CBS PRODUCER REPORTED WARNED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150109-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 109
• Publication Date: January 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150109-3
APP'l.E FPPEARED
ON PAPE- A "lo
WASHINGTON POST
8 January 1985
CBS Producer Reported
By Eleanor Randolph
Waahia`tm Past staff writer
NEW YORK,, Jana 7-The film
editor for the CBS documentary at
issue in retired general William C.
Westmoreland's $120 million libel'
suit said today that he had warned'
CBS producer. George Crile before'
the broadcast.that Crile was jeop=
ardizing the project and "destroy ng
final
Ira Klein, -Westmoreland's
witness as the trial entered its 13thYweek, also'said that Crile'and oth-4
era at the network refused to heed
his' warnings about .flaws , he .be-'
lieved were developing in the show,
which was aired Jan.23, 1982, Klein testified- that. one "CBS of-
ficial said "don't get involved" when
complained that Crile's thesis
,Klein for the show, entitled "The Un-,
counted Enemy. A Vietnam Decep=
tion," was not supported by the-
transcripts of interviews conducted
for the documentary. Klein also said
be was rebuffed when he told Crile
that the film's credibility would be
strained "by not permitting Gen.
Westmoreland, to have time to
present his point of view.".
..
"Did Mr. Cril e say anything in
response to that?" Westmoreland J
lawyer Dan M. Burt asked.
"Yes," Klein-said. "Mr Crile told.'
me he was,deciding .what; .was, ac=
curate and what was true and.w'hat
b':. wasn't." ~ r ?." ,: a+s'vi-''
-examination, CIn cross BS.attor
ney David Boies tried to : attack
} Klein's credibility, by demonstrating .,j
that the two men had a personality-,
conflict,' citing 'an interview',Kleir%d
' . ?
, gave after the broadcast.'.,'
Klein acknowledged that he had;
:'told author-': Don Kowet that Crdle
' was ' a social: peivert, and said that
by the -end';of -,their. working -rely-
1 tionship on the' -show, "l couldn't?:
him.",
stand to "at
"Did you tell this reporter that `j
Mr. Crile was 'devious and slimy?' " i
Boies asked at one point..
"Yes," Klein said firmly, "and I
believe that to be so:'
Boies.also attempted to prove to
the jury that Klein was merely a
tecbnician, who: Was not familiar
[?. with many of the documents ' that
the, "CBS . Reports" team used in
:preparing the show
The.program alleged that West-'
;inoreland participated in a "conspir
acy'' of -top: military intelligence of-
enemy, troop figures to .maintain
support for theVietnam'war.
., Klein made~'it clear that he be-
Iieved,that,many ;of,Crile's methods
were unethical and not up to CBS'
x journalistic standards.
;T.A' free-lance;,"employe for . CBS
-: from 1978 to'1982, Klein. had his'
strongest moment on the stand
when he `described his role as a
sound technician during a'screening'
of the-show for Van Gordon Sauter,
_~ anew president of CBS News.
At the screening, Klein testified,
-C rile wanted to- cut short a state-
t"nient that Westmoreland made-on {
an NBC "Meet the Press" program;:
in 1967 because the end of the quo-
tation seemed to contradict what
Westmoreland had 'said in his inter-,
view with Mike Wallace.
Klein, who was working' the
sound system for the screening,
testified that Crile had told him that
he would signal the moment to cut
off the statement by standing up in.
the back of the room and signaling
with -a downward motion of his
hand.
"And did he do that?" Westmore-
land lawyer Burt asked..
"Yes, he did," Klein said.
Klein,' 'who is now working as a
A Me-lance film editor for the Corr
fi ration- for Entertainment. and
earning .,an independent television
production firm, said that `.Samuel
/"T.` Adams. ,a former Central Intelli-
'''genre Agency analyst who-is a co,,
'defendant, had told him that West-
joreland's intelligence chief for
part of the period in question was
"healthy as a clam." and not serious_
ly ill, as Adams and Crile had pre-
vious believed. ,After one. session
with rile and Adams, Klein said he
told Crile, "You realize' that Mr.
Adams seems obsessed." Klein tes-
tified that Crile had said he knew.!
that and later told Klein not to allow'
Adams in the film editing room. 11,
Klein also testified that after the
broadcast had aired;~,Adams came,
into his editing` room Viand told' me', .
that 'Y-11M " have to ' come"d
ean,: we,,
have, to-,make' Xt tbite ment, the;.-,
premise of the-show lstinaccu ate." '
"I looked at Sam and said, 'It's-a
little bit late, and Mi Adams said
to me 'that be `was telling George
[Crile] all along that LBJ [President
Lyndon B. Johnson] had t'o know."
Speaking with ' reporters' outside:'. the courtroom, Adams denied that
he had said "exactly`that"'t6.Klein; :
but he said Klein's `testimony was 1
"probably an extrapolation of my, I
view that probably somebody high= i
er up" than stino'eTarend i iiew
'about the suppressed ;-intelligence ?
figures. "But we didn't have the
goods on anybody else."
CBS will begin, presenting its-
case on Tuesday. .:,
Special correspondent John Kennedy
contributed to this report _,
_.. ea.a tri: .' 1
Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150109-3