29 lines
2 KiB
Markdown
29 lines
2 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Private Organization"
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Media
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- United_States
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- 1990s
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- Dark_Alliance_Investigation
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summary: Major national newspaper whose national security reporter Walter Pincus, a former CIA operative, led the first major media attack on the Dark Alliance series.
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start: 1877
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location: "Washington, D.C."
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---
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[[The Washington Post]] is a major national newspaper based in [[Washington, D.C.]] In October 1996, it published the first major media attack on the [[Dark Alliance]] series, written by [[Walter Pincus]] and Roberto Suro.[^1]
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### Attack on Dark Alliance
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The Post's story, headlined "The CIA and Crack: Evidence is Lacking of Alleged Plot," falsely claimed the series alleged a CIA conspiracy to target black communities. Despite [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s testimony about selling 200 to 300 kilos of [[Cocaine]] for the Contras, the Post quoted unnamed officials minimizing the volume to "$30,000 to $60,000 worth of cocaine in two transactions." The story buried the admission that "the CIA knew about some of these activities and did little or nothing to stop them."[[^1]
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### Pincus's CIA Background
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Pincus had been a CIA operative in the late 1950s and early 1960s, traveling to international conferences to spy on both foreign and American students. He was later selected by the [[New York Times]] to review ex-CIA officer Philip Agee's expose, without disclosure of his prior CIA ties. Columnist Molly Ivins observed: "Like good little boys and girls, the Times, the Washington Post et al., toddled off to the CIA and asked the agency if it had ever done such a thing. When the CIA said 'no' the papers solemnly printed it."[^1]
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### Suppression of Ceppos Letter
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[[Jerry Ceppos]] fired off a blistering letter to the Post pointing out factual errors. The Post held the letter for weeks, ordered Ceppos to rewrite it, and then refused to print it.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 27: "A very difficult decision"
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