104-10182-10072
2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992
HOUSE SELECT COMMITTELN ASSASSINATIONS STAFF MEMBERS
14-00000
FILE TITLE/NUMBER/VOLUME:
REL
INCLUSIVE DATES:
CUSTODIAL UNIT/LOCATION:
TAPH THIS FOR 22
ROOM:
DELETIONS, IF ANY: OTHER ARENCY SERRIS (FFI, ETC.)
DATE
DATE
RECEIVED RETURNED
REVIEWED
(PRINT NAME)
3/3/78/3/3/78 DAN Hardway
SIGNATURE OF
REVIEWING OFFICIAL
Dan Hardway
NO DOCUMENTS MAY BE COPIED OR REMOVED FROM THIS FILE.
m
Atchell Livingston WERBEL III
201-259910
201-258910.
14-00000
CONFIDENTIAL
When Filled
INFORMATION REQUEST
SUBJECT OR OTHER INDIVIDUAL INDEXED IN THIS DOSSIER IS INVOLVED IN A REQUEST
UNDER
(CHECK ONE)
PRIVACY ACT
FOLA
ㅁ
OGC/OLC
☐
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request under remarks)
SUBJECT OF REQUEST:
FILE NO.
MITCHELL LIVINGSTON WERBELL T
.
201-259910
DOCUMENT SYMBOL, NO. &-DATE (If request is on other than subject of 2011
REQUEST NO.:
876-28
REMARKS
DATE COMPLETED
APRIL 1977
DATE APPEALED (If applicable)
DO NOT FILE ABOVE THIS FORM
DO NOT REMOVE THIS FORM FROM THIS FILE
FORM
1876 3955
CONFIDENTIAL.
CL BY: 005911
(20)
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# 132
TO: FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION//ATTN: R K MCHARGUE/GENERAL
INVESTIGATIVE BBDIVISION. Y
SECRET-WARNING NOTICE-SENSITIVE INTE
INTELL GENCE SOURCES AND METHODS
INVOLVED NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS--NOT RELEASABLE TO
CONTRACTORS OR CONTRACTOR/CONSULTANTS 4
CIR-316/00302-77 Y.
SUBJECT: BOMBING OF FORMER CHILEAN AMBASSADOR TO THE
NAME TRACE, MITCHELL LIVINGSTON WERBELL III Y
REF: FBI CABLE REQUEST DATED 14 JANUARY 1977 Y
UNITED
STATES:
1. THE FILES OF THIS AGENCY CONTAIN CONSIDERABLE INFORMATION ON
MITCHELL LIVINGSTON WERBELL III, BORN 8 MARCH 1918 IN PHILADELPHIA,
PENNSYLVANIA. THE MAJORITY OF THE INFORMATION WAS FURNISHED BY YOUR
BUREAU. THIS AGENCY PREVIOUSLY FURNISHED THE FBI WITH. INFORMATION ON
WERBELL UNDER CSCI-3/773317 OF 24 OCTOBER 1962, SUBJECT WERBELL,
MITCHELL LAND CSCI-316/02323-69 OF 27 JUNE 1969, SUBJECT WERBELL.
MITCHELL LIVINGSTON III. IN ADDITION, THIS AGENCY FURNISHED YOUR
802306UREAU WITH MEMORANDA CONCERNING SUBJECT MITCHELL LIVINGSTON
WERBELL III DATED 27 JUNE 1974, 81 AUGUST 1974, 9 AUGUST #1974, AND
DATE:
ORIG:
UNIT:
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/CA/506.
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12 AUGUST 1974: Y
20 WERBELL HAS NEVER BEEN EMPLOYED BY THIS AGENCY NOR DOES BE
WERBELL WAS A
THE AGENCY HAVE ANY OPERATIONAL INTEREST IN HIM.
COMMISSIONED OFFICER WITH THE OSS DURING WORLD WAR II AND SERVED IN
THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATRE. IN AUGUST OF 1959, THIS AGENCY NAHRBØBE
CONSIDERED USING WERBELL AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION ON REVOLUTIONARY
ACTIVITIES IN THE CARIBBEAN AREA, PARTICULARLY CUBA, BUT TERMINATED
ITS CONSIDERATION OF HIS POSSIBLE USE IN OCTOBER 1959 WHEN IT WAS
DETERMINED THAT HIS INFORMATION WAS OF LITTLE VALUE AND IT WAS
SUSPECTED THAT HE WOULD USE THE PROPOSED CONNECTION WITH THE AGENCY TO
HIS
PROMOTE/PERSONAL INTERESTS. Y
j
لكن
3. DURING AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER 1962 REPORTING ON WERBELL REVEALED
THẬT HE VISITED SEVERAL CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRIES AND APPEARED TO BE
CONTACTING OFFICIALS OF THE GOVERNMENTS OF GUATEMALA, NICARAGUA AND
EL SALVADOR FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING RECOGNITION OF "DE FACTO"
CUBAN GOVERNMENT IN EXILE CALLED THE "UNITED ORGANIZATION FOR THE
LIBERATION OF CUBA.” IN DISCUSSIONS WITH NICARAGUAN GOVERNMENT
REPRESENTATIVES, WERBELL CLAIMED THE PROPOSED CUBAN EXILE GOVERNMENT
DATE:
ORIG:
UNIT:
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#
HAD THE SUPPORT OF NINETY SEPARATE CUBAN EXILE ORGANIZATIONS AND
1869000 CUBAN EXILES. HE ALLEGEDLY. OFFERED A NICARAGUAN GOVERNMENT
$100,000 TO OBTAIN THAT GOVERNMENT'S RECOGNITION #
OFFICIAL
OF THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT IN EXILE. Y
5. IN DECEMBER 1965, WERBELL SPOKE TO A MIAMI CONTACT OF THIS
AGENCY AND TOLD HIM THAT HE AND SIX CUBAN EXILES IN THE UNITED STATES
HAD ORGANIZED A GROUP, INCLUDING APPROXIMATELY TWENTY CUBANS INSIDE
CUBA, TO PERFORM A COMMANDO OPERATION IN CUBA IN EARLY JANUARY 1966.
THEIR PRIMARY MISSION WAS THE ASSASSINATION OF CUBAN PREMIER FIDEL
CASTRO, WITH THE SECONDARY MISSION BEING THAT OF BLOWING UP THE POWER
GENERATORS THAT SUPPLY THE ELECTRICITY TO HAVANA. WERBELL, AT THE
TIME, STATED THAT HE WAS TRYING TO GET THE "GREEN LIGHT" FROM THE CIA
TO PROCEED WITH THE MISSION, AND INFERRED THAT THE MISSION WOULD BE
ABORTED IF SEUCH APPROVAL WAS NOT OBTAINED. [NOTE: THIS AGENCY WAS
NOT IN CONTACT WITH WERBELLØØD IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER. Y
IN THIS ENDEAVOR ]
b. IN EARLY 1969 WERBELL WAS IN THAILAND REPRESENTING HIMSELF AS
VICE PRESIDENT OF SIONICS, INC. OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA. HE DESCRIBED
HIMSELF AS A COUNTERINSURGENCY EXPERT, CLAIMED TO BE A RETIRED
DATE:
ORIG:
UNIT:
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980121
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PALIS
#
COLONEL, AND INTRODUCED HIMSELF AT A LOCAL NIGHTCLUB AS THE CHIEF OF
NEITHER
CIA IN THAILAND. [NOTE: WERBELL WAS THE CIA CHIEF OF STATION IN
THAILAND NOR AFFILIATED WITH CIA IN ANY WAY!}
WERBELL
ATTEMPTED TO SELL EXOTIC WEAPONS TO THE THAIS AND TO TRAIN THEM IN
COUNTERINSURGENCY WARFARE. Y
7. WERBELL ALLEGEDLY OPERATES THROUGH A NUMBER OF FRONT
BUSINESSES, ONE OF WHICH IS CALLED THE CENTRAL INFORMATION AGENCY
(CIA). IN SOME OF HIS DEALINGS WERBELL BROADLY HINTS THAT HE HAS
CONNECTIONS WITH THIS AGENCY. Y
FROM THE FRE UNNING
8. THIS AGENCY HAS INFORMATION PUP ARTIKZYNI SONE OF THE
TYPES OF HEAPONRY THAT PERSAPWERBELL PURPORTS TO SELL.
The
A PREIS Clippings
INFORMATION-WILLEDESMA TO YOUR Ba8ua E8
NICE W to you. Y
上
FURTHER INFORISAT
PTS EQUITUR FILES ON THIS
SHUECGILL BE FORWARDED TO YOUR BUREAU. Y
90 CLASSIFIED BY RECORDED REPORTING OFFICER. EXEMPT FROM
GENERAL DE CLASSIFICATION SCHEDULE OF E.O. 11652 EXEMPTION CATEGORY
5B (27). IMPOSSIBLE TO DETERMINE DATE OF AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATIONA
1 FEBRUARY 1977
A
BILL WAGNER:MM
DATE:
ORIG:
UNIT:
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1471
C/LA/SB/CH
الوان و
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C/LA/SB/
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14-00000
OONADE
QC77-0704
1 February 1977
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Operations
ATTENTION
FROM
SUBJECT
: Associate Deputy Director for Operations
: Walter T. Lloyd
Associate General Counsel
: Mitchell Livingston Werbell, III
1. As you are aware, on the instruction of United States
District Judge Peter Fay (Miami, Florida 
Division), incident to
the Drug Enforcement Administration's 
prosecution of Subject
for conspiracy to import and distribute 
multi-ton loads of
marijuana, the undersigned made 
a detailed review of the 
files
of this Agency concerning Subject 
in August 1976. This exami-
nation was to ascertain any data 
that ran to Werbell's guilt or
innocence of the offense charged and any 
other data reflecting 
the
nature of the relationship between Werbell 
and the U.S. Government
..
This latter requirement was grounded 
on the Court's view that
Werbell's voluntary reporting to the 
Agency and any government
condonation of his activities might be 
exculpatory in the eyes of 
the
jury.
2. In response, we reviewed the files, identified Agency
contacts with Subject and prepared two 
affidavits: one regarding
non-employment by Mr. B. DeFelice 
and the second regarding
Werbell's relationship to the Agency 
by the undersigned. 
Copies
are attached. During the trial the 
first affidavit was shown to
counsel for Werbell by DEA counsel, 
Mr. Sam Sheres, at which
point defendant's counsel stipulated that 
Werbell was never a
* formal employee of the Central Intelligence 
Agency. Sheres
subsequently returned the affidavits 
to the undersigned at 
the
conclusion of the trial.
E2 IMPDET
CL BY: 059605
14-00000
☐ ☐
3. Regarding the relationship of Werbell to the Agency, as
approved by the Deputy Director, the undersigned appeared before
Judge Fay in his chambers on 31 August and under oath answered
questions of the Court concerning Werbell. A copy of the transcript
of that proceeding is attached. You will note that Judge Fay requested
that all pertinent government records be made available to the Court
for its inspection. Accordingly, copies of Agency files were reproduced.
culled for "Brady-type" documents, excised to protect sources and
methods under the "SWP case criteria" and reviewed and approved by
Assistant DD/O on the evening of 1 September. These processed
documents were then handcarried to Miami by the undersigned on
2 September.
4. The undersigned advised Judge Fay at 0830 hours on
2 September that I had in my possession copies of all of the Agency
files on Werbell, had culled them as to possible "Brady" documents
and was prepared to review them with the Judge at his convenience.
He was on the bench with a tight schedule and asked that the possible
Brady documents first be reviewed by Karen Atkinson, the principal
counsel for the prosecution. The undersigned subsequently briefed
Atkinson on the nature of data in the possible Brady documents. This
resulted in a significant reduction in the number of possibles. The
undersigned gave Atkinson copies of the four unclassified OGC
documents related to the DOD revocation of Werbell's security clearance
in 1971. In addition, Office of Security documents edited and approved
for release to Werbell under his Freedom of Information and Privacy
Act request (Tabs A and B of OS response), consisting of media
publications and security investigative data, were also provided
Atkinson. Due to counsel for Werbell raising an issue on Werbell's
use of a boat named "Venus" belonging to CIA, a declassified copy
of the OS short investigative report outlining data concerning Werbell's
use of the Venus to transport arms was also provided Atkinson. The
related OS Headquarters assignment document was not provided.
Related DDO documents on the ownership of Venus by the "JURE"
Cuban group were mentioned to Atkinson but not made available.
5. While the above documents were provided the Department of
Justice with the understanding they could be passed to Counsel for
Werbell due to subsequent events noted below, it is not certain that
this occurred. Specifically, the undersigned declined to release
additional "Brady" documents without consultation and instructions
CONFIDENCIAL
vnavu f$r<&te sw
14-0000
from the Court. The requested meeting was put off by Judge Fay and
defendante subsequently rested their case. The DOJ had little else
to add and the case went to the jury about noon on 3 Sept. mber. All
the remaining copies of Agency documents were returned to Headquarters
by the undersigned the evening of 3 September. On 4 September the
jury returned a verdict of "not guilty." As a result, the bulk of
"Brady-type" Agency documents or Werbell was not provided to
counsel for Werbell and Judge Fay reviewed no Agency documents.
It should be noted all copies of documents taken to Miami were excised
in accord with the "SWP case criteria" and on return to Headquarters,
these were destroyed by the undersigned.
6. As a related matter, on 16 November Mr. Arthur Egbert
of the Interna! Security Division of the DEA contacted the undersigned
seeking background information on Werbell. The undersigned suggested.
Egbert first review the files of the FBI on Werbell as most of the data
we have is contained in FBI reports. Should FBI data be insufficient
for his needs I suggested he seek access to our files in DDO and Office
of Security via the normal DEA Department of Justice liaison channels.
Walter Shinyd
Walter T. Lloyd
Attachments:
(1) Affidavit - DeFelice
(2) Affidavit - Lloyd
(3) Transcript of Hearing of USDC for Southern District of Florida,
August 31, 1976.
cc: Jerry Brown, SAG/OS, w/o atts
Ed Montgomery, LD/SBCH/DDO, w/o atts
L
14 00000
OGC 76-0844
24 February 1976
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, SOG
SUBJECT
Chief, DCD
Chief, LA Division
Mitchell Livingston Werbel III
114003
1. I was advised by the Justice Department on 23 February that
Werbel has been indicted and the trial is scheduled to begin on 29 March
in Miami, Florida. The charges relate to importing and distributing
quantities of marijuana. With Werbel's propensity to raise his past
affiliations with the Agency, we can anticipate problems during this trial.
An additional problem is presented because Werbel is defended by Edwin
Marger who was the defense attorney for John Hawk in the B-26 case in
Buffalo, York in 1966. It was Edwin Marger who subpoenaed the CIA
General Counsel as a defense witness.
2. The Justice Department has received information that a person
either currently or formerly affiliated with the CIA has been participating
in Werbel's meetings with his attorney. It would be appreciated if all
addressees could review their holdings on Werbel and determine if there
is any validity to any recent contacts with him. I would urge that instruc-
tions be sent to Miami that no, repeat no, contact with Werbel take place.
between now and the beginning of the trial.
3. It would be helpful if each addressee could prepare a summary
of the various contacts Werbel has had with CIA in the past. Please check
to see if you have any information on a Colonel Bayard who was killed in
Atlanta, Georgia during the summer of 1975. Bayard, reportedly an
associate of Werbel's, had previous contacts with the Agency. It would
be appreciated if your responses could be received by close of business
2 March.
In Keny
John K. Greanes
Associate General Counsel.
3.44

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PER
TRAVEL BERGMAN
MAXTRACT
TO: LA/MIAMI.Y
FROM: LA/CAR Y
°
SUBJECT: MITCHELL LIVINGSTONE WERBEL III Y
REF: UFPA-1860, 9 JUNE 1975 Y
7
165 #3 (2-3).
(1)
$13 (2)
s
1. MITCHELL LIVINGSTONE WERBEL III, WHO IS ONE OF THE PERSONS
MENTIONED IN THE DEA REPORT QUOTED IN THE REFERENCE, HAS BEEN
INDICTED ON CHARGES RELATING TO THE IMPORTATION AND DISTRIBUTION
OF MARIJUANA Y
•
2. WHILE WE HAVE SO FAR UNCOVERED NO BKHERALD CONNECTION
WITH WERBEL, THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HAS RECEIVED INFORMATION
THAT A PERSON EITHER CURRENTLY OR FORMERLY AFFILIATED WITH BKHERALD
HAS BEEN PARTICIPATING IN WERBEL'S MEETINGS WITH HIS ATTORNEY. Y
3. FURTHERMORE, SINCE WERBEL HAS IMPLIED CAPPARENTLY FREQUENTLY?
IN THEPAST THAT HE HAS HAD BKHERALD CONNECTION OR SUPPORT IN HIS
QUESTIONABLE ACTIVITIES, LARGELY INVOLVING ARMS AND AMMUNITION.
THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT HE MIGHT ATTEMPT IN ONE
WAY OR ANOTHER TO IMPLICATE BKHERALD IN HIS CURRENT PROBLEM. BE
THEREFORE REQUEST THAT YOU COMPLETELY AVOID WERBEL OR ANYONE
DATE:
ORIG:
UNIT:
EXT:
3.43
RECORD COPY
COGUIDINATING OFFICERS
RELEASING OFFICES
REPRODUCTION BY OTHER THAN THE ISSUING OFFICE IS PROHIBITED
CLASSIFICATION
SECRET
27 Feb-16
201-25.9910
AUTHENTICATING CICES
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THE COS HAS BEEN INFORMED OF THE FOREGOING AND CONCURS. Y
FILE: 201-259930.
E2.IMPDET.H
DATE: 26 FEB 76
ORIG: L. BURNETT/JP
LA/CARI
UNIT:
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WIL
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DATE
Kapupaz
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DIRECTOR 670514 0 (NOT NEEDED NICOSIA) H
PRIOR TO RECEIPT REF AY HQS ADVISED BY SECRET SERVICE THAT
THERE HAD BEEN NO FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN REF B CASE CONCERNING
EMMANUEL KASSELAKIS AND STAVROS SYKOPETRITIS "AND THAT KASSELAKISE
STORY NOW CONSIDERED TO BE 80GUS. SECRET SERVICE FURTHER ADVISED THAT
KASSELAKIS PROVIDED OTHER INFORMATION WHICH ALSO CONSIDERED SUSPECT
CONCERNING ARMS TRANSEACTIONS AND THAT THIS INFORMATION PASSED TO NEW
YORK BASE. SECRET SERVICE SUBSEQUENTLY CONFIRMED THAT REF A INFORM-
ATION WAS RECEIVED FROM KASSELAKIS.Y
2. UNABLE TO IDENTIFY GEORGE STRATOS.4
UNDERTEDLY
1
3. FOR FR/NEW YORK: WEEBLER IS MITCHELL L. WER#BELL (201-
259910) OF REF C.Y
4. SAMUEL SCRIVENER JR., WASHINGTON ATTORNEY, EMPLOYED BY
BKHERALD IN EARLY 1950'S AS CONSULTANT.Y
DATE:
ORIS:
UNIT:
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780389
5. UNABLE TO IDENTIFY DOMINICAN COMPANY.Y
b.
9201-257910,
FILE: 201-889547; X REF 201-060338.
DATE: 1 DECEMBER 1975.
Ο
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TOU DIRECTOR.
COFY FOR
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DO NOT DESTROY..
KEYWAY FORR ES
LUCAL SECRET SERVICE REPORTS FOLLOWING FROM INFORMANT OF ES-
TABLISHED RELIABILITY. ONE GEORGE STRATOS, LOCAL GREEK-AMERICAN OR-
CHESTRA LEADER, VISITED CYPRIOTE AMBASSADOR DIMITRIOU IN WASHINGTON
CAT 28 NOV TO SOLICIT HIS WILLINGNESS PURCHASE 25 THOUSAND M-16 RIFLE S
AT $215 EACH & TRANSACTION TO BE CONSUMATED OUTSIDE U.S. DIMITRIOU.
DECLINED ON GROUNDS PRICE BUT REQUESTED STRATOS SUBMIT PROPOSAL FOR
MANUFACUTRE AND SALE OF "HIGH-POWERED MARK I AND II HAND GUNS".
WEAPONS WOULD BE MANUFACTURED BY DOMINICAN COMPANY, TELEPHONE NUMBER
532-1019 RPT 532-1819. STRATOS AGREED WORK UP DETAILS.
2. ADDITIONAL DETAILS PROVIDED BY INFORMANT: ONE OF NINE PART-
NERS OF STRATOS IS ONE MITCH WEEBLER, WHO STRATOS CLAIMS IS FORMER
BKHERALD. STRATES WASHINGTON ATTORNEY. IS SAM SCHREIVNER (PHON),
TELEPHONE (222) 296-2958. STRATOS CLAIMED M-16'S AND 462 M-62 MACHINE
GUNS. HE ALSO WISHES SELL REPRESENT U.S. ARMS LOST INDOCHINA.
3. SECRET SERVICE OFFICER (ALO OF GREEK BACKGROUND) REPORTS
STRATOS WAS CLOSE TO PAPADOPOULOS GOVERNMENT. AND NOTES THAT LARGE
SECRET
3.41
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TORI 2218352 DEC 75
NYFR 33363
AMOUNTS OF U.S. ARMS WERE DISCOVERED MISSING FROM GREEK ARMORIES WHEN
NEW GOVERNMENT ROCK INVENTORY IN 1974
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☐
14-00000
The Owner of Guns Seized
In 1974 Will Sell Them.
MARIETTA Sept. 4 (AP)
- Mitchell L WerBell 3d of
Marieita has agreed to quit the
arms trade, which in the past
has frequently involved him in
international intrigue.
In a deal worked out yester-
day before a Federal judge, Mr.
WerBell agreed that he would
stop manufacturing and selling
guns if the Government, al-
lowed him to sell $325,000
worth of arms seized by Fed-
eral agents last December.
The guns, called "the largest
collection of private guns in the
world" by Mr. WerBell and
Federal attorneys include 2,000).
machine guns and silencers.
Mr. WerBell said his com-
pany, Defense Systems Interna-
tional, Inc., would continue "toi
do what we have always cone!
-serve this country."
He said he and his sons have
plans to sell radios, electronic
equipment and military sup-ja
plies not covered by the agree-s
ment.
ם
5-9-75
NYTIMES
3,40
14-00000
FBI
BRAND TELEPREZENT CABLE
DATED 25 JUNE 1975
SUBJECT: MITCHELL
SUBJECT: MITCHELL LIVINGSTON
WERBELL III WILLIAM MARTIN
BELL NEUTRALITY MATTERS-
GRENADA
00000
FBI document dated 8 July 1975.
from Atlanta, Ga.
3. Newspaper Articles Appearing in
The Atlanta Constitution forwarded.
14-0000
SEC PET
802497
PAGE 01
# 34586
TOP: 2914042 JUN 75
UFPA 1860
ECRET
TELEPOUCH.
DISPATCH NG:
UFPA-1860
FILE NO
: 282-11-11/17; 196-9-1
DATE
:
6 JUNE 1975
TO
FROM
SUBJECT
CHIEF, LATIN AMERICA DIVISION
ACTING CHIEF OF STATION, LA/MIAMI
DEA/MIAMI REPORT ON POSSIBLE PLOT.
TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT OF GRENADA
1, STATION HAS RECEIVED A REPORT FROM DE A/ MIAMI ON A
POSSIBLE PLOT TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT OF GRENADA, -
STATION CONSIDERS THE REPORT SUSPECT BUT HAS SUGGESTED TO DEA
THAT SINCE FBI AND STATE DEPARTMENT HAVE AN INTEREST IN SOME
OF THE INDIVIDUALS MENTIONED IN THE REPORT THAT A COPY OF IT
BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THEM. STATION ALSO PASSED TO DEA A LIST
OF QUESTIONS FOR THEIR USE WHICH MIGHT ASSIST THEM IN OBTAINING
FURTHER DETAILS ON THE PLOT AND HAS OFFERED TO PROVIDE THEM
WITH PERTINENT INFORMATION THAT MIGHT COME TO OUR ATTENTION
THROUGH STATION SOURCES. CORRECT NAME OF THE PROMINENT
CITIZEN OF GRENADA MENTIONED IN PARA 3 OF THE REPORT IS KEN
ILNE,
..
SECRET
3.39
CS
196-9-1°
up
LAYNARC
10 June 
75

14-00000
PAGE 42
4 75
2. FOLLOWING IS TEXT OF THE REPORT, DEA MIAMI
N 34585
-UP PA-1650
SEC-5-75-5-253, OF 4 JUNE, SENT TO DEA HOS AND FIELD STATION
BALTIMORE AND ATLANTA; DEA HOS REQUESTED PASS TO CARACAS
REGION: "SUBJECT: MITCHELL L, WERBELL III,, ET AL FILE NO.
G1-75-195:
"IN THE COURSE OF DEVELOPING A MARIHUANA SMUGGLING.
CONSPIRACY INVESTIGATION, MITCHELL L. WERBELL, III,, ET AL,
G1-75-0105. THE MIAMI REGIONAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT HAS UNCOVERED
INFORMATION CONCERNING A PLAN TO OVERTHROW THE INDEPENDENT
GOVERNMENT OF GRENADA,
"THE PLAN, AS OUTLINED BELOW, IS A COMPOSITE OF
INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM ONE WILLIAM BELL, A DEFENDANT IN THE
SUBJECT INVESTIGATION, VIA HIS CONVERSATIONS WITH UNDERCOVER
AGENTS AND A COOPERATING INDIVIDUAL,
"THE PLAN CALLS FOR THE LANDING OF 35 ARMED MEN ON
GRENADA DURING THE LATE EVENING HOURS OF A SATURDAY IN MID OR
LATE JULY 1975. THE REV CL UT IONARIES WILL APPEAR TO BE SCOTT IS H
MERCENARIES, BUT IN FACT WILL BE AMERICANS. THE LANDING TIME
"
WILL COINCIDE WITH THE NORMAL SHUT DOWN TIME OF THE ISLAND'S
RADIO STATION. THE PRIMARY 03JECTIVES OF THE LANDING GROUP
SECRET
3.37
14-0000
SECRE
:97
GE 23
275
4 34836
UPA-1650
WILL BE THE RADIO/COMMUNICATIONS FACILITIES. AIR
HARD SEA PORTS.. SELL WILL HEAD AN ASSASSINATION SQUAD WHICH
WILL BE DIRECTED TO KILL 21 POLITICAL AND GIVERNMENT
FUNCTIONARIES, THE PLAN ANTICIPATES HAVING FULL CONTROL OF
THE ISLAND BY THE TIME THE ISLAND'S RADIO STATION WOULD -
NORMALLY GO BACK ON THE AIR ON SUNDAY MORNING. THE COST
OF THIS OPERATION IS REPORTED TO BE 3 MILLION DOLLARS.
ONE KEN MILL OR MILLS (PHONETIC); A PROMINENT CITIZEN OF
GRENADA IS REPORTED TO HAVE CONTRIBUTED ONE HALF MILLION
COLLARS TO THIS OPERATION, AND WILL BE PUT UP AS THE HEAD
OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT IF THE TAKEOVER IS SUCCESSFUL. BELL
STATES THAT HE WILL BE ASSUMING CONTROL OF THE ARMED FORCES
AND POLICE AGENCIES OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT, BELL IS BELIEVED
TO BE MANUFACTURING WEAPONS AND PARTS FOR WEAPONS, WITHOUT
SERIAL NUMBERS, FOR THE OPERATION AT DEFENSE WEAPONS
INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING AND RESEARCH INC., P.O. BOX 771
DEERFIELD BEACH, FLORIDA, WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE
FIRM'S MANAGEMENT, WERBELL'S ROLE IN THE OPERATION IS
UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME,
*WERBELL, MITCHELL LIVINGSTON 111, WHITE MALE.
SECRET
3.37
*4-00000
SECRET
E!
PAGE 04
10810914293 JUN 175
% 34535
UFFA-1859
U.S. CITIZEN, A FORMER SHI OSS OFFICER, BCAN 3/8/18 AT
PHILADELPHIA, PA,, 5FT 6 1/2 INCHES TALL, 155 LBS., BROWN
HAIR, BLUE EYES, RUDDY COMPLEXTION, GRADUATE OF FORK UNION
MILITARY ACADEMY, RICHMOND, RA, AND THE CHARLES PRICE
SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM (EXTENSION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA), AND RESIDENT AT POWDER SPRINGS, GEORGIA.
WERSELL DOES NOT HAVE AN FBI CRIMINAL RECORD, ALTHOUGH A
· 7/1/73 MIAMI HERALD TROPIC MAGAZINE ARTICLE REPORTED THAT HE
AND SEVEN OTHER PERSONS HAD BEEN INDICTED FOR CONSPIRACY TO
VICLATE U.S. NEUTRALITY LAWS, BUT THAT THE CHARGES WERE
DROPPED ON THE ORDERS OF THEN ATTORNEY GENERAL RAMSEY CLARK,
HIS INDICTMENT WAS REPORTEDLY THE RESULT OF HIS INVOLVEMENT
WITH A HAITIAN REVOLUTIONARY GROUP DURING 1966, A 1974 ES CUIRE
MAGAZINE ARTICLE DESCRIBES WERBELL'S INVOLVEMENT IN A COVERT
POLITICAL MOVEMENT TO GAIN INDEPENDENCE FOR THE ISLAND OF
ABACO IN THE BAHAMAS, HERBELL IS ALLEGED TO BE A REGISTERED
DEALER AND/OR MANUFACTURER OF WEAPONS,
"BELL, WILLIAM MARTIN, WHITE MALE; SORN 6/27/28,
AFT 2 INCHES TALL, 233 LBS,, GRAY HAIR, NORTH CAROLINA DRIVERS'S
LICENSE NUMBER 2198096: RESIDING AT 4412 WATERBURY ROAD,
SECRET
3.37
$
14-00000
SECR57
2763
812497
PAGE 25
7:14842 JUN 75
* 3:500
UFPA 1860
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA BELIEVED TO BE AN EX-MARINE CORPS
PILOT AND OWNER OF THE MARINE REALTY AND DEVELOPMENT
CORPORATION, US ROUTE 1 - NORTH, RALEIGH, N.C.; BELL HAS BEEN
ARRESTED BY THE RALEIGH PD ON THE FOLLOWING CHARGES:
CARRYING
A CONCEALED WEAPON AND DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE - 1973; AND
ISSUING A WORTHLESS CHECK - 1967, BELL DOES NOT HAVE AN FBI
CRIMINAL RECORD.
" IN APRIL 1975, IN ALLEGED FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY,
WERBELL CONTACTED AN MIAMI R/O COOPERATING INDIVIDUAL AND
REQUESTED THE C/I'S ASSISTANCE IN SMUGGLING MULTI-TON QUANTITIES
OF COLOMBIAN MARIHUANA INTO THE U.S. MIAMI R/O U/C AGENTS,
ACTING AS PILOT/SMUGGLERS AND COLOMBIAN SOURCE OF SUPPLY, HAVE
BEEN CONDUCTING NEGOTIATIONS WITH WERBELL AND SELL CONCERNING
THE FINANCING, AIR SMUGGLING AND DISTRIBUTION OF MARIHUANA.
OTHER INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED IN THE CONSPIRACY TO DATE ARE WALLY
GILLIS, BELIEVED TO BE SUBJECT OF NADDIS RECORD NUMBER 121267,
AND A RICK STEVENS AND A WILLIAM JORDAN, WHITE MALES, 22'5;
NO ADDITIONAL ID DATA AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME,
"CONSPIRACY INVESTIGATION IS CONTINUING,
ADDITIONAL.
INFORMATION RELATIVE TO NEUTRALITY VIOLATIONS WILL BE FORWARDED
SECRET
3.37
0
-
00000
T. 276101
EIA497
SECRET
PAGE 06-06
TELEPOUCH
H 34585
TOR: 3914342 JUN 75
UFPA-1860
UPON RECEIPT, ONE U/C AGENT (PILOT) HAS BEEN APPROACHED BY
BELL TO TAKE PART IN THE GRENADA OPERATION.
"S.R.F. MIAMI BRIEFED VERBALLY CONCERNING GRENADA
INFORMATION THIS DATE.
A COPY OF THIS INFORMATION WILL BE
•JO HNE
AND S, R.F. AT MIAMI.
FURNISHED TO U.S, CUSTOMS, ATF
LUND JR., REGIONAL DIRECTOR".
DISTRIBUTION;
3 - C/LAD VIA TELEPOUCH
E2, IMPDET.
SECRET
3.37
14-00000
24 March 1975
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD -
SUBJECT: Alleged Activities of Walter Mackem
1. During the week of March 9, I lunched with Mr. Wesley
Dyckman Dyckman is a former Agency staffer currently employed.
by the Drug Enforcement Agency. During the 
course of our lunch-
Walter Mackem 
came up. Dyckman
eón conversation, the name
told me that Mackem, a Josmate of ours, had been fired by
the Agency. According to I Dyckman, Mackem 
is now employed in the
In addition, accord-
Washington area as a private investigator.
ing to Dyckman, Mačkem is involved with a paramilitary activity
The 
activity, which
funded by some unnamed British source.
Dyckman referred to as "the new land project" seeks to establish
a tax shelter on one of the out-islands of the 
Caribbean by
forcefully taking over the island and establishing 
a 
government
there. Mackem is supposedly involved in paramilitary 
training
of forces who would participate in this paramilitary 
adventure
again. According to Dyckman, the paramilitary 
training 
supposedly
takes place in Georgia not far from Atlanta
.
2. This is the extent of my conversation with Dyckman on-time
above subject and I have no further information 
or details concern-
ing this.
Orig
1
-
1
-
1
-
OS/SAG
.SE/SEC
LA/SO
Hayes
P. H
Joseph P. Hayes
SE/PCH
3.36
SECRET
E2 IMPOET
CL BY 017709
14-00000
SIGNAL CENTERUS
OMF
0
CLASSINATION
AGB
0
SECRET.
103
SSAGE HANCING INDICATOR
STAFF
0
0
0
--0
0'
CONF: NE 10 INFO: FILE 11/12M
DATE TIME GROUP
191757Z DIRECTOR
CH
CITE
11/AM FRS DCD2 LSN/ID.
✓ CAR/TA_
clOPS LAIQ
BALDSEY Wirbels
TO: FR/NEW YORK. Y
AJAJA FORRES
GERENCE NUMBER
PAGES
670534
0 MDE1
DISSEM BY
30
NO
PER
REF: FR/NEW YORK, 30417 IN 511214)
1. NO ADDITIONAL HOS TRACES ON EDGAR LEMMENS AND CO. OTHER
TIRLEMONT,
THAN CONFIRMATION THAT IT LICENSED DEALER OF ARMS LOCATED IN/BERTIDATS
BELGIUM AND THAT IT IMPORTED FROM. NEW YORK TO BELGIUM A SILENT SUB-
MACHINE GUN WHICH LATER SHOWED UP IN SPAIN CONNECTED WITH BASQUE
ASSASSINATION. W
2. MICHELL L. WERBELL, III (201-259910) IS PARTNER OF DEFENSE
SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL INC. OF POWDER SPRINGS, GEORGIA A LICENSED
ARMS DEALER. HE BORN 8 MAR 1918, PHILADELPHIA.
HQS HAS LENGHTY
201 ON WERBELL WHO HAS LONG HISTORY POPPING UP IN AREAS AND SITUATIONS
WHERE CAN MAKE FEW FAST BUCKS. HE CHARACTERIZED AS UNSCRUPULOUS,
WHEELER-DEALER AND PROMOTER OF GRANDIOSE SCHEMES. HE OF OPERATIONAL
INTEREST IN MID-1959. WHEN BECAME INVOLVED WITH ANTI-CASTRO PLOTTERS
IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND OFFERED PROVIDE BKHERALD WITH INFO ON
REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES IN CARIBBEAN. HE GRANTED POA IN AUGUST
1959 BUT THIS CANCELLED OCTOBER 1959 WHEN HIS INFO PROVED BE OF
DATE:
ORIG:
UAIT:
EXT:
3.35
COORDINATING OFFICERS
Wubelio
AUTHENTICATI OFFICER
E 2
CL BY:
2011
IMPOET
RELEASING OFFICER
CLASSICATION
REPRODUCTION BY OTHER THAN THE ISSUING OFFICE IS PROHIBITED
SECRET
14-00000
SIGNAL CENTER USE ONLY
OMF 0
AGE
LASNICATION.
co
0
SECRET
MESSAGE MANOLING INDICATOR
ace
100
0
0
176
한
0
0
اهدة
OF
PAGES
STAFF
CONF:
INFO: FILE
DATE-TIME GROUP
DIRECTOR
cro
670514
MESSAGE REPERENCE FUMBED
ย
INDEE
DISSEM BY:
0
NC DES
0
RETURN TO
PER
0
□ PILES
#
LITTLE VALUE AND IT SUSPECTED THAT HE USING BKHERALD FUNDS TO
PROMOTE PERSONAL INTERESTS.
EVER SINCE, BKHERALD HAS BEEN DIS-
CLAIMING WERBELL WHO HAS REPEATEDLY ATTEMPTED PROMOTE SELF AS REP
SINCE MUCH OF BKHERALD INFO ON WERBELL
OF LNBUZZ AND BKHERALD.
ORIGINATES LNERGO, NE SUGGEST LNERGO REP/NEW YORK PERFORM TRACE
THROUGH HIS OFFICIAL CHANNEL.
CABOVE INFORMAY NOT BE PASSED FOREIGN
NATIONALS BECAUSE WERBELL WODUAL CITIZEN.} Y
NOT HEA
3. ONLY TRACE ON MITCHELL WERBELL IV IS THAT HE ALSO INVOLVED
FATHER'S
IN/9889998 ARMS BUSINESS TRADE.
BKHERALD. 4
4.
HE HAS HAD NO CONNECTION WITH
FILE: 201-918287, EZ IMPDET.N
DATE:
17 MARCH 1935
ORIG: WENDY RAHMNK
UNIT:
NE/ARN/I
EXT: R. 13867
Belar
C/FR/82
FI
LA/S olly
NE/SO.
CNE/ARN/I..
CNE/ARN.
Pent
FR/ 2. kostic
COORDINATING OPPICERS
CA/DCNE/AO
AUTHENTICATING OFFICER
HELEASING OFFICER
CLASSIFICATION
REPRODUCTION BY OTHER THAN THE ISSUING OFFICE IS PROPITED
E 2
SECRET
"
CL BY:
IMPOET
025268
14-00000
7.71 PG. 3.7
CABLE SEC DIGGEN 15
PERSON/UNIT NOTIFIED,
ADVANCE COPY LEAVED SLOTTED
.232
TOTAL COPIES
SECRET
RUN B
IP/AN, FRS, LSN/10,
C/OPS, C1/012
ACTION UNIT
FILE
VR
NEIO
N
F
ACTION
°
↑ 831238
E14365
2
3
REPRODUCTION BY OTHER THAN
ISSUING OFFICE IS PROMINITED
STAFF
.
PAGE 01
IN 511214
TOR12416002 MAR 75
NYFR
30417
J
SECRET 0413352 MAR 75 STAFF
CITE FR/NEW YORK 38417
TO: DIRECTOR.
AJAJA FORRES
REF A. UNDW-6325
(B. FR/NEW YORK 38822 (.) 473476)
1. SUBJ REFS, ALA-AL-DIN AL-TAYYAR OF THE IRAQI MUN, IS STILL OF
CURRENT INTEREST TO FBI WHICH HAS HIM UNDER PERIODIC 0BSERVATION.
TAYYAR HAS BEEN IN BAGHDAD ON HOLIDAY FOR PAST SEVERAL WEEKS AND FBI
HOPĖS MAKE OPERATIONAL APPROACH TO HIM SHORTLY AFTER HIS RETURN NEW
YORK IN NEXT WEEK OR SO. DURING 25 FEB MEETING WITH FBI COUNTER-
PARTS, TERPOS AGAIN REITERATED BKHERALD INTEREST IN TAYYAR SAYING HE.
DEFINITELY WOULD LIKE CONTACT TAYYAR IF FOR SOME REASON FBI DECIDED.
NOT TO, FBI CONTACTS SAID MATTER WOULD BE RESOLVED ONE WAY OF ANOTHER
-IN NEXT FEW WEEKS AND THEY WOULD ATTEMPT ASSIST TERPOS IN THE CONTACT
IF FBI GAVE TAYYAR UP.
2. FBI ALSO INFORMALLY ASKED FOR TRACES OF FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS/
COMPANIES WHICH REF B CONTACT OF TAYYAR (WILLIAM APIKIAN) HAS
CONTACTED RE PURCHASING ARMSI
A. MITCHELL WE BELL, III AND IV.
SECRET
3.34
14-00000
3
7.31 MPG 3/74
CABLE BEC DISSEN BY
PERSON/UNIT NOTIFIED.
TOTAL COPIES
RUN BY
SECRET
REPRODUCTION BY OTHER THAP
IBBUING-OFFICE IS PROHIBITED
STAFF
„ADVANCE COPY ISSUED SLOITED
AL
ACTION UNIT
RF
FILE
VR
בין
N
5
6
F
ACTION.
°
:
T 831008
EIA365
PAGE 22-02
IN 511214
TORI041600Z MAR 75
NYFR
38417
DEFENSE SYSTEMS:
POWDER SPRINGS GEORGIA.
LNERGO SOURCE SAID WERBELL (EITHER OR SON) FORMERLY WORKED FOR
BKHERALD. ALSO MADE OFF THE CUFF REMARK THAT "DEFENSE SYSTEMS COM
SOUNDED LIKE BKHERALD FRONT ORGANIZATION,
EDGAR LEMMENS AND CO.
BELGIUM
FBI HAS INFO FROM BELGIUM-SECURITY THAT LEMMENS AND CO. IN
THE PAST HAS PROVIDED ARMS FOR THE IRA AND THE BASQUE INDEPENDENCE
MOVEMENT.
3, FILE: 201-0918287. E2 IMPDET
SECRET

14-00000
The Amazing
New-Country Caper
by Andrew St. George.
Capitalist revolution, the ultimate solution
F
or the first time in history,
the successful managers of
America's economy-its en-
trepreneurs, financiers, mer-
chandisers, investors are
talking rebellion. A kind of
rebellion, anyway. There is no call
to subvert the Republic, only to
abandon it. In increasing numbers,
America's most affluent and active.
elites are threatening to withdraw
their funds, their assets, ultimately
even themselves and their families
from the centers of the U.S. ecol
omy, which many of them seem to
consider done for. Nicholas von
Hoffman, the acerbic and preter-
naturally foresighted columnist of
The Washington Post, found that in
some of mid-America's best execu-
tive clubs, "There is talk of buying
gold coins and keeping them in the
office safe, of owning a piece of land
to retreat to when the trouble
starts." The hero of the year's most
durable best seller, You Can Profit
From a Monetary Crisis, by Harry
Browne, is "Peter Panic." the quin
tessential American small investor.
He is in flight from his own na-
tional economy. Transferring every
penny he owns from U.S. invest-
ments into Swiss banks and South
African gold stocks, Peter Panic
practically doubles his worth from
1970 to 73; then he is ready to
take the most important step- to
find himself a secluded rural retreat
to weather the nation's coming
troubles.
But retreat where? That's the
basic problem none of these doom-
sayers grapples with. A seven-
ty-five-thousand-dollar-a-year man
who pulls up lock, stock and bond
.60
ESQUIRE: FEBRUARY
175
investments to move to a secluded
farmhouse may find there a mea-
sure of protection from random
violence or he may find, if real
trouble starts, that in his isolation
he's utterly defenseless.
Unless, of course, he has planned
ahead as far ahead and as care-
fully as the originators of what one
can only call, for the moment, the
Abaco Plan (it remains to be seen
by events, of course, .hether the
Abaco planners were as wise and
prescient as they were farsighted
and careful). The originators of
the Abaco idea were the first to im-
plement the urge to abandon Amer-
ica with a concrete design, includ-
ing a destination, provision for per-
sonal and financial safety, monetary
reward and even a Utopian social
program. Though the men behind
Abaco are nearly the opposite of
the commune-seekers of the late
Sixties and early Seventies, their
objectives are much the same. They
seek a way out and a return to
fundamental values, but their most
fundamental value is the proposi
tion that each of them should be-
many times a millionaire, untrou
bled by inflation.
By the time you read this, the
men of Abaco may have accom
plished the first stages of their pro-
gram in which case you will have
read about them in the newspa
pers or they may have failed and
be in the process of regrouping.
But I'd like you to meet them as I
did, at a lunch in Washington, D.C.,
last May.
"Cig Herer" and let slip the dogs.
of Work?
7.83
No. sir! Not here in Duke Zei-
bert's place you don't; this well-
brad Washington restaurant admits
no animals. Not even if they're
wearing eighty-dollar Church's
shoes. Not even if they happen to
be the familiar old two-legged war
hounds who were made immortal in
the Shakespearean line, and who
are being made fashionable again
this year by the success of Fred-
erick Forsyth's latest book, The
Dogs of War.
Here we are in 1974, murky,
angst-ridden, confusing old '74, and
with Forsyth's novel a best seller,
hailed as "soon to be a major mov-
ie," deferentially praised for its.
"reporterial realism."
more and
more people are talking about "the
dogs of war" as if they knew what
the phrase meant: an international
conspiracy of financiers and killer
commandos who wage mercenary
mini-wars in the quest for maxi-
payoffs. What nonsense! A drink at
Duke Zeibert's polished bar will
give us a better view of reality
than Fred Forsyth's collected
works.
Take Mister Mitchell Livingston
Werbell here, a ruddy, jovial, mous-
tached chap, sipping his prepran-
dia! Tanqueray martini extra dry.
It's obvious that if there were any
thing doggy or bellicose about Wer-
Bell, he wouldn't be lunching where
he is at the head of the old Duke's
prize front corner table,
Or take the tall, well-tailored
man sitting next to Werbell. It is
plain at a glance that he looks and
having just been overheard ask-
ing. "May I have the picklės,
please-sounds like a patrician
14-00000
London clubman. And that's just
what he is: Robert Hamilton, Bar-
on of Belhaven and Stenton, a dis-
tinguished member of the House
of Lords.
In fact, a good look at the leg-
endary Mitch WerBell-millionaire
firearms tycoon, designer of the
'world's best muzzle silencer.. ad-
venturer, friend of dictaters and
C.I.A. agents, manipulator of the
luck of small nations and at the
seven men who are his luncheon
guests today reminds us that, in
real life, the strategy of private
wars demands, first of all, finesse.
straight out of a Forsyth script:
the take-over of Abaco-an action.
that will allow these men to get
themselves and their money profit-
ably out of the U.S.
To be sure, any resemblance to
popular fiction stops short with the
basic idea. Commando politics is
dead. It will no longer de to break
open a case of bootieg hand gre
nades and storm the palace. In fact,
Abaco has no palace. What it does
have is six to seven thousand native
inhabitants who lead lives ranging
from quiet stagnation to mute
poverty.
To be conquered, Abaco must be
attacked that fundamental, aspect
of territorial expansion has not
changed in four thousand years-
but in an age of psychological war-
fare, motivational research, sub-
liminal propaganda and behavior
modification, the tactics must be
different. Wer Bell's first assault on
Abaco has been psychological. With
In Forsyth's telling, "the dogs of
war" get together only to make
hard-boiled conversation about
"knocking off an entire republic"
with the aid of World War II ma-
chine pistols laboriously concealed
in oil drums. WerBell's world is
different. A top executive of De
fense Services International, Mili-
tary Armaments Corporation and
Sionics Inc., he designs and manu-great skill and ruthless persuasive-
factures his own weaponry, which
are recognized all over the world
as the most sophisticated small
arms obtainable. Having acquired
a taste for irregular warfare as an
O.S.S. commando leader behind
Japanese lines in World War II,
Wer Bell is rumored to have taken
a hand in a long string of mini-
wars since then, from the South
China Sea to the Caribbean and the
Me iterranean. But Wer Bell frowns
on crass badinage, especially with
food. At Zeibert's the table talk is
mostly about gastronomy today, in
part because the dill sours and soft-
shell crabs are truly remarkable, in
part because the host at the neigh-
boring table is Clifton Daniel. the
silver-haired Washington bureau
chief of The New York Times.
But by the time coffee and Cour-
voisier arrive, Daniel and his party
depart. Wer Bell lights a finely
veined Montecruz double corona. "I
talked to the island today," he says.
and suddenly the table is all atten-
tion.
the island"--that's what this
lunch is all about. The island
is Abaco; not yet an inde
pendent republic, nor a center
of commerce and finance, but
by no means a negligible
coral hump, either. In fact, Abaco
is the second-largest landmass in
the Bahamas-Great Abaco and
Little Abaco, surrounded by a
sprinkling of small reefs and cays,
over seven hundred square miles
of fertile tropical paradise. Mitch
WerBell and his guests have conie
to Washington to discuss a project
62 ESQUIRE FEBRUARY
ness, the citizens of Abaco are con-
vinced, step by step, that they must
become an independent nation; that
becoming an independent nation is
the greatest, most rewarding thing
in the whole wide worid; that it is
they, the citizenry of Abaco, who
must urgently need and demand
and fight for status as a self-gov.
erning commonwealth.
"I talked to the island for almost
an hour this morning." Wer Bell re-..
peats gently, now that everyone
around the table is watching him
with close attention. "They finally
got the slips. They've already dis-
tributed half of them. They'll make
a one-spot run this weekend and see
how they score. They think it'll be
sixty to sixty-five percent."
No translation is needed. As the
Watergate tapes have demonstrat-
ed, men who share a secret scenario
come to share a secret language, as
if by osmosis. Wer Bell's remarks.
reveal that he has had a long-dis-
tance conversation this morning
with one of his chief operatives on
Abaco, using a clear phone line-
i.c., a connection involving untapped
phone numbers. (If the conversa-
tion had not involved a key agent
on Abaco, and if the phone had
been suspect, the conversation
would have been brief.)
thorities are not supposed to see.
had delivered a shipment of blank
survey forms. These poiling: slips,
devised by a prestigious U.S. opin-
ion-research firm, are to monitor
sentiment on Abaco in favor of in-
dependence-not just
once, but
week by week, as WerBell's psywar
campaign unfolds.
Furthermore, WerBell learned
this morning that a test sampling
focused on a single Abaco settle-
ment, perhaps Marsh Harbour or
Fox Town, had been scheduled by
his agents on Abaco for the coming
weekend. The organizers expected
to poll between sixty and sixty-five
percent in favor of independence-
an impressive score, reflecting the
fact that the covert political cam-
paign of Wer Bell and Co. is in its
sixth month.
2 re these people serious? They
are indeed not merely se
rious but experienced, pow-
erful and farsighted. Three
of. Wer Bell's luncheon
A
guests are former C.I.A. ca-
reer officers, all three recently re-
tired from its clandestine services.
branch, where they acquired in-
valuable experience in the manipu
lation, dismantling and rearranging
of governments. John Muldoon, who
is WerBell's principal agent in
Washington, has served as a PolAd
-a political adviser-in Vietnam
and Africa. Walter Mäcken has
seen similar duty in a number of
Southeast Asian countries, and Ted
Roussos, a tanned, greying man,
has been a senior C.I.A. clandestine
services official in the Mediterra-
nean-Italy, the Balkans, above all
Greece- for almost twenty years
before he retired last year to join.
ostensibly, the management of the
Astor, Washington's best Greek
restaurant, long owned by his
family.
These men are not war hounds or
gunslingers. Their ethos and telos
thrust not toward violence but
toward control. They are technetron-
ic conflict managers-planners, or-
ganizers, and only occasionally the
manipulators of violent action. Mul
doon is a tall, pink, deep-chested
Irishman faithfully cast in the mold
from which most of the chief in:
spectors of large American police
The agent on the island-most
departments seem to spring. Mäck-
likely C. R. "Chuck" Hall, who has en looks like an Ivy League grad.
served as Wer Bell's principal oper- uate instructor, blond, button-down,
ative on Abaco during most of the horn-rimmed, alert, with a Hong
Summer of 1974--reported that the Kong Racquet Club tie to match
special courier who occasionally ar- his navy blazer.. The pi;e-smoking
rives from Miami aboard a small Roussos, in his flawlessly cut En-
aniphibian seaplane, bringing con-glish tropicals, demonstrates what
signments which the Nassau au-
3.31
the French mean when they say
14-00000
distingué—the aging Charles Boyer
plunked in a spy scenario, looking
not so much the part of James Bond
as his enigmatic superior, M. A!!
three, follow Wer Bell's briefing with
small nods and half smiles of ap
proval.
BED
guest speakers from the U.S. who
preach the independence gospel but-
tressed by a variety of economic
ard political promises-a carefully
camouflaged "forward headquar
ters" has been set-up in Miami. A.
Large, deceptively suburban house
at 1666 S.W. Twelfth Street hides
a high-powered SSB radio station,
a "dispatch center" for handling
cargo traffic with Abaco via a small
seaplane, and a halfway house for
who are discreetly flown to Miami.
On arrival, the independence ac-
tivists are either enrolled in politi-
cal indoctrination courses held in
Miami, or, having been provided
with plane tickets under various
cover names, they are flown farther
north to a training base near At-
lanta, where they receive paramili-
tary training under the command
of a former U.S. infantry officer,
Col Robert Bayard..
WerBell talks on, his eyes on the
pearl-grey ash of his cigar, his
growly voice low. There's work to
be done lots of it. The day known
as U.D.I.—that is, the date when
Abaco breaks away from the Compromising independence militants
monwealth of the Bahamas, the
Unilateral Declaration of Indepen-
dence is tentatively set for New
Year's Day of 1975. The operations
required to seize control of the is-
land have been disguised as the
"uprising" of an "autonomous, do-
cally organized independence move-
ment" with such amazing skill that
none of the world's major press has
spotted what is going on. A number
of seemingly local organizations
and deceptively "ad hoc" groups
have sprung up to handle those ac-
tivities that cannot be kept from
public view-propaganda, organiza-
tion, and so forth. There are: the
Abaco Independence Movement
(known as A.I.M.); the Abaco De-
velopment Council; Friends of
Abaco; the "Prosperity "74″ Eco-
nomic Conference on Abaco.
Every one of these cover organi-
zations has been clandestinely cre
ated, financed and managed from
WerBell's headquarters in Powder
Springs, a suburb of Atlanta. To
coordinate their activities-propa-
ganda, recruitment, proselytization.
the importation of distinguished
Col. Bayard, a tall, leathery man
in the Gary Cooper mold, with grey
eyes and a shock of reddish brown
hair, is the officer in charge of "spe-
cial personnel." Young, muscular,
unattached: Abaconian independence
enthusiasts, whose commitment to
"the cause of U.D.I. is especially
strong, are given seven weeks of
supersecret instruction in the use
of small arms, demolition devices.
and other commando skills at the
proving grounds of Mitch Wer-
Fell's arms company. Proving
grounds? Well, WerBell makes
plenty of gadgets that bear testing.
His companies produce a deadly
sniper rifle, "accurized," automat-
ed, utterly silent, with the built-in
capability of plugging a beer can at
a thousand yards-"We guarantee
this mich," says Werfell—and a
special sighting device which en-
ables the rifleman to fix his target
day or night. With Gordan Ingram,
WerBell has designed and produces
the incredible Ingram, a miniatur-
ized submachine gun no larger
than the familiar..45 service auto-
matic, eight hundred rounds per
minute, the whole shooting match
about as noisy as a very fast Ping-
Pong match-"pac... pac...pac-
pacpac" the barrel is a patented.
Wer Bell silencer. There is plenty of
"sophisticated equipment" to test.
But among visitors who have been
invited there more than once, the
place electronic security fencing,
the dog patrols, the imperious warn-
ing signs, the helipad for combát
choppers, the airstrip for the com-
pany Learjet among people who
call Mitch by his first name, the
place is known as "the farm."
Įraining special personnel is a
rigorous regime. and Col.
Bayard keeps himself in
shape at Zeibert's he takes
grilled liver and a single
beer, and lunches in silence.
seldom intervening in the discus-
sion, occasionally glancing at his
wrist chronometer-he must be
back at the furm by nightfall, and
as a mere colone!, he must "fly.com
mercial" no Learjets pre-warmed
on the ready strip.
Setting out the final phases of
the Abaco take-over campaign. Wer-
:
ABACO NATIONAL LAND TRUST
AGLAND ENTITLEMENT CERTIFICATE
SPECIMEN ONLY
WAT WECENT TO ** C***
UZON HOMERECTIVE UP
Abaco's head honcho: mil-
lionaire, ideologue and phi-
losopher Michael C. Oliver.
Ah, yes, the seven thousand native inhabitants; after the
revolution, every Abaconian will get a certificate like this
one, worth one acre of homestead land absolutely free.
335
ESQUIRE FEBRUARY 63
14-00000
Eel sounds as smoothly and play-
fully Machiavellian as the senior
account executive of a medium-
sized ad agency' plotting a tricky:
but not really make-or-break media
blitz The support of the locals is
essential: "To get it, we're gonna
change
their self-image." It's easy;
just listen. We're gonna use only
the truth: Abaconians think of
themselves well, as people of
modest means. In reality, they're
beggars hunkered on a mountain of
gold. And this is by no means an-
other hollow hype. No effective psy-
war concept is.
Stretching across the central and
southern reaches of Abaco there are
300,000 three hundred thousand-
acres of undeveloped prime land,
potentially, and by no means unre-
alistically, worth
lions of dollars of mil
virgin soil
Under British colonial rule these
were crown lands, reserved for the
sovereign, and now, under the new-
ly self-governing Bahamas Com-
monwealth, administered by the
Pindling government in Nassau,
they're still government land, strict-
ly no trespassing for private citi-
zens:
Just suppose, the scenario goes,
that on January 1, 1975, good old
torpid hung over "sorry-general-
the-switchboard-is-closed" New
Year's Day, Great Abaco and Little
Abaco and all the lesser cays, reefs
and coralback adjacent thereto, de-
clare themselves an independent re-
public. This vast virgin acreage
would be up for grabs. Every na-
tive-born Abaconian could line up
for his divvy.
"Will he get it?" asks Ted Rous-
Bos at the restaurant.
"Ohoho, you bet your boots," says
Wer Bell; "Here, see if I can find
this stuff.." He flips through his
attaché case, custom-made by Peal's
of London, pulls out some gold-
rimmed, elaborately printed bonds.
"Here, the Abaco National Land
Trust Beneficiary Share Certificate.
And here's the other gizmo, the
Land Entitlement Certificate. This
says every native Abaconian adult
gets his one-acre homesite free and
clear after independence. And on
the beneficiary share, he'll get some
of the major lease revenues. Here's
the tender, lays it all on the line.
You bet they'll get a share. Pre-
vided, the tender says right here.
Provided that the political sitna-
tion in Abaco is just and fair.'".
"Just and fair," says Roussos
softly. "Of course, just and fair. If
the National Land Whatnot gives
each native a one-acre homesite, it
will give them all, man, woman and
64
ESQUIRE FEBRUARY
વ
children all together, one perce of
their own land. Who will decide
what's just and fair?"
"Ah... probably I will."
There he is... the low voice, the
bony figure in the forty-nine-dollar
Robert Hall drip-dry suit, the jack-
et bulge between chest and armpit
contouring not the familiar shoul-
"der holster but a Hewlett-Packard
minicalculator: Mike Oliver likes
sitting at the far end of the table
with a notebook beside the butter
plate. He has lunched here prudent-
ly and salubriously on nothing but
cold fish and iced tea and with a
health-conscious frown for the va
por of two-dollar cigars, staring in-
tently at every speaker in turn, now
staring at Ted Roussos over the re-
mains of his cold jellied salmon
his cold
with the deep-eyed concentration of
a
providentially, at this critical june-
ture in mid-1974. Michael C. Oliver,
in association with Mitche!! Wor
Bell, offers the driven rich an alter-
native: not just some backcountry
hidey-hole, but citizenship and resi-
dence in an entirely new country; a
newborn commonwealth wholly ded-
icated to the protection of private
wealth and the survival-indeed,
the reriral of the classic free-
enterprise system.
Long before the Dow hit the five
hundreds, and coffee went up to
fifty cents a cup, long before old
people began eating dog food and
farmers dumping their calves into
ditches, Mike Oliver foresaw that
the free-enterprise economy was
doomed in America: It sounded
strange at first, coming from Mike
Oliver, this single-minded belief in
man whose daimon senses à chal-devaluation, decline and fall, for in
lenge. "You have a good point, a
small point but a good point. "Just'
and 'fair' are only words until
somebody decides what they are
supposed to mean. On Abaco, I will
decide. That's the big point, isn't
it?"
Right you are, Mike. Chesty
Mitch Wer Bell and Big Jack Mul-
doon and Smart Walt Mäckem and
Courtly Lord Belhaven in their be
spoke three-hundred-dollar suits.
and club ties and hand-rubbed
Peal's cases, and Bob Bayard in his
craggy silence, and all the other
N.C.P. staff (New-Country Project
is what that stands for) and special
personnel drawing contract pay on
or about Abaco are ultimately only
meant to enforce what Mike Oliver
considers just and fair and desir
able. Ted Roussos knows it, too; he
resigns from the project the day
after the luncheon meeting. But no
one else does. Why should they?
Mike Oliver is here, after all, not
just as the founder and constitu-
tional creator of a perfectly seri-
ous American new-country move-
ment, but in representation of a
powerful syndicate of financial
backers. It is, above all, Oliver who
is making independence an immi-
nent reality for the citizens of
Abaco, most of whom have never
heard his name.
But among the driven, troubled,
questing financiers of America,
Oliver is more than a name. To
many business leaders he's a mira-
cle worker, a minor prophet on the
crumbling walls of the city, a far-
sighted sentry registering the ap-
proach of the forces of darkness.
For a specter is haunting America
- new apparition of four space-
age horsemen: Inflation, Unemploy
ment, Depression and Chaos. And
3..3.3
the mid-Sixties the dollar was still
the fixed star of the economic firma-
ment, the U.S. economy was boom-
ing, and Oliver himself seemed the
very embodiment of the American
dream of success: a European im-
migrant to the U.S. at eighteen, he
had made his first million by thirty
(real-estate development, construc-
tion) and 1965 saw him living on a
charming wooded estate in Nevada
with a pretty wife named Betty and
three lively children. Approaching
fifty, Oliver was the president of
several medium-sized corporations,
a settled, induential community
leader and the employer of a ray-
ishingly beautiful secretary named
Vicky Jo Todd, who was crowned
Miss Nevada in 1970. Yet for al-
most ten years, where other busi-
nessmen and economists saw only
progress and prosperity, Oliver di-
vined a long-range trend toward de-
pression and disaster.
Worldwide travel and an intense
reading of economics helped con-
vince him by 1965 that, as he told
a visitor years later. "They're go-
ing to screw up the money." He
felt certain that debauchery of the
dollar would lead to political crisis,
inflation, and ultimately to some
sort of dictatorship.
"Once I saw that the dollar was
kaput, that whatever the govern-
ment did would only make matters
worse, dumped my stocks and
bonds and switched to a strong
position in gold coins. Everyone
laughed, except my friends; my
friends said I'd gone crazy. Well, as
you know, it turned out that I'd
made some pretty sharp bets in the
money market, and instead of call-
ing to suggest where I could get
some psychotherapy, my friends
called to Confinsed on page 1511
14-00000
THE NEW COUNTRY CAPER
(Contend from page 7 ask where
I was getting miy investment tips. And..
while I began making some real money
by 160-170, it wasn't because I had good
financial advice. Just the opposite was
true all, the investment advisers and
trust elicers and analysts and fores
casters and market consultants were
betting the other way, they couldn't
read the handwriting even when their
noses were against the wall, and so-
1 beat the market. Let me tell you, not
many people do. And the way it han.
pened, it wasn't any tips or charts or
portfolio managers; what really hap
pened was that by 1965 I'd beconic a
student-a¨ disciple, really-of Profes
sor Ludwig von Mises."
Professor von Mises, the longest-lived
(ninety-two), most prolific (nineteen
books and least self-effacing economist
of the Austrian School founded by
Bohm-Bawerk, died in 1973 in New
York City (where he'd been teaching
since 1940) just as, after a half een-,
tury of obscurity and neglect, his teach-
ings began to enjoy a renaissance here,
much the way Karl Marx came into
vogue in Eastern Europe at about the.
time the siege guns of the Red Army
became audible in the distance.-
Had more people listened to Von
Mises in time, there would be more gold
1 milionaires like Oliver today, and al-
though not many did, the professor's
tiny coterie of admirers often compared
him in epochal stature to Karl Marx-
a Marx of ultraconservative capitalistic
convictions, of course.
Von Mises was a polymath and his
teachings are complex, but some of the
principal doctrines are not difficult to
grasp. Von Mises believed that human
freedom and laissez-faire capitalism
were one and the same thing. He had
passionate, sacramental faith in the
market, not as a mere institution-the
sort of vulgar "computer" seen by Key-
nesians which the government can tink-
er with whenever it needs to-but as a
metaphysical process which regulates
'all human affairs. Much as one cannot
•hope to fix a fine watch with a bung
starter, Von Mises was convinced that
government could not intervene in eco.
nomic affairs, in the providential work-
ings of the market, without causing
damage. "Interventionism" was a self-
defeating, vicious circle: the first gov-
ernmental intrusion into business neces-
sitated a second to stem the ravages of
the first, then a third one to undo the
worst consequences of the second; then
a fourth intervention to alleviate the
trauma of the third... Von Mises des
sped interventionists." the whole
brainless, sniveling lefty lot of econo-
mist, bankers, policy planners, socialo-
gists, who advocated governmental par-
ticipation in anything with an economic
aspect he even, opposed free public
education above the grade-school level,
And Von Mises was evangelical in his
belief that unless mankind learned to
value, and defend laissez faire
capitalism as its paramount social sys-
tem, it
headed for chaus and
slavery
One beautiful
smoking experience.
If you've never
had one, have an
A&C Grenadier.
Long, slender, mild-tasting A&C Grenadiers
--in light or dark wrappers-are a unique
blend of fine imported and domestic tobaccos
that give you real flavor, satisfying taste.
It's one beautiful smoking experience.
Antonio Cleopatra.
33.3
ESQUIRE FERRUARY 151
14-00000
Chaos and tyranny-that is
Mike Oliver foresaw as early as
the inevitable result of Anierica's in-
terventionist" and "collectivist" fireal
debauchery. That he made millions of
Hollars in gold profits along the way did
not really reassure Oliver, it merely
confirme his premonitions. Of course,
the profits helped: to people who tend
to think in terms of .no.es-that is;
most of us-they seemed to prove that.
Oliver had something.
To tell the world what he had, Oliver
wrote a book in 1968: A New Consti-
tution for a New Country, Printed
privately, never noticed in a book re-
view, written in pedestrian declaratory
style, the book has thus far sold 19,400
copies through the mail-proving that
there does exist that contradictory
thing, a genuine underground best
seller.
The subtitle on the cover reads: "Has
the Time Come To Abandon the United
States!" Oliver's answer is a firm
"Yes." The book tells why, and how.
"The United States can no longer be
saved from severe crisis. ... Though
not yet under complete tyranny, preva
lence of totalitarian ideas and increased
use of suppressive measures prove that
the end of freedom is in sight: [in
America]: [Only] those who ar
range for a timely departure will es-
cape the coming horror."
The book is not a tract; it's a plan of
action. If Ludwig von Mises is indeed
the Karl Marx of monetary libertarian-
ism, and Harry Browne, the best-selling
author who invented Peter Panic, per-
haps its Bakunin, its prolific pan-de-
structionist, then Mike Oliver is its
Fidel Castro-the ultimate militant
who redoines the doctrine in terms of
total action. Browne's book, advocating
that self-sufficient people withdraw to
"retreat homes" for safety, has snow-
balled into an all-season hest seller; but
it's Mike Oliver. who is about to show.
them how to do it.
"The person with self-respect has a
right to preserve his life and freedom,"
Oliver's book reassures the reader. "But
he has no duty to stay in a country
whose government policies will destroy
him."
The country Oliver is describing isn't
Nazi Germany; history is a cruel joker
this time around, it's the United
States. "Means for effective action to
save freedom in the United States in
the foreseeable future no longer exist.
Thus, the freedom-loving person has
no choice: leave, or be destroyed.".
Fortunately, "a surprising number
of nearly uninhabited, yet quite suit-
able pluces for establishing a new coun-.
try still exist...The exact location
of the new country cannot be revealed.
at this time. Yet, one has but to look at
the western hemisphere to find that
places for establishing a new, fair-sized
country still exist."
And now, that "fair-sized country"
has been found. Its conquest is within
Mike Oliver's reach. How things have
changed in the few years since 1968! A
powerful consortium of frightened new.
country seekers, wealthy and influen-
tial men who would have laughed at
352 ESQUIRE: FEBRUARY
Mike Oliver's strictures & short while movement over the first British lobby-
ago, are supporting his campaign with
money and anything else that might be
required. Whatever you need, Mike;
just say the word. Mike. And the most
important acquisition of Oliver's well-
endowed New-Country Project has bee
the meeting and the alliance with Mitch'
WerBell and his semi-business, para-
military organization. New it's the
Oliver-Werell organization, at least se
far as Abaco is concerned. Special
personnel are interviewed, recruited,
briefed: Walter Mackem, the scholarly
young ex-C.L.A. officer leaves for the
Bahainas on his first assignment, Big
John Muldoon rents a suite in the La-
fayette Building in midtown Washing
ton, Ralph McMullen is dispatched to
Miami, along with a pale, quiet former
British intelligence officer known only
Seas Grant who is a communications spe-
cialist hired to run wireless traffic with
the WerBell-Oliver organization's.agent
network on Abaco . . coded wireless
traffic, five-digit groups and all that
jazz, the way a proper intelligence sta
tion does it. The skeptical Ted Roussos
is soon replaced with another U.S. ex-
intelligence officer who is not merely
enthusiastic, this lean young hard-
charger named Charles Boyle, he is,
best of all black; off he goes to work
among the silent, sun-wrinkled fisher-
men and lobster trappers of Abaco.
And yet who-but Mike Oliver is des
tined to comprehend it, to encompass it,
to direct it all? Who but Oliver under
stands that the campaign for Abaco is
not another banana-republic land grab,
that this is an ideological, yes, a moral
rovement? Who makes sure that the
ideas of free enterprise and unfettered
market capitalismi find some expression
in every leaflet, pamphlet or newsletter
that the Oliver-Wer Bell organization
produces for distribution on Abace?
AIM DEMANDS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES
WHICH WILL ELIMINATE THE POWER OF
GOVERNMENT TO ARBITRARILY LIMIT PER-
SONAL RIGHTS! AIM DEMANDS AN IMME-
DIATE END TO GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP
AND CONTROL OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISES.
AIM DEMANDS. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A
'LAND TRUST!"
-:
Do the silent, bare-legged men and
women of Abaco really demand all this?
Why ask? Mike Oliver has it all thought
out for them. Auteur of a remote-con-
trolled independence scenario, he means
to be a bon patron-not just the remote
manipulator, but in time the efficient
and productive manager of the affairs
of Abaco. One question remains to be
settled here at lunch.
"We are sure that our special person-
nel will seize and hold control on Abaco
when U.D.I. comes," Oliver says, turn.
ing directly to Lord Belhaven. "What
I'm still worried about is the attitude of
the British government. The Pindling
regime in Nassau will urge military in
tervention by the British when they re-
alize that their constabulary is no match
for our men. We want to be sure that
intervention does not take place. Do you
think you can do it?"
Lord Belhaven is an urbane, unflap.
pable veteran of over ten years in the
House of Lords. He is an enormous im-
3.33
1: Oliver attempted to retain to repres
sent the interests of the Abaco cam-
paign in Londons Scotsmain named ·
Colin Mitchell with a réputation for bes
ing mean-tempered and overbearing, á
late lieutenant colonel of the Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders who was
serving a term in Parlament as a Con-
servative.
Colin "Mad Mitch" Mitchell was a
shock. Brought ever to Werbell's At-
lanta estate on the usual all-expenses-
paid trip to meet some of Abaco's spon
sors, Mitchell turned out to be abrasive
and relentlessly acquisitive. To help
Abaco along, he wanted a large fee...
a very large fee. His visit was not a
success.
Lord Belhaven is different. Keeping
an eye on Oliver, calmly but as care-
fully as the American is watching him,
he decides not to explain the complexi-
ties of influencing Her Majesty's Gov-
erninent. "Oh, absolutely," he tells Oli
ver with an encouraging smile. "Not to
worry. I don't think London really cares
what happens in the Bahamas, you
know too many bloody miseries at
home. I've already tabled a question on
Abaco for next week in the House, and
we'll keep up the pressure, I'll promise
you that. By the time U.D.I. is due...
no, I don't think we should worry too
much about serious trouble from Lon
don."
"Well, U.D.I. is all set: New Year's
Day," says Oliver. His face is suddenly
different; the intense stare turns into a
warm, almost affectionate grin. "Until
then, good luck, everybody, and back to
work. There's lots to be done."
The
The men rise in silent agreement. The
Tischgespräch is over: within twen-
ty-four hours the Oliver-WerBell orga-
nization is back in high gear. The path
to U.D.I. is lined with a thousand tasks;
connections to be coupled, mingled pa-.
raineters separated, contingencies re
planned, "operational capabilities" to be
"actuated."
Robert Anthony Carmichael Hamil
ton, thirteenth Baren of Belhaven and
Stenton, jets back to London overnight,
pensively sipping Isle of Islay Scotch in
a front-cabin V.I.P. seat. A fortnight or
so is spent planning and tabling mo
tions, and on June 10, at half past two
of the clock, with the House of Lords
reassembled after the Whitaun recess,
the Lord Chancellor on the Woolsack,
the Bishop of Portsmouth having read
the proper prayers, Lord Belhaven rises
to address the peers of the realm in a
voice of singular gravity:
"My Lords, I beg leave to ask the
Question which stands in my name en
the Order Paper. The Question was as
follows: To ask Her Majesty's Govern-
ment what representations they intend
to make, to the Government of the Ba-
hamas urging them to cease their ha-1
rassment of the people of Abaco."
Lord Goronwy-Roberts, parliamenta-
ry undersecretary of state, stands to re
spond for the government: "My Lords,
the Abaco Islands are an integral part
of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas,
which became an independent sovereigu
.
14-00000
State on July 10, 1973. It would re
therefore, be appropriate for Her Ma..
esty's Government in the United Kings
dom to seek to intervene in the internal
affairs of the Bahamas."
Lord, Belhaven and Stenton: "My
Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that
reply and appreciate what he says..
And although the people of Abaco have
not, on the recent record, demonstrably
suffered harassment, and Lord Belha-
ven knows it, there is a subliminal sense
in which it's all quite true. To lure the
government into proclaiming and reit-
erating the principle of nonintervention
in the newly independent Bahamas is
one of the subtler goals of Lord Belha
ven's strategy.
Lord Goronwy-Roberts is densely.
gratifyingly energetic about it all: "My
Lords, this is the case of an indepen
dent country. My Lords, indepen
dence is independence." If that dictum
hardens into. dogma, if only by sheer
force of repetition, the Oliver-Wer Bell
organization will have a free hand on
Abaco: Washington, for its part, is not
likely even to consider intervention. In.
the meanwhile, Lord Belhaven has once
again, as on a number of previous oc-
casions, impressed upon the House of
Lords that the plucky, oppressed little
Abaco suffers.
In Powder Springs, Georgia, where
Col. Bayard is sweating five special per-
sonnel trainees from Abaco down at the
machine-gun range behind the fishpond
of Mitch WerBell's farm, it is nine
o'clock in the morning. Dusty, strained,
popeyed from the jabbing of rapid-fire
recoils, the colonel and his boys, whose
diurnal "duty tour" begins at six a.m.,
take a break. In boxy little electric carts
of the sort used by golfers, they roll si-
lently across the close-cropped lawn of
the WerBell estate, up to the manor
house where they draw “midmorning
rations" country ham sandwiches, pc-
can biscuits, cold milk in fourteen-ounce
glasses. Then it's down to the rifle
range for three hours of marksmanship
instruction with a remarkable training.
device devised by WerBell himself: a
standard 7.62 N.A.T.O. military rifle
converted to fire .22 long-rifle cartridges.
It's a low-cost, low-noise, practically re-
coil-free way to teach a nian how to hit
a Dr Pepper can at seventy-five yards
with a military firearm, and it works:
the men who make it through this drill
are thereafter known, in the special
WerBellian nomenclature, con:pounded
from the lingo of World War II, Korea,
Vietnam, and the intelligence establish-
ment's invisible war, as "sniper quali-
fet. They are, too.
Six hundred miles or so southward as
the courier plane fies, the Oliver-Wer-
Bell organization's Miami headquarters
is humming with activity. Vicky Jo
Told, the long-legged, melting-diamond-
eyed Miss Nevada of 1970-who, hav-
ing married one of Mike Oliver's young
vice-presidents, is now known nonpro-
fessionally as Mrs. Ralph McMullen-is
busy preparing a "packet pickup" for
the pilot who makes the biweekly liai
son-plane run to Abaro, Into the care
fully masking-taped cargo, cartons go
letters to agents on Abaco; spare parts
for a shortwave set on the blink: books
(Ayn Rand. For the New Intellectual);
packages of bumper stickers and wind-"
shield stickers for panel trucks apestro-
phizing the Pindling government's in-
competence and corruption, written by
Oliver's executive assistant Dave Scholl:
and bunches of other goodies best
shipped directly and informally since
they would only annoy the Bahamas
government if spotted passing through
the regular customs channels.
kired by participants to protect
personal rights against erternal
and internal torce and trand.'"
"What you mean to say..." says the
lawyer.
Well, for instance, you see what we
mean if you go to page thirty-eight."
Oliver overrides him. "Here Article
Twenty-seven says-this is Fiscal Mat-
government
ters-that No
agency.
branch or level skull-pass any law, reg-
wlation or other restinction with the ej-
fect of establishing a legal tender or
otherwise requiring the acceptance of
any form of money, Currency, coin or
other medium of exchange: except as
provided by roluntary contracts or by
mutual consent voluntarily arrived at
between persons or entities." And here,
down at paragraph four: 'The financ
ing of government activities shall be ac.
complished by roluntary payment of
premiums by persons wishing to partici.
pate in the services of government...
Do you follow what this nieans? First
off: the government of the independent
Republic of Abaco will have no power
to issue money. This is very important.
Two weeks have passed since that ta
ble d'hôte at Duke Zeibert's, and Mike
Oliver, having flown more than twenty
thousand miles, is back in Washington
at the Gramercy Inn (single room,
$29.50) talking on the phone to Mitch
WerBell, who is also back in Washing-
ton but at the grand luxe Madison Ho
tel (Monroe Suite, $95 daily). Oliver is
expecting an important visitor-impor-
tant because, however well devised and
executed the Abaco plan may be, it can.
not succeed without investors and colo-
nists new citizens for an all-new coun-
try. This afternoon there is to be a
"participant briefing for just such
prospect. He is Frank Bond of Baltimore important than... Frank knows
more, owner of Holiday Spas, a far-
flung physical culture chain. Bond, a
spectacularly successful young tycoon
known to hold strong libertarian views,
has expressed his interest in buying a
share of the Abaco project, and I am
able to sit in on the briefing while Oli-
ver explains his dreams for the future
of Abaco.
Frank Bond arrives late, after eleven
at night, accompanied by a short, grey-
ing lawyer and an air of coiled impa-
tience. Bond is young, unexpectedly
young for a self-made-millionaire, slim,
dark, dressed in a black suit which
looks rich but somehow too nouveau. He
has already had at least one long talk
with Oliver, but the attorney, as he
puts it, "knows from nothing" about
Abaco. It's just as well, for assembled
to greet the two potential participants
there are Col. Bayard, Mitch WerBell
and of course Oliver-a synergized trio
wound up to deliver a socko briefing.
The lawyer begins with the usual
question about Abaco as a potential tax
shelter, and Oliver fehls it with prac.
ticed ease.
are
"Keep in mind what we are building
on Abaco is not a tax-shelter nation,"
he says. "It's a tax-free nation. Have
you read any of our planning papers?
Have you seen my book? The constitu-
tion? No? Well, maybe Frank told you"
-the lawyer shakes his head dubious-
ly. "Anyhow, basically what we
structuring on Abaco is this... maybe
I better read it to you from the consti-
tution... Preamble: We, the people of
Abaco and so on... here'... that
the only true and proper function at
government is to protect its citizens
from force and tard, and that the
government is hated to that turction
the next page:
only. And here on
Government 3 limited to protection
against free and frund, and may not
impose ang aucial or reimoje structure
apon any persons or entities within its
jurisdiction … because, you see, we
say here further down that government
3.33
how important this is. Private financial
houses will issue all our money and
they guarantee it. There will be no
Federal Deposit Insurance on Abaco, no
government loan guarantees or banking
regulations. Nothing like the Federal
Reserve. No central bank, as you
can see no central bank, no involve.
ment with the International Monetary
Fund."
"The money will be backed in gold."
says the lawyer questioningly.
"The money will be in gold, at least
some of it." says Oliver. "Some of us
who were the first participants have
drawn up the charter for a bank, and
we will issue the 'rand,' the basic unit
containing 23 troy ounces of gold-a
handy medium-sized coin worth about
fifty dollars at present rates. Named
after Ayn Rand, you understand, not
after the South African rand. There'll
be quarters and perhaps quintals, the
quintal worth just about ten dollars.
Then of course we'll have to have paper
money, backed either in gold or other
stable assets. All fully gold-convertible
- you want your wages in gold, you
just pay the issuer a visit."
"And if an issuer defaults. . ." says
the lawyer softly.
"They won't default." says Oliver.
"The assets will have to be there, cover-
ing the value of the issue, and if there's
any funny business, it's long jail terms
for everybody and his accountant-that
would be first-degree fraud. Rut of
course self-regulation will probably
suggest that issuers carry bankruptcy
insurance for triple safety-privately
written insurance, mind you."
"And public services-I'm thinking of
the police, the judges, garbage collec
tion, you know what I mean-those will
be financed by whom?" asks the lawyer.
"They'll be financed by voluntary-
premiums," says Oliver. "Voluntary in
the sense that you no shopping volun-
tarilynously rattles handeufs at you
to make you bay groceries, but you buy
some just the same, week after week..
ESQUIRE. FEBRUARY
153
14-00000
and
Those who pay the yearly premiums
will be known as 'participants
they'll be entitled to the service ne
government provides; those who don't.
won't be. Whatever services private
business can provide competitively will
be left to private enterprise."
"Like the police the lawyer smiles.
"There's a cute deal-if you don't pay
your premiums, they can't arrest you
for overtime parking."
"Well, no. Not really." says Oliver.
"They can't arrest you for overtime
parking anyhoir, because this govern-
ment won' have the right to tell you
how long you should stop your car at
the curb why should it. But if you're
guilty of force or fraud, you'll be ar-
rested whether you are a paid-up par-
ticipant or not. What a nonparticipant
won't have will be the right to conduct
civil litigation, to set up a surrogate
trust, to collect damages on a tort, and
so forth."
- "What sort of a government will it
be, anyhow?" asks Bond. "I mean as an
organization. How will it be run?"
"Well, in some ways it'll run just like
the government here," says Oliver.
Just like the U.S. Government. The
constitution calls for a bicameral legis
lature. An assembly elected on a pro-
portional basis and a senate. And there,
you see, the similarity stops. Abaco will
have no foreign. service like the State
Department, only trade representatives
in countries where business demands it.
It will have no public school system.
Beyond the fourth grade, there'll be
only private schools, privately main-
tained."
"No school system," says the lawyer.
"Why not?"
"Because what is called the school
system in the United States is really an
indoctrination system," says Oliver.
"It's a system for bureaucrats to brain-
wash young people in favor of collec-
tivism and statism."
"And socialisin," says Bond approv-
ingly.
"Yes. In the high schools and col-
leges, in favor of outright socialism,"
says Oliver. "This is not to say Abaco
won't have an educational system of its
own kind, but every school will have to
be financed privately, by the families of
the students or private benefactors. It
will mean, here and there, some hard-
ship, some long-term borrowing, maybe
--and that will be made feasible at very
low interest, I expect - but collectively
it will niean the survival of freedom in
its one essential provenance-in the
minds of the next generation. Because,
you see." Oliver holds his bony finger
before his face to silence all interrup-
tions, "Abaco is not going to be another
banana republic. That's not the point; I
wouldn't spend an hour's time just to
make some money that way. The pant
is that the Republic of Abaco will be,
first of all, a moral experiment, a place
where we'll try to keep individual free
dom alive even if it doesn't survive in
America."
"But won't you need an army?" says
Bond doubtfully.
"Oh, sure, Abaco will have its armed
forces," says Oliver, "We will call them
154 ESQUIRE FLAHUARY
peace-keeping forces, because that
what they will be. Abaco will revers
make war on another land. All de
tary, of course. Here soldiers start o
all wrong. They are made to swear a
mortal oath and stand to attention for
the national anthem. Abaco was have
a national anthem, 'because the govern
ment of Abaco will have no supraper-
sonal, para-legal, special powers, it will
function only as the hired servant of
the participants who pay for in The
Abaco peace-keeping volunteers mint
be made to salute any metaphysical
emblems, or take theistic pledges the
government has no right to invoke:
they will sign a two-year or five-year or
any-year contract., as the conditions
may demand, just like any hired crafts
'men. I suspect it will be a dama, góð
little force."
"Well," says the lawyer, who has
been glancing at his watch with rose
frequency. "Well, Frank, if
think...
ון
"Yes," says Bond, rising too, we
gotta go. Call you in the morning, Nike,
and we'll talk."
"One more question," says the law.
ser. "You got the natives, five, ten thou-
sand natives."
"Seven thousand," says Mitch Wer-
Bell "maybe eight or nine at the most,
if some who are working in the hotels
in Nassau return after independence."
"Right, say eight thousand natives"
says the lawyer. "How can you be sure
they'll buy all this-vote for your con-
stitution and all that? After all, the
place belongs to the natives.".
"Well, we're training quite a few
natives with leadership potential,” says
WerBell. "Political indoctrination, and
so on. They'll organize a following.
maybe half the population, that'll go
along with us, vote the way they're sup
posed to. And Bob here, Colonel Bay-
ard, he's also training some natives
with good potential, except he's train-
ing his boys how to shoot at a moving
target without missing. And we figure
the natives who won't buy what we tell
'en-they'll listen to Bob Bayard's
boys."
"Fine, call you tomorrow, nice to've
metcha, bye.... ." And Frank Bond and
his counsel are gone. Mike Oliver is
depressed. "God almighty, I talk too
much. What do you think, Mitch"
For an instant, he is as drained as an
actor after the performance. "Shoot,
Mike, you were great..." Werfell is
gung-ho as ever, but Oliver is already
peeling off his shirt. "I'm going to bed.
G'night everybody."
But at breakfast it's a different story.
"Frank called before eight this morn-
ing he's really turned on," says Oliver.
"He's putting up ten thousand cash as
a sort of foothold on Abaco, he said.
and next week we'll talk serious monry.
He fores the project."
"As long as it looks like a pisst deal."
Wer Bell growls in a hung over viser,
"That's what his lawyer said." Make
says happily. "And I told them, no, as
long as you, care for freedom, because
that's the big point. And you knew
what Frank said? He said, "Mike, you
are absuintely right.""
tat
THE WINNING OF CHER
(Coidered free page 85) Records;
Cher was with Sonny. They were al-
really separated but Geffen didn't
know this: he promptly fell in love. In
September of 1913, the only date in his
life that he remembers with any ac..
curacy. Geffen, Rb Dylan and Robbie
Robertson of The Band went to see
Neil Young's show at Geffen's club,
the Roxy. A friend told him Cher was -
alone and wanted to join them. “Cher
said. Let's get together for dinner,'
and we were never apart since," says
Geffen with a small preen in his voice.
After the taping of the last Sonny and
Cher show, David and Cher surfaced
together at the Grammy Awards. That
produced the famous butterfly-emer
gent picture of Cher, bare midriffed, in
white with a butterfly over one ear
and another in her cleavage, and a
shaved-for-the-occasion Geffen, in nis
sharpie tux; on her arm. It was Cher
who talked him into the Corniche Rolls
with the wire wheels. Cher who threw
out all his shirts and dressed him. And
now because of Cher and their mutual
psychiatrist, Dr. Martin Grotjahn, he
can go into this boutique on the Strip
and have the two $345 suede jackets
fitted and ask if they have a third so
he will have one
every possible
color.
While Cher brought him to this
California ostentation and flat-out
American exuberance, Ahmet Ertegun
influenced Geffen in another way. Ahniet
was so composed in his power, so re-
laxed at handling the totally wrecked
rock stars who'd come crashing off
planes, fall into his arms, rip the shirt
of his dignified back and expect to he
taken home for dinner. Even now with
Ahmet, at a time when they still expect
to be cochair men of the Atlantic/Asylum
board, Geifen gets that Brooklyn-boy
look on his face as though he is going
to ask, "Is this an ashtray?" before.
dumping his cigarette. His whole New
York world of the high-up Pierre suite
and the chauffeured car that is wait-
ing, motor running, for Mr. Geffen
when he energes from Ahmet's town
house at two a.m. is blown, and he is
back to the time when he had gone to
Ahmet in 1968. It was the second or
third time they'd met, and Geffen, then
managing Laura Nyro and supporting
them both, was broke and trying to sell
Ahmet an artist. Ahmet asked what it
would take to keep Getlen going for a
year. Geffen said fifty thousand dollars,
naming the figure he had been making
when he ran the Ashiey Famous music
department, the figure that represented
wealth to him when he was a busboy
in the Catskills and being rich meant
having a Cadillac and living on Ocean
Parkway. "If you earned fifty thou-
sand dollars a year, that was the most
any man could possibly, ask for, and
that was my Real Ertegun took out
his checkbook, and wrote Geffen-s per-
sonal check. He never allowed Getlen
to pay it back. That was style. "He
bought me for life," Geilen says. "Eve
et artist 1 ever came up with after
that I gave to Ahmirt. I signed Crosby
333
14-000
25 January 1975
SUBJECT: Press Reports of Ex-CIA Employees Involvement with
Persons under Congressional Investigation
1. Press reports of Sentator Lowell P. Weicker's investigation of
CIA's involvement with other government agencies surfaced the contact
of Lucien Conein of DEA, a former employee, with an electronic manu-
facturer named Michael Morrisey. The same reports have also tied
Morrisey with a Mr. Mitchell L. WerBell, III, who, according to our
files, has claimed United States Government and CIA connections in
the past. According to DEA, WerBell recently invoked the Fifth Amend
ment when appearing before Senator Jackson's Subcommittee investigating
DEA on whether or not he supplied arms to Robert Vesco. Also, while
not mentioned in the press, at least one retired CIA staffer and possibly.
two others may have been involved with Conein and Morrisey. The ex-
staffer is John P. Muldoon, a friend of Conein's, who currently is a
private security specialist who has dealt with Morrisey in the purchase
of audio sweeping devices for his business. Muldoon was retained by
Wer Bell during first half of 1974. The other two, Walter J. Mackem,.
an acquaintance of Concin's, and a Theodore J. Roussos, both of whom
were in contact with Wer Bell for possible employment in a scheme to
promote the secession of the Bahamian Island of Abaco, an enterprise
publicized in February 1975 issue of Esquire by Andrew St. George.
2. We have no information in our files on the B. R. Fox Company
or the Fox Company principals mentioned in the press accounts.
We were,
however, told by DEA that Mr. Sandy Smith, Time magazine reporter,
was working on a story to the effect that the late Bernard Spindel, former
owner of the Fox Company, was previously involved in "wire tapping for
the Teamsters Union and providing explosive devices for organized crime.
Although Mr. Smith did not allege that either CIA or DEA were associated
with the Fox Company or Spindel, our DEA source said that Mr. Smith had
no intention of dropping the story and we can expect further press coverage.
3. In conclusion, there has been no CIA involvement with the
B. R. Fox Company or with Michael Morrisey. Moreover, Mr. WerBell's
claims of CIA affiliation or support over the years are simply not true.
"
3.32
:
14-00000
25 January 1975
SUBJECT: Mitchell Livingston WerBell III (201-259910)
1.
Mitchell Livingston WerBell, who appeared in recent press
reports has for over a period of ten years been claiming to be a
representative of the United States Government and of CIA. The facts
do not support this contention.
2. CIA first learned of WerBell in July of 1959 when he contacted
General Cabel indicating knowledge of Cuban and Dominican affairs.
Mr. Thomas J. Flores of LA Division was put in contact with Wer Bell
and considered using him as an FI asset. A POA was granted on
7 July 1959 for this purpose. By October 1959 it was apparent that he
did not have the access to information as hoped and he apparently looked
upon his association with CIA as a means of furthering his various
business schemes. All contact was then severed.
3. From that time until the present Mr. WerBell has cropped up
in a number of nefarious activities whereby he inferred he had CIA connections
or support. He was reported to have been involved in arms sales to
Nicaragua and Guatemala, in efforts to gain recognition by certain
South American countries of the Cuban Government in Exile, and in an
abortive scheme to invade the Republic of Haiti in 1966. He also turned
up in Thailand where he contacted the COS purporting to be a counter-
insurgency expert. In 1971 the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
queried the Agency re Mr. WerBell, asking if Wer Bell had a contractual
agreement or association with the Agency, as Werbell was awaiting a hearing
before a Department of Defense Examiner related to his participation in
the aboritve Haiti invasion. The Office of the General Counsel placed the
matter in perspective. Subsequently, he contacted the Agency to request
intercession on his behalf to have his security clearance reinstated which
DoD revoked because of his Haitian caper. He was told this could not be
In 1971 he again appeared in Thailand attempting to sell arms. In
1973 he was under investigation by U.S. Treasury Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms and by the United States Customs Service for activities
relating to possible mercenary activities in Abaco Island, Bahamas. In
this connection WerBell contacted three ex-CIA employees, John P. Muldoon,
Walter J. Macker and Theodore Roussos in a scheme to involve theip in
the activities of an organization called the Friends of Abaco (POA) which is
advocating the secession of the island from the Commonwealth of Bahamas.
done.
3.32

14-00000
SEON
2
All three inviduals reported their involvement with the WerBell group
and had sought guidance from the Agency. In May and June they were
advised to break all ties with Wer Bell. On 27. June 1974 the FBI was
formally apprised of WerBell's overtures for their collaboration in
the effort to bring: Abaco's secession. In September 1974 WerBell
reportedly went to Greece to sell arms to the Greek Government.
Most recently WerBell reportedly appeared before Senator Jackson's
Sub-Committee investigating DEA and had taken the Fifth Amendment
on the question of whether or not he had supplied arms to Robert Vesco.
3.32
SECRET
14-00000
STATE
DEPT. CABLE
NASSAU 179
DATED 30 JAN 175
Subject: LOCAL PEACTION TO ESQUIRE
MIPLAZINE ARTICLE ON ABACO.
14-00000
9:
FBI cable dated 24 JAN 75
Subject: Aladdin M. AL-TAYYAR
Internal Security - IRAQ
14-00000
DEA Was Offered
Explosive Devices
By Lawrence Meyer
Wash Stat: weter
An Alexandria "electronics" firm at-
tempted to sell an official of the Driz
Enforcement Administration assassina-
trom devices designed to carry explosites
in such unlikely pinces as a wiephone
handret, a cigarette pack or a 
slight
.
The official. Lucien Conein, had cone
to the firm last spring to inspect cics.
tronic surveillance equipment that DEA
wanted to purchase, according to an
agency spokesman, Robert H. Feldkamp.
Conrin and a second 'DEA official, Cyril
Frank, also observed a demonstration
of the explosive equipment but did not
buy any of it, according to Feldkamp.___
ex:
A catalozue of equipment apparently
sold by the company, B. R. Fox, describes
several devices designed to carry
plosives triggered by time, movement.
mechanical pressures, light, or audio
mechanisms.
The catalogue states. "The devices have
been designed and unctured for sale
to authorized agencies of the United
States government, specifically intended
for application outside of this country...
The information contained 
herein is
classified by the manufacture: for U.S.
government use only. The handbug and
storage of this material 
should be done
.
so mindful of its sensitive nature."
Feldkamp sd that Cope and Frank
observed a demonstration of "several"
devices although Feldkamp said he did
not know which devices they saw. Concin,
a former employer of the Central inteli
gence Agency, is acting chief of special
operations and field support for the 
DFA'S
office of intelligence. 
Feldkamp said that
Concin's office is the operational arm of
the intendon and devises 
ways
to penetrate Heralding operations.
Conein was not available for comment..
Feldkamp said that Frank said empat
cally that the demonstration was 
not 
re
quested."
Conein's reaction to the demonstration,
Feldkamp sand, was, "Very interesting.
However, that's not why. I'm 
here." Asked
why the demonstration was made by, the
salesman, whom Feldkamp stid 
he could
not identify, Feldkamp replied, "Like any
good salesman. the guy was trying 
to
make a sale. He was told EHA has 
not
.
will not, does not purchase that type of
equipment."
The DEA did buy a hundred bucks
worth of electronics surveillance equip
ment, a bich Feldkamp said is "frequently
used by the DEA) under court order."
Asked uns Cencin watched the demon-
stration, Feldkamp said, "You'd probably
do the same thing out of curiosity or what-
ever."
Com a time employee of the CIA.
let the
104 the
Hure of Nances and Dagenu Praa5,
DEAN edge car, 3 coa
June 1902 #ding to D AN
Ae Senate
cording to te pony di
Waterbate commitice penis, Murat
cupator Howard Hunt Jr. Attend
to
cred
Conein as part of an effort to dis
Daniel Eisberg publicly.
According to Sin Loveli P. Welder
Jr. Cen who released information
about the incident. Cone pecited
that the Fox firm may have thought that
Conein was still at the CIA.
Conein apparently did not report the..
demonstration of the equipment to any
one at the DFA. Weicker said he told
DEA Adminatiter Jorn it Roriels about
the matter on Monday and Harteis was
as shocked and achat most people
would be." Weicker commented. "Things
have come to a pretty sorry pass when
people start peddling this stuff to a
Snoreement acres and nobody thinks
it strange. Buzanz equipment can be
user legally. There's no way this equip
ment can be used legally."
Feldkamp said it wouldn't be within
the purview of DEA as a narcotics agency"
to review the legality of the explosive
equipment.
A cover meino dated June 10, 1974, writ
ten on BR Fox stationery by a person
Weicker identified as Mike Morrissey to
Witchell Werghi a Gera arma
ments dealer, states that equipment in an
catalogue of
accompanying
explosive
equipment "was demonstrated to Lou in
this office about the weeks a±0
I bring this to your attention in care you
have not yet seen the material. It is a
listing of equipment that is available and
planned for Lou up here."
Werbell who said he made anri sold i
to freien
weapons
silent automatic
countries with the approval of the federal
government, said he had never seen
Morrissey's memo because a former ea
ployce had intercepted it before Werbell
could see it.
WerBell said that he had talked yester.
day to both Morrissey and Conein. Conein,
Werbell said, teid him the equipment 
had
never actually been made. "Lou's 
not in
the assassination business and neither and
1" Werbell said.
LANDSLIDE IN CANADA-This is all th.
mains of a street in Asbestos, a mining
Cuba Seeking
Trade For
CLA
Agent
Uatted Pil
Cuba is willing to release an
Falleged CLA agent in enchante
for a woman wao has been in
an American i fer 20 years.
after taking past in a shoung
spree by Pacian nation
alists in Congress officials
I said yesterday.
Morrissey could not be reached for i So far, the officials said.
· comment.
Barbara Fox Spindel, whose home ad.
dress is listed as the address for RR. Fax
Laboratories, said in a telephone interview
last night that she had served as president,
of the company, founded by her late hus
band, but that she had disassociated 
her
.
self from it last March because she and
Morrissey could not net al n. She said
Morrissey withheld internation frein her
about the 1.7m's business.
Mrs. Sprudel and that B. R. Fex is no
Ineer finer that she knew nothing
Spout the explosive devices and at sha
had never seen the target genes Na
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are taken thats the wi
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how the adeuntonation with
respond to the jetter by Cucan.
Premier Fidel Castro,
Castro's orfer was Interi
preted as a get effort to
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ses of the island,
woman, 1ra a
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the
3.27
Washington Post
2-3
January
1975
14-00000
1A Agent Contacted on Alexandria Firm's Assassination Equipment
masson
itat! Writer
ug official
her Central
ency, opera.
1 of Water
3.27
gate conspirator E. Howard
Hunt Jr. has been mention-
ed in connection with an
attempt by an Alexandria
firm to sell assassination
equipment to the U.S.gov-
emment.
Sen. Lowe P. Weicker
Jr.. R-Conn., disclosed
today that Lucian Conein,
director of special projects
for the Drug Enforcement
Administration, viewed the
equipment manufactured
by the now-defunct Alexan-
dria electronics firm. But
Conein denies he ever even.
considered buying any of
the equipment.
Weicker released a cata-
logue of the devices which
included such things as ex-
ploding cigarette packages
and electronic booby traps
for telephone receivers. The
equipment was manufac-
tured by the B. R. Fox
Laboratories, which Weick-
er said went out of business.
three weeks ago.
THE SENATOR, a for-
mer member of the special
Senate Watergate commit-
tee; charged that the exist.
ence of the catalogue and
.
Coneir's involvement in the
incident raise serious new
questions about the opera-
tions of federal law enforce
ment and intelligence agen-
cies.
He also questioned a
statement by Conein that
the 
DEA planned to pur
chase only electronic eaves-
dropping devices from Fox.
Conein said. "Yeah, I saw
"I told the senator that,"
this (assassination) stuff.
So what? I've seen a lot of
that kind of thing in my
day."
Conein was a long-time
CIA operative before mov-
ing to the DEA with the
assistance of Egil Krogh,
former head of the White
House plumbers for whom
Hunt worked.
amassed during the House
Judiciary Committee's im-
peachment inquiry.
The conversation center-
ed on activities in Saigon
prior to the coup that ousted
former South Vietnamese
President Ngo Dinh Diem.
Conein was a high-ranking
CIA operative in Saigon at
the time of the 1963 coup.
HUNT LATER used some
of the information obtained
from Conein as background
for fabricating State De-
partment cables that impli-
cated the late President
John F. Kennedy in Diem's
assassination. Hunt was
working for the Nixon
White House at the time.
In July 1971, Conein had a
three-way telephone con-
Charles W. Colson, former
versation with Hunt and
White House alde who
pleaded guilty to obstruc-
tion of justice charges in
the trial of David Wilsberg.
A transcript of the conversa-/cording to Weicker.
tion is contained in 
evidence
The catalogue released
by Weicker included a
Werbell identified by
memorandum to Mitchel
manufacturer and apparent
Welcker as a Georgia arms
soldier of fortune. The
memo was written by Ml-
chael Morrissey, co-owner
of the Fox Laboratories, ac-
states that the catalogue
"was put together only
after we started working to-
gether with Lou Conein."
He later states that "somė
of this equipment was
demonstrated to Lou in this
(
Alexandria) office about
three weeks ago." The
memo was dated June 10,
1974.
The memo said the cata-
logue contained a "listing of
equipment that is available
and planned for Lou up here
(Washington).'
"
. WEICKER. SAID the
memorandum itself raised
doubts about Conein's state-
ment that he had not consid-
ered purchasing any of the
assassination devices. And
he said it stirred questions
about whether Conein still
was working, with the CIA
despite his retirement from
that agency in 1971.
"astro" equipment this
The catalogue lists its
way:
"The devices have been
designed and manufactured
In the memo, Morrissey: for sale to authorized agen-
SLOPPY REPORTER!
SHOULD BE DANIEL ELLSBERG
cies of the United States
government, specifically in-
tended for application out-
side of this country.
ther
"The items offered are ei-
everyday-type objects or
concealed into
packaged simply as 'black
with no labels or identifica-
box' pieces of equipment
nccessary
actuator
tion on the outside other than
the
switches and sensors. Upon
request, this equipment can
be delivered in a 'sterile'
condition for foreign use."
the brochure continues.
"ALL EQUIPMENT in
our 'astro' category is.
manufactured to the highest
ability, dependability, life-
standards in terms of reli-
time, and performance
under most weather varia-
tions," the catalogue states.
It then states: "The infor
mation contained herein is }
classified by the manufac
turer for U.S. government
use only."
14-00000
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1975
U.S. Aide Was Briefed on Assassination Techniques
SOME TO THE New Y
Barbara
By NICHOLAS M. HORROCK (Morrissey and an unidentified metal rectangular modules, One company with Mrs.
New York man on beliaif of the screw at each end secures top Spindel. The name Fox was
WASHINGTON. Jan. 22-A ces in Alexandria, Va., and New pack inside with explosive."
Fox Company, which had off on uni Top is removed 
to Mrs. Spindel's maiden name.
Stop 
official of the Federal Drus 
C
Mr. Morisey said. He said that
Mr Morissey said that he continued to sell electronic
Enforcement Administration that he had presented details had prepared three copies of surveillance equipment as
said today 
that he had been on the company's electronic the catalogue, and that two individual.
briefed on what have been surveillance equipment and copies were in the hands of Mrs. Spindel confirmed that
described as electronic as what the catalogue calls "astro Federal officials. He declined the company was no longer in
sassination techniques by a pri- equipment."
to identify the two officials or existence and said that she was
an
Ivate manufacturer of wiretap- Senator Weicker has obtained the Government agency they unaware Mr. Morrissey had
ping and bugging equipment
. a memo that he said 
was from were connected with..
circulated 3 catalogue for such.
The official, Lieut. Col. Lucien the files of the B. R. Fox 
Com. Mr. Morrissey also declined devices. Her husband, the late
Conein, acting director of the 
pany, written, to an official of a'
to identify the person who had Bernard Spindel, who formed
support section of D.E.A's in- that says:
ment..
they had seen evidence that al Memo Is Signed 'Mike'
domestic Federal agency would
leven look at assassination
equipment.
special operations and field Georgia arms manufacturer," introduced him to Colonel Co. the B. R. Fox Company, was
ternational intelligence divi- "Enclosed is a catalog which nein. The colonel said that he often quoted as a wiretap ex-
sion said that he received the was put together only after we could 
recall how he had learned, pert.
of the Fox concern but that its! 
Several law enforcement of-
briefing in May, 1974, from re-started working together withi
presentatives of the now de-Lou Conein. I wrote out this name might have come from ficials and electronic experts
funct B. R. Fox Company. line of 'astro equipment with an acquaintance in 
Washington, who were interviewed indicat-
Colonel Conein said he had you and Lou in mind, and be!, 
Mr. Morrissey, who said that'ed that the devices as described
not asked for the briefing and cause of the nature of the devi- he had a degree as an electron- in the 
catalogue appeared us-
had no interest in the equip-ces, it is not being given to any: ics engineer, said that he 
de-jable only for assassinations or
: one else... Some of this equip-signed the equipment in 
early for the booby-trapping of pre-
Several law enforcement offi-ment was demonstrated to Lou 1974 as an outgrowth of his 
mises.
cials and Senate invesügators in this office about 3 weeks work in the field of wiretaps: 
One 
veteran industrial secu-
jand room bugs.
said that this was the first time ago."
rity 
expert said that' he saw
Mr. Morrissey, who also de no domestic market for the de-
scribed himself as a lawyer, vices with private companies.
The memo was dated June said tha! ibmebeedtmmhevmf "Even on military installations
10, 1974, and was signed said that he believed the equip or high security Government
"Mike.".
ment he designed, which he agencies, these types of booby-
Served in Saigon ….: It is part of the evidence said was an electronic trigger- traps would be inappropriate.
According to the Pentagon that has caused Mr. Weickering device, was legal as long you'd never know who you
papers on United States into question whether the rela-as it was not armed with an might injure," this source said.
volvement in the Indochinationship between Colonel Co-explosive. He said that it-had Colonel Conein said that he
war, Colonel Conein was a se-nein
the assassination nonlethal applications to trig-became a consultant to the Bu-
nior operative of the Central In-equipment manufacturer was ager burglar alarms and other real of Narcotics and Dangerous
¡telligence Agency in Saigon in casual one..
"anti-intrusion" equipment. Drugs in 1972 and became a
1963 and served as liaison be When asked by a reporter He said that he would con-full-time official of D.E.A. in
tween the United States about the memorandum, Colo-sider selling such devices only December, 1973. His nace came
Government and forces that de- nel Conein said that he was to the Federal Government. Helup in Watergate committee
posed
President Ngo; Dinh shown it during an interview added, however, that he doesitestimony wher it was disclosed
¡Diem'
'sell electronic surveillance that one of the Watergate bur
"I told him I had no idea equipment to local police.
.Senator Lowell P. Weicker
glars, E. Howard Hunt Jr., had
Jr., Republican of Connecticut, the context in which it was Mr. Morrissey said that the met with Colonel Conein. Mr.
who has een conducting an in-written, and hat I had not Fox Company was dissolved in tunt at the time was gathering
vestigation of C.I.A. involve known Mr. Morrissey [before November. 1974, as a result information to prepare bogus
iment with other overnment the sales demonstration]. I said of maangement differences. He cables that implicated President
agencies, said that he has a if I was him [Senator Weicker), said that he had shared man-Kennedy in President iDem's
copy of
the catalogue of 1 would turn the memorandum agement and control of the assassination in 1963.
instruments described to Colo-over to the F.B.I. and let them
nel Conein.
When questioned by a repor-
ter, Mr. Weicker described the
devices as "used for assassina-
tion, pure and simple."
"There is no place in this
country for this sort of thing,"
he added.
and
with Senator Weicker.
investigate. I told him I would
be glad to take a polygraph on
the matter."
Colonel Conein said that he
had listened to a detailed pres-
entation on the booby-trap, as-
sassination devices, but he did!
not "discourage" the manufac-
turer because he presumed that
Mr. Weicker said that he had
as a licensed electronics com-
brought the catalogue to the at-.
tention of John Bartels, admi
-
pany it. had the authority to:
nistrator of the Drug 
Enforce- produce the explosive devices.
Colonel Conein told Senator
ment Administration, and that weicker, as he had a reporter.
he had interviewed Colonel that despite the presentation
Conein and the colonel's depu- of the assassination gear, he
ty, Searl Frank. He said that had selected B. R. Fox out of
the officials had assured him several companies to provide
that the agency had not pur-bugging equipment. To make
chased any of the devices.
this purchase, Colonel Conein
Senator Asks Question ignored the presentations of
The Senator said that he had several better-known concerns:
Mr. Bartels. the agency ad-
been told that the agency's men
thad done nothing to encourage ministrator, said that he was
the manufacturer to think that conducting 
an internal inquiry
The might make a sale to their into the transaction
.
Mr. Morrissey identified a
agency.
copy of the catalogue obtained
"My question was, why in the by The New York Times as 3.
hell didn't they do something to photostat of one that he typed!
discourage him." Mr. Weicker in the spring of 1974. The in-
formal catalogue said that the
One of two men who briefed material
stid.
3.27
14-00000
The follows,
* equipment anding are excerpes caleach nem
geing over the devices de avaliable
scribed by Senator Weicker in Telephone handset insert
detail.
Miniature activator with time)
Colonel Conein. asked about delay use inside telephone
the briefing, said that he had handset.
not solicited the briefing on as fired at-SEC following lifting
Automatic charge's
sassination aspects of Fox's, of instrument handpiece.
equipment, and "I wouldn't' GCigarette pack
touch that stuff with a 10-foot turbance explosive. Flectronics-
pole."
and explosive module packed"
antidis-
He continued: "That stuff is inside cigarette packs When their
only good in a war, and who's pack is lifted or 
moved in any
got a war? It was very sophisti-off."
manner, the explosive is set,
"
"Remote-controlled, light-i
"
cated stuff. They had a tele Modified flashlight
phone that could be triggered antidisturbance unit. Standard
by remote control. If the 
wrong Everyready 2D cell fashlight
person picked up the 
phone. has antidisturbance electronics!
you'd blow him up."
Colonel Conein said that he have been removed. Remainder
concealed inside 
where batteries
Lad found the material "fascin- of the battery space is packed
ating
" 
but 
that he had said with explosive."
nothing to encourage the idea
that the agency would purchase activated sensor, Unit.delivers
such equipment. He said that he a predetermined charge across;
had purchased
worth of audio equipment from tivated from a remote location
about $500 its output terminals, 
when ac
the B. R. 
Fox Company, which according to its pre-set code.)
he said could be used 
for bug-Use with explosive for firing
ging.
The equipment he bought, he conditions relating to light in-
upon the occurrence of certain
said, cannot be used in the tensity."
United States without a court)
order but is for use in D.E.A.'s plosive clip. Use: A mechanical-
"Booby-trapped, M
-16 
ex-1
foreign 
operations. He said.ly activated electronic charge
however, 
that the gear had not circuit is built into a common
been used, and 
still have it in military item. Upon removal of
The briefing for Colonel zine, either by firing or by
the single round in the maga-
Conein was conducted by Mr. hand removal, the explosive
concealed in the magazine is
detonated"
my safe."
9"Fragmentation ball-anti-
disturbance unit. Unit is similar
in its operation as the anti-dis-
turbance flashlight, BRF model
FD-2. The exception is in the
type of explosive charge...
"Explosive black box mod-
Flat black finish on
ules.
jo que du #amm
Ss2 uosu 3 Day you
NY SI OHM
and 178
ПVK-NAVIH MEN
זזו וזוב IPAY
Buu!ad qyX!S
ano nios shujjund ɓiq ən!]
14-00000
THE NEW YORK TIMES
THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1975
U.S. Aide Was Briefed on Assassination Techniques
By NICHOLAS M. HORROCK
Senator Asks Question "Enclosed is a catalog which "Telephone handset insert.
The 
Senator said that he had was put together only after we'.
been told that the agency's men started working together within
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22-Ahad done nothing to encourage Lou. Conein. I wrote out this
So to The New York Time
Miniature, activator with time
delay use inside telephone
top official of the Federal Drug the manufacturer to think that line of astro" equipment with fired at-SEC following lifting
handset.. Automatic charge
!
.Enforcement. Administration he might make a sale to their 
you and Lou in mind, and be of instrument handpiece.
said today that he had been agency.
cause of the nature of the 
devi "Cigarette pack antidis-
briefed on what have been "My question was, why in the ces, it is not being given to any turbance explosive. Electronics
described as electronic as hell didn't they do something to one else. Some of this equip and explosive module packed
sassination techniques by a pri-discourage him," Mr. Weickeriment was demonstrated to 
Lould
vate manufacturer of wiretap-said.
in this office about 3 
weeks! 
inside cigarette pack. When the
pack is lifted or moved in any
ping and bugging equipment.
One of two men who briefed ago."
manner, the explosive is set
The official, Lieut. Col. Luciea Col. Concin, Michael Morrissey. Memo is Signed 'Mike'
off."
Conein, acting director of the told a reporter that he had met] The memo was dated June "Modified flashlight".
special operations and field with him for three hours. show-10, "1974, and was signed antidisturbance unii. Standard
support section of 
D.E.A's in- ing him audio equipment and "Mike".
Everyready 2D cell flashlight
ternational intelligence divi-going over the devices de- it is part of the evidence has antidisturbance electronics
sion, said that he received the scribed by Senator Weicker in that has caused Mr. Weicker concealed inside where batteries
briefing in May, 1974, from re-detail.
to question whether the rela- have been removed. Remainder
presentatives of the now, de-
Colonel Conein, asked about tionship between Colonel CG
and the assassination
Colonel Conein said he had the briefing. said that he had nein
"Remote controlled, light-,
not asked for the briefing and not solicited the briefing on as equipment manufacturer was a
had no interest in the equip equipment, and "I wouldn't
activated sensor, Unit delivers
sassination 
aspects of Fox's; casual one.
When asked by a reporter a predetermined charge across
Several law enforcement offi-touch that stuff with a 10-foot about the memorandum. Colo- its output terminals, when ac-
nel Conein said that he was tivated 
from a remote location.
cials and Sciate investigators
He continued: "That stuff is shown it during, an interview; according to its pre-set code.
Use with explosive for firing]
only good in a war, and who's with Senator Weicker.
got a war? It was very sophisti- the context in which it was conditions relating to light in-
"I told him I had no idea upon the occurrence of certain¦
cated stuff. They had a tele written, 
and hat I had not tensity."
phone that 
could be triggered known Mr. Morrissey (before:
funct B. R. Fox Company
ment
said that this was the first time)
they had seen evidence that a
domestic Federal agency would
even look at. assassination
equipment.
pole."
of the battery space is packed
with explosive.".
Served in Saigon
by remote control. If the wrong the sales demonstration]. I said plosive clip. Use: A mechanical-
Booby-trapped, M-16 ex-
person picked up the phone. if I was him [Senator 
Weicker]. y activated electronic charge
According to the Pentagon 
you'd blow him up."
papers on United States' in-
I would turn the memorandum circuit is built into a common
Colonel Conein said that he over to the F.B.I. and let them, military item. Upon removal of
volvement in the Indochina had 
found the material "fascin-
investigate. I told him I would the single round in the maga
war, Colonel Conein was a se-
nior operative of the Central In-
ating" but that he had said be 
glad to 
take 
a polygraph on izine, either by firing or by:
nothing to encourage the idea the matter."
telligence Agency in Saigon in that the agency would parchase
hand removal, the explosive;
1963 and served 
as liaison besuch equipment. He said that he had listened to a detailed pres-detonated."
Colonel Conein said that he concealed 
in the magazine is
tween the United States; had purchased about $500
entation on the booby-trap, as- q"Fragmentation ball-anti-
posed President Ngo Dinh worth of audio equipment from sassination devices, but he didi disturbance unit. Unit is similari
the B. R. Fox 
Company, which, not "discourage" the manufac-in its operation as the anti-dis-
he 
said 
could 
be 
used for bug turer because he presumed that turbance flashlight, BRF model
Government and forces that de-
as a licensed electronics com-FD-2. The exception is in the
pany it had the authority to type of explosive charge..."
produce the explosive devices. 
Explosive black box mod-
Colonel Conein told Senatorules.. Flat black finish on!
Diem
Senator Lowell P. Weicker
ging
(Jr., Republican of Connecticut.)
The equipment he bought, he
who has een conducting an in
vestigation of C.1.A. Involve said. cannot be used in the
ment with other overnment United States 
without a court
.
agencies, said that he has a order but is for use in D.E.A.'s Weicker, as he had a reporter.
of foreign operations. He said, that despite the presentation
copy of the catalogue
nstruments described to Colo- however, that the gear had not of the assassination gear, he
been used, and."I 
still have it in had selected B R. Fox out of
my safe."
several companies to provide
The briefing for Colonel bugging equipment. To make!
Conein was conducted by Mr. this purchase. Colonel Coneial
ignored the presentations of
several better-known concerns.
nel Concin
When questioned by a repor-/
ter, Mr. Weicker described the
devices as "used for assassina-!
tion, pure and simple."
There is no place in this
country for this sort of thing."
he added.
and
Morrissey and an unidentified
New York man on behalf of the
Fox Company, which had offi-
ces in Alexandria, Va., and,New
Mr. Weicker said that he had York City. Mr. Morrissey said
brought the catalogue to the at- that he had presented details
tention of John Bartels, admi- on the company's electronic
equipment
nistrator of the Drug Enforce- surveillance
iment Administration, and that what the catalogue calls "astro
he had interviewed Colonel equipment."
Conein and the colorel's depu- Senator Welcker has obtained
ty, Searl Frank. He said that a memo that he said was from
the officials had assured him the files of the B. R. Fox Com
that the agency had not pur-
chased any of the devices.
pany, written to an official of a
Georgia arms manufacturer,
that says:
Mr. Bartels, the agency ad!
ministrator, said that he was
conducting an internal inquiry!
into the transaction.
Mr. Morrissey identified
copy of the catalogue obtained
by The New York Times as a
photostat of one that he typed:
in the spring of 1974. The in
formal catalogue said that the
material could not be delivered
for two weeks after order and
was for sale only to the United
States Government. The follow-
ing are excerpts on each item
available:
3.26
i
14-00000
FBI cable dated 16 JAN 75
Subject: Aladdin N. AL-TAYYAR
INTERNAL SECURITY-IRAQ
14-00000
FI document dated 31
DEC 1966
Bureau File
2-156, Re: Rolando Arcadio
Masferrer Rojas, Internal
Security - Haiti - Cuba;
Neutrality matters
(From Miami)

14-00000
SANDER WILL CHECK CLASSIFICATION TOP AND BOTTOM
UNCLASSIFIED
CONFIDENTIAL
OFFICIAL ROUTING SLIP
SECRET
TO
NAME AND ADDRESS
1
C/LA/CAR.
2
DC/LA/CAR
3
'S
DATE
INITIALS
17
SP
17 OCT
☑
C/LA/CA (info) 17 ACT
DC/LA (info),
C/LA/CAR CARIGNOV
ACTION
DIRECT REPLY
APPROVAL
COMMENT
DISPATCH
FILE
CONCURRENCE
INFORMATION
Remarks:
PREPARE REPLY
RECOMMENDATION
RETURN
SIGNATURE
Mike Absher is an old friend of
Ted Roussos and originally introduced
Roussos to Jim McTighe and Al Ramos
in June. Absher is considering
picking up ROUSSOS on contract
for the EUR/Greek Desk.
Ruth
File: Wirbelts 20i
.
FOLD HERE TO RETURN TO SENDER
FROM: NAME. ADDRESS AND PHONE NO.
DATE
3.22.
UNCLASSIFIED
CONFIDENTIAL
SECRET
1-47
237 Use previous editions
(40)
14-00000
SECRET
30 September 1974
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT:
Meeting with Theodore Roussos on 31. August 1974
1. During subject meeting Mr. Roussos told me that
Mr. Mitchell Livingston WERBELL III called 
him from 
Atlanta
Werbell told Roussos
on 29 August and again on 30 August.
that he was leaving for Athens on Saturday, 31 August in
Werbell.
order to try to sell arms to the Greek government
.
wanted Roussos to be his advisor 
in this venture 
and to
go to Athens. Werbell indicated that the total 
deal 
could
reach $5,000,000. Roussos told Werbell 
that he would
check with his "friends" (the Agency) before 
giving
Werbell an answer. Werbell asked 
Roussos to see if 
his
"friends" were in favor of such arms deals 
or not. 
Roussos
had generally explained this call to me on the 
telephone
on 29 August. My reaction on the 
telephone was negative
-to Roussos' participation in such a deal, and 
he had
conveyed this negative reply to Werbell by 
telephone
before Roussos and I met personally on 
31 August.
2. During our personal meeting, Roussos explained
that Werbell intended to pursue arms sales 
legally 
and
He said 
that
via the required U.S. Government channels.
Werbell does have the capabilities to design and produce
I told
weapons because of his access to arms 
factories.
Roussos that Werbell's business activities 
were 
his own
concern. I strongly advised against his getting involved
in this deal. I explained to him the problems 
which the
U.S. Government was having in Greece 
and the current wave
of anti-Americanism and press attacks against the 
CIA.
If Roussos as a former CIA officer 
well known in Greece
became involved in such a venture, a 
flap of substantial
proportions was likely complete with widespread 
press
play. Roussos understood and agreed 
not to get 
involved.
E2 IMPDET
CL BY 035682
SECRET
14-00000
SECRET
He said Werbell would probably call him from Athens that
weekend and he would give Werbell a final negative reply.
Werbell planned to meet with Greek Defense Minister
Averoff. Roussos said that if the U.S. wanted to stop
this deal that we should contact Averoff directly....
From what Werbell said, Roussos believes the arms
requested by the Greeks would be for guerrillas and
not main force units.
Distribution:
1
- Werbell 201
Roussos Personnel File
Michael Absher
AC/E/GC
SECRE
322
14-00000
SECRET
M
9 AUG 1974
MEMORANDUM FOR:
VIA:
Director of Central Intelligence
Deputy Director for Operations
SUBJECT:
Mitchell Livingston Werbell III
1. Mitchell Livingston Werbell III, who served briefly
with the OSS in WWII, has been engaged for the past several
years in arms dealings and swash-buckling promotional
activities which have brought him to the attention of various
government agencies. He has always remained within the
law by a fine edge. His latest scheme involves a Movement
for the Independence of Abaco, an island to the East of the
Bahamas. For this he has obtained apparently substantial
financial support from wealthy Americans and from a British
Lord.
2. Werbell operates through a number of front businesses
in Washington, D.C. and in Marietta, Georgia, where he owns
one outfit named Central Information Agency (CIA). In all
his dealings, Werbell broadly hints that he has current
connections with the Agency. We have just learned that
Werbell may be in possession of a one-line note from you,
stemming from a chance meeting with you at an OSS alumni
dinner, reading something like "good to see you again."
3. Three retired Agency employees are currently employed
by Werbell in various capacities. This past spring these
employees sought contact with the Agency basically to report
We
their concern over the legality of Werbell's activities.
quickly established that the matter was outside our charter
and asked these retirees to report directly to the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. We also furnished the Bureau with
all the pertinent information in our files. It is to be
noted that somewhere in Werbell's scheme of things there
appears the ubiquitous Andrew St. George, who plans to write
a story on Abaco for True magazine.
// David A. Phillipa
David A. Phillips
Chief
file:
201-259910
Western Hemisphere Division.
CC:
DDCI
SECRET
E2 IMPDET
CL BY 010116
14-00000
SECRET
Subject: Mitchell Livingston Werbell III
•
DDO/C/WH/7/A.Spera:cab/1497 (9 Aug 74)
Distribution:
Orig & 1 Addressee
1
2
}
1
1.
2
1
1
-
-
-->
-
-
->
-
----
DDCI
Exec. Registry
DDO
ADDO
CI/OPS
OPS/LSN
C/OS/SSD/SB
C/WHD
WH/Security
C/WH/7
WH/7/CAR Chrono
201-259910
189-9-1
WH/7 (Friends of Abaco)
SECRET
3.21
14-00000
FBI document from Atlanta, Ga
dated 9 Aug
(no file)
Aug. 1974
Subject: Mitchell- Livingston Werbell,
ㅍ
1
!
PAINATUKEJUR
14-00000
SECRET
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT:
14 August 1974
Telephone Call from John MULDOON
1.
Approximately 1655 hours, 13 August 1974, a call
was received on C/WH/7's extension, 351-4221 by the Secre-
tary, Miss Annamarie Ruppert. She answered the extension
by number and the male voice asked to speak to Mr. McTighe.
The secretary asked who was calling and the caller replied
"John MULDOON." The secretary then replied that she was
sorry but Mr. McTighe couldn't be reached. In response to
MUL DOON'S query, "Why not?" and before the secretary could
reply, MULDOON became obstinate and asked who he was speak-
ing to. Miss Ruppert replied "his secretary" and then
added that Mr. McTighe was away. When MULDOON asked where
he was, the secretary replied that she was not at liberty
to discuss that. Then MULDOON asked to speak to McTighe's
deputy and was told that there was no one around whom
MULDOON .could speak to. (C/WH/7 was on leave and AC/WH/7
was in the PMC meeting.) MUL DOON apparently didn't believe
this reply but then asked when McTighe was expected to
return. The secretary replied "within a few weeks"
. ( McTighe is on TDY) and then asked if she could take a
message to give to McTighe upon his return. MULDOON
became belligerent at this point, apparently thinking he
was getting the 'run around' and replied, "just tell him
to talk to Jack Anderson" and hung up.
2. AC/WHD was briefed on the above telephone call at
1740 hours, 13 August. He decided no action should be taken
on 13. August, but would like to meet with C/WH/7, A1 Spera,
on 14 August.
3.
At 0950 hours, the following met with AC/WHD:
Mr. Natzke, Mr. Wedemeyer, Mr. Spera and Miss Lehman. In
view of C/WHD's previous decision that no further Agency
contact should be made with MULDOON, RUSSOS, or MACKEM it
was decided that no one would return MULDOON's call. How-
ever, AC/WHD would brief ADDO, Mr. Blee, on the above threat,
and WH/7 would ask OPS/LIAISON to telephonically pass to the
FBI the fact that MULDOON again contacted the Agency and
threatened to go to "Jack Anderson. A copy of this memoran-
dum is being sent to OPS/LIAISON for this purpose.
3.19
SECRET
E2 IMPOET
CL BY 010116
14-0000
SECRET
Subject: Telephone Call from John MULDOON
4.
At AC/WHD's request, WH/Security rechecked the
files on the three former Agency employees to determine whether
they were Staff Employees. All three were former 
Staff
Employees. MULDOON retired on medical disability; RUSSOS
retired and then was rehired on a contract basis 
in 
February
1971 and contract terminated in September 1973; and MACKEM
This 
information
was "separated as excess" in October 1973.
was passed to AC/WHD to brief ADDO.
Auth Lehman
Ruth Lehman
Acting Chief, WH/7
DDO/WH/7/R.Lehman: cab/1956
Distribution:
Orig WH/7 (FOA File)
1
-
-
-
WH/Security
WH/7/CAR
189-9-1
OPS/LIAISON
3.19
SECRET
14-00000
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON. D.C. 20505-
WARNING NOTICE
SENSITIVE INTELLIGENCE SOURCES AND METHODS INVOLVED
MEMORANDUM FOR:
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Intelligence Division
ATTENTION
SUBJECT
:
: Mitchell Livingston WERBELL, HI
021074-4099
Reference is made to TOFIRDB-315/07634-74,
dated 10 August 1974, which reported on the growing
concern of the Bahamian Government about renewed
secessionist activity in Abaco. In addition to the
information in reference, the official Bahamian
service, which was the source of the above report,
also provided a representative of this Agency on 7
August 1974 the following text of a memorandum it
prepared for the Secretary of the Bahamian Cabinet:
"Please be advised that on 3 August
1974, information has been received from
our overseas contacts that Chester
ZOCHOWSKI, alias Chester GARY, has recently
been in touch with Mitchell L. WERBELL, and
has reported that WERBELL is still planning
unspecified revolutionary activity in Abaco.
It is also reported that he has the support
of some former U.S. Government employees.
and that he is trying to recruit a former
Special Services officer to promote revolu-
tionary activity in Abaco (the name of
Robert ARMSTRONG has been put forward as a
possibility). There is also a suggestion
that Robert VESCO might be financing some
of the activity."
2. The "overseas. contact" described above was
identified by the Bahamian Service as the British
MI-5 representative in Washington, D.C. The Bahamian
Service did not identify the "U.S. Government employees"
referred to above.
3.18
CLASSIFIED BY 010116. EXEMPT FROM GENERAL DECLASSIFICATION
SCHEDULE OF E.O. 11652 EXEMPTION CATEGORY 5B (2).
TO DETERMINE DATE OF AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION.
IMPOSSIBLE
14-00000
3. The files of this Agency reflect that Robert
ARMSTRONG and Chester ZOCHOWSKI are known to your
Bureau and their involvement in this matter has been
reported in previous correspondence, to this Agency.
Although the Bahamian Service reported ZOCHOWSKI'S
alias as "Chester GARY," it is believed that this
refers to "Chester GRAY."
4.
The above information is being furnished to
your Bureau for whatever action and further dissemi-
nation you deem appropriate. The information, however,
may not be discussed with any foreign nationals,
including the British and the Bahamians.
FOR THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS:
CIRA-0444-74
David H. Blee
2
3.18

14-00000
DDO/WH/7/CAR/A. Ramos & E.Rhoad:cab/7493/1956 (12 August 1974)
Distribution:
Orig. & 1
-
FBI
2
- OPS/LSNĘ
1
-
CIOPS/WH
1
BASED ON:
·
1
1
1
1
- 201-259910
- C/OS/SSDVOSB
-
C/WHD
WH/Security
WH/7/CAR Chrono
- 189-9-1
-
-
E/BC
ADDO
- DDO.
-
-
DDO/Registry
WH/7/FOA File
WH/Miami 22274 (In 330060) dated 9 August 1974
OBJ-KIB
3.18
14-00000,
نتر
FBI document from San Diego
dated 7 August,
August
, 1974
(no FBI file)
Subject: Mitchell Livingston verbell,
14-00000
SECRET/SENSITIVE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
મન
74-4068
MEMORANDUM FOR:
SUBJECT
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Attention: Intelligence Division
Mitchell Livingston WERBELL, III
AUG 1974
1. Reference is made to your memorandum dated
6 August 1974; Subject: "Mitchell Livingston WERBELL,
HI, Internal Security Abaco; Neutrality 
Matters.-
Abaco;" your reference (CI-3) 62-108665.´
Authorization is granted for your Bureau to
disseminate the attachment to Reference (your Bureau's
memorandum dated 22 July 1974 at Atlanta
, Georgia,
concerning Subject) to the Department 
of State, 
the
Bureau of Customs, the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco 
and
Firearms and the Criminal Division of the 
Department
of Justice. We would, however, appreciate 
your
limiting the description of source AT T-1 as being
simply another government agency.
3. This Agency is most appreciative of your Bureau's
handling of this sensitive matter and 
particularly the
opportunity afforded this Agency to 
coordinate prior 
to
further dissemination of this material
.
4. We will be most interested in receiving any
additional information concerning this matter which may
come to your Bureau's attention.
FOR THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS:
CIRA-0439-74
David H. Blee
3.17
CLASSIFIED BY 010116. EXEMPT FROM GENERAL DECLASSIFICATION
SCHEDULE OF E.O. 11652 EXEMPTION CATEGORY 
5B (2). IMPOSSIBLE
TO DETERMINE DATE OF AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION
.
SECRET/SENSITIVE
14-00000
bud
MENJOLIOTTIVE
DDO/WH/7/CAR/Ruth Lehman:ar:7493/1956 (9 August 1974)
Distribution:
Orig. & 1 FBI
.2
I
1
1
-
-
OPS/LSN
CIOPS/WH
201-259910
C/OS/SSD/OSB
C/WHD
- WH/Security
WH/7/CAR Chrono
1189-9-1
1 C/DCD
BASED ON:
1 ADDO
1 - DDO
1
DDO/Registry
FOA File
FBI Memorandum dated 6 August 1974
Subject: "Mitchell Livingston WERBELL, III,
Internal 
Security - Abaco; Neutrality Matters
Abaco;" 
your reference (CI-3) 62-108665
SECRET/SENSITIVE 3.17
14-00000
FBI document clated 6 Ruz, 1974.
from Washington
Dic.
Bureau File- (CI-3) 62-108665
Subject: Mitchell Livingston Werbell, III
Internal Security - Abaco
Neutrality Matters - Abaco
ANDA CONTRACTAMEN
14-00000
MEMORANDUM FOR:
SUBJECT:
REFERENCE:
CONFIDENTIAL
DX-10043
30 July 1974
Chief, Western Hemisphere Division
CHitchell Livingston Werbell and His
Employment of Former CIA Employees
CTRA-0371-74; Subject:
WERBELL, III.
Mitchell Livingston
1. On 29 July 1974, William McDonnell, FBI liaison
officer
, delivered the 
attached FBI memorandum to OPS/LSF.
In delivering this 
memorandum, McDonnell stated that whereas
the last sentence of paragraph 
3 reads "by individuals des-
cribed as former United States 
Government employees," Gray
actually said that Ferbell had 
indicated that he was being
assisted by former CIA 
employees.
term 
"former United States Government employees" in the at-
The FBI chose to use the
tached memorandum in order to 'make 
the memorandum less sen-
sational.
2. This memorandum should be read in conjunction with
CIRA-
0371-74, subject: Mitchell 
Livingston Ferbell III, dated
27 June 1974.
3. The FBI requests authorization to forward a copy of
CIRA-
0371-74 to the Department 
of Justice.
was forwarded 
to the Bureau for its information only, your views
As this memorandum
on its passage to the Department of 
Justice are solicited.
FBI plans to ask the 
Department of Justice if the Department
The
wishes the Bureau to investigate 
Mitchell Warbell for possible
violation of the Neutrality Act.
Signed: Francis G.
F. I. G. Coleman
C/OPS/LSN
3.
RECORD COPY
CONFIDENTIAL
E2 IMPT
CL BY 054698
3- July 74
30 
ml
· 201-259910.
14-00000
DDO/OPS/LSN/FIGColeman/ck
Distribution:
0&1
-
Addressee
1 - Chief, OS/SSD.
1
-
1
-
WH/Security
WH/7/CAR
1 - IP/AN - 201-259910
1 - OPS/LSN
I - OPS Reading Board
EN
3°
(30 July 74)
:
14-00000
SECRET/SENSITIVE -
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
WARNING NOTICE
SENSITIVE INTELLIGENCE SOURCES AND METHODS INVOLVED
MEMORANDUM FOR:
ATTENTION
SUBJECT
REFERENCE
:
Director
6 AUG 1974
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Intelligence Division
MITCHELL LIVINGSTON WERBELL, III
A.
B
Conversation between Mr. William
McDonnell, FBI Liaison Officer and
Mr. F.I.G. Coleman of this Agency
on 29 July 1974.
FBI New York Report dated 19 July,
Subject as above.
Authorization is granted for your Bureau to pass
a copy of CIRA-0371-74 dated 27 June 1974, Subject as
above, to the Department of Justice for its use. We wish
to make it clear that the former Agency employees mentioned
in paragraph 2 of that report: John Patrick MULDOON and
Theodore John ROUSSOS, provided their information voluntarily.
with the intent of seeking the advice of this Agency on the
legality of the proposed venture of the Friends of Abaco
(FOA). Both men were advised to avoid contact with the
FOA and to report their contacts to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
2. This Agency has not initiated any further contact
with the individuals named above or with Walter Joseph MACKEM,
the third former employee approached by the FOA. MACKEM,
however, did himself contact this Agency in an attempt to get
He was
an official policy on the activities of the FOA.
IMPOSSIBLE
CLASSIFIED BY 010116. EXEMPT FRO!! GENERAL DECLASSIFICATION
SCHEDULE OF E.O. 11652 EXEMPTION CATEGORY 5B (2).
TO DETERMINE DATE OF AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION.
3.19
SECRET/SENSITIVE
201-259910
14-00000
SECRET/SENSITIVE
informed that the case comes under FBI jurisdiction, that
this Agency has no official involvement, and that all
information we had on the matter had been made available
to your Bureau. He was advised at that time to report
his contacts and any information he had to your Bureau...
FOR THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS:
CIRA-0432-74
/s/ Gavid A. Phillips
David A. Phillips
SECRET/SENSITIVE
3.14
14-00000
107
SECRET/SENSITIVE
DDO/WH/7/CAR/Albert Ramos: cm: 7493/1956 (5 August 74)
Distribution:
Orig & 1 - FBI
1 OPS/LSN
1
1
-
1.
-
CIOPS/WH
201-259910
C/OS/SSD/OSB
☐ C/WHD
WH/Security
WH/7/CAR Chrono
189-9-1
BASED ON:
C/OPS/LSN Memo to C/WHD dated 30 July 1974
Subject: Mitchell Livingston WERBELL and
his Employment of Former Agency
Employees
:
SECRET/SENSITIVE 3.14
i

14-00000
NO
L
Chief of Station, WH/Miami
SECRET
AZOVING 42
INDAKING
XX
APERTURE CARD
FROM
Chief, Western Hemisphere Division.
SUBIECT
Mitchell Livingston WERBELL, III
ACTION REQUIRED - REFERENCES
1. For your background information, attached under
separate cover is one copy each of the following documents
concerning Subject:
a.
CIRA-0371-74 dated 27 June 1974
=
-
b.. LNERGO New York memo dated 19 July 1974
2. In forwarding the 19 July New York memo mentioned above,
LNERGO reported that in the last sentence of paragraph 3, GRAY
actually said that WERBELL had indicated he was being assisted
by former BKHERALD employees. LNERGO chose to substitute LNSUZZ
in order to 'make the memo less sensational.'
3. A copy of CIRA-0371-74 is being passed to the Department
of Justice.
Wilma R. VAN SCOY
Attachments:
As stated above, u/s/c
Distribution:
2 - - COS, WH/Miami (w/atts, u/s/c)
CROSS REFERENCE TO
DISPATCH SYMBOL AND NUMBER
DATE
E2 IMPOET
CL BY 010116
UFPS-419
5 August 1974
CLASSIFICATION
HOS FILE NU♥2-
SECRET
201-25991
OFFICE
DD0/1/7/CAR
Internal Distribution:
WH/REG w/o att
WH/7/CAR chrono w/ att
201-259910 w/1-b above
1
-
189-9-1 w/l- above
1
-
WH/7/CAR/Friends
of Abaco File w/o 3tt.
IN↓
53
MAE PREVIOUS 17793N
CHRISMEN
C
3.13
CIFICER
CARE
ORIGINATING
112131
7493
Ruth Lehman
com
COORDINATING
FREE NAP!
FREASING
CHILORS SU
5.1999
SUG
Kifonso Spera
40
A to
14-00000
FBI. document dated 19 July 1974
from. New York
Subject.
Mitchell Livingston.
Werbell, I
Internal Seuirity - Abaco
Neutrality Matter - Abaco
14-00000
TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
Director.
CONFIDENTIAL
1 AVG 1974
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Attention:
Intelligence Division
Deputy Director for Operations
Ü
Traces Requested by Mr. Wayne Frankenfield
1. This memorandum is in response to trace requests
made by Mr. Wayne Frankenfield of the General Investigative
Division on 29 July 1974.
2. The files of this office reveal no pertinent identi-
fiable information on:
3.
Advance Security Corporation of Atlanta, Georgia
Howard GIBSON of Georgia
Security Defense System of Marietta, Georgia
Nothing is known of the Central Investigative Agency,
except as reported by the FBI.
9010359910
4. The files of this office contain considerable informa-
tion on Mitchell Livingston'WERBELL III, born 8 March 1918 in
Philadelphia, Pa. The majority of this information was received
from the FBI. This office previously furnished the Bureau infor-
mation on Werbell under CGCI-3/773317 of 24 October 1962, subject
WERBELL, Mitchell L.; and CSCI-316/02323-69 of 27 June 1969, sub-
Ject WKRBELL, Mitchell Livingston III.
5. Werbell has never been employed by this Agency nor does
the Agency have any operational interest in him. As a 2nd
Lieutenant in the Signal Corps in the China-Burma theater in
WW II, Werbell was assigned to CSS from April to December 1945.
In August 1959, this office considered using Werbell as a source
of information on revolutionary activities in the Caribbean area,
3.12
RECORD COTY
E2 IMPDET
CL BY 054698
01 Aug 74
201-259710
14-00000
CONFIDENTIAL
particularly Cuba, but terminated its consideration of his
From December 1965 to November
possible use in October 1959.
1966, Ferbell contacted this Agency's Domestic Collection.
Divisior in Coral Gables, Florida to voluntarily offer infor-
mation.
6. Serbell has been assessed as an unscrupulous wheeler-
dealer, a promotor of grandiose schemes, a man who lives beyond
his means, and a high pressure advertising and promotion man.
He has repeatedly misrepresented himself as both an employee
of the U.S. government and the CIA. As an arms dealer, he has
been involved with numerous Latin American governments and exile
groups since the late 1950's and is now involved in Bahaman 
af-
fairs. In 1969, he was in Thailand, attempting to sell the
government arms and a program to neutralize the communist threat
in that country.
Werbell operated a public relations firm in Atlanta which
went into bankruptcy in 1959. He subsequently became Vice Presi-
dent and Director of Research and Development of SIGNICS, Inc.
of Atlanta, Georgia and later became a partner in Defense Systems
International of Powder Springs, Georgia.
8. For further information on Werbell, you are referred to
the Department of Defense and the Department of State.
251-0908354.
9. The indices of this office reflect a Stephen Van CLEAVE,
President of Intelligence Services, Ltd., Suite 11-B, 130 West
Wieucea Rd., N.E., Atlanta, Georgia; telephone AC 404-255-7493.
The document concerning Van Cleave is charged out, and we are
Booking to locate it.
10.
/no-tel
John Patrick MULDOON is, as stated in our CIRA-0371-74
of 27 June 1974, subject Mitchell Livingston Werbell III, a for-
mer Agency employés. For further information on Muldoon, yon
are referred to this Agency's Office of Security.
CIR-316/01815-74
C/OPS/LSN/FIGColeman/ck
Distribution:
0&1 - Addressee
2 - OPS/LSN
1
-
IP/AN
(1 August 1974)
3
3,12
CONFIDENTIAL
14-00000
MEMORANDUM FOR: Associate General Counsel, OGC
VIA
SUBJECT
REFERENCE
:
Deputy Director for Operations
Mitchell Livingston WER BELĻ III
:. Your memorandum of 24 February 1976,
Subject as above.
1.. Per reference request, we are forwarding.
information in our files concerning contacts that have
taken place between this Agency and WER BELL.
2. The following is a summary of all DUO contact
directly with WER. BELL which took place in 1959:
a.
A. 6. July 1959 Memorandum to C/WH Division
signed by Thomas J. Flores stated that General
Cabell called Flores to report that WER BELL had
called him. WEK BELL discussed with General Cabell
a trip WER BELL had taken to the Dominican Republic
and offered to come to Washington at his own expense
to 
discuss the trip. No commitments were made to
WER 
BELL by General Cabell.
b. A 7 July 1959 Memorandum of Conversation
signed by T. J. Flores stated that WER BELL was
met in Washington, D.C., by Flores who discussed
with WER BELL information concerning the Dominican
Republic, Fidel Castro, Fulgencio Batista and
General Pedraza.
c. AS July 1959 Memorandum of Conversation
signed by T. J. Flores stated that on 8 July 1959
Flores called WER BELL to set up an appointment.
During the meeting, WER BELL was told that the
United States would not support any revolutionary.
activities by General Pedraza. He was also told
that the U.S. will observe its international
obligations concerning Cuba and Pedraza, and that
3145
14-00000
the U.S. would not overlook any violations by
Pedraza or his followers of the neutrality laws.
Flores said that the Agency had some interest in
the possibility of his (WER BELL's) working
for us as an intelligence gatherer under terms
to be negotiated after we obtained a security
clearance on him. Flores pointed out that the
Agency was not attempting to limit his actions
in connection with the Dominican Republic, nor
was it assuming any responsibility for those
matters he carried out in his own behalf. Flores
dictated a Secrecy Agreement to him and had him
sign it.
d. A 9 July 1959 Memorandum for the Record
signed by T. J. Flores reported that Subject
called him on 9 July 1959 from New York. WER BELL
gave Flores further information on Loos, fnu,
the representative of a Colonel Frei, fnu, of the
Swiss army who had 1,000 men available for duty
as soldiers.
e. A 20 July 1959 Memorandum for the Record
signed by T. J. Flores reported that NER BELL
called Flores from Miami on 20 July to ask about
the Agency picking up the tab for his forthcoming
trip to the Dominican Republic. They discussed
his clearance which had not come through.
f. A 3 August 1959 Memorandum for the
Record signed by Martha R. Tharpe reported that
on 24 July 1959 WER BELL called for Mr. Thomas J.
Flores. Since Flores was on leave, Tharpe took
the call. WER BELL gave Tharpe further infor-
mation concerning Pedraza and Batista. Tharpe
called WER BELL back that evening to tell him
that if he obtained further information to
report it to Mr. Justin Gleichauf, 00 Contacts
Representative in Miami, until Mr. Flores returned
to Washington.
.g. A 5 August 1959 Memorandum for the Record
signed by T. J. Flores stated that WER BELL phoned
him on 5 August 1959 to ask if there was any news
on his clearance. KER BELL said he wanted to go
to the Dominican Republic soon, and would like CIA
to pick up his expenses. He was told there was no
·3.45.
14-00000
news. Flores and WER BELL discussed the Dominican
Republic and Cuba. On 3 August Flores phoned
WER BELL and told him that his clearance had not
been granted and that he should not predicate his
activities on the expectation of the clearance at
any given time. WER BELL said that the Pedraza,
group was air lifting and dropping material into
Cuba.
h. A 9 September 1959. Memorandum for the
Record signed by T. J. Flores reported that
WER BELL called Flores on 9 September 1959 to
provide information on Cuba. He was told by
Flores that his clearance had not yet been
processed.
vi. According to a 23 September 1959
Memorandum for the Record signed by T. J. Flores,
WER BELL called Flores on 9 September 1959 to
ask if his clearance had come through since
he wanted the Agency to finance his trip to
the Dominican Republic. He was told it had
not. WER BELL told Flores about some people
who had been discussing the counterfeiting
of U. S. dollars and Cuban pesos for use in
connection with Cuban revolutionary activities.
He was told by Flores to contact the FBI. On
13 September WER BELL had phoned Flores at home
to say that the FBI had referred him to the
Secret Service on the counterfeiting aspect,
and that no one seemed particularly interested
in the gun running. The Secret Service asked
him to go to Miami at his own expense to obtain
further information on the matter and WER BELL
asked Flores' advice. Flores said that he could
not influence him one way or the other since he
was not in a position to direct his activities,
but felt he might be better off to take no action.
He was told that Flores would be in touch with
him as soon as he had any further information
concerning our possible use of him..
j. A 13 October 1959 Memorandum for the
Record signed by Thomas J. Flores states that.
WER BELL phoned him on 25 September 1959 to report
on Cuba.
On 2 October 1950, Flores talked with
WER BELL by phone and terminated the relationship.
3. The following undated memorandums are also contained in
WER BELL's file:
3.45
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a. A Memorandum for the Record signed by
T. Flores reports, that hER BELL called flores on
13 August 1959 to discuss Cuban activities in Miami.
This memorandum also records that WER, BELL phoned
Flores again on 26 August 1959 at which time activities
in the Dominican Republic and Cuban activities in
Miami were discussed. WER BELL also asked about the
status of his clearance, and was told it had not yet
come through.
b. A letter signed "W" addressed to "Tom"
gave 's" location and some information concerning.
Satista and Castro. (This letter is probably in.
the 1959 time frame.)
A Memorandum of Conversation signed by
T. Flores reports that ER BELL called Flores and
gave his location. The status of WER BELL's”
clearance was discussed and Flores told him it
had not yet come through. WER BELL gave Flores
some information concerning Batista (This
memorandum probably is in the 1959 time frame.)
d. An unsigned report, apparently from
WER BELL, gave a summary of his contacts and
activities during a trip to the Dominican Republic.
(This report is probably in the 1959 time frame.)
4. A 17 December 1963 dispatch from Station Santo Domingo
reported that Station NOC Officer Joseph Luna recently met
WER BELL in Santo Domingo. No further details of the meeting
were reported.
5.
According to the CS file on WER BELL, three former
Agency employees were contacted in 1974 by WER BELL 
and 
other
representatives of a group called "Friends of Abaco 
FOA),
a group allegedly advocating the 
secession of the island 
of
The three former
Abaco from the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
employees contacted are:
a.
b.
John Patrick Muldoon, retired from
CIA on 20 March 1972.
Theodore John Roussos, retired from CIA
on 31 July 1970. He was rehired on a
His contract
contract in February 1971.
was terminated in September 1973.
3.45
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6.
C.
Walter Joseph Mackem, separated from
CIA on 31 October 1973.
Mr. Muldoon contacted Agency
McTighe on 22 May 1974. Mr. Muldoon told M, E. James
McTighe
that he was nominal Vice President of a Washington-based
firm called "Security Consultants International." He presented
Mr. McTighe with a report, containing the essential data he
possessed concerning WER
and other
FOA whom
he had met on 17 and 20 May 1974 in her members of According
to Mr. Muldoon, WER BELL had hopes of establishing gaming
casinos, hotel and other tourist facilities in Abaco catering
to the U. S. tourist crowd. As a consequence of some run-in
with Prime Minister Pindling of the Bahamas, however, WER BELL
is apparently persona non grata in the Bahamas; hence his
ambitions appeared to be contingent on Abacan independence.
Mr. Muldoon reported that at least on two occasions WER BELL
made a concerted effort to involve persons formerly affiliated
with the Agency in the activities of the FOA in support of
its independence. On several occasions, WER BELL introduced
Mr. Muldoon and Mr. Roussos as active Agency officials, implying.
that either the Agency or the United States Government supported
the aims of the FOA. WER BELL also proposed to Messrs. Muldoon
and Roussos in separate conversations that they conduct a study,
involving a visit to Abaco; to determine the feasibility of
Abaco's independence in political and economic terms. The
study was to include interviews with citizens of Abaco prior
to an alleged "plebiscite" on independence to take place in
Abaco on 28 June 1974. In default of the collaboration of
either Muldoon or Roussos, WER BELL hired Mr. Walter Joseph
Macken, a former Agency friend of both Muldoon and Roussos.
According to WER BELL's file, Mackem later in 1974 contacted
the Agency in an attempt to get an official policy on the
activities of the FOA. Mackem was informed that the case
comes under FBI jurisdiction, that this Agency has no official
involvement, and that all information we had on the matter had
been made available to the FBI. He was advised at that time
to report his contacts and any information he had to the FBI.
7. On 24 March 1975, Mr. Joseph P. Hayes, assigned to
SE/PCH, reported that during the week of 9 March 1975, he
talked with Mr. Wesley Dyckman. Mr. Dyckman is a former Agency
employee employed by the Drug Enforcement Agency. According
to Dyckman, former Agency employee Walter Mackem was employed
in the Washington area as a private investigator. He is also
involved with a paramilitary activity funded by some unnamed
British source. The activity, which Dyckman referred to as
3.45
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"the new land project" sought to establish a tax shelter on
one of the out-islands of the 
Caribbean by forcefully taking
over the island and establishing 
a government there. Macken
is supposedly involved in the 
paramilitary training of forces
who would participate in this 
adventure. According to Dyckman
,
the paramilitary training 
supposedly was to take place in
Georgia, where WER BELL is based
.
8. On 31 August 1974, Mr. Roussos met with Mr. K. Michael
Absher, who at that time was AC/
E/GC, and told him that
WER BELL was leaving for Athens 
on 31 August to sell 
arms to
KER BELL
I wanted Roussos to be his
the Greek Government.
Roussos told
advisor in this venture and to go to Athens.
WER BELL that he would check with 
CIA before 
giving him an answer.
WER BELL asked Roussos to see if 
the Agency was in favor of
such an arms deal or not. Mr. 
Absher strongly advised 
against
Roussos' getting involved in this 
deal. Roussos told Mr. Absher
Roussos
that he understood and agreed 
not to get involved.
said that KER BELL would 
probably call him from 
Athens and he
would give WER BELL a final negative 
reply.
9. On 22 July 1974, the FBI reported that WER BELL may
be in possession of a one-line note 
from former CIA Director
William Colby stemming from a 
chance meeting with the Director
at an OSS alumni dinner, reading 
something like "Good to see
you again." This note was 
apparently used by WER BELL to
This 
infor-
suggest that he and Mr. 
Colby were good friends.
mation was passed on to Mr. 
Colby on 9 August 
1974.
10.
According to reporting from several Stations, WER BELL
and Arthur L. Smith (a cohort of WER 
BELL's) were in several
Central American countries during 
August and early September
....
1962. Their principal activity appeared 
to be contacting
officials of the governments 
of Guatemala, Nicaragua, and
El Salvador for the purpose of 
obtaining recognition of a
de facto Cuban Government 
in exile called the "United
In discussions 
with
Organization for the Liberation 
of Cuba."
Nicaraguan Government representatives
, 
WER BELL claimed the
proposed Cuban Government 
in exile had the support of 90
separate Cuban exile organizations 
and 186,000 Cuban 
exiles..
WER BELL offered a representative 
of the Nicaraguan Government
$100,000 to obtain that government's 
recognition of the Cuban
The group 
claimed to have its headquarters
Government in exile.
While in
at 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C.
Guatemala, Smith claimed that 
the group had a man 
in the
Department of State in Washington
, D.C., whom they pay $
6,000
per year "to keep them 
advised."
3.45
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14-00000
11. In December 1965 WER EELL contacted a Miami DCD
asset and told him that he and six 
Cuban exiles in the 11. 
S.
had organized a group, including 
approximately 20 Cubans
inside Cuba, to perform a 
commando operation in Cuba 
during
early January 1966.. Their 
primary mission was the assassination
of Fidel Castro, with 
the secondary mission of blowing up the
generators that supply 
electricity to Havana, Cuba.
WER BELL,
at the time, stated that he was trying to get a "green light"
from CIA to proceed with 
the mission, and inferred that the
mission would be called 
off if such approval was not obtained
.
•
1.2. On 7 February 1966 the Miami office of the FBI
reported that KER BELL had 
been in contact with various 
news
agencies concerning an 
alleged plan to assassinate Fidel 
Castro,
and reportedly also had 
discussed the plan with Mr. Richard.
Phillips, Public Affairs 
Officer, Department of State, 
Washington,
D.C. HER BELL claimed to 
have a group of some 500 men infiltrated
into Cuba and said that they 
were ready for action to overthrow
the regime immediately 
following the assassination of Castro.
According to the FBI, WER 
BELL gave the impression that he is
acquainted with many high 
government officials, both in the 
U. S.
and other countries
, and implied that his assassination plan
had been approved by CIA.
13.
According to a memorandum in WER BELL's file, on 7
February 1968, one Bruce Arman 
Baker telephoned an employee
of this Agency and said he 
had been in contact with WER BELL
.
Mr. Baker said that WER 
BELL was in the weapons manufacturing
business and delivered them 
by air throughout the world.
Mr. Baker said that he 
understood that WER BELL does this 
for
CIA. Mr. Baker said that he 
understood from WER BELL that he
would have to get a CIA security 
clearance to fly for WER BELL
.
Baker said that he was 
afraid that his past smuggling record
might keep him from getting 
a CIA clearance.
14.
WER BELL came to the attention of the Bangkok Station
in early 1969 when he went to Thailand 
representing himself
as Vice President of 
Sionics, Atlanta, Georgia. He described
himself as a counterinsurgency 
expert, had a variety of weapons
to display, claimed to be 
a retired colonel, and introduced
himself at a local nightclub 
as Chief of CIA in Thailand.
WER BELL attempted to 
sell arms to the Thais and also to 
a
Station Bangkok passed
variety of ŋ. S. military 
elements.
the gist of his reputation 
to key 
personalities in the U. S.
mission and the Thai 
Government stressing that he was not
sponsored in any way by the 
U. S. Government.
-
3.45
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15. WER BELL was also the subject of two memorandums
signed by Lawrence R. Houston. Mr. Houston, answering a
request from Joseph J. Liebling, Deputy Assistant Secretary
of Defense, on 23 February 1971, denied WER BELL's alleged
affiliation, with the CIA. On 28 October 1971, Mr. Houston
wrote Mr. David H. Henretta, Jr., of the Industrial Security
Clearance Review Division, to return notarized Interrogatories
previously sent by Mr. Hénretta.
16. We have no information on Colonel Bayard except news
articles reporting his death which were forwarded by the FBI.
17.
Per your request, we have sent instructions to the
LA/Miami Station that there should be no contact with WER BELL.
Nestor D.. Sanche:
Acting Chief
Latin America Division
DDO/LA/CAR/Cari/D. Geisler:rb
Ext. 1956
(3 March 76).
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FSI document dated 24 July
19-74 from Las Vegas.
Subject: Mitchell Livingston
Werbell, IIL
-14-00000
SEMET SENSITIVE
WARNING NOTICE
SENSITIVE INTELLIGENCE SOURCES AND METHODS INVOLVED
27 JUN 1974
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director
“ATTENTION
SUBJECT
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Intelligence Division
MITCHELL LIVINGSTON WERBELL, III“
1. Reference is made to your Buresa's File No.
MM 105-21382, Subject as above, and your Bureau's
reporting on Subject's involvement with the "Abaco
Independence Movement" (AIM) in the Commonwealth of
the Bahamas..
2. For your information only, three former employees
of this Agency were contacted in June 1974 by representatives
of a group called "Friends of Abaco," a group allegedly
advocating the secession of the island of Abaco from the
Commonwealth of the Bahanas. Contact was initiated by
Mitchell Livingston WERBELL III, an international arms
dealer, and a naturalized Lithuanian named Michael OLIVER,
both of whom attempted to involve the former Agency
employees in the Abaco Independence Movement (AIM), of
which your Bureau is familiar. The three former employees
contacted are:
a. John Patrick MULDOON
DPOB: 25 August 1957, Washington, D. C.
Retired from this Agency on 20 March 1972
Address at time of retirement:
4305 Kentbury Drive
Bethesda, Maryland
CLASSIFIED BY 010116. EXEMPT FROM GENERAL DECLASSIFICATION
SCHEDULE OF E.O. 11652 EXEMPTION CATEGORY SB (2).
TO DETERMINE DATE OF AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION.
3.9
IMPOSSIBLE
201-259910
SELMET SYSTTIVE
14-00000
SPERFTISENSITIVE
b.
C.
Theodore John ROUSSOS
DPOB: 14 July 1919, Washington, D. C.
Retired: 31 July 1970
Address at time of retirement:
2918 Hardy Avenue
Wheaton, Maryland
Note: ROUSSOS was rehired on a contract
basis in February 1971. His contract
was terminated September 1973.
Walter Joseph MACKEM
DPOB: 13 December 1937, Omaha, Nebraska
Separated: 31 October 1973
Address at time of separation:
2609 N. Potomac
Arlington, Virginia
3. Mitchell Livingston WERBELL III, the principal
owner of the arms manufacturing firm Defense Systems.
International 
and an international arms dealer, has been
encouraging a group of Bahamian citizens on the island
of Abaco who seek to secede from the Bahamian Commonwealth.
In 
this affair WERBELL has been collaborating with a
group based in Miami called the "Friends of Abaco."
Active in the Friends of Abaco is Michael OLIVER, a wealthy
land developer residing at 2089 El Rancho Drive, Carson City,
Nevada. 
OLIVER, a naturalized U. S. citizen, was born
Moses OLITSKI on 11 December 1928 in Lithuania.
4. In encouraging persons in Abaco to seek
independence of Nassau, OLIVER's apparent motive is to
establish a prototype government based on principles of
free enterprise expounded in a paperback book which he
has 
authored called "A New Constitution for a New Country"
(Fine Arts Press, Reno, Nev. 1968). WERBELL, on the
other hand, has privately expressed a desire to establish
a tourist 
mecca on Abaco to include hotels, recreation
facilities and gambling casinos. Officials of Holiday
International, a Baltimore firm specialized in recreation
and health spas, have been briefed by WERBELL and OLIVER
recently on the Abaco movement. Robert A. C. HAMILTON,
13th Lord of Belhaven and Stenton and a member of the
3.9
REGRET SENSITIVE
!
Friends of Abacó, on 10 June 1974 sponsored a resolution
in behalf of the Abaco Independence Movement on the floor
of the British House of Lords, following conversations
with WERBELL in Washington in late May.
5. Despite the seening innocence of the enterprise,
however, we have observed that WERBELL, in particular,
has made a concerted effort to involve persons formerly
affiliated with this Agency in the activities of the
Friends of Abaco in support of Abaco's independence:
On several occasions, involving at least two former
officers of this organization, MULDOON and ROUSSOS cited
above, WERBELL has introduced them as presumably active
Agency officials in such a fashion as to imply, according
to the persons involved, that either this Agency or the
United States Government supports the aims of the
Friends of Abaco..
6. Most recently, WERBELL has proposed to both
retired officers in separate conversations that they
conduct a study, involving a visit to Abaco, to determine
the feasibility of Abaco's independence in political and
economic terms. The study would include interviews with
citizens on Abaco prior to an alleged "plebiscite" on
independence to take place in Abaco on 28 June 1974.
To be included in the investigation is research on the
probable reaction in the United Nations Organization to
a petition from political groups in Abaco for support on
independence, notably any parallels to be found in
precedents such as the Biafra secession from Nigeria.
?.
Andrew ST. GEORGE, a nationally known free-lance
writer, has become active in WERBELL's organization and
claims to be preparing an article on WERRELL and the
Abaco movement for publication in True Magazine.
ST. GEORGE has participated in the several meetings that
WERBELL, OLIVER and their associates have had with the
two retired Agency officers, Mr. John MULDCON and
Mr. Ted ROUSSOS.
3.9
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SECRETIRENSITIVE
8...
In default of the collaboration of either
MULDOON or ROUSSOS, WERBELL and OLIVER have hired
Walter Joseph MACKEM, a former Agency friend of both
MULDOON and ROUSSOS.
9. John ULDOON is currently employed as the
Washington representative of the firm Security Consultants
International, a subsidiary of the Atlanta (Ga.) detective
agency, Central Investigative Agency. ROUSSOS is not
employed.
FOR THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS:
// David A. Phillips
David A. Phillips
CIRA-0371-74
SONET/BONSIVINE 3,9
1.40000
DDO/WH/T/E. James McTighe:ar/4221/14977 (26 June 1974)
Distribution:
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C/WHD
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0/PERSONNEL for MÜLDOON, ROUSSOS, and
MACKEM's personnel files
1
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BASED ON: Memoranda for the Record dated:
22 May 1974
21 June 1974
22 June 1974
26 June 1974
مندانانیان
3.9
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Memorandum for the Record
Subject:
SECRET
Agency Retiree's Involvement with
Abaco Independence Group
24ring 74
1. Through the intermediary of Robert Brown, DC/EA,
and retired staffer Jack "Red" Stent, I was put in touch
on 22 May 1974 with John MULDOON, another retired staffer
who is now nominal vice-president of a Washington-based
firm called "Security Consultants International."
Muldoon made the contact with me apparently on the
advice of Bob Brown and Red Stent whose counsel he
sought in an effort to protect himself from the possible
implications of his involvement with a group promoting
the independence of the Bahamian Commonwealth island of
Abaco. We met at 1100 hours at "Tony's" on L street
and 18th N.W. in downtown Washington. Red Stent was:
there to introduce me to Muldoon but he did not participate
in the discussion.
2. Muldoon presented me with a typewritten report
containing the essential data he possessed concerning
a group of individuals with whom he had met on Friday,
17. May 1974 in Washington. Attending the meeting with
Muldoon on that occasion were Mitchell WERBELL III (aka
"Mitch Three"), Lord and Lady BELLHAVEN (alleged British
peers), Mike OLIVER (a wealthy electronics tycoon of
European, possibly French, origin who currently resides
in Carson City, Nevada), Howard HANDELMAN (Washington
correspondent of "U.S. News and World Report"), Renee
(lnu) (the evening's object of Werbell's seemingly
voracious affections) and an employe of the Library of
Congress whom Muldoon chose not to identify to me. At.
a subsequent meeting on Monday, 20 May 1974, Muldoon
had lunch with WERBELL and free lance writer Andrew St.
GEORGE who is also involved with WERBELL in the Abaco
independence enterprise. The Werbell group is known
as the "Friends of Abaco" (already documented as such
in our files).
•3.9
SECRET
E. CIMPELY
IMPORT CL BY 063547
Br
14-000
SECRET
Anowledge of the background of the principals
is essential to a comprehension of the affair as recounted
by Muldoon:
3. Island of Abaco From available file
information we know that Abaco is a small island at the
north end of the Bahamas archipelago a short distance.
off the Florida coast, which was populated in 1785 by'
British Loyalists and their Black slaves fleeing the
United States following independence. The island remains
about 50% white. Openly apprehensive in anticipation of
the Bahamas' independence from Great Britain, the residents
of Abaco, both white and black, have found themselves
since independence the object of apparent antagonism
and administrative neglect on the part of the Pindling
government, which has fueled talk of secession from
Nassau rule. This talk has been institutionalized in an
indigenous organization headed by a white, Charles "Chuck"
HALL, and called the Abaco Independence Movement (AIM).
HALL is a resident of Marsh Grove, the country cross roads
which poses as the metropolitan capital of Abaco; he
frequently visits Miami where he meets with Werbell.
•
b. Mitchell WERBELL III A Philadelphian,
WERBELL was a member of OSS in the Far East during World
War II where, according to Muldoon, he came to know the
Director and Lou Conein. Werbell currently a resident
of Atlanta, now is president of an international arms
peddling firm called Defense Systems International (DSI).
in addition to industrial security systems, according to
MULDOON, DSI sells automatic weapons (including a minia-
ture machine pistol with a silencer) and bomb-booby trapped
items of various sorts (e.g., a tennis ball with a fuse.
which is automatically activated when you stop playing)
and other James Bondian accessories. Werbell hopes to
establish gaming casinos, hotels and other tourist
facilities in Abaco catering to the U.S. tourist crowd
As a
available for easy ferrying from nearby Miami..
consequence of some run-in with Prime Minister Michael
Pindling, however, Werbell is apparently permanently
persona non grata in the Bahamas; hence his ambitions
appear to be contingent on Abacan independence.
c. Mike OLIVER - The financial angel of the
"Friends of Abaco;" Oliver's origins and auspices are
somewhat obscure to Muldoon. OLIVER claims to have spent
3.8
SECRET

SECRET
time in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II;
he speaks excellent French; he has a pet political
´theory which he has published. He is seeking some
political entity where he can put his theory into
practice to illustrate to the U.S. government that it
is worth practicing in this country. In contrast to
This colleague Mitch Three Werbell, however, he seems
adamantly opposed to establishing a gambling empire.
A member of
d. Lord and Lady BELLHAVEN
->
the British House of Lords, BELLHAVEN plans to make
a speech there, following his return to London on 22
May 1974; castigating the British government for
allowing Abaco to be abused by Nassau. BELLHAVEN
appears to be identical with Robert Anthony Carmichael
HAMILTON, born 27 Feb 27, the 13th Lord of BELHAVEN
and STENTON. His wife is the former Elizabeth Ann
MOSELEY, daughter of the late Colonel Arthur Henry
MOSELEY (whose claim to fame remains to be probated)
This information comes from several tomes on the
English peerage which were researched for me by Sally
Ann Brown of E/BC.
e.
-
Howard HANDELMAN The U.S. News and
World Report correspondent also has contacts with the
Agency, a fact which concerns Muldoon.
f. Central Investigation Agency - An Atlanta
detective Agency established a few years ago by Howard
COSGROVE, a former Georgia police officer specialized
in narcotics operations who was apparently fired from
the force for reasons unknown to Muldoon. COSGROVE
retains a 26% interest in the CIA (sic); Mitchell
-WERBELL IV ("Mitch Four") holds another 26% and a re-
maining 6 interest is held by the nominal president of
"CIA," a retired Army colonel named Byer or Briar. The
"CIA" has in turn established Security Consultants Inter-
national, 35 a Washington-based wholly owned subsidiary.
SCI's specialities are anti-audio sweeps and electronic
surveillance using devices developed by one David MORISSEY,
an electronics engineer who collaborates with MULDOON &
"CIA."
4. The incident which alarmed Muldoon occurred
during the Friday gathering of the individuals mentioned
in paragraph two. Muldoon was palmed off by Werbell at
this gathering as an "official of the CIA (Central
3.8
SECRET
4-00000
SECRET
Intelligence Agency, in this instance)" who was there
to attest to the fact that neither the CIA nor the U.S.
Government is opposed to Abacan independence. His
interlocutors, despite Muldoon's protests that he was
retired from. CIA and in no way represented U.S. government
interests respecting Abaco, seemed anxious he felt
to accept his presence there as evidence of U.S.
government endorsement of the Abacan independence movement.
5. Muldoon took some pains to gain reassurance that
he would not be pinpointed by Werbell as the source of
this information if any action were taken on it. I
assured him that, apart from the particular incident on
17 May 1974, the general outlines of WERBELL and his
activities and aspirations for Abaco have already been
reported by two or three other sources. Since there is
nothing the Agency can plausibly do at this juncture:
about WERBELL's apparent effort to con his supporters
into thinking that the CIA was backing the Abaco
independence venture, I told Muldoon. I planned merely
to make his side of this story a matter of record and
let it go at that.
6. To cap off the story, Red Stent invited us to
lunch at the Class Reunion on Eye Street and 18th. When
Muldoon and I arrived to meet Stent we found him ensconced
at a corner table with three other people. Red rushed
over to inform us that he would be introducing me as a
colleague of his from AEROJET. He then presented me to
WERBELL, Werbell's date Patricia BOTOND and Cecil BROWNLOW
of "Aviation Weekly." WERBELL, looking for all the world
like Jerry Colonna, was intent on the task of seducing
Miss BOTOND, who happened to be promoting a convention
for the Atlantic Union organization, a political enterprise
which is an offshoot of the World Federalists Movement.
Miss BOTOND, as it turned out was reared in Shanghai, China,
at the same time as Stent. Red had attended school with
her brother the German School in Shanghai. Miss BOTOND
had been expelled from the German school in the late 1930s
for having had anti-Nazi doodles in her copybook.
Brownlow had helped Red obtain aerial photos of the
ChiCom consulate compound in Geneva in the early 1960s
when Red was stationed in Paris. When Werbell had
wearied of the reminisences of Stent and Botond and had
managed to hustle his prey off to a private table, Stent
revealed to BROWNLOW that I was not AEROJET but CIA.
Fortunately my name was mumbled at the introduction so that
no one could have repeated it. No one in fact seemed
interested.
SECRET
3.8.
14-000 0
SECRET
7. Following lunch Muldoon left with a colleague
for a meeting at the Justice Department to determine
whether in sweeping Embassy buildings in Washington he
must register as an agent of a foreign government
(whichever it might be). Brownlow went about his
business. Stent paid for the lunch. I returned to
what Stent whimsically refers to as the "Funny Farm."
My only regret is that George Orwell could not have
joined us for that lunch.
DDO/WH/7/E.James McTighe:sdf
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CITIZENSHIP:
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MARITAL STATUS:
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EMPLOYMENT:
EDUCATION:
TRAVEL:
PAPERS:
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA
BOTOND, Istvan
17 Aug 1921, Hungary
USA, Naturalized, May 12, 1962
458 126
7 July 1965
2152 Wyoming Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.
BOTOND, Patricia, Nee: POTTER
BOTOND, Krisztina; b. c1960
BOTOND, Andrew; b. c1962
Step-Children;
Lila; b. c1948
Christopher; b. c1947
Architect/Urban Designer. The Perkins & Will
Partnership, Washington, D.C.
1955:
Palatine Joseph Folytechnic University,
Budapest, Hungary
1961: Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass
Extensive
F.I.C.A.: 074-32-6419
DATA DATED:
Not Dated
3.7
14-00000
ISTVAN BOTOND, A.I.A.
Architect/Urban Designer
2152 Wyoming Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20008 (202) Dupont 7-7525
Age:
Citizenship:
Marital status.
43
Born: August 17, 1921, Hungary
U.S.A. (Naturalized, May 12, 1962)
Married
Wife: Patricia Potter Botond (U.S.A.)
Children Krisztina, 3 1/2 years
Andrew, 2 years
(Lila, 16 years, and Christopher, 15 years, from
wife's previous marriage are not fully dependent)
F.I.C.A.
074-32-6419.
*Education:
Dipl. Architect
Palatine Joseph Polytechnic University,
Faculty of Architecture and Engineering,
Budapest, Hungary, 1955
Master of Architecture in Urban Design
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1961˚
Registered Architect
New York State
# 8181
District of Columbia # A-1576
Professional
Affiliation:
Awards:
Languages:
. Travel:
Interests:
NCARB Certificate
# 4986
"Corporate Member,
American Institute of Architects, Washington Metropolitan Chapter
1954, Fourth Prize for replanning of a bombed city square and
neighborhood in Debrecen, Hungary (co-designer)
1961, Scholarship at Centro Internazionale di Studi
di Architettura "Andrea Palladio, "
Italy
English, Hungarian, German, French (acquaintance)
The Eahamas '58; Europe. '59, '62, '65; Canada '61, '62;
U.S. Virgin Islands '63, '65; Bermuda '63
Music, photography, sports: akling, tennis
3.6
:
4-00000
István Botond, pag: 2
Publications:
0
monthly
Magyar Epitomtivészet ("Hungarian Architecture").
Jan. 56: Airport and Buildings (Diploma thesis).
July 58: Furniture Factory in Debrecen, Hungary
Harvard University Library
☐ Factors that Shape the City: Case Study Budapest
PROFESSIONAL June 1963 - Present
EXPERIENCE
The Perkins & Will Partnership, Architects
Washington, D.C.
Head of Design Department
Responsible and involved in every design-job as guide and
critic. In addition to administrative duties (Personnel, Budget,
Schedules, etc.), active designer of two major projects:
a) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Teaching Hospital and Ambulant Patient Facilities'
First stage ready for bid
Est.: $7,500,000
b) Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Research Laboratory Building for Medical Sciences
Working drawings under preparation
Est: $5,400,000
Other Department works:
Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Main Entrance
Bid: $3,700,000
Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Clinical Research II Buildings
Est. $1,800,000
George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Long Range Plan
Doctors" Office Building, Washington, D.C.
Est: $2,600,000
Virgin Islands Medical Centers: St. Thomas, St. Croix
Est $14,000,000 each
3.6
14-00
István Botond, page 3
PROFESSIONAL December 1956-June 1963
EXPERIENCE
(Absent ten months for Post-Graduate Studies)
I.M. Pel & Associates, Architects & Planners
New York, New York
Architect Designer/Planner
Hotel Denver Hilton: design work and detailing of precast
exterior and store fronts
M.I.T. Earth Science Building: preliminary design
and planning work
Union Station area project, Toronto, Canada: site
analysis and feasibility studies
"Financial Plaza, "Downtown Toronto, Canada:
preliminary studies for a banks and office buildings
project
Weybosset Hill, Urban Renewal Project, Providence, R.I.:
Urban Designer in the Planning Team
Newhouse Communication Center, School of Journalism,
Syracuse University, New York: consultant on precast
exterior system
Town Center-Plaza, Southwest Washington, D.C.: site
study for extension of a newly constructed Housing-
Shopping project.
•
Prior to December 1956
Various architectural positions in Hungary (part-time
during University years.)
Final year: (August 1955-November 1956) Head of
Architectural Department in the Regional Planning
Bureau for Northeast Hungary. Duties similar to
present position.
3.6
14-00000
General Investment Corporation
Throughout the Pacific
SUITE 400 1451 SOUTH KING STREET | HONOLULU, HAWAII 96814 | PHONË 949-4733 / Cable Address: GENINVCO
Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.
Rm. 508,677 Ala Moana
Honolulu, Hawaii
Attn: Neil Leitner
We have a financial statement on Oliver-Roza Corp., dated
10/23/69 
by Chalk & Joerg, CPA's, 717 North Curry St., P.O.
Box 1060
, Carson City, Nevada, 89071.
An appraisal of an "Oliver Subdivision" by Noble T. Murray,
Real Estate Appraiser & Consultant, 2345 Camas Rd., Carson City
Nevada.
Michael Oliver, an Electronic's Engineer, of 2039 El Rancho
Drive, Carson City, Nevada, is President of at least two
corporations, author of "A New Constitution For A New Country";'
had a committment from Whitehall Securities Corp., 138 Main St.
OceanPort, New Jersey, to his Vanguard Corp. to underwrite the
saics of 500,000 shares of common stock at $10.00 per share;
deal fell thru because British or Dutch governments failed to
come thru with
: tax relief.
Sincerely,
180-
Leo 7. Jonick
See fur
if
Stemmernen
I can't find.
LPJ/mba
3.5
:
14-00000
6552
04-712-3096
VANGUARD CORP
2089 EL RANCHO DR
CARSON CITY NEV 89701
TEL 702 882-2483
MICHAEL OLIVER, PRES
MORRIS C. DAVIS, V PRES
GATING
RATING
OR 48 MAR 14 1969. N
LAND DEVELOPMENT:
1968
NO
SUMMARY
PAYMENTS UNDETERMINED
EMPLOYS
3
RECORD
CLEAR
BETTY S. (MRS. M.) OLIVER, SEC-TREAS
DIRECTORS: THE officers and L. A. Whitmore,
Joseph A. Foss Jr, Dr. R. 6. Williams, Dr. R. Melers,
Arthur L. Bonike, and Robert Johnson.
PAYMENTS
HISTORY
Suppliers for this operation were not located during current investi-
gation. Oliver's personal payment record is satisfactory.
On Mar 19 1969, M. Oliver, president, was unavailable for an interview.
One outside source submitted the following statement from Michael 
Oliver,
personally, dated Apr 25 1968:
Cash
Accts Rec
S
Coin Collection & Stocks
Current
RE
Autos
Total
Unsigned.
8,200
Accts Pay
1,300
Owing Autos
6,000.
15,500
Current
327,000.
5,900.
Mtgs
NET WORTH
348,400
Total
150
3,200
3,359
27,047
318,003
348,400
HISTORY
OPERATION
.Real estate includes interest In Oliver-Roos Corp of $289,000; Carson
City residence, $23,000; house at San Diego, Calif, $15,000. 
Statement was
obtained from outside sources.
On Mar 18 1969, Oliver was unavailable for an Interview.
Details on this business were not available in outside quarters: One
outside source reported that operations are currently in the formative stages.
Incorporated in Nevada Nov | 1968; authorized capital, $500,000. MICHAEL
OLIVER, born 1920, married. 1965 to starting this concern, engaged in lanc
development, as an officer in Oliver-Boza Corporation. Prior 
to that, was
associated with the Philco Corp. in Palo Alto, Calif. Prior 
to that, 
employed
by Volt Tech Corp., at San Diego. The directors are residents 
of the State
of CVlifornia; antecedent informationis not currently available
.
Operates in the land development field. Full scope of operations not
learned. There are no employs apart from the officers. LOCATION: Headquarters
are maintained at Oliver's residence,
-Mh.M.Oliver
3-19 (200c 6).
3.4
owned
inj
Cincluding offers
THIS REPORT MAY NOT
REPRI DUCED
IN
WHOLE
OR IN
PART
IN ANY FORM
OR MANNIA
અને
પોતof
516
DUN-S
65 52
OLIVER ROSA CORP
O PURA INC.
STARTED
RADIG
CƆ 48 APR 28 1971-
LAND DEVELOPMENT
1965
2089 EL RANCHO DR
CARSON CITY NEV 89701
TEL 702 882-2483
MICHAEL OLIVER, PRES
FRANK ROSA, JR, V PRES
BETTY S (MRS. M) OLIVER, SEC-TREAS
DIRECTORS: The Officers and Robert R Johnson
SUMMARY
UNDETERMINED
PAYMENTS
EMPLOYS 4 .
RECORD INCOMPLETE
PAYMENTS
FINANCE
Suppliers for this operation were not located during current.
Investigation
. Oliver's personal 
payments record is satisfactory?
On April 28, 1971 officers were absent.
Reporter estimates are:
Real estate
$ 290,000'
REAL ESTATE
Residence of Olivers
House, San Diego
TITLE
Oliver/Wife
Oliver/Wife
VALUE
$23,000
15,000
BANKING
HISTORY
OPERATION
Further current financial estimates are unavailable. Concerning a
personal 
statement of Michael 
Oliver, dated April 1968, total assets were
listed at $348,400 and net worth at $318,003. 
Net worth of Oliver centered
heavily in real estate.
Operations of the concern appear to be profitable. Full extent of
operations
, unknown. Fire insurance 
details not learned. Business is well
ostablished and affairs appear 
to be kept in order.
Bank facility not learned.
Incorporated Nevada on Nov 5 1965, authorized capital $200,000 with
20,000 
shares at $10 per share.
M OLIVER born 1920, married. Was associated with the Philco Corp in
Palo 
Alto, Calif. Prior to that, 
employed by Volt Tech. Corp at San
Diego. is presently also the 
president of a Vanguard Corp.
B OLIVER born 1925, 
married. Is bookkeeper of concern.
Antecedents of 
Rosa Jr. and Johnson lacking.
RELATED CONCERN: Vanguard Corp. same address, established 1968,
oporates 
also in land development
. Extent of Inter-company relations
unlearned..
Operates in the land development field. Business non-seasonal.
Employs 
4 including directors. 
LOCATION: Headquarters are maintained at
Oliver's residence, owned by Mr and Mrs 
M Oliver.
4-28 (88c 3)
314
THIS REPORT MAY NOT
DE REPRODUCED IN WHOLE
OR IN PART IN ANY FORM OR MANNER WHATEVER.
A de

14-0000
CMF 0
SECRET
STAFF
CONF:
01
ACE
OUTGOING MESSAGE
SIGNAL CENTER USE ONLY
10>
ALF
0 0 0 0 0
20-3
Ealco4
☐ RETURN TO
0
་
0 NO COSE
ELLE
DATE-TIME GROUP
2223237
CITE
DIRECTOR
INFO: THE IP/AN EAY EA/NOY LSN/ID
LSN/MIL C/OPS cilop2
TO: HONG KONG, INFO BANGKOK, SAIGON.
TAPPER/CO STRYLIC
REFS: A.
HONG KONG 30865 (IN 1636871
B. SAIGON 74819 TIN 1641691
C.
SAIGON 74809 IN 1632861
D..
BANGKOK 55098 (IN 165474|
CF
3
MESSAGE REFERENCE HUM
516809
DISSEM BY: 47
PER.
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Aile
E. SAIGON 74890 |IN 166221|
1. HQS FILES CONTAIN FOLLOWING ON BENNETT B. BINTL IF F.
(201-885931), SUBJECT OF REF A REQUEST:
A. EARLY APR 1971, DEPARTMENT OF ARMY VIA INTERAGENCY SOURCE
REGISTER EXPRESSED OPS INTEREST IN SINTLIFF AS A "SOURCE ASSET" IN-
VOLVED IN ARMY OPERATION 1201-02, ACTIVATED 25 MAR 1964, WHICH WAS
THE CONUS FIELD STATION, A SUBORDINATE ELEMENT OF U.S. ARMY FIELD
ACTIVITIES COMMAND. HOWEVER, ARMY DROPPED ITS INTEREST IN BINTLIFF
WITHOUT PREJUDICE 13 OCT 1972. DPOE LISTED AS 17 FEB 1928, AUSTIN,
TEXAS. CINTLIFF ALSO LISTED AS PRESIDENT, QUANTUM CORP., 444 MADISON,
NEW YORK, AND VICE PRESIDENT, MILITARY ARMAMENT CORP., L'ENFANT PLAZA
N. WASHINGTON, D.C.
DATE:
ORIG:
. UNIT:
EXT:
3.3
File in 201-259910
RELEASING OFFICER
COORDINATING Quiricies
REPRODUCTION BY OTHER THAN THE ISSUING OFFICE IS PROHIBITED
SECRET.
AUTHENTICATING OFFICER
E 2
IMPOET
CL BY: 5127,
14-00000
OUTGOING
SIGNAL CENTE USE ONLY
ACP
OMFO
CANON
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MASSAGE HANDLING INDICATOR
0
Ima
20
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CONF:
INFO: FILE
☐ IOE
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2.
DATE-TIME GU
A-
10/18
NATE
FACE 516-809
or
PAGES
Mayklick
MASSAGEPARENCE HUNGAR
DISSEM BY:
PER
#
B. BINTLIFF, AT ONE TIME, WAS AN OFFICIAL OF SIONICS CORP.
1655 PEACH TREE STREET, N.E., ATLANTA, GEORGIA, WHICH LISTS MITCHELL
201-259910
L. WERBELL III AS VICE PRESIDENT. (WERBELLY ON WHOM HQS HAS LENGTHY:
201 FILE, IS CHARACTERIZED AS AMERICAN ADVENTURER, UNSCRUPULOUS
WHEELER DEALER, AND PROMOTER OF GRANDIOSE SCHEMES. WERGELL WAS IN-
VOLVED IN GUNRUNNING AND MERCENARY VENTURES IN CUBA, DOMINICAN RE-
LAND FALSELY
PUBLIC, SOUTH VIETNAM AND THAILAND IMPLYING BKHERALD CONNECTIONS.)
BINTLIFF AND WERBELL WERE INVOLVED IN FUNDING MERCENARY EXPEDITION ON
ABACO ISLAND, BAHAMAS. (WERBELL 201 FILE}
C. FBI REPORT MM1DS-21382, 17 JULY 1973, INDICATES BINTLIFF
NOW OWNER OF DEFENSE SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL, POWDER SPRINGS, GEORGIA,
WHOSE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR IS PAUL J. ROUTHIER, A RE-
TIRED U.S. AIR FORCE LT. COL. AND WERBELL'S SON-IN-LAW.
2. RE BBRW FIRM MENTIONED IN REF C, CHECK OF ATLANTA TELEPHONE
DIRECTORY SHOWS LISTING FOR BINTLIFF, BAYARD, ROUTHIER, WERBELL AND
CO., ATLANTA, GEORGIA, WHICH LISTS SAME ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER
AS DEFENSE SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL (DSI}; DSI ALSO HAS ADDRESS LISTING
AT 4321 MACLAND-DALLAS, POWDER SPRINGS, GEORGIA, WHICH IS RESIDENCE
' DATE:'
ORIG:
UNIT:
EXT:
MELEASING OFFICER
REPRO
COORD NATING OFFICERS
CTION BY OTHER THAN THE ISSUING OFFICE I
AUTHENTICATING OFFICES
'OHIBITED
E 2
IMPDET
CL BY:
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SIGNAL CENTEUSE
ec
F00
ก
THE
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INDE
516309
201-254910 have
DISSEM BY:
PER
#
CLAIMED BY BINTLIFF AND UERBELL. as all. Check-22mari2.
3.
WHAT LITTLE INFO HAS HAS RE BINTLIFF IS INCONCLUSIVE; HOW-
EVER, IF JUDGMENTS CAN BE MADE BY COMPANY HE KEEPS, DEALINGS WITH HIM
SHOULD BE APPROACHED WITH CAUTION. WHILE ABOVE BACKGROUND INFO ON
BINTLIFF AND WERBELL CANNOT BE PASSED TO LIAISON BECHASE OF THEIR U.S.
CITIZENSHIP, STATION CAN PASS STRYLIC PARA 20 TELEPHONE DIRECTORY
INDICATE
INFO AND THAT BINTLIFF HAS UNSAVORY CONNECTIONS AND MAY FALSELY CLAIM
U.S. GOVT AFFILIATIONS.
4. FILE:
201-885931. E2, IMPDET.N
DATE: 21 FEB. 74.
ORIG: JOSEPH MARRA/RVU
UNIT CH/HTH
Ex 6770/1968
ROBERT D. BROWN. JR.
AC/EA
Py
EA/TBL/T: ROBERT SAVAGE/DRAFT/
EA/VNÓ/SVN: BRUCE RUBEN/DRAFT/
LSN/ISR: EVERETT GARNES/DRAFT/
3.3
TrannINGERS
JAMES H. KELLY JR.
DCEA/CH
A office
E 2
IMPDET
CL BY: 59271.
LES: PIEDER
- CLASSEN ATUN
REPRODUCTION BY OTHER THAN THE ISSUING OFFICE IS PROHIBITED
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0000
UNCLASSIFIED
RNAL
✓ ONLY
☐ CON: ENTIAL
SECRET.
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
EXTENSION
NO
Case 61168
CATE
SUBJECT: Optional
Sensitive
FROM:TIC COLLECTION DIVISION
Support Branch/Operational Support Section
Room 900, Key Building - ext. 2263
Mr. Evan, Ames
TO: O designation, room number, and
building;
DATE :
OFFICER'S
INITIALS
RECEIVED
FORWARDED
1.
2.
3.
C/WH/7/C
3 B 0001 Hqs.
Furth
DC/WA/7
Selman
الجنة
B
.6.
Euston
7.
8.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
FORM
3-82
Fouch
Ectivit
- file
610 US PREVIOUS
EDITIONS
SECRET
J
22 January 1974
COMMENTS Number each comment to show from whom
to whom. Draw a line across column cher each comment.}
Attached report was sent
in by DCD/Miami. A cony
has been passed to WH Station
in Miami.
(MIM-00-E-324/00268-74)
2 to 30 4:
this type of should
it puced to the 
FBT us
"DCD don't do it. - 20
it? he had
louds of hips.
sulizer
on all the
Enth
in this regt
No. But auserve
if need bo
189-9-1 w/sheet with OPS/LIAS
help, that
DCD does
E-2 IMPOET CL BY 007622
appropriat
disse
whatever
ola.
11
3.2
St
CONFIDENTIAL
☐
INTERNAL
USE ONLY
UNCLASSIFIED
400000
RE: Current Bahamian Situation
At Miami, Florida
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
December 9,
1973
Interim Report
12/3/73 - 12/9/73
Period of
Resuits of the Inquiry:
The following people were contacted by the writer:
Jay Mallin (December 3, 1973.) Mallin states that to the
best of his knowledge there are only two groups known to be active in the
Abaco Movement--the group that Werbel (Mitchell Livingston Werßel III) is.
associated with and a group being headed up by a Bob Brown.
Brown is currently in Washington and is about to return to his home
which is in Boulder, Colorado. Mallin indicated that if anything were about
to occur Brown would certainly be in the Miami area.
He has
Brown is a white American and an ex-Special Forces type.
formed a group of ex-Special Forces Specialists that in Mallin's opinion
"could really raise Hell." Brown, according to Mallin, has been working for
Chuck Hall. However, Hall is also aligned with Werbel.
3.2
14-00
=2
Mallin states
ball of the planning sessions r Brown's group
have been held in the living room of Mallin's Coral Gables home.
Brown's group is all white but he has been in contact with some of
the local Blacks in Abaco. The Blacks have had no formal training nor do
they possess the proper weapons for any sizable operation. In order to
obtain weapons and training the Blacks have made friendly overtures to Brown's
group.
Mallin stated that some of the local Blacks could move on their own
but he believes that it would be highly unlikely.
Mallin speculated that U.S. Maffa money may be being spent in the
Bahamas in order to finance the overthrow of Pindling's government to stop
the seizure of the casinos. He did not have any evidence to substantiate the
theory.
In answer to a direct question from the writer Mallin further commented
that Paul Bethal is totally out of the Abaco situation. Bethal's only role,
according to Mällin, was the one meeting he arranged for WerBel, Hall, a Michael
Lightbourne (Phonetic) and George Wackenhut. Bethal, Mallin further stated,
trys to give people the impression that he has very high level connections
including members of the National Security Council and that he prepares papers
and other briefings for the Council. Mallin states that this is not true, that
Bethal in fact has no such contacts.
Mallin went on to say that Werbel would not get involved with anything
that would jeopardize his U.S. government contracts especially the sale of
his silencer to the Army. In addition, according to Mallin, Werbel is a CIA
informant and would advise the Agency of his activities. On December 9, 1973,
Mallin was recontacted by the writer. Chuck Hall travels to Miami a great
deal and contacts Mallin when he does. Mallin said his last contact with Hall
was about two months ago. Hall's supporters are mainly white although
3.2
24-00000
there are a couple of { cks.
Hall is publishing a min ,raphed newsletter
under the name on the Abaco Independent Movement.
Mailin indicated that, "the whites cannot do anything in Abaco
without everyone knowing about it."
There has been a series of thefts of weapons in the Bahamas and
Mallin believes that Black militants could possibly be involved. Mallin
further believes that there may in fact be a Black militant group operating in
the Abaco area.
Mallin stated that, "WerBel's bringing in of Colin Mitchell was just
lot of noise." He went on to say Mitchell did not accomplish anything.
David W. Wike, Associate Security Director, University of Miami.
Wike has not heard of any unusual activity in the Bahamas. In answer to a
direct question from the writer Wike stated that the only member of the Uni-
from
versity community known to be travelling to the Bahamas frequently is a
student who is a suspected narcotics dealer. Also, no prominent Bahamian
I personalities or members of their families are known to be attending the
University.
John L. Curtin, Dade County Public Safety Department.
Curtin
states that, "the trouble has been building for the last six to eight months."
He believes a direct assault would have to be made on Nassau itself in
order to accomplish the desired objective of stopping the seizure of the
casinos. Curtin further stated that the Mafia has been "buying guns like
crazy." On. December 5, 1973, Curtin was recontacted due to the fact that
he had dinner with a prominent Bahamian businessman who is known to be in
the lumber business. This businessman is white but is well liked by the
Blacks in the Bahamas. His identity is unknown to the writer.
3.2
14-000
7
staffer
.
This business stated that, there is definite] increased activity
but that no specific date for any overt action has been mentioned.
This businessman believes that Mafia money is an important factor and
•
that Blacks will be hired to do the actual fighting if there is any fighting.
He views the casing issue as the crucial one. He believes Blacks who are
opportunistic will seize upon the casino issue to obtain weapons and money
from the Mafia and attempt to seize power.
Dr. Cavid Cartano, Sociology Instructor, University of Miami.
Cartano was contacted due to his being a past member of the Institute for the
Study of Change, When he first became associated with the Institute he
was introduced by Wallin as being a Bahamian specialist.
Cartano could not contribute anything pertinent to this inquiry. He
has not renewed his contacts in the Islands in over one year's time. He does
have two Bahamian students in one of his classes but neither of them has
mentioned anything of any significance. He doubts their value as sources.
Gordon 0. Rothwell, Chief of Security, Sheraton Four Ambassadors
Hotel. Rothwell could not contribute anything pertinent to this inquiry. In
addition no prominent Bahamians are presently or have been recently in the
hotel.
W. Bruce Wrightson, Chief of Security, Sheraton Royal Biscayne
Hotel. No prominent Bahamians are presently or have been recently in the
hotel.
A confidential local law enforcement source indicated that
an attorney in West Palm Beach is selling automatic weapons. He is free
lancing and has a small warehouse with two separate alarm systems installed.
on the warehouse.
.3.2
24-00000
ATTH
SECRET
CIA INTERNAL USE ONLY
Chief, Miami Field Office
Mr. Bruce Kaloaring
Chief, Domestic Collection Division (Support Branch/089)
Mitchell 'L. Worbell, III
035-44-74
8 January 1974
1.. To have reviewed subject's 201 file for additional information.
Subject was of interest to this Agency in 1959 and was granted a
Put in August of that year. This was cancelled in October 1959 when
This information proved to be of little value and because it was
suspected he was using Agency funds to promote his personal interests.
o has subsequently attempted to pass himself off as an Agency
employee. Ho is characterized by the file as unscrupulous, a
lealer and a promoter of grandiose schemes. The subject
under investigation in 1973 by both the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms and the United States Customs Service for
activities relating to possible mercenary activities in Abaco Island,
2. If the subject should contact your office again, wo
suggest you accept whatever information he has to offer but make no
further commal twents concerning Agency contact. Subject is well
known to the appropriate Desk and is of extremoly doubtful
character.
3. We trust this memorandus will provide you with useful
information concerning this subject. Thank you for bringing his
came to our attention.
SPRyan for Ames/b
Cc: Pervices Br. (Control)
IP Pilos
FILE:
FD3-29819
21
JACKSON R. HOHITON
SECRET
CAN INTERNAL UNE LILY
8-2 DEDAY CL BY 010630
20-257710
DCD me to
Miami filld
office.
dated Janity