIA Crack: (206) 325-6746 or 527-7055.