WOODYGATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807540046-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: September 29, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807540046-1
FILE ONLY
Woodygate
For the first time in his cele- brain tumor until he died on May
brated career, Washington Post 6..
super sleuth Bob Woodward finds The Washington Pos of which
himself on the wrong side of a Mr. Woodward is an assistant
credibility issue. managing editor, and Newsweek
Mr. Woodward, who earned his published excerpts of the book's
spurs in'm Watergate mess, as- sensational charges, thereby be-
serts in his latest book that W`l- stowing on them the mantle of
the a e CIA director, respectability.
;of arms to Iran.
to a deathbed confession that he
knew about the diversion of prof-
its to the Contras from the sales
nfided to him in what a oun
-basey personally arranged for
the Saudi Arabian intelligence
service to. assassinate the leader
of a Shiite Moslem faction in Leb-
anon with a car bomb. Mr. Wood-
ward says the plot went haywire
,and 80 innocent bystanders were
killed.
These accusations and others
are based on what Mr. Woodward
describes as four dozen conversa-
tions he had with Mr. Casey -
from the time the CIA chief was
hospitalized in January with a
However, a lot of people aren't
buying the story, chief among
them Mr. Casey's widow, Sophia..
Not one to mince words, she
called Mr. Woodward a liar. Mrs.
Casey said that she and her
daughter maintained a vigil at
Mr. Casey's side throughout his
ordeal. It was impossible, she
said, for Mr. Woodward to slip
into the room once, much less 48
times, as he maintains.
Sophia Casey took particular
umbrage at Mr. Woodward's alle-
gation that her husband consid-
ered President Reagan passive,
lazy, and "strange." She called
that blasphemy, as have many
others who knew Mr. Casey and
the deep affection he had for the
President.
The book also alleges that Mr.
at
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
Date .79 !Tep4 12
The Post says it is standing be-
hind Mr. Woodward. Fine. But
one wonders why Mr. Woodward
did not first offer the story to The
Post when the Iran-Contra hear-
ing were on the front burner and
Mr. Casey was still alive. And if
he did, why wasn't it published?
Perhaps The Post's editors
weren't comfortable with the
idea of publishing the answers to
loaded questions asked of a dying
man who coulOarely speak and
was infrequently lucid.
Those who redid. the Janet
Cooke affair are. nudging them-
selves about the. questions Mr.
Woodward's accusations have
raised. Post reporter Cooke in-
vented a young narcotics addict
in her quest for a Pulitzer Prime,
and she did so while under the
supervision of Mr. Woodward.
When the sham was exposed,
Ms. Cooke lost her job and The
Post lost its Pulitzer. The only
one who didn't lose was Mr.
Woodward. It will be interesting
to see if his luck is still holding.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807540046-1