SUBJECT: MITCHELL LIVINGSTON WERBELL
Originator: CIA
Document date: 05/27/1970
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

## Page 1

14-00000

104-10256-10407

2022 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

27 Aruy

19%6

SUBJECT: Mitchell Livingston WerBell

1. Subject is a 52-year-old, native-born American who served

on military assignment with the Office of Strategic Services from

approximately July to December of 1945 with primary service in the

China-Burma-India theatre. Following his military /OSS service,

Subject entered into a variety of short-term business activities, most

of which were characterized by his unorthodox business practices.

There is no indication that he has ever been employed by the Agency.

2.

There is considerable evidence in Subject's file that be was

looked upon with strong suspicion by several Government agencies,

including the Bureau of Customs and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

for alleged arms smuggling in a number of South American countries,

as well as his apparent involvement with several revolutionary groups

and Castro assassination schemes. Office of Security records disclose

that Subject is generally categorized as a con man, unscrupulous, a

wheeler-dealer and a promoter of grandiose schemes.

3. In July 1959 Subject apparently volunteered his services to

the Western Hemisphere Diviaion and was seriously considered for

use as an informant on revolutionary activities in Cuba and the

Dominican Republic. During the period that Subject's Operational

information, all of which were judged to have little value. In

October 1959, WH Division decided to drop all operational interest

in the Subject since they became convinced that his real aim in working

for CIA was to use Agency funds to promote his personal interests.

---

## Page 2

14-00000

4. In February 1967 the Domestic Contact Service advised that

Subject frequently volunteered information to their Miami Office and

was going to be asked to respond to certain OSI requiremente pertaining

to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and other selected areas. However,

it is not known that Subject was approached in this regard, and the DCS

was provided with information relating to his dubtous character.

5. In August 1967 Subject came to Agency attention when he

attempted to interest a group of military officers in a weapon silencer

he had supposedly developed for the M-16 rifle. One of these officers

was actually a representative of TSD servicing under cover who

reported that Subject had no reservations about imposing hirself on

anyone in order to achieve his aims.

6. Subject was mentioned extensively in an article on Independent

arms dealers appearing in the January 1968 issue of True magazine,

and he reportedly made statements that the CLA and the DIA would

protect him in case he got into diffleulty. Based on Subject's statements,

the Munitions Control Board asked the Agency whether we had any

interest in him. The case was summarised for the benefit of the

Deputy Director for Support on 11 January 1968, and the reply to the

Munitions Control Board was provided by the Office of Logistics.

.7. Office of Security recorda reflect that a Department of

Defense representative reviewed Subject's security file in March 1968,

at which time we continued to receive reports that Subject was

representing himself as a ClA employee. In May 1969 information.

was received from an Air Force OSI representative in Miami, Florida,

that Subject was undergoing a security clearance check as a regult of

his being employed by a company with a Government contract. At

about the same time Saigon Station requested a Headquarters "bona

fides" check on Subject, who was then employed by Sionics, Inc.; '

and he advised OSI that he was affiliated with ClA. The Station was

tniormed of Subject's backgroud as an unscrupulous con-man.

8. On 26 May 1969 (Bangkok) Station generated a cable with

extensive distribution in the Far East outlining Subjoct's activities

---

## Page 3

14-011000

in his alleged capacity as Chief of CIA in Thailand. It was mentioned

that the Station had been plagued for some weeks by Subject, Vice

President and Director Research and Development for Sionics, Atlanta,

Georgia. Subject reportedly describes himself as a counter-insurgency

expert, has a variety of weapons to display and claims to be a retired

Colonel. He normally implies United States Government connections

and he presents a demonstration of a variety of exotic weapons that

never fails to impress. Reportedly Subject had visited Vietnam in

order to provide General Abrams with such a demonstration of weapons,

and it was stated that he planned on setting up a sniper training program.

9. The Washington Post of 3 December 1969 contains an extensive

article on Subject, who was under Federal investigation for receiving

guns shipped from Vietnam through Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

The article mentions that two years previously Subject was indicted

on charges of violating a Federal law forbidding the preparation of a

military expedition against a friendly nation from American territory.

10. The Washington Post of 22 February 1970 contalre an article

which indicated that Lt. Colonel PaulA. Mariott of Eglin Air Force

Base was cleared of any illegal actions in connection with the shipment

of captured weapons from Vietnam. The Subject is quoted as having

said that his firm, Sionics, Inc., had arranged for the shipment to

the United States through Eglin Air Force Base, supposed for Air

Force use in museums.

11. The Washington Evening Star of 26 February 1970 contains a

story dealing with the charges that the Columbia Broadcasting System

had contributed $80, 000 to a 1966 plot to invade Halti. Subject was

identified as one of the "leading figures" in the deal, and he was

described as a munitions dealer linked to clandertine operations in

Latin America. He reportedly was hired by CBS as a consultaht for

the invasion story, receiving $1, 500. 00 an a down payment.

12. True magazine of April 1970 contains an article by Andrew

St. George entitled, "The Mafia vs the CLA", which alleges to be

the story of the struggle of two invisible governments for the control

of Haiti. Subject is mentioned in the article as a "munitions merchant"

who cooperated with the investigation being conducted by the magazine.

---