GADDAFI'S WESTERN GUNSLINGERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606440002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 16, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606440002-1
t i Z V LSE A?PE! RED
01 PAGE
TIME
16 November 1981
Gaddthi's Western Gunslingers
A Colorado trial involves attempted murder, Libya and the
he only thing clear about the attempt- ing to one of Wilson's former busines
ed killing of Faisal Zagallai. a Libyan sociates. In a tape recording seize
graduate student at Colorado State Uni- Tafoya's house. a man believed to be
versit>. is that Eugene Tafoya. the beefy foya tells a phone caller that he wa
ew-Green Beret who shot him last year. sponsible for the bombing and is avail
was not simply acting on his own. Thus for other jobs: -Do you know some
Tafoya wenron trial last week not only for that should quit breathing permanen
attempted murder but also for conspiracy. Authorities have identified the ma
although the prosecution is not yet sure spoke to as James Clinton Dean. an
who his co-conspirators were. Was he em- former Green Beret.
ployed by Edwin Wilson, the former CIA Wilson is a former covert operativ
agent who is now a fugitive in Tripoli ar- the CIA who helped organize the d
ranging mercenary support for the Libyan trous Bay of Pigs invasion by anti-C
armed forces? Was the murder attempt Cubans in 1961. He officially left the Gov_
ordered directly by the Libyan govern- ernment in 1976, when the naval intelli-
ment? Did Tafoya have any real con- _
nection to the CIA, as he claims, or
only with renegade ex-CIA agent Wil-
son? As these questions are explored
at Fort Collins, Colo., during Ta-
foya's trial. which could last a month,
authorities hope. or perhaps fear, that
some light will be shed on the myste-
rious web spun by Wilson that entan-
gles former CIA officials and Western
soldiers of fortune who are giving
support to the radical government of
Colonel `luammar Gaddafi.
Zagallai. 35. the son of a former
mayor of Tripoli, originally came to
the U.S, on a scholarship provided
by the Gaddafi regime. But he soon
soured on the dictator's repressive
policies and became a leader of the
anti-Gaddafi dissidents in the U.S..
and had been warned by the FBI that
he was a prime assassination target.
Fortunately for him, the man who
called at his apartment pretending to
be a corporate recruiter bungled the
job. Tafoya. 47, a 23-year veteran of
the Army and the Marines, who
fought in Viet Nam, fired at Zagallai
at least twice at pointblank range but
succeeded only in blinding him in
one eye. Four months later, the .22-
cal. pistol used in the attack was
found near by and was easily traced
to Tafoya, who was arrested at his
home in Truth or Consequences, N.
ing Gaddafi's yearlong intervention into
A neighboring Chad.
a British pilot
gg ohn Anthony Stubbs
.
r~ who worked for Wilson until he was
asked to deliver arms to a Chad air-
field under siege, told TIME last week
that as many as 45 Americans have'
also been recruited to help train Pales-
tine Liberation Organization terror-
ists in Libya. According toStubbs, the
training operation is based in Kufra,
about 800 miles south of Tripoli, and
run by former U.S. Marine Corps Pilot
Robert Hitchman. who once worked
for the CIA-financed company Air
America and now lives in an apart-
ment in Wilson's villa. Says Stubbs: "I
met Hitchman in Saigon in 1972. 1
Eugene Tafoya and John Stubbs, inset
A web of violence and intrigue.
ilex., in April. Tafoya has variously I gence branch for which he was
claimed that he acted in self-defense after
Zagallai pulled his own gun. aild that he
was on a secret mission for the CIA to
warn Zagallai to tone down his criticism
of Israel. As Tafoya tells it. he was at that
time a kind of double agent, working for
Wilson even while spying on him for the
CIA. The agency denies that Tafoya was
in its employ.
His connection with Wilson is another
matter. After the shooting. Tafoya lived
for three weeks at a 17th century farm es-
tate in southern England owned by Wil-
son. His personal papers include the pri-
vate telephone and telex numbers for
W't i Tr' li as well as notes from
o
o t
When testimony gets under
way in the heavily guarded
courtroom in Fort Collins. a cen-
tral question will be whether
Libya's World Revolutionary
Committee'was telling the truth
when it initially claimed to have
ordered the murder of Faisal Za-
gallai. If it did, it probably acted
through Wilson. This possibility
working, known as Task Force ..r+`W "' . has spurred the Justice Depart-
157, was being disbanded by ment, CIA and FBI to pursue
Navy Rear Admiral Bobby In- more aggressively their investi-
man. Wilson tried to persuade gation of the former operative's
Inman to save Task Force 157 by offering empire. An interagency task force has,
what Inman took to be a bribe; the admi- been set up to coordinate the case, and the'
ral. offended, immediately decided to House Intelligence Committee will begin'
abolish the operation. In 1980 Wilson was public hearings by the end of the year. The
indicted on charges of illegally shipping result may be a fuller understanding of the
explosives to Libya. He has been a fugi- old-boy dealings between present and for-
tive, mainly in Tripoli, since then. In a se- mer intelligence agents. There is a grow-
ries of articles over the past five months. ing suspicion, as well, thatclose scrutiny of
the New York Times has described how Wilson's affairs will turn up embarrassing
Wilson and former CIA Colleague Frank connections with high officials, both in the
Terpil have supplied sophisticated tech- U.S. and abroad, who may have partici-
nology and trained personnel to the Liby- pated in business deals with the entrepre-
never knew exactly which side he was
working for. When I was in Libya. we
used to play chess at Wilson's villa. He
runs the P.L.O. helicopter training for
the Libyan government, and he flies
them himself. The Americans he hires
are mainly Viet Nam veterans, and
they work for about 54.000 a month."
.
p
t son t
what appear to be conversations with him. I an armed forces. Much of their business neur in Tripoli. -By Walter Isaacsom p-^~ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606440002-1 `to" aril