Kill the Messenger by Nick Schou

Author:Nick Schou [Schou, Nick; Bowden, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786735266
Publisher: Nation Books

FEW PEOPLE WERE more passionate about “Dark Alliance” than Joe Madison, “The Black Eagle,” a radio talk-show host based in Washington, D.C., who now broadcasts on XM satellite radio. In a recent interview, Madison acknowledged that many African Americans, including some of his friends, took Webb’s story further than the facts allowed, and that Webb had often chastised him when he inadvertently mischaracterized elements of the story. He says he became obsessed with “Dark Alliance” because it was the first time a mainstream American newspaper had taken a serious look at U.S. government complicity in the crack plague.

“In the black community, we always had suspicions,” Madison says. “The old adage was that we don’t grow cocaine. How could so much of it get into the country without the government knowing about it? It appeared that the black community had been targeted, and that this story was a major breakthrough.”

Madison wasn’t just a talk show host. A veteran civil rights organizer, he saw the controversy over “Dark Alliance” as an opportunity to rally America’s black leadership in a quest for social justice. He called every black leader he knew—Maxine Waters, Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, and Dick Gregory, a comedian turned social activist who in 1968 had run unsuccessfully for president as a write-in candidate for the Freedom and Peace Party.

When Madison reached him, Gregory was at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. He agreed to fly back to D.C. to join Madison in what turned out to be a two-man protest at CIA headquarters. “Dick and I went to CIA headquarters and began picketing,” Madison recalls. “We pulled out a roll of yellow police tape that said ‘This is a Crime Scene.’ We had a copy of ‘Dark Alliance’ and demanded to see the director of the CIA to have him explain things. Needless to say we didn’t get a meeting with him.”

When Madison and Gregory tried to stretch the police tape across the gate at the entrance to the CIA, federal marshals arrested them for trespassing. “Most people thought we were out of our minds because you don’t mess with the CIA,” he says. Madison was released after two days, but Gregory continued to be held at a federal holding cell in Alexandria, Virginia. Madison showed up at a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus, where he announced that Gregory was still behind bars.

“All hell broke loose,” he says. “The next day, they released Dick, and we really began our campaign.” Madison talked about the story every day for the next six months on his radio show, interviewing Webb and any guest who he could find who claimed to know something about CIA complicity in drug trafficking. As it happened, Oliver North hosted his own show at the same radio station where Madison worked at the time. When North agreed to debate Madison on C-SPAN, Madison used his time to read passages from North’s Iran contra-era diaries that discussed his knowledge, lack of concern and possible complicity in covering up drug dealing by Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and various contra supporters.

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