Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Virile Members RET and Mr. Ledeen were quite right in the November issue ["The Continuing Crisis" and "Presswatchl to direct your readers' attention to the Agence France-Presse...
...While the enraged mob was beating the "shrinker" to death, other members of the gang would busy themselves lifting what wallets they could...
...North a liar and scorning Richard Secord and Albert Hakim as profiteers...
...Events have demonstrated that he told the truth on both counts, as events have demonstrated that he was correct in claiming there were powerful people in Iran who wanted to end the war, abandon the use of terror, and re-establish good relations with the West, particularly with the United States...
...But I confess that even if Mr...
...I am neither blind nor bisexual...
...Was his lack of influence over Bowen due to his own unwillingness to exert the power of the White House...
...The Supreme Court relieved him of that burden in 1964 when it ruled in New York Times v. Sullivan that a public figure could not win a libel suit even though he proved the libelous statements false, provided the story was published "without malice...
...Ledeen were quite right in the November issue ["The Continuing Crisis" and "Presswatchl to direct your readers' attention to the Agence France-Presse story about the penisshrinker of Abidjan...
...Kingon can rest assured that if the catastrophic health care issue comes back to haunt anyone, it will likely be Congress...
...None of this is stopping liberal Democrats from gearing up to push through long-term health care, which will likely come from general revenues and wreak havoc on any effort to bring down the deficit...
...Not since 1935 (Baldwin's government win) has a party gained the above 50 percent mark which he achieved...
...But I never would refuse an interview with The American Spectator...
...Ledeen has also been steadfast in his defense of Mr...
...I suspect it is a safe guess that the credulous AFP reporter in Abidjan has not been long in an African post—or possibly has served in one too long...
...He could not afford to admit he was boxed into choosing the Bowen plan after he had chosen it...
...This shift in the burden of proving a good faith belief in the truth of the story would inevitably require the media to demonstrate that they had a reasonable belief, on which they relied, that their "sources" were accurate...
...Ledeen, basking in the success of his book, hails and alibis Mr...
...In Mr...
...Indeed the CIA, based on its polygraphic toys, felt that Ghorbanifar lied when he said that Iran controlled the American hostages in Lebanon, and that he could help get them out...
...Until 1964, rumor played a minor role in the respectable major media in this country, because the basic defense to a libel action was truth...
...Otis Bowen was the wrong choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services...
...I took great pains to stress that I do not consider Oliver North a liar, and I certainly did not "scorn" Secord and Hakim as profiteers...
...Don Regan's desperate attempt to find a free market alternative at the eleventh hour suggests he, too, knew the President expected to have this as an option...
...And thanks for calling me "sometimes brilliant...
...People he writes about end up appearing equivalent: President Reagan and Ayatollah Khomeini...
...Manucher Ghorbanifar and Fawn Hall...
...Thus all a plaintiff would need to do is prove that a story is false...
...They did the hard work and took the risks, while Mr...
...The court has defined an "absence of malice" as a reporter's good faith belief that his story was true...
...And I doubt that any regular reader of my column would accuse me of "brown-nosing" the Times (but I thank Russ Braley for reviving an expression I hadn't heard since my undergraduate days in California...
...As I understand it, under Sullivan a plaintiff has to show that the journalist knew he was publishing something false, and did so in order to damage the plaintiff...
...With regard to Mr...
...Ghorbanifar in 1980 joined and then betrayed a plot against the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini organized around the royal family and ex-Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar...
...If the story was false, damaging, and preposterous—in other words, if there wasn't good evidence for it—then the journalist should be punished...
...Ghorbanifar took revenge, he is hardly the underprivileged victim whose human nature needs understanding...
...Regardless of who was at fault, in the end the White House did seem reluctant to cross Bowen, was outmaneuvered by him, and was too eager to please the liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill...
...Segev's book (and in our conversation, Braley agreed with me that much of it lacks verisimilitude), Mr...
...What did it was another subject in the same column...
...This vocal segment of the elderly population has already begun a campaign to have the bill altered...
...The Republic is desperate for media critics, our most prosperous ones being Bill Moyers and Hodding Carter III...
...Ghorbanifar, dropped from negotiations in favor of Oliver North's team in August 1986, wrote to the Ayatollah Ali Montazeri revealing the trip to Tehran by Robert C. McFarlane's group...
...So much for Mr...
...But he neither adequately diagnosed the cause of the rot, nor mentioned the simplest way to stop it...
...Russ Braley Rockville, Maryland Michael Ledeen is surely right in blaming the media's publication of unsubstantiated allegations as a chief cause of what's wrong with the media today, as well as the engine driving the "New McCarthyism" [TAS, October 1988...
...Ghorbanifar without reservation while calling Col...
...Hashemi executed in September 1987, after a year of Iranian handball in Evin Prison...
...England says that I declined to be interviewed for this story...
...With them standing guard, we have enough protectors of big media...
...Al Kingon's unwillingness to divulge conversations held in confidence with President Reagan is admirable...
...Audrey Parry Surbitton, Surrey, UK Please send me a sample copy...
...I recently completed The Phoenix Seminar on The Psychology of Achievement, and your publication was on the recommended reading list...
...Even though meetings between Al Kingon, Don Regan, and the President are not part of the story, as I reported it, the essential point of the story is not compromised...
...I thought the deal was that brown-nosing the Times would be left to others more skilled at it, such as the execrable Columbia School of Journalism, the servile Village Voice, the Pulitzer committee, the American Newspaper Publishers Association, and other practiced sycophants...
...After reviewing the terms of my relationship with the Spectator, I find that I am permitted a few words of praise each month...
...Was the information he gave us an accurate portrayal of what the Iranian leaders were saying to him...
...Kingon nor Don Regan would be willing to say the President was unhappy, as appears likely, since it would reflect poorly on both of them...
...When I called AI Kingon in Brussels, his secretary did not inform me that he was out of his office, let alone out of the country...
...Meanwhile, the Bush Administration is expected to face an early harsh reaction to the surtaxes in the catastrophic bill, which go into effect in January...
...Ledeen proposes : "Send another medal to Max 48 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1989 Frankel for Honesty in Media" because the New York Times (after all these years) published a correction to a false news story...
...Braley might benefit from re-reading mine...
...Two, even if I were able to interview the President himself about this issue, he would likely have to defend his choice...
...The role of Al Kingon in the White House's blundering remains somewhat unclear...
...Ultimately, however, the finger of blame must also point at President Reagan, who was too cavalier in his delegation of responsibility to people like Don Regan, who were not particularly suited for the job...
...Thatcher, claiming that she had less than 35 percent of the vote in the last election...
...While the above is a matter of interest, it was not enough to inspire this complaint...
...does he really think it made sense to take the one person who knew everything, make him angry, expose him to loss of money and risk of life, and then walk away from him at the crucial moment of the Iran initiative...
...I believe it is part of my responsibilities to protect and enhance the interests of the U.S...
...He did call my office some months ago when I was traveling...
...The epidemic of penis-shrinking finally ended when the police (who are as superstitious as anyone else in Africa) realized that the shrinking was a ruse used by a gang of pickpockets, one of whom would identify some innocent in the street as a "shrinker...
...Segev, who says he had access to Israeli classified reports, also writes that Mr...
...Don Regan is to blame for that decision...
...More importantly, one sentence in the article leaped out: "It is almost impossible to know how President Reagan felt about the lack of a private market initiative...
...Ghorbanifar in the face of congressional inquisitors, and such personal loyalty is touching...
...I'll try harder...
...I carefully left open the complicated question of Ghorbanifar's ultimate objectives, stressing that the American government was called upon to make a policy decision, not an evaluation of character...
...That's the standard in the rest of the civilized world, and should be the standard here, as well...
...Now, I realize that Mr...
...So what's new...
...No one ever returned the call, even though I was working on the story for another three weeks...
...Michael Ledeen replies: First, with regard to Mr...
...I regard this as a confirmation of my view (and that of several others involved in the early stages of the Iran initiative) that Ghorbanifar was a useful intermediary, and that we were right to work with him...
...I don't think it matters who is asked to demonstrate absence of malice...
...He was not willing to talk when I was preparing the story and, judging from his letter, he does not seem to be willing to talk now...
...The Ghanaian newspapers, especially in the early stages of the six-week outbreak, were lurid in their coverage of the shrinking of "virile members," as they delicately put it, and there was widespread nervousness about going out in public while the menace persisted...
...Ghorbanifar his SAVAK past, Mr...
...In any event, whatever the accuracy of Mr...
...The Mossad first, and the CIA later, believed that he was unreliable...
...Ledeen's book, Perilous Statecraft (Scribner's), he vaguely suggests such a danger, but for the most part Mr...
...It is, in fact, whether or not Al Kingon is willing to add his side of the story...
...Perhaps more to the point, very important meetings in which I did participate and interviews I did have that were critical in the long process were omitted...
...We really need to know whether it is true or not...
...Ledeen's book, but this flattery breaks a tacit compact with TAS readers...
...Alfred H. Kingon Ambassador to the European Communities Brussels, Belgium Robert S. England replies: The central question Al Kingon's letter raises is not whether my account of the bumbling way the White House handled the catastrophic health care issue is accurate or not...
...Ledeen after Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin objected to dealing through an occasional messenger...
...The Ayatollah thereupon executed another thirty or so officers and pardoned Mr...
...Ghorbanifar's revenge without ambiguity...
...Charles Manson and Mother Teresa...
...I cannot vouch that she did this since a return call never came and my then-secretary is now on the other side of the world in India...
...Burt's thoughtful letter, I agree with his diagnosis, and I hope he's right in suggesting that such a "modest change" would suffice to reintroduce some semblance of accountability in publication...
...One is that neither Mr...
...The problems Sullivan caused can be eliminated with a modest change in the procedural rules governing libel today...
...It is astonishing that Braley contests my claim that the CIA made a mistake by "burning" Ghorbanifar...
...And that's the end of it...
...The Supreme Court should change the Sullivan rule to provide that the burden of proving "absence of malice" is on the publisher...
...Ledeen, persona non grata to George Shultz, lucked out and was dropped from the project in November 1985...
...Ghorbanifar was treacherous, and Mossad would not deal with him...
...If he is unhappy about the way others are telling the story, he has only himself to blame...
...That responsibility falls on Don Regan's shoulders...
...England had reached me, I would not have disclosed what the President said...
...The 1974 Accra epidemic of penis-shrinking ended quickly when thegovernment made it a capital offense—if my memory serves—to accuse anyone of "member-shrinking" in public places...
...As for his lament that I commended the New York Times for correcting a false news story, his point seems to be that I am obliged only to attack, never to praise his pet peeve (he is the author of a book that is highly critical of the Times...
...Whence cometh his current rage...
...He was, the CIA said, trying to become the ultimate insider and make zillions by using the CIA...
...McFarlane advised dropping Mr...
...Ghorbanifar is all heart...
...Despite Mr...
...In the last twenty-four years the courts and many legislatures have expanded the Sullivan rule so that it now effectively insulates the press from all responsibility, and enshrines rumor in its stead...
...The problem is with the requirement that "malice" or its absence be demonstrated...
...In your September issue, a letter from Neil Charles, a verjuiced expatriate, embarks on a diatribe against Mrs...
...The deaths came about as follows: someone in a crowded marketplace would scream that his penis had just been shrunk, would point out the man responsible, and the "penis-shrinker" would be set upon by the mob and beaten to death (a fate that is fairly common for thieves in Ghanaian markets...
...All he has to do is say, "I believed it...
...While Al Kingon disputes in a broad sweep accounts of meetings with him by various sources in my story, he does not appear to be willing to dispute anything specifically...
...Ghorbanifar's revenge...
...Braley, Spectator readers will be interested to learn that this outspoken soul was the reviewer of my book, Perilous Statecraft, for the Washington Times, but did not put a word of this criticism in the review...
...Was he under orders from his boss, Don Regan, not to interfere in Bowen's turf...
...Foreign News It is not your policy to publish letters upon letters, but when a letter contains gross misinformation you may wish to make an exception...
...Therefore, a reporter, or his counterpart, the TV...
...Less than a year after the CIA foolishly threw Ghorbanifar into the cold, he was the key intermediary in the normalization of relations between France and Iran...
...Ledeen certainly took revenge for being cut out by John M. Poindexter...
...Lastly, I do resent the suggestion that I cannot distinguish between Manucher Ghorbanifar and Fawn Hall...
...If Mr...
...Ghorbanifar might take revenge if he were cut out of the deals he initiated...
...No party since the war has gained more than 47 percent of the vote (the exact vote of the so-called Labour landslide of 1945...
...Segev reports that Mr...
...Whoever was right, it bothers that Mr...
...Name withheld Quebec, Canada THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1989 49...
...His letter suggests that he never felt he had the authority to temper Bowen's power grab...
...I told my secretary toinform Mr...
...Which meetings mentioned in the story never took place...
...I came across Robert S. England's article, "The Catastrophic Health Care Blunder" (November 1988) and found that I was a key part of the story...
...Ledeen Watch Michael A. Ledeen, in his November "Presswatch" column, wrote of Manucher Ghorbanifar: "Anyone who thought about human nature should have realized that taking the one person in the Iranian initiative who knew everything . . . and throwing him to the wolves would cause Ghorbanifar to take his revenge...
...That is not so...
...It does this by vesting a private right to police the media in private hands...
...However, I am afraid that you—and the French press agency—have missed the point of the outbreak of penis-shrinking...
...I would only make two points: one minor and one major...
...What is "malice...
...If the media had to shoulder this burden, I am sure you would find that they would begin to examine their "sources" far more carefully than they presently do...
...She assured me she would give him my message...
...In fact, the Tories' share was 43 percent...
...That standard is virtually impossible to meet, because any journalist can always say, "I believed it...
...In the piece, I read about meetings I never attended, people I never met with, things I never said, and powers imputed to me that I never had...
...And I'm sure that both Manucher and Fawn resent it, too...
...Kingon call me back, after carefully explaining the story I was working on...
...Much that was attributed to the President, to former chief of staff Donald Regan, and to me was not accurate, but that is endemic in Washington...
...However, I doubt it...
...In short, the Sullivan rule has made rumor the fortress from which media irresponsibility rules...
...I suspect, however, the President was not pleased...
...producer, had to determine whether what his "sources" told him was true...
...No, it is not...
...No one is happy with the fruits of Sullivan...
...His unwillingness to speak could possibly reflect, however, more a concern for his own reputation than that of the President...
...When I said it was impossible to know how President Reagan felt about the absence of a free market initiative among the choices offered him on catastrophic health care, I was assuming two things...
...That isn't very hard...
...Calm down, Russ...
...Thus, I conclude the public will (continued on page 48) THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1989 9 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 9) never know, for sure, how the President felt...
...Majlis Speaker Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the target of the Montazeri forces, had Mr...
...Prior to Sullivan the existence of this private right served as a deterrent to media recklessness, because the possibility of being sued forced most reporters and their publishers to take care that what they said was true...
...If he exacted revenge by promoting Iran's destruction, the CIA was proved right...
...Did he have the authority to monitor Bowen but was simply outmaneuvered by him and liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill...
...Braley's Ghorbanifar problem...
...If that's good policy, then suicide is good for your health...
...CIA executives and agents, including John McMahon, Clair George, and George Cave (who poly-graphed him), all thought that Mr...
...He charges in The Iranian Triangle (The Free Press) that Mr...
...Obviously libel victims don't like it, because they are ruined without recourse...
...Libel law's basic purpose is to introduce accountability and responsibility into the press without requiring government intervention or regulation...
...That caused the hapless Mehdi Hashemi to blow the whole business...
...Max Frankel and H. L. Mencken...
...The issue of Ghorbanifar was not his moral qualities, but rather his utility in the contextof the Iran initiative...
...Ledeen now appears to adopt the warning of the CIA's Charles Allen, recalled in testimony to Congress, that Mr...
...Ghorbanifar for two years preached that a ruined Iran would fall to the Soviets...
...The media have come to understand that so long as they have a "source," no matter what the credibility of that "source," they can publish what the "source" says with impunity...
...What has to go is the standard of "malice" itself...
...In the mid-1970s, when I was living in Accra, the capital of Ghana, which is just to the east of the Ivory Coast, there was likewise an outbreak of penis-shrinking...
...Dan Burt Washington, D.C...
...The elderly have been increasingly hostile to the steep tax that more than 40 percent of them will pay...
...I identified myself and The American Spectator, and asked her tohave Mr...
...I promised myself a long time ago not to write a "kiss and tell" book or contribute to one...
...Judges who have presided over major libel cases do not like it because of the cost and delay it has added to libel actions, and because it prevents the libel victim from recovering his reputation...
...Ledeen told me he could not confirm that story...
...Those people have in fact carried out those policies, normalizing relations with Britain, France, Canada, and even Kuwait...
...I spoke to the President about this issue, its component parts, and all its ramifications—more than once...
...What does Burt's change achieve...
...business community to make many and frequent trips to the member states of the European Community and to the United States...
...At that point, the publisher would have the burden of showing a jury that he published with a good faith belief that what he said was so...
...The questions that needed answers were: Was he a legitimate channel to the top men in Iran...
...I do not "sit" in Brussels all the time...
...No, it isn't that easy...
...The defendant's state of mind should not be at issue (it can't be ascertained with any sufficient degree of accuracy...
...government and the U.S...
...It resulted in the deaths of at least a dozen men in Accra...
...England's prodigious effort, alas, the definitive story of the Reagan Administration's catastrophic health program has yet to be written...
...Which sources is he accusing of lying...
...Segev claims...
...The matter was handled badly by the White House from Day One...
...If I read him right, he wants the defendant to "show" that he thought it was true when he wrote (or published) it...
...Ledeen is sometimes brilliant, but he has a talent for blurring values...
...Worst of all, the Sullivan rule under-cut what I believe is the basic social policy justification for the law of libel...
...England when I would be back in the office and to please call me then...
...Frankel's newspaper had not yet reviewed Mr...
...Members of the media complain about it because it opened their editorial processes to devastating discovery by defamed persons able to raise the money to mount a serious attack...
...fortunately, you have at least one reader (me) who has survived an epidemic of this scourge and can set you straight...
...But Mr...
...Samuel Segev, a commentator for the Israeli daily Ma'ariv, explains Mr...
...After Bowen seized the initiative from the President on catastrophic health care, the White House showed itself virtually powerless to shape the final proposal...
...David Burgess Paris, France Kingon on Catastrophic Health Care You can imagine my surprise, returning from a major speaking trip across the United States on "1992," as I reclined in my airplane seat to read my favorite magazine, The American Spectator...
...The issue, as Dan Burt rightly puts it, is not "malice" but reasonableness: Did the journalist have good reason to believe that the story was true...
Vol. 22 • January 1989 • No. 1
