TERRORISM: AN LINK IN LIBYA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100690002-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 22, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100690002-5
-R T I CLE
ON FAG:1;_ _____
THE BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE
22 March 1981
TERRORISM:
course in terrorism for Libyan .strongman Mum
Khadafy: With tons .of arms and explosives, anc
cadre.of other Americans like themselves, they
scheme that some of the participants believed v
a CIA-backed plot. Whoever the sponsors wer
reveals- a 'new breed of American soldiers of for
their. special skills, to enemies of the United Stat
How two former CIA agents, turned mercenar.
By Stephen Kurkjiani _
and Ben Bradlee
The- Green Beret, . who less than
through routine army drills at Fort
B
raga,
of an ongoing operation which, from
s a Green Beret, he was accus-
n- 1976 through at least 1979, is alleged,
e assi
ti
d
l
d
g
n
an
es
to c
toure
,...ments in exotic places. But this to have provided terrorist training and,
was different. explosives for the Libyan government.,
Before, whether in Southeast Asia At its simplest, this story tells how
or the Dominican Republic, he'd al- a growing band of mercenaries, many
ways known that he was working for of them Americans, are selling their
the United States. But now he was in daring and special knowledge to the
Libya, an avowed enemy of the United highest bidder - in this instance, the
States, working for its terrorist-prone forces of international terrorism. But
military. some of the Americans involved in the
He had been in Tripoli less than a Libyan project , including the Green
week when he was first taken to see Beret who was given a leave of absence
the base of operations for the group he by his superiors to take part in the op-;
had joined. With another American at cration - are convinced that the US'
government knew full well what they
the wheel, they drove about twenty
miles south of their luxury, seaside ho- were doing, and may have let the pro-
tel until the sandy stretches of North. ject continue longer than it should
African desert gave way-to a lush or- have, in hopes of infiltrating the inter-
ange grove: The car stopped at the end national terrorist movement. Muam-
of the grove in front of the palace of mar Khadafy, after all, .has openly fi-1
Mohammed Idirss El Senussi, the for- nanced such -groups as the Palestine
mer king of Libya, who had been Liberation Organization, Italy's Red!
ousted in 1969 in a bloodless coup Brigades, the Irish Republican Army,
mounted by Muammar Khadafy,. the the Japanese Red Army, German'si
Libyan leader. - Baader-Meinhoff gang, and others.
Behind a set of locked doors in the There is little doubt, though, that
basement of the servants' quarters was this project was a scheme hatched by
located, in effect, a small American two former Central Intelligence Agen- !
f stocked with exolo- (CIA) employees, Edwin P. Wilson
t
rust Americans recruited for the Lib- .
yan affair informed the CIA of the op-
eration in September 1976, the agency }
notified the- FBI. Yet the operation
continued at least until late December
1979, according to a federal investiga-
tors report, more than three years
after the FBI investigation was begun.
Up to that point, officals now al
lege that the following had taken
place:
? More than twenty Americans,
including five. former CIA employees,
a Green Beret on leave, five ex-Green
Berets, five former army explosives ex-
perts, and two civilian naval engineers
were flown to Libya to perform a wide
variety of support activities for Kha-
dafy's military.
? Some of the Americans were put.
to work camouflaging terrorist bombs
while others trained Libyan comman-
dos in everything from bomb detona-
tion to parachute jumping.
? Millions. of dollars worth of
military hardware, including twenty-
five thousand pounds of explosives and'
a ground-to-air Redeye missile, were;
contracted for shipping to Libya with-
out .the required approval of the US
ory, ry
munitions ac
sives shipped from the United States. and Francis E. Terpil, who used their There a group of Americans was busy cxpertise to design a program that
camouflaging small bombs: as lamps, supplied explosives and people to train
candles, bnP~_ and ashtrays. terrorists in Libya. t.,Q"
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100690002-5
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