THE FALKLANDS AND THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100260039-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 39
• Publication Date: April 16, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100260039-2 STAT
L.A. WE,Y (CA)
16-22 APRIL 1982
:Bill Bonham is a former keyboardist for . veracity of '.. the Bonham statement.
-A - answering them. A spokesman for the CIA
I"~ office in L -A. said he would have "no
comment one way or the other" about the
The Falklands ed? These questions are all speculation;
of course, and the CIA. was no help, in
onham is also a former explosives expert
t
recording studio in Santa - Ana. Bii
B
Procul Harem who is now. .part~wner of a
Bonham, who is. in his early 30s, says this-
is not the first time the CIA has approach-
ed him because of his record of s
ecial es?
he says_.As for the. current request
Bon. I
,
ham 'says he's * willing to accept and 'so
told the CIA- folks who. visited him,
though they have not - contacted him l
again; Why would the CIA want him? He
spent nine months on the Falklands and is
? native and to.' do -intelligence - and well known to the local British residents,..
"explosives" work. If-Bonham-is telling , he says,-the islands being..only a small
the truth, then- the. incident raises the I community, Therefore he -would not be
most significant. questions. Why would suspected by the. Argentines.' Can this.
the CIA be involved in anti-Argentine story be- believed? Only the CIA knows for
activitiesr.,when- the. U.S_' is_.officially. sure and it's hot telling, though Bon-.,
neutral? Is the CIA helping its. British ham's. associates clearly believe it. (It was
buddies at their behest or on its-own? they, not Bonham, who informed` the
Do the State Department and White 1T/eekly about the reputed 'visit.)
1louse know about these activities?'Is the -~-Gloria Ohland
he islands. The CTA officers who came to
I see Bonham, he says, apparently knew the..
invasion was.going.to take place (as-did
the British, though they didn't act on the
information), and - wanted to parachute
Bonham. onto the island to pose: as a.
tour nays before the Argentine invasion of I when the Ayatollah banned rock music
p
wi
a special: forces of the IBritish pionage missions for the British. During
Army. In 1974,. he says, he was stationed 1 the Iranian crisis, he says, he was asked to
in. the Falkland: Islands. Because of accompany a British-appearing rock band
Bonham told the' Weekly, he bras- visited. on a tour intended to infiltrate agents into,
two weeks ago by the CIA - and visited the country: The mission was raneolto.r
British while professing neutrality? Are
there U.S. interests involved in the islands `
of which the public has not been inform.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100260039-2