(Lloyd Grove is The Daily News' newest gossip columnist, joining us from The Washington Post, where he wrote the widely read 'Reliable Source' column.):
The perils of Iraq have nothing on the nasty fracas erupting between former New York Times Baghdad Bureau Chief Susan Sachs and her ex-colleagues, Times Baghdad correspondents Dexter Filkins and John Burns.Curiouser and curiouser.The Gray Lady's management has just fired Sachs, a widely respected and experienced journalist who has tangled bitterly with Burns and Filkins, over allegations that she sent anonymous letters and an E-mail to their wives alleging bad behavior with women in the war zone. [ … ]
Sachs' attorney, Laura Hoguet, added: "Susan does maintain her innocence - and she is innocent. She has passed a polygraph test, and her friends, who are many, believe she could never have done such a thing." [ … ]
I hear that The Times conducted an investigation and linked postmarks on the envelopes to Sachs' purported whereabouts on the dates the letters were apparently sent - and also claimed to have linked an E-mail to Sachs.
I'm told that the evidence is circumstantial.
But there's certainly no love lost between Sachs and her former colleagues in Baghdad. Back in January, The New York Observer reported that relations between Sachs and Burns and Filkins had become so toxic that Times Executive Editor Bill Keller dispatched then-foreign editor Roger Cohen to broker peace. During a meeting at the bureau to quell the antagonism, Sachs demanded the session be tape-recorded.
Soon after the failed effort, Sachs - who loudly complained when Filkins starting carrying a gun - was recalled to New York.
But what is most curious is that many have been depending on these people for accurate reporting of the War in Iraq.
