EX-CIA AGENT TELLS OF GUN-RUNNING ON TAPE - BRAGGED TO N.Y. COPS OF MURDER, TORTURE AND GLOBAL SKULDUGGERY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09S00048R000100020101-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 101
• Publication Date: November 1, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

J__
Approved For Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP09S00048R000100020101-9
or
s
the are:.
~
ry
ry
,old man:
nvesti ac
n
a
"!
in all, Bryant could be hit,with prison' sentences long
enougWto? keep him- behind bars until. he - is a ve
`-
radar system installed in Libya. The- stolen, equipment,
The senek giro v7ciatt of Bryant tt saying thy.:
during 1978 aild im. Justice Department. sources said
that the i1ldietibent:. te'Wted: from an "investigation
triggered hi ~ $W14-tin series about Bryant and his ing
charges of conducting' a gigantic-fraud ia?Savannah, Ga,-,
In addition,- Bryant .was indicted last. March for al-
legedly stealing, sensitive r iiita . --equipmene, from the.
super-secret Cliihd-take, Calif., Naval Weapons Center
,.
awaiting trial on charges of selling $250,000 worth of mar-
ijuana to undercover police last May. He was convicted
in federal court in Philadelphia of possession of a silenc-
er, and sentenced to- two years its jail.. And he faces
n the Middle East
.
Bryant, meanwhile,. is sitting in. an 'Elgin
IIt:;. prison
of jail. He and. his partner, another-former CIA agent
named Edwin P.. Wilson, 52, are how fugitives, hiding out.
i
On Jan. 10, Terpil posted $100,000' bail and walked out
ton Airport Inn turned up a small arsenal of'semi-aut
matic weapons and a silencer.
national Airport. A search of Bryant's suite at the Shera-
arrested Bradley F. Bryant, 37, and two others at Inter-
rowning revolver, butikldd
qucy surrenere it.
Terpil, 41, spent the holidays in a New York iail_:I
room on; Dec. 22, Terpil pulled out. a silencer-equipped
B
deal which would bring him $2 million for illegally de-
livering 10,000 machine guns to the revolutionaries.
When the.undercover cops' colleagues busted into the
z
rre ta
s of
murder and tortu
re,e poc rp;
thlie hade
.
aries", were. undercover. New?Y,orit City policemen'and.
Room 2327 was wired. Besides- capturing on tapetTerpil s.
bi
a
le
"
`
American, revolutionaries holed up in the New York Hil-
ton Hotel. What Terpil didn!t ; know.
was that the "revolutiona,
By JOSEPH R. DAUGHEN and FRANCIS X. GEARY
Of The Bulletin Staff
Frank Terpil; ex-CIA agent" turned international, out-
law, was at his outrageous.best.during the 1979Christmas
season as he told hair-raising '.'war" stories to-two Latin-
ot--11furdei f or Lure
global skuldugge
PHILADELPHIA BULLETIN
1 November 1981
--- - cc,i what ne knows.
about.his'own operations, about security bi?eakdowns.at.
'China Lake and-b- t h
u t
W
braggea to"J .Y. ops?
e
1son.Terpil partnership.
Even before Bryant's Chin-.T L.
a e indictment, federal
investigators launched an inquiry to determine if Wilson'
and Terpil used their CI4
wea connections to penetrate the
pons-Center in ?an 01m....1 -:.-- .
-a.y .,, acu w i.inya. i ney have found at least .
two China Lake employes who took leaves of absence to
work for Wilson and T
erpil in Libya
.
`'" If there is a connection between Bryant 'and Wilson
?Terpii, investigators said, it is probably to- be found.at
China Lake:
So far, Bryant has remained silent2
But federal investigators w
ki
or
ng out of Phildlp
aehia,
Washington.. Denver and Fresno, Calif., have mined..
enough information about Wilson and Terpil to paint a .
picture of the renegade CIA agents being involved in gun.
running, aiding and abetting terrorism, selling American
secrets, and general global skullduggery on an unprece..
dented scale._
di
i
n
ctC" on April 23,
1980, for ill all shi all'
y shipping explosives to Libya from Po.:
mona
Calif, and f
,
or conspiri tu
.ngo mrder a critic of
t M
Libva's dictator C
---
o
oarn
In addition, Terpil was convicted ins absentia in New
York state court l
ast May 15 fo th
re attempted sale of I
t!'ta, chine guns. He was sentenced to 53 years in prison by
Justice Thomas Galligan
who cha
,
racterizedenlik
m-e
Terpil this way:
"They have no. allegiance to any flag. They prosper in
,,.a world at war. Wherever terrorism and torture are, they
are." .
Terrorism respects no international boundaries, but in
the 1970s it took root in the oil-rich and weapons-hungry.'
Middle East. And tharis where Wilson and Terpil sold
their peculiar talents. '
Information obtained from interviews with investiga-
tors, a review of public and still-classified- documents;
and published reports provides this account-of the Wil-
son-Terpiloperations: -
Wilson became a CIA contract agent -_ as opposed-to a
career officer - in' 1955. As an agent,' Wilson. _developed
friendships with high-level CIA officers- In the late 1960s,
he formed Consultants International Inc:, a CIA-front op-
erating as an export-import company.
While Consultants International was designed as an in:,
tell igenceLgatherin
t
l
g
oo
Wilson actll
,uay conducted busi=
ness through it, selling electronics gear ont the world
inarket-and making'a profit while tending to CIA busi-
Hess- Some CIA personnel moonlighted for Consultants-
Wilson ended his CIA association in 1971 and spent the
next year working for Naval Intelligence, although he led
friends to believe he was still active in the agency. Some
of the secret equipment Wilson had access to while he?
was on"the Naval intelligence assignment subsequently
turned up for"sale in various parts of the.world.-,
V
Approved For Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP09S00048R000100020101-9
 Approved For Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP09S00048R000100020101-9
Terpiil, who joined the CIA as a commu`., tins spe-
cialist tn.-1965, was fired from the agency-in. 1971. An
e~tthy Brooklyn native, Terpil was given to name-drop-
ping, bragging and boisterous living. He got into trouble
;.vith the CIA when.he.was caught
smuggling liquor into India. Terpil's:
'wtie. Marilyn. a. hair. dresser, told
,fner..ds she was a makeup artist for
?he Ci.A.
Relying oa his agency background
,to open doors. for him. Terpil began
;visiting the world's trouble spots
?!ter he was dismissed by the CIA.
lie became friendly with arms deal-
Xs in London, including Samuel
,ummings, a Philadelphia native
~`,,ro has perhaps"the largest private"
!pons inventory 3rr the world.-,
kith access. to veapotts, Terpil
found himself . welcomed* by the
Palestine Liberatiotb::Organization
? PLO), Libya's..Khadafy and' former
ti;ganda dictator Idi Amin..
In .the New York..Hilton. tapes,,
-transcripts. of which have. been ob-
"'ained by The Bulletin, Terpil tells of.
'atteuding a dinner.with "Amin and.
.Amia's'aides: At one-point, said Ter_
_JAI, a tray was carried into the room
:'and. the lid lifted offrexposing'the
2tead of the minister of defense:
'.When another minister gasped,.,Ter=
'and murdered him. '
-Terpil established himself in 'loin:
Zlbn and put together thriving bust
a
?ness selling arras. ;.Wilson, much
jore? tight-lipped than. Terpil,: was
"working the?? same'troubled areas,
: soiling sophisticated:electronic gear.
By 1975, Wilson-was able- to pur-
-chase a luxurious I;500-acre estate in
zVppervilfe, Va.,"right next- to the
"farm owned by Sen. John Warner
jR-Va) and his wife, actress Eliza-
.Geth Taylor, in the hunt country..
The . Wilson-Terpil partnership
'flowered in. 1976, when. the two for
aver. intelligence agents signeda con-
1wract -with. Khadafy to, supply him
uath military expertise= and weep.1
a For men in` the'; trs'ness WilsoR1
Ind Terpil chose;. Libya. was the-1
lace to be. Khadafy had oil revenue.
,of-more than $20 bfirwo a: year to.1
pend ands. While his Country was:
poor,, he preferred to spend it on
tms, tritlitafy gadget r3t, and ass.
as-
. tti dispose of hit critic$..... .. t
'4Ktiad ify also thole. ado secret of
'hi? finaiiei&1 support for the PLC) and
ytlief ii}rrdriBt groups. During this
bme,-Carlos Rarnirex, the notorious-
:'Jackal" who allegedly planned the
4.972 massacre at Munich of Israeli
plympic athletes, was an honored
resident of Libya. In the New York
Milton tapes,.Terpii boasts of seeing
the Jackal in Libya._
According to the April 23, 1980,- (
dictment of Wilson and Terpil,, the
Iwo men arranged for the shipment
of explosives, to Libya and agreed to
i'