Pubdate: Thu, 29 Jun 2000
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2000 The Register-Guard
Contact:  PO Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188
Website: http://www.registerguard.com/
Author: Kris Millegan

CIA SYMPOSIUM IGNORED

It's revealing how some people use their powerful positions of
community responsibility. The local media black-outs of the recent
CIA-Drugs Symposium are defining decisions.

The standard dishonest litany of excuses, began with, "We just don't
have enough staff." Not enough staff to just stop by an event that was
open for 14 hours?

I have been told by local newsroom managers that I have a political
agenda. Others say I want to legalize drugs. I do not. I am
anti-prohibition. Prohibition just doesn't work. I would much rather
see drugs regulated. Drugs are currently unregulated and completely
out of control. No one bothered to ask... and this symposium wasn't
about that.

The U.S. Intelligence agencies are intimately involved with the
international narcotics trade. This gigantic trade has totally
corrupted our governmental and financial systems. Non-coverage by
local media de-legitimizes an event, and the caliber of presenters and
their messages.

Why was this deliberately done? Local newsrooms were given several
advance press notices. A published retired professor from University
of California at Berkeley; a 12-year federal drug enforcement veteran;
a former Los Angeles police officer; an ex-Black Panther; a former
Federal Aviation Authority investigator; an executive TV producer and
a former assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development all came
to Eugene. Hundreds of citizens heard and asked questions for
themselves about how and why cheap heroin is flooding our streets -
and the local media ignored the event. Yet reporters from New York,
San Francisco, Seattle and Portland found time to stop by the event.

Where does one go for honest dialogue here?

Kris Millegan
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