by Gary Webb

About the author: In 1996, Gary Webb wrote a controversial three-part newspaper series exposing the CIA’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking. He has since written a book titled Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion (Seven Stories Press), and currently serves as a consultant to the California State Legislature Task Force on Government Oversight.

For the record, let me just say this right now. I do not believe—and I have never believed—that the crack cocaine explosion was a conscious CIA conspiracy, or anybody’s conspiracy, to decimate black America. I’ve never believed that South Central Los Angeles was targeted by the U.S. government to become the crack capital of the world. But that isn’t to say that...