RENEGADE AGENT MAY HAVE BUGGED ARMY MEETINGS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605840037-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: October 14, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605840037-0
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE g-
Renegade Rent
May Have. Bugged
Army Meetings
A federal -grand jury is looking
into allegations that renegade CIA
agent Edwirr Wilson may have-
bugged meetings of the Army Ma-
teriel Command to get information
for Control Data Corp., one of the
world's biggest computer firms.
A corporate executive admits hav-
ing met with Wilson and hired him
as a consultant, but denies the com--.t
pany requested or knew about any .
bugging of the Army's procurements:
arm. Control Data's vice president
for government and military market
ing, L. Taylor Kincannon, said the
purpose of hiring, Wilson was to use
his "great contacts". to unload some.
outdated computers on Third World
countries. . -
Wilson and Kincannon were
brought together at lunch on May
12, 1976, by Paul Cyr, a former.
Army Materiel Command official.
Also present was Wilson's assistant,
Kevin Mulcahy, who has become a
witness for the prosecution.
According to notes of the lun-
cheon meeting, Kincannon agreed
"to secure and forward inventory of
surplus Control Data hardware avail-
able for immediate sale." Wilson was
to be.paid a minimum of $1,200 a
THE WASHINGTON POST
14 October 1981
month in consultant fees, peanuts to The key participant, though, wasj
a $7, billion-a-year company like a Pentagon employe who was in his
Control Data... 40s, thin, bespectacled, ner-vousA HeI
Kincannon insists that the Wilson worked in the contracts section of
contract was "to sell obsolete. equip- the Army Materiel .Comrnan? -Afte;.
ment to Third World countries" and some discussion, he. agreed to' carry a
nothing else. But Mulcahy has told- tiny transmitter into his office and
investigators that the point of the meetings. He insisted that theIbug'1
contract was to get inside informs= must be hidden. either in his brief=''
tion on the Army's bidding, and pro case or in his glasses
cerement plans. This was to be :ac- After the meeting, 'Wilson-' 'sicla-'j
comphshed with bugging devices
The "consulting agreement" itself,
obtained by my associate..Dale. Van
Atta, describes Wilson's job in a sin=
gle sentence:. "Performance of work
shall include consulting services in
the area of Department 'of Defense
programs." No mention ofdumping
agent Frank Terpill arranged for tlTEq
purchase of custom-made transnut-
ter crystals through a Yugoslav con=,I
tact in London named Iva: The 'twdj
of them had -done some electrons)
eavesdropping for the Playboy Clubs
old computers on Third World na- -
tions. casino weren't skimming the house'S'r
In mid-July, lMMulcahy says, Wit- take. (Teril also discussed withrj.
son ordered him to bill Control Data. Playboy officials a plan to:construcVJ
When Mulcahy observed that they a floating casino off Bahrain. -Rich-,
hadn't done anything to' sell the Arabs would. be transported to the.!
company's computers,. Wilson said emporium in speedboats.)
they had indeed, they were about to Control Data's contract with.-Wit-;4
bug the Materiel Command for the son was finally terminated'in"Apri
l; f
company. He sent Mulcahy to a 1979, after the company had -paid
meeting where the bugging was to be hint at least $43,000 but closer to'
arranged. $100,000. Kincannon, ackriowledged,_,;
The meeting took .place-in the. that. Wilson "never generated -ar y.
Texaco station at Bailey's Cross- business" for the . company, ,.which
roads, a few miles' from Washington "never sold any equipment through,-1
in suburban Virginia at 7:30 a.m. him." Wilson was "very close to sell-_;
The gas station proprietor's brother,: ing one terminal that we had,'-'.said
Douglas Schlachter, was,' in:-charge. Kincannon, who blames himself only.,,
(He. has since been. secretly indicted for ' keeping such 'an urproductiye {
in another Wilson caper and is hid- consultant on the payroll for three
ing out in Burundi.). - _years.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605840037-0