STAFF MEETING MINUTES OF 6 JULY 1982

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00130R000600010453-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 24, 2007
• Sequence Number: 453
• Publication Date: July 6, 1982
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84BOOl30R000600010453-7
6 July 1982
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
Staff Meeting Minutes of 6 July 1982
The Director chaired the meeting.
July
nower outage
2
at 2300 o
e
a
As
holiday-
reported there wasa s, until aftethe
and that GSA refused to fix the problem
result, CIA technicians were called in and they repaired the problem.
1 k d attending Crisis Pre-Planning
Gates noted he spent most of the wee ---
Group meetings. He added that^Radi,opTe Aviv has broken the news about
Gates initiated a discussion of Judge Clark's memorandum
sa tablishing
a new SIG on International Economic Policy (SIG-IEP). that the
Director is not listed as a mebJud?e newtoSrequestIG in a
NSDD and suggested that he call 9
so l
d
o
member. The Director agreed to
said he and the Chief of the Audit Staff will briet a
PFIAB Subcommittee this afternoon.
Glerum reported the overseas pay issue has been briefed to the
appropriate people and it appears that all problems have been overcome.
b dor to Saudi Arabia Neumann is
-
the Saudi views on the current Israe
Rowen said that former U.S. Am ass
in town and will be wish to mwith te eet whthNAmbassador Neuma nngto discuss
Director might also li-PLO situation. F__1
Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84BOOl30R000600010453-7
 Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84BOOl30R000600010453-7
?
In response to the Director's question, neither the DDI nor the
DDO have seen publications outlining the whole range of CI operations
DIA is involved with, although Stein said the DDO is fully aware of CI
operations being run by the DoD.
noted the Taubman article in the 4 July Sunday New York Times
Magazine a tached). Article indicates new indictments are -expected in the
knew of this
t h
h
d
.
e
a
w
Wi son Terpil case. Sporkin discusse
Attachment
Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84BOOl30R000600010453-7
 Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84B00130R000600010453-7
p ?n= A Um
ON PAGZ
?
. 0
NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
14 JULY 1982
The secret. World,
f JIM B t
N -y.. Afte
l, . ren.
Geen
ff V0
reasons are not hard W compreheatd.
era- The money was good (they say they
an o
Lib
h
p
y
e
By Philip Taubman Five years later, t
tion remains a subject of mystery, were promised $6,500 a month), the
controversy and investigation. The action was appealing and, at least as
The first call came on a muggy July organizers of the mission, Edwin P. important, they claim that they were
evening in 1977. Luke Thompson, a Wilson and Frank E. Terpil, both for- firmly convinced that they were en-
master sergeant in the Army Special met American intelligence agents, listing in an officially sanctioned
Forces, was at home in Fayetteville, were indicted by a Federal grand jury American mission to infiltrate the
N.C. The caller identified himself as in 1980 on charges of illegally shipping Libyan intelligence apparatus. But
Pat Loomis from Washington and was there something about these
explosives to Libya as part of the ter.
asked if. Thompson might be inter- rorist training operation. Wilson was men, the training they had received
ested in recruiting a team of former recently caught in an international and the tasks they had carried out in
Green Berets for an overseas mission trap set by the Justice Department the past that discouraged them from
that would pay well. Loomis provided and he is now being held in the Wash- questioning what was clearly a ques-
h bail tionable mission? Had they become
Thompson
formation
i
i
h
l
.
w
n
t
er
t ot
ingtoa area pending tria
, conditionally accepted the proposal. set at $20 million. Terpil remains a so accustomed to accepting
not knowing that he was about to be. fugitive, at last report living in Bel- shadowy unsavory assignments from
sources of authority
of the strangest
i
n one
come involved
e his meeting with
rut. Shortly befor and most disturbing operations in the Thompson, Pat Loomis had been din- that they saw nothing unusual
or suspicions in being sent by
amain of international espionage- missed by the C.I.A. for helping Wil-
When the conversation with Loomis son; but becausq:of administrative the United States Government
ended, Thompson. who says he was procedures Loomis was still on the to aid an anti-American dicta-
tor? And was there something
he coma
initially concerned that the offer agency's payroll when might be a trap by a hostile foreign in- Thompson. The Central Intelligence about the organization of the
American intelligence: system.
telligence service, phoned military in- Agency has repeatedly denied author- particularly the relationship ho-
telligence officers at Fort Bragg e- izing or supporting the operation, but tween the C.I.A. and the Green
Fayetteville, headquarters of the Spe some sources suggest that senior Berets, that encouraged agents to
cial Forces, to report the call and to agency officials wbo were dose to operate without clear lines of au-
seek their - guidance. Two Officers Wilson may have given approval to
thori
h
'
perhaps in t
e
drove to his house, according to the Libyan scheme, Since the mid-1970's, the nation has
Thompson. and the three men spent hope it would produce valuable intelli- known that the Government has coa-
theeveningdiscussing the operation. gence information on Libyan terror- ducted questionable operations over-
The next day, Loomis called again ism. There is also a possibility, which seas, including assassinations. But
and told Thompson he wanted to ar-? Federal prosecutors are exploring, the country never got to kaow any of
range a meeting the following day in that the same senior C.I.A. officials the men who carried them out, the de-
Fayetteville. They agreed to meet at might have been silent business part- of what they did or the impact
of nets of Wilson. Federal prosecutors is ttails h
Most of the
work had on them
The da
eir
I
.
y
na.
the Sheraton Motor
the meeting, Thompson recalls, he .Washington. Houston, Denver and missions were highly classified and
was informed by the military intelli- several other cities are still investi- the men were instructed never to dis-
gence officers that they had checked' gating various aspects of the case and them. Luke Thompson. now -
the offer "to the top" and found it was additional indictments are said to be ticuss red and Ldisillusioned, ke mp decided e-
"legal and aboveboard." They told likely this year. i break that silence. Tnthe ide to
him, --You can pursue it as you de- Of the many riddles that arise from his experiences, story which opens a
sire," he says. Later, at the Sheraton, these events, one of the most difficult window into the Byzantine, penela
Loomis identified himself as a covert to solve may be this: Why did a group viewed world of modern espionage. y
agent for the Central Intelligence of former Green Berets, men who is also a world which reduces certain
Agency. Less than a week later, were trained to be America's elite is story a human
Thompson - who had been granted a commando troops and who consider governmental which polici to
ihuman
society - is can be for a better-
leave by his commanding officers - themselves unwavering American scale on d which
recruited three former Green Berets he had patriots, accept an offer to train ter- uals an an.
recruited were in Libya. Their mis- rorists for a hostile foreign govern- thomed
Not all of what Thompson claims
Sion: co train terrorists. went? The men themselves say the can be checked against other sources
of information. The Government re-
Philip Taubman, a Washington corre-
spondent for The New York Times,
frequently reports on intelligence
matters.
~arrrm~ara~
Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84B00130R000600010453-7
 Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84BOO130ROO0600010453-7
fuses to discuss some of the missions
he describes. And his thoughts and
emotions are clearly his alone. But
most aspects of his story, including
the incidents involving larger units of
d b
Green Berets, were witnesse
y I Berets based -
of Green
-A-A in
W
h
`
e
a mill job, went to work for t
.P.A. West Germany
others and many were
Government files. These sources, in- ! West Gentered Teheran h
The military was always an impor- ing as German businessmen to help
lp
cluding current and former Defense rant part of the Thompson family. with rescue preparations.
Department officials, former intelli- Luke's father served in the cavalry in part of the mystique of the Green
gence officials and published and un- France during world War I. His six
published Government records, con- brothers all enlisted in the military Berets has always derived from their
firm that his account is solidly when they became old enough, and trainmen wwhho program. the am. More than half the.
grounded in fact. four of them saw action during World rigorous d-
For the years that he wore a green War II. Luke joined the National i ered qualified the end for er qo not t finish or are not t consid-
For beret, from 1962 to 1978, Thompson in- Guard when he was 14 and enlisted in Forces. Bleinduction
at killing
d
ihabited the dark COMM of what ; the Army three years later. into the
required Special oall and
might have been a Graham Greene I I. Thompson was an "unruly" young- Thompson of Green learned his Berets and
might He was part of a secret Amen- ster, as he puts it. He recalls taking sons well. apparently lony two ways
can army of.covert agents who ban- part in the robbery of a bootlegger sons well. "There are only two ways
in to die," he says matter-of-factly. "If
died the dirty work of United States Kentucky. "We went into the -Red Bud
you stop breathing or your heart stops
foreign policy often under the su- Tavern, shot up the jukebox with a
numvine blood. Everything else is a
pervlslon w .9a, anu rummu uic guy va n.~? ,.a.. "
world. For example, Thompson says to park our getaway car on a hill practical application.
inducted into the Spe-
After bein
g
be took part in a previously undis- 'cause that was the only way it would
closed assassination plot in the Do- start." An encounter with the police cial Forces, Thompson was selected
to attend intelligenceschool, one of
h
minican Republic in 1965. Be claims the next day convinced Luke that
e several areas in which Green Berets
his colleagues later went to Bolivia was finished with what he calls the several
specialize. But when he found
where they helped Government sol- gangster business. out there would be a six week delay
diers hunt down and assassinate Er- In 1955, however, he started ~ for a
nesto Che Guevara, the Cuban revolu- : becoming delinquent again," he says. before cls medical d, he ei opted ed fend.
tionary leader. In Southeast Asia, This time, that delinquency took the sp first, in recalls, dic l he thought ,all
Thompson says he and his fellow form of going absent without leave met dics were ecahe thought
r l
Green Berets assassinated province and other violations of military regu- or medics were nt as one jecto s
chiefs, businessmen and political lations. Thompson was eventually Thomqueers,,. ,
pson became intoxicated with
l
i
a
leaders suspected of being Vietcong brought up before a court mart
the healing arts.
sympathizers, made reconnaissance hearing in 1956 and given a dishonora- After completing the initial phases
F
missions into North Vietnam and car- ble discharge as well as a year at
ort of medical training in 1961, Thompson
Tied out secret attacks in Cambodia Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. He joined the Seventh Special Forces
months before the formal American was told, however, that he could re- Group based at Fort Bragg. He was
incursion in 1970. store nlmaeui w ucuvc way as - immediately assigned to an A Team -
His story raises questions that may served the time with good behavior.
com-
ecial Forces unit
the basic S
,
p
(
be difficult for the nation to answer. Even so, it took Thompson several posed of 12 men) which h was s sent to
Among them: How does one measure years after his release from prison to posed . sed of to train ciian sentla
the costs to a free and lawful society persuade the Army to waive hiLdis- forces to fight the Vietcong.
'of sending citizens to assassinate for- honorable discharge and permit him T omps n's next major assignment
eign political leaders just because to re-enlist, which he did in came in early April 1965. At that time,
they happen to be troublesome? Is At the time Thompson was admit- he says, he was selected to serve on a
e not a line between unconven- ted to Special Forces training in 1959.
vert team sent to the Dominican
h
er
co
t
tional warfare and unacceptable war- the Green Berets were still a small, Republic, where Col. Francisco
fare? Can men be trained as elite, relatively untested group, established Caamal Denb, was leading guerrilla
e
obedient commandos without de- by the Army in 1952 to provide the fin an attempt to overthrow the
stroying their ability to make lade- United States with a unit capable of forces
rce in an Tin United States;
pendent judgments when necessary? conducting unconventional warfare that period, was ostensibly taking a
And what responsibility does the Gov- operations, including commando and neutral position in the Dominican
ted
ernment bear to help such men re- intelligence activities. They accep
civilwar. In late April, however,
adjust to civilian life? I for training only seasoned soldiers when violence escalated and the
d cal ears of
ve
uke Floyd Thompson was
born on March 13, 1934, in
Lewis County, Kentucky, the
seventh of 15 children; four of
his siblings died in infancy.
The area was so rural, he
says, that his home was 1o-
L
cated in no specific town. His father,
Meredith, was a steelworker. His
mother, Verna Gillum, was a full- as hundreds of Special Forces troops
time mother and housewife. When served in operations supervised by .
Luke was 3, the Ohio River over- the C.I.A. Such cooperation has con-
flowed its banks and washed away the tinued, intelligence officials acknowl-
Thompsons' house. The family moved to edge: Before the unsuccessful hos-
rage rescue mission in Iran in 1980.'a
prepared to en ore sa
rebels appeared to be near seizing
additional highly specialized and in- power, President Johnson sent in the
tense training, followed by a ca-Seer Marines, claiming that American
on the cutting edge of American mill- lives were in danger. The Marines
tary activities around the world. helped prevent a left-wing takeover.
In the late 1950's, the C.I.A. began whether Thompson's secret mis-
g to the Special Forces to pro- sion was organized by the C.I.A. is un-
vide
vide manpower for covert operations clear. Some former agency officials
around the world. The relationship who asked not to be named said such
between the agency and the Green an operation did take place. Other re-
Berets flourished in Southeast Asia tired C.I.A. officials who were in-
during the 1960's and 1970's. accord-
ing to Defense Department officials,
Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84BOO130ROO0600010453-7
 Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84B00130R000600010453-7
? ?
volved in the Dominican Republic at
the time denied that the operation
was managed by the agency. Thomp-
son says it began when a team of
Green Berets was sent to the island
only to monitor the activities of
American civilians, including Peace
Corps workers, to help assure their
safety. When the Green Berets came
upon evidence that some of the
Americans were assisting guerrilla
forces. however, their major objec-
tive shifted from protecting their fel-
low countrymen to spying on them.
The surveillance mission was
abruptly cut short when Thompson
and his colleagues were given orders
to link up with a team of United States
Navy unconventional-warfare spe-
cialists and develop a plan to assassi-
nate Caarnano, he says. The joint
team decided to attack Caamano at a
building in Santa Domingo where he
often met with other guerrilla lead-
ers. They would approach from the
beach down two parallel streets and
carry explosives into the building by
hand. After laying the charges, the
Americans were supposed to fight
their way back out, carrying any
casualties with them to avoid detec-
tion of American participation. At the
last minute, he says, the mission was
cancelled. No reason was ever pro-
Former intelligence officials
vided
_
.
he I didn't kill innocent people."
now say the plan was considered too
knew Of d
self, and
zens Of
w
f
e ft'-
o
o
Defens
Formr Thompson says he was troubled by
risky and might have harmed rather i
than helped American interests by : cials say such missions involving a killing only once. It was in combat.
making Caamano a martyr. Americans were made during the He recalled the moment: "It was a
Thompson never returned to Latin early years of the Vietnam War but straightforward case of kill or be
America, but he reported that two were reduced and eventually ended killed. I was walking along a trail in-
years later several of his fellow Green by 1967.68. After that, they say, infil- textbook style, alert for anything.
Berets secretly took part in the cap- tration into North Vietnam was han- Suddenly, someone stepped around a
ture and killing of Che Guevara. dled by mercenary forces and was-re- bend in the trail with his weapon on !
Thompson's description of the opera- stricted primarily to border areas: his. shoulder. I killed him. Immedi- I
tion in Bolivia was confirmed by an- Next, Thompson was ordered to join. ately after, it was the greatest thrill
other former Green Beret who was a a covert operation in Thailand run by in the world - I guess because I was
participant, and by former Defense the Army and the C.I.A. Supervised I alive - but as the day wore on, I was
Department and intelligence officials. by the MACV-SOG (Military Assist- moved to distraction thinking about
who were involved. All of them asked ante Command, Vietnam-Special this guy. He seemed more like a
i
n-
not to be identified. Operations Group), the mission
According to these accounts, a team volved the training of Thai special.
of 10 to 12 Green Berets from the forces teams, followed by their de-
Eighth Special Forces Group based in ployment with Green Berets to inter-
Panama was sent to Bolivia in late dict the Ho Chi Minh trail.
1967 as part of a C.I.A.-sponsored plan It was during this tour in southeast
to train Bolivian forces in counterin- Asia that assassinations became al-
ency techniques and to help the most routine for Thompson. He still
sur
g
Bolivians stalk Guevara. In a camp remembers the first vividly. "The
located at the outskirts of La Pat, the man was a Vietnamese interpreter. It
Americans worked with 100 to 150 was proved to the satisfaction of our
Bolivian special-forces troops. Dur- intelligence sergeant that he was sup. Thompson, in the jargon of the Green
ing the training program, Bolivian in. plying information to the Vietcong. I Berets, was "greasing" suspected
telligence agents reported that was told, 'This one's yours.' " A week Vietcong, he was also busy tending to
Guevara was in the mountains east of later Thompson and the interpreter wounded and sick Americans and
La Paz. The Green Berets, according were sent on an operation together. ' Vietnamese, including Vietcong
to a participant, conducted their own "We came into contact with the Viet- forces. The contradiction never trou-
intelligence check and confirmed cong. As soon as we hit the ground, he bled Thompson. "I'd go from curing
Guevara's presence. to killing," he said. "I'd take off my
The next step was to formulate a I' got wiped out. He was a few feet
plan to capture him. The bulk of this away. When the shooting started, I
preparation was handled by the put a burst in him. He never knew it."
Americans, and over the course of Although Thompson knew the man
several weeks a small team of Boliv- and hadn't considered him an enemy,
ians was specially selected and he didn't dwell on the assassination.
trained for the operation. In the end, "it was a mechanical thing." he says.
the capture was relatively straight j "It had to be done. It was a chore just
forward, with the Bolivians and their like brushing your teeth." Whenever
American advisers tracking down possible, he says, the Green Berets
Guevara in a remote mountain vil. would try to disguise their involve-
lage where he was training guerril- ment and make it seem as if the kill-
las. "He was caught and executed on ing had been done by the Vietcong or
the spot," said a former Green Beret either of the Vietnamese armies.
who was there. "The Bolivians pulled "You try to isolate the subject from
the trigger. They needed to get the anyone or any situation that might
credit." Guevara's body was brought lead back to the true source of his
back to the camp, where it was identi- death by using 'sniper,' 'a firefight '
,
fled by two American intelligence or 'explosive device.' There are no :
agents who had flown in from Panama. words. Just bang. You're not a tribu-
oilowing the aborted assas- nal. You're just a machine."
F sination scheme in the Do- Thompson says that assassination
minlcan Republic, the 1 targets included anyone considered a
focus of Thom 's career Vietcong supporter or sympathizer.
pson The list included civilians such as dis-
shifted back to Southeast trict chiefs, businessmen and politi-
Asia. Be returned to Viet- cal leaders. Former Green Berets
nam for the first of several and Defense Department officials
tours of duty there and in Thailand, confirm that such assassinations
with frequent missions into Laos, were common. "We had the most'
Cambodia and even North Vietnam. basic law: survival," Thompson
Thompson says the purpose of the says. "When it became obvious that
missions into North Vietnam was to someone was a threat to our efforts, it
collect strategic intelligence. He says was just a job. On reflection, it's not
he went on four such missions him- something that I'm proud of .... I
friend. He was doing exactly what he
was told to do, and we had come into
conflict and I had beat him. I didn't
have any sense of victory. Here's this
Joe Gook walking along and I'm G.I.
Joe. I didn't know his name. He was a
soul in the jungle, I was a soul in the
jungle. I had an affinity for the guy.
This was probably the worst any kill.
ing's dwelled on me."
During . the same period that
Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84B00130R000600010453-7
 Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84B00130R000600010453-7
scrub suit and put on my camouflage
fatigues and move out. I had no prob-
lem making the transition."
Thompson says he treated anyone
who came to his field clinic. "I had to
maintain a neutral posture. I might-
've treated a bunch of people who
killed my buddies but I had to help
gain the good will of the local popula-
tion. That's money in the bank for
everyone on the team."
13
Thompson's career in Southeast
Asia concluded with missions that
took him into Malaysia and Cambo-
dia. In late 1967, after serving briefly
as a medical instructor back at Fort
Bragg, he was sent to Thailand,
where he faced his biggest crisis as a
medic: an epidemic of typhoid fever.
He said that his primitive clinic had
six beds to handle more than 170 pa-
tients suffering from the disease.
Thompson lost only a dozen patients,
a far lower mortality rate than for
other medics in the area, and he re-
ceived commendations from the
Army Surgeon General's office equat-
ing his efforts with the feats of Walter
Reed, the famous Army surgeon. He
showed me copies of the commenda-
The training program, he says, was
run by the C.I.A. Former intelligence
officials confirmed that such an
operation was mounted in Thailand at
the time, but said they did not know
whether Thompson was involved.
By the time Thompson left South-
east Asia for the last time, late in
1972, he was exhausted and more than
a little bitter. "I could have been a
killer when I got out," he says. "I
would just walk up to a man and
swing at' him. Long hair, anything
would set me off. If the U.S. decided
to have a civil war, I would have
fought on either side, as long as Jane
Fonda and George McGovern were on
the other side."
Fortunately, Thompson says, "I
had time to straighten out my head."
During a leave in Japan after his last
mission in Vietnam, Thompson mar-
ried a Japanese tour guide he had met
at Expo '70 in Osaka. The Thompsons
spent several months at a Special
Forces base in Okinawa before going
to Fort Bragg. The marriage and the
interval in Okinawa gave him time,
he says, to shed some of the violent in-
stincts he had developed.
From 1972 to 1977, Thompson spent
most of his time on training missions
tions.
in the United States. Twice during
Thompson's penultimate tour those years, he traveled to Taiwan to
began in January 1968, when he was help train Taiwanese special forces,
assigned to a mobile strike force con- and he spent several weeks in Zaire
ducting search-and-destroy missions helping. to train commando forces
along the Vietnam-Cambodia border.. there. None of these operations, he
Thompson says that the Green Berets ' says, were clandestine.
commanded three . battalions of Throughout all of this, Thompson
mercenary troops composed n remained an obedient soldier. "I per-
and man ly out of of Cambodia Cambodians. all " the We time," were i he in . sonally can't say that the Govern-
says. These raids into Cambodia took matt ever asked me to do something
improper," he says. "Maybe you or
t
id
P
en
res
place two years before
#S%.* ea
,u
xu
Nixon announces
i
South Vietnamese forces were mov-
something wrong by my superiors."
ing into Cambodia to attack North
Vietnamese command headquarters
and military stockpiles.
Smaller raids, which Thompson and
other former Green Berets say began
in 1967, also predated the secret
American bombing of Cambodia
begun by the Nixon Administration in
1969. Thompson says that he and his
colleagues were told the operations in
Cambodia were highly classified and
that they were instructed not to dis-
cuss them with anyone. The British
journalist William Shawcross de-
,
scribed the operations in "Sideshow "
his book about the secret American
war in Cambodia.
Thompson's final assignment in
Southeast Asia took place in 1972.
when he was sent to Thailand to train
mercenaries for operations in Laos.
The man who, in the summer of
1977, proposed that Thompson recruit
a team of former Green Berets to
train Libyan commando troops was
Patry E. Loomis, a former Green
Beret himself and a covert agent for
the C.I.A., according to Federal in.
vestigators and former intelligence
officials who again declined to be
named. He described the work when
he talked to Thompson but he did not
reveal that he had been dismissed
several weeks earlier because he had
assisted the former agents Wilson and
Terpil in obtaining explosive timers
for shipment to Libya. Wilson and
Terpil, it was later discovered, had
signed an agreement with Col.
Muammar el-Qaddafi to help train
terrorists. Wilson had served for 20
years as a covert agent for the C.I.A.
and for a secret naval intelligence
group called Task Force 157. He left
Government employment in 1976, the
same year he and Terpil reached
their agreement with Libya. Terpil
worked as a communications techni-
cian for the C.I.A. before he was
forced to resign in 1971 following vari-
ous violations of C.I.A. regulations.
He went on to become ' an intern:
tional arms salesman and a key sup.
plier of military equipment to the then
Uganda strongman Idi Amin.
Thompson's assumption that the
Libyan operation was legitimate was
partly conditioned by his background.
Other Green Berets, including
Thompson's commanding officer at
the time, told me that the operation
was no more bizarre than many they
knew about which were sanctioned by
the intelligence agency. The go-ahead
Thompson says he received from
military intelligence officials also al-
leviated his doubts. Row military in-
telligence officials got the impression
that the operation was approved by
the Government remains one of the
major unresolved mysteries of the af-
fair. Thompson is unable to recall the
names of the two men who he says
came to his home after Loomis first
called. Two other Army intelligence
officers at Fort Bragg gave contra-
dictory accounts of what happened in
interviews and were unable to recall
the specific steps they took after
Thompson first notified military in-
telligence following the call from Loo-
mis. The two men declined to be
named. A third figure, Carl H. Oel-
schig, who was a senior intelligence
officer at Special Forces headquar-
ters in 1977, said in an interview that
he first learned about the Libyan
operation only after Thompson re-
turned from Libya. "I almost fell out
of my chair when Luke told me what
he had been doing," he recalled.
Oelschig said he instructed Thomp?
son to report to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and talk to other mili-
tary intelligence officers at Fort
Bragg. Meanwhile, Oelschig in-
formed his superiors and recom-
mended that a check be run through a
more senior intelligence unit sta-
tioned at Fort Meade, Md. He said he
never learned what results, if any,
were sent back to Fort Bragg. "I car-
ried it as far as I could," he said, "and
assumed- it was being handled cor-
rectly." Federal investigators be-
Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84B00130R000600010453-7
 Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84B00130R000600010453-7
live that senior officials at the C.I.A.
who worked closely with Wilson while
he was at the agency may have inter-
cepted the inquiries from Fort Bragg.
Others speculate that Wilson, who
had friends at the Defense Depart-
ment, might have somehow been able
to get them to reach into the military
intelligence system and persuade key
officials that the Libyan operation
was sanctioned. Finally, there is the
possibility that Thompson, in an ef-
fort to justify his actions, did not get
the approval he claims he received.
He says, however, that he is certain
about these recollections.
Another still-murky question is why
Thompson's superiors at Fort Bragg
granted him a leave of absence.
Thompson assumed his request for a
leave was approved because his com-
manding officers had received orders
from their superiors in Washington to
allow him to participate in the Libyan
mission. The record, however, is not
clear. Col. Robert A. Mountel, who
was Thompson's commanding officer
at the time, says he never received or-
ders from anyone about the Libyan
operation. He says that Thompson's
leave was -approved because Green
Beret officers thought Thompson
wanted to check out a possible civil-
ian job opportunity.
Others say that it was fairly com-
mon for veteran Green Beret troops
to receive leaves so they could par-
ticipate in official - and unofficial -
overseas missions. Some Federal in-
vestigators suggest that senior Spe-
cial Forces officers permitted
Thompson to go to Libya, even though
they did not know whether the opera-
tion had Government approval, be-
cause they thought it might develop
into a productive intelligence ven-
tare. If so, they overstepped their au-
thority, Army officials say. Intelli-
gence operations involving the Green
Berets are supposed to be cleared and
approved by senior Pentagon officials
witl} formal orders issued by the staff
of the joint Chiefs and passed down
through the Army chain of command
to Special Forces commanders. No
such orders were issued in the
Thompson case, according to Army
officials.
Whatever the explanation, any
doubts that Thompson may have had
vanished when he and three recruits
who accompanied him met Wilson in
the international zone of the Zurich
airport in August 1977 to receive final
instructions. "Ed Wilson is the most
remarkable man I've ever met,"
Thompson says. "Professionalism
came out of every pore ... He was
aces."
According to Thompson, Wilson told end. In July 1978, he retired
the men that, once in Libya, they from the Green Berets. He
should make themselves "indispensa- I says no Green Beret repre-
ble," that they should do nothing that sentatwe has contacted him
would endanger United States se- since.
curity and that they would receive the i The transition to civilian
best hospital care in the world should life has not been easy. In 1978,
they be injured. He closed by adding Thompson moved to Hawaii
that he would kill them if they double- in search of solitude and an
crossed him, just as he would expect escape from the turmoil that
them to kill him if he backed out of the followed the Libyan mission.
deal. For three years, he worked as
Thompson and the other former a safety officer on oil rigs off
Green Berets flew on to the Libyan the coast of Newfoundland
capital of Tripoli carrying with them and in the Gulf of Mexico,
small arms and other military equip- commuting for the two-week
ment in a 400-pound locker, plus sev- shifts from Hawaii. Thomp-
eralbags
filled with technical manuals
and blueprints of advanced
electronic equipment. Fol-
lowing an initial round of
meetings with Libyan col-
leagues, the Americans were
taken to a palace outside
Tripoli where they were
shown an explosives labora-
tory. A group of American
ordnance experts, most of
them military veterans who
had been recruited by Wil-
son's son's associates, were al-
ready there, instructing Liby-
ans how to manufacture ter-
rorist bombs, according to
Thompson. At this point, he
recalls becoming troubled by
the direct link with terrorism.
After several weeks of
training Libyan forces in
commando tactics, Thomp-
son says he decided he could
not adjust to working in
Libya's terrorist organiza-
tion. Claiming that he needed
to return to the United States
i for personal reasons, Thomp-
son was issued a ticket to Fort
Bragg via London and Wash-
ington. Back home, he re-
ported to military intelli-
gence officials, apparently in-
cluding Oelschig, and was
told to talk to the F.B.L,
which by then had begun in-
vestigating the Libyan opera-
tion.
1771
Despite middle-of-the-night
phone calls threatening his
safety if he cooperated with
Federal prosecutors, Thomp-
did testify before a grand
son
jury and, as a result, was not
indicted. But it quickly be-
came clear to him that his
military career was at an
son quit that job last Decem-
ber after relations with the
company soured in the wake
of publicity about his involve-
ment in Libya. He is now
training to become a regis-
tered nurse, working the
night shift at a hospital in
Honolulu. His wife and three
children, ages 5, 7 and 9, have
made friends and settled into
their neighborhood. Thomp-
son says he has not. "I don't
have any friends," he once
told me. "You're the first per-
son I've confided in."
Almost every day, he re-
treats to his sailboat. Its
Japanese name is Sayochido-
ri, which Thompson trans-
lates as "Nightbird." With no
formal training in sailing but
lots of self-taught skill, he
navigates around Kaneohe
Bay, reefing the sails when
the trade winds become brisk
or rain squalls blow in from
the Pacific. "I know I'm run-
ning away from something,
or to something," he says of
his time on the boat. "I'm
transported. If you asked me,
though, it would be difficult
for me to tell you what I think
about." ^
Approved For Release 2007/10/29: CIA-RDP84B00130R000600010453-7