REPORTER SUES REPORTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403630002-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403630002-7
ON PAGE~_._.
1 November 1986
Reporter sues reporter
Former N.Y. Times correspondent alleges he was libeled In book by
Wall Street Journal reporter who linked him to the CIA during Iranian coup
By Andrew Radolf
A former NeK~ York Times foreign
correspondent is suing Wall Street
Journal reporter Jonathan Kwitny for
libel over criticisms made in Kwitny's
book Endless Enemies, the Making of
an Unfriendly World about the way
the correspondent covered the 1953
coup in Iran.
That coup on August 19, 1953,
overthrew Prime Minister
Mohammed Mossadegh and restored
Shah Reza Pahlevi to his throne.
Former Timesman Kennett Love is
also charging copyright infringement,
claiming that Kwitny published with-
out permission extensive excerpts
from his 1960 term paper on the coup,
"The American Role in the Pahlevi
Restoration," which he wrote for a
Princeton University graduate course
on Iranian history.
The suit is seeking a permanent
injunction barring use of the excerpts
in the book and over $5 million in
compensatory and punitive damages.
Commenting on Love's own
account in his paper of his actions
during the Iranian coup, Kwitny says
the document shows that the former
correspondent overstepped the
bounds of journalistic neutrality and
took an "activist role" in the coup on
the side of those seeking to overthrow
Mossadegh, which included the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency.
Kwitny also says in his book that
Love's 1960 term paper shows that
the Times correspondent in 1953
knew of the CIA's involvement in the
coup but that he never reported on it
in his dispatches from Iran.
Love never published the 1960 term
paper. He did, however, send a copy
in 1966 to former CIA director Allen
Dulles who included it in his papers
stored at Princeton.
Kenneth Kelly, editor of the news-
letter Counterspy, published excerpts
from Love's paper in 1980. Kelly,
who is also a defendant in the suit,
later helped Kwitny get a copy of the
paper which was cited extensively in
the hard cover version of the book
~ published by Congdon & Weed,
~~ which later went bankrupt.
In the paperback edition, published
by Penguin Books, the excerpts from
Love's paper have been delet?d and
numerous blank spaces left irti their
place.
Kwitny said the paperback edition
was published after a year ~of negotia-
tion with Penguin over the wording of
a note on the litigation that appears
just before the first chapter. The note
explains that the deletions are the
result of the libel and copyright
infringement suit and states that the
autfior and bankruptcy estate of the
hardcover publisher have denied the
allegations and are defending the law-
suit.
Kwitny said he would only agree to
language that made it clear he was not
retracting any of the originally pub-
lished material.
Love said his paper on the coup
"was never intended for publication"
and that he never gave Kwitny per-
mission to publish it.
Love told how he helped distribute
leaflets which announced that the
Shah had appointed a new premier to
replace Mossadegh.
At another point in the narrative,
Love states: "I myself was responsi-
ble, in an impromptu sort of way, for
speeding the final victory of the roy-
alists."
Love then relates that he went to
the government radio station after it
fell to the royalists to request permis-
sion to transmit a dispatch.
At the radio station, Love said
there were ahalf-dozen tanks
"swarming with cheering
soldiers ... I told the tank comman-
ders that a lot of people were getting
killed trying to storm Dr. Mos-
sadegh'shouse and that they, the tank
commanders, ought to go down there
where they would be of some use
instead of sitting idly at the radio sta-
tion." Love continued that the tank
commanders took his advice and "put
Kwitny also says in his book that Love's 1960 term
paper shows that the Times correspondent in 1953
knew of the CIA's Involvement !n the coup but that he
never reported on it in fits dispatches from Iran.
Kwitny stated that he received per-
mission from Love after talking with
him at length on the telephone. He has
produced both notes from their con-
versation and a record of his phone
bill.
Love's paper also did not have a
copyright mark on it, he said, and
should be considered a public docu-
ment.
"As far as I'm concerned, it was a
valuable public record from Dulles'
papers," Kwitny said. He noted that
Counterspy held a press conference
in 1980 when it published excerpts
from Love's paper and the Nex~ York
Times covered it at the time.
In his paper describing events sur-
rounding the coup, Love mentions
several activities of his which may
have overstepped the boundaries of
journalistic neutrality. At one point,
the three tanks at Mossadegh's house
out of action."
Kwitny comment on this passage
reads: "And there we have it, folks -
the Iranian correspondent for the
New York Times directing the suc-
cessful tank attack on the home of the
Iranian prime minister, overthrowing
the government, fixing one-man rule
in Iran and setting off a chain of
events that would include the loss of
Iranian oil to the U.S. markets and
invasion of Afghanistan."
Elsewhere in his comments,
Kwitny wonders how Love was
aware that certain U.S. embassy offi-
cials at the time of the coup were
actually working for the CIA and
questions whether Love himself was
a CIA agent.
"Love has denied that he was ever
actually employed by the CIA,"
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403630002-7