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E&P has learned that ex-ClA agents from the Vietnam War era participated in the internal CNN review that caused CNN to retract its story about nerve gas attacks in Laos
EDITOR & PUBLISHER HAS learned CNN used ex-CIA officials who were on active duty during the Vietnam War to investigate its broadcast charging the U.S. military with using nerve gas to kill American defectors in Laos.
The CNN story, which also appeared in Time magazine, claimed the alleged secret mission in September 1970, called "Operation Tailwind," was a CIA-approved operation.
April Oliver and Jack Smith, the CNN producers who were fired in the wake of the story's retraction, contend that using the CIA to investigate itself undermined CNN's internal probe.
ESP's revelations about the ex-CIA operatives, originally published on the ESP Web site on Monday, were a topic at the Wednesday press conference held by Oliver and Smith on the mezzanine of the Freedom Forum's Newseum in New York. "The fact that the CIA was involved is a big story," said Oliver. Earlier, she noted that "those of ficials would have a vested interest in not confirming what we had found."
Floyd Abrams, the First Amendment attorney who ran the CNN investigation, told ESP he had hoped the former CIA officials would unearth "information that might support the broadcast." Abrams concluded there was not enough information to confirm the nerve gas thesis and advised CNN and Time to "retract the story and apologize," which they did. Abrams angrily denied that his report was tainted by the use of ex-CIA operatives.
'PREPOSTEROUS'
"That is preposterous and utter nonsense," said Abrams, who was involved in the 1971 Pentagon Papers court case. "The very idea that we tapped into the intelligence community was a sign that the report was not flawed. I know that the reporters were deeply committed to their story My view is that they were wrong."
Abrams said he did not mention the role the exCIA members played in his investigation because they did not come up with any information he could use in his 54-page report.
'INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATORS'
The Abrams report noted only that "we have utilized the services of independent investigators retained by us."
The New York Times said Abrams told reporters...