Click here to access article by Robert Parry from Consortiumnews.com.
Given the current "fake news" campaign by various spokespersons for the ruling class, Parry attacks major corporate media for their coverups of the CIA drug distribution scandal that was exposed by minor investigative journalists mostly in the 1990s.
I followed these revelations closely when his investigations first broke in the San Jose Mercury, heard Gary Webb speak in Eugene, Oregon after he lost his career in journalism following his blacklisting, and read his book Dark Alliance and many other materials on the subject. In earlier decades I had personally witnessed the devastating effects of the influx of drugs in HUD subsidized low-income housing which I managed. On a visit to Nicaragua in 1982 I personally witnessed the devastation of the CIA sponsored Honduran Contras who targeted mostly schools, hospitals, and cooperatives which were organized and supported by the Nicaraguan government.
In a campaign which began earlier in the 1970s, major media gave widespread coverage to the War on Drugs that was heralded by President Nixon. In ensuing years under this campaign I witnessed aggressive actions by militarized police forces that were used to confiscate properties of mostly marijuana growers in California and small time distributors in the African-American ghettos of major cities. But then leaked reports started coming from independent investigators such as Gary Webb that clearly suggested the involvement of the CIA, their illegal funding of the Contras, and ties to drug distribution in the US.
Recently I've seen many major corporate media reports on the growing problem of heroin addiction. The coverage is always on the sensational aspects and never on what police agencies are doing about it. One would think that the estimated $50 billion dollars devoted annually to police illicit drug crimes would have prevented this. The fact that heroin related production has vastly increased in Afghanistan while under the control of the US is never referred to in corporate media coverage related to the current addiction problems. Thus, you will never find articles like this in corporate media: "Afghanistan: Opium, the CIA and the Karzai Administration", "Making Afghanistan Safe for Heroin" and "Afghan Opium Production Hits New Highs"--all from credible independent websites.
