NBC Lets Justice Dept. See Interview With Abu Abbas

NBC has let the Justice Department screen in full the network’s controversial interview with Palestinian faction leader Abu Abbas, and is holding “discussions” with the agency about that interview, NBC News president Lawrence K. Grossman said Monday.

However, he declined to elaborate on those talks, saying that should come from the Justice Department. The federal agency wants to arrest Abbas, the admitted mastermind of the Oct. 7 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in which an American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot and killed and his body thrown overboard.

Program Draws Criticism

The Abbas interview drew sharp criticism after part of it was aired May 5 on the “NBC Nightly News.” It was done by correspondent Henry Champ, who agreed not to disclose Abbas’ whereabouts as a condition for the interview.

A Justice Department spokesman in Washington seemed surprised Monday at Grossman’s disclosures, which came during a press conference the latter held with visiting TV critics and writers at the Century Plaza Hotel.

Both NBC News and the Justice Department “have been very, very careful” not to publicly talk about the agency’s screening of the interview or talks with NBC about it, said the spokesman, Pat Korten.

Grossman, who in his press session emphasized that NBC News is not a law enforcement agency, said that NBC News sought and got the Abbas interview and that it wasn’t offered to NBC by representatives of Abbas.

Sought for Interview

After Italy refused a United States request to extradite Abbas and freed him last year, Grossman said, “We went out there and pursued him for an interview. They (Abbas representatives) did not come to us.”

He later declined to say if NBC’s current discussions with the Justice Department concerned how Champ got the interview or with whom the correspondent talked in arranging it.

Korten also declined to comment, saying only that Justice Department officials had seen a videotape of the full interview “a couple of weeks ago” and that “there are additional discussions going on. They’re about things other than the videotape, and Mr. Champ is among those things.”

On Air Again

Grossman said most of the interview is being aired tonight on NBC’s new newsmagazine series, “1986,” as part of a one-hour documentary called “The Achille Lauro: A Study in Terror.”

The day after the shorter interview segment aired in May, a State Department official accused the network of encouraging terrorism and called the interview “reprehensible.”

But Grossman on Monday defended the interview and denied that NBC offered Abbas a platform for propaganda. The interview was aired, he said, because “today, unlike the past, Americans are prime targets for terrorism. It is essential that we know who our enemies are and what we are up against.”

Abbas, he added, “is not just a killer running around in the Mideast. This is a major international performer with major international contacts and major international clout. That’s what makes him so dangerous and that’s what makes him so newsworthy.”

Used His Own Name

He said that Champ, when setting out to do the interview, flew on commercial airlines and checked into a hotel under his own name. Apparently referring to federal authorities, Grossman dryly added that “one might think that others could find him (Abbas) as well.”

Indeed, he said, after Champ’s interview, both the Reuters news agency and the Irish Times also interviewed Abbas, under the same conditions and using no dateline.

Some have complained, Grossman said, that “NBC News did not help in the arrest of the fugitive terrorist when he was within the grasp of our correspondent. But NBC is neither a national intelligence collection agency nor a law enforcement agency.

“We do not have the authority or ability to arrest fugitives. Our role is to report the news.”

Says Location Was Known

He also contended that the State Department knew the whereabouts of Abbas “at the same time the Justice Department was seeking news from us as to where the interview took place.”

He said that NBC News now plans “to turn over, at the request of the Justice Department, the videotape of the interview.”

Korten, the Justice Department spokesman, declined to say specifically what the department will seek in its future talks with NBC News.

“We’ll keep discussing things with NBC until we feel we’ve gotten what we need to bring Abbas to justice,” he said.