White House Hung Up Phone on Them, Klinghoffers Charge

White House operators today twice hung up on calls from the family of Leon Klinghoffer, the American tourist killed aboard the Achille Lauro, a family spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman told reporters that the operators cut the family off twice after the callers identified themselves.

But Dale Petrovskey, a White House spokesman, said the White House “wouldn’t hang up on anybody.”

He said operators took a call about 8:45 a.m from someone who asked to speak to a top presidential aide.

The operator was not aware that the caller was a member of the Klinghoffer family, Petrovskey said, and the caller was referred to a State Department task force office.

Another Reagan aide called the incident a “misunderstanding” and said it would “probably be a good idea” for Reagan to call the Klinghoffer family “to straighten this thing out.”