Ross Perot daughter's wedding allegations, IN JULY 1992, Ross Perot hastily called a press conference to announce he was dropping out of the presidential race. He reentered the race on Oct. 1 and, through infomercials and solid performances in the presidential debates, soon approached 20% in the polls. Then he made a decision that stopped his momentum cold: he agreed to a 60 Minutes interview to present the "real reason" for his earlier withdrawal.

On Sunday, Oct.25, he told startled viewers he had pulled out after receiving "multiple reports" that there was a Republican plot to embarrass his daughter by disrupting her summer wedding, and that there was also a plan to distribute a computerized false photo of his daughter. After the show Perot was widely ridiculed, and many believed his reasons were bogus.

Some aspects of this scandal have long been known, yet the details were always murky. The full account, now available, reveals that while Perot did have some basis for his bizarre charge, he appears to have relied on sources of dubious credibility. The episode provides insights into the behind-the-scenes intrigue of political campaigns, as well as painting a disturbing portrait of FBI incompetence.

Perot told 60 Minutes that there were three sources for different parts of his stories, but he named only one: Scott Barnes, 42, a sometime soldier of fortune with a controversial resume'. Over the years, Barnes has variously claimed to have worked in civil defense, criminal intelligence, social work, nuclear-weapons training, scuba diving, real estate, retail clothing and undercover investigations. He once told author Monika Jensen-Stevenson that he had been a freelance CIA assassin. What is on the record is that he was hired by, and fired from, two police forces in California; one charged that he filed false reports and the other stated that, among other things, he gave untrue trial testimony. (In each instance he claimed he was fired for trying to uncover police corruption.) In the late 1980s Barnes was arrested and convicted of illegal wiretapping.

Today Perot tries to distance himself from Barnes. But there is ample evidence that for nearly a decade he considered Barnes reliable. He began a telephone relationship with him in 1984 (the two have never met). The topic: the fate of American POWs in Vietnam, an obsession of Perot's. In the spring of 1992, Barnes resurfaced in Perot's life through Jim Oberwetter, a prominent Hunt Oil executive in Dallas who headed George Bush's re-election campaign in Texas. In April, a few days after Oberwetter poked fun at Perot in the Dallas newspapers, Barnes called and claimed to have damaging information about Perot. Oberwetter, wary of a stranger over the phone, said he was not interested.

Unknown to Oberwetter, Barnes called other Republican officials, including Bob Teeter, national chairman of the Bush Quayle campaign; Marlin Fitzwater, Bush's press spokesman; and David Tell, director of opposition research. Although Barnes left messages implying he had important information about Perot, he could not raise anyone's interest.

In late April, Barnes told a BBC correspondent named David Taylor about being in touch with Republican officials. In Barnes' version, however, the Republicans had called him. Oberwetter was the first, he said. Barnes claimed they were seeking compromising information about Perot. Taylor knew there was bad blood between Perot and Bush over the POW issue (Perot was furious because he felt the Vice President had blocked his efforts on POWs and MIAs), so it made sense to Taylor that the Republicans might go to extraordinary lengths to uncover dirt on Perot. In mid-May, Taylor traveled to Dallas to interview Perot for the BBC and told him about Barnes' allegations.

That trip also gave Taylor an opportunity to verify whether Barnes' primary claim-that he was talking to Jim Oberwetter was true. Taylor had arranged an interview with Oberwetter. He told Barnes to call him during that interview so that he could film Oberwetter's reaction. On the morning of May 13, when Taylor arrived at the Hunt Oil building, he was escorted to Oberwetter's office. As Taylor neared the door, he heard the last seconds of a conversation. "I can't talk," said Oberwetter. "I have British television outside."

Afterward, Taylor called Barnes and asked why he did not place the call. "I did call, and you were there, weren't you?" Barnes responded.

"How did you know I was there?" Taylor asked. Said Barnes: "Well, he told me you were outside."

Taylor and Perot took that snippet of a conversation as confirmation that Barnes was regularly talking with Oberwetter and other officials. Barnes added to the allure, claiming he had called on a private number (he had not, and Taylor did not check on the existence of such a number). Moreover, if either Taylor or Perot had asked Barnes for his telephone bill, they would have discovered that Barnes' May 13 call lasted less than one minute. It was the only call from Barnes to Oberwetter that month.

The Democratic Convention started on Monday, July 13. It was at that time, Perot later said, that he received a "call from a person who I respect who said that there was a plan to have a computer-created false photo of my daughter Carolyn that they were going to give the press shortly before her wedding to embarrass her." It is almost certain that it was Scott Barnes, although Perot said he got the word from another person. Barnes had unsuccessfully tried to reach Taylor with the information, then telephoned Perot's office and passed word of the pictures on to one of his secretaries. On Thursday of that week Perot dropped out of the race. Taylor did not return Barnes' calls until the following Sunday, July 19. That is the first time he learned about the photos. Barnes' claim to Taylor was that two Republicans had shown him 35 fake photographs of two of Perot's daughters, Carolyn and Nancy, each in compromising situations with other women.

Barnes now admits that no such pictures existed and that he concocted the story. But he insists he did so on explicit instructions from Perot himself so that Perotwould have an excuse for his withdrawal. It is hard to imagine, though, that Perot, so concerned about the privacy of his family, would encourage anyone to circulate such a story. Barnes and Taylor deny that they were the sources for the allegation that the Republicans intended to disrupt Perot's daughter's wedding. To this day, Perot re fuses to identify those sources.

Although Perot was now out of the race, Barnes was not finished spinning his rather startling tales. When he spoke to Taylor on July 19, he claimed that the Republicans now wanted him to wiretap certain phones in Perot's office. To back up his charge, he produced a floor plan of Perot's Dallas office, together with several telephone numbers, and faxed them to Taylor-who sent a copy to Perot. His new assignment, Barnes said, was to get enough information to pre vent Perot from re-entering the race. As with the composite photos, Barnes now says he made the story up and that Perot gave him the floor plan and the phone numbers.

By late July, Barnes had more to re port. After traveling to Mexico for a friend's bachelor party, he told Taylor he had met two men who offered him $150,000 to wiretap Perot's office. Barnes soon called Taylor and played a tape recording in which an unidentified man asked Barnes to bug Perot's phone lines and warned him to "keep your mouth shut." Taylor sent Perot a copy of the tape. After hearing it, Perot retained James Siano, a former FBI agent, to investigate Barnes' allegations.

Perot sent Siano to Taylor's home in Virginia to find out everything Taylor knew. They talked for five hours. "He [Taylor] had checked all this out," recalls Siano. "And as far as he was concerned, there was a lot of credence to this."

Perot had left for a vacation in Bermuda, but he spoke to Siano by phone. Although Perot considered the possibility that Barnes and Taylor had concocted the story, he insisted the allegations be pursued. When Siano suggested the FBI, Perot resisted; the bureau would leak it to the Bush Administration. Instead, Perot personally set an appointment with the Dallas chief of police.

Meanwhile, Barnes called Taylor from Arizona and said his Republican contacts I- were about to provide him bugging equipment, a prepaid ticket to Dallas and a hotel room near Perot's office. Taylor, with a cameraman in tow, prepared to fly to Phoenix and film Barnes' mission to Dallas.

Barnes admits that he drove to Phoenix on Aug. 4 and picked up a box of surveillance equipment at an electronics store. He then proceeded to Phoenix's airport and placed the box in a rented locker. When Taylor arrived a few hours later, Barnes lied and told him that his Republican contacts had given him the key to an airport locker. With Taylor watching, Barnes opened the locker and retrieved the box. That evening, Taylor filmed Barnes picking up a ticket from the Continental Airlines desk.

Earlier that same day, in Dallas, Siano kept the appointment Perot had set with the Dallas police chief and two of his top commanders. Very quickly, however, the police decided the case was beyond their jurisdiction. At that point, Perot directed Siano to the FBI. On Aug. 4, Oliver ("Buck") Revell, the special agent in charge of the Dallas office, relying in large part on Taylor's credibility, gave the go-ahead for an undercover agent, using the alias George Allen, to be present at a meeting scheduled for the following day between Siano, Taylor and Barnes.

At this meeting Barnes unexpectedly announced he had an appointment with Oberwetter for the next day and that he was going to offer Oberwetter a chance to buy nonexistent phone tapes. (Barnes, as it turned out, just intended to show up at Oberwetter's office and try to bluff his way in.) To bolster Barnes' credibility with Oberwetter, it was decided that with Perot's permission, a tape would be hastily made of several innocuous telephone conversations between Perot and some business colleagues. These would be "proof" that Barnes had successfully installed taps on Perot's phone lines.

The next morning FBI officials claimed there was no time to wire Barnes for his meeting with Oberwetter. As a result, the FBI would have to rely on only Barnes' version of what was said. Nor had the bureau, at this stage of the investigation, finished a complete background check on Barnes (on whom it has a file), or identified the two men he met in Mexico, or found the source of the money for his airfare or hotel.

On the afternoon of Aug. 6, a man identifying himself as Howard Parsons, from the Bush national campaign headquarters, appeared at Hunt Oil in Dallas. He asked to see Jim Oberwetter, who was not expecting anyone and tried unsuccessfully to reach someone in Washington who could confirm the unexpected visitor. Then the receptionist called him again. "He's acting awfully nervous. Would you kindly come and get him?" Oberwetter went to meet his visitor, not knowing that "Howard Par sons was actually Scott Barnes.

Barnes said he had "very important political information" but preferred talking to Oberwetter outside. Oberwetter hesitated, then agreed. The two headed to a small landscaped garden next to the office building and sat on a bench. With the FBI's permission, Taylor's crew taped the meeting. An FBI agent who was perched in a car half a block away took photographs with a 300-mm telephoto lens. Oberwetter says Barnes offered wiretap recordings of Perot and claimed they were explosive.

"I am not interested in anything you have," said Oberwetter. "Perot is out of the race.

"Well, he might get back in."

"He's going to do whatever he does whether I take what you've got or not. I don't want what you have."

"But you don't know how good it is unless you hear it," urged Barnes.

That banter went on for 18 minutes be fore Oberwetter had had enough and stood up to leave.

With no one to challenge his version of events, Barnes told the FBI that Oberwetter was interested but did not want to buy the tapes before first consulting directly with President Bush.

Perot viewed the meeting as confirmation of Republican dirty tricks. He called Buck Revell to find out what the FBI in tended to do next. At FBI headquarters in Washington, urgent meetings were convened. The unanimous conclusion was that, given Oberwetter's meeting with Barnes, coupled with Taylor's "corroboration," there was justification to proceed further. Perot was informed of the developments that night.

The next day, the FBI's undercover agent, George Allen, called Barnes, who had returned home to Arizona, and asked him if he had spoken further with Oberwetter. Barnes dumbfounded Allen by saying he no longer wanted to be involved. He offered no explanation.

Meanwhile, the FBI gave Allen the go- ahead to make another attempt at ensnaring Oberwetter. On Aug.10, Allen proceeded to Oberwetter's office disguised as a cowboy, using the name Bob Watson, wearing a 10-gallon hat and flashy ostrich boots. Shortly after 5 p.m., Oberwetter's receptionist buzzed him and said, "Jim, there is another one out here. No appointment, but he is insistent to see you."

Oberwetter asked Hunt Oil's security chief, Wilbur Rainey, to accompany him. When Oberwetter told the cowboy visitor (whom he later referred to as "Cowboy Bob") that he would talk to him right there in the lounge, Allen said he would rather go elsewhere. "'My God,' I thought," says Oberwetter, "this can't be happening again."

They went to a side office. The FBI agent was wired. Cowboy Bob told Oberwetter that he was "an associate of Mr. Scott Barnes," and then produced a tape that he said was a recording of a Perot conversation from a tap on his phone lines. "I was hired to do this," Cowboy Bob in formed Oberwetter, "and it was my under standing from Mr. Barnes that you wanted him to do this." Oberwetter adamantly denied it. Cowboy Bob seemed confused. Then Oberwetter became more aggressive, telling the undercover agent, "There is mischief afoot," and that he intended to get to the bottom of it.

The FBI was taken aback by Oberwetter's refusal to buy the tape. The bureau had completely accepted Barnes' tale that the Republicans, and especially Oberwetter, were anxiously awaiting wire tapped conversations of Perot. Now they realized the story was false. Within hours, there was finger-pointing going on in the Dallas bureau.

The following day, the FBI sent agents, identifying themselves as such, to inter view Oberwetter, Barnes and Taylor. Barnes stuck to his story, reiterating that the Republicans recruited him to wiretap Perot's phones and that he was not sure why Oberwetter rejected the tapes. During his interview, Barnes received a frantic phone call from Taylor, who was nervous because two FBI agents were at his office. When Barnes hung up, he turned around to the two agents and asked, "Any guarantee of immunity?" They said no.

Barnes lives today in Southern California, having moved there after a dress shop that he operated in Arizona closed. Taylor remains a BBC producer based in Washington. To Ross Perot, the collapse of the FBI investigation was a great disappointment. He was confident that Barnes and Taylor had kicked off an inquiry that would lead to arrests, indictments and public humiliation for those who conspired against him. Even when the FBI came to the conclusion that it had been had by Barnes, Perot remained convinced that the dirty tricksters had merely escaped detection. His appearance on 60 Minutes was his belated attempt to expose them. FBI bureau chief Buck Revell had warned Perot that the charges against the Republicans were baseless. "That's my criticism of Ross on this matter," says Revell. "I told him there was nothing there, and he still continued. That was upsetting."

Source: posner