VETERAN DEALERS AND MIDDLEMEN ARE TIED TO THE CONTRA DIVERSION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403270003-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 30, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403270003-6
6
Mil ~A E_ _"~
BOSTON GLOBE FHF ON
30 November 1986 L T
Veteran dealers and '
rruddlemen
are tied to the contra
diversion
By Fred Kaplan
Globe Staff
WASHINGTON - The international group
that engineered the flow of arms and money
from Iran to the Nicaraguan rebels is part of a
small, tightly knit network of arms merchants
and middlemen who have reportedly dealt in the
sometimes shady business of weapons transfers
for years.
Its key participants have close connections
with high-ranking officials in the United States.
Israel and Saudi Arabia.
For years. several of them have been at the
renter of deals in which arms have been the in-
strument of policy, the means by which local
politics, bureaucracies and even nationalist loy-
alties can be circumvented. And in some cases.
they have had roles in deals in which much per-
sonal profit can be made.
A central figure in this case appears to be
Richard Secord. a retired US Air Force general
who has gained notoriety in recent years as one
of the two main supporters of aid - private and
public - to the rebels, called contras. battling to
overthrow the Sandinista government of Nica-
ragua.
Unwelcome publicity
Around this time, Secord was
also facing some unwelcome pub-
Ilcity for his Involvement in an-
other arms deal in the Middle
East.
His colleagues in this arrange-
ment were even higher notables:
Erich von Marbod, former director
of the Pentagon's arms-sales of-
4 fice: and Thomas Clines. former
director of training for the Central
Intelligence Agency's clandestine
offices. They had all worked in
Iran during the shah's reign.
According to a 1982 column by
Jack Anderson, based on FBI in-
vestigations. these three were
shareholders in a company that
shipped US government arms to
Egypt - at the same time that von
Marbod was a Pentagon official In
charge of making decisions on
arms shipments to Egypt.
In his book, "Manhunt." Peter
Maas corroborates Anderson's
story and says that another inves-
tor in the company was Edwin P.
Wilson. the former CIA agent who
amassed a small fortune selling
arms to the Libyan government
and various terrorists.
Temporary removal
The company, called interna-
lional Research and Trade.
hanged Its name to the Egyptian
American Transport and Services
g0r'poratlon.
E ? According to Maas. when the
f$1 began Investigating the com-
ny In early 1982. Secord - the
gly one of the three still in gov-
Qnment - was removed from of-
t1Ce pending a lle-detector test.
s' Maas writes: "But he never
look the test. Instead. without any
or notification to the Justice
Defpartment, he was abruptly
/`' hinstated by Frank C. Carlucci, a
former deputy director of the CIA
who had become the number two
man in the Defense Department."
In 1983, Secord retired from
the military and went into busi-
} ess with an Iranian of Palestin-
ian descent named Albert Hakim.
10 a company called Stanford
!fechnology Trading Group inter-
national, according to the Maas
book and the Anderson column.
' The company has reportedly
hired several former CIA officials.
116cluding Theodore Shackley, a
farmer associate director of clan-
destine services, and Frank Ter-
WI. who was later unmasked as
Edwin Wilson's associate in the
terrorist arms-running market.
The company is still in exis-
tence. though Shackley and Terpil
are no longer working there.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403270003-6