EX-C.I.A. AGENT EDWIN WILSON TALKS ABOUT HIS MYSTERIOUS ALLEGIANCE TO LIBYA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09S00048R000100020091-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 91
• Publication Date: November 23, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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o the CIA, he is a rogue, an agent for.
no one but himself. To the FBI, he Is a
I much-wanted fugitive from justice. But
ya's Col. Muammar Gaddati, t_dwtn r ...
Libya's import-export trade. r et he
ddafi'
also served to whet Uas appetite
airplane mechanics and pilots for he :.
lawful as well. A tour-count fede. al I
nesspartnerFranx Terpil. ano he .
_t with explosives. In viola-?'. ,r?
Mg
ute. They are also accused of consplfr
ing with agroupof Cuban exiles 10.
_- _ of P%_aa-n to
Egypt: "I am innocent of all the nothing to hurt the es" rya Wll%on, but for tine mo- ....-He's
Sdone U.S..'rnment disagrees; the
,TheU. .11 is i'emelning in Libya, among .: .gove charg wison to fl cargo planes in Libya's
s cant d Wi son'
merit no i=ionde. "'~ilt'r 1Ni1i In dal t Ine rtlatn," State Department has Y
CladdaWi training the
war ay91.It~y~1'e bi& of miiigenCe, A'bd Mission to Libya ureprehertylble."pne supply on Chad, claims
Iflt
i--ssf-~ttaa. of hisTormer business associates.. .~
fiS DIV.
Kevin*Mulcahy, has charged that Wit-
son attempted to buy a ground-to-air
Redeye missile for Libya. Mulcahy
speculates that the weapon was in-
tended.to bring down a jumbos jet as an
-
incontrovertible demonstration of ter-
rorist might. Another of Wilson's for-
mer employees. ex-Green Beret Eu-
gene Tafoya, Is currently on trial in.
Colorado for shooting a Libyan disci-
dent there; Tatoya allegedly hid out at
ter the shooting In a house near Len.
don which belongs to Wilson., John
Anthony Stubbs, a British pilot hired b
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ro ram for international terrorists. length about the shadowy years that
9
r p
Ed W'Ison's background hardly sue- followed. Then last month he invited
s
wife and two sons live in the U.S., and, {
given the Islamic prohibitions against
drinking and nightciubbing, his main
pleasures are imported American
food, novels, history books and video-
taped adventure films.
The interview which follows ishardly
forthcoming; Wilson's responses
throughout are rigorously self-serving.
Yet in his portrayal of an innocent busi-
nessman wrongly accused by disgrun-
tled employees. Wilson does reveal
himself, however unwittingly.
t
Bests a traitor In the making. A farm free-lance journalist Peter Malatesta
boy from Nampa, Idaho, he graduated to spend 10 days with him in Tripoli.
from the University of Portland into the Malatesta is no stranger to complex
Marine Corps during the Korean War. men. He has been an aide to Vice-
Four years later he joined the CIA. Un- President Spiro Agnew, a business
tit 1971, he says, he served as a "low- partner of former Korean lobbyist
level operative," then switched to a Tongsun Park and an owner of Pisces,
naval intelligence team monitoring
weapons movements. around the
world. Somehow, even before leaving
government service in 1975, he was
. an exclusive private club in George-
town. He is the author of Party Politics,
an examination of the social side of.
Washington to be published this spring
doing well enough financially to buy a by Prentice-Hall. His'next project Is a
2,000-acre Virginia farm currently val- book about Wilson.
U -1 ued at some $9 million. Malatesta found his subject's cite to
Until now Wilson has never talked at b r- one. Wilson's estranged
`cOrq A J
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(31
You have been call&da traitor. How do
Fes'
ered myself to be a loyal and good --~~
fight on the United States' side. The
for that. I don't think it's wrong to work ' ?""'"R)" ::"
United States because they work here. and I've not seen him since, exdept for for. a job or to help them out or loan
My import-export company is a legiti- a chance meeting In a hotel In Geneva:-: them money. Socially I've had some
mate, honest business... two years ago. I found his personality: contact, but businesswise I have not-
should be considered-to be against the relations with Terpil in December 76 , my former associates have asked me
in Libya, and I don't think that anyone
was definitely on the paranoid side and
ere TA" see w a cou do. I broke when 1 i
met at a party in 1975, and he told me , ganlzatlon, where information flows which were perfectly legal and were to
about Libya. At the time 1 was tirt' of ? out as fast as It flows In. The last off;-. be used only for training purposes: The
Washington so I decided to come down clal contact 1 had with the agency was newspapers have grossly exaggarat-
0.. .4 1. 61 1
had. never known in the agency. We since the CIA Is known to be a leaky or-. I was involved only with the tirs-9rs -1
eorurectrassfrm/pyoufnbuueess? electronic equipment.
Howdid yougetinvofved with Libya? I unequivocally deny that. Asa mat-
I first came here with Frank Terpil, a ter of fact, in my business that is tanta- But you'reaccusedofsuppiyingLrbya
former CIA agent who, by the way, t mount to losing any credibility Ihave, . with American explosives
r a
e
r
~.ga.n wr ? , wn re n p i9 becauseof theirassacra- the State Department had no restnc-
T!
stifiIiiyin5theiroil, aren't we? Lion with you and7'erpff.DidyourCIA tions on shipment or sale of this kind of,
But theU.S govemmentisciearly that he had tendencies to make bom-? How difficult was It for you to establish
at odds with Colonel Ciaddafi's bastic statements that were not true. I a business In Libya?
gove~rnmenL ' . sew a potential in Libya to do business I didn't have to do a thing.Terpii al-
It's not my problem I'm a business- and I set out on my own. I've had noth- ready had a contract with the Libyan
roan. I don't care to get into politics. In ing to do with Torpil since.
government to furnish trmer4, :vhic'
years fast Libya and the U.S. have were to be used with booby traps.' -
been iflehds. I'm hopeful that this . Two high-ranking CIA agents werefirad When these timers were purchased,:
Afte
li !r' tNe Eas
il f A
il
CON? rVlBD.
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:.-Security at the?Fort Collins, Colo. court-
room is tight for the trial of Tafoya, who
-- claims he waa acting for the CIA.
called for 300,000 to 500,000.1 never
heard of those orders; maybe Terpil
? did. The actual .order was for 300 to
. 400. .
Jerome Brower-who was Indicted with
you, pleaded gjuiltyaridspent four
Tafoya says his attack on Faisal Zagaitai
(left, in court) came on U.S. government
orders to "slap him around a little bit."
quest to the people here who contract
for such stuff and he was on his own
from that time on.
\ f?
I!; it true a;a!t you ha?ie enlisted Green
Bemis to train terrorists in Libya?
Firsto';:tH,!.. tme?sayIwouldn't
know a terrorist if I saw one. I've never'
seer: rtor heard of any kind of that cc-
tivi,y, and I've traveled freely all over
Libya. Since the Justice Department
has interviewed a number of former
Green Serets. who have worked for me.
they knew I've never trained anyone to
be a terrorist.
Then what takes place in the camp in
Benghazi, where ex=Green Berets are
training Libyans?
Benghazi is your basic Marine-like
boot camp. We take Libyan draftees-
raw, young, some barely teenagers-
and.we put them through a special 40
to 50-day operations course. It con-
sists of map reading, how to operate a
radio, squad and platoon practices,
bayonet drill, marksmanship, hand-to;
hand combat, first aid, aerial delivery
of supplies by parachute and that kind
of stuff. There are four or five former
Green Berets there. But let me say, rm
-sick and tired of-hearing about how I'm
training terrorists.
Are theLibyan trainees involved with
the use of explosives?
Yes, there's about 12 hours of train-
ing in basic demolition, the kind that
would be used to blowup bridges,
Yourformerassociate Kevin Mulcahy
charges that you not only sold munitions
to theLibyansbut also tried to purchase
a Redeye missile for the n,.
That is totally untrue. I never saw a
Redeye missile and never sold one or
any other arms from the United States
or any equipment embargoed by the
United States at any time. It is beyond
me why the press will take some casu-
? al,.paranoid comment from a disaffect-
ed former employee who was probably
terminated for incompetence and print
It as the truth.
How manyjet and helicopterpilots are
you providing to Libya?
We gave up the contracts on both
roads or trees.
What happens to these Libyans after
they are trained? Do they go abroad?
After training they continue in the
Libyan Army as soldiers. They go, I
guess, wherever the army goes.
operations retroactive to Oct. 1 be-
cause the Libyans are now quite cape-- How would you describe the business
ble of flying and maintaining their own you do here?
planes. All the Britons and Americans Well, I represent OSI-SA, an Import
'
m very ac-
are now gone. Over the past five years export business in Tripoli. I
we have employed somewhere be- tive in the oil-service business provid=
tween 150 and 200 people, about half Ing equipment like bits, tools and spare
of them American. parts. We just signed a large contract
-t
'
months inprison=has testified that yotr It has been said that without your help,
were also l'V Shied fir the deal to supply ' Libya would have been unable to under-
explo_ ive? t5i 03ya. take lte invasion of Chad. How do you
t don't Rria i what Mr: (3; iswer claims. ' -'espand to that?
Ne wad ceriii~tad by Ftank'tarp~l to The Libyans' problems with Chad
provide explosives, for the training ' have nothing to do with me.
projects in Libya: The Libyans gave
Brower an import license; after that, It Are otherAmericans besides your
was his responsibility to clear the ship- recruits involved in the Libyan
ment In the United States with the government?
proper authorities and to make any I wouldn't know. I know very few
other arrangements necessary for Americans here. Most of my friends
shipping. I introduced him at his re- are Libyans.
m current-
to supply military uniforms. I
ly dealing with a South Korean con-
struction firm specializing in inter-
national trade-petrochemicals,
-electronics, textiles and that sort of
thing. I'm also doing business with a
large Western European steel and pipe'
company and an Italian construction
and trading company.
Is this the company that was recruiting
pilots and mechanics for the Libyan Air
Force?
No, that's another company which is
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Leonid Brezhnev greeted Oaddafl on an
April visit to Tripoli.. `'The U.S. doesn't. try
so I 'had to have some backers.
owned by Middle East stockholders,.:',
who want to remain anonymous. It
takes a lot of capital to operate here,
Swiss-based. The name is SCFMO. It's
r
somewhere around $9.miliron relmbu
I have the ntbeetstaff. thAtnla n .,r..,
Libyan troops carried pester, of Qaddafi
as they marched on Chad last December,
two weeks ago they began a.wittrdrawat.
You ha ve b een accused of selling ser. si-
tive computer technology to Soviet KGQ
agents in Iran.
Totally untrue. We have never ex-
ported high technology, nor attempted
'to.
How did yougetinvaluedWithEu ene
Tafoya, Who is on trial in Colorado for
shooting a Libyan dissident?
Tafoya was.one of many ex-Green-
Berets. 75 or so; whom we hired at one
Benghazi. He was only with us a couple
of months and at the time there was no
training going on. Tafoya didn't get
along with the Libyans; he was kind of.
a strange character. In fact, I only
talked to him once or twice in the
month or so he was here. I asked him
to leave. If he was contacted and hired
by the Libyans to assassinate that stu-
dent in Colorado, I am unaware of this
.activity. was not a party to it and in no
way-would have condoned it
.
IIhatoreyourdealingswithQaddafi? ?- 1
lfiave never met Colonel Qaddafi, But.theauthorities found yourbusiness .
and I have never operated at his level. I cardinhiswallet.
admire what he has done.for his pea That wouldn't be unusual. Anyone,,
pie in the way of economic progress in who worked for the Swiss corporation
the last 10 years. He has bettered the probably would have my business -
standard of living of the common pea- card, which has on it my telex number
pie, even down to the Bedouins. I think and telephone numbers.
he's.improved the quality of life here a
great deal. On every level, whether ? . One of yourpilotrecruits, JohnAnthony
It's agricultural, industrial, political or Stubbs, m~ argesthatheknowsfora.fact
cultural, the Libyans area lot better off, ihaf youare theamrsr?erchdntoftiS-
fhonfhov...e.e-...s,.,,,, n..,.--??------ --. ,, ...
a oeggar here. Stubbs was down here for about a
What is yourci ur eat income?
Would any other businessman an-
swer that question? Let me just say
this: I've paid my income taxes every
month. He took one test hop in a C-130.'
We found out that he wasn't a qualified
pilot, but maybe a copilot at best. He
.never flew anywhere. The Libyans put`
him in their copilots' school for a cou
,
year, in the six figures. You know, a guy pie of weeks, and he flunked out of
could get into real trouble if he doesn't . that-The guy is an out-and-out liar. He
pay his taxes. That's serious stuff. You drank too much. burned his ar,a f T1ent '
d
ase
as a vital Incompe
Why do foreign companies doing bus;- been lucky in my real estate deals in tent after one month. We na:a h:m
ness with Libya come to toyou a Virginia and I suppose that my property month's salary,'` Mch wa were never
rniddlemaiil is wo
th
e
s
s an my office the night he left. Because of
Ization, my company is one of the few . agent for the KGB and I dropped the this, in order to protect himself from
that is still doing business In Libya, whole matter quickly. ? .. the supposed revenge that T n
e
even a cahygavefhegrandjurytesti-
to sef tip tita appointments they need. I' members of the American military com- -..monythatledto yourindfctments. Why
know how to get things done here, and ? mandin fran.to facilitateamw sales to would yourformercolleaguehaye test;-
that's what they're looking for. that country. Did you? fied against you? {
That is absolutely untrue. I paid off Mulcahy is really a pathetic figure,- ii
Are tthsremany ethercompanieshere in nobody.! made one trip to Iran with an alcoholic with mental problems. He
theimport-export bushels? ? . Terpil and he introduced me to a man wound up taking $4,500 in cash out of
No, not really. Because of national named David I heard that h
w
villa: Pt's 001:4 eieftientary--I'm able Frank Terpil says that vnuandh.h,n, d Yf
the phdh e, find ottibes available in the
rp
GO
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 the last couple of years. Once In 1980
to go to Malta.to expand my business
operations, and a couple of months
ago to go to Rome for a meeting with
the Justice Department and the FBI.
would take, he fed Seymour.Hersh of
the Now York Times the most unbeliev-
able lies, fabrications and untruths.
C.'u.'c,sny s,eys that you met with three
Cub-an exilss In Geneva where.you
a s;, pet them to kil! UmarMuhayshi, a dis-
sic ;~,n t Libyan living in Egypt Did you?
have no Idea where any discussion
about the killing of Muhayshi came up.
Terpil and I did meet with some Cu-
bans in Geneva. I offered them a job to
coma to Libya to assist in the anti-boo-
by trap and mine field school. They
turned down the job primarily because
they did not like Terpil. I don't think I
should comment on it any further at
this time.,
if Stubbs and Mulcahy were drunks and
Terpil was paranoid and Tafoya was a
"str