DRUG DIRECTOR CRITICIZES JOURNALIST

WASHINGTON--National drug policy director Barry McCaffrey, a former
Army general, is defending himself against allegations that his troops
committed war crimes in the Persian Gulf -before any accusations have
been made publicly.

McCaffrey is trying to head off a planned article by Seymour Hersh for
The New Yorker magazine that the retired four-star general believes
may contain "alarming and defamatory allegations."

McCaffrey said Tuesday that Hersh, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969
for exposing the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, has been spreading false
stories during interviews with friends and former military colleagues.

Among them: assertions that troops led by McCaffrey killed Iraqi
prisoners of war and committed other crimes covered up by the Army;
that McCaffrey committed several unspecified felonies in the Vietnam
War; and that he acted inappropriately in developing the Clinton
administration's proposal for a $1.6 billion anti-drug aid package for
Colombia.

Hersh said Tuesday he had no comment about work not yet published. A
New Yorker spokeswoman said the magazine stands by his reporting but
wouldn't say what the story was about.

McCaffrey concedes he doesn't know what will end up in the magazine,
but accuses Hersh of malice and "journalistic stalking."

"I've gotten calls from dozens of friends over the last three months
reporting a series of accusations by Mr. Hersh ranging from bike theft
at age 11 to atrocities in the Gulf War," McCaffrey said in a
telephone interview. "They are defamatory and sort of frightening to
my friends and family."

In response, McCaffrey wrote New Yorker editor David Remnick last
month "to give notice that I cannot accept false statements" and
"libelous attacks" on the soldiers of the 24th Infantry Division who
served under McCaffrey in the Gulf War.

In a letter to McCaffrey's Office of National Drug Control Policy,
made available by a McCaffrey spokesman, Hersh denied that he was
acting maliciously.

"I am simply going about my business, as I have for the past 35 years,
asking questions, listening to answers and trying to verify and assess
what I've been told," wrote Hersh.

New Yorker spokeswoman Perri Dorset said the magazine has begun its
normal fact-checking of the piece. "Sy's a terrific reporter who has a
proven track record and The New Yorker stands by that," she said.

So far, McCaffrey and Hersh haven't spoken.

McCaffrey said he won't give Hersh an interview but is willing to take
written questions. In the meantime, he has complained to editors at
The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as other
journalists, about Hersh's tactics. The Post published an account of
the dispute Tuesday.

McCaffrey said he began discussing the situation with a few
journalists after two reporters told him they had heard Hersh was
pursuing the allegations.

Marc Raimondi, spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation
Command, said Hersh had requested and received records of
investigations of alleged wrongdoing at the end of the Gulf War.
"There was no criminal wrongdoing found," he said.

Marine Corps Gen. C.E. Wilhelm, commander of the U.S. Southern
Command, and other current and former military officers have backed
McCaffrey in letters to the magazine or written accounts of remarks by
Hersh they considered biased.

Dorset said The New Yorker has received pre-emptive strikes against
publication before.

"It's not the first time it's happened," she said. "Anytime you're
working with sensitive material, you have people trying to protect
themselves."