The Jean Seberg Story* GAD rr. HE JEAN SEBERG story burst into the news just know who leaked it. Other documents made available 1 a year ago. It was awful. Miss Seberg, an actress, since September, transcripts of wiretaps, make it rea- had died in Paris from an apparent overdose of barbi- sonably clear that the story about who impregnated turates. Her former husband, the author Romain Miss Seberg was true, that she was having trouble Gary, had charged the Federal Bureau of Investiga- carrying the child befoie that news was published tion with having driven her into the state of emo- and that she wasn't nearly so distressed by its publi- tional instability that led to her death. cation as Mr. Gary claimed. Back in 1970, or so the story went, the FBI had So the truth appears to be that the Los Angeles of- planted false rumors that Miss Seberg was pregnant fice of the FBI .recommended that accurate news of f with the child of a Black Panther leader to whom she' Miss Seberg's pregnancy be planted in gossip col- was not married. Mr. Gary was quoted,as saying that umns to sow dissension among the Black Panthers when Miss Seberg saw this gossip in print, she was so with whom she was involved. Headquarters in Wash- shocked she went into premature labor., and gave ington thought the idea was a good one but told Los birth to a dead child. She never recovered prom that Angeles to wait for two months. The idea was later experience, Mr. Gary said, and she tried to commit dropped, according to the FBI files, because of a deci- suicide every year on the anniversary of the still- sion that it would cause no dissension. birth. In the meantime, the story had been published by a A week after this story hit the television screens, Los. Angeles columnist. It was later published by the FBI released a set of documents, concerning the Newsweek. Both authors deny they got their infor- incident. Letting the documents speak for what the .mation from the FBI,And the agents in charge of the FBI had done, Director William Webster issued a matter deny they were the source. statement saying, "The days when the FBI used de- What difference does it make, now that the child, rogatory information to combat advocates of unpopu- Miss Seberg and the COINTELPRO operation of. the lar causes have long since passed. We are out of that FBI, which plotted to harm her, are all dead? Just buSiness forever." this: the news media gave the FBI a.black eye for the This sequence of events produced a wire service re- wrong reasons. When the invalidity of those reasons port, published in this and many other newspapers, is exposed, there is a danger that justified as well as that the FBI had "admitted" it spread the "gossip" in the unjikstified criticism will be ignored. _ question. That, in turn, provoked a new wave of de- As Director Webster well understands, the FBI had nunciation of the FBI, almost all of it based on the no business considering a plan to harm Miss Seberg' premise that the FBI had circulated a false story that by leaking personal information, true or false The seriously damaged Miss Seberg. We referred to the fact such a plan was recommended and approved,. matter on this page as in example of the way in even if never executed, was plenty bad enough—an-, which J. Edgar Hoover had used his power "to harass other demonstration of the arrogant and abusive way and persecute citizens charged with no crime." the old FBI viewed its power and license. That's Well, a batch of documents now being circulated where the Jean Seberg story—and the commentaries by Accuracy in Media makes clear it wasn't quite that based on it—should have stopped. It was unfair and way. Looked at closely, those documents, available. inaccurate—not to mention totally unnecessary for last September, show that the FBI didn't "admit" that the purposes of showing the evil of the COINTELPROj it had leaked that story; they indicate the FBI doesn't. operation. .