ILLEGAL ARMS SHIPMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100510003-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2007
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 29, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100510003-6
RADIO N REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
PROGRAM The Today Show STATION WRC-TV
NBC Network
DATE December 29, 1982 7:00 A.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
Illegal Arms Shipments
LLOYD DOBYNS: Former CIA man Edwin Wilson has been sent
to prison for illegally shipping arms to Europe. Next week he's
scheduled to stand trial for the illegal shipment of 20 tons of
explosives to Libya. Now NBC News has learned that Wilson
allegedly sent some of those explosives to Rotterdam in order to
pass them on to the PLO.
Alexander Raffio, who worked for Edwin Wilson for
nearly five years in Libya, is in our Washington studio with NBC
correspondent Susan Peterson, who has been covering this story.
Mr. Raffio, we understand that you turned yourself in to
federal authorities with this information last week. Could you
tell us why? Why now?
ALEXANDER RAFFIO: I turned myself in essentially
because I felt that the transfer of this kind of material just
couldn't take place.
SUSAN PETERSON: How did you know the PLO was going to
be the customer for this shipment of explosives?
RAFFIO: Well, prior to Mr. Wilson being arrested, I was
present at a number of meetings when he discussed the transfer
with the PLO, but at the time they seemed very disinterested.
PETERSON: At first you didn't think the shipments or
the drums were filled with explosives.
RAFFIO: No. They were always referred to as chemicals
when it was discussed with the people in Rotterdam. And the code
name for those chemicals was Soap. And as far as I knew, up till
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about a year and a half ago it was simply a shipment of chemicals
of some sort that had been shipped out of Libya into Rotterdam
for dissemination at the Libyan wishes.
PETERSON: And how did you find out those chemicals were
explosives?
RAFFIO: Well, I was asked to pass a message from the
people at Rotterdam to Mr. Wilson. And the message was,
essentially, that the chemicals were leaking. I had no idea at
that time the importance of that statement.
Mr. Wilson then, when I mentioned this to him, said,
"Oh, my God. Those are explosives." And he then arranged to
send a technician, an explosives technician, up to Rotterdam and
repackage those explosives.
PETERSON: How were they repackaged?
RAFFIO: They were repackaged in coffee cans.
PETERSON: In coffee cans.
RAFFIO: In coffee cans.
PETERSON: Do you have any reason to suspect that these
explosives were sent to any other European cities?
RAFFIO: Well, as I understand it, the chemicals -- okay
-- which is what I knew them to be at the time, were supposed to
be disseminated through Mr. Wilson's organization by the shipping
organization in Rotterdam throughout Europe. And that was the
purpose of shipping them up to Rotterdam in the first place.
They were to be received, stored, and then shipped at the
directions of Mr. Wilson's organization in Tripoli.
PETERSON: And it's your belief that Mr. Wilson was
giving instructions to move these explosives to the PLO from his
jail cell.
RAFFIO: Yes. Mr. Wilson has been in weekly contact
with his English office, which is run out of Wales now. And he
has been making arrangements to do that.
PETERSON: After divulging this information, do you have
any reason to fear for your life?
RAFFIO: Certainly. I believe that the interested
parties would obviously not like any attempt to foil their
getting their hands on these kind of weapons and explosives.
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PETERSON: And that's why you've asked the Federal
Government for a new identity?
RAFFIO: Yes, I have.
PETERSON: And you're assured of that.
RAFFIO: Yes, I have -- yes, I am.
PETERSON: And you're going to appear at Mr. Wilson's
trial as a witness against him in Houston next Monday.
RAFFIO: Yes. I've been asked to make myself available
for testimony against Mr. Wilson in this matter.
PETERSON: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Raffio.
Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100510003-6