American Notes $ PUBLISHING

The secrecy surrounding Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA (Simon & Schuster; $21.95) would have done any intelligence agency proud. Galleys of the book, written by Washington Post Editor Bob Woodward (All the President's Men), were carefully guarded. The timing of serialization rights was scrupulously calculated: Newsweek planned to print excerpts in this week's issue, while the Washington Post and other newspapers began running portions last Sunday.

But the veil was lifted ahead of schedule. U.S. News & World Report somehow got hold of the galleys and, in addition to printing a story this week, issued a news release that enabled the networks and the Associated Press to air disclosures from the book last week. According to the reports, Woodward says he visited then CIA Director William Casey in the hospital before he died last May and asked him whether he had known all along about the diversion of funds from Iranian arms sales to the contras. "Casey nodded a frail yes." When asked why, Casey said, "I believed." Woodward says the CIA at one time used the late Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel and El Salvador President Jose Napoleon Duarte as informants. The CIA's reaction: "No comment."