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From San Francisco Bay Guardian
letters@sfbay.comhttp://www.sfbg.com/
July 1, 1998
TRUE BELIEVER: INTERVIEW WITH MAXINE WALTERS
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-Los Angeles) knows the truth when she sees it.
After she read Gary Webb’s "Dark Alliance" series in the San Jose
Mercury News, she met with key players in South Central Los Angeles and members of the
L.A. Sheriff’s Department, and she flew to Nicaragua to talk with others implicated
in the book and interview Sandinista leaders.
Waters came away from her investigation with "the undeniable
conclusion that the CIA, DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency], DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency],
and FBI knew about drug trafficking in South Central Los Angeles. They were either part of
the trafficking or turned a blind eye to it in an effort to fund the contra war."
Now she’s written the foreword to Webb’s book, which she says
"completely and absolutely confirms Gary Webb’s devastating series." We
interviewed Waters by phone last week in her Capitol Hill office.
Bay Guardian: You certainly seem convinced of the credibility of Gary Webb’s
story.
Maxine Waters: Without question, and history will bear him out. It may take 1 or 5 or
10 or 20 years, but we’ll learn for sure he was right. I think both sides were using
drug money to fund their efforts. With so many documents classified it makes it hard to
know exactly what went on, but I personally interviewed enough people to convince me that
Webb nailed the story.
BG: What’s most disturbing about the story?
MW: That so many people have suffered so much from addiction, crime,
prison, and generally ruined lives because the U.S. government, while purportedly
engaged in a "war on drugs," allowed the contras to introduce such a poison in
our community for political profit. I’m not easily astounded, but this just astounds
me.
BG: Your interviews corroborated his findings?
MW: Without question. The book really proves how weak the Mercury
News
was in essentially firing him under pressure for no reason. They abandoned him in
mid-story, which was just horrible. He got the story right and was working to get more
information. The Mercury News people got it wrong by vilifying him.
information from the book. I also will work to declassify the documents that the CIA
wants to keep secret. This story is too important not to keep working on for as long as it
takes to prove what really happened.
Supported