Ex-CIA Agent Agee Suing Mrs. Bush Over Book

A longtime critic of the Central Intelligence Agency is suing former First Lady Barbara Bush over statements in her 1994 autobiography that he called “false and defamatory.”

Former CIA operative Philip Agee said Mrs. Bush falsely wrote in “A Memoir” that Agee’s identification in his 1975 book of the CIA’s Athens station chief led to the assassination of the official, Richard Welch.

At a news conference Wednesday, Agee denied writing about Welch before his assassination in December, 1975, mentioning him by name to anyone or even knowing him while both men worked for the CIA.

Agee quit the CIA in 1968. In 1971, he began exposing its officers and operations in lectures, magazines and books. His 1975 book, “Inside the Company: CIA Diary” describes alleged CIA abuses, mostly in Latin America.

“It is not in the book,” Agee said by telephone from his home in Hamburg, Germany.

Mrs. Bush and publishers Macmillan Inc. and Simon & Schuster Inc. are named as defendants in the suit filed in Superior Court for the District of Columbia. It seeks $4 million in damages and full retractions from Mrs. Bush and Macmillan, a division of Simon & Schuster.

Jim McGrath, a spokesman for former President George Bush and his wife, who now live in Houston, said he had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment. Bush is a former director of the CIA.

Simon & Schuster spokesman Andrew Giangola declined to comment Wednesday. He said the company had not received a copy of the lawsuit.