EFFORTS TO BEND RESEARCH BARED

WASHINGTON Longsecret documents released Thursday suggest how the
tobacco industry sought to craft scientific research to support its case
that smoking was not unhealthy, while influential company lawyers made
control of litigation an industry obsession.

The documents are among 864 internal memos and other sensitive corporate
papers released after an angry Minnesota judge this week charged the
tobacco firms with a ``conspiracy of silence'' and ordered the records made
public within five days. House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley,
RVa., released most of the documents, some dating back more than 40 years,
on the Internet.

The papers provide a glimpse into the power wielded over the years by
company lawyers the socalled ``Committee of Counsel.'' Perhaps more
important, they seem to reveal how the industry tried to shape scientific
research to support its case that smoking wasn't unhealthy.

``Let's face it,'' Helmut Wakeham, head of research and development at
Philip Morris, wrote to company President Joseph Cullman in 1970, ``we are
interested in evidence which we believe denies the allegations that
cigarette smoking causes disease.''

Industry foes believe the thousands of pages of reports, company memos,
letters and minutes of longago strategy sessions will provide ammunition
for a much tougher tobacco settlement than the $368.5 billion deal proposed
by the industry and 40 states in June. Lawmakers will consider that deal
when Congress reconvenes in late January.

The files can be found at http://www.house.gov/commerce/welcome.htlm

Rep. John H. Dingell of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Commerce
Committee, agreed with Bliley's decision to make the documents public.
``The (tobacco industry's) massive funding of `helpful' researchers will
certainly astound many,'' Dingell said.

One such researcher was Dr. Eleanor Macdonald, director of epidemiology at
the M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston. Macdonald received hundreds of
thousands of dollars over the years from the industrybacked Council for
Tobacco Research to fund her work.

In an Oct. 12, 1972, letter, industry attorney William Shinn recommends
$46,730 in funding for Macdonald, noting that she ``has been most helpful
on several occasions in helping to develop statistics for litigation.''

``I've said all along that it is important that Congress and the American
people have the facts, and today they will have them,'' said Bliley, a
Virginia Republican who has been a staunch friend of tobacco for years.

``Buried inside these documents are some of the most lethal hand grenades
we've ever seen the industry throw at America's children,'' said Sen. Frank
Lautenberg, DN.J. ``What's so scary about the revelations is that these
documents aren't even the ones that the industry is so afraid to release.''

Unless the remaining documents are released to Congress, he added, the
``tobacco industry can kiss any form of their settlement goodbye.''

The tobacco companies continue to maintain that the documents released
Thursday are confidential and protected by attorneyclient privilege.
Indeed, some of the documents underline how the lawyers succeeded in
keeping much industry research secret by wrapping it in the cloak of
attorneyclient privilege.

Beyond that, the companies argue, the nation should focus on the
multibilliondollar settlement's potential not history.

``Those who believe 20 or 40yearold documents merit continuation of
legal and regulatory hostilities in lieu of a national legislative solution
fail to see what is at stake,'' said a statement Thursday on behalf of
Philip Morris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco
Corp. and Lorillard Tobacco Co.

Ramsey County, Minn., District Judge Kenneth Fitzpatrick late Tuesday
upheld the conclusions of special master Mark W. Gehan that the documents
contained evidence of crime or fraud and therefore were not protected by
attorneyclient privilege.

The 864 documents were among a larger set of papers the Liggett Group Inc.
turned over under seal to Minnesota in March after settling its lawsuit
with 20 states suing the tobacco industry. Gehan was appointed to review
the contested papers in a muchwatched case brought by Minnesota against
the tobacco industry. That case is due to go to trial Jan. 20.

Minnesota state Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III called the Liggett
documents ``only the tip of the iceberg.'' Minnesota has amassed some
250,000 secret industry documents 33 million pages and is seeking to
have all of them released.

In releasing Gehan's report, Judge Fitzpatrick said the ``documents reveal
a conspiracy of silence and suppression of scientific research.''

That view was echoed by William Novelli, president of the National Center
for TobaccoFree Kids, who said they highlight the industry's efforts to
``pervert scientific inquiry'' into the relationship between smoking and
illness.

``This is the antithesis of scientific inquiry,'' Novelli said. ``They
sought to block and distort the truth. In a way, this was the beginning of
junk science.''