FBI Wrestles With Tale by Perot ‘Informer’ : Intrigue: Agency director tries to settle matter of a failed sting, ‘dirty tricks’ and a man of many stories.

The FBI tried to explain Monday how it got stung by its own sting, an operation it mounted against an official in President Bush’s campaign based partly on information from a man who has sent reporters on a wild goose chase and whom Soldier of Fortune magazine called: “Scott Barnes: My Favorite Flake.”

“The FBI investigates alleged violations of federal criminal law, irrespective of any political circumstance,” said FBI Director William S. Sessions in a written statement, trying to set the matter to rest. “In this instance, an allegation of conspiracy to conduct an illegal wiretap, a federal criminal offense, came to the FBI. That allegation was investigated, and no evidence of criminality has been found.”

His statement came the day after independent presidential candidate Ross Perot revealed that he had told the FBI in August that the GOP had planned to wiretap him. One of Perot’s sources for the information was Scott T. Barnes.

According to congressional sources and others familiar with the case, Perot brought Barnes, 38, to the FBI. The sources said Barnes told agents that he had learned about the wiretapping from Jim Oberwetter, the Texas chairman of Bush’s campaign.

In the middle of the ensuing FBI investigation, Barnes stopped cooperating.

It was at this point, the sources said, that agents decided to attempt a sting--for fear that if they dropped the matter, Perot would claim the FBI was covering up for the President.

An undercover FBI operative made an appointment with Oberwetter and offered him a tape in exchange for money. The operative made it seem that the tape was the product of a wiretap on Perot.

Oberwetter apparently did not bite. He said in published reports in August that he told the undercover operative: “Have you ever heard of Watergate? Do you know people’s lives were ruined for doing something you told us you did.”

Oberwetter reported him to the Dallas police.

At that point, the sources said, Buck Revell, the FBI chief in Dallas, wanted to shut down the investigation and announce that his agents had found nothing.

FBI headquarters turned him down, the sources said, contending there remained some matters to check.

A source outside the FBI said Revell was being summoned to Washington to explain his statements on camera Sunday to the CBS-TV program “60 Minutes.” Revell said: “There is no evidence that we have found that would indicate that any of the presidential campaigns, at least here in Dallas, have directed any dirty tricks at another campaign.”

On Monday, Sessions said “comments were made by individuals appearing on the episode as well as attributed to an ‘FBI official’ that could be interpreted to mean that the FBI’s investigation went beyond the allegation of illegal wiretapping. It is the FBI’s general policy not to publicly discuss pending investigations.”

It was not the first time Barnes had sent someone on a wild goose chase.

In the early 1980s, Barnes told The Times that he had joined a POW hunting team sent to Thailand by former Green Beret Lt. Col. James G. (Bo) Gritz. Barnes claimed he had crossed the Mekong River into Laos with a mysterious American who was not on the team, that they had seen two white men in a prison camp and that the team was ordered to assassinate the prisoners.

Gritz and other members of the team denied it. Gritz has described Barnes as “somewhat of a nut.”

The Times dispatched two reporters to Thailand. They found villagers who Barnes claimed had accompanied him and the mysterious American into Laos. The villagers said Barnes had, in fact, never crossed the Mekong.

It was Barnes’ Southeast Asian adventure that prompted Soldier of Fortune to describe him as “a flake.”

Within the POW-MIA movement, Barnes has long inspired radically divergent views. Some activists accept him on faith. Others view him with deep suspicion, judging him to be someone who lives in his own fantasy world.

Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) said he once learned that Barnes, without his permission, passed himself off as a member of his staff on a trip to Bangkok, Thailand.

Dornan has been quoted as saying: “Scott Barnes is a Walter Mitty type.”

Barnes has worked for--and been at odds with--police agencies in California. They include police departments in El Cajon and Ridgecrest.

Barnes was hired by the El Cajon Police Department in March, 1976.

In a statement he wrote to a defense attorney in a federal court case, Barnes said he was recruited to join the BET (Biker Enforcement Team), composed of members from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol, the El Cajon police, the district attorney’s office and state law enforcement officials.

Those who were part of the team said Barnes was never a member, but investigated biker groups such as the Hells Angels and Mongols on his own.

San Diego County law enforcement officials describe Barnes as unreliable. They contacted the state Department of Justice to have him labeled a “non-reliable informant” in 1981 because his information was so poor.

“We talked to this guy and he was just incredible,” said one law enforcement source who has followed Barnes through police circles for 15 years. “His veracity, credibility, just wasn’t very good at all.”

In 1987, says Kern County Dist. Atty. Edward Jagels, “we processed his probation department employment application, and our bureau of investigation called some of his references--including H. Ross Perot. Perot spoke highly of Mr. Barnes. . . . After Perot vouched for him, it turned out that Perot had only talked to him two or three times on the phone.”

Barnes, Jagels said, “is motivated by notoriety. He loves to be the center of attention.” Jagels said he and his investigators are “just flabbergasted” that Perot trusted Barnes as a source of information. “The most successful businessman in America has been utterly snookered.”

Barnes, in a brief interview Monday with The Times, said his veracity was excellent--and claimed that Perot’s allegations about dirty tricks are true--”100%.”

“I’m hoping the President of the United States will open a full-blown investigation,” Barnes said. “He should have done it when I first talked to them.”

When was that?

“I called in August and talked to Marlin Fitzwater.”

When asked whether they had spoken, Fitzwater said his records showed Barnes had tried to phone him last July.

Fitzwater said he did not take the calls.

Times staff writer Mark Platte in San Diego contributed to this story.