WILSON LINKED TO SALE OF NUCLEAR ARMS TO LIBYA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606010008-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: February 4, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606010008-2
STAT
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Arms to Libya
Vilson Linked to Sale of ixuc r
By Philip Smith
Watnmcton PostSidtt Writer
HOUSTON, Feb. 3-A former
employe of ex-CIA agent Edwin P.
Wilson testified today that Wilson
attempted to sell nuclear weapons,
nuclear fuel, plans and equipment to
Libya in 1980 and later boasted the
deal would "make millions and we
could retire for life."
The testimony by John Heath, a
former Army weapons expert who
said he was recruited by Wilson to
train Libyan terrorists, bolstered
prosecutors' claims in Wilson's con-
spiracy trial here that the onetime
career spy was involved in lucrative
business deals with Libyan ruler Col.
Muammf3rr Qaddafi for personal
profit.
Defense lawyers for Wilson, who
completed their case at midday after
presenting only three witnesses, have
maintained the deals were a cover
for Wilson, who they said was gath-
ering intelligence for the United
States. A senior Pentagon official,
Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, testi-
fied on Wilson's behalf today that
Wilson once offered to procure a So-
viet made MiG25 jet for American
intelligence purposes during a meet-
.ing in Brussels in March, 1980.
"I was interested," Secord testi-
fied, but he did not say if the jet was
delivered.
Secord acknowledged on cross.
examination, however, that Wilson
also had discussed "various -business
opportunities" during the private
sessions.
The jury is expected to begin de-
liberations Friday. Wilson is charged
with smuggling 20 tons of high ex-
plosives from Houston to Libya in
1977 in violation of U.S. export laws.
If convicted, he faces up to 17 years
in prison.
Prosecutors say he made a profit
of about $300,000 on the deal.
Wilson, 54, was convicted last fall
on gun smuggling charges in Alexandria,
Va., and is serving a 15-year sentence stem.
ming from that case.
Although chief. defense lawyer Herald
Price Fahringer told the jury last week he
would prove Wilson was asked by a senior
CIA official in 1976 to -set up a business
front in Libya, the defense rested today
without presenting any testimony in sup-
port of that claim.
Attempts by the defense to call former
attorney. general Ramsey Clark and CIA
critic and author Victor L. Marchetti to
testify. about alleged past CIA misdeeds
were rejected today by District Court
Judge Ross N. Sterling as irrelevant.
Wilson did not take the stand in his own
defense.
Heath, the arms expert, testified he at-
tended a meeting in Libya with Wilson, a
Belgian arms dealer and members of the
Libyan Nucleai Committee; a Libyan gov-
ernment agency, at which the group dis-
cussed the sale to Libya of fissionable ma-
terial and plans for nuclear weapons and
reactors. ?
Heath, who said hg had 21 years' Army
experience in disarming nuclear weapons,
described the plans as useless. "It was not
worth anything. It was a hoax," Heath tes-
tified.
Asked by prosecutor Karen Morrisette
whether Wilson had offered the. plans for
sale for any reason other than money,
Heath replied, "No."
Heath testified that the Libyans were
"not convinced." They regarded Wilson's
nuclear weapons proposal as "incomplete
and not valid,;" and the deal,never went
through.
WASHINGTON POST
4 FEBRUARY 1983
Wilson then shifted gears, Heath said
He attempted to alert the Americans that
the Libyans were after a nuclear bomb.
? Heath said,Wilson told him he sent._word
through Peter Malatesta to Vice President'
Bush "in an attempt to solve his legal prob-
lems" after Wilson was indicted by a fed-
eral grand jury in Washington in 1980.
Malatesta, a former aide to former vice
president Spiro'Agnew, interviewed Wilson
in Libya for People magazine in 1981. ?Mal-
ntocta fnirl Tha Wachinntnn Pnst. last. vpar
Heath testified, "It was understood be-
tween us what his legal problems were.
There were Interpol warrants against. him
]following his indictment]. He. couldn't
travel or make money"
A Washington lawyer, John Keats, also
testified while the jury was out of the room
today that he. had been asked by Wilson
during a visit to Libya to'take part in Wil-
son's legal defense and that Wilson later
forwarded a copy of the nuclear weapons
plans to Keats in Washington.
_,-Keats. said' Wilson "first wanted to get
the plans hack" to alert U.S. authorities
that Libya was seeking atomic weapons.
But Keats said under questioning that he
'later took the plans to a Justice-Depart,
ment lawyer in an attempt to plea bargain
on Wilson's. behalf.
CIA analysts later declared the plans
rorthless.
Wilson was arrested by federal agents
last summer after being tricked into leaving
Libya through an elaborate Justice Depart-
ment ruse.
Secord, deputy assistant secretary of de-
fense for the Near East and South Asia,
testified he was introduced to Wilson about
10 years ago by a mutual .friend, Thomas
G. Clines. At that time Clines was a CIA
official and, according to Wilson's lawyers,
Wilson's former case-supervisor at the CIA
Wilson left the CIA.the same year he met
Secord. .
During subsequent meetings with Wilson
in Iran and Belgium in the late 1970s and '
in 1980, Seodrd said, Wilson offered data
about.Libyan military activities, including
information that North Korean pilots were
flying Soviet-supplied jets in Libya
" On cross-vu mination, ' -,prosecutors? .
sought to show that Wilson was involved
primarily in business ventures rather than
espionage-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606010008-2