Week of
5/16/97:		 In spite of the recent admission of "flaws" in the San Jose Mercury News' controversial series "Dark Alliance", do you still believe the CIA was involved in the spread of crack cocaine in the inner cities?




Name: Ralph Randall
Email:
Response: Why did the United States allow the Shah of IRAN to come to America when the country he was Leader of was being overthrown (hint: Golden Triangle)? What did the Congressional Black Cuacuas record album say about the murder of Muarice Bishop? Why does posession of crack cocaine resut in Black 18 year olds getting 80 year prison terms, and posession of an equal amount of pure cocaine get economically advantaged people (Does Delorean mean anything) probation? Why are recreation activities for socially disadvantaged youth practically non existant, but funding for prisons abundant? Why was JF Kennedy's head blown off? Why were Africans singled out as the slave of choice? Few would argue that due to conspiracy, JFK, his brother Bobby, and Martin Luther King lost their lives. The Congressional Black Cuacuas released a record to dicsuss the findings of their investigation of Muarice Bishop's death, answer conspiracy. The African slave trade was heightened after the leaders of that period conspired to easily identify who were slaves. The iron-curtain has fallen, US Troops were not deployed to South Africa or other African Nations to help Black People Liberation. If intelligence Agencies are not more involved abroad were are they?


Name: Kenneth Leonard
Email: k8wra@juno.com
Response: I seriously doubt that the CIA had time for such mundane things as trying to flood Black communities with dope; they are too busy with things like disrupting other legitimate governments throught the world; arranging assassinations of power figures who do not subscribe to their policies, etc. Whether they were or not is immaterial. You could pile all the dope you wanted to on my kitchen table and I wouldn't use it. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.


Name: Nnamdi Nzingha
Email:
Response: Yes, I believe the CIA played a part, directly or indirectly in the surge of cocaine in the 'Hoods' across america. In my hometown, cocaine was something the other folks did. But, all of a sudden, it became abundant, and if the CIA, FBI, SECRET SERVICE, Marshalls office, county or local law enforcement officers did not know about this they are all incompetent or maybe they all may have been involved in this genocidal plan.


Name: Frances Murphy
Email: FrankieLou@aol.com
Response: I have so little faith in the integrity of the U.S. government that I am inclined to believe that the Mercury News story is just the icing on the cake. No denials at this stage of the game are legitimate. I also believe that Cong. Maxine Waters should continue to demand that Congressional hearings should be held. Could this be the reason the newspaper has been pressured into issuing a denial??


Email: thomas2@potomac.net
Response: I've scanned the responses, and I found "bj's" response lacking. No one accuses the CIA for selling crack on the street corners of the US. To understand this situation, you must have a working knowledge of US foreign policy goals in the 1980's, as it pertains to Communism. To (attempt) to summarize: the CIA supported the Contras in Nicaragua, and the military needed funding; funding sources came from drug sales(whether the Contras were truly democratic or if their means of seizing political power was truly democratic and moral is another question). Regardless if the CIA-backed Contra supporters sold 5 grams or 5 kilos of drugs into the community, the implicit message is that these people raised money for their cause by whatever means necessary and the CIA willingly turned a blind eye to the consequences of the Contras' actions on US citizens. This has far-reaching implications, and this situation is bigger than "just" the African-American community. The question is, what price will we as American citizens pay for foreign policy? Will we ignore our own government's directives w/ respect to drugs and drug policy? Will we allow drugs in our country b/c that's the "price" we must pay to guard against Communism (dealing w/ "shady" people, often in connection w/ dictatorial regimes who will bring democracy NOT as we know it to Central American countries?). Does no one think it strange that the LA & NY TIMES and WASHINGTON POST worked overtime to invalidate this story, even though the central premise [profits from drug sales were funneled into the CIA-backed, Nicaraguan Contras' military effort] of the MERCURY story remains? We must remember that even the WASHINGTON POST in its pre-national-status-newspaper days reported a/b Watergate and was not believed. This "apology" for the story comes while the editor is under extreme pressure to back away from it. Right-wing ideologues PARTICULARLY want to knock this story down, b/c they do not want serious examination of the deeply flawed foreign policy aims during the Reagan years. And they most certainly DO NOT give a damn a/b African-Americans, but remember that to them, this only an aside. African-Americans do not own the means of importing such large quantities of these illegal substances, nor do we own the means to grow it. I agree that we should not be a party to our own destruction, but this situation is far more serious, even sinister than a diatribe about personal responsiblity. It is high time that we approach this situation in exactly the serious manner this investigation requires.


Name: Franklin
Email: ap065@osfn.rhilinet.gov
Response: I believe the CIA was definitely involved, and their role went farther than looking the other way while cocaine was imported. I think that they were and still are deeply involved in PSYOPS programs to lure our youth into the drug selling lifestyle. Youth learn through repetition and reinforcement. What if the CIA was behind the constant barrage of "gangsta" rap music we hear on the radio and see on TV? The lyrics in many of those songs slyly encourage drug behavior. Our youth are subjected to the message: "sell drugs-make money", repeated over and over. The message is also repeated on the evening news, every time they do one of those "Poor Black kids sell drugs because fast food jobs don't pay enough..." news stories. We need to demand an end to the barrage of negative messages coming from some of our "entertainment".


Name: Forrest Collins
Email:
Response: Yes, I do believe the CIA flooded the Black community with Crack cocaine. Lets not forget that the FBI neutralized the Black Panthers with heroin. Also, remember the Tuskegee Study? African American men were injected with syphillus and not given treatment. These things happen when other people don't have respect for your race. We as a people will always be subjected to this kind of treatment. Until we can provide the basic necessaties of life for ourselves, food, clothing and shelter.We will always be mistreated. We own no major food stores, textile plants or home building companies.


Name: bjm thomas
Email: bejey@aol.com
Response: Due to the "Mercury News" reluctantly admitting that the CIA story was not the "whole" truth, and the investigations has not revealed any evidence of an involvement. . .I feel the article was irresponsible and that the CIA was not involved in a conspiracy to flood our communities with crack cocaine. It appears we want to find others to blame for our failures to our children.


Name: a.j. curry
Email: zajc5@access.etsu-tn.edu
Response: i believe it's true. i am 27 years old and i can remember hearing that rumor since the mid 80's. i also remember a documentry called 48 hours on crack street which aired in the 80's and it eluded to the same. it's all part of the game to keep things in the economy flowing just right. in the past our government used international wars to balance the workforce numbers, now there is crack. the more folks you have drugged up or near dead the fewer their are to compete in the work force, and the fewer individuals there are to take a stand against what is happening to our nation.


Name: Solomon Landers
Email: Numberup@worldnet.att.net
Response: MERCURY NEWS: "Dark Alliance"Our history in this country is specific about one thing: the Government will do whatever it feels advances its own interests, without taking the interests of African Americans into consideration. If the Government could be so shamefully involved in the Syphillis study, allowing unsuspecting black men to go untreated when a cure was available, it could do anything else. I think the Mercury News' series should have included all evidence, even that which was contradictory to its findings, so that the public could get a balanced picture, and make a more informed judgment, without the sensationalism that followed. But who knows, down the road a future president may have to apologize to South Central inner city residents for the dastardly deeds of the CIA.