From:
Capitol Hill Blue
Effort To Discredit Article Underway
May 16, 2000 7:55 PM
By CONNIE CASS
WASHINGTON (AP) - A White House lawyer asked human rights activists to
help ``discredit'' an impending article raising questions about drug
policy director Barry McCaffrey's conduct as an Army general in the
Persian Gulf War.
The request, sent by fax from the White House two days before The New
Yorker published Seymour Hersh's article, arose from a campaign to blunt
the impact of a story that McCaffrey labeled ``nonsense.''
The Office of National Drug Control Policy also sent some 30
organizations and several reporters a package of information about
McCaffrey's commitment to human rights this week in advance of the
``inaccurate'' magazine story, said spokesman Bob Weiner.
Weiner said the fax was poorly worded but was otherwise appropriate.
But some of the activists, who have no knowledge of McCaffrey's actions
during the war, found the appeal unsettling.
It appeared that Amnesty International was being asked ``to help bury a
story'' about the kind of abuses the organization protests, said Carlos
Salinas, the group's acting legislative director.
``It's one thing to refute charges or refute information. I think it's
quite another to ask for participation in a pre-emptive strike to
discredit,'' Salinas said. ``I let them know this was wrong.''
Salinas said he referred Hersh's article to the group's Iraq specialists
for possible follow-up.
Hersh reported allegations by soldiers and officers that McCaffrey, as
commander of the 24th Infantry Division, led a devastating, unwarranted
attack on fleeing Iraqi soldiers two days after the cease fire at the
end of the Gulf War.
He also wrote that some troops fired on prisoners of war, including a
group of wounded soldiers and medical staff unloaded from a hospital bus
- actions that may have been unintended but weren't included in the
official record of the war.
An Army criminal investigation into the allegations in 1991 found no
wrongdoing. Army officials said Monday there was no reason to reopen the
case.
The fax to six human rights activists or experts was sent by David
Shull, deputy general counsel and human rights officer at anti-drug
office. The cover sheet, on Executive Office of the President
letterhead, included the line: ``Would ask for your help to discredit
the Hersh article from your perspective.''
It was sent with copies of an Associated Press account of documents from
the closed criminal investigation that were released by the Army last
week under the Freedom of Information Act.
Shull said McCaffrey was aware of the package sent to activists and
reporters but didn't see the fax. ``It was unfortunate wording and a
mistake. It should have said 'to discredit the allegations' instead of
'the article,''' Shull said.
But Shull said he felt the activists, who have met often with McCaffrey
to discuss human rights abuses in Latin America, should know the article
might ``put Director McCaffrey's commitment to human rights in
question.''
George Vickers, executive director of the Washington Office on Latin
America, a think tank, said the fax he received was a questionable use
of drug office staff time.
Vickers said he has long been impressed by McCaffrey's commitment to
training U.S. troops about human rights and encouraging respect of human
rights in Latin American militaries. ``But there's no way I can comment
on what happened in the Gulf War,'' he said.
Hersh said the focus should be on the events in the Gulf, and he
dismissed White House attacks against him.
``This is ugly,'' Hersh said. ``But it's much less ugly than what
happened out there.''
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