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Controversy is nothing new for Woodward. With ex-Post Colleague Carl Bernstein, he unraveled much of the Watergate scandal and later authored or co-authored juicy accounts of the inside workings of the Supreme Court (The Brethren) and the drug-related death of John Belushi (Wired). In familiar Woodward style, Veil reads as much like a novel as a work of journalism, with scenes, dialogue and characters' thoughts re-created. Woodward says he talked to more than 250 people, but his revelations are not directly attributed to specific sources. While this makes the book's credibility hard for a reader to evaluate, it does suppress any interference in what is a lively read: copies of Veil are selling rapidly, and Simon & Schuster has already ordered a third printing.
Many readers were thumbing directly to the last two pages, where Woodward recounts his final meeting with the ailing CIA chief. Sophia Casey insists that Woodward "never got in to see my husband," claiming that either she or her daughter was at Casey's bedside constantly. "We had our food brought up there," she says. "There was a lavatory there. We never had to go out of the room." What's more, she says, the incapacitated Casey was unable to talk. But a knowledgeable medical source at Georgetown University Hospital says that Casey, though gravely ill, was not totally incapable of speaking. Monsignor J. Joshua Mundell, who visited Casey about twice a week, told TIME: "He was in very bad shape. It was hard for him to form words." But not impossible; Mundell acknowledges that Casey could have spoken the words reported by Woodward "if he had wanted to."
Woodward admits that his first attempt to enter Casey's hospital room in late January was thwarted by a CIA guard. Woodward says he returned a few days later but refuses to give more details of how he got in, presumably to protect the insider who helped him. He denies that he used an alias or disguised himself as a doctor. "Why was I the only journalist who tried to visit the hospital when Casey held the key ((to a central question in the Iran-contra affair))?" asks Woodward. "It's Journalism 101."
In his book Woodward portrays Casey as a wily and aggressive director who made the CIA his personal instrument of foreign policy. In early 1985 Woodward reports, Casey went "off the books" to enlist Saudi help in carrying out three covert operations. One was the attempted assassination of Sheik Fadlallah, who had been linked to the bombings of American facilities in Beirut. After that plot failed, Woodward writes, the Saudis offered Fadlallah a $2 million bribe to cease his terrorist attacks. He accepted, and the attacks stopped.
Woodward's account of the incident was denied last week by the Saudi press agency and by Fadlallah's office. President Reagan also denied any knowledge of the affair. "Never would I sign anything that would authorize an assassination," he said. "I never have, and I never will, and I didn't." & Meanwhile, House and Senate intelligence committees reviewed their files to see if they were misled about the CIA's role in the assassination attempt.