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[Guest guest]

Weeks before the Winter Olympics started there was big news coming out of Utah.

The winner is...... Guerrilla News Network!

 

by

 

Michael Davidson

 

[© Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications, www.copvcia.com. All

Rights Reserved. May be copied, redistributed or posted on the internet for

non-profit purposes only.]

 

 

 

FTW, February 11, 2002 -- On January 18, Guerrilla News Network won the Audience

Award in the " live-action " category at the 2002 Sundance Online Film Festival.

GNN took the prize for its ten minute documentary " Crack The CIA " , a film laying

down clear, concise, irrefutable evidence of the CIA's long involvement in

bringing and selling huge amounts of cocaine into America. The Audience Award is

determined by voters at the festival, as well as online viewers around the

world.

 

Using cutting edge video and editing techniques, " Crack The CIA " is a stunning

piece of film as well as a damning indictment of the U.S. government's criminal

activities. Directed by GNN's Stephen Marshall, edited by Marshall and Kenji

Williams, and with an original Hip-Hop soundtrack by DJ Trek-e, the film won

acclaim for its cinematic excellence as well as its content. Guerrilla News

Network is an alternative news organization dedicated to providing web,

television and film viewers with information ignored or only partially covered

by mainstream media.

 

" Crack The CIA " is based primarily on interviews with four people with

impeccable credentials: Cele Castillo, former DEA agent who personally witnessed

CIA cocaine transactions in Central America; Mara Leveritt, reporter and editor

at The Arkansas Times who investigated and reported on massive CIA cocaine

operations in Mena, Arkansas; Professor Christopher Simpson of American

University in Washington, DC, an acknowledged authority on CIA drug operations;

and Mike Ruppert, a former Los Angeles Police Department narcotics investigator,

and publisher/editor of From The Wilderness newsletter and the website

www.copvcia.com.

 

The film contains an amazing segment, originally broadcast on C-SPAN and ABC’s

NIGHTLINE, of the now-legendary confrontation between Mike Ruppert and then CIA John Deutch. Filmed at a November, 1996 town hall meeting at Locke High

School in South Central Los Angeles in response to detailed press reports of CIA

cocaine dealing, Ruppert gets right in Deutch's face with the evidence of CIA

Drug trafficking he obtained after witnessing CIA drug dealing in 1977. His

original discovery ended his LAPD career and started him on investigations he is

continuing 24 years later. His newsletter is now read in 27 countries and by 20

members of the US congress.

 

Ruppert's accusations were accompanied by the standing-room only crowd's cheers

and whistles. Ruppert, an ex-cop who has been shot at, burglarized and

threatened because of his whistleblowing, describes these as some of the

scariest moments of his life.

 

Watching John Deutch attempt to assemble a coherent answer to Ruppert's

statements is the film's jaw-dropping moment. Hunched over, wringing his hands,

the former CIA Director never denies the charges. Instead, he suggests that

anyone knowing of CIA criminal activity contact the Los Angeles Police

Department, the CIA Inspector General, or their local congressperson. Even on

the screen the crowd's derisive hoots and catcalls are palpable. It's rumored

that Deutch didn't get his hoped-for appointment as Secretary of Defense because

of his performance that day at Locke High School.

 

Films that do well at Sundance usually go on to wider release. Word from

festival attendees is that Sundance head, actor/director Robert Redford, is

quite enthusiastic about " Crack The CIA " . One can only hope that as much of the

public as possible gets to see this unique combination of film-making prowess

and hard-nosed investigative journalism.

 

If " Crack The CIA " doesn't come to you, you can see it at

www.guerrillanews.com/crack.