UNDER-THE-COUNTER DEALINGS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605840033-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: October 31, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605840033-4
t: X11 ti r~ _ ?~, r
Libya
Under-the-counter
dealings
So preoccupied is the administration with
Libyan wickedness of every conceivable
sort that it. was only to be expected that
new vigour and attention should be given
to the federal prosecution of two-former
Central Intelligence Agency officials ac-
cused, among other--things, of assassina-
tion plots and bomb-making on Colonel
Qaddafi's behalf. Lawyers at the justice '
department have been patiently gather-
ing evidence against the two men, Mr
Edwin Wilson and Mt Frank Terpil, for
more than two years. Theywereoriginal-
ly indicted as long ago as April of last
year and the crimes they are being pros-
ecuted for are supposed to have been
committed three or four years earlier.
New excitement came last week with
the addition .of a third defendant, Mr
Douglas Schlacter, an associate of Messrs
Wilson and Terpil, from Virginia. Mr
Schlacter is currently a fugitive in Burun-
di from where the state department is
trying, so far unsuccessfully, to extract
him to stand trial. Nobody has publicly
suggested that the coming to the boil of
the federal -prosecution was hastened by
the recent sharpening of the administra-
tion's quarrels with Libya. The indict-
ment against Mr Schlacter was actually
brought at the beginning of August. That
was before American aircraft shot down
two Libyan jets during American naval
exercises off the Libyan coast. It was
before the assassination of President Sa-
dat, overwhich crowds.in Tripoli exulted.
It was before the sudden and still not'
wholly explained evacuation from Rome
this week of the American ambassador,
Mr Maxwell Rabb, all the way to safety in
Washington so as to foil a Libyan assassi-
nation plot. The justice-department law-
yers have simply -been doing their job
unhurried by affairs of state.
E Eco,, r; .IZS?r
31 October 1981
As former government employees nei-
ther Mr Wilson nor Mr Terpil can be said
to have brought honour to his country, at
least not if the.indictment is to be be-
lieved. Mr Wilson is claimed to have set
up a small explosives factory at King
Idris's old palace outside Tripoli where
he supervised the making of bombs dis-
guised as ashtrays, tea caddies and coat-
-hangers. Together with Mr Terpil, he is
also said to have taken Slm from Colonel
Qaddafi to arrange the death of a-Libyan
revolutionary council member living in
exile in Egypt, -
. Finding sustainable charges to fit these
crimes was not easy. The two men are
being prosecuted under the Arms Export
Control Act for illegally exporting explo-
sives and detonation equipment. They
are thought to have sold the. Libyans!
other prohibited items' including night'
vision equipment, although the justice
department will not confirar this. They+
are charged with taking explosives across
state lines, in contravention of a clause in
the 1970 Omnibus Crime Control Act
added to deal originally with the Weather
Underground, members of which resur-
faced this week (see below). As paid
agents of the Libyan government, they
are charged with failure to register under
the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Lastly, they are being charged, in the
District of Columbia where some of their I
dealings were plotted, with conspiracy to'
murder.
This is not a federal charge, but since
felonies in Washington are prosecuted by
federal authorities, the case will be heard
in-one court. It will, at least, if the two
can be brought to trial. Mr Wilson, in
Tripoli, denies all wrong-doing. Mr Ter-
pil is somewhere in Lebanon or Syria. Mr
Schlacter is charged with ~ the same
crimes, save for conspiracy to murder and
-failing to register as a foreign agent.
This strange case raises three distinct
points for the authorities in Washington.
First, there is what they are to do about
Americans working for the Libyan gov-
ernment. American mechanics, it is re-
ported, have serviced Libyan aircraft.
American pilots recruited by Mr Wilson
were said to be at the controls of Boeing
Chinook helicopters, made under licence
in Italy, which were carrying supplies for
the Libyan invasion of Chad earlier this
year. Awkward as all this obviously is for
an administration aroused against Libya,
there is not much, legally, it can do to
bring these Americans to heel. Lawyers
at the justice department are looking into
applying the neutrality laws. These forbid
Americans to serve in the armed forces of
a foreign country- But justice department
lawyers are divided on whether or not the
neutrality Iaws- could be successfully
stretched to cover civilian ground crews.
The Wilson-Terpil affair, secondly, has
drawn the attention of the house intelli
gence committee to what limits ought to
be imposed on retired intelligence offi-
cers. Mr Wilson, at the time of his alleged
crimes in 1976, is said to have kept in
contact with senior CIA officials in Wash=
in-ton. it is not, at all uncommon for ex-
CIA officers to turn to advising the
governments in countries where they
were stationed. But to prevent abuses,
amendments are being considered to the
CIA charter.
The affair offers, thirdly, an admittedly
untypical example of the difficulties of
policing illegal weapons and technology
sales to unfriendly governments. There
are several government agencies in-
volved: state, commerce, justice, the FBI
ment strength is small. Co-ordination is
poor. Catching. violators-at the moment
of violation depends too much on. luck.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605840033-4