islamic state remains in control of most of the territory it has seized, and is now threatening to capture the syrian town of kobani, just 6 miles from the turkish border. we will get the latest from investigative journalist patrick cockburn and speak with ghaith abdul-ahad, an iraqi journalist working with the guardian to embedded with shia militias fighting the sunnis. then, a new film is out called "kill the messenger." webb,ls the story of gary one of the most maligned figures in investigative journalism. >> one of the dea's most wanted. brought in thousands of kilos to the u.s. every day. >> jesus. talks in 1996, gary webb published an explosive series in the san jose mercury news titled, "dark alliance" that revealed ties between the cia, nicaraguan contras, and the crack cocaine trade ravaging african-american communities here at home. we will speak with veteran , arnalist robert parry reporter who originally broke the story in the 1980's, who devised webb before he published his series. all of that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the first patient diagnosed with ebola in the united states has died more than a week after being hospitalized in dallas. thomas eric duncan's condition had taken a turn for the worse in recent days. he had been placed on dialysis and was receiving an experimental drug. dallas mayor mike rawlings announced his death. >> this hurts deeply and we're hoping this was not going to happen. but on behalf of the city of dallas, i extend our deepest sympathies to the families and the friends of mr. duncan. i remain confident in the abilities of our health care professionals in the medical advances in the united states, and reassure you we will stop people -- the ebola virus in its tracks from spreading until our community. >> duncan had come to the u.s. to marry his fiancée. he had contracted the disease in liberia while helping a pregnant ebola victim to the hospital. his family has voiced fears he was given inferior treatment because he is an african, not a u.s. national. duncan, who had no health insurance, was initially sent home from a dallas hospital, despite telling a nurse he had been to liberia. new questions are also being raised about his treatment after he was diagnosed. three other ebola patients treated in the u.s. have received blood transfusions from survivors of the disease, but duncan did not. there have been conflicting reports over whether one of the survivors, doctor kent brantly, has a blood type that matched duncan's. duncan's fiancé was unable to see him before he died, as she was kept in isolation herself. in a statement, she said -- federal officials meanwhile have announced a new ebola screening policy at five major airports nationwide. the measures will apply for passengers arriving from west africa at new york's john f. kennedy starting this weekend, followed later by newark liberty, washington dulles, chicago o'hare and hartsfield-jackson atlanta. tom frieden , director of the centers for disease control and prevention, unveiled the screening program on wednesday. clerks these five airports represent about 94%, nearly 95% of all of the 150 travelers are day who arrived from these three countries. the department of homeland security, customs and border protection, will be implementing a new detailed questionnaire as well as a temperature taking and providing information to each traveler. what we're doing is putting an additional protection. we have been very clear as long as ebola continues to spread in africa, we can't make the risk zero here. we wish we could. >> the united nations meanwhile is warning the ebola outbreak in west africa continues to spread unabated. in a new update, the world health organization says nearly 3,900 have been killed out of the more than 8,000 confirmed to have contracted the diseases. the u.n. special envoy on ebola, david nabarro, said the outbreak is increasing exponentially. >> i want to stress this outbreak is increasing in size in an exponential way, which draw it like that, the curve is going up like that. and to get on top of that kind of an epidemic curve, requires an absolutely massive response. i have asked for 20 full increase in response compared to what we have had at the end of august. >> the u.s. has acknowledged the islamic state could soon seize the syrian town of kobani on the turkish border. isis militants are already in control of one-third of kobani despite the ongoing u.s.-led airstrikes targeting the group. on wednesday, secretary of state john kerry said preventing kobani's fall is not a strategic u.s. objective. >> as her if it as it is -- horrific as it is to watch in real time, what is happening in kobani is also important to remember, you have to step back and understand the strategic objective and where we have begun over the course of the last week's. notwithstanding the crisis in targets of original our efforts to been the command and control centers, infrastructure, trying to deprive isil of the overall ability to wage this, not just in kobani, but throughout syria and into iraq. >> if kobani were to fall to the islamic state, the group would be in control of more than half of syria's border with turkey. we will have more on kobani after the headlines. meanwhile in iraq, the ongoing u.s. airstrikes have reportedly killed up to 22 civilians and an bar province. according to iraqi media, and attack earlier this week it a market in an apartment building in the town of hit. four to them were reportedly among the dead with dozens of people wounded. the pentagon has dismissed the claims of civilian casualties as falls. we will have more on iraq and syria after the headlines. a u.s. drone strike in pakistan has reportedly killed at least four people. the victims were described as suspected militants in north waziristan. at least 25 people have died this week in a series of u.s. strikes in tribal areas along pakistan's border with afghanistan. at least 40 people have been killed in a suicide bombing in yemen's capital. a separate attack on an eastern army base killed 13 soldiers. the bombings come as the him and government faces continued al qaeda attacks as well as a political standoff with rebels. tens of thousands of people have rallied across exit code over the disappearance of 43 students and the discovery of a mass grave with dozens of burned bodies. the students, who are from a rural teacher's college, have been missing for well more than a week after police and unknown gunmen ambushed their buses in the state of guerrerro. twenty-two police officers have been detained, and the city's mayor and police chief appear to have fled rather than face questioning. on wednesday, parents of the victims travelled from guerrero to join the main march in mexico city, calling on officials to do more to find their loved ones. a federal appeals court has upheld wisconsin's voter identification law, reversing a decision that said it targets the poor and people of color. the law requires all voters to present photo id at the polls, provision of would exclude anyone without a birth certificate. the decision comes just weeks before the november elections. absentee ballots are e-mailed out could now be nullified. have broken out near ferguson, missouri after the police shooting of a black teenager. st. louis police say the 18-year-old victim was among three people who fled after an off-duty officer approached them. assistant police chief outfit back and said the teen had opened fire as he ran away. >> at which time the unmanned pulled a weapon and shots were fired. the officer returned fire and a partially, the young man was killed. that is what we have about right now. ask witnesses say the teenager was shot 17 times. the shooting comes as local activists prepare for ferguson october, a series of actions this week and protesting police racial bias and violence against black and latino communities and calling for the arrest of darren wilson, the officer who shot the unarmed black teenager michael brown. the teenager who was shot yesterday, was also killed in that hill of what is believed to be 17 bullets. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i am amy goodman with with nermeen shaikh. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. two months after the united states began air strikes in iraq that then expanded to syria, the islamic state remains in control of most of the territory it has seized, and is now threatening to capture the syrian town of kobani, just 6 miles from the turkish border. nato's new secretary general jens stoltenberg is in the turkish capital of ankara today to join u.s. envoys coordinating the response to isis. in a press conference he denied rumors that nato is discussing a no-fly zone in syria. >> i have, of course, heard and seen there have been calls for a no-fly zone. it was also discussed in the meetings i had this morning with the foreign minister. i believe there is no simple and straightforward way of the problems we're seeing these days. it has not been on the table of any nato discussions yet. it is not an issue which is discussed in nato. >> if kobani were to fall to the islamic state, the group would be in control of more than half of syria's border with turkey. turkey is under intense pressure to do more to help the kurdish forces fighting the islamic state in kobani. on wednesday, pentagon spokesman rear admiral john kirby said air strikes alone are not likely to stop the militants' advance. >> i don't know that we're going to characterize the fall of kobani one way or the other. i think we all understand that's a possibility, that kobani could be taken. we recognize that. we are doing everything we can from the air to try to halt the momentum of isaiah's -- isil gazette town, but air power alone is not going to be enough to save that city. >> meanwhile, president obama met with senior military officials at the pentagon wednesday to discuss the military mission to defeat islamic state in syria and iraq. >> our structs continue alongside our partners. it remains a difficult mission. this is not something that is going to be solved overnight. the good news is, there is a broad-based consensus, not just in the region, but among nations of the world, that isil is a threat to world peace, security, and order. that their barbaric behavior has , and we're with confident we will be able to continue to make progress in partnership with the iraqi government. >> for more we're joined by two guests. ghaith abdul-ahad is an iraqi journalist working with the guardian. he embedded with militias around baghdad. in london, patrick cockburn is middle east correspondent for the independent. his new book is called, "the jihadis return: isis and the new sunni uprising." patrick, can you talk about the significance of kobani? a place that most people in the united states are probably never heard of until at least this week. >> what is happening there is immensely significant in a number of respects. first of all, despite what president obama was saying, that if is the islamic state take kobani, this will be a victory for them. and this will be the response to obama saying he was going to degrade and destroy isis. i think what is coming out of washington saying somehow it doesn't matter and going to attack the infrastructure and the control headquarters of isis, is really a diversion. guerrilla organization. it doesn't have many pentagon scattered over iraq and syria of which it controls its operations. it does fall, this will be a symptom of a pretty massive military failure. it is not just in syria this is happening. but in iraq as well. it is very little reported because it is so dangerous to go there. thatuch of anbar province wasn't under isis control has fallen since an offensive began october 2. so they're very close to getting into west baghdad. setbackreally a massive that seems to be happening to president obama's policy in dealing with the islamic state. >> patrick cockburn, could you explain why? any commentators have pointed out that given the strikes have been taking place, the was airstrikes, it is unclear how it is isis is continuing to advance. well, it is a pretty proficient organization. it combines extreme religious fanaticism with military expertise. and it is an organization that exalts martyrdom so it can take quite a lot of casualties. another reason is that despite what president obama saying about this great big coalition of 44 countries, that the u.s. has held at arms length the people who are actually fighting isis, such us the syrian kurds. and the syrian army and other groups in iraq and syria. thoseeir alliance is with who are not fighting isis and say they don't intend to, such as turkey. so i think this lack of direct liaison with the people who are fighting on the ground probably makes it much easier for isis to withstand these air attacks and for these air attacks to have any accuracy. >> were also joined by ghaith abdul-ahad, a guardian journalist who was embedded with shia militias that were fighting isis in baghdad this past summer. can you talk about that experience? we are trying to reach him by video stream. his image has just frozen. kate --o to secretary's secretary state john kerry doesn't just of preventing the fall of the syrian town of kobani to islamic state fighters was not a strategic us objective. he said the idea of a buffer zone should be thoroughly examined. >> as horrific as it is to watch in real-time what is happening in kobani, it is also important to remember you have to step back and understand the strategic objective and where we have begun over the course of the last weeks. we're literally just coming out of the u.n. meeting at which we announce the coalition, literally, have just been deploying the first efforts to liberate. as you know, couple of weeks ago, sinjar mountain. the siege on him early, the heady the dam, the muzzle dam. we were very successful in those efforts. >> patrick cockburn, can you respond what john kerry said? >> yes, i think he is either avoiding the issue are doesn't quite understand what is happening on the ground. of the places he mentions, isis did not really fight hard for. isis, the impulses behind which makes it attractive to so many young men in iraq and syria and elsewhere is that it is a ulnner, that it captured mos for the second largest city in iraq when our 20,000 iraqi troops policing it. now seems about to win another victory. i suspect that is one of the reasons why the islamic state has been so intent on capturing toani, is that they wanted have a very visible victory to show the airstrikes were really not holding them back. an important point to get across here is that despite all the rhetoric from washington, from european capitals, from various ,egional associates of the u.s. the islamic state, the caliphate so-called, is not contracting but expanding. in this by any count is a great failure. , if youh abdul-ahad could explain your experience this summer in betting with the shia forces fighting isis in baghdad. >> high. as patrick was saying, the the allies of america fighting isis. i spent some time with the shia militias. they were very effective. they have managed to actually stop the advance of isis to baghdad from the north and northeast. but what is the price for that? all of those militiamen are the product of civil war in syria. they are so radicalized, so militant. they are keen on sectarian cleansing of the areas. they're different from all the shia militias before in iraq. those are guys -- they don't differentiate between what isis once and an average sunni. your partner in this war against isis is basically sectarian militia that is keen on ethnic cleansing. they took -- talk openly of killing the males, military aged people who can threaten or can work as an incubator for isis presence in the area. so that is the problem at the moment. if you want to fight isis, you have to join hands with [indiscernible] we're going to go to break and then come back to this discussion. director journalist ghaith abdul-ahad embedded with shia militia this summer, fighting isis. are also joined by patrick cockburn in london, whose new book is called "the jihadis return." back in a minute. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. we continue our conversation .ith patrick cockburn his new book is called "the jihadis return: isis and the new sunni uprising." and ghaith abdul-ahad is an iraqi journalist working with the guardian. he worked over the summer, he embedded with militias around baghdad and wrote a piece headlined "on the frontline with the shia fighters taking the war to isis." >> ghaith abdul-ahad, i want to turn to comments that were made by jeremy scahill to ask you about who exactly is joining isis in iraq and why isis is expanding at the rate that it is. spokeeek, democracy now! to jeremy who first reported from inside iraq before the 2003 u.s. invasion. he pointed out that a number of party secular baath members were now fighting in isis. let's go to a clip. talks the obama administration in engaging in this policy, is continuing the bush administration outcome of the decision to invade iraq. that is, they are empowering the very threat that they claim to be fighting. who is isis? is it just people who are radical islamists that want to be had american journalists? no. this is honest never covered in corporate media. one of the top military , thenders at isis is a man leading baathist on the deck of cards the united states is not captured. he was one of saddam hussein's top military commanders. he was not just some ragamuffin general, but harcourt during the iran-iraq war. he was a secular baath us. that was germany -- germany scahill speaking last week. could you talk about the former members who are joining isis and also go back to the point you raise about the step to which she a militias in iraq are now fighting exclusively along sectarian lines? >> one of the biggest things we know about isis is with isis telling us about themselves, we don't know anything about isis from the inside. anything we seem to know is what isis is reflecting about itself. so the whole issue of the parties joining isis, it is a valid point. but also i would like, if i answer jamie's point, isis is not one organization. not onergency is dominated by isis. i went through ramadi a few times before the fall of mosul. the war started back in december 2013. , is014, i wanted to remind at our he fallen out of the control of central government. the government had a few bases inside, but the streets were controlled by the insurgents. who were the insurgents? they were a coalition of army officers, former generals, different groups of the insurgency -- all having of grievances with the shiite dominated government in iraq. the war that isis is waging on the iraqi government is a coalition of many different timeless wars. aresunni insurgents different from each area. every one has his own grievances against the central government of iraq, yet isis has managed to include them all under one single umbrella. that is one important point. if we decide or america decides to fight isis, it is bound to fail. fragmented into its own components, what are the people [indiscernible] windows and ramadi in april, it was a sunni-sunni war. why are they fighting against the central government of iraq? unequal distribution of wealth and economy amongst [indiscernible] the people felt bad that are fighting for different cause. they see the area dominated by the shia. main point i would one to make is, this is not war that stretches from the borders of iran all the way to lebanon to baghdad. this is a commendation of many different local wars. and if i want to go -- >> do you think there's a military solution here? >> to be honest, i don't think so. are that used solution. you can bomb the cities and i can assure you they will come back in the next three or four or five years and will bombs again. i was bombed for the first time in our six result by the iranians and bombed again by the americans. this is the same cycle. a redistribution of wealth, a social solution, solution that assures the sunnis of iraq, you know, you're part of this entity. you like it, you don't like it, you're part of it. otherwise, we will continue the cycle. the sunnis of iraq -- what i call it is a tragedy of the sunnis. the shia have managed to consolidate their lives. the kurds are pushing [indiscernible] tell me how the sunnis of mosul managed to get rid of isis without destroying their own cities. you need to assure the sunnis and bring them to the table and tell them there is a solution. they made this mistake in 2003 and 2004 with al qaeda and the same mistake in 2011, and now we're back in 2014. >> ghaith abdul-ahad, do you hold out much hope for the new body -- abadi? haider had been making all the right noises. [indiscernible] disbanding the supreme military command force. iraq is it is not [indiscernible] the whole system is rotten to the core. everything will soldier is appointed after paying a bribe. still being paid. the system of iraq is a right system based on corruption. militias,ack to the in 2014, iraq had four major shia militias. now they have 20 to 30. the same fragmentation that happened on the sunni side in syria monks the rebels is happening in iraq. why? people are pumping money into fighting isis. it will just create your own wishes to fight isis. -- it will just create their own militias to fight isis. amongst those were willing to fight isis. i pumping money come you just creating another layer of warlords to be added to the warlords who already exist. i know what i say sounds kind of two romantic am a but by sending more weapons and more money, you're just adding to the fuel of the war. you need a social contract with the sunnis of iraq. >> lastly, vice president joe biden accused saudi arabia and other u.s. allies of funding islamist group in syria and iraq. he went on kind of an apology tour this week, talking to turkey, the uae, and saudi arabia. let's go to a clip of his speech. >> our biggest problem is our allies. our allies in the region are our largest problem. the turks were great friends. i have spent a lot of time with them. the saudis, etc. what were they doing? they were so determined to take , what didid --assad they do? they poured hundreds of millions of dollars and 10,000 tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against al-assad, except for the people who were being usra and alre al n qaeda next to missed elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world. >> that is vice president joe biden. he is apologized for these comments. i want to get both of your responses. patrick cockburn three wrote a piece -- clergy they blame the kurds he for isis. isis is the ideology of ofy similar to the very end his long, which is prevalent in saudi arabia -- of islam, which is prevalent in saudi arabia and hostile to shia and muslims who do not have the same tenets, as well as hostile to christians and juice. in many ways, what isis believes .s the same carried to its logical conclusion that she are just not non-muslims, but they are police gifts who should be killed, which is what isis does. there is a very strong connection in the ideology of saudi arabia and that of isis. of course, there other connections, too. as biden pointed out. truehe says is obviously and for long time, american officials, off the record, with say the same thing. and this creates enormous problems for the moment because their allies aren't quite allies for the turks and the saudi's, yes, they're a bit frightened devices, but they quite like the idea that isis is creating more problems for the shia and the kurds that it is for the sunni. this very strange, ambivalent is of people who don't really want to wipe out isis and in keeping at arms length, those that really are prepared to fight. , yourith abdul-ahad response, saudi arabia singer arming and financing the so-called moderate syrian rebels? i i hate to say does that find myself agreeing with an american vice president, but i think i do agree with him. i mean -- >> before or after apology? >> before apology. i don't know why his apolog izing. we have seen money poured into syria. everyone was so focused on destroying the al-assad regime without paying any attention to the consequences of this, even arming the syrian rebels. just point to me this one brigade of syrian rebels that his so-called [indiscernible] this is not different from the somali war. imagine saying, let's arm this somali militia because they are moderates. this is what is the problem going on. a was so keen on toppling sharp. at the moment, there is an absurdity of having the saudi's fine airplanes to bomb isis that their that different from ideology themselves. it is pure hypocrisy. i think the americans -- again, i find myself in total some of the with obama and biden -- is finding themselves in the situation where they have to look to shop for allies amongst the people who are not that interested in finding a solution. unless we break the cycle, we disengage ourselves from toppling bashar al-assad and focus on isis and then continue the cycle -- isis is fighting enemies. each of the enemies is the enemy someone else. that is why they're winning. >> i want to thank you both for being with us. we will certainly come back to this conversation. is an iraqi-ahad journalist, won the orwell prize for journalism this year for his coverage of the war in syria. and i want to thank patrick cockburn for joining us. his new book is called "the , jihadis return: isis and the new sunni uprising." when we come back, we look at a future film that is based on the real story of one of the most maligned investigative history, gary webb. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. >> a new film out in theaters this week tells the story of one of the most maligned figures in investigative journalism: gary webb. in 1996, webb published an explosive series in the san jose mercury news titled "dark alliance." it began -- "for the better part of a decade, a san francisco bay area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the crips and bloods street gangs of los angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a latin american guerrilla army run by the u.s. central intelligence agency." >> the series revealed ties between the cia, nicaraguan contra rebels and the crack cocaine trade ravaging african-american communities. this is the trailer for the new film "kill the messenger," starring jeremy renner as gary webb. >> gary webb. >> do you believe in conspiracy theories? >> no. conspiracies, yes. there's nothing there about it. >> was a government a where you were smuggling tons of cocaine into the united states? >> yes, the government knew. >> this leads to sensitive national security matters. national security and crack cocaine in the same sentence. does that not sound strange to you? >> i will introduce you to people you should talk to an annual be faced with the most important decision of your life. what is that? >> deciding whether or not to share it. >> brought in thousands of kilos of cocaine to the u.s. every day. >> for who? >> for the u.s. government or with them, or at least while they were looking the other way. >> could not sell it fast enough to keep up with supplies. >> nice information you have their. dangerous. >> what you found here is a monster. >> you have no idea what you're getting into. >> i should just look away? >> it would be in it it does idiot not to. >> be careful. >> their ongoing operations. you are in danger of exposing them. >> we know you are in nicaragua. >> and i being followed? i thought my job was to tell people the truth, the facts, pretty or not, and that the publishing those facts make a difference in how people look at themselves and what they stand for. >> we would never threaten your children, mr. webb. >> what did you say? >> it's over. >> not finished! this is a true story. >> some stories are just too true to tell. >> the trailer for "kill the messenger," a new film directed by michael cuesta, about investigative journalist gary webb. webb's exposé provoked protests and congressional hearings. it also provoked a fierce reaction from the media establishment, which went to great lengths to discredit webb. the los angeles times alone assigned 17 reporters to dissect both webb's reporting and his personal life. recently declassified cia files show the agency used a "a ground base of already productive relations with journalists [at other newspapers]" to counter what it called "a genuine public relations crisis." >> the impact of the campaign against webb by both the cia and the media is outlined in a documentary film called "shadows of liberty," directed by jean-philippe tremblay. in this extended excerpt from the film you'll hear a number of voices, including veteran investigative journalist robert parry, who will join us shortly, as well as the author and journalist charles bowden, peter kornbluh of the national security archive, comedian and activist dick gregory, california congressmember maxine waters, gary webb's brother kurt webb and gary webb himself. it's narrated by kerry shale. >> one of the biggest news stories of the 1980's with the explosion of crack cocaine in the united states. freeze!e, >> today, crack cocaine use here is an epidemic. >> it will not only destroy lives and the since people are addicted to this powerful drug, but also it set off thing wars -- certain communities like gang w the african-american communityars. gary webb, as he began --estigating that >> gary webb. he thought being reporter was the best thing you could be. the only independent force in the society to establish truth. >> what gary webb witnessed in the courthouse would lead him on a journey to uncover the origins of the crack academic -- epidemic in america. >> what first caught his eye, nicaraguans. august the, dirty in a drug deal. and they're not going down. they're getting a walk. if you are reporter, you look into that. as webb look at the suppliers of the crack trade in los angeles, the trail led back to u.s. sponsored war a decade --lier and central america in central america. >> the reagan administration wanted to be proactive in sticking it to the communists around the world. president ronald reagan authorized the cia to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building, supporting, directing the contras against those in nicaragua. the moral equal of our founding fathers. we cannot turn away from them. while the cia attempted to topple the democratically elected government in nicaragua, webb discovered the contras had ties to the crack explosion in los angeles. violence in a small central american country was far more important than stopping drug from flowing into our cities and communities. after a year-long investigation, webb's story was published on the front page of the san jose mercury news. >> the central thing we tried to show, and it wasn't particularly that the cia know about it, but how crack came to be such a problem in america that it was connected to the nicaraguan cocaine lab. >> webs report broke new ground by becoming the first major news investigation published both in print and on the internet. >> as a consequence, even of the san jose mercury news is considered a regional newspaper, it was able to get national traction in even international traction on this story because it was now on the web. have all the dea undercover tapes, the fbi reports, the court records and they're all posted for people to see. when you look at his research and what he was doing and tracing it, and he was hip enough to check it and know it was true. november 1997, the website was getting over one million hits a day and the story made the biggest impact in los angeles. >> what is the word on the street now? have you heard about the cia? well, you know what? we have heard. we have seen. and now we are moved to action. and we are moved to action in ways -- >> with the cia on the defensive and the public demanding action, the major national newspapers waited into the controversy. >> the mainstream media first responded with pretty much a deafening nothing. but as the story got bigger and bigger, they started responding by blaming gary webb. >> you have the fact the san jose mercury news being in silicon valley was sort of challenging the gatekeeper function that the new york times, l.a. times, washington post and other papers had assumed was there's -- theirs. >> the washington post weighs in and says gary webb got it wrong and we can tell exactly how i got it wrong because we haven't the phase next -- we haven't the faintest god damn idea. >> they were saying that the african-american committed was conspiracy prone. that set the tone that his story would be dismissed and ridiculed. >> yet major media outlets going to the cia and saying, is this true? the cia was say, this is not true. then it was, what is not true? this is nonsense. come on, come on. i mean, come on. listen, there's never been a conspiracy in this country. >> the fact is, the shoddy reporting on this story was not from gary webb. it was from his corporate backed detractors. i had a drink with a major figure at the l.a. times, and i asked him about the crackdown. he said, look, there were meetings in the building that they were not going to let a guy from san jose, california come into their turf and win a pulitzer prize. and the press attacked very webb. the program -- the public protested. >> i got involved with the protests because gary webb had no agenda. he is not lying. we are one to put the cia and this country on notice. >> with the national media calling for traction of the story, gary webb's newspaper took action. >> the mercury news was behind him 100%. because of the backlash from the also media, they backpedaled away from gary. in the beginning, they were behind you. >> that's right. hellthey caught a world of from the established media and now they're not behind me anymore. >> the san jose mercury news essentially abandoned him. >> the pressure paid off when the mercury news took down the ark alliance website and reassigned webb to bureau 150 miles away from his home. here is this guy that had all these awards, this guy that broke the story that everyone warned him not to break. all of a sudden, a journalist that should be held, is treated with a piece of crap. >> a year later, the cia released its internal report into the agency's involvement with contra drug traffickers. >> there are instances where cia did not in an expeditious were consistent fashion cut off relationships with individuals supporting the contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity. >> the contents of the report delve into the actual nitty-gritty of them. what you find is there was a serious problem that u.s. government knew about it and the contras were far more guilty of drug trafficking and the cia was more guilty of looking the other way and even gary webb had suggested. >> that report includes a great deal of information" many documents. forex with the cia's report about its relationship with contra drug traffickers, the media had a chance defended kate webb's investigation. >> the new york times did a story that is half me a call we should've done more with this, worse then we thought, and have gary webb is still an idiot. the washington post wait several weeks and is a rather dismissive article. the l.a. times never reports on the cia's findings. so even though webb was proven correct, he is still considered a flex who got a story wrong. felt betrayed by his own. in his mind, journalists were supposed to expose the truth, not the opposite. not try to wash it. as the media. the cia's report, webb county his career at a dead-end. >> when he was interviewing for and he says he is the guy who wrote "dark alliance " they would kill the interview. deliver been a journalist anymore and that ripped his heart out. >> he is desponding about his ability to find work. he got his father's pistol, laid out a certificate for his cremation, and then he shot himself. >> if i have to stand up and take a beating for putting the drug trafficking on the national agenda, i'll take a beating. i would do it again in a second. we killed one of the few decent working reporters in the country. by that "we" i mean the business i am in, the media. >> that last voice was charles bowden, from the documentary "shadows of liberty." the film is on a nationwide tour, and screens this friday in st. louis. we'll link to the the tour's full schedule on our website, democracynow.org. the new feature film "kill the messenger" opens this week. >> to talk more about gary webb we're joined by robert parry, a veteran investigative journalist who worked for years as an investigative reporter for both the associated press and newsweek magazine. his reporting led to the exposure of what is now known as the "iran-contra" scandal. he edits the website consortiumnews.com. robert parry, welcome to democracy now! talk about gary webb and his ultimate suicide. >> history owes a great tilde gary webb. if it weren't for gary and his courage in reviving the story a 1996, we would not have known anything near like the full picture of what happened in the 1980's. some of us that were reporting it back then, myself and my colleague at the associated press, wrote the first story in december of 1985. that's part senator john kerry to do is really good investigation the reported more by 1989.s but because the major news organizations back then did not want to pursue this very difficult and painful story, they tended to dismiss it back then as well. it was up to gary webb in reviving the story in 1996 that forced the cia to finally take seriously this investigation and the inspector general did a fairly thorough job produced a report that amounted to an institutional confession of the central intelligence agency that theed they were aware of contra drug trafficking as far back as 1981, that it had continued throughout the decade. and that the cia consistently protected those drug traffickers, even to the point of steering away investigations by the drug enforcement administration and the justice department, as well as congress. so you had the cia finally coming to the table and admitting that what we reported in the 1980's and what webb reported in the 1990's was in fact true. the tragedy was, the mainstream news organizations that i dismissed the story in the 1980's would not face up to this reality when it was even admitted to by the central intelligence agency. you saw a complete failure, perhaps one of the most shameful examples of how the mainstream press can operate in destroying a fellow journalist for getting out an important story. and webb suffered mightily for this. there's a special pain when your colleagues in your profession turn on you, especially when you have done something that they should admire and should understand. it is hard to do these kinds of stories. they're very difficult because the reporting that is required, going into the field, dealing with often unsavory characters, dealing with secret government sources -- and to do all that work and then have "the new york times" and "the los angeles times" and "washington post" attack you and try to destroy your life, there is a special pain in that. >> following the controversy, the san jose mercury news transferred him to a suburban office in cupertino. in december 1997, webb resigned. i got a chance to speak to him on democracy now about his resignation. >> how are you doing? >> the more important question is, how are you doing? >> hey, i'm alive. i'm here. i'm not working for that newspaper anymore, thank god. >> tell us what happened. >> like you said, they transfer me out to the boondocks. itent on a byline strike would not allow my name to be used on any stories out there. that made everybody even matter -- madder. i finally had to sit down, it is been a year and a half now since the series came out, and what am i doing with my life and what am i doing with my work that is meaningful? i had to answer, nothing is happening. it was clear to me mercury told me, even when we won the arbitration, they were going to not let me -- they weren't going to let me do anything worthwhile or any investigative reporting. i figure this is kind of pointless to hang around and work for a newspaper whose editors you did not respect and do. by stories for the rest of my life. for ex that was gary webb on democracy now! december 1997. you would ultimately commit suicide. you can go to our website to see all of our interviews with gary at democracynow.org. , your final comments about the significance of the story he broke? there's no question this is one of the most important stories of the 1980's and 1990's when you get to the end of this and the cia confessing. but it is also a story about the still your of the mainstream press that extends to the present. because for the iraq war in a failure to be skeptical there and goes right on to the present day. it is not an old story, but very much a current story. much a current story. >> robert parry these films are so popular because they minister to a need in the audience to believe e whole american experiment is a success. war is mostly boredom, long periods of boredom, punctuated by terrifying madness and surrealism. but it's impossible to actually show. xplosions) annenberg media ♪ d: