16 William A. Dobrovir, Dobrovir, Oakes & Gebhardt. Profiled by Steve Nelson, “Private ‘Public Interest’ Firms Establish Bases,” Legal Times, 4/19/1982; Gia Cincone, interview, 4/20/2011
17 For more than a decade, beginning on 8/9/1976, EDP and his attorneys sought to get from President Nixon’s papers, the White House, the NSC, and Kissinger copies of any records concerning EPD. The White House said the law exempted or prohibited its responding positively. The NSC said there was nothing under his name or pertaining to him, but that there might be some in the Nixon files, which were enjoined from release. When Dobrovir asked about the contents of the five NSC computer indices mentioning his name, one of which referred to “Demetracopoulos Death in Athens Prison,” it responded that the NSC was exempt from FOIA/PA. When EPD discovered references to NSC requests from NSC’s A. Russell Ash and a “copy to NSC” in FBI documents, NSC said it could find no records relating to him. When they turned to Kissinger, 6/10/1980, for information concerning disclosures in CIA and FBI files that EPD documents went to NSC, while Kissinger was NSC Advisor and Chairman, Kissinger attorneys first refused to answer in writing. Dobrovir also asked about documents in President Ford’s October 1974 briefing that referenced the EPD “trace paper,” “the blind derogatory memo,” and “the long Kissinger memo,” “left with General Skowcroft,” Ford’s NSC advisor. Eventually, on 11/30/1987, Kissinger attorney James E. Wesner wrote that [unspecified] “efforts were made” to search Kissinger’s papers but found nothing. He suggested that EPD return to the other agencies that sent or received the missing documents, which is where EPD’s frustrating search began. Kissinger’s amended restrictive deed-of-gift limits access to his records held at the Library of Congress. Requests to Yale University, where he has donated some papers, also yielded no success. Years of Dobrovir–federal agency correspondence in EPDP. Anderson, “Nixon-Era Officials Retain Papers,” Topeka Capital Journal, 11/10/1988
18 In a confidential State Dept. memorandum, 10/25/1966, John K. Adams, Press Officer, USIS, told Donald K. Taylor, PAO, USIS, about a 10/20/1966 conversation in which Harry Boubourellis, political writer at To Vima, who had previously been EPD’s assistant at Kathimerini, said EPD’s “mysterious” source of income was not “hidden connections” but the fruits of being a “favorite nephew.” This tip escaped all those who sought to portray EPD as a foreign agent.
19 Another project involved working with Michigan congressman Don Riegle to identify the fate of at least nine American citizens still missing in the wake of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Anderson and Whitten, “Missing Americans,” WP, 3/16/1976
20 7/12/1977 hearing
21 “Statement of the Honorable William E. Schaufele, Jr. of Ohio, Nominated to be Ambassador to Greece,” 7/12/1977, Alderson Reporting Service; Evans & Novak, “Greek Concern Over Six Missing Words,” WP, 2/6/1978
22 He would reprise his scooper role again in 1987, with the exposé of the criminal background of George Koskotas, which contributed to the biggest political and financial scandal to hit Greece in decades. From his sources in federal law enforcement, he learned in January 1987 that the banking and publishing magnate had been indicted by a New York grand jury on sixty-four counts of US tax fraud in 1980, but never arrested. He tipped off Jack Anderson about the issue, two months before Koskotas bought Kathimerini, Elias’s first paper, which was still being run by Eleni Vlachou. The IRS refused to confirm or deny the allegation and it wasn’t until Koskotas was about to visit the Reagan White House in October 1987 that he was arrested. The story shifted to Greece, where it dominated headlines, prompted government investigations about the sources of his wealth and illegal business practices, and contributed to the downfall of the Andreas Papandreou government. Jack Anderson, “The Greeks in Trouble,” San Francisco Chronicle, 10/29/1987; Jack Anderson, “Scandal Wracks Greek Government,” Oakland Tribune, 1/11/1989; Joe Spear, “People’s will defeats a demagogue,” Newspaper Enterprise Association, 7/31/1989; William Montalbano, “Embattled Papandreou at Center of Storm in Greece,” Los Angeles Times, 1/15/1989; “Papandreou, Accused of Taking Bribes, Goes on Trial in Athens,” NYT, 3/12/1991; “Greek Ex-Premier Not Guilty in Bank Scandal,” NYT, 1/17/1992
23 “More Tyranny for Greece”, NYT, 12/30/1970
24 Litsa Tsitera, friend since listening to EPD’s MIT speech in 1969
25 Binder, “Ubiquitous Hand Guides Relations of U.S. and Greece,” NYT, 12/6/1977
26 Joseph C. Goulden, “Fit to Print: A. M. Rosenthal and His Times,” used the Elias episode as one of three egregious “instances that illustrate vividly the nigh-impossibility of persuading the New York Times that it should confess error on a story and set the record straight.” Daniel Chomsky, “The mechanisms of management control at the New York Times,” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 21, issue 5, 9/1/1999, 587–90 https://doi.org/10.1177/016344399021005001
27 NYT, 1/4/1978
28 After the Times refused to print a correction, EPD considered bringing a libel suit against the paper or Binder but declined, as he similarly decided with Howe, because to do so would have placed him in the “distasteful position of forcing another journalist to reveal confidential sources.” Dobrovir to EPD, 11/29/1978
29 CIA, 1/5/1978
30 Evans & Novak, “The CIA: Harassing the Spy Who Never Was,” WP, 12/23/1977
31 Evans & Novak, WP, 12/31/1977
32 Boland, House Hearings of Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on “The CIA and the Media,” 12/7/1977, 1
33 Bernstein, “CIA and the Media,” Rolling Stone, 10/20/1977
34 Statement of Morton H. Halperin, Director, Center for National Security Studies, 1/4/1978, at “The CIA and the Media” Hearings before the Subcommittee on Oversight of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, House of Representatives, 188–215
35 UPI, “An Editor Bids CIA Give Data on Press,” NYT, 1/5/1978; Compare with Richard Dudman, “CIA Manipulated US Public Opinion, Halperin Charges,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1/4/1978; John Jacobs, “Halperin Alleges 4 Instances of CIA Exploitation of Media,” WP, January 5, 1978; Jim Adams, AP, “CIA Manipulated Press Willfully, Panel Told,” Shreveport Times, 1/5/1978, which dealt with EPD and NYT; telephone interview and JHB email exchange with John Crewdson, 12/22–23/2011
36 Jack Anderson, “CIA Retreating Into Its Shell,” WP, 8/30/1978
37 Fowler to Casey, 6/17/1983
38 McMahon, Acting Director of Central Intelligence, to Fowler, 8/16/1983
39 Fowler to EPD, 8/20/1983
40 Allegations Against Greek Refuted by CIA, NYT, 9/29/1983
41 Ibid.
42 Alexander Cockburn, “Elias and ‘Ilias’,” Village Voice, 10/4/1983
43 Caryle Murphy, ‘Vindication’ Rewards a Six-Year Struggle,” WP, 10/20/1983
44 “It cost me approximately a hundred thousand dollars and six years of my life,” Elias recalled, “Six years that I could’ve devoted to other more important things. But I’m a Greek, and we Greeks are tough when you touch our honor.” Ibid.
45 “A Greek Journalist Is Finally Cleared of CIA-Leaked Smear,” Newsday, 5/7/1984
46 Robert Bannerman, A/SY/OPS/DO, Memorandum for the Files, 1/20/1983
47 Murphy, WP, op. cit.
48 Elias P. Demetracopoulos v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Civil Action no. 78–2209, United States District Court, District of Columbia, January 30, 1981; 510 F. Supp. 529 (1981) 1978; Dobrovir memorandum on Greene Memorandum and Order, EPDP; Statement of EPD on Freedom of Information Act before the Subcommittee on Government Information and Individual Rights, Committee on Government Operations, U.S. House of Representatives, 9/22/1981; Conyers, letter to Webster, 2/25/1982; FBI response 3/11/1982; Webster to Mintz, 3/18/1982. The Bureau denied his request.
49 Letter, Rosenthal to Attorney Gen. William French Smith, 4/19/1982; FBI memorandum letter from Chairman Rosenthal, Commerce, Consumer and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations Requesting Information Concerning the FBI’s Investigation of Elias Demetracopoulos, 4/28/1982; letter, FBI Director Webster to Rosenthal, 6/8/1982; Jack Anderson, “Rep. Rosenthal Pursues Ghost of Watergate,” WP, 12/18/1982
50 Webster to Edwards, 4/11/1984
51 Edwards to Webster, 10/17/1983
52 Webster to Edwards, 12/7/1983
53 Edwards to Webster, 2/24/1984
54 Webster to Edwards, 4/11/1984
55 Edwards to EPD, 4/30/1984
