Whiteout describes the involvement of the CIA and other agencies (ONI, OSS) in drug smuggling and efforts to protect criminals. The book opens with a discussion of Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" series appearing in the San Jose Mercury News. You might remember this story as an accusation that the CIA was involved with the introduction of crack cocaine into American inner cities. The authors clarify that what Webb did was establish a flow of cocaine that went through the Contras and through a supplier for the Crips and Bloods, Rick Ross. Shortly after this book was published, Gary Web published his own book by the same name, Dark Alliance. I'll be reviewing that before summer. Whiteout moves on to discuss a variety of topics over time: The Office of Naval Intelligence's work with organized crime members to avoid possible sabotage (or work stoppages) at the Port of New York, and their continued support after the war. The OSS efforts to protect Nazi war criminals deemed "valuable" to national security. Uncontrolled CIA experienments with LSD and other drugs in a search for methods to extract information. The rest of the book details CIA support of heroin suppliers in Burma, Laos, Afghanistan, and of course Central America.
Whiteout has lots of references but none of the direct traceability of specific statements to specific sources that I encountered in "Cocaine Politics". Original research seems to be limited to the treatment of Gary Webb after publishing his Dark Alliance series. Each chapter ends with something along the lines of "our description of X is based mainly on Y by author Z". I would say Whiteout was acceptable for someone new to CIA involvement in criminal activity. If you've been around the block, I'd recommend checking out the Sources section at the end of each chapter and tracking down the books the authors recommend as good sources instead.