To start off with, I really enjoyed Renner's performance......and I think it's a story worth telling. But what I noticed most of all is the almost endless inaccuracies, omissions, and misleading info while watching it. Setting the record straight:
-Blandon did NOT testify that the CIA came to him and asked them to run drugs. He testified that it was either Meneses or Enrique Bermudez (in the grand jury transcript called "Enrique Ramunez"), it's not clear which one (Blandon's English wasn't clear at times), is who asked him. In either case, neither person amounts to representing the CIA: Meneses definitely was not, and Bermudez wasn't either. And Blandon himself later specifically denied that Bermudez asked him to raise money through drug smuggling. Meneses said the same thing. The SJMN quoted Bermudez (via Blandon) as saying the "ends justify the means". But Blandon himself said he didn't take that as meaning they should traffic in drugs.
-The drug cartels had set up routes and were mass importing the drugs into California and Florida (and elsewhere) before the Contras were even in business. (Ergo the Contras sparking any crack epidemic (as Webb claimed) in LA or elsewhere is preposterous.)
-It's also worth pointing out the crack epidemic did not end when the Contras shut down in 1990. Ergo, the trade obviously didn't hinge on their (or their supporters) involvement.
-To illustrate the previous point: according to 'The War on Drugs: An International Encyclopedia', by the late 1980's: "an estimated 300 Colombian trafficking groups and 20,000 Colombians were involved in the cocaine trade in the United States. At least 5,000 of the Colombians who worked for the cartels lived in the Miami area and another 6,000 in the Los Angeles area." In other words: the cartels had about as much manpower in the United States alone than were in the entire Contra movement. (The Medellin cartel employed 750,000 people in Medellin.)
-Ross had other (non-Contra) suppliers besides Blandon and he was mixed up in drugs before he ever met him. Other LA dealers (like "Tootie" Reese) had established links with the South American cartels before Blandon met Ross.
-Webb gives the number (in 'Dark Alliance'; the book not the series) Blandon sold to Ross at around 5 tons. By DEA estimates, more cocaine went to Los Angeles in a *single* year (i.e. 1980; before Blandon was selling to Ross) than Ross sold over 8-10 years.
-Ross's suppliers were not Contras who went into dealing to support them.....they were dealers sympathetic to their cause who kept most of the money they made. That's an important distinction. Most provable estimates of what they gave the Contras was around 50-100 thousand dollars.
-Ross and Blandon had more money than the United States gave the Contras total (we are talking in the hundreds of millions). So if the Contras were running on drug money, why did the war grind to a halt once the USA cut off aid? Furthermore, why even bother with the Contra aspect of Iran-Contra (which got them maybe 2 million from the diversions of the arms sales to Iran) when all that coke money was supposedly out there?
-The movie also depicts (some would say "fabricates" is a more accurate term) a number instances of personal harassment (and contact) of Webb by the government and its agencies. Before he even writes the story, some "agents"/"a few guys from D.C." meet with him and try to warn him off and also make a implied threat against his family. Ray Liota plays a CIA agent who sneaks into Webb's hotel room in the middle of the night to tell him he is right. And finally, Webb fires a warning shot at a guy hanging around his car at night. Following that, some unidentified people start going through Webb's files while he is talking to the police. To my knowledge, even Webb didn't claim ANY of these events happened. I think the closest thing to this was the fact Webb once shot a would-be car thief who came at him. But this was in Kentucky and years before he came across the Dark Alliance story.
-Webb did not endorse the wild conspiracy theories put forth by a lot of people like Maxine Waters. But he didn't distance himself from these people either. So that didn't help his cause.
-At the end of the film, a number of misleading statements appear on the screen. For one, it mentions the the Director of the CIA's appearance in a "town hall" type meeting with the citizens of south central Los Angeles, and that the director left the CIA a month later. That leaves the impression Deutch left the CIA because of the Dark Alliance series. Deutch was actually forced out because the Clinton administration was upset with his testimony to Congress on Iraq. A statement is also made that the CIA released a report that acknowledged the fact they "...associated with members of the Contra movement who engaged in drug trafficking." True. But just not the ones Webb wrote about. The mentioned report specifically denies that the agency ever had any contact with Ross, Blandon, or Meneses. Furthermore, that report (and the unmentioned DOJ report), far from being a vindication for the Dark Alliance series, blew a great many holes in the story. And finally, Webb's two shot suicide is mentioned. The movie states it was "ruled" a suicide. But there is little doubt. Webb had made arrangements for his cremation (as well as other things), and even his own family does not doubt it was a suicide based on his actions before hand. (Nick Schou covers this in 'Kill The Messenger'. In a way, it was kind of good this aspect of Webb's life was omitted from the film because it made for some depressing reading.)
So a good movie.....but pretty flimsy history.
-Blandon did NOT testify that the CIA came to him and asked them to run drugs. He testified that it was either Meneses or Enrique Bermudez (in the grand jury transcript called "Enrique Ramunez"), it's not clear which one (Blandon's English wasn't clear at times), is who asked him. In either case, neither person amounts to representing the CIA: Meneses definitely was not, and Bermudez wasn't either. And Blandon himself later specifically denied that Bermudez asked him to raise money through drug smuggling. Meneses said the same thing. The SJMN quoted Bermudez (via Blandon) as saying the "ends justify the means". But Blandon himself said he didn't take that as meaning they should traffic in drugs.
-The drug cartels had set up routes and were mass importing the drugs into California and Florida (and elsewhere) before the Contras were even in business. (Ergo the Contras sparking any crack epidemic (as Webb claimed) in LA or elsewhere is preposterous.)
-It's also worth pointing out the crack epidemic did not end when the Contras shut down in 1990. Ergo, the trade obviously didn't hinge on their (or their supporters) involvement.
-To illustrate the previous point: according to 'The War on Drugs: An International Encyclopedia', by the late 1980's: "an estimated 300 Colombian trafficking groups and 20,000 Colombians were involved in the cocaine trade in the United States. At least 5,000 of the Colombians who worked for the cartels lived in the Miami area and another 6,000 in the Los Angeles area." In other words: the cartels had about as much manpower in the United States alone than were in the entire Contra movement. (The Medellin cartel employed 750,000 people in Medellin.)
-Ross had other (non-Contra) suppliers besides Blandon and he was mixed up in drugs before he ever met him. Other LA dealers (like "Tootie" Reese) had established links with the South American cartels before Blandon met Ross.
-Webb gives the number (in 'Dark Alliance'; the book not the series) Blandon sold to Ross at around 5 tons. By DEA estimates, more cocaine went to Los Angeles in a *single* year (i.e. 1980; before Blandon was selling to Ross) than Ross sold over 8-10 years.
-Ross's suppliers were not Contras who went into dealing to support them.....they were dealers sympathetic to their cause who kept most of the money they made. That's an important distinction. Most provable estimates of what they gave the Contras was around 50-100 thousand dollars.
-Ross and Blandon had more money than the United States gave the Contras total (we are talking in the hundreds of millions). So if the Contras were running on drug money, why did the war grind to a halt once the USA cut off aid? Furthermore, why even bother with the Contra aspect of Iran-Contra (which got them maybe 2 million from the diversions of the arms sales to Iran) when all that coke money was supposedly out there?
-The movie also depicts (some would say "fabricates" is a more accurate term) a number instances of personal harassment (and contact) of Webb by the government and its agencies. Before he even writes the story, some "agents"/"a few guys from D.C." meet with him and try to warn him off and also make a implied threat against his family. Ray Liota plays a CIA agent who sneaks into Webb's hotel room in the middle of the night to tell him he is right. And finally, Webb fires a warning shot at a guy hanging around his car at night. Following that, some unidentified people start going through Webb's files while he is talking to the police. To my knowledge, even Webb didn't claim ANY of these events happened. I think the closest thing to this was the fact Webb once shot a would-be car thief who came at him. But this was in Kentucky and years before he came across the Dark Alliance story.
-Webb did not endorse the wild conspiracy theories put forth by a lot of people like Maxine Waters. But he didn't distance himself from these people either. So that didn't help his cause.
-At the end of the film, a number of misleading statements appear on the screen. For one, it mentions the the Director of the CIA's appearance in a "town hall" type meeting with the citizens of south central Los Angeles, and that the director left the CIA a month later. That leaves the impression Deutch left the CIA because of the Dark Alliance series. Deutch was actually forced out because the Clinton administration was upset with his testimony to Congress on Iraq. A statement is also made that the CIA released a report that acknowledged the fact they "...associated with members of the Contra movement who engaged in drug trafficking." True. But just not the ones Webb wrote about. The mentioned report specifically denies that the agency ever had any contact with Ross, Blandon, or Meneses. Furthermore, that report (and the unmentioned DOJ report), far from being a vindication for the Dark Alliance series, blew a great many holes in the story. And finally, Webb's two shot suicide is mentioned. The movie states it was "ruled" a suicide. But there is little doubt. Webb had made arrangements for his cremation (as well as other things), and even his own family does not doubt it was a suicide based on his actions before hand. (Nick Schou covers this in 'Kill The Messenger'. In a way, it was kind of good this aspect of Webb's life was omitted from the film because it made for some depressing reading.)
So a good movie.....but pretty flimsy history.