CNN'S VERY SECRET AGENT - CIA SAYS MAN'S STORY IS PHONY

On Monday, CNN ballyhooed an interview with a "former CIA narcotics
officer" -- a guest the network liked so much he was brought back
hours later to appear on Greta Van Susteren's talk show.

Yesterday, the CIA said that Kenneth Bucchi is an impostor. CNN anchor
Joie Chen read a statement to that effect on the air, but the network
did not retract the story or apologize.

CNN isn't the only network to face embarrassment by Bucchi; Fox News
Channel's Bill O'Reilly interviewed him in January.

Bucchi "never worked for the CIA in any capacity, as an employee or a
contractor," Bill Harlow, the agency's director of public relations,
told The Washington Post. He called Bucchi's claims on CNN that he had
been involved with Colombian drug smugglers "utter nonsense" and
"complete fiction."

Reached yesterday in Los Angeles, where he works as a city personnel
officer, Bucchi said he could not prove he worked with the CIA. "I
certainly don't know how I can do that," he said. "I don't really give
a [expletive] if people think I was in the CIA."

In a rambling interview, Bucchi also acknowledged that he was
discharged from the Air Force a decade ago after being labeled as
delusional. "How do you prove you're not delusional?" he asked.

In a statement, CNN said Bucchi was given airtime because of his book,
"Operation Pseudo Miranda: A Veteran of the CIA Drug Wars Tells All."
Despite several television and radio appearances since the book was first
published in 1994, "at no time did the Central Intelligence Agency or any
other governmental entity raise publicly a concern with either Mr. Bucchi's
employment history or the issues he raises in his book. Based on all of
these factors, as well as two pre-interview discussions with him, our Guest
Bookings department made the judgment that the experience he claimed with
counter-narcotic activities would be useful in a discussion of the recent
Peruvian military shootdown of a civilian aircraft. . . .

"We have taken the appropriate opportunity to inform our viewers of
the CIA's perspective as well as Mr. Bucchi's rebuttal," the statement
said.

Fox Executive Producer Bill Shine said his network tried to verify
Bucchi's claims by phoning the CIA and the State Department -- Bucchi
had brought some State documents suggesting that he worked there --
but that neither agency called back. He noted that O'Reilly told
viewers that he could not vouch for Bucchi's story.

"I wish we had done more checking before we put him on," Shine
said.

Penmarin Books, a small California publisher, recently issued 5,000
copies of Bucchi's book. Penmarin also published a 1999 book in which
Bucchi described his life as a "corporate spy."

"We stand behind it," Penmarin President Hal Lockwood said of Bucchi's
CIA book. "Before publishing it, we checked out his story." But, he
said, "the particulars, nobody can substantiate. The CIA does not
leave a paper trail, and plausible deniability is always the rule."

The book was praised by director Oliver Stone as "one of the three
best non-fictions I've ever read," according to a Penmarin release.

On Van Susteren's "The Point" program, Bucchi said, "We basically had
a complicit operation -- a quid pro quo, if you will -- with the drug
lords of Colombia and essentially, what we did is we put the lion's
share of the market in small cash [in] drug lords' hands, and we set
up corridors with ILS systems for those drugs to [be] flown in, and
then we took half of them."

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said a moment later: "Ken, I want to
thank you for being the clearest voice that I have ever heard coming
out of the CIA or any of the related agencies about what is going on
in this drug war. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Van Susteren said last night: "I have a secret agency of the
government telling me one thing and a citizen telling me another. I've
seen and heard falsehoods from both before. Both the positions are
aired on CNN."

Bucchi said yesterday that he had been framed by the Air Force during
his discharge, and that his superiors had allowed him to work with the
CIA in watching drugs surrendered in Colombia be put on helicopters at
what he called a "CIA airstrip" in Texas. He said he was never paid by
the CIA.

Bucchi faxed a 1991 Justice Department letter turning down his Freedom
of Information request for records involving him. The letter said the
records were "compiled for law enforcement purposes" and that their
release "could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement
proceedings."

Howard Kurtz appears on CNN's weekly media program.