Koch vs. Cap

Disinformation fuels a feud

If true, the story was a shocker. Last July the leftist but respected Beirut newspaper As Safir printed what it claimed was a transcript of a conversation between U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Saudi Defense Minister Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz in Paris on May 12, 1983. Weinberger was quoted as saying that he had not informed President Reagan about a Saudi request for 20 F-15 fighters because "it would be leaked to Congress and the press," thus jeopardizing the deal. According to the transcript, Weinberger generously offered his Saudi counterpart a shipment of sophisticated M-l tanks, which he said were "not in the hands of the American Army even."

The story, it turned out, was a phony, an obvious attempt at disinformation. But it succeeded in stirring up the longstanding feud between New York Mayor Edward Koch, who is staunchly pro-Israel, and Weinberger, who is considered pro-Arab by many Israeli officials and American Jews. By last week even the FBI had been brought in to investigate.

The alleged transcript was given to Koch last August by an aide, who had received it from the Israeli consul general in New York, Naphtali Lavie. Lavie had come across the Lebanese report in a packet of articles distributed to scholars, journalists and other subscribers by the Israeli government monitoring service. Koch sent an indignant letter to Weinberger demanding that he publicly deny the conversation with the Saudis. Weinberger wrote back that "this 'socalled transcript' is a complete fabrication and a very crude attempt at disinformation." But Koch demanded a public disavowal. When Weinberger refused to reveal the details of a "classified diplomatic exchange," Koch gave copies of the letters to the press.

Last week FBI agents visited city hall in an effort to find out the source of the bogus report. Koch, who had publicly denied that the Israelis were involved, admitted Lavie's role. But, said an Israeli official, "there was no disinformation and no anti-Weinberger campaign. It was Mayor Koch who overdid it."

Koch was unrepentant. He huffed to FBI Director William Webster that "others in the Federal Government" (meaning Weinberger) were out to "stifle my constitutional rights" by sicking the G-men on him. He insisted that the FBI investigation was less interested in finding the source of the disinformation than in muzzling him. Weinberger stoutly denied any connection with the investigation. "What a cheap shot," said a Weinberger aide. Federal officials said the probe stemmed from a stepped-up effort by the State Department to crack down on disinformation. After all the hubbub, the source of the transcript printed by As Safir remains a mystery. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.