CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, ABC SUED FOR RACKETEERING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100360007-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: July 29, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100360007-8
ASSOCIATED PRESS
29 July 1985
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, ABC SUED FOR RACKETEERING
LOS ANGELES
A political action group filed a $170 million lawsuit Monday alleging that
the CIA, ABC television network and military officials engaged in racketeering
and defamed a man who claims to be a former agent.
The Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action filed the
suit in federal court on behalf of Scott Barnes, who claims to be a former
operative whom the CIA ordered to kill another operative in Hawaii.
The suit stems from an ABC "World News Tonight" interview with Barnes last
September in which Barnes said the CIA ordered him to kill another operative,
Ronald Rewald. Barnes said he refused to carry out the order.
ABC eventually retracted the story, and the ADA's suit alleges that the CIA
forced the network to do so.
In its retraction, ABC News said that Barnes had refused to undergo a lie
detector test and that ABC did not have information to support his story, the
attorney said.
Ralph Fertig, a private lawyer representing the ADA in the suit, said offered
to take a lie detector test seven times, and that the network had information to
corroborate his client's story.
"The CIA and naval intelligence worked with ABC to perpetrate a lie against
Barnes," said Fertig. "More than the money, we want a retraction, vindication
and clarification. We want equity. We want what's fair."
The lawsuit names as defendants CIA Director William Casey, the American
Broadcasting Co., ABC President of News and Sports Roone Arledge, news anchorman
Peter Jennings and other ABC officials, as well as Secretary of Defense Caspar
Weinberger and Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr.
Also named in the suit was Capitol Cities Communications Inc., which has
filed with the Federal Communications Commission to purchase ABC.
CIA spokeswoman Kathy Pherson declined Monday to comment on the suit
because the papers had not been received by the CIA. However, she said Barnes
never worked for the agency.
"We have said we have never been involved in a plot to kill Ronald Rewald or
any other U.S. citizen," Ms. Pherson said, "There's an executive order that
prohibits the U.S. government from engaging in or even contemplating engaging in
assassinations of American citizens or anyone."
ABC spokeswoman Elise Addle in Washington said Monday she had not seen the
lawsuit and could not comment.
The lawsuit says the government and ABC violated the Racketeering Influenced
by Corrupt Organizations Act, interfered with Barnes' First Amendment rights and
conspired to defame his character.
and movie rights.
It asserts that those named in the suit prevented Barnes from selling a book
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100360007-8