FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICER WINS COMPLETE RETRACTION AND FINANCIAL SETTLEMENT IN LIBEL SUIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: February 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
STAT
E"ILM6E
AN Or99C Rr LEGAL AC/1~ON fll lb
FROM
I Elm:=
FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
14 February 1986
President
Capt J.E Dolan, USMC Rot
Vice President
William W. Tyng
Secretary
Col Mary D. Thompson. USAR Rat
Treasurer
Charles W. Claxon
Lt Col Norman L Botsford Jr,
USA Rot
Charles W. Claxon
Warren Dean
Capt J.E Dolan. USMC Rot
Samuel Halpern
Richard H. Lansdale
Col John V. Lanterman, USA Rot
Col Mary 0. Thompson, USAR Rot
William W. Tyng
William E Colby
Michael Collins
Alfred Coppel
Lyman B. Kirkpatrick Jr.
Gen. Richard G. Stillwell
USA Rot
W. Raymond Wannall
FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICER WINS COMPLETE REPRACrI
AND FINANCIAL SEITLE?(ENT IN LIBEE. SUIT
CHALLENGE, Inc., an intelligence officers' legal action fund,
today announced in Washington, D.C. that a libel suit for which it
had provided financial assistance was resolved when four of five
defendants sued by David Atlee Phillips for malicious libel
retracted allegations about the former CIA officer and entered
into an out-of-court financial settlement for an undisclosed
amount. The defendants, in a 1980 Washington press conference and
later that year in a book, had alleged that Phillips and the
Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) had been
involved in the 1976 assassination of former Chilean diplomat
Orlando Letelier. The book also repeated the canard that Phillips
used the alias "Maurice Bishop" as CIA's case officer for Lee
Harvey Oswald.
(See Attached) signed by the defendants and submitted this morning to Judge
Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, ending
almost five years of litigation. (Civil Action No. 81-1407 and Civil Action No.
81-2578). Two of the defendants, writers Donald Freed and Fred Simon Landis,
together with journalist John Cummings, participated in the 1980 press
conference in which Phillips, AFIO, and other organizations and former
government employees were accused of engaging in a conspiracy to cover up facts
leading up to and following Orlando Letelier's assassination. The fourth
defendant, Lawrence C. Hill, publisher of Death in Washington, also signed the
statement of retraction and participated in the settlement with plaintiff
Phillips. The whereabouts of the fifth defendant, William F. Pepper, have been
unknown for five years, despite attempts of private investigators to locate him.
Contact: Capt. J.E. Dolan, USMC Ret.
P.O. Box 34320, Bethesda, Maryland 20817 Telephone: (301) WH2-2085
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS
Plaintiff
V.
DONALD FREED et al.
Defendants
Judge Jackson
DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS .
Plaintiff :
v. Civil Action No. 81-2578
LAWRENCE HILL & CO. Judge Jackson
PUBLISHERS, INC. et al.
STATEMENT OF RETRACTION
The undersigned are defendants in the above-captioned
consolidated actions.
On June 25, 1980, a press conference was held in
Washington, D.C., at the Methodist Church at 502 Maryland Avenue,
N.E., 20002. Participants in the press conference were Donald
Freed, Fred Simon Landis, William F. Pepper and John Cummings.
At the press conference, an invited media audience was
told that David Atlee Phillips, a former officer of the Central
Intelligence Agency ("CIA"), headed a conspiracy to cover up
facts concerning the assassination of former Chilean foreign
minister Orlando Letelier, and Phillips and other ex-intelligence
officers were accused of a number of crimes. F*ther, it was
stated that the Association of Former Intelligence Officers
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
("AFIO"), a non-profit organization of ex-intelligence men and
women from all intelligence services, was involved as an
institution in the crimes attributed to Mr. Phillips. These
allegations were made orally and in printed material distributed
at the press conference.
In October 1980, Death in Washington, a non-fiction
book co-authored by defendants Freed and Landis, with an intro-
duction by William F. Pepper, was published. The book repeated
and elaborated on the charges against Phillips and other former
intelligence officers, and AFIO. Mr. Phillips was accused of the
following crimes in the period after he retired from CIA:
obstruction of justice; being an accessory after the fact to
murder; an accessory before the fact to murder; conspiracy to
defame; and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Further, in
addressing the circumstances of the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy, the book contained a photograph of Mr. Phillips,
captioned "The Other Lee Harvey Oswald."
The undersigned defendants, Freed and Landis, now
retract any charges or allegations that they have made against
;r. Phillips, individually or collectively, publicly or pri-
vately. They had no intention of charging or suggesting that
Mir. Phillips played any role in the assassination of Orlando
Letelier, that he was an accessory before or after the fact of
that murder, or that he had any connection with Lee Harvey
Oswald. They regret that any such statement or implication found
its way into the press conference or into Death in Washington.
2 -
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
As to the other charges, because of Mr. Phillips' long
career in the CIA, secrecy requirements imposed by the CIA and
enforced by the courts made it difficult for Messrs. Freed and
Landis to secure necessary evidence for their defense.
The undersigned authors, after requesting that the
above-captioned actions be settled out of court, have agreed to a
financial settlement with the plaintiff.
Lawrence Hill & Co. Publishers, Inc. published Death in
Washington. In the light of the foregoing statements by the
authors, the publisher expresses its regrets that the book as
published contained the statements now retracted by the authors.
n P, -jj:~~4
Donald Freed
Simon Landis
John Cummings
Lawrence C. Hill
Pull i shei
Note from James J. Bierbower, attorney for Mr. Phillips:
The whereabouts of defendant William F. Pepper are
unknown to the above-named defendants and to the plaintiff and
his counsel. Despite the employment of private investigators
over a period of four years, Mr. Pepper has not been located.
I T?
James J.'.Bierbower
Attorney for Plaintiff
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
LIBEL ACTIONS BEING ASSISTED FINANCIALLY BY CHALLENGE
Litigation by former CIA officer.
David Atlee Phillips is a retired CIA official who, in 1975,
founded the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). The
association promotes the need for a strong U.S. intelligence capability
and Phillips has personally been active in writing and speaking to
defend that thesis.
By 1981 a pattern of malicious allegations about Phillips and other
former government employees became evident. In addition allegations
were being made increasingly about AFIO and similar organizations
advocating a strong national security policy.
Perhaps emboldened because Phillips had become a "public figure",
and thus needed to prove malice in any libel action, writers and editors
became more flagrant in their allegations. In 1979 a book published in
England argued that Phillips may have been a person called "Maurice
Bishop", a CIA case officer who allegedly was in contact with Lee Harvey
Oswald before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The book
was published in the U.S. early in 1980. The same "Maurice Bishop"
allegations were repeated in October, 1980, in a book-length article in
"Washingtonian" magazine. In none of these instances was Phillips
contacted before publication for comment on the charges, particularly so
for the "Washingtonian" article though Phillips had written two articles
related to intelligence for the magazine and was working personally with
Washingtonian editor Jack Limpert on a third article, and thus
available, when he was surprised bL publication of the defamatory story.
Also in 1980, a press conference in Washington, D.C. accused
Phillips and AFIO, among other persons and organizations, of involvement
in the assassination of former Chilean foreign minister Orlando
Letelier. Phillips was surprised by the press conference, and was not
given an opportunity to comment about the allegations. Nor was he
contacted before publication of a book later in 1980 reiterating the
press conference charges and repeating the "Maurice Bishop" allegations.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
Originally CHALLENGE was organized to provide financial assistance
to Phillips after he decided to file libel suits. In the case against
"Washingtonian", Maryland lower courts dismissed it because, in the
court's opinion, Phillips was a public figure and would not be able to
prove malice. A libel suit instituted by Phillips in London, where the
"Maurice Bishop" allegations were first published, has passed the pre-
trial stage; a trial date will be announced shortly.
A timely example of the continuing defamation of former government
employees is the current release of a new book on the Kennedy
assassination by author Henry Hurt, published by Henry Holt and Company.
Hurt has repeated the "Maurice Bishop" allegations about Phillips in a
selective manner. And--once again---Phillips was not contacted by the
author for comment prior to publication.
The Statement of Retraction is the out-of-court resolution of two
suits by Phillips in the matter of alleged complicity in the death of
Orlando Letelier, and of his connection with Lee Harvey Oswald.
Litigation Concerning Missing
A book about the death of young American film producer Charles
Horman during the Chilean military coup of 1973 alleged complicity of
the U.S. Embassy in Santiago in Horman's death. Later, Missing, a film
based on the book, repeated the allegations.
The first of two central allegations was that U.S. officials
plotted, organized and took part in the 1973 coup, which culminated in
the death of Salvador Allende. The second allegation is that Charles
Horman learned of this alleged U.S. involvment and was murdered with
U.S. complicity, becasuse of his knowledge.
The Horman family initated a law suit against 11 U.S. officials.
After extensive discovery over more than three years, the suit was
dismissed, at the plaintiffs' request, because they were unable to
present evidence to support their allegations.
Because of the popularity of the film Missing many believe that
the allegations of U.S. official complicity in the death of Charles
Horman are true. U.S. diplomatic and military officers became concerned
that they were suspected of being instigators or accomplices in the
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
murder of an innocent American citizen. They believed disproving the
claim was important to all those serving in foreign countries on behalf
of our country.
Three former officers at the U.S. embassy in Chile during the 1973
coup decided to take legal action: Ambassador Nathaniel Davis, since
retired, Department of State consular official Frederick D. Purdy, and
the head of the U.S. Military mission in Chile Navy Captain Ray Davis
(no relation to the ambassador) also retired. These three men had been
portrayed as the principals in the events that led to the death of
Charles Horman. Their libel suit against those responsible for the film
Missing and the book on which it was based is presently in the discovery
phase.
CHALLENGE found merit in the legal action brought by Ambassador
Davis and his colleagues. Thus, CHALLENGE has given financial
assistance for their litigation to the "Plaintiffs Anti-Defamation
League Fund re Missing".
Litigation Concerning Plaintiff Adolph Saenz
Adolph B. Saenz worked in Latin America for the Agency for
International Development as a police advisor. He retired from
government service in 1980 and became the Secretary for the New Mexico
Department of Criminal Justice. Two days after his employment a violent
riot errupted in the New Mexico State Prison. Saenz participated in the
negotiations that ended the riot.
During the first six weeks of Saenz's tenure free-lance reporter
Roger Morris wrote a series of five articles in the Santa Fe Reporter
alleging that Saenz was involved in suppression of the riot using
tactics taught as a political terrorist in a CIA-inspired program.
Morris also implied that Saenz had taught Latin Americans torture
techniques while he was employed by the U.S. Public Safety Program, and
had been present while these were used.
Writer Morris's allegations were repeated in an article published
in "Playboy" magazine.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8
Saenz has instituted libel suits, now in the final stages of the
discovery process, against Roger Morris and "Playboy". (Adolph Saenz
vs. Playboy Publications, Inc., CV No. 81-C-5723, Santa Fe, New Mexico).
CHALLENGE, finding merit in Saenz's litigation, has provided
financial support to him.
4
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890016-8