GROVE PRESS SUES CIA; ASKS $10-MILLION DAMAGES]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100570025-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: July 28, 1975
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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GROVE PRESS SUES CIA; "We believe our suit is an important tion in the Revolution'?" by Regis Debray
ASKS $10-MILLION DAMAGES one," Rosset told PW. "We are a free en- and the diaries of Che Guevara. Rosset
Charging the Central Intelligence Agen- terprise unit and it is against the basic said that at the time of the bombing, the
cy with bombing, wiretapping and infil- concepts of our country to harass and at- cover of Evergreen Review, published by
trating its offices, Grove Press filed suit tempt to destroy a company exercising Grove, featured a portrait of Che Gueva-
against the CIA in Federal District Court freedom of speech and trying to make a ra from which posters had been made,
in New York on July 17. The complaint, living while doing it." and that one of the posters hanging in the
filed on behalf of Grove Press, Barney The complaint charges that the alleged offices had been repeatedly stabbed.
Rosset, publisher and president, and Fred actions of the CIA were designed to re- Evergreen Review, which Weiss char-
Jordan, senior vice-president and senior strain the publishing activities of Grove. acterized as carrying "a constant stream
editor, seeks $10-million damages from One of the charges is that on. July 26, of premature exposes of duplicity and il-
the Agency as well as additional damages 1968, unidentified anti-Castro Cubans legalities on the part of government
from its officials. The 21-page complaint employed or controlled by the CIA agencies," ran a series of articles on the
also seeks to compel the Agency to turn bombed the offices of the publishing firm. Chicago Seven trial which, he believes,
over to the court all records relating to Among the books published by Grove was one of the factors leading to the re-
Grove Press and its officers; a hearing on during the 1960s were "Fidel Castro versal of the ruling.
this matter was set for July 28. Peter Speaks" by the Cuban leader, "Revolu- Weiss noted that the Rocke.feller.Com-
Weiss, lawyer for the three plaintiffs, told
PW: "The CIA has released some in-
nocuous records, but has withheld the
substantial part of them." Grove Press
contends that the CIA is withholding
files because they would reveal the Agen-
cy's actions to have been "improper, un-
lawful and criminal."
Mr. Weiss also said, "As far as we
know, Grove Press is the only business to
be identified so far as a CIA target."
commerce with Grove in the knowledge
that economic injury or disadvantage" to
Grove would result.
mission report disclosed that the CIA 1
had opened a file on Grove after its publi- I
cation of "My Silent War" by Kim
Philby, a British intelligence officer who
turned out to be a Soviet agent. Weiss
pointed out that the Philby book was the
first to connect James J. Angleton, head
of the counterintelligence division, with
Operation Chaos.
Weiss also pointed out that Grove pub-
lished titles identified with the black pow-
er movement of the 1960s, a target of the
CIA's attention. These included. Mat-
colm X's autobiography and works by
Frantz Fanon and Imamu Amiri Baraka.
In its suit, Grove Press is also charging,
the CIA with wiretapping; mail watch:
{
and mail interception; "acts of imperson-
ation and disguise to infiltrate, i.e., to ac-
tively participate in commercial and po-
litical aspects of the plaintiffs' domestic
activities' ; and the "forceful entry and
search" of the New York apartment of
Bea Losito, while she was employed as
Jordan's secretary. The suit charges also
that the Agency arranged covert finan-
cial assistance to private commercial
book publishers, including Praeger, Inc.,
and Fodor, Inc., "known to be in com-
petition in one or more lines of interstate
In summing up, Weiss told PW: "If
.people don't fight back against the kind
of illegality government agencies engage
in, the illegalities will continue. We re-
gard this suit as a public service."
MADALYNNE KURTZ
Approved For Release 2004/10/28 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000100570025-6