AFTER 6 YEARS, CIA VETERAN WINS RETRACTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890012-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: February 20, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890012-2
FAIRFAX JOURNAL (VA)
20 February 1986
After 6 years, CIA veteran wins retraction
BY JALEH HAGIGH
Six years ago, David Atlee Phillips
of Bethesda learned from a friend
that he had been implicated in the
car-bombing death of Chilean Am-
bassador Orlando Letelier.
In a book "Death in Washington,"
the authors said Phillips and an intel-
ligence organization he founded led
a conspiracy to kill Letelier.
Friday, Phillips won a public re-
traction and an out-of-court settle-
ment from the authors of the book.
"I believe it's a personal vindica-
tion, said ps,a reured -year
veteran of t e roved
"(t) will make it easier for me to
answer questions from my kids, from
scholars" and from audiences on the
lecture circuit, he said.
Phillips was former chief of Latin
American opera ons or e CIA and
todrs the country lecturing on
tote importance of U.S. mteui&ence
oce ns.
The retraction made Friday at The
National Press Club in Washington
marks the end of a five-year battle
between Phillips and Donald Freed
and Fred S. Landis, authors of
"Death in Washington," a book
about the Letelier case.
In the book and at a news confer-
ence in 1980, Freed and Landis
charged that Phillips and the Associ-
ation of Former Intelligence Offi-
cers, a group he founded, headed a
conspiracy leading up to the Letelier
murder and the later cover-up.
Letelier was killed when a bomb
exploded under his car Sept. 21,
1976, in Washington.
The authors also charged that
Phillips aided Lee Harvey Oswald,
accused of assassinating President
Kennedy. That charge has also been
retracted.
Phillips said he never met Letelier
and CaueU F Teed tuna iaunM aTiw-
CDC, conspiracy buffs."
"These accusations seem to come
fr om people who either have some
bias toward the intelligence estab-
lishment, or they want to make mon-
ey," Phillips said.
Ater he retired in 1975, Phillips
wro e a
atc escn utg e o years
overseas vvt M. CIA. me -
spent
ing his two years in Chile. to er
was not mention io book, he
said.
From that, Phillips said, Freed and
Landis linked him with the Letelier
killing, a link he said came from "out
of the blue."
Phillips filed a $120 million libel
suit in April 1981. He said he could
not divulge the amount of the settle-
ment because of an agreement with
Freed and Landis.
The retraction was signed by
Freed, Landis, Lawrence C. Hill, the
book's publisher, and journalist John
Cummings, who participated in the
1980 news conference.
Phillips said he won the retraction
because Freed and Landis lacked the
money to do battle in court. The case
was scheduled for May.
"I believe they decided
that ... they didn't have a case.
That's the reason I think the lawyers
involved said they would make a
complete retraction and a financial
settlement," he said.
Phillips said former intelligence
officials are easy targets for such ac-
cusations because often they cannot
defend themselves in court without
divulging the nation's secrets and
damaging national security.
Phillips said in his case vindication
is sweet because he was able to de-
fend himself without going to court.
"There are some anti-CIA people
who believe a former intelligence
(officer) would be afraid to fro to
court."
1G'ow that the burden of a lawsuit
is gone and his reputation is intact,
Phillips said he will concentrate on
his publishing firm, Stone Trail
Press, that he runs from the base-
ment of his home.
Phillips said he will donate the
money from the settlement to Chal-
lenge Inc., an intelligence officer's
legal action fund based in Maryland.
Phillips said he received funds from
Challenge for his libel suit.
"We think it's great," said Chal-
lenge President Ned Dolan of Garrett
David Atlss Phillips
"A personal vindication"
STAT
Park. "It vindicates Phillips as being
a criminal."
Phillips' Suarter-century with the
CIA sent him to poin Cuba, e
Dominican Republic, Gua ema a,
Mexico i and e on. Fie
as writteNve nooks on
ti
Phillips is originally from Texas.
He was recruited by the CIA in 1950
while in Chile working as an editor of
an English publication.
When Phillips retired in 1975,
pub c sup support or the CIA was wan-
irig. and so rnillips sau e
the Association o ormer_ -
Bence Officers, a Strout? of 3.500
men and women from all inteliaence
services.
he group is an information clear-
inghouse for intelligence queries
made by the media.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890012-2