Universal developing film about journalist Gary Webb, "Kill the Messenger"

[NYCGirl]

Sounds like it could be good...

Universal is developing a feature called "Kill the Messenger" based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb.

The San Jose Mercury News reporter committed suicide after being the target of a smear campaign when he linked the CIA to a scheme to arm Contra rebels in Nicaragua and import cocaine into California.

Peter Landesman will write the screenplay, based on the two books the studio optioned: "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion," by Webb, and Nick Schou's "Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb."

-snipped-

Webb was vilified by major newspapers after his series was published. His 1996 three-part series "Dark Alliance" implied that the CIA was a catalyst for the crack cocaine scourge in California. The film will posit that Webb was mostly right, and that the CIA sought to smear him to cover up a scandal.

MORE AT LINK

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117983375.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2563

[Hissyspit]

1. He committed suicide? Two gun shot wounds to the head.

Someone DECIDED he committed suicide.

[Juche]

2. it was probably suicide

I read his biography and he suffered from depression. And his wife says it was likely suicide. He was deeply depressed about no major newspaper being willing to hire him because of his dark alliance stories.

[blm]

4. Webb also needed Kerry to finally have the oval office access to documents that

would have completely vindicated him and his investigation.

This whole story is one of the big reasons that the real powerbrokers in DC - BushInc and the powerful Dems who protect their secrecy and privilege - needed to keep Kerry OUT OF THE OVAL OFFICE.

The backstabbing was constant:

http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13354

And often public:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/19/clinton.iraq/

And definitely sabotaged Ohio Dem voters:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward

[ray of light]

31. Important to remember that AND to do something about it!

[FiveGoodMen]

11. Some pretty spectacular suicide: shooting yourself in the head ... TWICE

[truedelphi]

19. The original plan involved "the reservation special"

Ya know, that freaky version of suicide that goes down on the Reservation, with the suicider giving himself forty two knife wounds to the back.

But they forgot to bring the knife that day - so came up with the two shot instead.

[L. Coyote]

26. "Journalists commit suicide by two gushot wounds to the head so other journalists

know how to commit suicide."

FYI, Webb was investigating Ohio 2004!

[blm]

29. BFEE 2004 checklist: Steal election to keep Kerry from decades of WH secrets. Purge CIA

agents suspected of supporting Kerry. Keep Webb silent.

[blm]

3. THIS is why it is important for us to keep these matters ALIVE. BFEE would get away completely if

not for those of us who will not let the story die.

And REMEMBER Dems - this story came out in 1996 and BushInc was PROTECTED by the Dem president who wasn't exactly cooperative with the TRUTH SEEKERS.

Taking Webb down became an imperative to protect the criminal operations of BushInc, who had been running his criminal operation out of Mena, Arkansas, and specifically targeted black communities all over America to dump their TONS of cheap IranContra cocaine.

Who was President at the time who sided with protecting BushInc's secrecy and privilege for his criminal operation instead of with the American peoples' right to open and accountable government, or with the black communities who were devastated for years with the crack epidemic that was triggered by that targeting?

[AntiFascist]

10. Who was governor of Arkansas at the time...

enabling the Mena operation (CIA)? Who provided legal and patent representation for the (PROMIS) backend platform that provided money laundering capabilities in banks nationwide (NSA)?

[blm]

5. Gee - wonder why Clinton supporters never show up on Gary Webb threads.

.

[readmoreoften]

16. I'm not a Clinton supporter, but I'm not an Obama supporter either.

And I've read White Out. But I think the idea that Obama will be better is largely a fantasy. Hey, dreams do come true, but at this point it remains a fantasy. The reality is both candidates will most likely continue to either aid or turn a blind eye to the sham.

[blm]

17. Obama has been touting open government on the trail - and I take Kerry's mentoring

of him at this point as a very serious PLUS for our cause.

His open government advocacy coupled with Kerry standing with him is a bright spot for me. And the only one we have at this point.

[Freddie Stubbs]

27. Are you suggesting that Clinton had something to do with Webb's suicide?

:shrug:

[blm]

28. Not directly. But a LOT of people worked cooperatively to tear Webb down when 1996 report came out.

And some of those people were acting on behalf of Bush and Clinton administrations who did NOT want the details widely known of the CIA drugrunning operations.

Peripherally, there would be a number of people responsible for that tear down of Webb. Directly, I cannot say for certain.

Did YOU ever post against or target Webb and his work?

[nam78_two]

6. K&R-I will be keeping an eye out for this.nt

[JohnyCanuck]

7. "...the CIA sought to smear him to cover up a scandal."

I started another thread today in GD linking a Youtube playlist of 8 videos covering the testimony of William Schaap, expert witness for the plaintif in the 1999 Martin Luther King conspiracy trial (the trial in Memphis, Tennessee in which the jury verdict confirmed the MLK assassination was a conspiracy involving US government agencies). Schaap was testifying at this trial on CIA and FBI disinformation operations and he pointed out that the CIA was formed out of the WWII OSS (Office of Strategic Services) headed by a military man, Major General William "Wild Bill" Donovan. Donovan advocated that the government should always be willing to lie to the people and use deception as necessary for propaganda purposes and to maintain moral. In contrast, there was another official government agency in WWII called the Office of War Information and this agency was headed up by a civilian journalist by the name of Elmer Davis. Davis believed the government should always tell the truth to the people about the conduct of the war and when disseminating war news, regardless of whether the news would be considered positive or negative. In the long run, Davis felt telling the truth would be more advantageous to the war effort than deception.

Schaap said in his court testimony that Donovan's point of view was the one that prevailed with both FDR and Truman in WWII, and then after WWII the OWI was dissolved, whereas Donovan's OSS went on to become what is known today as the CIA.

Schaap's testimony on this topic is in the 2nd of the 8 video clips here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcH7vKVM2iE

The complete playlist of all 8 videos can be accessed here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BA69081DC9C0AE84

[blm]

30. Thanks - and thanks for being in the trenches on this.

.

[AntiFascist]

8. This could be really good ....

the nation will never recover until we expose CIA wrong-doing!

[blm]

13. This is what we needed.

.

[MinM]

9. Gary Webb on C.I.A. Trafficking of Cocaine

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x86782 :kick:

[chat_noir]

12. Why Does George W. Bush Fly in Drug Smuggler Barry Seal's Airplane?

The Bush Drug Sting, The Sins of the Father, The Sins of the Son and -- The Smoking Airplane

It has all the makings of a major box office thriller: Texas Governor and Republican Presidential contender George W. Bush and his brother Jeb, allegedly caught on videotape in 1985 picking up kilos of cocaine at a Florida airport in a DEA sting set up by Barry Seal.

An ensuing murderous cover-up featuring Seal's public assassination less than a year later by a hit team the members of which, when caught, reveal to their attorneys during trial that their actions were being directed by then, National Security Council (NSC) staffer - Lt. Colonel Oliver North.

And a private turboprop King Air 200 supposedly caught on tape in the sting with FAA ownership records leading directly to the CIA and some of the perpetrators of the most notorious (and never punished) major financial frauds of the '80s. Greek shippers paying bribes to obtain loans from American companies that would never be repaid. An American executive snatching the charred remains of a $10,000 payoff check from an ashtray in an Athens restaurant. Swiss police finding bank accounts used for kickbacks and bribes.

Add to this mix the now irrefutable proof, some of it from the CIA itself, that then Vice President George H.W. Bush was a decision maker in illegal Contra support operations connected to the "unusual" acquisition of aircraft and that his staff participated in key financial, operational and political decisions.

All these events lead inexorably to one unanswered question: How did this one plane go from being controlled by Barry Seal, the biggest drug smuggler in American history, to becoming, according to state officials, a favored airplane of Texas Governor George W. Bush?

http://copvcia.com/free/ciadrugs/W_plane.html

[blm]

18. Sh.....and don't mention that Poppy Bush's operations were run out of Mena Airport, either.

some Democrats here will give Poppy Bush a pass on all that and pretend it didn't happen just so they can continue to believe Clintons are on THEIR side.

[truedelphi]

20. Can it be tht this nation has tilted so heavily to the right that

The only possibility offered to us is that of having Repugs in office one way or the other.

In six months of asking people at Du to explain how Hillary is one whit different than Richard tNixon the most mention that has gotten is two people who have PM'ed me stuff on Nixon's health care/ins plans being similar to Hillary's.

[blm]

22. Heh, I've been asking for years for folks to name ONE Dem lawmaker who uncovered

and exposed more government corruption of BushInc than John Kerry has, and to name ONE Dem lawmaker who covered up more government corruption of BushInc than Bill Clinton has.

I hear the same crickets you do.

[MinM]

24. BCCI and the Kerry Committee

Somebody still needs to explain to me why John Kerry did not play the BCCI card...

The link between BCCI and terrorism and...

The BCCI-Bush connection???

[blm]

25. No Dem would give him back up and he had Bill out there on his book tour unwilling

to even recognize BCCI, let alone talk about it.

What Kerry needed was to get the oval office access to documents long blocked from him and his investigators that put together all the pieces he had uncovered over the years. THEN the public could be made to understand.

When Kerry DID bring up BCCI in his campaign stops, none of the Dem spokespeople on TV would take his comments further and the few media who reported the comments were made mocked him for bringing up such a 'boring' topic. I specifically recall a WashPost article raking Kerry over for giving a 12 minute answer to a question that centered around BCCI.

Don't underestimate the newsmedia's role in this.

In 2005 I had occasion to speak at length with a Boston Globe reporter and asked pointblank why his paper and the rest of the newsmedia never bring up the issues around BCCI that relate directly to 9-11 and our oil region politics and why Kerry's role as the leading lawmaker on terror issues was ignored, even by his hometown paper. He said he asked those questions himself in newsroom meetings, and he would always be met with glares from the top guys.

He was told privately that the powers that be won't go there. I said to him, then you should find out how much money those 'powers that be' lost when BCCI was closed, and find out if they hold Kerry accountable for THEIR losses and for nearly exposing THEIR complicity.

That really made him uncomfortable.

[flashl]

14. K&R

[bluesmail]

15. He was suicided, and K&R, hope Universal doesn't screw up

[moodforaday]

21. Same title as

the movie the French made about Sibel Edmonds (http://www.justacitizen.com/KillTheMessenger.html)? Weird choice, but the movie needs to be made.

Meanwhile, here's a 30-minute talk on the cocaine/Contra investigation by Gary Webb and Robert Parry from 1996:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3209686665409184055

[blm]

23. Thank you - Hard to believe, but, I never saw that video.