# Walter Pincus

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Walter Pincus," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/walter-pincus/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The Washington Post reporter who, in John Kiriakou's account of the Gary Webb affair, took the CIA's side of the cocaine story and put it on the paper's front page, wrong, and Kiriakou believes knowingly so.*

- **Outlet:** The Washington Post
- **Kiriakou's description:** "An esteemed reporter"
- **What he published:** The [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)'s side of the [Dark Alliance](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dark-alliance) story, on the front page
- **The line taken:** That none of it was true, "just an anti-CIA tirade"
- **Kiriakou's verdict:** "Pinkus was wrong Pinkus probably knew he was wrong but published anyway"

**Walter Pincus** appears in [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of the destruction of [Gary Webb](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gary-webb-kill-the-messenger) as the specific mechanism by which the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)'s denial reached print.

Describing how the Washington Post and the New York Times responded to [Dark Alliance](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dark-alliance), Kiriakou says the two papers *"essentially said on their front pages that Gary Webb had made the entire story up"*, and names the reporter: *"Walter pinkus an esteemed reporter for the Washington Post got the side of the CIA and put that on the very front page of the Washington Post saying that none of this was true this was just an anti- CIA uh tie raade and that nobody should pay any attention to it."*[1]

His judgement follows immediately, and distinguishes error from complicity: *"well Pinkus was wrong Pinkus probably knew he was wrong but published anyway the bottom line here is that both the Washington Post and the New York Times leapt as quickly as they could to the defense of the CIA."*[2]

## See also

- [Kill the Messenger (Gary Webb)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gary-webb-kill-the-messenger)
- [Dark Alliance](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dark-alliance)
- [CIA Drug Facilitation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-drug-facilitation)

## Sources

1. The Gary Webb Story: CIA, Cocaine, and a Media Assassination (2025-03-12), at 07:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjcwiMRDy9k&t=476s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-12-john-kiriakou-the-gary-webb-story-cia-cocaine-and-a-media-a/
2. The Gary Webb Story: CIA, Cocaine, and a Media Assassination (2025-03-12), at 08:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjcwiMRDy9k&t=508s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-12-john-kiriakou-the-gary-webb-story-cia-cocaine-and-a-media-a/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/walter-pincus/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt