EX-AGENT FILES $120-MILLION LIBEL SUIT AGAINST PUBLISHER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000201240005-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: November 13, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16 :CIA-RDP90-008458000201240005-4
PUBLISHERS 41EEKLY
13 November 1981
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n what some fear is the start of an
orchestrated retaliation against;
published criticism of ex-intelli-
Bence officers, a former CIA official,
has filed a 5120-million libel and inva-'
Sion of privacy suit against a publisher
and coauthors of a controversial book.
"The suit, filed October 23 by David
Atlee Phillips, involves the book.
"Death in Washington," published last,
year. The suit names publisher Law-'
rence Hill and his wilt, Gertrude, pres-'
ident and vice-president of Lawrence
fIill do Co. Publishers, Inc., of West-`
port. Conn.; coauthors Donald Freedl
and Fred S. Landis; and William F.
Pepper, who wrote the foreword.
Hill told PIV, "I think it's an attempt
to challenge a publisher since we pub-
lish books that criticize the intelligence ;
establishment."
bfelvin Wulf, attorney for the Hills
and the others in tw?o suits filed by
Phillips over the book, said that Phillips
had even made a declaration of his
intent in the suits. Wulf referred to a
fund-raising letter that Phillips. as a
leader of the Association of Former,
Intelligence Officers, sent to members:
recently soliciting funds for Challenge,
a legal-action fund for ex-intelligence
officers. The letter said, in part:
"Ex-intelligence officers have been'
battered around in recent years and
we've taken a beating. 1've decided it's ~
time to challenge this malicious treat-
ment in the public forum. I believe a ~~
test case should be mounted against
writers who defame ex-intelligence of- ;
firers, dead and alive, by using their
names in egregious novels. I also be- ,
lieve the loyal, ex-intelligence men and
women working together should con- ;
centrate aclass-action suit against the ';
people who reveal the identities of in- i
telligence operatives abroad. Will you
help me launch Challenge? This will be
an intelligence officers' legal action,
not defense fund.... Meanwhile, a
gift from you will help send a signal that ~
ex-intelligence officers are now deter- !
mined to challenge those who seem to
believe that eve don't have our owns
rights as citizens," the fund-raising let-
ter said.
"Death in }Vashington" charges that
Phillips orchestrated a coverup of the
fact that Orlando Letelier, who was
killed in a bomb explosion in his car on
a Washington, D.C., street in f976, was
assassinated by agents of the niling
junta in Chile that the CIA had helped
to install, and that Phillips worked to,
obstruct the FBI and police investi~a-
tions ofthe assassination. The previous
year, Phillips had retired from the CIA,
as head of its entire Western Hemi-
sphere section.
The first suit, seeking $90-million,
was filed against the authors and their
researchers June 19 after a Washington
news conference in which they called
for a Justice Department investigation
of their charges. The publisher vas not
named in that suit, but was named in
the SI20-million suit filed later. Phillips
also is suing Washingtonian magazine
for 570-million because of an article it
published suggesting that Phillips, pos-
ing as Maurice Bishop, vas part of a
conspiracy with Lee Harvey Oswald to
assassinate President Kennedy.
Neither Phillips nor his attorney,
_ ,
James J. Bierbower. described in a
Nation magazine article as a law asso- '
ciate of a former CIA general counsel,
would comment on the suits or discuss
future plans. But Phillips's fund-raising
appeal letter mentioned a novel by
Freed, "Spymaster," published last
year, and "Conspiracy," by Anthony
Summers, as "egregious" books.
Phillips's suit against Hill and the
others cited several allegations in the
book and said they were "defamatory
and libelow" and that the defendants
knew it. The suit asked 560-million for
that alleged violation and 560-million f
for invasion of Phillips's privacy,
claiming in both instances that the book
caused him to be "held in contempt, .
calumny, distrust and ridicule among
the public." and to suffer damage to his
writing and lecturing career.
Although Hill said he thought the
invasion of privacy claim might be an
attempt by Phillips to establish a claim ~
as a private citizen and not as a public
figure who is less easily libeled, Wulf I
dismissed it as additional dross.
the usual (indemnity] clause, in addi-
lion to which there was another letter
from their law}?er saying they ~ti'ere f
responsible for everything said in the !
book." Hill added: "We did a lot of
checking and a lot of interrogating of
the authors on it. But there were as- '
pects of the book that we did not follow
through, to check on every angle. [One
author) made certain charges and he
said he could back them up. He said, `If '
pushed to the wall I will produce evi-
dence.' "
The publisher said he could not
vouch for every word in the book. "I
don't think a publisher can be expected j
to do that. But I certainly vouch for the
general purpose of the book and the
general direction this book takes in `
exposing the connection bettveen the
intelligence establishment and the junta ~ '
in Chile."
Hill said he didn't intend to alter his
approach to publishing because of the '
suit. On the contrary, he said, "I'd like
to bring as much pressure on this as I
can. I really am very much in the mood
of fighting back and using this thing to
expose these guys."
The threat of exposure could prove a
problem for Phillips and other ex-Intel- !
ligence officers who bring such suits,
according to Wulf. The first line of
defense in a libel suit, he said, is the
truth. If the information is untrue, he
said, the plaintiff still has the burden of
showing that the defendant knew the
information was untrue or acted in
reckless disregard of whether it was I
true. "Part of the principle of the First ~
Amendment allows for error in discus-
sion of public events. and public offi- ;
cials," Wulf said.
As part of a suit, the defense may
demand that the plaintiff answer a list
of questions designed to establish as ,
many facts as possible about the case.
In the suit filed June 19, Wulf already ',
has submitted "quite extensive written ;
interrogatories to Phillips's lawyer, in '
which eve have asked a lot of informs- ~
lion that all litigants are required to
provide."
i.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16 :CIA-RDP90-008458000201240005-4