FRANK TERPIL: CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100020005-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 36
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 14, 2007
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: January 11, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO TV REPORTS, I NC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20015 656-4068
PROGRAM Frank Te rp i I : Confessions STATION WETA TV
of a Dangerous Man PBS Network
D A T E January 1 1 , 1982 9:00 PM CITY Washington, D. C.
DANIEL SCHORR: Tonight, the story of an American fugi-
tive, Frank Terpi I, who 16 months ago fled from a 53 year sentence
for supplying arms to terrorists. He to l is his story from exile
i n Be i rut.
Good evening. I'm Danie I Schorr.
Terrorism I ooms i n our era as a greater threat than war.
It causes world leaders, including President Reagan, to live in
suffocating cocoons of security. Terrorism operates from safe
havens, like Libya. Colonel Qaddaf is oil wealth buys the in-
struments of terror and the know-how to use them. Some of that
comes from this country, American know-how at the service of
America's enemies.
Veterans of America's clandestine wars have turned to
se l l i ng their ski l is and contacts in the marketplace of violence.
Profiting from terror without suffering qualms takes a certain
menta l ity. I n the next 90 minutes, you wi I I get to know one of
the merchants of terror more intimately than has ever been p os-
si ble before.
NARRATOR: On the morning of Monday, December the 22nd,
1 9 7 9 , undercover detective N i cky Gri I lo reached the 27th floor
of this New York hotel. On that morning, he was wearing a wai-
ter's uniform borrowed from Forlini's restaurant. He entered
this room. Inside was a squad under Detective Sergeant Merv
Woike (?).
MERV WO I KE: I was here that day with Sergeant Rosen-
zweig and six detectives. We brought all the equipment we thought
we wou Id need for that day, which included four shotguns. We also
OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON D.C. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
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had -- of those detectives, two of them were techni ca l electronics
surveillance detectives. They had been recording all the conver-
sations that had taken place for the past three days in the ad-
j of n i ng room.
MAN: You put the liquid into the cooling system. You
put it, then, right into the top of the radiator. The car went
about 40 foot in the air.
NARRATOR: I n the next-door suite were four men. Two
of them were undercover detectives for the New York City police,
Jose Raad and Jimmy Rodriguez.
J I M M Y RODR I GUEZ: O n the day of the arrest, we were a l l
sitting i n this room here. I was sitting right in this chair here
and Detective Jose Raad was sitting on the corner right there.
And the two suspects were s i t t i n g at the e n d of the sofa. I t was
necessary that I receive a contract from them and that I give
them $56,000, which I had i n that drawer of that desk right there.
And besides that, one of the suspects had a weapon that they were
going to lend me so that I may assassinate someone that same eve-
ning.
The key word was French cru I ler. And after I had given
them the money and they gave me the contract and I received the
gun, I came over to the telephone and I dialed 5, which is a
blank line. I then ordered coffee, donuts, and a French cruller.
At this point, from both doors, the door to my left
and the front door, detectives came in with weapons and shotguns
and arrested the two suspects.
[Clip of arrest action]
NARRATOR: Unbeknown to the management and any of the
hotel guests, the two suspects were led in handcuffs across the
foyer. Two unmarked police cars were parked on 54th Street. The
suspects were separated and driven under armed guard to Lower
Manhattan and the New York Crimi na l Courts at 100 Center Street.
They were fingerprinted and photographed in the squad room on the
ninth f I oor.
I n New York police records, they are described as Terpi I,
Frank Edward. Nickname, none. Date of bi rth, November the 2nd,
1939. Place of birth, Brooklyn, New York. Height, 5' 1 1". Weight,
215 pounds. Hair, brown. Race, white. And Korkala, George Gre-
gary. Nickname, Gary. Date of birth, February the 9th, 194 1 .
Place of birth, Detroit, Michigan. Height, 5' I I". Weight, 175
pounds. Hair, blond. Race, white.
Shortly before midnight on December the 22nd, Frank
Terpi I and Gary Korka Ia were taken from their ceI Is on the ground
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floor and arraigned in court. Bai I was opposed by Assistant Dis-
trict Attorney Matthew Crosson.
MATTHEW CROSSON: I opposed bai I because we found during
our investigation that Frank Terpi I and George Gregary Korkala
were major suppliers of weapons a n d a s s a s s i n a t i o n devices to ter-
rorists a n d terrorist groups a l l around the world. Du ri ng the
cou rse of our i nvest i gat i on, we obtained the i rref uta b l e ev i den ce
that they h a d supplied and attempted to supp ly to our undercover
detectives who were posing as Latin American terrorists a variety
of weapons, including 10,000 British machine guns, a si lenced
s n i p e r r i f l e , a si lenced semi -automatic p istol, poisons, liquid
explosives, explosive briefcases, and other devices of a similar
natu re.
NARRATOR: After three b a i l h e a r i n g s , a judge f i na l ly
rejected Matthew Crosson's arguments. And on the 4th of January,
1980, Frank Terpi I and George Gregary Korkala were released on
bail after each had posted a $ 100,000 bond.
Four months later, Frank Terpi I was arrested a second
time and committed to the federal penitentiary in Washington,
D.C. Terpi I and a man cal led Edwin P. W i Ison were indicted by
the federal authorities in Washington on charges including acting
as an agent for a foreign power -- to wit, Libya -- transporta-
tion of explosives in foreign commerce, and conspiracy to commit
mu rde r. I n Washington, a judge once more rejected the p rosecu-
tor's appeal and granted bai I to Frank Terpi I.
With serious charges against him in Washington and New
York, Terpi I was free again.
On September the 3rd, 1980, Frank Terpi I and George
Gregary Korkala, his co-defendant in New York, s l i pped out of
the country for undisclosed destinations in the Middle East.
The New York t ri a l proceeded without them. The prose-
cution case was based on evidence obtained in a massive under-
cover operation. Rodriguez and Raad had originally followed a
tipoff from a man who was involved with the suspects in an i legal arms dea l . The two Spanish-speaking detectives were simply
substituted for South American buyers that Terpi I and Korka Ia
were expecting.
RODRIGUEZ: On the 15th of November i n 1979, when the
case started, Jose was to portray the big boss. We used the
name Patron to identify him. I was the person who wou Id actually
do the talking for Jose, since he would be playing the character
of a person who didn't speak any Eng I ish at a 1 I. And I wou Id
not only trans late, but since I have some know ledge of weapons
i n my own background and my police experience, I wou Id a Iso be
the weapons expert.
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After we met, we met Gary K orka la for the first time,
he started to explain to us what weapons were available. He i n-
qu i red whether we were an army or a terrorist group. I made it
quite clear that we were a terrorist group. And then we started
discussing weapons that would be uti l i zed in a terrorist type
organization.
CROSSON: The first thing that Korakala sold to the
undercover detectives was t h i s silenced .22 ca l i be r assassination
pistol. The entire cylinder part of the barrel is a silencer.
They were offering this particular weapon to our undercovers as
an example of the type and qua l ity of silencers that they could
provide in quantities of up to 10,000 lots.
The second weapon that Korkala and Terpi I sold to the
undercover detectives was this, a .22 caliber silenced sniper
rifle which they speci a l ly manufacture. The entire barrel of
this weapon is a silencer, from just below the sight, where I'm
pointing, to the end. This is fitted with an aim point electronic
sight. This allows the person who is firing the weapon to keep
both eyes open, watching the target at which he's shooting.
This weapon and the Luger that I just showed you were
each sold for $ 1500.
A Iso, at the second meeting, Mr. Korkala sold to the
undercover detectives for $800 this bottle of strychnine poison,
he said has the capacity to kill 25 people. It is so powerful
that individuals poisoned by strychnine have been known to die
i n a convu Isi on so strong that only the top of thei r head and
their heel is touching the ground at the time of death. The body
is arched comp lete ly off the ground.
NARRATOR: Terpi I and Korkala apparently offered thei r
c l i e n t s a v e r i t a b l e a r s e n a l of terrorist weapons. T h i s i s Kor-
ka l a ' s demonstration mode I exp l od i ng brief case. Terpi I's forte
was special-purpose weaponry, including a pen that fires a poison
dart through a teflon barrel, which Terpi I particularly recom-
mended for assassinations in a i rp lanes .
CROSSON: And he descri bed the manner i n which you wou Id
do it. That being that you would walk down the aisle of the plane
next to the person you intended to assassinate; and as you came
next to him, fire the poison dart right behind his ear, striking
either the carotid artery or the jugular vein. And then go back
to your seat and sit down.
NARRATOR: The second special-purpose weapon combines
a cigarette lighter a n d a pen w h i c h f i r e s a .22 c a l i b e r bu I let.
The pen acts as a barrel. The bullet and cocking mechanism are
i n the I i ghte r.
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But perhaps the most lethal product in Te rp i Its arsenal
was binary liquid explosive.
CROSSON: These are the bottles given by Te rp i I to the
undercover detective. Each of the parts is relatively stable
when separate; but when m i x e d together, forms a l i qu i d that is
explosive three to four times as powerful as ordinary dynamite.
He described one particular occasion in which he drained
the radiator of a n automobi l e a n d f i l l e d it with binary explosive.
RODRIGUEZ: His eyes would light up as he described how
you fi I I up the whole radiator, and then you just need a detonator,
and watch the car go up i n the air, and little bits were the only
thing left over.
CROSSON: He also descri bed blowing up the I obby of a
hotel in the Middle East by pouring binary liquid explosive in
the earth i n a potted plant i n the lobby.
RODRIGUEZ: He says, "Oh, it's great, Jimmy. It's
g reat." He says, "You take a flower pot -- we did this in the
Middle East -- and you put the one part liquid. Then you wait
a week and you put the second part. And then the third time you
come over and you put the deton. The whole hote I went up i n the
a i r."
And when he described these things, he was very excited
about it. And he kept apologizing that he didn't have a camera
to f i Im it. He says, "I didn't have -- I cou Idn't f i Im it. But
it was great to see it. I stood on the corner and watched it."
At that point, I realized I was dealing with a maniac.
NARRATOR: Rodriguez was also dealing with a man who had
powerful contacts. The prosecution case rested heavily on 25
hours of bugged conversation. Although Terpi I was absent from
court, the jury heard him describe on tape his l i nks with an
astonishing assortment of individuals and organizations, inclu-
ding the CIA; Scotland Yard; the Turkish Gray Wolves, who trained
Mehmet Agca, the man who shot the Pope; Colonel Qaddaf i , the
Libyan head of state; Elias Rami rez Sanchez, known as Carlos the
Jackal; Idi Amin, the former President of Uganda; and Amin's
competitor i n terror, the self-styled Emperor Bokassa.
Clearly, Terpi I wanted to impress his clients with his
credentia Is.
CROSSON: He was a man who was w i I I i ng and able to do
just about anything. And he was a man who was trusted by people
whom he assumed terrorists w o u l d respect: Idi Amin, Muammar
Qaddafi, Carlos the Jackal.
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He has been described to me by people who knew him and
saw his actions in Uganda as the man wh o would occasionaI I y put
steel into the spine of Idi Amin when Idi Amin himself was waf-
f l i ng about doing something.
RODRIGUEZ: I've dealt with numerous gunrunners and
gun merchants. I can honestly say that he's about the biggest
one I've dealt with. His connections, his past escapades, his
experiences, and, in general, his whole background is incredible.
I don't think I' 11 ever meet someone like Frank Terpi I again. I
think I've reached my peak with Frank Terpi I.
NARRATOR: The jury was impressed by the prosecution's
case. And on May the 15th, 1981, Terpi I and Korkala were found
gu i l y i n absentia on a l l I I charges in the New York indictment.
Acting Justice Thomas B. Ga I lagen (?) recommended that neither
of the two men should be re leased from prison one minute earlier
than 53 years, the maximum that the law allows. I n cou rt he
said, quote, "These men trade in death and destruction. That
is their business. They have no allegiance to any f lag. They
prosper i n a world at war. Wherever terrorism and torture are,
they are."
Two weeks after h i s c o n v i c t i o n , Frank Te rp i I sent us
a coded telex from the Middle East. He wanted to present, quote,
the defense side of his case via TV and city media, end quote.
We were invited to a penthouse apartment in the Hamra (?) dis-
trict of Bei rut to meet Frank Terpi I and his permanent companion,
Ruth Boyd.
The man who has been described as a mastermind of i n-
ternati ona l terrorism and the key contributor to Amin's death
machine told us about his work for the Ugandan dictator.
FRANK TERPIL: Idi needed some technical assistance
i n -- basically for their intelligence network. They needed
t e c h n i c a l capabilities that they didn't have before. And that's
not using technical sledgehammers. I'm talking about electronic
equipment, t h i n g s I i ke that, w h i c h wou I d be b a s i c a l l y the same
t h i n g that we d i d i n I ran f o r telephone taps a n d t h i n g s l i k e that.
NARRATOR: S u r v e i l l a n c e equipment.
TERPIL: Basically surveillance equipment. Yeah.
Sophisticated su rve i l lan ce equipment.
NARRATOR: Matthew Crosson, the New York prosecutor,
has a I leged that you supplied interrogation equipment and torture
equipment to Uganda.
TERPIL: Well , what i s tortu re equipment? I could take
a pair of p l iers and make it very unpleasant for anybody. The
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Chinese used water, s l ow water drip treatment. So, the ref ore,
I do not fee I that a I I water exports shou Id be control led by
I I cense.
NARRATOR: Matthew Crosson describes implements to
app ly e lectri c shock to various pa rts of the body.
TERPIL: It's true that there was a shipment seized
in Florida that contained tazers (?), which is a defensive piece
of equipment. It possibly cou Id be used to induce some peop le
to talk otherwise -- that might not otherwise. But also seized
i n that shipment happened to be six of I d i Ami n's basketballs.
Now, I cannot real ly foresee how you wou l d use this as a torture
device.
NARRATOR: Did you supply poisons to Amin?
TERPIL: Poi sons. I'm going to skate on that one a
little bit. There may have been some i n the shipment. I can't
recall speci f i ca I ly.
NARRATOR: On two of the bugged tapes, there's a des-
cription of how poison was tried out on a minister and how he
went out very quickly and his head fell in the soup. Did that
happen?
TERPIL: Yes, that happened.
NARRATOR: Were you there?
TERPIL: No.
NARRATOR: And you didn't administer the poison.
TERPIL: Ah, no.
NARRATOR: But it could have come out of your supp l i es.
NARRATOR: You seem to make a complete separation be-
tween what you supply and what it might be used for. Do you ever
stop to think of the consequences of this stuff on human beings?
TERPIL: I f I rea I ly thought about the consequences
a I I the time, I certainly wou I dn't have been i n the business,
if that's what...
NARRATOR: So you have to blank it off.
TERPIL: Yes, you have to blank it off. I'm sure that
the peop le from Dow Chemi ca I i n Delaware, I'm sure that they
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d i d n ' t t h i n k of the consequences of s e l l i n g n a p a l m . I f they did,
they wouldn't be working at the factory. I doubt very much if
they'd feel any more responsible for the ultimate use than I did
for my equipment.
NARRATOR: Except that the employees were not in the
Vietnamese villages.
TERPIL: That's true.
NARRATOR: And you were in Uganda.
TERPIL: I had been in Uganda. Yes.
NARRATOR: To be precise, Terpi I was here, at the State
Research Bureau in a luxury suburb of Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
During Amin's bloody eight-year reign, thousands of Ugandans were
herded into this building and slaughtered.
The dictator's official residence stands next door, sym-
bolizing his direct personal involvement in the killing.
I n May 1979, the atrocities committed at State Research
were revea led to the world. The bloodstained wa I Is and floors,
the pervasive stench of death testified to the crimes that had
been committed in this charnel house.
These basement cel Is were used to imprison those who
were brought here, often in car trunks, by snatch squads working
day and night. Among these grisly re l i cs was an arsenal of wea-
pons sufficient to stock a small army, and secret documents that
revealed how State Research had been supplied by American and
British companies, like Security Systems International of Cam-
bridge, England and a Swiss company of the same name. Pi (?)
Telecommunications had also supp l ied Amin's secret police through
Wi Iki n (?), thei r East Afri can distributors, and on one occasion
direct to the president's office from their British headquarters.
But it was this document that introduced a new name
into Ugandan history. It is a three-page contract itemizing
equipment originally valued at over $6.3 mi l l i on, and then re-
vised down to a new agreed price. The contract bears the signa-
tures of Field Marshal Amin and F.E. Terpi I, Director of Inter-
continental Technology.
You had an office in State Research.
TERPIL: Yes.
NARRATOR: And you knew what was going on in State
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TERPIL: I was in the administrative. The State Re-
sea rch consisted of three f I oors. The third f I oor -- the first,
second and t h i r d f l oor, there were n o p r i s one rs kept there. I n
the basement the prisoners were kept. And I never went down to
the basement.
NARRATOR: So you never saw the basement.
NARRATOR: One of the things that's been said against
you in the New York case and by Matthew Crosson is that you par-
ticipated in torture.
TERPIL: I 've never participated i n any t ortu re. I n
fact, I've never even questioned prisoners. That's purely an
i me rna I matter.
NARRATOR: You're a supplier.
TERPIL: Just a supplier. Right.
NARRATOR: But you knew that torture was going on.
TERPIL: It was hard to miss. I mean you had to wa Ik
out of State Research and wa Ik right by the courtyard.
NARRATOR: It would indeed have been hard to miss the
courtyard at State Research.
The Reverend George Lukw i a (?) des cri bes what he saw.
REVEREND GEORGE LUKWIA: Most of the time was just
cutting o f f . And then sometimes they would -- they would just --
they w o u l d just beat a person to death using the butt of the gun.
This was very common around here. And again, they would bring
some dead bodies already, and then they would throw them on the
yard -- in the yard.
NARRATOR: You said that on the third f I oor you neve r
saw what went on, that i t a I I happened i n the basement. But
even i f that's t rue, you must have heard what was g of ng on there.
TERPIL: At times, you could hear sounds emitting from
the basement.
NARRATOR: Screams.
TERPIL: Screams, yeah.
NARRATOR: Terpi I's office was here. According to
him, an administrative area three floors above the basement,
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where prisoners were kept. But the Reverend George Lukw i a was
a l s o on the t h i r d f l o o r . I n fact, he spent three months in this
room.
REVEREND LUKW I A: This was were we -- we never had food
very much. See, they would not even bring us food at a l 1. So we
suffer, stay here just like that. And then water a Iso was another
p rob Iem. They never brought us water here. And then another
thing we experienced here -- we were too many for the room. And
as a result, some people lost their lives because of suffocation.
You can see blood up there. There was a time when we
[unintelligible] 30, 34. And it was right on top here. The whole
of this area was full of all dead bodies only. From here up to
out there, see, was really blood always.
TERPIL: They were very, very sensitive, and also I was
very sensitive, is that was completely an i ntera I affair -- in-
ternal affair, of which did not concern me.
NARRATOR: The bugged tapes suggest otherwise. New
York, December the 20th, 1979.
TERPIL: [Unintelligible]. They stick the [unintelli-
gible] on your stomach [unintelligible]. Then they put a copper
pot on top of your stomach. They strap it on your stomach. They
start a l itt le fire on top of the pot. The top of the pot, on
copper, starts getting hot from the top down. The rat goes crazy.
There's only one way out.
MAN: Through the stomach. Oh, my God.
[Confusion of voices]
TERPIL: You can see it. You can see it.
MAN: You were seeing it.
TERPIL: You can see one that's in your stomach. It
keeps on g o i n g through. I t keeps on g o i ng th rough. I t doesn't
stop.
MAN: He eats right through the stomach.
TERPIL: He eats right through.
[Confusion of voices
MAN: ...interesting way.
TERPIL: Very effective. I've seen it. I've seen that
done about three times. It's tota l ly effective.
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II
NARRATOR: Did you ever witness anything like that?
T E R P I L : No. I t has been used, but by various tribes.
It's not an invention of I di Amin or State Research. It's been
there for 50 -- I don't know what the amount of time. But it's
a common method used by some of the tribes in the North.
NARRATOR: S o what you're saying is that you never saw
it and it never happened at State Research.
TERPIL: I'm not saying it was not done. If it was
done, I was not knowledgeable of it being done at State Research.
NARRATOR: The Eng I i sma n, Bob Asse I s (?), is usually
thought of as I di Ami n's right-hand man. But in a recent inter-
view from prison, he described you as the real power behind Amin
and said that everybody i n Uganda feared you.
TERPIL: No. I didn't consider myself the power behind
him. He was there long before I arrived.
NARRATOR: But he needed you.
TERPIL: In certain -- yeah. In certain areas, he did.
NARRATOR: As he talked about his Ugandan years, Terpi I
casua l ly touched on events that had made world headlines: the
raid on Entebbe, the murder of Dora Bloch, the mass executions
of Ugandans, the mysterious plane crash which ki I led Bruce Ma c-
kenzie (?), Kenya's Minister of Agri cu lture.
We heard that Amin gave a present to Mackenzie just
before he took off in the ai rp lane.
TERPIL: It was probably a cob head, which was a tradi-
tional present for -- it's a mounted head. It looks similar to
a deer. A traditional present that he did give away.
NARRATOR: It's been established, I think, that there
was a bomb inside that cob head.
TERPIL: Then that would be a dangerous present to have.
Beware of Amins giving gifts.
NARRATOR: We also know that you supp l ied a special
kind of detonator that was set off at high altitude. Was that
your equipment inside the cob head?
TERPIL: There's a remote possi bi l ity.
NARRATOR: Could they have got that equipment from any-
where else but your supp l i es?
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TERPIL: They could have gotten it through U.K. You
know, I did not have an exclusive on this type of equipment.
supplied.
NARRATOR: But it was the kind of equipment that you
T E R P I L : I n some cases, yes.
NARRATOR: As he to Iked, Terpi I g radua I ly revea led h i s
closeness to the Ugandan dictator, who had rewarded him with the
nickname Waragi (?), White Lightning. When the regime collapsed,
it was Frank Terpi I who sat at Amin's side on the last plane out
of Uganda, wh i le Asse Is was made to make his own way out of the
country on foot .
You and Ami n a rrived i n Li bya as two refugees.
TERPIL: Pol it i ca l refugees. Yes.
NARRATOR: How were you treated there?
TERPIL: At that time, there was a lot of confusion.
There was no open hostility at that time.
NARRATOR: We heard about Ami n's short exi le i n Li bya
and the breakdown of his relationship with Qaddaf i when he des-
cri bed Libyan soldiers as women.
TERPIL: Amin, although he was treated well, finally
rea I i zed that he was under house arrest.
NARRATOR: How the Saudi Arabians then gave Amin sanc-
tuary and, according to Terpi I, support to stage his comeback.
A threat that st i I I hangs over Uganda.
TERPIL: Yes. There's no doubt in my mind he's plan-
ning to make a comeback. Yes. There's approximately 40,000
troops that were loyal to his cause in a neighboring country,
and I think have been fairly well trained by now.
NARRATOR: Would you be prepared to help him?
TERPIL: I would assist him in the same way I assisted
him bef ore. Sure.
NARRATOR: The two exi les have kept i n close touch.
I n the summer of 1980, they tried to negotiate with Khomeini for
the release of the American hostages. Te rp i I gave us tapes of
his to leph one calls to Jedda when invasion plans, code word Foot-
ba l l Match, give the two friends to indulge their humor.
T E R P I L : Excellency, this i s Wa rag i .
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but
I
IDI AMIN: Ahh, very good. I telephoned you one day,
couldn't get you.
TERPIL:
Yeah.
AMIN:
I
decided just to be now a religious man.
TERPIL:
But they want you back now.
AMIN:
We are preparing for everything possible very
TERPIL:
Very good.
AMIN:
We might invite you for the football match.
[Laughter]
TERPIL: I wi I I be there, because we have to start the
basketba l l team again.
AMIN: We want a basketba l l between Ca l i fornia and
Washington.
TERPIL: [Laughter] Very good. You see, now we can
invite Nixon this time, because he sti l l doesn't have a job.
[Laughter]
NARRATOR: As he talked, Terpi I became more and more
nostalgic for the old days with I d i . I t was as though State
Research had never existed and Uganda was just comic opera.
We heard about Am i n' s secret passion for Princess Margaret,
about e v e n i n g s Te rp i I h a d spent i n Am i n's massage parlor l i s-
teni ng to the dictator's records of Scottish pipe bands, and
of long lazy afternoons on Lake Victoria when Amin d reamed of
turning Uganda into a nuclear power.
TERPIL: And with that, we had been out on the boat,
with myself, Bob Assels, and Amin. And there were discussions
as to if uranium were discovered, or i f i n fact it was i n com-
mercia I quantities, wou Id it enhance the economy of the nati on?
O r i f it wou Id, what other p oss i b le uses c o u l d i t be used for?
And then Amin i nqui red as to how much it wou Id require to make
a bomb.
NARRATOR: I n that first afternoon, it seemed to us
that we'd not been invited to deal with innocence or gui It, but
to join Terpi I in a world with no moral coordinates, to share
hilarious stories of men like Amin.
TERPIL: And he had a difficult time saying uranium.
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And he said -- he looked around the boat and he said, "Wa rag i ,"
he said, "how much would this make to make a big bomb?" [Laugh-
ter] He's a Iways smi le and he seemed -- I wou Id use the word
psychotic. He definitely has a problem. He's not all there.
He's conscious of what he's doi ng, but to him, you know, he's
l i k e the old horses where they put the blinders on. He doesn't
take -- I'd say he doesn't care.
NARRATOR: I n 1 9 7 9 you were s i t t i n g next to I d i Amin
on the last f l ight out of Uganda. Take us back to the very
beginning. I mean what brought you there? Where were you born?
Where do you come from?
TERPIL: I was born i n November 1939 i n Brooklyn, New
York on East Eighth Street, 223 East Eighth Street. On my par-
ticular street, we had Irish, Italian, Polish, and one French
fami ly that somehow found their way there. It was very ethnic.
NARRATOR: On the western edge of Long Island, just
over the water from Manhattan, are some 80 square ml les of bri ck
and brownstone tenements, shops, pubs and clapboard houses known
as Brooklyn. We came here in search of clues, hoping to learn
what forces had shaped Frank Te rp i I, had created, i n Matthew
Crosson's words, a unique and dangerous man. Instead, we met
Viola, Viola Terpi I.
VIOLA TERPIL: Nobody can to l I me that Frank cou Id
p oss i bly be gui Ity of a I I these things that they had i n the paper.
He's not -- if he is, if he is, I wi I I be the most shocked person
of a 1 I, because that's not him.
NARRATOR: Why d o you t h i n k F rank has chosen the l i f e
he lives? I s i t for money?
MRS. TERPIL: I think it's the excitement. I think
it's -- it's certainly not money. Definitely not money. Be-
cause, like I say, Frank would give anybody anything if he had
it, you know.
NARRATOR: Do you think Frank enjoys being different
from the people of Brooklyn, the kind of people he was...
MRS. TERPIL: Oh, yes. I'm sure he does. I'm sure he
does. I don't know what -- you know, I never did to Ik to him and
ask him what his impression of Brooklyn was.
TERPIL: The people of Brooklyn normally -- and this
is only the peop le that I know. They've got very, very -- a very
narrow scope of life. Quite honestly, they are kind of like the
Archie Bunkers depicted on TV.
I f I would have stayed there, I would have never known
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any difference. I mean I would be in the same syndrome they would
be, probably working in Iight industry, or one of the keys of suc-
cess there may be to work for the telephone company or a very
established company like that.
NARRATOR: What sort of work did your father do?
TERPIL: He was basically in the military all the time.
He got -- he had gotten called up in World War II. And from
World War II, then, of course, Korea broke out very soon after
that. So -- I don't remember too much of him, except that he --
the part that I do remember, he was in uniform most of the time.
MRS. TERPIL: Frank's father worked for Western Elec-
tric. He was a sprayer, worked in a spray booth spraying phones.
You know, the jackets of them.
TERPIL: His father died when Frank was 12 years old.
MRS. TERPIL: And I said to him, "Frank, now that Daddy
is gone, how do you feel?"
And he just looked at me. He said to me, "I would
rather you not ask me, 'cause I don't want to discuss it."
So, we never, ever discussed it again. Never. To
this day, we never discussed his father.
MRS. TERPIL: I think Frank has blanked out a lot
throughout his Iife that he didn't -- and I think that's why he's
the personality that he is. But it's an art, believe me, to
blank things out. It's not that easy to blank things out.
NARRATOR: And Frank has developed that art.
MRS. TERPIL: Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad. I think it's
wonderful. I think it's wonderful, because it makes -- it makes
your life so much easier. It makes your life so much easier.
NARRATOR: At the age of 12, Frank was the only male
in an all-female household. Adele was five at the time.
ADELE TERPIL: I'm proud of him as a brother. It was
an injustice, I think, that was done to him. He was singled out,
kind of. And he had to do what he had to do.
NARRATOR: Lorraine is the baby of the family.
LORRAINE TERPIL: I look at my brother as a totally
different person than what I read about. And I don't know. When
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I'm with him or -- it just -- to me, that seems so out of range,
this Idi Amin or the gun dealings, whatever went on. I don't
look at it as -- I don't -- it doesn't really even enter my mind.
NARRATOR: Are you concerned when you read about Frank's
association with Idi Amin and people like that?
people?
A. TERPIL: For his safety or because...
NARRATOR: Morally, are you worried?
A. TERPIL: I don't know how much of it is true and how
much of it isn't. So I don't think of it in those terms. I be-
lieve in Frank. And in believing in him -- and I always will
believe in him and always stick by him. If he feels what he's
doing is right, then it's right.
NARRATOR: Is there any side of Frank's character that
you're ashamed of?
NARRATOR: Paradoxically, it was in the company of these
warm and generous people that we began to grasp the influences
that had shaped Frank Terpil.
ager?
Did Frank give you any problems as a child? As a teen-
MRS. TERPIL: Well, yes. Once. But it was something
that -- like I think I told you about the machine gun.
TERPIL: She may be referring to an illicit machine gun
NARRATOR: When you were how old?
TERPIL: Fifteen. Yes. I had bought -- I had bought
a machine gun. It had been confiscated from somebody. I bought
it from a policeman, as a matter of fact. And saw a margin of
profit that could be made by selling it to somebody else, which
happened to be the son of my high school science teacher.
MRS. TERPIL: The first thing I know, Frank was ar-
rested. And they called me at work. And they had Frank down
at the station house, and they wouldn't let he see him. But
like he was in a room, and I passed the door and I just said to
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17
him, "Whatever your story is, stick to it."
chine gun?
NARRATOR: Were you angry with Frank for owning a ma-
MRS. TERPIL: No. I felt sorry for him because -- I
felt sorry for him because it wasn't a case of he was doing any-
thing malicious. He wasn't going out robbing people. He wasn't
going out and sticking them up. It was just -- he was creative,
I guess. I don't know. I guess this was a big thing to put this
thing together. Yeah. I mean because this is Frank. He was
always -- great imagination.
MRS. TERPIL: No. No, not at all. Not at all.
TERPIL: The morality of New York is my morality. It's
how I was brought up. And it depends on what -- how you view
morality. During my, I guess you may call them, formative years,
we were taught to obey, I guess you may say, the precepts of the
law in a different framework. I certainly learned at a very early
age that a dollar placed in the right hand could do wonders.
NARRATOR: Is that a fair comment?
MRS. TERPIL: Is it fair?
NARRATOR: Is it fair to suggest that in Brooklyn, New
York corruption is almost a way of life?
MRS. TERPIL: Anthony, where have you been? Do you
mean that you haven't heard of corruption in New York City? I
think all the big cities are so corrupt. I would say even the
small towns are so corrupt. New York City, especially, is cor-
rupt, corrupt, corrupt.
NARRATOR: Farrell's bar, Brooklyn. Four miles from
here, in the D.A.'s office, we have been persuaded that Terpil
was beyond the pale of decent society. Here, there's another
perspective.
years old.
Frank Giardino has known Terpil since they were 14
FRANK GIARDINO: He was an international firearms dealer,
an accredited international firearms dealer. It was a business
that he developed. He became successful at it. He raised a family
with it. It was something done all within the structure of our
society.
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NARRATOR: Are you saying that Frank Terpil has been
unfairly singled out?
GIARDINO: I believe, in my mind, one of the worst
things that can happen to an individual is exile from his country,
because this is the place. It's the best place in the world. I
believe Frank feels that way. I believe Frank wants to come home.
I believe he's done a lot for this country. And in some ways, he
deserves a medal for what he's done.
NARRATOR: In 1958, when he was 19, Frank Terpil found
a way out of Brooklyn by joining the Army. Seven years later, he
was recruited by the CIA and trained for the Technical Services
Division, the dirty tricks brigade. Brooklyn morality, and a
great deal more, was now legitimate.
TERPIL: Some of their operations, without compromising
situations that have actually occurred, literally went from the
evaluation of mind-distorting materials, such as LSD -- which I
had not been involved in. That's a different section -- through
bugging, which, of course, everybody is aware of -- technical
surveillance, that's called -- through assassinations.
NARRATOR: Terpil traveled the world in the service of
the CIA. In 1970, when he was just 31, he was stationed in New
Delhi. He had already come a long way from Brooklyn.
TERPIL: I lived with the Raj atmosphere mentality. I
lived very well. I lived in a large house in the West End colony,
with the normal amount servants, which were from 13 to 15. I had
a large car, a Cadillac.
NARRATOR: Was it possible to get all those things on
your sa l ary?
TERPIL: No. One had to supplement his income a wee
NARRATOR: How did you supplement your income?
TERPIL: I would collect foreign currencies from various
individuals, groups; take the foreign currencies to Afghanistan,
which had a very large banking center there; reconvert the foreign
currencies into Indian rupees, which had a very high exchange
value; bring the Indian rupees back to New Delhi; reconvert them
back to foreign currency. And it was a never-ending circle.
NARRATOR: According to Terpil, his career was cut
short in 1971 when he was stranded in Afghanistan with his black-
market money by the unexpected outbreak of the India-Pakistan
war. He was sent back to CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia,
where, apparently, they have a particular punishment for renegade
agents.
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TERPIL: They have a euphemism there of walking the
halls. You're not given a desk. You don't have an assignment.
And consequently, you usually wind up going to the cafeteria
every day, in which you see other people in this position. So
you form a little cafeteria club or walk-the-halls club, or
whatever you call it.
NARRATOR: So you've no office. You just have the
corridor, the halls.
TERPIL: And my chair in the cafeteria.
NARRATOR: And your chair in the cafeteria.
What happened next?
TERPIL: I resigned. I resigned, and I believe that
was in July or -- I'm not too sure when it was, July of '72.
JIM HOGAN: He was 35 years old or so. He'd been
trained in various areas, but he couldn't say about what. And
so he was basically unemployable. And I think a lot of people,
probably thousands of people who've left the intelligence ser-
vices have found themselves in that position.
NARRATOR: Jim Hogan was our link to Frank Terpi I .
When researching his book "Spooks" on free-lance agents and
mercenaries, he entered the world of CIA retirees like Terpil.
HOGAN: It's the CIA's business, dirty tricks in the
public interest. And for patriotic reasons, obviously. And
Frank Terpil [unintelligible], he said he took those dirty tricks,
went into private business. And the goal was profit rather than
patriotism.
NARRATOR: So you took the skills you'd learnt in the
CIA and went free-lance.
TERPIL: That's basically -- yes. That's not basically,
that's exactly what I did. I went free-lance.
Marty Kaiser has been called the Michelangelo of the
bugging business. In his workshop just outside Baltimore, we
were given another version of Terpil's resignation from the CIA.
Kaiser is a master craftsman who enjoys a reputation
for uncompromising honesty. In 1975 he blew the whistle on cor-
rupt middlemen who were costing the FBI millions of dollars in
markups on equipment. He has never worked for the government
since. But in the previous year, he was a star supplier.
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MARTY KAISER: From mid-1974, I received a contract
from the CIA to provide equipment to Egyptian intelligence. But
what startled me is that this thing was supposedly hush-hush.
And Mr. Terpil came in and he knew the exact dollar volume of
the contract, the quantity of each and every item.
Shortly after that, he came back to me asking if I
would make certain modifications to certain of the products.
And I told him that -- well, I didn't tell him anything. I just
didn't do it because I was bound by contract to provide certain
items.
So I eventually delivered the contract to the point
here in the United States, and then flew to Cairo. I was met at
the airport by my host, who took me to the Nile Hilton. And we
walked into the lobby of the Nile Hilton. And sitting there,
not more than 40 feet in front of me, was Frank Terpil.
Frank took me to the second floor lounge and introduced
me to my CIA contact there, which, of course, struck me as odd.
But everything fits in this world.
And then the following day, when I went to meet with
the generals and open the equipment, the one general expressed
disappointment that the modifications had not been made, making
it abundantly clear that Frank had won the confidence of that
particular group.
So, there he was right smack in the midst of their in-
telligence agency, moving about with total freedom. And it just
absolutely baffled me.
NARRATOR: So, two years after Frank was fired from
the CIA -- or, to be strictly accurate, was forced to resign from
the CIA -- he seems to have the full confidence of their man in
Cairo and of the Egyptian military.
How's that possible?
KAISER:
Well, the only conclusion
I can draw is that
he never was fired.
NARRATOR:
Mr. Colby, in
1974,
when
you were the Direc-
tor of the CIA, Frank Terpil seemed to be
in
the center of very
important negotiations involving the CIA
and
Egyptian military.
How could he maneuver himself into that position two years after
he supposedly left the agency?
WILLIAM COLBY: Well, I guess he could. I mean agents
do maneuver themselves into situations.
NARRATOR: Ex-agents?
COLBY: Ex-agents move -- that's the function of an
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agent, in the right thing, in the proper use of the situation,
to maneuver themselves into a situation by their own wits and so
forth. It's not abnormal at all. Old military types, old diplo-
mats, they all maintain that kind of contact, even though they
might have left under some shadow.
frankly.
I really don't know the facts of this case, quite
NARRATOR: Well, the facts are that when you were
Director of the CIA, Frank Terpil appeared to a CIA supplier to
enjoy the full confidence of his CIA contact in Cairo and the
Egyptian military.
COLBY: I just don't know the circumstances under which
it happened, so I really can't comment about it. It's impossible
to responsibly say anything.
NARRATOR: Has it ever been a practice to appear to
fire people from the CIA in order to put them into deep cover?
COLBY: It's possible. Sure. That's -- there are
those kinds of things that you do -- used to do years ago. I
don't think you do it anymore.
NARRATOR: Whatever the reasons, the world suddenly
opened up for Frank Terpil after his resignation from the CIA.
He described his deals in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, and
Yugoslavia; his work for Somoza, the Nicaraguan tyrant; for Bo-
kassa, the man who was accused of participating in the massacre
of schoolchildren and of cannibalism; for the Shah of Iran, who
paid $48 million for an elaborate bugging system so that he could
spy on his own government and secret police.
TERPIL: This equipment had the capability of listening
to -- listening and identifying all telephone conversations that
took place within Teheran itself. Basically, it was a Big Brother
operation, a 1984 type operation.
NARRATOR: And what was your involvement in this?
TERPIL: We were involved in the most sensitive part,
and that was the vetting of his own government.
NARRATOR: As Terpil told it, he was associated with
the most traumatic events of our time. He had helped to train
and equip the Gray Wolves, whose membership included Mehmet Agca,
the man who shot the Pope.
Were there no times when you felt, "I know what's going
on here, and I don't want any part in it"?
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TERPIL: I do not get wrapped up emotionally with the
country. I regard myself, basically, as neutral and commercial.
NARRATOR: In most cases, Terpil was proud of his deals
and connections. But occasionally he kept his distance.
Do you know Carlos the Jackal?
TERPIL: No, I do not.
NARRATOR: On the bugged tape of the 17th of December,
Gary Korkala, in your presence, offers the undercover agents
Carlos the Jackal for a job. Now, was that a lie? Was that just
trying to impress them?
TERPIL: Korkala may have said that to impress them.
NARRATOR: But not being able to deliver.
TERPIL: Not that I know of.
NARRATOR: Do you exaggerate?
TERPIL: I'd say -- sure. Just like everybody.
NARRATOR: And do you exaggerate when you're talking
about your past experiences?
TERPIL: No. They're all substantiated. I don't have
to exaggerate on that. It's usually documented and I usually
have the documents to prove it.
NARRATOR: This discussion was to prompt one of the
most astonishing experiences of our trip. To back up his claims,
Terpil suddenly handed over files of letters and telexes, ad-
dresses and phone numbers to lead us to manufacturers and ship-
pers and to his private contacts in Congress, the CIA, the U.S.
Special Forces, M16 and Scotland Yard, all of whom he claimed
had assisted him in his years of private practice.
Our team telephoned unlisted numbers, visited homes
and offices. But few of Terpil's contacts would have anything
to do with a film. Occasionally, we were crudely threatened.
At other times, we were given detailed corroboration of Terpil's
information on the strict understanding that this was off the
record. Whenever we presented our evidence, nobody denied their
association with Frank Terpil.
Broadcast guidelines prevent us from recording inter-
views without the consent of the subject. And the ring of silence
might have held had it not been for the two court cases against
Frank Terpil which had flushed some of his contacts into the open,
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people who were prepared to corroborate Terpil's revelations and
appear on film.
This man, Kevin Mulcahy, formerly of the CIA, turned
state's evidence in a case that is still reverberating throughout
Washington. In June '76, Mulcahy became a partner in Intercon-
tinental Technology, a company with headquarters here at 1612
K Street, Washington. The other two partners in ITI were Frank
Terpil and a man called Ed Wilson, who impressed Mulcahy with
his contacts in official Washington.
KEVIN MULCAHY: Socially, Ed and I met a number of re-
tired individuals from the Central Intelligence Agency, as well
as people that were currently employed by the Central Intelli-
gence Agency. We -- on more than three occasions, we had visited
Capitol Hill and met the legislative and administrative assis-
tants to a number of congressmen and senators.
NARRATOR: Wilson had served in the CIA and naval in-
telligence. He also owned a 1500 acre estate in Virginia and
was close to men like Strom Thurmond, the archconservative Repub-
lican senator, and Theodore Shackley, then Deputy Director of
the CIA.
The question is, why did a man with those connections
form a company with Frank Terpil to join the Russians, the East
Germans and the Bulgarians as suppliers to one of the most radical
leaders in the Arab World? And how did Wilson and Terpil contract
to transport tons of explosives, hundreds of classified night-
vision devices, and half a million detonators out of the United
States in order to deliver them to America's supposed archenemy,
Muammar Qaddafi?
According to Mulcahy, these questions began to trouble
him in the autumn of 1976.
MULCAHY: I didn't know whether or not it was a CIA
operation, whether it was a legitimate business deal. I just
didn't know what the hell was going on.
NARRATOR: At what stage did you report your worries
to senior people in the CIA?
MULCAHY: In September of 1976, I told the FBI and I
told the Central Intelligence Agency, in gross and dramatic de-
tail. I laid out the cast of characters that were involved in
every deal I was privy to, every company that was involved in
the supply end of it. They had -- I don't know of -- you know,
unless I'd gone out myself and dropped a body over the transom
to the FBI, I don't think they would have done anything with it.
NARRATOR: The CIA knew about the operation in Libya
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in 1976. But nothing was done to stop it until April 1980. Why
do you think Terpil and Wilson were allowed to carry on for nearly
four years?
MULCAHY: I have no idea. None whatsoever. It's one
of the things that bothered me enough so that I was willing to go
public, finally, after 4 1/2 years of silence.
NARRATOR: Mulcahy was not the only one to report his
concerns to the authorities.
These are the Green Berets, the elite commando corps,
at their main training center in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In
1976 Terpil's cronies were active here, recruiting instuctors for
Qaddafi.
Master Sergeant Luke F. Thompson was approached by one
MSGT LUKE THOMPSON: I was called at my home in Fort
Bragg about 7:30 at night by a man who identified himself as Pat
Loomis. And he asked if I could -- was free to go abroad to dis-
cuss some contract work in the intelligence field. And not
really knowing who he was or anything about him, Ihad to lead
him on to find out some specifics, because I thought he was from
some foreign intelligence trying to subvert me. And he asked me
if I could recruit a team of five people.
So, as soon as we got through talking, I cal l ed the
counterintelligence people and made them aware that I was ap-
proached by what I felt was a foreign agent. They came over
to my house, and the intelligence people told me, said, "This
is completely legal and above-board. So you have no worries.
Pursue it as you desire. No problems."
NARRATOR: With the apparent approval of counterintel-
ligence and his own commanding officer, Luke Thompson took a
squad of five men with 800 pounds of explosives to Libya. Shortly
after his arrival, he was escorted to a desert palace, where
Americans were assembling booby traps, ashtrays, books, desks,
that would explode as soon as they were moved.
Would you ever use these devices in conventional war-
MSGT THOMPSON: No. It's not something that you would
use as a device against organized force.
NARRATOR: What would you use these devices for?
MSGT THOMPSON: Terrorist activities. Terrorist -- on
unsuspecting civilians, someone that would -- you know, would
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pick up an innocent item, through ignorance.
NARRATOR: What was Terpil doing out there?
MSGT THOMPSON: He indicated -- he act like he was chief
of the operation.
NARRATOR: He was running the whole manufacturing faci-
lity in the palace?
MSGT THOMPSON: Yes, he was.
TERPIL: We had one of the out buildings, or the outer
buildings, as an assembly point, an area of instruction for the
assembly of these explosives.
NARRATOR: Who were you instructing?
TERPIL: The people we were instructing were Libyan
military, which I assume would be their equivalent of the Special
Forces.
NARRATOR: Were you instructing any guerrilla groups
from the outside, like ETA, the Basque group, or the Red Army,
the Italian Red Brigade, the IRA?
TERPIL: If we were, we were not cognizant of it, be-
cause we never spoke directly to the people.
NARRATOR: So you were instructing Libyan military per-
sonnel and others whose origins you didn't know.
TERPIL: Which we didn't know. That's right.
MSGT THOMPSON: I decided, being active-duty military,
I'd better get out before things get too bad.
NARRATOR: Why were you worried?
MSGT THOMPSON: Well, I could see that this wasn't
something that I should be doing. It was obvious that something
was wrong. And I decided I had best burn my bridges and get out.
When I got back to the United States, I reported to
the counterintelligence people that I had been reporting to all
along.
NARRATOR: And what did they say to you about your
MSGT THOMPSON: "Obviously, something's wrong. This
is not an agency operation." So they put it back through the
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computer again, and they got a block somewhere. The agent told
me, he said, "We can only get so far up. It blocks."
MSGT THOMPSON: It was stopped.
NARRATOR: You were using agency and Special Forces
personnel. You were using agency suppliers. How were you ship-
ping the stuff?
TERPIL: Through an agency freight forwarder.
NARRATOR: The latest CIA study describes Qaddafi as,
quote, the most prominent state sponsor and participant in inter-
national terrorism, end quote.
Isn't there some irony that you were using CIA suppliers,
shippers, in some cases CIA personnel to work for Qaddafi?
TERPIL: Qaddafi does not have the capability, nor the
facility, to manufacture weapons at all. So we had to get them
from leading powers. How they were gotten from leading powers?
In most cases, the leading powers were cognizant of it. If they
denied they were not cognizant of this thing, then where's their
intelligence service?
NARRATOR: Well, here we come to the central issue.
We have the names of 43 people, American manufacturers, past and
present members of the Special Forces, the CIA, who collaborated
with you and Ed Wilson on the Libyan operation. Why was it per-
mitted?
TERPIL: Wilson and myself, collectively, had enough
information and intelligence on current and past operations that
would prove to be a great embarrassment to the United States Gov-
ernment.
NARRATOR: So, in a sense, you were blackmailing the
TERPIL: It was an unspoken blackman -- mail, if you
will. There was never any overtures made to threaten the CIA
with blackmail, at least on my behalf, on my part.
NARRATOR: Now, could there be another explanation,
that the work that you were doing in Libya was useful to the
CIA?
TERPIL: They would have a knowledge of the amount of
training, the skill that the people possessed, the possibilities
of them launching operations on their own, successful operations.
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They would have a psychological profile of the people that were
trained. That may be of use of them.
NARRATOR: What do you think Qaddafi would feel if he
knew that CIA had penetrated his secret training facilities,
through you and Ed Wilson?
TERPIL: I can't speak for Qaddafi, but I could speak
on behalf of Amin. And Amin said that he would be very, very
disappointed if the agency had not penetrated his operations.
NARRATOR: Why would he say that?
TERPIL: He felt that the CIA was one of the top three
intel l igence organizations in the world, and certainly he didn't
put his State Research in that league.
NARRATOR: We questioned Terpil for hours about Libya,
until we were almost certain that the so-called mastermind of
international terrorism was in fact ignorant of the full impl i-
cations of the role he had been permitted to play.
TERPIL: Why are there, supposedly, in the neighborhood
of 42 unindicted co-conspirators? Why did these things in China
Lake, which is a very secret facility, why did these people leave
our employ in Libya, which we are not denying that they worked
for us in Libya -- they left our employ in Libya, went back to
China Lake, which is a very, very secretive operation, clandes-
tine operation, and these people went back to work there? The
other ones we had which were CIA employees, or we had people
besides the CIA employees -- we had active-duty Special Forces
people which were on 30 days leave to work for us in another
location.
NARRATOR: In Washington, we approached the CIA, the
FBI, and the Justice Department for comment on Terpil's activi-
ties. But this was consistently refused.
But the implications of the Libyan operation extend far
beyond Washington. As there are no direct flights between the
United States and Libya, Terpil needed reliable transfer points
in Europe where lethal material and armed personnel could be
switched to Libyan flights without official interference. Accord-
ing to Mulcahy, London's Heathrow Airport was the most important
ink in the supply chain.
MULCAHY: It's almost amusing the way Frank would con-
duct himself at Heathrow. Probably the best example I can think
of was some of our people were walking around Heathrow, somewhat
disoriented and intoxicated. And with them, they were carrying
some concealed cans of binary explosives. Frank has promised
these people that he would meet them at the airport when their
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plane landed. They would never have to worry about going through
customs or anything else, and they could go directly to Libya.
Wel I, Frank hadn't made it to meet the flight on its
incoming leg. So I had to rouse Frank and make sure he got to
the airport before something difficult -- before London was blown
off the face of the map.
TERPIL: Yes, that's in essence true. The shipment of
the material was never to be brought out of the international
zone. In other words, it was supposed to be transshipped immedi-
ately to another aircraft. Harper had made a mistake. He went
right through the customs with the material in question. And I
did have some associated within the British government at the
airport that helped Harper and the material back on the plane.
NARRATOR: So, when a man walks into Heathrow Airport
with enough explosives to practically destroy London, you've got
people there who can sort this out.
TERPIL: Yeah. I had certain facilities made avail-
able to me that the average [unintelligible] wouldn't have had.
NARRATOR: Off the record, Mulcahy named Terpil's high-
level contact with British intelligence. Terpil confirmed the
name, and claimed that the man in question had done a good deal
more than smooth the way with the British authorities.
TERPIL: In some cases where we needed some material
and it wasn't available from one of our sources, he actually
freely gave us some other sources of possible supply. In fact,
at one time he himself was in Libya, aboard a private aircraft.
He had access to privileged information. He had access to oper-
ations that were going on. I'm sure he was still active-duty.
And we regarded him as our professional babysitter.
NARRATOR: Using an unlisted number that Terpil had
provided, we telephoned the babysitter's home. A meeting was
set up in this London hotel. It was to last for three hours.
The man confirmed his association with Terpil, but denied that
he had been involved in any unsanctioned operation. He told us
that the private plane had been provided officially and openly
by the government of Libya. He went on to suggest that Wilson
and Terpil's Libyan operation was in the best long-term inter-
ests of the Western powers. He also warned us that if we were
recording the meeting, we would end up, quote, under a bush in
Surrey, end quote.
With the help of his powerful friends, Terpil had
reached a peak seven years after his resignation from the CIA.
He had holdings in Switzerland, a hotel in the North of England,
a mews house in this fashionable area of London, and a Japanese-
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style mansion which he chose to build less than a mile from the
CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
In December 1979, Terpil seemed unassailable, when the
New York City police unslung their guns and topped an empire built
on sales to Qaddafi, Bokassa, Amin, and the Shah of Iran.
[Clip of arrest activities]
NARRATOR: Just as the federal case in Washington had
produced the Mulcahys and the Luke Thompsons, so the New York
case helped us to flesh out a minor part of Terpil's British
operation, though leaving his high-level contacts untouched.
When the two New York undercover detectives had bought
their assassination rifle, their binary explosives and their
strychnine, they decided to put Terpil to a real test. Could he
provide 10,000 machine guns, enough to equip a revolutionary
army?
The information that follows from the two detectives
was sworn in evidence in court.
JOSE RAAD: He indicated to us, Detective Rodriguez
and myself, that he had machine guns and all types of weapon,
including cannons and bombs, in a couple of warehouses in Eng-
l and.
CROSSON: In order to get the weapons out of England
and to obtain an export license from the British government,
Terpil and his associates had to obtain what's called an end
user certificate. An end user certificate is simply a document
by a friendly government saying that weapons which are now
stored within the territory of another country have been pur-
chased and are going to be used by the government of the friendly
country. That document is indispensable for obtaining an export
license.
TERPIL: The weapons would be consigned, for all out-
ward purposes, to the Philippines. Of course, they would not
go to the Philippines.
NARRATOR: So it was an illegal operation.
TERPIL: Illegal in the sense that the ultimate des-
tination was not as registered. Yes.
NARRATOR: Anybody, really, from any group, left-wing,
right-wing, who wanted to get machine guns from you could get
them out of a warehouse in England.
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NARRATOR: By using a phony end user certificate.
TERPIL: By using -- yes.
CROSSON: Frank Terpi I made it clear to the undercover
detectives they wanted a payment of $56,000 in cash, which would
be used for the bribery that was to take p lace in the Phi I i pp i nes
to obtain the end user certificate.
NARRATOR: Now, this payment of $56,000 for the phony
end user certificate. I mean how cou Id you be sure that somebody
in an official position in England didn't contact the government
of the P h i l i p p i nes to i n q u i r e whether the weapons were a c t u a l l y
going to them?
TERPIL: The $56,000 wou Id be to expedite the paperwork
i n tota I ity, i n the U.K. and the Phi I ippi nes, both.
NARRATOR: So peop le have to be paid off i n the U.K.
and in the Philippines.
TERPIL: Some people. Yes.
NARRATOR: On December the 1 4 t h , 1 9 7 9 , undercover detec-
tive J i m m y Rodgriguez a r r i v e d in London to acquire 10,000 machine
guns for a mythical terrorist group. He was told to meet Terpi I
at t h i s hotel in Lancaster Gate, where seven men w o u l d be waiting
in a conference room on the ground floor. When Rodriguez entered,
Terpi I was a l ready typing the contract. He introduced the detec-
tive to his associates. There was a reti red Marine colonel, who
wou Id obtain the phony end user certificate. Sam Urich, the
shipper, who is now wanted in America for drug trafficking. And
this man, Robin Bray-Taylor, who would take Rodriguez to view
and test-fire the weapons i n a warehouse i n Manchester, Eng land.
This character, Robin Bray-Taylor, the intermediary.
Did he rea I i ze that he was involved in an i I lega I deal?
CROSSON: Absolutely. Absolutely.
NARRATOR: Why do you say that?
CROSSON: He had extensive conversations with Detective
Rodriguez during the trip to and from the I me ra rms warehouse in
Manchester. And Detective Rodriguez said that Robin Bray-Taylor
made it completely clear that he understood all of the ramifi-
cations of the deal.
NARRATOR: D i d you get the f ee l i ng that Bray-Taylor
was supporting you out of some ideologi ca l conviction, because
you were posing as a right-wing terrorist?
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RODR I GUEZ : He was in it for the money, period. He --
I don't think he was interested whether I was from the right or
the left. If I had said I was a Communist, he would have -- I'm
su re he w o u l d have given me the same dea l .
NARRATOR: Rodriguez made it clear that your middleman
didn't ca re at a I I whether the guns went to gentlemen of the fa r
left, the far right, where they went to, as I ong as they were
paid for.
TERP I L : Totally unethical.
NARRATOR: As you were t a l k i n g to Bray-Taylor, did you
b e g i n to get the f e e l i n g that Eng land was one of those p laces it
was easy for terrorists t o obtain weapons? I mean much easier
than, say, the United States.
RODRIGUEZ: Oh, definitely. I would say the U.K. is
much easier. That's why they picked it. That's why they l i ved
there. That's why they kept a home there, 'cause it was an easy
port.
NARRATOR: Two years after Rodriguez was taken to view
the guns, we recreated every stage of his journey.
RODR I GUEZ: When we arrived in Manchester, Red Beard,
an individual with a red beard, was waiting behind the wheel of
a station wagon. He was introduced to me by Rog i n as Hami [ton.
He drove us for about five minutes and then he pu I led into an
alley. At that point, I looked up and there in these gigantic
bold letters I saw "Interarms," and Interarms is a very big com-
pany.
We went up to the third floor, and there were a lot of
weapons on the w a l l s and machine guns on the floor. And Hamilton
went up to a caged-in area, and behind this caged-in area was
what he stated was 12,500 submachine guns, British nine mi I I imeter
Mark 2s and Mark 3s.
Hami Iton says, "We' I I go down to the range and we' I I
test-fire these weapons."
[Machine-gun f i re]
RODRIGUEZ: He then gave me the weapon.
[Machine-gun f i re]
RODRIGUEZ: I told him I was pleased, and that as far
as I was concerned, we had a dea I.
Hami Iton, I guess, was i n a hurry. So he scooted us
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right out. And we were headed back toward the train station.
And at this point, Hamilton did a strange thing. He turned back
at me -- I was sitting in the back seat -- and then he said, "Are
you from the Philippines?" And I said, "No. Of cou rse. I'm
from the States."
At this point, I looked over at Robin and said, "Robin,
I hope he understands that this i s goi ng to the Ca ri bbean and
not the Philippines."
Hami Iton didn't answer or say anything. He looked over
at Robin with a stare. Robin looked back at me and made a "ssss"
with his finger up to this mouth, telling me to shut up.
HAMILTON (?): That is an absolute lie. And you may
be very, very, very sure of that.
NARRATOR: Why do you think that Rodriguez, who's a
senior detective in the New York City police, why do you think
he shou Id lie under oath?
HAMILTON: I can only assume that his memory fa i led him
on that particular occasion.
RODRIGUEZ: He's a businessman. He manages the places.
And I produce an export l i cense and say that these weapons are
going to wherever they are. He released them.
NARRATOR: Did he know your story was untrue?
RODRIGUEZ: I'm sure. But it's not his business at
this point. The British government is where I think the loophole
lies. Because if they could supply an export license on an end
user certificate for the Philippines without checking with the
Philippines and making sure that these weapons were in fact going
there, they're at fault.
NARRATOR: Let's talk about the loopholes in the British
government. What did Bray-Taylor say about his contacts?
TERP I L: Robin mentioned to me that he had contacts in
the higher office of the U.K. and that there would be no problems
as far as the end user certificate. He also...
NARRATOR: Did he name any of his contacts?
TERP I L : Pardon me?
NARRATOR: Did he name?
TERP I L: He mentioned Colonel Warren. That was the
only person he mentioned by name.
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33
NARRATOR: What did he say that this Colonel Warren
could do for him?
TERPIL: Co I one I Warren cou I d wa I k the papers th rough
and he could assure that there would be no problems as far as
the end user certificate, that [unintelligible] would be issued.
TERPIL: He's obviously a retired colonel, not a active-
duty colonel, that had been involved in severa I arms dea Is of a
fairly good size. He had worked in conjunction with other com-
panies besides Interarms, and was well known throughout the mi Ii-
tary and civilian circuits.
NARRATOR: When we contacted Colonel Warren, he claimed
that his only role had been to make the original approach to I n-
te ra rms that led to the visit because he thought that one of the
people involved was, quote, an ex-CIA agent, which put some cre-
du l ity on the inquiry, end quote.
When our leaders talk about a terrorist, they usually
want us to think of a man who commits the act of violence. But
you're talking about something much more frightening, boardroom
terrorists.
RODRIGUEZ: It's very scary. It's -- I've been involved
around terrorists for a long time, and most terrorists, sma l l
terrorists, urban-gue rri I la-warfare terrorists have to scrounge
around, you know, for a weapon here and there. Imagine if they
had this contact.
NARRATOR: I n this instance, no weapons traveled any-
where. When Detective Rodriguez handed over $56,000 in exchange
for Te rp i l's contract promising delivery of the guns, the deal
was suddenly interrupted. A conspiracy was proved in court. And
that count alone contributed seven years to Te rp i Its sentence.
I n the end, the court cases against Frank Te rp i I raise
more questions than they answer: Where does intelligence stop
and crime actually begin? Why did Terpi I and Wilson operate for
years before the authorities moved? Why was Te rp i l released on
bail twice, and how did he slip out of the country?
T E R P I L : We were informed through an official source,
both Ga ry a n d myse I f , that i n the event that we w o u l d be i nca r-
cerated again, in the likely event that we would, that we would
probably not s u r v i v e the f i r s t month. I n fact, it was fairly
well arranged that we would not survive the first month.
NARRATOR: I'm sorry. Can I get that absolutely clear.
Somebody in an official position...
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TERPIL: Somebody in an official position had gotten
through to Gary, Gary Korkala, and informed h i m that due t o in-
formation that we m i g h t p o s s i b l y reveal about a p o l i t i c a l figure,
that we w o u l d not survive one month .
NARRATOR: So you were told by peop le i n authority to
get out of the country.
TERPIL: Yes. We were a Iso told that there wou Id be
no o f f i c i a l agency wou Id stop us. I n other words, there wou Id
be a blind eye turned. Because I left the country right from
Washington, D.C.
NARRATOR: You left from Washington, D.C.
TERPIL: Yes.
NARRATOR: And without any problems.
TERPIL: N o problems at a 1 1.
NARRATOR: Can you discuss the way you got out of.the
cou nt ry?
NARRATOR: Fi na I ly, there was a question that had
bothered us since our first day in Beirut. We shared it with
a contact in military intelligence who'd known Frank Terpi I.
Why do you think he invited us to make this f i Im?
MAN: I would say that with this film he's either
reinforcing his act or he's trying to say he's had enough and
he needs out.
NARRATOR: So we might be being used, as we l 1.
MAN: Absolutely. I mean I don't think that you can
trave I around the world I ike you have to make this f i Im and not
fee I a I itt le bit concerned about whether or not you're being
used, as al I of us do, you know. And where and how are we being
used.
NARRATOR: You see, we've had no impediments put in
our way. Nobody's asked to see our materia I. We've been a I I owed
to go in and out of countries. We've been a I lowed to meet Frank,
who maintains a very high profile where he is. And nobody's
stopped us and nobody's made anything difficult for us.
MAN: Doesn't it make you nervous?
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NARRATOR: We came to Be i rut to conf ront the man who
h a d put steel i n t o the s p i n e of I d i Amin, supplier to Qaddaf i ,
Somoza and the Shah of I ran. Terpi I had been a I I these things.
But whose interests were rea I ly served by his presence in Uganda
and Libya?
After fol lowing Terpi I's trai I for seven months, we
were more and more convinced that this unique and dangerous man
was but a medium-sized cog i n the machinery of i me rnat i ona I
intrigue and covert diplomacy, an indiscreet NCO dismissed from
the ranks by master tacticians whose games are too comp lex, too
frightening to comp rehend.
In our last hours in Beirut, a global drama shrank to
human proportions.
In other words, you didn't even know Frank when he was
dea l i ng with Amin and the others. What do you fee I when he talks
about these things?
RUTH BOYD: I'm not -- the way I look at him, I just
love him for being him. And I don't care about the past. And
I ' m just looking for the future. I trust him. And he's very
compassionate, very loving, and very cari ng. And -- it's hard
to explain.
NARRATOR: Try and explain.
BOYD: I don't want him to be out of my sight. And
some of the things that some people I've met, that they've told
me about him, that he's a ki l ler, I just don't believe it.
NARRATOR: You said earlier that you were scared when-
ever he was out of your sight.
BOYD: I don't know. I f h e ' s by my s i d e , I f e l l a l l
right. I know that he's with me. But once he wa Iks out of that
door.
NARRATOR: We l e f t Frank Te rp i I in Beirut, st i l l hawking
his lethal know-how to his diminishing clientele.
Shortly afterwards, two intermediaries approached the
White House and the Senate with an offer from Terpi I to trade
highly sensitive information on State Department, White House,
and CIA officials for a reduction in sentence. A representative
agreed to meet Te rp i I in the M i dd l e East. Wh i le arrangements
were underway, Terpi I was visited by three members of Syrian
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i me I I i gence. He left Ruth Boyd at 10 A.M. on Saturday, November
the 7th, 1981. He has not been seen or heard of since.
SCHORR: There have been new developments even as we
prepared to go on the air. Terpi I's associate, Gary Korkala,
who disappeared with him in November, turned up in Beirut and
told us on the phone that he and Terpi I, who is sti I I away, are
alive and well. Korkala would not explain their disappearance,
but last month a message was sent to Terp i l's friend Ruth Boyd
to reassure her. It originated in Germany and said that Terpil
had met Edwin Wi Ison's men from Libya, and the group departed
from Europe according to a predetermined plan. We have no idea
what the nature of that plan is of Wilson and these men from
Qaddaf is Libya.
The business of terrorism raises some disturbing ques-
ti ons: How could Terpi I and Wi Ison operate against the nati ona l
interest for so long with such immunity? Their former accomplices
say the CIA knew what was going on. Douglas S ch la chte r, who has
just pleaded gu i lty in a conspiracy to smuggle explosives, he told
federal authorities that as late as 1978 he was reporting on acti-
vities in Libya to the CIA and receiving intelligence assignments.
Were Wilson and Terpi I just manipulating the old boy
network, r e c r u i t i n g some of the o l d boys f o r t h e i r b u s i n e s s ? O r
did somebody in the CIA find use for their business and cloak
them with some authority? The CIA says it can find nothing in
its files to support that contention.
The Justice Department, at last, is conducting an ex-
haustive investigation. The House Intelligence Committee has
been t r y i n g to f i n d out what went on. Investigations w111 become
harder as the government tightens the cloak of secrecy around
intelligence agencies. One pending law banning identification
of intelligence agents could make it a crime to expose a future
Frank Terpi I. The government is closing the information door
instead of that revolving door between our covert agencies and
i me rnat i ona I terror.
Good night. And as an old mentor of mine used to say,
good luck.
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