WEEKEND MAGAZINE - WEAPON?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00792R000500240004-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 1, 2000
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 17, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

11. 1
%TO. CIA
A Toronto inventor may hold
the key to Entebbe
By David Jones
t
wo books have now been written
on the daring raid which rescued
103 hijack hostages from 'Entebbe
airport on July 3, 1976. Numerous inter-
views and official explanations have been
given, yet the punk remains. How did
the Israeli rescue mission manage to elude
the radar of six nations lying beneath or
alongside its flight path, including that of
Uganda?
The answer to the Entebbe mystery
may lie with a 64-year-old appliance
repairman and heart patient. The first
hint of Sid Hurwich's connection with the
raid filtered out last June at a ceremony
in Toronto's Beth Tzedec synagogue.
where Hur...ich was presented with the
award of Protectors of the State of Israel
on behalf of the Zionist Organization of
Canada for a secret military device he
had given Israel seven years earlier. Six
weeks later an item appeared in the
Toronto Star linking the Hurwich device
to the raid on Entebbe. The wire services
picked it up and the story took off around
the world.
The most detailed account appeared in
Foreign Report, a confidential diplomatic
journal produced by EiNstand s presti-
gious Economist magazine. In an un-
signed article apparently based on Israeli
sources, the publication reports that all
that could be learned officially was that
[Harwich's] invention had been used in
the Israeli raid at Entebbe last yen" The
article daints the invention "sends out
electronic rays to alter the natural com-
position of the magnetic fields and
centres of gravity of weapons, instrument
dials and mecfianical devices-On the
Hurwidt principle there was no reason
why the new beams could not reach and
disable tanks, ground-to-ground missiles
and complete radar systems. The beams
could also be tacked together to form a
screen that would make whole zones safe
from bombs or missiles. The Israelis will
not divulge what tests have been run, or
how the Hurwidt ray has been developed."
According to his daughter, Sylvia
Winkler, Hurwich "was around 9. when
he started buying broken bicycles and
tus:m together, and when any-
bodyutire thaout appliances. he would pick
them up and put them together'
By 1934, with no training beyond high
school, Htuwich had won a reputation as
the first private appliance repairman in
Canada-before that only the manufac-
turers did repairs. By the beginning of the
Second Wald War he was known as a
ved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-R
I've got a secret Sid Horwicli,64,was given
tions on metals used in appliances, the
repair business took off By 1947 he had
built it up into Shock Bic. which
remains one of the hugest businesses of
its kind in Toronto. In another buikling he
started Sidco Co., devoted to making
electrical parts. When a heart attadc in
1950 just about killed him, he sold the
business and went into a comfortable
retirement at the age of 36. ?
he idea for the Hurwich ray came
to him one evening in 1969 as he
read about a rash of robberies from
bank night-deposit vaults. It just clicked
what to do; Hurwich says. "(picked up
the phone to the police-I knew a .lot
of the boys-and I told them I think I
can stop those thievexies in about half
an hae. ?
Hurwich watt to work in his basement
with $50 worth of spare parts, and within
a week had assembled a waking model
to test his theoryjnspedor Bill kolton.
then head of the p3I-up Sciiiici;
assembled police and ? bank security
officials at Hurwich's home. "All I can
recalr. says Bolton "is that it was under
the table-the device, whatever it Was-
and there was a bedspread over the table.
He froze my_service revolver. . You
RairtitO1P92FUND50@ealgtet
?1004-
it up off the table and even on the table Which principle he won't say, just as he
you couldn't pull the trigger." refuses to discuss how the device works. I
Hurwich continues: "-And then I said only works on objects that will any
'Now take a look at your watches: current, he says. It can be aimed and its
remember one of them said, 'When range depends on its power sounx.
this happen?' and I said, The minute you *Any magnet will stop a watch." ex- r
walked -through that door. You walk plains TX Howard White, a Toronto
in there about 2$ minutes ago. Now look consulting engineer."It sounds to me like
at. your watches. You're late about 2.5 a very high-intensity electromagnetic
mmutes": - ? field that he is able to project, but don't
As the smirk), officers filed out of his know how he is generating it." White
borne. Humid' s wife overheard one shakes his head skeptically. From jam-
them suggest that the army should be ming a few guns to jamming electronic
told about the device. 'That was the equipment at long range is a very large-
time it ever entered my mind for wax or leap. But anything's pogibler
army purposes or anything lila that"
Hurwich says. He went back to work in unvich has never patented his
his basement. When he felt the device device?he doesn't believe in pat-
was ready he contacted a brother living in oats. "It's so easy to copy,' he says.
Israel Hurwich has never been to "I've copied things from patents. Just'
himself but he felt "they needed it more make a minor change where they'd have
than anybody. what with the Arabs say- a tough time in court proving I'd broken
ing they d Me to push everycee into the the patent7 Nor has he received any
se-a." Hurwich received a visit shortly money for his invention. Oppenheimer
afterward from two high-ranking Israeli and Co. of New York wrote recently to
officers. After a brief demonstratxm they "offer any service to assist you in deter-
walked out with toe working, urixici rer^?,,Preill feasibility of your
every plan and cksign Hutwich had. work, ind explorictg avenues to bring your
Hurwich insists his device is not work to useful commercial
an invention. He sa he simply Hurwich says "at this stage monP41='t
one of the oldest basic principles of enter my mind. I am not a youngster
electricity and put it to a different user and I can't take it with,menci
For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96M792RWYCY5trerfabia4-3