WILSON: THIS TIME, I' LL TESTIFY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680009-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: September 28, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680009-3
NEWSDAY
28 September 1983
Wilson: This Time
I'll. Testi*fy.
By John Cummings the media for three years," Dowd said:
New York - Former CIA agent Edwin P. Wilson is scheduled to go on trial Mon-
Wilson, answering questions for the first day in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on
time since his arrest last year, said yester- attempted -murder and conspiracy charges
-day that be had been made a "-sacrificial stemming. from 'what the government says
lamb' by the U.S. government and wants to was a plot in which he offered $1.2 million
take the stand in his own defense .in Ins ; for the murder of a number of people, in-
upcoming conspiracy-to-murder trial. eluding two federal prosecutors, his former
'2 consider myself a patriot, I have never wife*nd six=witnesses against him:in past
done anvthnig to hurt my country, and I His :"year-old son, Erik, is -a co= -
intend to talk .freely about everything I defendant ;in"?he;case - "-,-
know and have done,' Wilson said in .re- Wilson, who has -been -labeled .a "rene- .
sponse to questions put to him through .his : gade' -and a 'rogue agent," already has
chief defense attorney, Michael Dowd of - ,been convicted of 'illegally shipping fire-
Kew Gardens. "The defense. has obtained : .arms to Libya andillegally transporting ex.
from the government some secret docu. plosives. He is serving a 34-year term in the
ments in order to prepare its case, but Dowd federal prison -at Otisville, N.Y. He faces a
said he doesn't know yet how much the life sentence -if-.convicted on the new
judge will allow Wilson to be questioned charges. He :was .acquitted last year .of
about his life and activities during his gov- charges that he-plotted to assassinate a po-
ernment service. - litical foe of Libyan strongman-Moammar
Wilson also hinted in his remarks that Khadafy. Wilson did not testify in any of these trials.
there were connections between U.S. rote} don't deny-I made money" Wilson said, refer-
ligeace and at least one of two Cuban exile ring to the arms deals, but he claimed that he did not
fugitives wanted in connection with the violate any U.S.Jaws in doing -soand that the deals
1976 murder in Washington of former Chi- 'took place in the-late 1970E through a 'Swiss propri-
lean Defense Minister Orlando Letelier. etary that -Wilson owned when- the 'U.S. and Libya
The Questions were put to Wilson still "maintained normal relations
through Dowd and answers were relayed . ' "Mut I was also performing intelligence functions
through the attorney because the Justice for the United States . . . the United States was
Department refused to let Wilson be inter. aware and wanted me to do this . :: I could have
viewed face-to-face in prison, where he is ` not been in this [intelligence) as long as I have and
now serving a 34-year term for. illegally not known how to cover myself, Wilson said. When
selling weapons to Libya. Assistant U.S. adverse publicity, generated primarily by former CIA
Attorney Eugene Kaplan said he barred the operative Kevin Mulcahy, began to emerge -about his
interview because he feared that links to I~hadafy, Wilson said he -was "tossed to the
publicity wolves and -made a sacrificial lamb
might prejudice potential jurors against :David Lewis, Wilson's co-defense counsel, said
Wilson. The former intelligence operative
had been the subject of a three-year inter- maintained contact with U.S., intelligence
national rnnn'bunt through Waldo Dubberstein, a retired intelligence of-
Dowd labeled.Kaplan's statement the - -ficial who was:found shot to death last April 29 in his
;'height of hypocrisy. " Arlington; -Va.;-apartment in what -was described by
authorities as a suicide. _ r.
"The Justice Department has been leak :Another purported link was through shadowy
damaging information about Wilson to was
exile named Rafael w
Quintero,a man who, gov-.
eminent -sources told Newsday,-is still employed by-
U.S. military intelligence. He is one of the people Wil-
son is accused of plotting to kill and the man reported
to have worked with the FBL Quintero worked with
Wilson in the super-secret naval intelligence project
known as Task Force 157 until 1976, according to
government sources. Quintero might .be called as a
government witness, but U.S. authorities refuse to
give his whereabouts..
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680009-3