Kill the Messenger

Kill the Messenger is a 2014 American biographical crime thriller film directed by Michael Cuesta and written by Peter Landesman. It is based on the book of the same name by Nick Schou and the book Dark Alliance by Gary Webb. The film stars Jeremy Renner, who also produced the film. The film was released on October 10, 2014, and depicts a reporter's suppressed attempts to cover the CIA involvement and secret support of large scale cocaine sales to fund the Nicaraguan Contras. Plot In 1996, San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb interviews drug dealer Ronny Quail, who is outraged that the government used civil asset forfeiture to keep his house even after he was acquitted. Webb's ensuing article about the abuses of forfeiture garners repeated phone calls from a woman named Coral, whom he agrees to meet when she says she has documents that prove the government sponsored cocaine sales in the U.S. Coral gives Webb a transcript of grand jury testimony (normally kept secret) which was accidentally released to her boyfriend, an accused drug dealer, during discovery. After Webb reveals to the prosecutor in the case that he has the transcript, the government drops the charges against Coral's boyfriend in order to protect their main witness: Oscar Danilo Blandón. After Webb researches Blandón and comes across the pending case of "Freeway" Rick Ross, he is stunned to learn that Blandón is a paid informant. Armed with this knowledge, Ross' attorney elicits from Blandón his sworn testimony outlining the CIA's alleged involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking—that the CIA actively supported Blandón and his partners’ smuggling of cocaine into the U.S. and used the profits to benefit the Nicaraguan Contras. Webb travels to a prison in Managua and speaks to Blandón's partner, Norwin Meneses, who confirms Oliver North's involvement in the basic "drugs for guns" scheme to use profits from cocaine trafficking to fund the Contras. In Washington, D.C., Webb tracks down Fred Weil, a National Security Council employee who was an investigator on the Kerry Committee report, which touched on the same issues. Like many other people that Webb speaks to, Weil warns him that the subject may put him in danger. For good measure, federal agents summon Webb to a meeting where they warn him against publishing what he has learned.