FORMER ISU STUDENT'S STRUGGLE WITH CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303420042-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: September 20, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

. i Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005i2R000303420042-5
STAT
~'~r~er fSU student's s rugg
IOWA STATE DAILY
Iowa State University
20 September 1982
by Nancy Meyer
All of us make decisions in
everyday life, most of the time
k-ithout giring serious thought to
tv're future conseouences that could
result.
One -da}? in 1965, Verne Lyon,
then a senior in aerospace
ergi.-re~ring here at Iowa State,
made a fateful decision, which on
countless occasions over the years,
nearly destroyed his life.
R'hile intenlewing for a job with
crhom he thought were two
represer_tatives from an engineer-
ingfirm, Lyon received a surprise:
the two men were actually
members of the Central In-
telligence Agency-and wanted
Lyon to work for the CIA.
"They warted several infor-
mants on campus and I happened
to be one of their prospectz. At this
time, thp Vietnam War situation
was really getting wound up and
engineering students were being
threatened with the draft or get-
ting drafted. Some of the major
co:pora*_iors were o`.fering draft
deferments but these could not be
guaranteed," the former Boone
native eaTlained. .
Lyon said the two men told him
he would be paid 5300 a month and
would receive a g?,raranteed draft
deferent if in return, he would
report back to the CIA all campus
anti-war movements and protests,
names of dissidents, both foreign
and domestic, names of persons
who regularly attended anti-war
meetings, and other campus ac-
ti~zties in opposition to our govern-
ment, country and situation in
Vietnam.
Campus spy
STAT
"My first reaction to this pro-
posa] ~cas `R'ow, sounds fantastic?
I could be a spy on campus.' "
with CIA
"ALso, the money sounded
great," he continued. "I Ras ten-
ding bar back in Boone on
weekends to earn money for school
and I was driving an old junker of a
car that I'd had all through high
school. Three hundred dollars
relieved me of having to worry
about money during my senior
year, even though I kept working
in Boone for a disguise,"
Lyon said in addition to these two
reasons, guaranteed draft defer-
gent R?as a stro*~g incentive to ac-
cept the CIA's offer.
"Guys were being shipped over
there by the truckload. I didn't
want to be sent to Vietnam and get
shot to pieces. I`d gone to school to
become an engineer and I wanted
to pursue Lhat profession."
"Even though I didn't really like
my informant work after a while, I
thought I was serving my country
in a way other than killing people
over in Vietnam. At the time, that
was very important to me," he
stated.
Lyon said he isn't sure why.he
was one of the few to be approac~-
ed, but after years of con-
templating it, he thinks a friend
Who Went irrt0 I18Va1 lIrtelllgence,
recommended him. Also, he
believes a few of his ISU professors
were asked by their friends in the
government to identify students
who might be beneficial to the
agency.
"It has a secret process of seleo-
ting future employees, of course,
but I think that's probably how the
agency discovered me."
Although the CIA's charter in the
mid~ixties prohibited any CIA ao-
tivities within U.S. borders, the as
foal agreement under which Lyon
worked was called the Domestic
Contract Service.
"What I was doing eras illegal
and I basically understood that at
the time," he admitted. "But I
wondered how the government
could say it was illegal superficial-
ly, and then go ahead with its prao-
tices anyway."
Before Lyon graduated, the CIA
approached him with an offer to
join its Junior Officer Training
program. This would have led to a
career for him in the agency.
"I declined the offer because I
was going to have my degree," be
said, "and I wanted to spend my
life being an engineer. So I ao-
cept.ed a job with McDonnell
Douglas Corporation in St_ Louis,
working on the Gemini Space Fro-
~.~ ?
Lyon said be thought once be
graduated, his ties with the CIA
would cease. He was very wrong.
Explosion, arrest in St. Louis
Not long after Lyon began work-
ing at McDonnell Douglas, an ex-
plosion occurred at the St. Louis
municipal airport. A small part of
airport under construction was
damaged b;' the blast. Verne Lyon
vas acc:iced of being the "intellec-
tualauthor" of the act.
"An anonymous phone call to
federal authorities tipped them ofi
that I was supposedly responsible.
So they came out to McDonnell
Douglas and arrested me. I was
charged with commit#irrg this act,
a federal crime, and then released
on 5500 bail with no travel restric-
tions. Five hundred dollars'." he
exclaimed.
Lyon came back to Iowa for a
few months, until he was recon-
tacted by his original recruiting of-
~ficer in the CIA.
"He proceeded to tell me how
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
sorry the agency was for getting
me involved in the St. Louis inci-
dent, that the CIA was certain I
had not been connected in any way
and that the matter would be
straightened out but that it would
take some time. In the meanwhile,
he told me, the agency had plans,"
Lyon said.
After subsequent calls from the
agency, Lyon finally received a
definite plan of action, one that
h ould cl^.ange the rest of his life.
"The aeenc}? called me and said,
'Look, here's our plan. You're go-
ing to essenti:~lly become our man
in Havana.' Now, in the mid-
Si.sties, Cuba was not exactly
welcoming Americans to Cuba
with open arms. After the Bay of
Pigs fiasco, the October missile
crisis and the murder of Cho
Guevera, Castro's right hand man,
relations were a little strained, to
sa}? the least," he noted. ?
L}?on said that in order for the
CIA to insert hi.m safely into Cuba,
it had to get the Cubans to invite
him, under contract.
"The last thing I wanted to do at
that point was go to Cuba. Aside
from the fact Americans weren't
welcome, I didn't even speak
Sponish. But the CIA was the orily
entih? that could clear me of the St.
Louis mess so I didn't se?e where I
lad much choice in the matter."
Armed with a po.^tfolio of
newspaper clippings of the St.
Louis incident and of hi-n being
al-r:ateur rocketeer since he was a
kid, Lyon and the CIA approached
the Cubans through their
c:~le~::atic representatives ..,
Canada. The agency presented
Lyon as an aerospace engineer
who, instead of working on
dent',-active weaponry, would like
to use his talents in consta?uctive
~?ays. Therefore, he's up in Canada
dodging the draft and being
persecuted f or his anti-war stance.
"This was my cover. I was an
anti-war activist, aerospace
engineer. It took the Cubans
almost an entire year to verify my
`cover.' During that time, I was
undergoing the training I would
need for my foreign assignment,"
he explained.
Acceptance by Cubans
"Finallyu~ 1968, almost a year to
the day we had first approached
them, a contract invitation came
down. I was to work in Cuba's At-
mospheric Physics Institute in tbe
Cuban Academy of Sciences for
two years and I was to direct its
cloud incPm;-~tion program."
Lyon explained Cuba had a siz
month dr}? spell, and Castro bad
built some small dams and lakes
around the island. These lakes and
reservoirs needed to be filled with
water during the dry season. ]r
order for rain to fall, the clouds
had to be seeded.
Lyon said the initial agreement
between himself and the CIA was
that at the end of his two years of
sen~ce in Havana, Lyon was to
politely tell Castro that he had
done his part, but Castro's revolu-
tion "wasn't really my cup of tea,"
and come home, supposedly to find
the St. Lauis incident cleared up.
"It didn't quite work out that
way, ur~forte~ately," Lyon said. "I
had fallen in love with a Cuban
woman, and the month I was sup-
posed to go home, we got marred.
I informed the CIA that it wasn't
just me who had to leave the island
but that I hdd a wife. Immediate
reaction from the agency was, `Get
a divorce.' I refused, so its sugges-
tion was that I renew my contract
for two more years, which the
Cubans were eager to do. In the
meantime, the agency told me
plans to get both of us off the island
would be worked on." (To this day,
Lyon's wife and son are still in
Cuba.
No defendant, no trial -
:~Seanv~?hile, a trial for the St.
Louis explosion had been schedul-
ed about sit months after the inci-
de:,t. John Tannehill, an ISU
associate processor of aerospace
e..^,bineering and longtime acuuain-
tance of Lyon's, was asked to
tes::f}?, along r?ith another ISU pro-
fes~er.
''~`er:,e any' I had been
classmates in higl: school together
and were boll; aerospace engineer-
ing majors here at ISU but we
more or less lost track of one
another after our sophomore year.
I graduated a Fear earlier than
hire so I a?as serer aware of his ln-
voh?ementwith the CIA."
"The only information I would
have been able to give in my
testimon}? was that Verne and I us-
ed to build amateur rockets
together when we were about 1~
vears old. I wasn't aware of these
other activities," Tannehill ex-
plair:ed.
Tannehill didn't hare to wom?
about even telling that much,
because there was no trial.
"VUe arrived in St. Louis for the
trial and Verne h?asn't there.
Subsequenil}?, there wasn't one, so
~?e flew bacl: hxne.'` he said.
L}?on explains: "I'm not sure
R?h}? the CIA pulled t,'?.at stunt. It
had no intention of letting me at-
tend the trial because then my
records would l-,ave had to appear,
a lot of people Kould have had to
surface and man}' CIA secret plans
would have been exposed."
"The whole thing just fell into a
limbo state then. Their set-up had
succeeded in getting me to keep
working for them and I didn't see
much I could do about it. 1f you
asked me to prove the whole thing I
coulan't, because I would need
agenc}? people and records to
substantiate my statements, and
the}?'re not about to do that," he ex-
plained.
Lyon said he has an idea of who
actually made the anomznous
phone call to federal authorities in
St. Louis, but declined to release
the name of the person.
"I can tell }?ou this much
though," he said. "People like him
are very, very common in the
agency. They're called triple hat-
ters. This is a man who works for
the CIA under contract and today
he might be disguised as a baker,
tomorrow he might run a motel
and the next da~? he'll be out setting
somebody up like in my situation.
That's all the man does.''
~C,~~'~ZT.rD
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
3
It's 1970 and the place is Havana.
A Alexican diplomat working
secretl}? for the CIA for years was
arrested by Cuban counter-
intelligence. Because he had
diplomatic ir.~.munities, Cuban of-
ficials couldn't detain him so he
r~?as deported to Mecico. One day
his quarters in Havana were sear-
ched and suite a bit of evidence
was fow~d: radios, codebooks,
transmission schedules, etc. In ad-
dition to this, the man confessed
and named names. Lyon's name
a?as one of them.
"From that point on, Cuban
counter-intelligence was on to ine.
I received word from V~'ashington
that I hadn't been compromised
but was told to lay off activities for
a while anyway. I did and nothing
unusual happened. I didn't realize
I was under surveillance however.
I resumed my activities and still
nothing happened. In 1971, I resign-
ed from the CIA. Cuban counter-
intelligence didn't come knocking
on my door until 1914," Lyon
reported.
"F nat I did notice was that
ant ~rre I left the countr}~, my wife
and son wouid never be given per-
mission to leave with me. So I was
forced to maintain residence in
Ctiba because I knee how slim the
possibilities were of getting them
out once I left permanently."
So, from the time of the Mexican
diplomat's arrest, until Cuban
counter-intelligence arrested him
in 1974, Lyon was under
surveillance.
"Any good counter-intelligence
group would observe someone for
that long. The group wants to get
as much information as it can: how
widespread the network is, who
does, he contact, how does he get
the information out of the country,
K?hat sort of targets has he been
assigned to and so forth."
After his initial arrest by the
Cubans, Lyon was held for 30 days,
released and told he was being
deported to Jamaica.
Lyon said he was put directl}? on
a plane for Jamaica, only possess-
ing the clothes he was wearing at
the tame. Officials gave him no op-
portunit}? #o gather his belongings.
As a result, Lyon lost all of the
records he kept in addition to his
clothes, money, personal momen-
tos,etc.
"I had a lot of high-ranking
friends in Cuba who probably saw
to it that I was deported instead of
shot. Also, I think Castro weighed
what he should or should not do
with me. And deportr~g me was
probably the worst punishment I
could have received. By deporting
me instead of shooting me, the CIA
headquarters immediately saw
red and concluded I was working
for Cuba at the time."
"Needless to say, it a?as a
dangerous situation to be in
because at the time I r esigned, I
knew quite a bit of i*ifoznation that
the agency didn't want leaked
out:"
To veri.'y the conclusion of his
double agentr}?, Lyon said, the CIA
had to put him someplace where he
could be monitored. But first the
agency had to get hold of him.
Refuge soughf in Canada
Canaaian friends of Lyon's per-
suaded him to come to their coun-
tn?. R'hen he arrived in Winnipeg,
Lyon went through several months
of debriefing by the Royal Cana-
dian Mounted Police. The RCMP
then wrote to Prime A'iinister
Trudeau, recommending L}?on for
political asylum.
"Momentarily after I arrived in
Canada, the CIA knew I was there.
The RCMP knew the CIA wanted
me so that's why they recommend-
ed me for political as}?lum. The
RCMP wanted the power to say,
`No, you can't have him.' Relations
were not good between the two
groups," Lyon explained.
"Well, the Immigration Depart-
ment of Canada, instead of
Trudeau, replied by saving it
didn't want me residing in Canada,
so the question had to be resolved
by the federal court system of
Canada. It was decided against
me. I was allowed to stay only until
I could find another country that
would accept me."
Before and after the decision,
numerous attempts by both the
CIA and FBI to kidnap Lyon failed,
the strongest attempt occurring in
December of 1975.
Lyon was in Canada for 16 mon-
ths, corresponding with govern-
ment personnel, trying to ob'.ain
his freedom of information
clearance.
"I was corresponding with the
National Security Agency, the
FBI, the CIA, the State Depart.
ment, my congressmen, my
senators, Everyone in the United
States goverrunent knew where I
was.
"In fact, the consulate general
seat a cable to Henry Kissinger
sa}zng, `Everyone's asking why
we're not extraditing this man.
Afiat can we tell them?' Kissinger
never answered him. To my
knowledge, no extradition was
ever sought because the U.S.
government knew too many
secrets would come out."
Lyon said the Canadian govern-
ment decided after 16 months, he
had brought too much trouble to
the counts-. A representative from
Trudeau's office told Lyon he must
leave the countn? as soon as possi-
ble, but he would be able to leave
unhindered from any Canadian of-
ficials. The pressure to find a coun-
tr}? increased. Peru proved to be
that country.
According to Lyon, the Peruvian
government owed him some favors
from the past. He was told all he
had to do was get to Lima and he'd
be provided with diplomatic safe
conduct protection, asylum and
residence for sia months. Lyon so-
cepted it and flew straight to Lima.
The only condition placed on him
by the Peruvian government was
to stay out of the country's politics.
Lyon said he was only too willing to
comply.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
' `One of the reasons I chose Peru
was because it had fairly good
relations with Cuba and I thought
that would help facilitate getting
my wife and son to Lima."
"Another thing I knew, though,
was that many of the people in the
Peru~~an military establishment,
that's comparable to our CIA,
[were) indeed on the CIA pa}Toll. I
found out later that they had begun
planning to kidnap me from Peru
the moment I arrived," he noted.
Realizing the ganger in staying
in Peru, Lyon appealed to Sweden,
where he also had friends, to let
him establish residence.
Kidnapped
He was kidnapped late one night
after leaving the Swedish am-
bassador's home in Peru.
"I had to walk four blocks to the
nearest tali stand to catch a taxi to
my home. I hadn't made it more
than two blocks when an old
Americar, station wagon pulled up
and four guys with guns jumped
out and threes me in the back of the
car. The}? drove straight to the
Liy^ia airport where a non-stop
flig:^.t to Diia.-ni was held up. They
kicked everyone out of the first
class section, threw me in there
with four other agency people and
the plane tools off immediately."
"1n Mia.^.u, I was taken off the
plane, put in a federal detention
center overnight and was forced to
appear before a federal magistrate
the following morning, who
ordered my return io St. Louis. I
got to St. Louis and was greeted
with all kinds of tele ~ ision
cameras. The story had already hit
the area."
Lyon=said the frustrating thing
was that he was being accused of a
crime he dian't commit, and the
U.S. government was committing
illegal acts to prove his alleged
guilt.
"I was kidnapped from Peru in
violation of the Organization of
American States treaties and
violation of a bilateral eztradi ,
treat}? between the United States
and Peru. The only reason they
kidnapped me when they did was
because Sweden was on the verge
of granting me political asylum.
The CIA probably figured it would
have been harder to grab me out of
Stockholm than out of a banana
republic in South America."
Just like when he was deported
from Cuba, all Lyon had with him
when he was kidnapped were the
clothes he was wearing.
"Everything I had to my name
was lost. While in Canada, I was
able to compile s few documents,
photos, letters and things to
hopefully serve as proof of my in-
nocence later, but everything was
left behind."
"So I show uP in St. Louis and
they say, `Alright, you're going on
trial for what happened in the air-
port 12 years ago.' I told them they
had to be kidding but they assured
me they were quite serious," he
half-jokingly said.
At the trial, the government pro-
ved there had been an explosion.
According to Lyon, that's all they
actually proved.
"What they couldn't prove was
that I had anything to do with it.
They had no witnesses, nothing.
The little evidence they did have
was circumstantial and had been
obtained illegally, at that."
Lyon was convicted anyway.
"I wish everyone in America
could have been in that federal
courtroom and seen the type of
people who are put on federal
juries. Or had s chance to see the
FBI agent walk in wearing his #400
suit, swear on the Bible and point
?and say calmly,'We believe he did
it.' "
"Well, my defense subpoenaed I
my files from the CIA. In addition, I
the judge issued the strongest sub-
poena in his power, ordering the
CIA to produce my files. The agen-
cy refused. Instead, it sent two of
its top attorneys with a lettec? from
a high ranking executive office,
maybe President Carter's, and
they met with the judge for three
hours," he said.
"The letter and the two
representatives told the judge that
neither he nor the court was going
to see my files, for reasons of na-
tional security. The judge was told
to squash the subpena for my files
and convict me. And that's exactly
what happened. I was not permit-
ted to present any defense what-
soever. The jury knew no details
about my CIA involvement. All it
heard was that I had been arrested
for the airport incident?and then
jumped bail.?
"The sane government that had
hired me and then prosecuted me
denied me the right and means to
defend myself."
Lyon was sentenced to 17 years
in the federal maximum security
prison at Leavenworth, Kan.
After serving a partial sentence,
Lyon was able to file an appeal.
The appellate court overturned his
conviction on grounds of insuffi-
cientevidence.
"When I heard the decision, I
thought, `I'm finally free!' My at-
torney told me that the federal pro-
secutor had just come to him and
said the prosecution didn't want to
take the option of retrying me. But,
it would look bad for the prosecu-
tion if it made a public statement
saying it wasn't going to retry
him."
Federal law says if retrial does
not occur within BO days, the defen-
dant can file for dismissal of the
charge for lack of prosecution.
"We agreed to take this route
and waited 120 days, just to play it
safe. We then filed a motion with
the court saying prosecution did
not occur within 90 days, so we
[sought] dismissal of the charge."
The same judge who repealed
the earlier subpoena ordered a new
trial. Tire media were not permit-
ted access to the trial. Lyon's
lawyer filed another motion claim-
ing the judge missed the deadline
and was prejudiced against the
case. The motion called for a new
judge to preside, if there was going
to be a new trial.
"Fie was the senior judge and
proceeded to tell us he indeed was
doing to be the same one to hear
my case. So it was the same fiasco
all over for round two. Same trial,
same courtroom, same judge,
same lack of evidence. In fact,
tbere was even less evidence
because the appellate court
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
woulan't let the prosecution pre-
sentany of the evidence it had used
in the first trial. It was eztremely
short, needless to sa}?," Lyon said.
Convicted again
`Well, the case went to the jury
and the prosecutor walked over
and shook m}? hand, saying he was
sure it was going to result in my
favor. When the jury's verdict
came back guilty, he seemed just
as stunned as I was.
"I can't tell you for sure how
they arrived at the verdict.
However, they weren't ordered to
be secluded for the two days the
trial went on, so maybe enough of
them wen a inrluenced by the public
tc cast a guilt}? vote," Lyon said.
:,?: on did not gave up. His defense
`iied another motion to the ap-
pe:late cow~t, but were ts.-ned
ao~z?n. The}' made a plea to t e
S::~reme Court to hear the case.
but received another refuse`.
"_",fter ~:,at. there ~?asr.'t :nLC
ccL;d de so i sst it Leavea? crth
for 6E mor.:!L," he said.
L~?or. said much cf his time in
crtson ~?as spent in soiita:z~ con-
finement, the longest stretch being
i4 da~?s. The reason?
"I told the guards and K?arden
R?hat I thought of them. I ~-r?ote ar-
ticles about the arison that were
published-articles on such topics
as the millions of dollars it makes
through prison industries. The ad-
ministration didn't like that kind of
publicity so I was thrown in the
hole quite often."
"No windows, no normal
lighting. There was a bulb fastened
behind a wire screen I2 feet up on
the ceiling that staved on 24 hours
a day. There eras a concrete slab to
lie on and a bole in the floor to
relieve yourself. You caild chase
cockroaches if you wanted. That
Eras about lt."
By federal law, priwners are re-
quired to serve one-third of their
sentence before they're eligible for
parole. Lyon was granted parole
May 24.
"When. I went before the parole
board, the people on it told me my
parole wasn't being opposed. This
told me that the CIA, after
monitoring me for the five and
one-half years I was in prison, no
longer considered me a Cuban
agent. So the agency must have
told the Justice Department that if
it wanted to release me on parole,
the CIA wouldn't oppose it."
Lyon says he finds it impossible
now to get back into his profession
as an aerospace engineer because
he can't get securit}? clearance
from the government. Even if he
was able to obtain clearance, Lyon
said his chances of getting an
engineering job are slim because
of the charges against him and his
prison record.
"I've sent out 70 resumes and
h~~?e gotten 50 responses. All of
them say the same thing: We have
nothing at this time that fits your
qualifications but we'll keep your
resume on file."
Parole requirements are such
that the parolee must have
residence and a job or be actively
seeking employment. Upon hear-
ing that he was up for parole, some
friends of Lyon's in Des Moines
found him a place to live and a job.
Lyon, now 3S, is the coordinator
of Our Communit}? Kitchen, a soup
kitchen located at Hawthorn Hill in
Des Moines. Some of his duties in-
clude planning the daily menus,
ordering food and scheduling
drivers' routes to other soup kit-
chens around Des Moines. He is en
parole for two to five years.
Former prof remembers
P.J. Hermann, one of Lyon's
aerospace engineering instructors
at Iowa State, remembers: "He
eras somewhat of a rebel but not in
the style of causing trouble at cam-
pus demonstrations or something
like that. More in the sense of just
not liking being told what he should
or should not do. He wasn't bad by
any means. Just unwilling to con-
form to a certain extent. Some peo-
ple are just that way.
"He was an average student
from what I remember but he must
have been a.*r underachiever here
in my classes because I
understand he performed quite
well in his later jobs."
Hermann explained what. he
thought the reason for this could
be. "It might have been due to his
attitudes. He himself knew what he
was capable of in the classroom
but he wasn't about to do it for the
purpose of getting good grades or
satisfying someone else. Following
this line of thought about Verne,
his story stands up very well," be
observed.
Hermann said he had no prior
knowledge of any agencies being
on the ISU campus back when
Lyon became involved. He said he
first learned the complete story
when Lyon came up to Ames this
past summer and told him.
"My reaction was,
'Remarkable!' It's a pretty fan-
tastic story. It's the kind that one
couldn't create unless it were as
tually true. However, I'm not going
to believe it or disbelieve it. I'm
just going to take it as a piece of fir
formation until I hear something
different," he remarked.
Lyon said he hasn't seen the
mo?e Three Days o! the Condor,
but his brother, Gary, who was
also present, had. The mo~ze's plot
is about a government researcher
being chased by a CIA-like agency
for knovF?ing too much about a
group of employees that had been
murdered by the agency.
"Verne's version is mild com-
pared to that movie," Gary
said."But the difference between
the movie and his situation is that
for him, the film never stops, the
lights don't come on, it never
ends."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5
(o
Lyon will lecture on his ea-
penences an future plans ~_
a. ... Lr~ a ,em anion.
' . y p ns ter a area ~
unsure but something will have to
give, either way. The government
has messed up my life so much,
just from one decision I made
when I was 22 years old, and now it
could care less. I'm just a number
to it now, but I think it owes me
some kind of retribution; getting
m}? family to the U.S., permitting
me to practice my profession
again, or something."
Lyon said the.pu.-pose of the Leo-
tore is to "tell everything I can, I
want to warn the students and alert
the administrators that this activi-
ty is going on all across the co?,u~-
tr}?. Iwant to warn them what they
could be getting into."
Since Lyon's involvement with
Lhe CIA, President Reagan has
signed a law which makes it legal-
ly possible for the CIA to conduct
business inside the U.S.
A poster decorates one of the
walls in Lyon's office. It says: "It
will be a great day when our
schools get all the money they need
and the Air Force has to hold a
bake sale to buy a bomber."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303420042-5