Pubdate: Wed, 04 Apr 2001
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2001 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact:  http://www.boston.com/globe/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author:  Mark Jurkowitz

LIBEL SUIT THREATENS FUTURE OF ONLINE DRUG-WAR PUBLICATION

For much of the '80s and '90s, Al Giordano cut a wide swath among 
Massachusetts journalists and political junkies. An antinuclear 
activist who became the Boston Phoenix's political reporter, Giordano 
was sometimes abrasive, usually controversial, always passionate, and 
invariably innovative. (Who else would have sent GOP pundit Mary 
Matalin a little tie-dyed T-shirt from a Grateful Dead concert as a 
baby gift?)

Giordano seemed to drop off the radar screen after departing the 
Phoenix in 1996 and then leaving the country. A year ago, he surfaced 
as publisher of the online publication The Narco News Bulletin 
(www.narconews.com), which sees its mandate as challenging ''the 
illusion that the drug war is about combating drugs.''

Later this month, Giordano will return to New York from his 
undisclosed base of operations in Latin America to celebrate the 
first anniversary of Narco News. He will also formally respond to 
what could potentially become one of the most riveting libel cases in 
recent history - if it actually goes to trial.

The suit, filed in New York by Banco Nacional de Mexico (known as 
Banamex) against Narco News, Giordano, and Mexican journalist Mario 
Renato Menendez Rodriguez, pits the law firm of such ex-presidential 
intimates as Robert Strauss and Vernon Jordan against two notable 
First Amendment attorneys. And it happens to focus on the subject 
that has captivated Academy Awards voters who recently honored the 
film ''Traffic'': the drug smuggling trade.

''For us, `Traffic' is not a movie,'' Giordano said in a phone 
interview this week. ''We live it every day.''

The suit charges the journalists with ''defamation and interference 
with prospective economic advantage,'' accusing them of ''maliciously 
smear[ing] Banamex with accusations that, among other things, it is 
controlled and operated by narcotics traffickers and has engaged in 
illegal activity.'' It claims that the defamation occurred in New 
York last year in a Menendez interview with The Village Voice; in a 
Giordano and Menendez interview on a radio show; in remarks by the 
defendants at conference at the Columbia University School of Law; 
and in Narco News articles.

The defense attorneys say the case is another effort to challenge 
Menendez, following unsuccessful legal proceedings against the 
journalist in Mexico. At the heart of the dispute are articles 
published by Menendez alleging involvement by Banamex owner Roberto 
Hernandez Ramirez in drug smuggling.

In a statement released to the Globe, Banamex attorney Thomas McLish, 
of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, said, ''Menendez and Giordano 
have been engaged in a campaign to convince people that Banamex and 
its chairman are involved in criminal conduct.''

''The Mexican courts dismissed the claims on technicalities,'' the 
statement continued. Yet ''the defamatory statements Menendez and 
Giordano made in New York have not been addressed by any court.'' 
Banamex filed a lawsuit in New York to ''clear its name'' of 
''ludicrous'' charges, the statement added.

Giordano calls the suit an attempt to stifle his First Amendment 
rights. ''They're trying to exhaust us out of existence,'' he said in 
the interview. ''It's an attempt to silence freedom of the press, 
freedom of the Internet, freedom of speech.''

While Giordano plans on representing himself, Narco News itself will 
be defended by Northampton attorney Thomas Lesser, best known for 
successfully defending Abbie Hoffman and Amy Carter in a 1987 case 
stemming from their participation in a protest against the CIA at the 
University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Lesser challenges the Banamex 
suit on the grounds that, among other things, the defendants' New 
York appearances did not interfere with the bank's ''economic 
advantage,'' and because there's ''no question, in Mr. Menendez's 
mind or Mr. Giordano's mind, that these allegations are, in fact, 
true.''

Menendez is defended by New York attorney Martin Garbus, whose client 
list has included Lenny Bruce and Timothy Leary. Garbus has filed a 
motion to dismiss, which is being opposed by Akin, Gump. ''There have 
already been two cases brought by Banamex against Menendez, and they 
lost,'' Garbus said. He also argues, as does Lesser, that the only 
rightful plaintiff is Hernandez, not his bank. ''If I call Bill Gates 
a crook, can Microsoft sue me?'' Garbus said. ''I don't think so.''

Meanwhile, the battle goes on for Giordano. (In the interests of 
disclosure, he is a former Phoenix colleague of this writer and a 
nephew of Globe editor Matthew V. Storin.) On Narco News, he is 
publicizing his legal defense fund, which he calls ''Drug War on 
Trial.'' One backer is Gary Webb, author of the explosive and highly 
controversial 1996 San Jose Mercury News ''Dark Alliance'' series 
that alleged CIA complicity in a Los Angeles crack epidemic.

Last fall, Giordano gained media attention when an Associated Press 
correspondent in Bolivia resigned after Narco News reported that the 
AP writer had lobbied the government there on a water project. Now 
the fate of Narco News, which he calls ''an act of participatory 
citizens' journalism,'' hangs very much in the balance.

This story ran on page C05 of the Boston Globe on 4/4/2001.
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MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer