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10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edwin Wilson.md
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@ -50,15 +50,19 @@ The Australian Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking's report on Nugan Hand, as s
### Arrest, Trial, and Conviction
Wilson was arrested in 1982 after being lured from Libya through an intermediary and traveling to the Dominican Republic, where he was apprehended. He was tried and convicted in multiple proceedings, culminating in a 1983 conviction on charges of illegally transferring arms and explosives to Libya. He received a combined sentence of 52 years.[^1]
Wilson was arrested in 1982 after being lured from Libya through an intermediary and traveling to the Dominican Republic, where he was apprehended. He was tried and convicted in multiple proceedings, culminating in a 1983 conviction on charges of illegally transferring arms and explosives to Libya. He was sentenced on February 18, 1983 in the Southern District of Texas to 17 years and a fine of 145,000 dollars; the Eastern District of Virginia convicted him of exporting firearms to Libya and sentenced him to 10 years; and the Southern District of New York sentenced him to 25 years, consecutive, for attempted murder, criminal solicitation, obstruction of justice and witness tampering and retaliation, a total of 52 years.[^4] A Fourth Circuit opinion of November 4, 1983 records the Virginia jury conviction on seven counts concerning the export of an M-16 rifle and four revolvers.[^5]
At trial, the government presented an affidavit from CIA's director of operations stating that CIA records showed Wilson had had no relationship with the agency after 1971. Wilson maintained that this was false and that he had continued to act under CIA authorization. His attorneys were unable to establish his CIA connections to the jury's satisfaction, and he was convicted.[^1]
### Overturned Conviction
While imprisoned, Wilson continued to challenge his conviction based on the government's affidavit. In 2003, Federal Judge Lynn Hughes in Houston reviewed documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and found that the CIA's 1983 affidavit had been materially false: CIA records showed approximately 80 contacts between Wilson and CIA officers after 1971, not zero as the affidavit stated. The court found that the government had presented false evidence to obtain the conviction and that Wilson had been denied a fair trial.[^4]
While imprisoned, Wilson continued to challenge his conviction based on the government's affidavit. In 2003, Federal Judge Lynn Hughes in Houston reviewed documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and found that the CIA's 1983 affidavit had been materially false: CIA records showed more than 80 contacts between Wilson and CIA officers after 1971, not zero as the affidavit stated. The court found that the government had presented false evidence to obtain the conviction and that Wilson had been denied a fair trial.[^6]
Judge Hughes vacated Wilson's conviction in October 2003, finding that "the government had misrepresented to the court, the jury, and Wilson himself" the nature of his CIA relationship. Wilson was released after 22 years in federal prison. The case became a significant precedent in discussions of government disclosure obligations in criminal cases involving intelligence community defendants.[^4]
Judge Hughes vacated Wilson's conviction in October 2003, finding that "the government had misrepresented to the court, the jury, and Wilson himself" the nature of his CIA relationship. Wilson was released after 22 years in federal prison. The case became a significant precedent in discussions of government disclosure obligations in criminal cases involving intelligence community defendants.[^6]
### Secord, Clines and EATSCO
[[Richard Secord]] testified at Wilson's February 1985 trial over the shipment of C-4 explosives to Libya that he had first met Wilson in 1971, twice in Tehran in 1976 and 1977 and twice in Brussels in 1979 and 1980, and that Wilson at one meeting offered to provide a Soviet MiG-25.[^7] The Wall Street Journal reported in October 1982 that Secord bought a town house from Tom Clines for 56,500 dollars in 1977 and that in September 1978 Clines arranged for Wilson to take it for 69,000 dollars; that Secord piloted a Beechcraft Wilson had bought from the fall of 1978 until mid-1979; that in January 1979, around the time Wilson arranged a 500,000 dollar loan for Clines (funneled through Bermuda, according to a source close to Clines), Secord and the Pentagon arms-sales chief [[Erich von Marbod]] dined in London with Wilson; and that Secord was suspended for three months in 1982 after the Pentagon learned of his ties to Wilson.[^8] The congressional report states that in 1981 Secord and Clines became subjects of a Justice Department conflict-of-interest and bribery investigation stemming from their relationship with Wilson, that Clines had introduced Secord to Wilson after Secord returned from Laos, and that the investigation was closed in January 1986 with no indictments; it states that Secord retired in May 1983 because the Wilson story and the investigation "had placed a cloud over his military career."[^9] Newsweek reported in 1987 that Wilson told it, "If I wasn't in jail, I'd have headed up this operation," and that Wilson claimed Secord, Ted Shackley and von Marbod were silent partners in EATSCO, which all denied.[^10] A former Wilson aide, [[Douglas Schlacter]], told CBS News in November 1981 that Secord shared profits from Wilson's illegal arms sales; Secord won a 2 million dollar default judgment against him for libel in April 1983.[^7]
### Network Context
@ -69,4 +73,10 @@ Wilson's case illustrated the structural ambiguities of former-CIA officer netwo
[^1]: Corn, David. *Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's Crusades*. Simon & Schuster, 1994, pp. 298-330. Mahon, Gigi. "Edwin Wilson's Strange World of Spooks and Hoods." *New York Times Magazine*, March 13, 1983.
[^2]: "Dispatches: Australia: The Nugan Hand Investigation." The Nation, March 3, 1984. CIA CREST, CIA-RDP90-00806R000200820008-1. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP90-00806R000200820008-1
[^3]: Schneider, Keith. "North's Aides Linked to Australia Study." New York Times, March 8, 1987. CIA CREST, CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740024-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000605740024-7
[^4]: *United States v. Wilson*, No. H-82-139, U.S. District Court, S.D. Texas, Houston Division, Order of Judgment of Acquittal, October 29, 2003. (Judge Lynn Hughes ruling.)
[^4]: United States v. Wilson, 289 F. Supp. 2d 801 (S.D. Tex. Oct. 27, 2003) (Hughes, J.), https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2430886/united-states-v-wilson/. Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1987 (CIA-RDP90-00965R000201700001-4): "serving a 52-year federal prison sentence."
[^5]: United States v. Wilson, 721 F.2d 967 (4th Cir. 1983), https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/427533/united-states-v-edwin-paul-wilson/.
[^6]: *United States v. Wilson*, No. H-82-139, U.S. District Court, S.D. Texas, Houston Division, Order of Judgment of Acquittal, October 29, 2003. (Judge Lynn Hughes ruling.) The opinion published at 289 F. Supp. 2d 801 (S.D. Tex.) bears the date October 27, 2003.
[^7]: Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1987, "Secord: A Specialist in Covert Deals," CIA Reading Room CIA-RDP90-00965R000201700001-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000201700001-4.
[^8]: Edward T. Pound and Walter S. Mossberg, "Weapons Windfall," Wall Street Journal, Oct. 1, 1982, pp. 1, 18, CIA Reading Room CIA-RDP09S00048R000100020015-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp09s00048r000100020015-5.
[^9]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, H. Rept. 100-433 / S. Rept. 100-216 (1987), ch. 21, pp. 326-327 and nn. 24, 25, 27, https://archive.org/details/reportofcongress87unit.
[^10]: "The Secret World of General Secord," Newsweek, May 5, 1987, CIA Reading Room CIA-RDP90-00965R000605790003-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000605790003-5.