DINNER WITH IDI, AND OTHER TALES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100940007-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: November 28, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100940007-2
ARTICLE APFE-0,LD
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THE NATION
28 November 1981
Councilwho had become a political?opponent of Qaddafi's
and was living in exile in Egypt. The three Cubans refused,.
returned to the United States and reported the plot-to -their;
C.I.A. case officers:
Federal -investigators'subsequently -discovered that Qad-
a
t h
d
he close and profitable relationship that Edwin.
Wilson' and Frank Terpil, two former employees
of the Central Intelligence Agency, enjoyed with
Col. Muammar e1=Qaddafi of Libya is now well
af
a
agreed to pay Wilson and I crpii $1 million for the:
assassination of Muhayshi. As for wanting to kill Carlos,
the two former'C.LA:* officers were actually on good terms
with " him, the investigators discovered: According to-
one,
report: "By his own-admission, Mr. Te pil trained Illyich
Ramirez Sanches,' who is- known as ;~'Ca rlos ' ?an interna-
tionally wanted terrorist who is believed_to'have led a-raid
on the:Israeli Olympic* *team in Mun'ich^in`-J972.11
The investigators ?also-discovered -that;libyan hit men,
trained by Green Berets who had been'recruited by Wilson
and-Terpil, had. murdered and maimed . acozen exiled op-"
ponents--of the Qaddafi.'"regime in London;. Rome, Boiui;
Malta and even the United States. A" former Green Beret;"
Eugene=Tafoya, was charged with the attempted murder of
Faisal Zagallai, a Libyan student at Coloiado State Univer-
sity. 'Tafoya allegedly fired two shots .at-close range that
struck the Libyan exile-in the head: =.Federal authorities
believe that Wilson hired'Tafoya to kill the Libyan student',
on Qaddafi's orders..Tafoya had trained -Libyan terrorists
while he.was'employed by-Wilson, and -telephone records
reveal that the two men talked shortly before the murder at
tempt. In addition, Terpil's travel records show that he was
in Malta at roughly the same time a Libyan -exile there was '
murdered.
Although The Nation' reported details of Wilson and
Terpil's indictment more than a year ago [see "Item. Item.;
Item.;'!. September 20, 1980); the story received little atten
lion until two lengthy articles by investigative reporter
Seymour Hersh appeared in The New York Times Maga-
'known. The pair was indicted last year by a Federal grand
~Jury in Washington, D.C., for exporting arms and. ex=
plosives to the Libyan government.
That grand jury uncovered evidence that Wilson and Ter-
pil had recruited a dozen former Green Berets and U.S.
intelligence agents to train Libyans in the techniques of
terrorism and political assassination. According to. the .1
grand jury, Wilson and Terpil had also procured more than
20 tons of plastic explosives and 183 pounds of time-control'
devices for detonating bombs disguised as ashtrays, lamps,
alarm clocks and vases. The bombs were to be used against
exiled Libyan opponents of Qaddafi's regime.
In secret testimony, three Cuban former operatives of the.
C.I.A. told the grand jury that Wilson and Terpil had hired
.-,them to carry out an assassination for Qaddafi. The three
':were given $30,000 in expenses and instructed to fly to
Geneva. They initially believed their assassination target was
:.Carlos" (Illyich Ramirez Sanches), the world's.. most
wanted terrorist. But upon their arrival in Geneva, they were
met by Wilson and told that their target was Umar Abdullah
Muhayshi, a former member of the Libyan Revolutionary
Murray Waas is an investigative reporter who writes fre-'
'
quently on intelligence matters.
STAT
zine. Hersh. presented new and disturbing evidence that'
although- several current and retired C.I.A officials had'
known about Wilson and Terpil's business dealings with
_Qaddafi; they did nothing to stop them and indeed went out
of.their. vay to assist.-them. At one point, according to-
Hersh;'two officials then on active duty. with the C.I.A.,
Patty Loomis and William- Weisenburger "helped Wilson
and Terpil with their Libyan operations:' More' intriguing is
the fact that Wilson, during his relationship':with Qaddafi,
met with Theodore Shackley, one of the most-powerful men
at the agency, who at the time was serving as assistant to the
deputy director of clandestine operations.=tV.'%. ' .
Kevin Mulcahy, a former-C.I.A. analyst who had gone to
work for Wilson and.Terpil;- became disillusioned, called
Shackley and told him about the two former agents' services
to Qaddafi. Shackley, however, neglected to write a formal
report on the conversation and later, after being ordered to
do so, characterized Mulcahy as-"irrational, paranoid, and ~
alcoholic." The charges were . untrue, "but Shackley's
credibility within the agency was such that he was able to
delay a Federal investigation into the activities of Wilson
and Terpil for several months. Perhaps Shackley's strange
behavior can be attributed to the fact that after he left the
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100940007-2 _.. -