By A Staff Writer CHICAGO; A federal jury ruled that syndicated columnist Seymour M. Hersh did not commit libel against former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai in his 1983 book, “The Price of Power” ; Kissinger in the Nixon White House.” Meanwhile, Desai’s son announced in Bombay on Oct 7 that his father would continue the $50 million libel suit which had been initiated six and a half years ago.
Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize winner, had said in the book that Desai was an informant of the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 60’s and early 70’s during Johnson and Nixon administrations and was paid $20,000 per year to pass Indian secrets to the U.S. He had based his information on six confidential sources.
Judge Charles R. Norgle of the US Federal District Court in Chicago ruled that Hersh did not have to identify his sources in the court. He did have to testify about his sources in the court. He did have to testify about his sources without disclosing their identities. He said that these sources who were associated with the CIA, the National Security Agency and the White House were “clear and categorical” about Moraji Desai’s role. Desai has dismissed these charges as “completely fantastic.”
Earlier, former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger had testified that he did not know about Desai’s alleged connection with the CIA. This contradicted Hersh’s assertion in the book that Kissinger knew about Desai’s stature, Under U.S. libel laws, a public figure swing for libel must prove that the charge against him is false and also that the author knew that the charge was false, or did not care that it was true or false.
The jury in Chicago ruled, on October 6, after six hours of deliberation that neither was the charge that Desai was a CIA agent false, and nor was written with reckless disregard for truth.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 13, 1989
