- NEW YORK (AP) -- The officer who commanded Operation Tailwind in Laos
says he rejected CNN's offer of a financial settlement after the network
retracted its story that nerve gas was used against American defectors
during the mission.
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- Eugene McCarley, a retired U.S. Army
lieutenant colonel, has hired a lawyer to research a potential defamation
lawsuit. He called apologies offered by CNN founder Ted Turner and Chairman
Tom Johnson insincere.
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- CNN, which retracted its June 7 report
about the Vietnam-era mission and fired its two producers, has quietly
begun trying to reach settlements with potential lawsuit plaintiffs, Forbes
magazine reports in its Aug. 10 issue.
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- At least two law firms have offered to
sue CNN on behalf of men involved in the mission, Forbes said.
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- McCarley, who lives in Wilmington, N.C.,
would not reveal how much CNN offered him as a settlement. He also wouldn't
say how much he asked for, but said he wanted money for each of the men
on the Operation Tailwind mission and for a fund that helps widows and
orphans of military personnel.
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- McCarley told The Associated Press he
"couldn't look myself in the mirror" if he had taken money for
himself and not for his colleagues.
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- "I just think they'd like for me
to go away and forget about it," he said.
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- CNN's Johnson called McCarley with a
personal apology on the day the story was retracted and Turner sent a "form
letter" of apology, he said.
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- "I officially reject either or both
apologies because I don't think either one of them contained a sincere
thought," he said. "I don't think they were worth two cents.
It was what they had to do."
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- CNN confirmed last week that it had reached
a settlement with retired Adm. Thomas Moorer, former chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, who was used as a source for the story.
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- CNN had no comment on discussions with
anyone else in the Tailwind story, spokesman Howard Polskin said.
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- The New Yorker magazine reported that
Johnson ordered CNN's former military analyst, Perry Smith, to review the
Tailwind piece before it was aired, but that the producers and CNN/USA
President Rick Kaplan argued against it. Kaplan and the others believed
that Smith was too close to the Pentagon and might leak the story, it said.
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- Feeling he was forced to choose between
his journalists and Smith, Johnson agreed with Kaplan. Smith later resigned
because of his lack of involvement.
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- Kaplan indicated regret at making Johnson
uncomfortable with the story. "I should have just held it, and I'm
going to kick myself till the last breath I take that I just didn't hold
the piece for a week," he said.
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