SCOPE OF CIA INVOLVEMENT IN WEAPONS DEAL UNCLEAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202020001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 28, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202020001-6
BURLINGTON FREE PRESS (VT)
28 March 1982
By SAM HEML'VGWAY
Free Press Sloff Writer
The remote compound on
Vermont's border no longer shud-
Ders,with tlie'sound of another,
ballistics test. Munitions buyers.
from foreign lands no, longer file
east the security gate on their way
~o meetings with Space
Research's band of crack engi-
}leers and scientists.
. The legacy of Space Research
Corp. - all that remains from the
says the firm boasted of break-
roughs in rocket and munitions
'technology -=- is its now infamous
aims-smuggling scheme that pro-
hided howitzer shells, gun barrels
end weapons technology to South
Africa but cost the firm its life.
Today the sprawling C0111" I
pound on Vermont's border with 1
Canada at North Troy is the prop- l
erty of a freewheeling Arab in-
vestor mouthing many of the
same ideas Space Research found-
Gerald V. Bull, regarded by
er
many as the Edward Teller of
.munitions, once extolled. Wheth-
er investor Saad Gabr can reignite
Bull's dream remains to be seen. i
One thing Is clear, however. No
company will be allowed to oper
ate.! the 1,200: acre compound
c y3t,e like Space Research did.-,,---' Questions about the Space Re-.
'search case, the largest known
violation of the United Nations
embargo against Arms sale * to
.apartheid-ruled South Africa, are:
many.
?How did the firm convince the
Army to provide it upwards of
65,000 howitzer shell forgings
without finding out where they
were going?.
-eWhy did the State'
Depasrtment's Office of : Muni-
tions Control send $pace Re-
search a letter so easily construed.
as a waiver of all licencing re
quirements for export of the forg
ings?
. *How could 16 individuals
working for a firm so obviously
involved in munitions travel back
and forth from South Africa? un-
detected by Customs officials?
.Finally, why did only two,
company officials Bull and
former president Col. Rodgers L.
Gregory - get singled out for
punishment when so many other
parties within and without the
federal government were in-
volved.
A U.S. House subcommittee
investigating the Space Research
affair last week issued a report on
its findings and' attempts to an-
swer many of those questions. In
most instances, the answers sug-
gest a perplexing chain of "mis-
taken actions" and fumbling by
federal agencies, sometimes
caused by apparent lax pro-
cedures, othertimes permitted as
the result of a lack of any pro-
;ceduxe'td deal. with possible Im
proprieties altogether.
But the biggest. question of. all
11ow, much of ' role: did the.
Central tnteliigence Agency play
Ir the arms smuggling shetzie?.- '
remains .tinresoived. Clearly, -It he
findings,'in the 46-page tepbrt
based on tederal grand jury aocu
;imente and~.interviews with rnbre:
than 50'people connected with the
case;'show the agency had know`-
edge of the affair. '
llt ' its concidslon, the .'report
contends, "At the vety'least, this
.episode suggests ?,serieus riegli-,
-gence on the port of the' Agency,
(CIA). At the most, there is a
:possibility that elements of -the
'CIA purposefully evaded pol-
Icy;
The story of the CIA's involve
:t Tent in the case -.irluch of It
documented in the past during a
series of stories on the case pub-
lished by the Burlington Free
Press - is 'a complicated one
indeed.
The origins of the Space Re-
search deal can be traced to the,
battiefield in Angola in 1975.
Forces supported and financed by
the CIA were warring with Soviet-
backed troops and the fight was
not going well.
Encouraged by the CIA, South
African troops had invaded
Angola only to find themselves
outmatched by superior, Soviet-
made artillery pieces, most
notably the.155mm howitzer..
In October 1975 the South
Africans told the CIA's station }
.chief in Pretoria they badly l
needed the 155mm artillery to
shore up their invasion. The re-
quest was carried to Washington, .
but was rejected by the National
Security Council's : "working
group" on Angola as a potential
violation of U.S. law..
According to the House report,
the denial did not deter the CIA
~ from pursuing the matter of full-
filling the South African request.
*How were approvals to make .I
those forgings for Space Research
obtained so quioltly. In only..
four day., Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 CIA-RDP90-00552R000202020001-6