[Joseph Wanzala, what's the conspiracist explanation?]
- How would I know? I think you should ask Chip Berlet, the High Priest and Grand Inquisitor of so-called 'conspiracism'.
Joe W.
>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
>Subject: [lbo-talk] a mysterious suicide...
>Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 22:25:52 -0500
>
>[Joseph Wanzala, what's the conspiracist explanation?]
>
>San Jose Mercury News - December 12, 2004
>
>Gary Webb, 49, former MN reporter, author
>
>INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST WROTE CONTROVERSIAL SERIES
>
>By Jessica Portner
>
>
>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.
>
>As a staff writer for the Mercury News from 1989 to 1997, he exposed
>freeway retrofitting problems in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and wrote
>stories about the Department of Motor Vehicles' computer software fiascos.
>
>Mr. Webb was perhaps best known for sparking a national controversy with a
>1996 story that contended supporters of a CIA-backed guerrilla army in
>Nicaragua helped trigger America's crack-cocaine epidemic in the 1980s. The
>``Dark Alliance'' series in the Mercury News came under fire by other news
>organizations, and the paper's own investigation concluded the series did
>not meet its standards.
>
>Mr. Webb resigned a year and a half after the series appeared in the paper.
>He then published his book, ``Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the
>Crack Cocaine Explosion.''
>
>In the past few years, Mr. Webb worked in the California Assembly Speaker's
>Office of Member Services and for the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
>The committee investigated charges that Oracle received a no-bid contract
>from Gov. Gray Davis. After being laid off from his legislative post last
>year, Mr. Webb was hired by the Sacramento News and Review, a weekly
>publication.
>
>Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer who has
>known Mr. Webb for more than a decade, was distraught Saturday when he
>heard that his friend may have taken his own life.
>
>``He had a fierce commitment to justice, truth and cared a lot about people
>who are forgotten and society tries to shove into the dark corners,''
>Dresslar said. ``It's a big loss for me personally and a great loss for the
>journalism community.''
>
>Services for Mr. Webb are pending.
>___________________________________
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