Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Perot's source has failed credibility checks before Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 13:27:07 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Perot's source has failed credibility checks before \BY Michael Hedges and Carleton R. Bryant \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Scott Barnes, the only named source given by Ross Perot for his charge of Republican dirty tricks, has a history of strange tales and unsupported allegations. Mr. Barnes was interviewed this year by a Senate panel investigating the POW-MIA issue and repeated a story he has told in recent years about the CIA, secret missions into Southeast Asia and orders to "liquidate" Americans held there. "After they heard it they just threw up their hands and said, 'Damn, this guy is a nut,' " one former Senate staff member said in describing the reaction of those who interviewed Mr. Barnes on his testimony. Deborah DeYoung, spokeswoman for the Senate Select Committee on POW-MIA Affairs, said the Senate panel would not release the deposition. She said there was a "particular problem" with Mr. Barnes' deposition: He requested that it be referred to the Justice Department, charging that "vital information" from his FBI files had been altered. Official sources said his testimony was similar to an account he has given several times, in his own book "Bohica" and to a number of reporters and writers. An FBI official interviewed on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" described Mr. Barnes as a "publicity hound who's known for fabricating stories and plots." Mr. Barnes could not be reached for comment yesterday. In previous conversations with The Washington Times, he has claimed to have a close association with Mr. Perot and has implied he is a frequent adviser to the presidential candidate. Mr. Perot has told The Times that he has spoken to Mr. Barnes about POW-MIA matters several times but has never met him. Sunday night, Mr. Perot named Mr. Barnes as a source of allegations that Republican officials planned to disrupt his daughter's wedding, distribute doctored photographs of her and tap some of his business phones. The POW-MIA issue is not the first on which Mr. Barnes has provided testimony to Mr. Perot, sources said. He also has briefed Mr. Perot on allegations of drug and gun smuggling in Central America - charges brought in a discredited lawsuit in the mid-1980s. Mr. Barnes was an important witness for the Christic Institute when it filed a lawsuit in 1986 that was eventually thrown out of federal court in Miami. The Christics, through leader Daniel Sheehan, charged that a "secret team" of U.S. military leaders, CIA employees and others had run a covert U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 1988, saying it was "based upon unsubstantiated rumor and speculation," and ordered the Christics to pay $1.2 million as compensation to those they named in the suit. According to Tom Spencer, a Miami attorney for one of the defendants, Mr. Barnes "was cited as an unnamed source by Sheehan to this whole story about the 'secret team' running drugs in the Golden Triangle [of Southesat Asia] to finance a secret war." ". . . It was all out there in outer space like the rest of the Christic stuff," Mr. Spencer said. "The fact that Ross Perot would put any stake in anything Scott Barnes says sends shivers down my spine." In an interview with The Times earlier this year, Mr. Barnes described himself as a 38-year-old Vietnam veteran and former free-lance operative for the CIA and FBI who had been involved in several CIA-backed missions in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He said U.S. intelligence and drug enforcement agents smuggled drugs and arms in Southeast Asia to finance covert activities during and after the Vietnam War and have sought to cover up their actions. Mr. Barnes also said U.S. intelligence officials in 1981 assigned him and his partner, Jerry Daniels, to photograph American POWs believed to have been held in a camp in Laos. After they had taken about 400 snapshots of the suspected POWs and prepared a rescue attempt, they received word to "liquidate the merchandise," which meant "kill the POWs," he said. Mr. Barnes said he and Mr. Daniels left the area without killing the men, adding that his partner was later found dead in his Bangkok apartment under what he felt were suspicious circumstances. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM