New Movie on Life of Gary Webb being filmed soon - titled: Killing The Messenger

[Peter Lemkin]

This was written by someone on Webb's own paper's staff...they buy the 'suicide' line, but I post it anyway.... I'm convinced it was murder made to look like suicide, but most Americans are UNAWARE this is possible or ever done.....done rather routinely, in fact.

HOW KILL THE MESSENGER WILL VINDICATE INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST GARY WEBB

BY MELINDA WELSH
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2014 |

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Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb

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This one has all the ingredients of a dreamed-up Hollywood blockbuster: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist uncovers a big story involving drugs, the CIA and a guerrilla army. Despite threats and intimidation, he writes an explosive exposé and catches national attention. But the fates shift. Our reporter's story is torn apart by the country's leading media; he is betrayed by his own newspaper. Though the big story turns out to be true, the writer commits suicide and becomes a cautionary tale.

Hold on, though. The above is not fiction.
Kill the Messenger, an actual film coming soon to a theater near you, is the true story of Sacramento-based investigative reporter Gary Webb, who earned both acclaim and notoriety for his 1996 San Jose Mercury News series that revealed the CIA had turned a blind eye to the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Contras trafficking crack cocaine in South Central Los Angeles and elsewhere in urban America in the 1980s. One of the first-ever newspaper investigations to be published on the Internet, Webb's story gained a massive readership and stirred up a firestorm of controversy and repudiation.
After being deemed a pariah by media giants like The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, and being disowned by his own paper, Webb eventually came to work in August 2004 at the alt-weekly Sacramento News & Review. Four months later, he committed suicide at age 49. He left behind a grieving familyand some trenchant questions:
Why did the media giants attack him so aggressively, thereby protecting the government secrets he revealed? Why did he decide to end his own life? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Gary Webb?
Like others working at our newsweekly in the brief time he was here, I knew Webb as a colleague and was terribly saddened by his death. Those of us who attended his unhappy memorial service at the Doubletree Hotel in Sacramento a week after he died thought that day surely marked a conclusion to the tragic tale of Gary Webb.
But no.
Because here comes Kill the Messenger, a Hollywood film starring Jeremy Renner as Webb; Rosemarie DeWitt as Webb's then wife, Sue Bell (now Stokes); Oliver Platt as Webb's top editor, Jerry Ceppos; and a litany of other distinguished actors, including Michael K. Williams, Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia and Robert Patrick. Directed by Michael Cuesta (executive producer of the TV series Homeland), the film opens in a "soft launch" across the country on Oct. 10.
Members of Webb's immediate familyincluding his son Eric, who lives near Sacramento State and plans a career in journalismexpect to feel a measure of solace upon the release of Kill the Messenger. "The movie is going to vindicate my dad," he said.

For Rennerwho grew up in Modesto and is best known for his roles in The Bourne Legacy, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Avengers and The Hurt Lockerthe film was a chance to explore a part unlike any he'd played before. During a break in filming Mission Impossible 5, he spoke about his choice to star in and co-produce Kill the Messenger.
"The story is important," said Renner. "It resonated with me. It has a David and Goliath aspect.
"He was brave, he was flawed. … I fell in love with Gary Webb."
'The first big Internet-age journalism exposé'
There's a scene in Kill the Messenger that will make every investigative journalist in America break into an insider's grin. It's the one whereafter a year of tough investigative slogging that had taken him from the halls of power in Washington, D.C., to a moldering jail in Central America to the mean streets of South Central L.A. Renner as Webb begins to actually write the big story. In an absorbing film montage, Renner is at the keyboard as it all comes togetherthe facts, the settings, the sources. The truth. The Clash provides the soundtrack, with Joe Strummer howling: Know your rights / these are your rights … You have the right to free speech / as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it.
It took the real Gary Webb a long time to get to this point in his career.

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PHOTO BY LARRY DALTONGary Webb

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His father, a U.S. Marine, moved Webb around a lot in his youth, from California to Indiana to Kentucky to Ohio. He wound up marrying his high-school sweetheart, Sue Bell, with whom he had three children. Inspired by the reporting that uncovered Watergate and in need of income, he left college three units shy of a degree and went to work at The Kentucky Post, then The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, where he rose quickly through the ranks of grunt reporters. Dogged in his pursuit of stories, Webb landed a job at theMercury News in 1988 and became part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for reporting on the Loma Prieta earthquake.
It was the summer of 1996 when the lone-wolf journalist handed his editors a draft of what would become the three-part, 20,000-word exposé "Dark Alliance." The series was exhaustive and complex. But its nugget put human faces on how CIA operatives had been aware that the Contras (who had been recruited and trained by the CIA to topple the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua) had smuggled cocaine into the United States and, through drug dealers, fueled an inner-city crack-cocaine epidemic.
When "Dark Alliance" was published on Aug. 18 of that year, it was as if a bomb had exploded at theMercury News. That's because it was one of the first stories to go globally viral online on the paper's then state-of-the-art website. It was 1996; the series attracted an unprecedented 1.3 million hits per day. Webb and his editors were flooded with letters and emails. Requests for appearances piled in from national TV news shows.
"Gary's story was the first Internet-age big journalism exposé," said Nick Schou, the O.C. Weeklyjournalist who wrote the book Kill the Messenger, on which the movie is partially based, along with Webb's own book version of the series, Dark Alliance. "If the series had happened a year earlier it, Dark Alliance' just would have come and gone," said Schou.
As word of the story spread, black communities across Americaespecially in South Centralgrew outraged and demanded answers. At the time, crack cocaine was swallowing up neighborhoods whole, fueling an epidemic of addiction and crime. Rocked by the revelations, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, who represents L.A.'s urban core, used her bully pulpit to call for official investigations.
But after a six-week honeymoon period for Webb and his editors, the winds shifted. The attacks began.
On October 4, The Washington Post stunned the Mercury News by publishing five articles assaulting the veracity of Webb's story, leading the package from page one. A few weeks later, The New York Times joined with similar intent.

The ultimate injury came when the L.A. Times unleashed a veritable army of 17 journalists (known internally as the "Get Gary Webb Team") on the case, writing a three-part series demolishing "Dark Alliance." The L.A. paperwhich appeared to onlookers to have missed a giant story in its own backyardwas exhaustive in its deconstruction, claiming the series "was vague" and overreached. "Oliver Stone, check your voice mail," summed Post media columnist Howard Kurtz.
Now, even some of Webb's supporters admitted that his series could have benefited from more judicious editing. But why were the "big three" so intent on tearing down Webb's work rather than attempting to further the story, as competing papers had done back in the day when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal?
Some say it was the long arm of then President Ronald Reagan and his team's ability to manipulate the gatekeepers of old media to its purposes. (Reagan had, after all, publicly compared the Contras to "our Founding Fathers" and supported the CIA-led attempt to topple the Sandinista government.)
Others say that editors at the "big three" were simply affronted to have a midsize paper like theMercury News beat them on such a big story. An article in the Columbia Journalism Review claimed some L.A. Times reporters bragged in the office about denying Webb a Pulitzer.
One of their big criticisms was that the story didn't include a comment from the CIA. When reporters at the big three asked the agency if Webb's story was true, they were told no. The denial was printed in the mainstream media as if it were golden truth.
Other issues fueled controversy around Webb's story. For example: It was falsely reported in some media outletsand proclaimed by many activists in the black communitythat Webb had proven the CIA was directly involved in drug trafficking that targeted blacks. He simply did not make this claim.
In some ways, Webb became the first reporter ever to benefit from, and then become the victim of, a story that went viral online.
After triumphing in the early success of the series, Webb's editors at the Mercury News became unnerved and eventually backed down under the pressure. Jerry Ceppos, the paper's executive editor, published an unprecedented column on May 11, 1997, that was widely considered an apology for the series, saying it "fell short" in editing and execution.
When contacted recently, Ceppos, now dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, said he was only barely aware of the film coming out and wasn't familiar with the acting career of Oliver Platt, who plays him in the movie. "I'm the wrong person to ask about popular culture," he said.


Next: Webb's editor is questioned about whether he has any regrets.

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Webb's editor in the film, Jerry Ceppos, is played by Oliver Platt.

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Asked if he would do anything differently today regarding Gary Webb's series, Ceppos, whose apologia did partially defend the series, responded with an unambiguous "no."
"It seems to me, 18 years later, that everything still holds up. … Everything is not black and white. If you portrayed it that way, then you need to set the record straight.
"I'm very proud that we were willing to do that."
Some find irony in the fact that Ceppos, in the wake of the controversy, was given the 1997 Ethics in Journalism Award by the Society of Professional Journalists.
Webb, once heralded as a groundbreaking investigative reporter, was soon banished to the paper's Cupertino bureau, a spot he considered "the newspaper's version of Siberia." In 1997, after additional run-ins with his editors, including their refusal to run his follow-up reporting on the "Dark Alliance" series, he quit the paper altogether.
But a year later, he was redeemed when CIA's inspector general, Frederick Hitz, released his 1998 report admitting that the CIA had known all along that the Contras had been trafficking cocaine. Reporter Robert Parry, who covered the Iran-Contra scandal for the Associated Press, called the report "an extraordinary admission of institutional guilt by the CIA." But the revelation fell on deaf ears. It went basically unnoticed by the newspapers that had attacked Webb's series. A later internal investigation by the Justice Department echoed the CIA report.
But no apology was forthcoming to Webb, despite the fact that the central finding of his series had been proven correct after all.

[B]'I never really gave up hope'
Earlier this month, Webb's son Eric, 26, opened the door to his Sacramento rental home with a swift grab for the collar of his affable pit-bull mix, Thomas. Ericlanky at 6 feet 4 inches, with his father's shaggy brown hair and easy expressionattended college at American River College and hopes to become a journalist someday. He was happy to sit down and discuss the upcoming film.[/B]
[B]To Eric, the idea that a movie was being made about his dad was nothing new. He'd heard it all at least a dozen times before. Paramount Pictures had owned the rights to Dark Alliance for a while before Universal Studios took it on.[/B]
[B]"I stopped expecting it," said Eric.[/B]
[B]Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. "I'd get discouraged," she said, "but I never really give up hope."[/B]
[B]Things finally took off almost eight years ago, when screenwriter Peter Landesman called author Schou, now managing editor at the OC Weekly, about his not-yet-published book about Webb. Landesman was hot to write a screenplay about Webb's story, said Schou.[/B]
[B]It was years later when Landesman showed the screenplay to Renner, whose own production company, The Combine, decided to co-produce it. Focus Features, which is owned by Universal, now has worldwide rights to the movie Kill the Messenger.[/B]
[B]"When Jeremy Renner got involved," said Schou, "everything started rolling."[/B]
[B]It was the summer of 2013 when Stokes and Webb's childrenEric, his older brother Ian and younger sister Christineflew to Atlanta for three days on the film company's dime to see a scene being shot.[/B]
[B]"The first thing [Renner] did when he saw us was come up and give us hugs and introduce himself," said Eric. "He called us bud' and kiddo' like my dad used to. … He even had the tucked-in shirt with no belt, like my dad used to wear. And I was like, Man, you nailed that.'"[/B]
[B]The scene the family watched being filmed, according to Stokes, was the one where Webb's Mercury News editors tell him "they were gonna back down from the story."[/B]
[B]"I was sitting there watching and thinking back to the morning before that meeting," said Stokes. "Gary was getting nervous [that day]. He said, I guess I should wear a tie and jacket' to this one. He was nervous but hopeful that they would let him move forward with the story."[/B]
[B]Of course, they did not.[/B]
[B]After a pause, Stokes said: "It was hard watching that scene and remembering the emotions of that day."[/B]

[B]Just a few months ago, in June, Webb's family flew to Santa Monica to see the film's "final cut" at the Focus Features studio. All were thoroughly impressed with the film and the acting. "Jeremy Renner watched our home videos," said Eric. "He studied. All these little words and gestures that my dad used to dohe did them. I felt like I was watching my dad."[/B]
[B]When asked how playing the role of Gary Webb compared to his usual action-adventure parts (such as in The Bourne Legacy), Renner said it was like "apples and oranges" to compare the two, but then admitted, "I can say this one was more emotionally challenging."[/B]
[B]Renner laughed when asked about the impressive cast he'd managed to round up for a comparatively low-budget movie and how he was "going to be washing a whole lot of people's cars and doing their laundry."
Stokes has no regrets about the film.[/B]
[B]"Seeing a chapter of your life, with its highs and lows, depicted on the big screen is something you never think is going to happen to you," she said. "It was all very emotional.[/B]
[B]"But I loved the movie. And the kids were very happy with how it vindicated their father."[/B]
[B]Said Renner, "If [the family gets] closure or anything like that … that's amazing."[/B]
[B][B]'I've shot that gun so I know'
It was an otherwise routine Friday morning in December 2004 when Eric Webb was called out of class at Rio Americano High School. The then 16-year-old was put on the phone with his mother, who told him he needed to leave campus immediately and go straight to his grandmother's house.[/B][/B]
[B][B]"I told her, I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what happened,'" said Eric. So she told him about his dad.
"He killed himself," she said.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Eric had the family BMW that day, so he floored it over to his father's home in Carmichael, Calif.the one his dad had been scheduled to clear out of that very day. Webb had just sold it with the alleged plan of saving money by moving into his mother's home nearby.[/B][/B]

[B][B]Next: How Gary Webb's family feels about the conspiracy theories surrounding his death[/B][/B]

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PHOTO BY LISA BAETZGary Webb's son Eric, who hopes to become a journalist.

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[B][B]"I needed a visual confirmation for myself," said Eric. He pulled up to the house and saw a note in his dad's handwriting on the door. It read, "Do not enter, please call the police." Eric went inside and saw the blood, "but his body had already been taken," he said.[/B][/B]
[B][B]For his children and Stokes, nothing was ever the same. And almost 10 years later, questions still reverberate around Gary Webb's death.[/B][/B]
[B][B]It's clear from all who knew him well that he suffered from severe depression. Somelike Stokesbelieve in retrospect that Webb was also likely ill with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. Still, why did he do it? What makes a man feel despair enough to take his own life?[/B][/B]
[B][B]After leaving the Mercury News in '97, Webb couldn't get hired at a daily. After writing his book, he eventually found a position working for the California Legislature's task force on government oversight. When he lost that job in February 2004, a depression he'd fought off for a long while settled in, said Stokes.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Though divorced in 2000, the couple remained friendly. On the day that would have been their 25th anniversary, he turned to her, utterly distraught, after hearing he'd lost the job.[/B][/B]
[B][B]"He was crying, I lost my job, what am I gonna do?'" she said. He knew the development would make it tough to stay in Sacramento near his children. She urged him to regroup and apply again at daily newspapers. Surely, she thought, the controversy over his series would have waned by now.[/B][/B]
[B][B]But when Webb applied, not even interviews were offered.[/B][/B]
[B][B]"Nobody would hire him," she said. "He got more and more depressed. He was on antidepressants, but he stopped taking them in the spring," said Stokes. "They weren't making him feel any better."[/B][/B]


[B][B]It was August when Webb finally got work as a reporter atSacramento News & Review. Though he hadn't set out to work in the world of weekly journalism, with its lesser pay and more hit-and-miss prestige, he was a productive member of the staff until near the end. During his short time with SN&R, he wrote a few searing cover stories, including "The Killing Game," about the U.S. Army using first-person shooter video games as a recruitment tool.[/B][/B]
[B][B]In fact, Eric edited a book in 2011 for Seven Stories Press,The Killing Game, that included 11 stories his father had written for various publications, including SN&R. "I was always happy to see his covers," said Eric, attending high school at the time. "We got SN&R on our campus, and I would be like, "Hey, my dad's on the front page. That's awesome.'"[/B][/B]
[B][B]It was the morning of December 10 when SN&R's editorial assistant Kel Munger entered Editor Tom Walsh's office with word that Gary's son had just called saying, "Somebody needs to tell the boss that my dad killed himself."[/B][/B]
[B][B]Within a few hours, SN&R was fielding press calls from all around the country, said Munger. A week later, it was she who had the thankless job of cleaning out Webb's work cubicle so as to pass his belongings on to his ex-wife and kids. "There was bundled-up research material, a bunch of Detroit hockey paraphernalia, photos of his kids. … I remember he had a 2004 Investigative Reporter's Handbook with Post-it notes throughout."
"I was having a hard time keeping it together," said Munger. "Like everyone else, I'd been looking forward to getting to know him."[/B][/B]
[B][B]In the days following his death, the Sacramento County Coroner's Office came out with a preliminary finding that was meant to cease the flood of calls to his office. The report "found no sign of forced entry or struggle" and stated the cause of death as "self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head."[/B][/B]
[B][B]But it was too late to stop the conspiracy theorists. The CIA wanted Webb dead, they hypothesized, so the agency must have put a "hit" out on him. To this day, the Internet is full of claims that Webb was murdered. The fact that Webb had fired two shots into his own head didn't dampen the conjectures.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Said Eric, "The funny part is, never once has anybody from the conspiracy side every contacted us and said, Do you think your dad was murdered?'"[/B][/B]
[B][B]The family knew what Webb had been through; they knew he had been fighting acute depression. They learned he'd purchased cremation services and put his bank account in his ex-wife's name. They knew that the day before his suicide he had mailed letters, sent to his brother Kurt in San Jose, that contained personal messages to each family member.[/B][/B]

[B][B]Receiving the letters "was actually a big relief for us," said Eric. "We knew it was him. They were typed by him and in his voice. It was so apparent. The things he knew, nobody else would know. … He even recommended books for me to read."[/B][/B]
[B][B]According to Eric, the "two gunshots" issue is "very explainable," because the revolver Webb had fired into his head, a .38 Special police addition his Marine father had owned, has double action that doesn't require a shooter to re-cock to take a second shot. "I've shot that gun so I know," said Eric, who said his father taught him to shoot on a camping trip. "Once you cock the trigger, it goes 'bang' real easily. … You could just keep on squeezing and it would keep on shooting."[/B][/B]
[B][B]In Kill the Messenger, Webb's death goes unmentioned until after the final scene, when closing words roll onto the screen. Renner said he felt it would have been a disservice to the viewer to "weigh in too heavy" with details of the death. Including Webb's demise would have "raised a lot of questions and taken away from his legacy," he said.[/B][/B]
[B][B][B]'Stand up and risk it all'
It was eight days after Webb's death when a few hundred of us gathered in Sacramento Doubletree Hotel's downstairs conference room for an afternoon memorial service. Photo collages of Webb were posted on tables as mourners filed into the room. There he was on his prized red, white and blue motorcycle. There he was camping with his children. There he was featured in an Esquire magazine article recounting his saga. Family members and friends, longtime colleagues and SN&R staffers packed into the room.[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B]My own distress at Webb's passing wasn't fully realized until my eyes lit on his Pulitzer Prize propped on a table just inside the entryway. It was the first one I'd ever seen. I wondered how many more exceptional stories he could have produced if things had gone differently.[/B][/B]
[B][B]"He wanted to write for one of the big three," said Webb's brother Kurt. "Unfortunately, the big three turned [on him]."[/B][/B]
[B][B]Praise for the absent journalisthis smarts, guts and tenacityflowed from friends, colleagues and VIPs at the event. A statement from now U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, then a senator, had been emailed to SN&R: "Because of [Webb]'s work, the CIA launched an Inspector General's investigation that found dozens of troubling connections to drug-runners. That wouldn't have happened if Gary Webb hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all."[/B][/B]

[B][B]And Rep. Waters, who spent two years following up on Webb's findings, wrote a statement calling him "one of the finest investigative journalists our country has ever seen."[/B][/B]
[B][B]When Hollywood weighs in soon on the Webb saga, the storm that surrounded him in life will probably be recycled in the media and rebooted on the Internet, with old and new media journalists, scholars and conspiracy theorists weighing in from all sides.[/B][/B]
[B][B]But the film itself is an utter vindication of Webb's work.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Renner was hesitant to say if those who watch Kill the Messenger will leave with any particular take-home lesson. "I want the audience to walk away and debate and argue about it all," he said of his David and Goliath tale. And then, "I do believe [the film] might help create some awareness and accountability in government and newspapers."[/B][/B]
[B][B]And what would the real live protagonist of Kill the Messenger have thought of it all? It's at least certain he'd have been unrepentant. In the goodbye letter his ex-wife received on the day of his suicide, Gary Webb told her:[/B][/B]
[B][B]"Tell them I never regretted anything I wrote."[/B][/B]

[David Guyatt]

David,
I saw this film when it came out at a local theater in Anchorage Alaska. There were only about ten people at that particular viewing. I don't know overall how well this film did but I do know that it would not get any support from mainstream media. The information in the film was extremely important and I tip my hat to Jeremy Renner for his effort to bring this story to the public consciousness.

Americans have been under continuous propaganda and media saturation since world war two. I believe it is unprecedented in the history of our planet and the results will only be understood with the perspective of time and distance. I very much appreciate all of you that post here and share your knowledge and humor in these very dark times.

Bill, I agree that the box office receipts are going to be terrible. I read a review over here i n a mainstream newspaper and the critic attacked the film, not for its factual content - how could he - but used the old device of mingy criticism over tiny little things so as to create the impression for the public that it's a poor film. For me it's a really important film.

[David Guyatt]

This was written by someone on Webb's own paper's staff...they buy the 'suicide' line, but I post it anyway.... I'm convinced it was murder made to look like suicide, but most Americans are UNAWARE this is possible or ever done.....done rather routinely, in fact.

Trying again.

I'm not sure how many people have killed themselves by two shots to the head? But I bet it's very few indeed and I bet even fewer were ruled suicide by the police.

If you control the police and media then I guess you can call a dog a cat, a cat a fox, and a fox a chicken, and nobody will blink an eye.

[Peter Lemkin]

Was Gary Webb Suicided to Kill New Book?

Kill the Messenger, the new film on San Jose Mercury News investigative journalist Gary Webb, debuts in movie theaters across the United States this weekend. Questions still remain as to whether the Pulitzer Prize-winning newsman, who was betrayed by his colleagues for his brave investigative work, wasn't "suicided" by the very forces whose crimes he endeavored to expose.-JFT
By Charlene Fassa
[This article originally appeared at Bellaciao.org in December 2004.]

Before all articles, legitimate questions, and informed speculation critical of Webb's alleged 'confirmed' suicide are automatically tossed in the 'memory hole', or are destined to endlessly travel through the 'conspiracy belt' I have some new and important revelations that need to be factored into the Gary Webb death equation, including information that he was working on a NEW book that he would soon finish.

And what would people think about Gary Webb's OFFICIAL airtight 'confirmed suicide' pronouncement if they were to read an email containing a recollected conversation between Jon Roland and Gary Webb about this very subject: the possibility of Webb's being "suicided", where Webb confirms that if he's found dead it would never be a suicide.

In case you're wondering who Jon Roland is, he's a constitutional reporter. He's also the founder and the webmaster at www.constitution.org. I called Jon to clarify the details around the revealing email he had sent out to various listserv groups, shortly after Webb's death. When I spoke with Mr. Roland, I asked him approximately when he had this conversation with Webb.
Jon said, "after the Mercury articles were written, and Gary had been living in Sacramento 3 or 4 months." Jon also reiterated that Gary had a cache of evidence, left over from his writings that had never been published, which made him concerned for Gary's life.

I found this email and other incendiary information I'll be discussing about Webb, from an excellent article on Gary Webb's death by reporter Virginia McCulloughhere.

Here's the email -
Original Message

From: "Jon Roland" To: Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 3:57 PM

Subject: c-a] Obituary: Gary Webb, investigative reporter, author of "Dark Alliance",

Gary Webb first came to attention with his series for the San Jose Mercury News, "Dark Alliance", which presented evidence the CIA supported the importation of cocaine into the United States. See

http://www.constitution.org/abus/narc/day1main.htm

http://www.constitution.org/abus/narc/day2main.htm

http://www.constitution.org/abus/narc/day3main.htm

I spoke to Gary and in the conversation he indicated he had a lot of evidence that did not appear in his writings. I cautioned him that the CIA might contrive to "suicide" him, and he indicated that if he died it would not be suicide.

The CIA has experts on producing authentic-appearing "suicide notes". If you ever get a report like this about me, you can be absolutely certain it was not suicide.

Jon

Another gem mentioned in the McCullough piece is that Gary Webb was working on a book! That's right a BOOK, according to Luis Gomez, a fellow investigative reporter associated with the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism. Luis had worked with, learned from, and admired Gary. Here's a quotation from his heartfelt eulogy to Webb:

Chief Gary, pardon this digression, but did you finish that book you were working on? I remember that a few months ago everything was up in the air while you looked for work, but when you wrote to me again for the last time, you were already a reporter again. So I suppose that it is finished, because a journalist does not leave work hanging, and you were one of the best that I've known, that I've read. Now, I hope it gets released, so that we can find out what you were doing these last few months because I really don't know, and that ignorance makes me cry, chief.

So where's the manuscript? Why are the "confirmed suicide" mongers stridently asserting that Gary wasn't working on anything before he died? Who benefits from this lie? This begs the question, If Gary was indeed working on a new book, what kind of book was it? Well, we know he had evidence laying around about the CIA, the Contras, drug trafficking, etc. I think we're safe in speculating his book probably would have been related to this subject matter in some way.

Unfortunately, Luis can't help us here. So I'm going to get a little help from my friends at Liberty Lobby Forum. The rumor mill was churning hot and heavy at Liberty Forum and Webb's death was addressed with an attention-grabbing post: Did the Israelis pay a Visit to Webb?

To summarize: allegations are made that Webb was working on a new book exposing the hidden Jewish element that is the controlling factor behind drug trafficking in South America.

Apparently, a huge drug war in South America is about to erupt. It's characterized as a massive power grab against South American Jewish-drug-lords. According to this scenario, Hugo Chavez is playing the foil, and is planning to clean-up drug trafficking in his neighborhood, or at least look as though he is, by militarily moving against Columbia. The prize is control over the illicit $50 billion cocaine and marijuana market. According to this speculation, Webb was "suicided" by Mossad because he was getting ready to break this story via his new book. Is the above true? I have no idea. I've not been involved with any research about South American drug trafficking. But, I do know and it has been reported that Chavez has purchased MIG-29's from Russia. And at this point, it's anyone's guess as to what Gary's alleged book contains. One thing is for sure, this sort of material would be his bailiwick. Does this information merit further investigation? I think it does, although some may disagree. I'm merely bringing this to the attention of serious researchers and truth seekers. It's up to them to decide if the material merits more study.

At this point, let's revisit "Freeway" Ricky Ross' comments about Webb in an entirely new light.

After all, he was one of Webb's primary sources for the Dark Alliance-CIA Drug series. Let's remind ourselves of this fact, Webb based his reputation and career on much of what Rickey told him. If Ricky Ross was a "good enough" source for Gary Webb, meticulous researcher that he was, then he should be a good "enough source" for us. So I ask you, reader: "Why would Ricky Ross all of a sudden turn into an unreliable source NOW?"

At any rate, here's an excerpt from a recent Kevin Booth interview by Alex Jones. It's based on a telephone conversation between Kevin Booth, a documentary film maker who's working on a film about the drug war, and "Freeway'" Rickey Ross who is serving time in prison for drug dealing and related crimes. It centers on Ross' comments after learning about Gary Webb's alleged "suicide". In the recorded phone conversation, Freeway Rickey corroborates what Luis Gomez tells us: Gary was working on a project. Additionally, we learn via Rickey that Gary had told him that he was receiving death threats and harassment from government types.

Here's a segment from Alex Jones' interview of Kevin Booth:

KB: Right, it was all these cartels. So, like you said, he (Freeway Ricky Ross) was in the Victorville prison, right above Los Angeles there and the last time he spoke to Gary, which wasn't that long ago, he told me that Gary was still working on the story. This was the kind of thing that Gary was never going to give up on because Gary felt like he could just keep going with this forever and uncover more and more people and exposing more names. But he (Ricky Ross) did tell me that Gary knew he was being followed. Every time he drove somewhere, there were always cars following him around. He said he knew it was government people.

The entire transcript and audio of the conversation between Ross and Booth is available here.

Doesn't it make you wonder where the hell are Gary's papers and research documents, evidence, etc.? I've heard nothing about them from the mainstream stenographers have you? Sam Smith is wondering too. He's a "Scoop" reporter who wrote: Sam Smith, The Gary Webb Case, full text here.

One clue still to come: did Webb leave his files with anyone he trusted or have they disappeared? It would have been highly unusual if he had left them for law enforcement officials to find, especially with the threat they might pose to sources. In any case, somebody's got them now.

I have a hard time believing that Webb wouldn't have at least safely hidden his more sensitive information, etc. in case of a hit, at least to protect his sources if for no other reason. I can't help but wonder if someone out there has safely stored some of Gary's stuff for him, or even a manuscript of his almost finished book? It would be sad if those who got to Gary also got his materials.

Then this from "Remembering Gary Webb" by Alan Goodman

Gary Webb paid a personal price for his work. When I talked with him, he was acutely aware that people get killed for revealing the kinds of horrors he uncovered. He was very concerned for the safety of his sources in prison and in Central America. The DEA raided the office of the literary agent who was helping Gary get a book contract. Shortly before we met, one of Gary's associates had been run off the road by a military vehicle in Nicaragua". So now we have even more testimony that Gary was aware of the possibility of being "suicided", and that he was concerned not just for himself, but also for his sources.

Then consider this cautionary disclaimer by the iconoclastic Voxfux, who mentions that he and Gary had communicated in the past, excerpted from his no-holds-barred rant on Gary Webb's death. You can read the entire article here . "I published a "disclaimer of death" in 2001. My declaration stated in advance that if is (sic) was to be found in a scenario that appeared to be a suicide, that it was not a suicide. That declaration made a little noise back then now all the other researchers are publishing similar disclaimers and declarations that they are not suicidal nor will they ever be suicidal."

Is Voxfux merely paranoid, or is he a realist? Too bad Gary didn't sign a similar public declaration. But there's still time for us. Maybe we should construct a website dedicated to these types of declarations a type of suicide protection insurance. Additionally, it could serve as a memorial to those who have already been "suicided."

So, where am I going with all this? I'm positing that the carefully crafted impressionistic picture that was feed to us about Gary Webb's suspicious death was just that. In other words, it was a psyop. Of course, an INDEPENDENT investigation would uncover more facts and details about Webb's death that would inevitably change the carefully crafted, initial picture. And isn't that a primary reason why there will be no real investigation?

It's all about perception control, isn't it? If you carefully limit the scope and the quality of information about a subject effectively, people are restricted in their ability to critically think in that arena. And those who try to open up the flow of information once it's been officially shut down those people are labeled conspiracy wackos.

It's mind control pure and simple, a form of invisible mental fencing. Since I'm feeling pretty artistic today, I'm going to try and create a different picture for you to view. I'm sure you've heard this before: it's not what they tell you that's really important, it's what they don't tell you that's where the greater truth lies.

And I can't help but wonder how we in America got stuck with such an absurdly low standard when it comes to pronouncing a death an official suicide. A distinct possibility sounds more like another way of saying maybe! Yet, that was the official statement made about Webb's death by coroner Lyons. It sounds more like an official pronouncement that's heard in a banana republic, not in a democratic republic. Is this representative of the rule of law or the arbitrariness of a dictatorship? What happened to "beyond a reasonable doubt"?

In England "beyond a reasonable doubt" is the standard used to declare a suicide or a murder, although it's not being applied to the Kelly case, another who was likely ësuicided'. Not having an independent investigation is an easy way to protect the guilty. And here's another piece of illuminating information reported by Virginia McCullough, the reporter from NEWSMAKINGNEWS.COM in her piece about Webb's death:

"The [moving] company's estimator, Steve, had talked with the homeowner [Webb] recently, and he had felt that the man seemed saddened or depressed. The homeowner had just sold the home for $321,750 and said that he would be moving in with his grandmother who lived nearby."

First, what strikes me as suspicious is how quickly Steve echoes the official spin that Gary seemed depressed. And here's where Steve loses all credibility for me: Steve the moving company estimator, knows the EXACT amount of money Webb's house sold for? Excuse me, but if a moving company employee asked you how much your house sold for, would you give them an exact dollar amount? Instead, wouldn't you throw out a rounded up figure like in the 3oo's or something more general?

Then Steve tells us all of Gary's belongings are boxed and ready for storage. Again I find this odd. People on the verge of committing suicide are more likely to give away or sell their belongings. That's a lot of work to pack and label all those boxes and then arrange and pay for storage. Frankly, most clinically depressed suicidal people wouldn't have had the energy to initiate and finish a project like that.

And while we're on the subject of personal belongings, it seems to me that if Gary were on the verge of killing himself, he would have given his beloved motorcycle to one of his sons or another family member. Suicide is the ultimate in letting go, so why all the hanging-on?

And then Steve tells us Gary is planning on moving in with his grandmother, who lives nearby. Why haven't we heard from the grandmother about why Gary was going to move in with her? My bet is that if the reason he was moving in bolstered the "confirmed suicide" theory, we would have heard a few sound bites from her.

Bottom line is I don't think "A Better Moving Company" should be let off the hook so easily. Hmmm, Mossad, moving companies, drug turf wars in South America, exposing hidden Jewish elements that allegedly control the South American Drug trade which could have been the topic, or a topic in Webb's new book? This is what investigations are for to check out these red flags and leads and see where they go.

Don't you think it's important that Jon Roland tells us that according to Webb, he still had in his personal possession potentially incriminating evidence that was yet to be published. And then there's Webb's concurrence with Roland confirming the unlikelihood of a Webb suicide. This tells us that Webb would remain a target and closely watched, and gives us a reason to DOUBT he would take his own life.

Then there's Alan Goodman's interview with Webb. He tells us how concerned Gary was for his sources and by implication for his own life. So, Gary knew he was in constant danger. Wouldn't that danger escalate if he were writing a new book? I don't think Luis Gomez added the aside about Gary's new book, in his moving eulogy to Webb in order to be provocative. And I don't think Gary lied to him either. "Freeway" Ricky Ross also said Gary had told him he was continuing to work on this material, and he says Gary knew his life was in danger.

Need I mention why very few people knew Webb was working on a new book? Remember, Webb was said to be very concerned for the safety of his sources. It seems to me he would have wanted to protect his family, keeping them "out of the loop" by not telling them about his new book.

My picture looks something like this. Gary Webb was working on a new book that implicated more people in high places who didn't like the idea of an expose book blowing their cover. In all probability, the book was an extension of his previous work. I think Gary was smart enough to have stashed a copy or copies of his manuscript somewhere safe.

As far as selling his house and moving in with his grandmother, that very well could have been done to lower his overhead so he could spend more time finishing his book, and therefore wouldn't have to get another job to make his mortgage payments and cover his expenses. We don't know how much Gary profited from the sale of his house, but he may have garnered a bit of financial cushion with that sale. This can be checked into via public records at the local recorders' office.

California is an open state for real estate information, and the amount of his previous mortgage and the sales price would be there. The difference would have been his, approximately. Also consider this: if Gary were in the black after having sold his home and he was about to commit suicide, why not send a check to Sue Bell, his ex-wife, with one of those (computer generated?) letters Gary (or someone pretending to be Gary) allegedly sent to family members? That to me would have been a stronger indication of his intent to kill himself, rather than merely making her a beneficiary of his bank account, which he may have done because of death threats. If we were to have a legitimate investigation, we could potentially confirm some of this maybe even find a copy of his manuscript.

Phone records could be retrieved, as well as email correspondence; interviews could be done with colleagues, suicide notes examined by a forensic graphologistand on and on. My guess is if Gary did write the alleged handwritten suicide notes, it was under duress maybe a threat to harm his family, or else? But I bet the letters that went out to family members just before his death were computer generated. An autopsy could have revealed by checking under Gary's fingernails for skin, foreign blood cells, DNA, etc. that there was a struggle. Gary's blood could have been checked for any injected drugs. You can fill in the rest. Sadly, by now his body has been cremated, or will be soon. I'll end with an insightful quote I found from Gary. It was in a Dec. 17th 2004, tribute article to Webb by Bill Conroy called: "Gary Drew Blood".

In his article, Conroy decided to call Chuck Bowden to get his take on Webb's alleged suicide. According to Conroy, Webb had confided that, "he Gary would trust Chuck Bowden with his life". That's why Conroy decided to call Bowden. The quote was part of a conversation between Webb and Bowden. In 1998 Bowden had been working on an Esquire article that validated Gary's work, Dark Alliance. Bowden flew to Sacramento to interview Gary for his Esquire piece. "He (Gary) was drinking Maker's Mark whiskey,"' Bowden recalled, "and I remember he slapped his hand down on the table and said, 'I don't believe in conspiracy theories. I believe in conspiracies.' "http://narcosphere.narconews.com/st…

I believe that Gary Webb's death is being sold as a "confirmed suicide" when in reality it's a "confirmed conspiracy." I also believe that Webb was "suicided" to kill his new book. To those of you who would say, "you can't PROVE Webb was working on a new book." I say, "you can't prove he wasn't."

[Bill York]

Bill, I agree that the box office receipts are going to be terrible. I read a review over here i n a mainstream newspaper and the critic attacked the film, not for its factual content - how could he - but used the old device of mingy criticism over tiny little things so as to create the impression for the public that it's a poor film. For me it's a really important film.[/QUOTE]


David, I also believe that this is an important film. I am sick of seeing the CIA and MI6 portrayed as heroic patriots. How do you re-educate a public whose version of history is almost all lies? And do it in time to keep up with the speed of unfolding events?

[Drew Phipps]

Kill the Messenger: Arrived today from Netflix. I will watch it tonight.

[Albert Doyle]

I saw it in the theater. Good movie that was dropped quickly because the American public is not interested in how rotten it is.

[Magda Hassan]

I saw it the other week. Great movie. Wont stay in the cinemas though. Especially with all the new blockbusters coming on like Jurassic Park and Star Wars. Best find it online or at the DVD shop to catch up. Thought it was really well done for such a low budget. A real labour of love from dedicated truth tellers. Well done!

[Drew Phipps]

Enjoyed the movie. More importantly, so did my fiancée, who isn't into all this conspiracy stuff. I would have wished for the film to examine the full impact of the breaking of the story, which had much more impact than just making the CIA director come to an LA town hall meeting. And they left out the LAPD cops that came to that meeting to protest the government's ongoing interference with local law enforcement.

[Albert Doyle]

The government and the media basically killed a man who exposed their wrongdoing and got away with it.