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-Caveat Lector-
http://www.msnbc.com/news/837743.asp
Charles Bowden's new book, "Down by the River," is about the DEA's war on
drugs and the murder of Bruno Jordan
�Drug Nation�
Charles Bowden, chronicler of dusty borders and drug wars, talks about his
new book, Arizona�s underbelly and having a contract out on your head
By Seth Mnookin
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE
Nov. 20 � Charles Bowden has made a career out of writing stirring
anthropological studies of American society, with memorable books on
subjects ranging from the American Southwest to Charles Keating.
HIS LATEST WORK, �Down by the River,� just out from Simon & Schuster, is a
wondrous feat of both reporting and writing. In it, Bowden tackles the 1995
shotgun murder of Bruno Jordan, the younger brother of Patrick Jordan, one
of the DEA�s rising stars.
Like all great stories, Bowden uses one small tale to illustrate
many larger truths, pulling back the curtains on the deep corruption in the
Mexican government, the occasional complicity of the United States and the
senseless and brutal violence of the Mexican cartels. �Down by the River,�
has been compared to the movie �Traffic,� and in tracing Bruno�s brother�s
slow decent into despair it does mirror that multifaceted illustration of
the drug world�s many-tentacled reach into American society. But unlike
Hollywood, Bowden has no pat answers or conclusions�Bruno�s murder remains
unsolved�and this book, with its infusion of existential hope, is one of the
great examples of reportage this year. Recently, Bowden talked to NEWSWEEK�s
Seth Mnookin from his home in Arizona.
NEWSWEEK: This is a pretty labor-intensive book. What got you started
on what turned into a seven-year project?
Charles Bowden: In 1995, I saw a news clip about the murder of Bruno
Jordan, and I got in my car and went to El Paso. It seemed like this could
be a way to penetrate the absolute tissue of lies that covers everything in
the drug world. I thought maybe I�d write a magazine story. I�d been doing
drug stories for about 10 years as a kind of sideline.
What got you started writing about drugs?
I live in Tucson, and in 1985 I started noticing a real change in my
part of the world�suddenly there were Uzis in the backcountry. That�s a big
change from the days when the drug trade around here was some fraternity
boys going down to Mexico to buy a backpack of marijuana. I didn�t realize
at first that this was because they�d [U.S. DEA agents] shut down Florida as
a drug entry point, and Mexico became a real hotspot. And the papers here
just ignored it all, like it would be bad for the town�s image. Right when
this was happening, I started a magazine [City Magazine, in Tucson], partly
out of a sense that I was going to put this on record. So by the time Bruno
came around, I�d already been saturated. This was naked, it was going on
everywhere, people were getting killed all the time. By the time Bruno came
along, I was getting frustrated. I knew Bruno�s brother was a big shot in
the DEA, and I gave him a call, thinking maybe this would be a story big
enough to get to some of the truth.
And Phil Jordan just agreed to talk like that?
Says Charles Bowden on the war on drugs: "Let's be real, if there's a
dangerous drug in our society, it's alcohol"
No, he said he wouldn�t talk unless I came down there, partly
because he wanted to see me and partly because he doesn�t trust talking on
the phone. So I got in my truck and drove down. And here I am, seven years
later.
When you started this reporting, did you think Bruno Jordan�s murder
would eventually be solved?
Yes, I did, because of Phil Jordan�s clout. But that was my
naivete. When you finish the book, you know what happened, you just don�t
have the proof. That�s how the drug world works. There are some stones that
can�t be upturned. Jesus, if the head of DEA intelligence, if he can�t pick
up the phone and get the FBI or the CIA to help out�of course that was
Jordan�s awakening. He thought he�d get help. I mean, he�s a guy who briefed
Janet Reno! And none of that helped.
You haven�t always written these novelistic nonfiction books. What�s
your career arc been like?
I actually used to work for a daily newspaper, and back in 1984 I
just up and quit. I founded my own monthly news magazine [City Magzine],
which was successful, but eventually not successful enough to survive a
recession. And for the last decade, I�ve essentially lived my life as a
freelancer, writing for magazines, writing books. I just finished a 250-word
piece for GQ on a bar in El Paso that�ll get me $500. I made a decision to
do what I wanted to do. The tradeoff is total insecurity, but I believe in
the things I�m doing. In fact, a lot of times I�ll just go out and do the
f�king story and then sell it once it�s done. I�m finishing up a story I�ve
spent the last 18 months on that I haven�t submitted, a story about
essentially a real-life Rambo, a professional narc. He�s killed three
people, shot a bunch more and my story is about what this does to his head.
When you�re in that world, he can�t find many people who can relate to that.
So we started out as adversaries, because on a fundamental level he wants to
keep information secret and I want to get it out. But I got down to that
level of experience. He�s not a psychopath�what he is is a natural-born
killer. He�s had two or three partners blown away already.
It seems like a dangerous story to be working on.
Well, it�s not as if I�m some tough guy. I like to garden and cook.
But I�ve been working with and writing about this world for so long, it�s
hard to leave�it�s a variation of Sy Hersh, with his sources in
intelligences. People just keep showing up with suitcases full of stuff, of
information. I didn�t set out to be the historian of the drug world; it was
inadvertent. And I�ve always been attracted to the stories that go to the
edge because the only way you can ever understand the middle is by going to
the edge. It�s the way societies reveal themselves more when they�re under
heavy stress, when they go to war. You could learn more about New York on
September 12 [2001] than you could earlier that month, right?
Were there times working on �Down by the River� when you felt
threatened? Or when you were threatened?
There were times when technically I was in danger. But when you�re on
a story, everything becomes calculation. Objective danger simply becomes an
obstacle. I learned years ago I could do things on a story I simply wouldn�t
do on my own. At one point, the DEA told me there was a contract on me, but
I don�t know if that was true. I mean, if it was a serious contract,
logically I�d be dead. I just thought to hell with it�I�m gonna finish it.
Did this book change your views about the war on drugs?
The book takes no position. Partially that�s out of good manners�I�m
not going to use Bruno Jordan�s body as a pulpit. But interdiction is a
failure. What we�ve accomplished during the last 30 years is to make every
drug more available and cheaper. Now, Phil Jordan still believes in what we
call the war on drugs. And he�s a friend of mine; I just think the game
isn�t worth the candle. And I also think we�re helping to destroy Mexico by
creating a huge new power base that�s an enemy of civil society. It�s hard
to find a good argument against legalization. Besides, we�re a drug nation
anyway. There are drug trades advertised on TV every night. And, let�s be
real, if there�s a dangerous drug in our society, it�s alcohol. We don�t
have shelters full of battered women because of illegal drugs. There�s no
woman with a black eye because her old man had a joint on Saturday night.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click here to send feedback to Seth Mnookin
� 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
"
"Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful."--Fredrich Wilhelm
Nietsche
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."--J. Robert Oppenheimer (1945)
"For the west, man has authorized only tobacco and alcohol. All of the
other chemical doors are labelled dope, and their unauthorized users,
fiends."--The Doors of Perception by Aldus Huxley
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