Was Gary Webb murdered?

[ck4829]

Gary Webb, a former Mercury News investigative reporter, author and legislative staffer who ignited a firestorm with his controversial stories, died Friday in an apparent suicide in his suburban Sacramento home. He was 49.

The Sacramento County coroner's office said that when A Better Moving Company arrived at Mr. Webb's Carmichael home at about 8:20 a.m. Friday, a worker discovered a note posted to the front door which read: ``Please do not enter. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance.''

Mr. Webb, an award-winning journalist, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head, Sacramento County Deputy Coroner Bill Guillot said Saturday.

Mr. Webb's friends and colleagues described him as a devoted father and a funny, dogged reporter who was passionate about investigative journalism

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/10399522.htm?1c

"The CIA’s knowledge and involvement had been far greater than I’d ever imagined. Agents and officials of the DEA had protected the traffickers from arrest, something I’d not been allowed to print. At the start of the Contra war, the CIA and Justice Department had worked out an unusual agreement that permitted the CIA not to have to report allegations of drug trafficking by its agents to the Justice Department. It was a curious loophole in the law, to say the least."
-Gary Webb
http://www.wanttoknow.info/massmediacover-ups

Webb's co-author George Hodel in Nicaragua has received death threats, like one of Webb's sources a decade ago.
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/cocpref.html

[autorank]

1. Telling the TRUTH is hazardous to your health.

[Padraig18]

2. I'll wait and see what the coroner's report says.

Until then, I'll do the responsible thing, and not speculate.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. How perfectly noble of you.

[Padraig18]

9. How perfectly *reasonable*, yes.

Nothing 'noble' about it, at all.

:eyes:

[eternalburn]

3. Another one?...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Beverly Kees, former editor of the Post-Tribune in Gary (Indiana), was killed today in San Francisco when a truck hit her as she walked a friend's dog.

<snip>

Along with Bill Phillips, Kees wrote ``Nothing Sacred: Journalism, Politics and Public Trust in a Tell-All Age.'' She had also served for the Associated Press Managing Editors Association as committee chair, board member and secretary.



(read all)
http://cbs2chicago.com/indiana/IN--Obit-Kees-inn/resources_news_html

[Goldeneye]

6. When did this one happen?

[troubleinwinter]

12. Beverly Kees death reported Dec. 10, 2004

[Nordic]

4. gee, there's an awful lot of seriously depressed investigative reporters!

What a coincidence!

[catgirl]

5. Webb was critical of the Bush administrtion. Rove-incorrect

[blm]

7. That poor guy NEEDED Kerry to win more than most of us.

Kerry would have opened all the files on IranContra and BCCI that the people needed to see. The work of journalists like Robert Parry and Gary Webb would have been vindicated and their detractors (BFEE fixers and loyalists) discredited.

[glitch]

14. So why choose to die now? It ain't over yet. No real journalist would

choose NOW to die. Too much is about to happen and journalists are driven by curiosity.
I really want to know what he was working on, because I do not believe this 'suicide'.

[Padraig18]

15. Journalists are PEOPLE.

PEOPLE get depressed and commit suicide all the time.

[shance]

18. He was killed, or that is certainly what should be assumed at this point,

given the nature of their occupation and the individuals and issues they were uncovering.

What in the world would have been there motivation for suicide? There was certainly more motivation for a homicide than suicide. How many of these do we have to witness before individuals say, wow, theres something really wrong here.

If we had responded appropriately (shown the "appropriate" outrage)and let those know who killed Paul Wellstone that we didnt like it and we were going to see justice and actually SOUGHT JUSTICE, instead of quietly tolerating the intolerable, I bet there wouldn't have been half the "suicides" or car accidents that there have been. Its accountability. When there is no accountability, we get more of the same.

Individuals who would rather spend lazy days in denial, only make other journalists and activists much more vulnerable and susceptible to being harmed. Its absolutely unspeakable what is happening, but it is, and the more we can shed light on it, and call it for what it is instead of placing our heads in the sand, the better chance we have to prevent such atrocities from occuring.


This is very sad to hear and yet another outrage. I hope some journalists will be writing about these two *coincidences*.

[blm]

16. I agree that the history dictates that the circumstances be scrutinized

more closely and with skepticism. If it was a real suicide, I think we'll find out.

[glitch]

19. very circumspect - I admire you for that. I just hate losing another good

guy. :cry:

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Is it amazing how unlucky Bush's enemies are..............

so many suicides, plane crashes, car accidents, gun "accidents", mysterious disappearances, etc etc etc.
very strange indeed. One could think that maybe Bush and Co might have had something to do with all of these coincidences, especially since Dad was once head of the CIA.....DUH!!!

[troubleinwinter]

11. Biography of Gary Webb from Seven Stories Press:

Gary Webb was an investigative reporter for 19 years, focusing on government and private sector corruption and winning more than 30 journalism awards.

He was one of six reporters at the San Jose Mercury News to win a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting for a series of stories on northern California's 1989 earthquake. He also received the 1997 Media Hero Award from the 2nd Annual Media & Democracy Congress and in 1996 was named Journalist of the Year by the Bay Area Society of Professional Journalists.

In 1994 Webb won the H.L. Mencken Award given by The Free Press Association for a series in the San Jose Mercury News on abuses in the state of California's drug asset forfeiture program. And in 1980 Webb won an Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) Award for a series that he co-authored at the Kentucky Post on organized crime in the coal industry.

Prior to 1988 Webb worked as a statehouse correspondent for The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Kentucky Post. From 1988 through 1997 he was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News where the "Dark Alliance" series broke in 1996. Months later, Webb was effectively forced out of his job after the San Jose Mercury News retracted their support for his story. He is now a consultant to the California State legislature Task Force on Government Oversight. He lives with his wife Susan and their three children in the Sacramento Valley area of California.

[Octafish]

13. NO!

This hits like a hammer blow.
Gary Webb hurt the BFEE more than most ever will.
Webb told the TRUTH!

Check out some of what we know, thanks to Webb and other brave journalists:

http://www.parascope.com/articles/0597/drugdocs.htm

[OutsourceBush]

17. Jesus Bush does not kill, Jesus Bush saves

Send in the bombs so that ye shall know Jesus Bush as your personal anti-Christ and savior.

[no_hypocrisy]

20. Mysterious deaths/suicides of other journalists:

J. H. Hatfield, author of Fortunate Son (G.W. Bush)
and Dorothy Kilgallen (JFK assassination)
http://www.jfkresearch.com/morningstar/killgallen.htm

[Carl Brennan]

21. Fuck the coroner's report, fuck all of this SHIIIIIIIIT!!!

Webb was murdered. I just hope I get to shoot back if they ever come after me. All I want is a chance to fight back.

:grr: :grr:

[Padraig18]

22. Your proof that he was mudered?

Outrage is all well and good, but the world has a perverse habit of preferring facts...

:eyes:

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Padraig18]

24. No, facts, as in REAL WORLD facts.

Gunshot residue on the hands, stippling of the skin at the entrance site, etc. . Spare me more hair-brained, cockamamie 'conspiracy' theories that are self-justifying, short on REAL facts and long on paranoia and delusions of persecution, please.

[Carl Brennan]

25. In so many words

you are just an idiot coincidence theorist.


Fucking gunshot residue, point of entry, stippling of skin. You'll be looking for that shit when the last person who knows anything about the Bushies is dead.


But go ahead and look. I've seen enough that I don't have to worry about being right. Did you ever look at all of the other deaths of those who went against the BFEE?

They kill, coerce, or corrupt those who know too much; it really is that simple. But if you need your little phony reality about good guy vs. bad guy then I won't interrupt that.

[Padraig18]

30. True conspiracists never bother with proof.

It's damnably inconvenient to them to bother with such trivialities as facts.

[Carl Brennan]

31. You don't want to know. I can't say I

blame you.

[ailsagirl]

35. Ever hear of JFK's assassination??

[shance]

26. Spare us your smug nonsense Padraig.

If you're afraid to look at the truth or the potential of it, please stop trying to discourage others up who arent afraid to look at the patterns and the realities that continue to wash up to shore.

There are many of us who are sick of the abuse and death and lies occuring, so a few can make even more truck loads of money while more innocent people die.

edit: cowardice is a bit extreme

[Padraig18]

29. It's neither smug, nor nonsense.

Insisting on facts that result in demonstrable PROOF is neither smug, nor nonsense, and for so long as this remains a public board, I will participate or not participate when and as I choose.

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[burythehatchet]

28. Sure makes the blood boil

this is how I felt after Senator Wellstone was killed.

[Carl Brennan]

32. You and me both.

This is a major tragedy. Wellstone was a nemisis of the Bushies.

[dflprincess]

27. There's a thread about this in LBN

The article it links to says he died of gun shot woundS to the head. Is it possible to shoot yourself in the head more than once?

[merh]

37. In response to your question about is it possible to shoot

yourself twice in the head, the answer is yes. It depends on the type of weapon, but it has happened.

[Wapsie B]

33. Not speculating here

but how many conservative journalists commit suicide?

[ailsagirl]

34. That's pretty creepy

It's "interesting" how high the rate of suicide is for investigative journalists.

[Tinoire]

38. Mark Lombardi, J.H. Hatfield, Danny Casalaro & Gary Webb--all "suicides"

Mark Lombardi, J.H. Hatfield, Danny Casalaro, and now Gary Webb--all "suicide" victims.

Gee how convenient.

Nothing to see here folks.

Here is some math:
Given a .0017% suicide rate, we can calculate how many biographers Bush must have for 4 suicides to be statistically expected:

x * .000017 = 4
simplify:
x = 4/.000017
so:
x = 235,294
So if Bush has a quarter of a million biographers, it makes perfect sense...SO THERE!

http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/12/1709370_comment.php#1709433


Name: Gary Webb
Age: 48
Lives: Sacramento, California
Works: Writer
Current voting intention: Former non-voter, now Kerry
In 10 words or less:
"Author and responsible anarchist"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3965163.stm

[ailsagirl]

39. Many more than that-- if you go back to the JFK assassination

you will find many dozens of people who died under strange circumstances. The Big Boys at the top have their ways of silencing some and don't think for a minute they hesitate to do so.

[oasis]

40. Webb was likely working on something big. Of course his phone was

tapped.

[JohnnyCougar]

41. Is the sky blue? n/t

[RBHam]

42. Just like James Hatfield

the bush ops hit squad strikes again.

[Garbo 2004]

43. Christine Craft's local Sacto radio show just discussed Webb for an hour.

AM 1240, Sacramento's AAR affiliate. (Webb had previously been on Craft's Sacto talk show for an hour months ago.)

Craft first had on a long time friend of Webb's (can't recall his name) and asked if anything was going on with him that might have prompted a suicide. The friend said he didn't want to get into personal matters. Said something like (IIRC) he should be remembered for his work and the kind of man he was.

Craft also talked with Kristina Borjesson, author of "Into the Buzzsaw," about Webb's reporting. One of the chapters apparently is on Webb's work. They both trashed the LA Times obit ran on Webb which they said perpetuated the hack job the media did on Webb.

Craft also had Webb's ex-wife on the air. They apparently had stayed close despite the divorce and had known each other since their teens. When Craft asked if she had any questions that it was suicide, she said there is no doubt it was suicide, although when she heard about his death, she at first too wondered if there was any connection to his previous work. But still said there was no question that it was suicide. Said he'd had a long term depression that it started with "Dark Alliance," since everything went downhill from there. After he lost his job with the State Leg earlier this year, he looked for work with major newspapers but no one would hire him. (The local obit said that at the time of his death he was working for The News and Review, a local free weekly that occasionally has good articles on local/state politics and other stuff.) Said the family tried to get him to get treatment for his depression, but he didn't want to be medicated.

Craft also spoke with Mike Levine (former DEA agent who's a writer and has a radio show). He knew Webb and said (of Webb's death, suicide), "it wasn't a total shock." Full of praise for Webb and spent some time discussing his work but did not question that his death was a suicide. Said he had an article on his site titled something like "Is anyone apologizing to Gary Webb?" But I couldn't find it. Probably in the archives and have to be a registered member to access themselves. (Levine and Borjesson have their site here: http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/)

[BrotherBuzz]

44. Beat me to the post...

I listened to the program and it left me with no doubt the he killed himself. Sadly, the MSM is probably responsible because they, and especially the San Jose Mercury News, all wimped out on him and left him out to dry. His wife admitted they broke up because of his depression that started about four years ago, all based on the exposer to the Dark Alliance. Sad.

I'm glad you caught and posted all the finer points from the program. Boy, between this program and the breaking story/report from Greene County, Ohio, on Friday...I have to say that Cristine Craft's 'Talk of the City' radio program has been HOT lately.

[Garbo 2004]

45. Yes that was an excellent two hours today. From coverage of the

CA electors and protestors today to Ohio (I didn't realize a Sacto woman was one of those on the scene when the lockout of the voting materials happened) to Webb.

While technically Webb apparently wasn't murdered (suicides do happen and he had reason enough to be depressed) he and his career were destroyed by the MSM and others who trashed and blackballed him for actally doing what so many others don't have the guts to do, his job. The Mercury News caved and left him hanging. I used to have a pretty good opinion of that paper but not after that.

Now if 1240 talkcity would get a website up with archives (I think Craft said they were going to put up a website, I hope that they would include archived shows) that would be great. And put that survival kit up for sale!!! ;)