WILSON HELD VALUABLE TO TERROR-BENT COUNTRIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09S00048R000100020024-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: August 24, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP09S00048R000100020024-5 -~ - _
kg-r.cc c.~ APPEARED
ON PAGKr&.._.1
24 AUBUST 1982
Wilson field
valuable to
terror-bent
countries
By A WASHINGTON TIMES STAFF WRITER
Edwin P Wilson, the ex-CIA agent charged
with providing terrorist training and explo-
sives illegally to Libya, would be a valuable
ally of any terrorist-prone government,
according to U.S. prosecutors.
They made this argument in a brief filed
with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here
last week, opposing efforts of Wilson's law-
yers to reduce his $20 million bond. The brief
was made public yesterday.
Wilson, first indicted here in April 1980 on
charges of conspiring to ship explosives ille-
gally and to commit murder in the Mideast
left the United-States in 1979. He has been
held atan undisclosed location since he was -
arrested last June 16.
Wilson's lawyers, in appealing the high bond
imposed by U.S. District Judge John H. Pratt,
cited an array of cases of mobsters and other
defendants who were allowed bonds they could
pay.
"None of the defendants in any of the cases
cited by appellant had the capacity and the
allure that Edwin P. Wilson has for certain
foreign governments that might willingly offer
him safe harbor," the government's opposing
brief said. It added:
"Edwin P Wilson is an educated, wealthy
and resourceful 54-year-old man who
possesses training, background, contacts and
assets that would make him an exceptionally
valuable ally to sovereign governments which
are anxious to equip and train armies and
individuals in sophisticated weaponry and
the use of explosives for terrorist activities."
The government charges Wilson worked
for Libya, without registering as a foreign
agent as required, since he left the CIA and
was subsequently fired from a Navy job.
"Since 1977," the government brief said,
"Wilson has secured tens of millions of dol-
lars worth of contracts to supply goods and
services to the Libyan government"
The contracts included providing pilots and
technicians to train Libyans in maintaining
and operating Chinook helicopters and
maintaining C-130 aircraft, and providing
retired U.S. Army Special Forces officers to
train them in military tactics, it said.
The contracts also called for "the provi-
sion of millions of dollars worth of military
clothing, parachutes, grenade launchers,
automatic rifles, revolvers and ammunition
for Libya's army (and) supplying of sophistica-
ted night vision devices that could be used
for rifle scopes," the brief said.
Wilson's attorneys urged the appeals court
to reduce his bail to an amount he could meet
by pledging his U.S. property in Washington
and Northern Virginia, which has an esti-
mated market value of about $9.5 million.
To support their argument that Wilson
deserves a bond he can meet, his attorneys
argued he gave the CIA outstanding service,
has since provided assistance in sensitive
cases, and concluded it is "hard to imagine a
case in which an American citizen has devoted
himself more conscientiously to his country's
interests."
U.S. attorneys countered that all of Wilson's
deeds were, in fact, self-serving and
discounted the defense argument that
pledging his local property would ensure he
will appear for trial. No trial date has been
set.
"It is obvious that Edwin Wilson could easily
forfeit all holdings which he advised the court
about... and still maintain a luxurious lifestyle
in fugitivity for the remainder of his life,"
the brief said.
Another major reason for keeping the high
bond, the government said, is its claim that
Wilson has made a threat on the life of Assis-
tant U.S. Attorney E. Lawrence Barcella, the
chief prosecutor in the case.
Early last February the brief pointed out,
defense attorney John A.' Keats warned
Barcella that ti'ilson`"hied learned his
co-defendant, Francis E. Terpil', had con-
tracted with professional PLO assassins in
the Middle East to have Barcella and his
family murdered.
Terpil is now a fugitive living abroad after
jumping bond, the government says.
In the application for a reduced bail, this
warning was described as an act of coopera-
tion on Wilson's part. However, prosecutors
say Wilson himself has `reveled his own plans
to have Barcglla killed
Wilson unWittingly discussed plans to have
Barcella killed with an-up prcover U.S. mar-
shal during a `flight from Zurich, Switzerland,
to Madrid. Spain, last June 14, the brief said.'
Approved For Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP09S00048R000100020024-5