1.8 KiB
| category | location | tags | summary | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Organization | Russellville, Arkansas, USA |
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Arkansas parking meter manufacturer allegedly used as a front for manufacturing weapons parts for the Contras, with connections to Webb Hubbell. |
Park On Meter Inc. was a small manufacturer of parking meters located in Russellville, Arkansas, that was allegedly used as a front for manufacturing weapons parts for the Contras.1
Weapons Manufacturing Allegations
Former Air Force intelligence officer Terry Reed claimed that Park On Meter was secretly manufacturing parts for M-16 rifles as a subcontractor on a CIA weapons project to supply the Contras. The Washington Post confirmed in 1994 that the company "did make some gun parts for Iver Johnson," another Arkansas manufacturer that shipped weapons to Nicaragua through a Mexican distributor. The Post dismissed the parts as "firing pins, not M-16 bolts as the book contends."1
Key Personnel
Park On Meter's former secretary and corporate lawyer was Webster Hubbell, who was also the brother-in-law of the company's owner. Hubbell admitted to a Time magazine reporter that POM was also making rocket launchers.1
Iver Johnson, the arms company near Little Rock, Arkansas that POM supplied, "did ship a load of weapons to Nicaragua through a Mexican distributor, according to former plant engineer J. A. Matejko," the Washington Post confirmed.1
Footnotes
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Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty" ↩︎