WERBELL-MILITARY ARMAMENT CORPORATION, POWDER SPRINGS, GEORGIA; SUBSIDIARY OF ENVIRONMENTAL INDUSTRIES, INC., WASHINGTON , D.C.-ALLEGED CIA INVOLVMENT.
Originator: CIA
From: EDMUND X. KLIPA SPEC AGENT IN CHARG
To: ASST DEPUTY DIRECTOR/IOS
Document date: 11/05/1970
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

## Page 1

104-10256-10076

:*

ROUTING SLIP

DATE

5155,970

TO

FROM

SUBJECT:

altered nes.

CASE NO.:

REMARKS

The attached was unsolicient

It as feston sendich whe

ish school

(40)

---

## Page 2

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TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY:

5 November 1970

MEMORANDUM FOR: Assistant Deputy Director/IOS

SUBJECT

: Military Armament Corporation,

Powder Springs, Georgia; Subsidiary of

Environmental Industries, Inc.,

Washington, D. C. - alleged CIA

Involvement

1. On 3 November 1970, T. Preston HENDRICK, Washington,

D. C. District Manager, Dun and Bradstreet, Inc., (DOD Contract

an extremely valuable WFO information source, contacted

Special Agent David W. GLASS, Jr, 'by telephone and said he had a

matter which he thought, in the interest of national security, we possibly

might be interested in looking into. He briefly explained the problem

which had come to his attention from Dun & Bradstreet's Atlanta, Georgia

Office, and it was agreed that Special Agent(GLASS would meet with him

in his office the following day.

2. On 4 November 1970, Mr. HENDRICK gave Special Agent

CLAsS the attached xerox copies of an informal memo dated 20 October

1970 from D&B's Atlanta, Georgia Office, Subject: Environmental

Industries, Inc. (Exhibit 1); a D&B Business Information Report dated

9 September 1970 on Military Armament Corporation, Powder Springs,

Georgia, representing a subsidiary of Environmental Industries, Washing-

ton, D. C. (Exhibit 2); and a ten page article from the August 1970 issue

of "Atlanta"' Magazine (Exhibit 3). HENDRICK commented that this article

(Exhibit 3) has no by-line heading, and no mention of the author's name

and is written in such a manner as to imply an association between CIA

and the principal of Military Armament Corporation Mr. Mitchell L.

WERBELL 1L.

---

## Page 3

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3. Mr. HENDRICK noted that the attached memorandum

from the D&B Atlanta Office (Exhibit 1) is self-explanatory, but

added that the Atlanta Office is receiving a lot of inquiries on both

of the companies. The D&B Report (Exhibit 2) is the first and only

such report yet produced by Dun & Bradstreet's Atlanta Office. The

Dun & Bradstreet Washington, D. C. Office has had no other require-

ments for information on the local company, Environmental Industries,

Inc. However, the D&B Washington Office, in response to the D&B

Atlanta Office request for information, has so far ascertained only

that Environmental Industries located at 955 L'Enfant Plaza S. W.,

-Washington, D. C. ostensibly is a one room type operation with a

telephone (554-9572) and one female employee who would not identify

herself; this person told D&B's investigator that he should not have .come

there-that everything about both firms had to come from Powder Springs,

Georgia.

4. Mr. HENDRICK said his first impression after the article

(Exhibit 3) was that the comments involving CIA "were ridiculous, pre-

posterous, and were written by a nut who is as nutty as Mitchell L.

WERBELL II seems to be"

', however, as a citizen he (HENDRICK) °3

did not want to take any chances and decided to call Special Agent David

W. GLASS. HENDRICK also thought it conceivable that fraud might

possibly be involved, but indicated that he has not mentioned this matter

to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

5. Mr. HENDRICK said that at some point he will have to

respond to Atlanta's request for information on Environmental Industries,

Inc. either by saying the Washington Office is not going to write a report

or stating an opinion that the information in the "Atlanta" Magazine article

seems completely ridiculous. Mr. HENDRICK indicated to Special Agent

0 GLASS, that if at all possible he would appreciate some guidelines - it

nothing more than sending the D&B Atlanta Office a xerox copy of the

National Security Agency Act and CIA Mission as described in the United

States Government Manual or some other public document. HENDRICK

made it clear he was passing all above information to us on a completely

informal unofficial basis and indicated he realized it is possible confirma-

tion or denial of implied CIA interest may not be possible.

EDMUND X. KLIPA

Special Agent in Charge

- 2 -

---

## Page 4

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Durf & Bradstreet, InC. IMTAR-ONRICE MAMO

LEPENTING

TO.

• FROM

BUBIKET

ENUIRONMENTAL INDUSTRIe INC

FOR

AlR

AlL • CHECK HERE.

once bit HarolD Call

BIGNATURI

DATE DeT 20,120

POWDER SPRINGS, (TA

WE ARE NOT ABLE TO CONFiRM THIS BEANEN

DUE TU THE ABSENCE OF INFORMATION, WHICH WAS DECLINED BY

IE PRINCIPRES IN HILANTA, WE REPOSE ENRONMENTAL

DUSTRIES TO BE HEADQUARTERED IN WASNINGTON DC, MITI

FOLD

JACK

AT PONDER: SERINES, GAS

QUa ONLy SOURCE if INFENMATION MAN BEEN A

LOCAL PUBLICATION, NETICE STATES THAT ENUIRONMENTAL INDUSTRIE

A SUBSIDIAY OF ANiTNER NUDIVUEREO CUNCERN AT THAT LOCA-

TUNE A COPY DE THE MORORE IN IS PUBLICATION I REINENCUSE

19L-42 (681007)

• CONTINUID ON REVIRSE

---

## Page 5

14-00000

SIC

1911

QUEUECT, BUSINESS INFORMAN@WREPORT MES

D-U-N-S

@ DUN. & BRADSTREET, INC.

STARTED

RATING

04-969-3849

MILITARY ARMAMENT CORP

VOR 69 SEFT 9 1970 (FU 10-81

MFR GUNS

1970

(Subsidiary of Environmental

Industries, Inc., Washington; D.C.J

RT #3

P.0. BOX 168

SUMMARY

POWDER SPRINGS

GA

30073

TEL 404 943-3574

PAYMENTS

EMPLOYS

RECORO

UNDETERMINED

12

INCOMPLETE

MITCHELL L. WERBELL, 111, PRINCIPAL

PAYMENTS

FINANCE

HISTORY

Trade references declIned.

On Sept 9 1970, Mitchell L. Werbell, 111, principal, declined any

and all Information.

Investigation of outside quarters falled to reveal any..

detalls.

An analysis by reporter is Impossible due to the

lack of Informa-

tion.

A check with public records has been initiated, and will be published

upon sompietion.

Incorporated Cobb County, Georgle on luly 1 1970

authorized capitai

1,000,000 shares of common stock at no par value;

Paid in capital £1,000.

WERBELL, 111, born about 1918, married,

reperredly was previousiy associated

with Sionics,

inc., Atlanta,

Ga.

Also appeared as owner of Mitchell L.

Herbell Advertising, Atlanta.

OPERATION

at this time.

Subject manutastures guns used In variare. Sales aro made to the j. s.

Covernment and foreign cousinmenis.

Reporter estimates 20 accounts.

i, including sificers.

LOCATION:" Operations condicted from ou acre estates

owned by Mitchell L. ivorbell, 11l.

9-25 (32

OR MANNER WHATEVER.

---

## Page 6

ROBERS AGADING THE SCRIPT

570R 2-26-10

The Story of CBS and the Plot to Invade Haiti

TSy GU'S CONSTINTINE

Sir Stalf Wither

sion plaits in the pth.d "any

House! Commerce Committee

ip to incestigate broadeast lI-

said in an interview.

casting under the Communica-

The Colombia Broadcasting

Asked whether the networks

ystem tus been accused 1il

• had

The freport, which was pre-

Snowidege

that

law.

Lions sCi.

munes ia! flouse subcommit

vas

bring violated, Salant

pared i for the subcommitlee

Saac: said he sould wel.

start report of contributing.

said:

last June 20, caused some

Corte

¡use is 5a0,000 to in 1966 plot

"I Juire involved in filmi

agonizing in the Commerce

state public hearings "at this

Horteier, he said, "I'd

Committee: over whether to

Lare greater bope for such

•i invade Maiti.

ing,

at: and trining exercis:

Lecording to the report, CBS

C's.

do Tously you have knowl

call a public hearing.

meanings getting at the truth i

wey could

be held in a forum

obtsited exclusive

edge on a liolation of law. But

Information in the report led

Fights to film dated t higents

our siteral

position is that

to subpoening of CBS films,

Last ofters the opportunity for

cross-examination.

of arms and tramme sites of

where the violation is gencral-

financial records and logs in

the

ly Brien, or there is reason to

connection with the invasion

Ise Invasion finally was bro

plottes sparctory

iming the invacion Maelf

bellero that law enforcement

attempt.

Executive

sessions

Len up by customs agents on

Jan. 2, 1937, in a raid at Coco

It siso charges runt. the not

aguncies know about it, then

were held at which CBS per-

*era tas doc: trendy to hide

We proceed without notifying

sonnel testified.

Plum

Beach, Fla. CBS had

as intrament to that it.toes

them.

In their report, stalf mem-

ended its involvement the pre-

Salant said CBS News': ex-

bers of the Special Investiga-

rious November.

tions

reporting the meant, too Kederal

penditure

for the

"Haitian

subcommittee accused

Seven men were indicted by

project" was between Stad,00o

CBS

of irresponsibility and

a Eraud jury as ringleaders of

said

thie network may have

the ples.

Sis of them were

Pittend

Salsat, presidont. of

ass, contined in New

Masterday that.

"COS

deas Almed Matroning ac-

vities and training escrcises

as part ot an ustigative re

it on the activities ni Cu-

dn-Hation exile groups."

Bul ne denied ihat the net-

work hoped dinance the inva-

and $170,000.

this

"About $150,000

ot

went for

extornal

violated six federal statutes,

tried and convicted in Noveni-

Costs--travel, board,

Juriging

-AP

inchiding the Neutrality Act,

Ser 1957,

while the charges

the Munitions Control Law, the

agains:

the

seventh: were

and payments to non-staif per-

RICHARD S. SALANT

sonnel," he said.

3though CBS has

been

linked to the invasion attempt

in corlier news accounts; de-.

tails of the network's involve-

ment have never been dis

«'é,

closed. The invasion itself nev-

er came off.

"This committee has an ex-

cellent picture of what took

place,"

a member

of

the

Communications Act of 1934

dropped by the Justice Depart-

and seycrat firearms laws.

ment.

There

an, appeal

"The i probers recommended

panding in New Orleans, Mos

that the network be called to

According to the Commerce

public account in open heari

subcommittee staft report, the

ings

before the Commerce

Plot was hatched early in 1966

Committee, which has authori:

Sce CBS,

Päge: A-5

---

## Page 7

Dininican Repillle,

i as a grunging utt

ict to sunke at Cula.

Tie

reporl cantends

CBS

irard about it in March 1966,

rued in April to film inva-

preparations,.

including

13041.5

slipachts and cach-

mad did so in June and it

11!1e:5.

Il Turther can-

i thad the network moul mp;

tsand the rental offa

1o surve as the luvasion

rollero riset 4sd

in dogurt.

1ri18r01%: 1t1r

lent be orgaritivel.

Male lue poull muta agrily rosa

Misedanid

Hold called mind delud the loo

En: Longs developed boy dile

mething smelly fill wes

were being had Salant said.

S4200T

Leading Figures

The Icading "aclors" in the r

ovasion" drama, according

i the staff report, were.

Rolando Masferter Rojas, a

year-old Cuban right-winger

own as "The Tiger." He

stroller. a privalc army in

iba when Fulgencio Batista

was dictator.

The Rev.

Jean: Baptiste

¡enages, a Catholic priest and

Aloimer caucarion

minister

ankler Harlian President Fran-

cois Duvalier. yari

• John Aton Constanzo-Pelau,!

a Cuban conspirator. who al-

legedly assisted CBS in its:

filming. He was recently shot

in Miamt p

• Julio Cesar Hormila, a Cu-y

wan who lost an eye while par-

tidipating in the filming of in

vision training.

Mitchell Wer Bel Ill, a mu-

iritions dealer linked to clan

inste opcrations and up

hdaval in Latin Amcrica. He:

ras hired by CBs as a con-?

saitart for the invasion slory.

ToMaller, CBS produc-

invasion slory.

Ankles:s

Si.

Cicorge,

celince writer who lippedi!

CBS on the invasion plans

and ass tired by une work

associate producer

and

writer of the story. I

James Wiison, a CBS cam

¿giman who informed fedcral

Chorities of the

invasion

ans.

Wasn te

Wer Bell was on location 5,

were immigration agents, iris

called to check on Masterer's

Whereabouts:

Mastarer was

and cowits barrel

one ohan withing the

cordin

A CES

craman

James

Wilson, contacted CLA agents

in Houston while on a space

shot assignment, the report

Says.

The CIA informea the FB

who called on Wilson andre

terred him to U.S. Customs s

Promethat noint on, accord

chac lor

issistan

customs:

Wailed lores laternaticl

loando Manferter (left) and Fither Jean

Kapoleste ficurgo.

i pioner

Hunt on:

deto

Anes mid the threct one

titorton attcunts

go stanicy eschacter

assistan

customs agent in charge of en

forcement at Miami, who kept

track of the untolding invasion

scheme.

Plans Outlined

licyclance

duced in the report

as the con

tacte who

approäched & Me-

Mulen in

March y 1966.

*St

Georges 1s

said to have told

McMullen of the preparation

for a Hailian invasion, and

asked il CBS was still interest.

ed in illegal munitions move

The subcommittee report

says CBS' association with the

Wer Bell, identified in the

conspirators began in March

staff report as a man with a

1966.

background in arms sales to

The conspiracy took shape

initially as just one more Latin

Latin

governments, is intro-

duced by

. St. George to Mc-;

intrigue in Florida to topple.

Mullen in April at Wer Bell's:

the regime of Cuba's Fidel

r home in Powder Springs, Ga.

Castro.

McMullen,

said the report,

In this instance,

the plan:

was told of Wer Bell's efforts

called for Masferrer to be in-:

to find a sultable base in the

stalled as chief of-Cuba while

Domincian Republic for Mas-

Father Georges took over Hai-

ferrer to launch his invasion.

ti, provided a two-stage inva-

sion was successful...ov

CBS

enters the picture

Price Tag Cited

•through VicMulien, a producer

McMullen-was-also told, ac--

eager to film arms-smuggling 1x

cording to. the report, that for.

activities. The special subcom-

a price, exclusive CBS filming

mittee's

chief: investigator,

of clandestine

arms: ship

James P. Kelly, himseli a for-

ments, training exercises and

mer CBS employe, is suid to

the actual invasion could be

have worked

on

a project

arranged.

with McMullen in 1965 to film

McMulien

agreed to pay

illegal export of surplus fight-

close to $80,000

for: these

er aircrait. That project was

rights,

the report says, and

dropped.

CBS hired St. George as asso

ciate producer and writer of

the invasion story.

As a down

George delivere lyment,

St.

to Wer Belan

51,500 given to nim by we

Mulen, the report says.. y

In June, McMullen brought a

film" crew to

a Miami house

belonging to Masferrer's

brother. An arms cache was !

photographed there and in oth

croresides in he kame vis

oNtA

ers

fundst

ECBS,

and St. George wase Biven

moncy. by -McMullen to pay

them, the report says. It mey.

tions, sums.

totaling.

alniest

78,000 tonimasterrer

Wer Bell:

sa typ

spire the

troops and

Julio

$500:- to

Atoa: Constanzo-Pelau,

another conspirators who dou

bled as film assistant for CBS.

A Comic Turned

Now the narrative shifts to

New-Jersey and takes a come

turn, ge

305a

McMullen is told he can pho:

tograph a Shinment "ot. weap

ons;

Irom stre shich Hunding

Lodge on Rt, 45 to Florida. He

pays

Masterrer, $380 for, the

story "but the story fails to

maicrialize. In the mix-up, the.

car carrying the weanons los

es contact with the CBS'tilm

crew, according to the report

Later, a van carrying wear

ons from New York to Florida

breaks down in Macon, Ga.,

and the driver has only $15 in

cash. CBS provides financial

help and. a 1965 Mercury stil-

tion wagon 15 sent to Macon in

complete the trip;

R theirport.

says on

McMullens then pays,

Bell $3,000 toward rental of a

yacht, - the

Poor Richard,

which would the the invasion

ataly

E6/:

---

## Page 8

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COS suid yesterday it paid

Tier Neil

$1,500 fut

the toat.

Bulant said.

"I understand it

sas to be the invasion boat.

We were going to be on it. The

money was for board and lodg-

ing. Another $1,500 was paid

for a second yacht, which was

used by st.

George and later

"caught fire."

Suit Against CBS

During

the filmice

1r31n2

scene

at

Kendal

Park. Pla, traince didio Cesar

Mormthe was injured when a

únective weapon exploded. He

Juder lost an cyr.

Mormilla sued for §1 million,

Ju: Car Haitiar diplomat re-

nortod toe talior to Duvaler,

to the FBi and to U.S. Cus-

tonis.

Scinat said CES was not in-

in, nor knew anything

Ecli

this incident until Wer

silt's,

that he was pulposth

foil misinformation bj Duval-

ier to joll the invasion.

Schacter,

meanwille,

in-

forms Masferrer, Father

Georges: and McMullen that

the invasion would not be al

lowed.

approachca

NicMullen

and said he had the tape

aliliation the

"McMullen said,

'Hell, I'

istaff repar

won't touch it,"

according to

says,

Salant.

But Masterrer and his pso-

ple shift to Coco Plura Beach

# salhog out then apparently

occurred

and begin a new countriown.

between Alasferrer

On Jan. 2, U.S. Customs offi-

and St. George and the latior

cials take: the

"army" into

goes to Stanley Schacter, the

same Customs official bricfed

custody. and seize its armia-

ments, including the transport

carlier by Wilson, to tell his

vessel, the Elena Ge

version os the invasion story.

St. George, says the report,

A grand Jury then indicted

the seven men, including Mast

now crops out of ine picture letter, ratier Georges, Con

He is hospitalized with bad

burns sulicred in a yacht acci-s

stanzo Pelau, ard Wer Bell on

deat and McMullen bires Wer

charges they molated the Neu.

Bell as a story consullant at.

trality Act and the Munition

alleging that'McMulien trans-

$560 a weck. :

Control Laws

ported weapons to Kendali and

Another

shitt

now

takes

Before the trial the Justice

place. The Dominican Resub-

Department dropped Wer' Bell

distributed them to the men.

lic is "uncooperative" over the

as a defendant,

and the con-

Ailer

his

injury,

Hermilla

use of iis territory as a base

gressional

investigators re

charged, medical aid was de-

for the Failian invasion so the

ported that all attenipts to get

layed

until CBS cameramen

plowers ceciae to strike citect

"an explanation froin Justice

could photograph the incident.

ly from the United States.

Tailed.

The other defendants

Hormilla later

settled

his

were

lound guilty and were

suit with CBS for $15,000, tue

Appears a Scoop

sentenced to prisons terns

ranging from 60 days, to tour

repori says.

A. CES crew is flown

• to

years. The verdict is on appear

According to the report, Wer

Port-au-Prince,

Haiti, and the

network hires its own flagshin

in dew Orleans. CRu

Bell, Masferrer and St. George

In 1967 CBS refüsed io Ict

for $2,500 to trail the rebel officials of the Justice Depart-

showed up at the Miami office

flotilla. NBC and ABC were

of

Haitian

Consul Eugene

ment,

Customs and the U.S

siruggins to catch up with the

• Attorney see the Bims it took

- Maximilian and offered to end

preparations for ine invasior

serged, bette "scoop" it ap in connection with the invasion

peäred, beloriged to CBS.

plans, the report says. & p

if Duvalier put up $200.800.

According to the report, Bill

When no answer appeared to

invasion. But that night, CBS

be forthcoming,

the

staff re-

Nov. 30 is the day before the Leonard, CBS vioe president;

correspondent Bert Quint, i

rebuked Wilson for notifying

port says the plotters offered

"Haiti, Teports a battle raging

the goverment.

through an intermediary to

"in the streets between rebels

Meanwhile, the House

sell a tape of their conversa-

and forces loyal to Duvalier. Commerce

Committce

tion with Maximilian back to

There is reason to believe,

tinues to study the need for

the consil for $10,000.

the congressional stall report

public hearings:

---

## Page 9

4.00000

520022

APRIL

1470

rise's)

27686

THE

NAFIA

For seven years, our

two invisible governments

have been fighting

for control of the small,

impoverished Caribbean

nation of Haiti. The outcome

is still in doubt

BY ANDREW ST. GEORGE

ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID STONE MARTIN

---

## Page 10

The CIA equipped

guerrillas,

amphibious-landing

parties, spies

and terrorists-and

even bombed the

president's palace

mericans who never thought of politics as any- battleground is the nearby Caribbean nation of Haiti

thing but visible visible and audible, for that and the immediate issue is simple: who will con-

matter spent an unhappy time in the '60's ad- trol her Maryland-sized national lerritory and 4.5

justing to the discovery that the United States had an

million desperate people? But the real struggle is for

invisible government, too: in point of fact, two of far bigger stakes: primacy over the entire Caribbean

them. There is, for one, the CIA, all over Washington;

and its vast potential wealth. And-in the ultimate

then, second, there is the national syndicate of

оГ-

upsct to American tradition-the bad guys seem to

ganized crime, all over everything else. But it has re-

he winning.

mained for the generation of the '70's to discover

It is nol impossible thit, as in Vict Num, our un-

that-perhaps inevitably-once these two shadow

declared war in Haiti might flicker on and off until

powers collided somewhere, the confrontation esca-

the '80's arrive, but one of its most un-American

lated into an invisible war.

aspects is bound to disappear by then: it will no longer

It may well be the first full-scale secret war Ameri-

be a secret. It will be the much-debated public prop.

eins have ever fought: its origins disguised, its baltles

erty of historians, policy scholars, social scientists

unreporled, ils casualties anonymous, even its most

the stuft of Sunday book supplements and John Wayne

obvious scars so blithely ignored that when a French

movie options.

reporter recently wrecked her car in one of its gaping

There is bound to appear a best seller by a White

bomb craters, she complained of "potholes." The House insider-an Arthur Schlesinger Ill, so to speak

---

## Page 11

Stie

-who will publish the anthoritative, firsthand account

col Presidend dom F. Kennedy's 1963 decision lis ill-

lompe do free laiti from she cancerous dictatorship of

Dr. Francois Duvalier. and explain why the President

and the National Security Council, ignoring the then-

recent Bay of Pigs disaster, decided to entrust the

liberation of Haiti to our "intelligence community."

How the intelligence community-a joint operations

group of the CIA, the Nary and the Pentagon's huge

Defense Intelligence Agency--fell down on the job

will probably he reviewed by an award-winning Wash-

inglon newsman in a hard-hitting book that will call

for a Congressional investigation and likely get one

started.

But a definitive book on the whole Haiti mess would

lest come from the cautious, emotionless typewriter of

a seasoned crine writer. An old hand at gangland

wars, naineless corpses, syndicate power struggles and

mmabered bank transactions would go do laiti and

lind the scene familiar. He would pake his doc al thic

book crater in the presidential driveray and never

mistake it for a pothole. He would talk to President

Duvalier himself

and understand why Washington

thought. back in 1903, that Papa Doc was a freak

and a pushover--this frumpy, fecble-sounding. frog.

facert linle Dimlam luchrer without a friend in

the work.

He would spot more than one CIA "spook" in the

capital city of Port-au-Prince. But he would see that

the influential Americans who come and go in the

palace, who dance with slim, bronze bar girls in the

new government guesthouses, who are passed through

Ise menacing militia roadblocks with a nod. belong to

a different secret society: the "syndicale." And our

connoisseur of crime would reflect with a moment's

ale on the sheer genius of Duvalier's successful sur-

---

## Page 12

When dictator Duvalier

couldn't get arms and

ammo, the mob helped.

Now the Mafia men are

collecting their debt

vival strategy: the discovery that if you are under at-

lack from Washington's spooks, you can find an ally

in America's other invisible governnent-organized

crime-make a common front, and win.

All this would have struck the generation of the

OU's as startling news. It was news, as late as 1908,

even to people touched by the war, like Jay W. Hum:

phrey, a plumbing contractor in Melbourne, Florida.

One spring morning two men in neat dark suits drove

up. to the Humphrey house in Melbourne and handed

Jay i strange draft notice. They were friendly men

with an easy way of getting down to first names ("I'm

Bernie," "I'm Raymond, just call me Ray"), and they

had all the usual accoutrements: a basic Chevy with a

clipboard on the dash; some papers to sign; some

money in an envelope; an air ticket to Miami.

Eight weeks later Jay Humphrey, a six-foot-four,

spectacularly muscled Air Force veteran and champion

weight lifter who had flown combat in Korea, found

himself back at the controls of a heavily laden attack

bomber. Coming in on deck over the glittering Carib-

bean, roaring rooftop level past the piers of Port-au-

Prince, Humphrey banked sharply into a low-altitude

bombing run on the triple-domed presidential palace

of Doctor Duvalier.

Dead ahead, the bomber crew saw the presidential

guard's gunnery crew scramble wildly for the four-

harreled Oerlikon ack-ack cannon mounted on the

palace roof, but Humphrey felt only elation. He had

a passion for flying and for adventure. In a way, he

was a volunteer. Years ago, when Double Chek Com:

pany and Gibraltar Steamship and the Mineral Carry:

ing Corporation and two or three other one-room out.

fits all of them thinly disguised fronts for the Cen-

tral Intelligence Agency-were combing Florida for

combat pilots, Jay Humphrey had signed up to fly in

an operation then called "Operation Pluto," but now

better known as the Bay of Pigs.

"If that do had lasted another week, I'd made first-

line crew; I was on the list," Jay later told a friend.

And although the Cuban invasion beachhead vanished

in 48 hours, the list with Jay Humphrey's name on it

stayed on file in Washington. This time he was called

to flight duty against another tropical tyrant.

But how did Jay, a good ol' boy from grits-and-gravy

country, where he left a petite, pregnant, blonde wife

named Kathy and a baby son-how did he happen 1o

find himself up here in the sultry, sinister tropical sky,

aiming explosive eggs at the president of a nation legally

---

## Page 13

ill peace: with his own? And hon did Haiti get l be the a cog in a formidable special war machine. le sus

ClA'= priority target?

part of a small army including sis American combal

For 18 months, True Magazine and this reporter

pilots (Lary DeGrall, Art Sims, Fred Harke Clar-

have been asking precisely this question in one of the

ence

"Bud"

Miller, Howard

Dar is and llun

longest and most far-flung investigations ever under-

pires himsell, as well as a mind and hansour

laken by a publication, carrying the query from Paris

detachment led by William G. Smith and Wes Mid-

1 San Juan to Miami, Washington and New York:

den; a demolition and bombardier group under Lar

Just what is happening in Haiti?

We found more distrust,

deception and double-talk

than on any foreign affairs investigation we have at-

templed. But gradually we also found some friends.

and among the friends. in occasional moments of con-

fidence. or frustration, we began to encounter answers

with the feel of truth. Our first clues came fron Gn.

Leon Canare Waiti's former chief of stall; his execu.

live: oflicer. Col. Bene Leong and from doree Ameri

cans with tropical adventure in the blood-larger-

piled Edwin Marger of Miami; munitions mechant

Mitchell viussion Workell Ill of Alane, and Tom

Dunkin, a sky-diving swashbuckling repurter long in-

lerested in Haiti, who nowadays keeps out of trouble

by working for the Columbus, Georgia, Leilger-En-

quirer.

Take Jay Humphrey. for instance, plummeting in

midair toward his moment of truth with 1,000 pounds

«l high-velocity plastic-compound explosive, packed in

five specially rigged aerial bombs, to blow out the life

«I an incumbent president whom Jay had never seen

in person. We know now that Jay was little more than

mustly veterans of the Special Forces (like S/Sg.

Edmund KolbyL or of the Marines (like M/Sg. Bill

Miller 2-

The autonomous tactical strike force even had some:

Malegie support facilities: broadeast and parchologi.

cal sarfare units for stirring up the population of

Haiti: is own materiel procurement; and its own

paymaster--the U.S. Gentral Intelligence Agency, dis.

bursing money for the project jointly with the Defense

Intelligence Agency fron vouchered but confdcutial

Class "A" funds audited only within the agency.

The aerial assault was preceded by an intense radie

barrage aimed at undermining President Duvalier's

domestic support. Our investigation traced the tapes_

of these broadcasts to a New York radin studio then

identified as WRUL, now called WNYW (Radio New

York Workdwide), which often handles ClA-sponsored

propaganda programs. They (Cominued on page 791

---

## Page 14

14-00000

IN US. TILE CIA

16-minrid from page 37]

beamed in Haili drough the la-

cilities el Radio Americas. of 101 Ma-

ricir Arenue, Coral Gables. I is a shis-

pered fore in Mitian and Cuban exile

cides that Radio

Americas is a ClA

front, also used as a transmission facility

for daily propoganda broadcasts to Cuba.

In Coril Cables. Radio Minericas, Inc.

1:1010100 ALI

eminenly impercable Sie-

daddo: do presideno dof record is dressell

r. Alone, ll derbed ded sher dained sot

ricones of Miami's giant Fire National

and the

ii...

m0liers-1051)

Americanize

Cabin exiles actually image ile boat

reing artivities of

Kindic

Americes

can Gables and on Swan Loland mthe

Caribbean, where

10: 1111:1824

well wirin shoreware and medinwave:

irrege of both Coba anel Mami.

The CIA

in chinge

programming

knose lo loc an expericaced psychologi.

cir warfare specialise, identified as Kol

Joy Humplucy missed killing President

Duvalier Hecause three of his live bombs

failed an esplaste-and the to chat did

nocked slightly olf sarger. One left the

sill makes a

tallic hazare under Papie Doc's nilice

Mirrory. Humplreg now suspeces sales-

tage: or possile betrayal: die commando

lence lander by three U.S. pilots it nicar-

Calp-Haitien simulcously

Humphreg's atrick on the palace: found

consegmore vessels suspicinesly seidelings

olishore juse where the invaders struck.

All of these incredible special-warfare

activities were nined at the most incredli-

De dictator ever to emerge: on the inter-

Nincrican seche. Dr. Francois Duvalier,

Papa Doc, President for Life, P'rotector

of the l'cople, Maximun Chiel of the

Kevolution. Apostle of Narional Unity,

Flectriber of

Commerce and Industry.

Bencfactor of

the Poor has been, for more than 12 years,

the absolute ruder of Haiti. He has shown

Hitler: more murderously cunning thin

Stalin: more feared than Mussolini; and

i good bit richer than ill three departed

dictators put logether.

le is estimated that fully hall of Haiti's

$28 million national budger goes directly

into Duvalier's nocket. Iis secret bank

Holdings in the U.S. and Burope were

mill lo be in excess of s22 million in

165, at a time when Haiti's national

hank reserves were down to $700,000.

Part of this wealth is explained simply

ly Pirpa Doc's reluctance lu spend. Not

long ago, an American businessian try

ing to reach Arthur Bonhome, Haiti's

ambassador in Washingion, found

the cinbassy phone had been

that

discon-

necterl for unmpayment. But most of it

seeins froom lapi Doc's unique vision of

stilesmanship. Considering himself a lis.

ing incarnation of the Haitian flag and

"nationad spiric." he view's all public

rerenues as his personal assets.

Yet while Pape Doc has grown fat in

*Number lin Americe

From the Azores to Zanzibar, and in every

Amrican city in between, pipe smokers

who demand the finest, light up with

Amphora. Extra mild, slow-burn-

ing cool taste is the reason for

Amphora's world-wide fame.

Try a pouch of Amphora and

discover how pleasing a pipe

tobacco can be. Amphora

...the great tobacen the

Dutch ship here

with pridc.

AAIPHORA

BROViN

Regular

AMPHIRA

Mold Aromatic

AMPHORA

RID

Full Arpmair.

prower, his coney has starved is 10 16.

public of lue Americas ever starved in

modern history. In the arid, rocky, roid.

less lackcountry, babies with a birth de-

feet are drowneel by their desperate:

ents like ammanded cous; ind bear.

children are offered for sale like cude.

Corrosive famine his eaten

basic bonds of humanity; in 1962 Wash.

ington began receiving reports-although

it has long been reluctant to discuss them

in public-that for the first time since

pre-Columbian days cannibalism has in.

filtrated the western hemisphere in Haiti.

In 1962-alter the biver Big of Pigs

w'as over and done with-Adolf A. Berle,

one of the kennedy dominis ration's ad.

visces on Caribbean afairs, published a

sitiling article in The Keporter, known

to rereal the Presiden's winking. le loc-

gan with these words:

"The current Caribbean crisis in Maiti

may prove bigger and more dangerous

than Cuba. Bigger, because it builds on

the arcady perilous Cuban

"More dangerous, lectuse i pressits the

possibility of i race wir.

Only 50 miles from Cuba across the

crucial Windward P'assage

miles from thie U.S.), Haiti dous becamne

a high-priority problem.

Throughout

1962, Washington-first the State Depart-

ment, then Stare and the Helense De-

partment, thch State and Defense and

tie CilA, finally even she While Hose

forcign-policy shop-pulled and huled

at all the customary strings used to make

Caribbean cociques change teir ways.

But, much like Castro, Duvalier relused

ical military mission, espeller als

mis olficial beare raising his saise in 1o.

monsten, and later-dess lie

neglected of the spiritel side al toingo..

has the long residen lipispiel bishop el

Hairi, a genie midwesterner mamel l.

Ired Voggchi, carted lu the airpent with in

pistol at his head and dumper alrear this

first plane ont.

Bue Fidel Castro wits nue thing: Castro.

as Presilent Kennees came dee icalive

bal monistakible political genius ind

Inserial allies in the rose Pascern blor:

¡suvalier, on the other hired, wirl his

montrollable bellarior.

Wishington as demened. Ne this surges

tion of his bidded arisers. Presiden Arm

very decided 1o gise Papa Des is suney

Line in 1962 a distingnished liS. per

chiatrist experienced in dealing with dis

crrentricities of exccarives was.some.ned

lee Washington and enlister in in choird.

maged salagem no diagnose Pipe

Doc. les provide die psychiatrise with in

sile cover and access to the umpredict.

able Haitian dictinos, he was ostensibly

appointed to i senior position will il

J.S. embassy in blaiti. The embassy. «

White Amuse orders. arranged a posale

dinner will Doctor Muslier del so 1o

il that the risiting doctor sis sented srio.

regically opposite the unsespecting pres.

ident-where he could engage both il

observation and conversation with lapi

Tomander

---

## Page 15

14-00000

vi

my, in is. toeign Service immals, the

psychiatris Hem back to Washingson. He

ruder lois diplomarie passpore do

mgh Waite Inuse adviser with the re

port that.

"Dusalier is a psychopath-

¡ere moe: onmistakable symptoms of para-

noid meg domania. He is a very sick man.

lic veers in loc relieved from the pres.

sues ot the presciency, and competent

Ironment and i long rest."

Tre see an it that Papa Doc was

PC-

lieved fron the burdens of the presidency

now beane, on President lennedy's or.

ders. the responsibility or the U.S. imel.

igence and security establishment. 'The

list

warning.

however, was to be deliv

excel by pacintion through the State De-

martinent.

May 29. 1963. U.S. Ambassador

Raymond.

Muscon(who had succeeded

limbassion Newbegin), Hanked by svery

senn 11s. military olicer not yet kicked

mu of lini, drose up to the palace with

the stars and Stripes Hying and strode

Morsident Durlier's privle

oilice.

What happened meet das been a closely

guarded secret, amil Duvalier himsell ic.

comted it to i European visitor recently:

"Ambassador Thurston appeared one

erening do tell me plainly that I must go.

Ic come and said that the country was in

resole and my enemies about in seize

poet. but that toe Unied Stales would

help sive:

me personally provided. ot

course, til I gave no coule and went

pricely. Well. I was scared it

this very

missador crictly

where

You MIC'

sitting

knew

the

American deer was in our constal waters,

but wilien

the

ambassador hmished,

hocked at that clock there and then 1

sail: 'It is you who must go. I give you 21

hours to leave our country. And now,

ye out of my presence.' Thurston left

l'or-Prince, and, you know, nothing.

revolution, no deal acid to certitoss

me, none of the things Washingion ex-

pected in oider do legin landing

Marines ever came to pitss."

But Papa Doc was for too modest. We

knos nos that if the American ambassa-

dor's chicals failed to matchance. it dis

not for want of Washington's tryng-and

trying, trying again-to wipe the Duvalier

regine of the map. Bar what me more his

been able to fod out until now is just

how lapa Doc hits managed to resist seven

years of border invasions. amphibious

tempts and Special forces-mined guci.

Last year, for the fist time, the ClA

me the US Justice Department came

imo "hard information indicating that

in carly 1063. just

as his troubles with

Washangron were beginning to lood, lapa

Doc was visied by a plempotentiary en.

roy of U.s. organized crime: Joseph "foc

Bananas" Bonanne. then boss of New

York's loggest

parchilly

1916d5t

proverted Mata family.

Prince looking to fight anyone; he came

looking for the casino

concession, ind

after some private talks with lapa

Doc.

he got it. As peacelully is it he were

Manchising a Mr. Solce ice-cream stand.

Joe Bananas installed Viro de Filippo,

one ol ls receran caper gmas. do handle

The Portin-france gambling selly, sued

rennes to New York-head mn into i

shooting wits.

It was a murderous intra-Mailin power

struggle, now known as the Banana Wir.

After several months-and i soll of 11

corpses-foe Banamas had to retreat. le

decided do move to llaiti. Now he cane

to see lapa Doc in the bone while palace,

not as a visiting busiessman, but as an

ally in search of i confederie.

THUR

UNIVERSIT

POLICE!

POLICE

Notice

Han is fall jeer.

fose Bananas in lone

gambling concessions, ds solederalls

ulation excrywhere leaned coward

conclusion that old bananas mad gone do

sea in concrete overshoes. And when lee

Bananas Goally reappeared in the l'.s.

sound and sumanned, the Mada was. lor

once. genuincly aned. A tropical. lour.

iss ladle country like that, where Cil.

and Fil and Treasury and other feder

agens were excluded as archenemies. had

obvious potential of its own.

Papia Doc, for his part, had also dis.

covered the special advantages of a mu-

mit assistance perce with the syndlicate.

He discovered them when-hind pressed

by clandestine enemy landings

long coastline he went do Washingron

e boy some badly needed paurol craft.

The specifications on the procuremen

list Manti submitted so the U.S.

Depreman in date 1063 looked harmless

1 len N8 boars. 5 co 125 food in

length with metal bulls and diesel cn-

gines. armed with multiple cannon ind

machinc-gun mounts

2 Thuce small L.CS's (Landing Grf.

Support)

• Fire ICVP's (Landing Gral Voli-

cles-lersonnel)

1. One small metal hulled uglin

5 One small buoy tender vessel

'I'llese

were inoffensive conse-gand-

wist minion. Bed in the special case of

Papil Dox, the Sale Deparement rook it

answeredl.

"No."

Neverheless by 19655

Mon half the vessels Washington sciss

imended it to have. (The requiremen

for 1C:VD's was scratched. Where did

they come from? U.S. intelligence prims

the syndlicle.

hmopen known as a Hunderlposler

i.e., a man whose origins are lost along

the hundred different possports be lises-

mas ill important syndicale:

specialis

when the Lansky mob controlled gain-

bling in pre-casto

llivand:

il 1710116)'

mover. In mob hierarchy, i money mover

Tinks very near the top, a trusted execu-

live skilllal in exactly

what the man

implies-salekcering. haling, snuggling

eschanging.

depositing.

Tresting

inel

paying our money withont ever revealing

the real owner of causing him trouble

with tax authorities.

In Havana,

after Castros takeover.

Mis Intrattor became a money merci

with a front-line command, so lo spert.

It was his job to prevent the Misinum

Chief of the Revolution from geting his

hands on the roomfuls of moncy belong-

ing 1o the Maximum Chief of Ihe Syn-

clicate, Meyer Lansky.

This involved exchanging ill of it

into U.S. currency-moderate-denomin-

cion, unlisted dollar bills-a job Tutrar-

cor accomplished with marvelous speed.

paying too, three, four pesos to the dial. "

• elemen 10Go. chored Miller

---

## Page 16

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raisero canceled the currenes in livor

ol in nes issue, and anyone caugh hold-

ing more than a hundred Cuban pess

lease it. Max Intrator was obsiously ready

for bigger thing.

In 16d Mas appeareel in Kome will

in mirial shopping lise. le showed us wear

Us the cod ol 1a0o. as neededly as 118

one of them, equipped with U.S. 50 cali.

ber muchine guns and a 20mns. aula.

matic cannon, helped trustie a ClA-

sponsored commando landing as Cir

laitien.

lbey-aould-noe-vcry-well.tr.dasugpdai.dl

In face, it looked like a dillerend show..-laly, because Haitis cxisting sockpiles

ping lise. Whar Mas was looking for was

were all U.S.-made. Duvalier turned lo

the sort of small, surplus, inoffensive lit-

the syndicate.

de oftshore boat the European shipyards

"Il was like Castro turning lo the

will produce at surprisingly low cost (rom

Kussians" says Edwin Marger, a Miami

converred U.S. subchasers, old PT boat

hulls or steel-bulled Mosquito boats.

Papi Doc learned there is no need 1o

Iruckle do Washingson for naval craft;

tie U.S. Nary has sold hundreds as sur-

piles in recent years, and all you acco to

final the righe ships with the right gun

mounts is the right connections. And in

ealy, the mob had connections-far, far

better connections chan the stuffed shirt

State Department, for instance.

"Although we knew that Haiti needed

coirst-guard crait, the buyers were

•crafty that it look us a year so realize

lose Italian patrol boats had gone to

Dusalier'" a U.S. agent said recently ir

Washington. "They were first routed to

Belgium, then to Montreal, then 10 a lor

dummy

Bahamian consignees-no

Haitian government had ever used that

sure of quadruple shuffe before."

Washington does know, however, was

Duvalier's dreadnouglits were in service

pens on munitions law in the U.S.

member, Duvalier was under a war ent

bargo, 1oo-except this one was secret.

The lact is. Haiti could nut clear a BB

yun through Washingron berween 1963

and 1965;

U.S. Customs would confiscate

the shotgun shells in your suitcase if they

leo the fail were empo me ly Hap

around who could help thein,

Neyer

Lansky's crowd. And Lansky-when you

get souch of Jacksonville, well, there is

Nixon and Agnew, and in the British

and Frencis islands there's the Queen

and de Gaulle, bur when you say

you mean only one man, all over the

blue water-Lansky. So when Lanskys

crowd decided to help Haiti, she Wash-

ingron crowd was in trouble."

In some cascs, marger acknowieugiu.

the mob heiped l'apa Doc locate hard te

find munitions in the gunrunning mar.

ker; in others, actual purchases were fi.

APRIL 1970

mancer; and in still others, the syndicates

lode sas so sinuggle guns pass the U.s.

embargo and deliver them in l'ort-an-

Prince. _

" Marger

isked a while te did was faye.

slopes, guns and planes to overtheres 1u.

valies, he agedlicade was giving lois dr

"And planes, 10o." Marger grinned: lic

hael server as defense counsel for mori

than onc gunrunner caugle skating stull

1o Haiti, and warmed to the possibilities

of the question.

"If you want mure ts.

pertisc, ask Wally Shandley."

Supervising Customs Agent Wallace 7:

Shandiey is one of the Us. governments

inosi

prestigions

Caribbean

experts.

Posted in Miami during the '60's. lic Hirs

been in charge of more gunrunning in

restigations than any other single lederd

agent. He never talks to reporters, l1r

finally iner in diner-Marger, Shandle!

and Charles Nevs a towering, stolid

Haitian businessman who had once been

a clandestine gun shopper himself for

Papa Doc Duralier-and while Agent

Shandley will not declare himsell for

• the record on anything traccable la

Washington's invisible government, Is

has no similar communications block on

syndicate activities: "There is no doili."

he said slowly, a tall, lanky man staring

into his drink.

"shal organized crime is

responsible for supplying prohibited mit

itary equipment to the Maitian gorrrr.

Inent."

81

---

## Page 17

4-00000

BOOTH

Asked about the planes mentioned by

Marger, Shandley nodded:

"Military aircraft have been repeatedly

smuggler to Flaiti from the U.S.,'

he said.

"Take the

T•28 all-purpose fighter-

henker training plane. Washington spe-

rificially put them on embargo.

but Du-

vilict got some anyway, and it was a

criminal nonsaction.

She mysterions case of the contraband

T-28's threw a sharp instant's light on

the hidden workings of secret wars. Two

of the snuggled warplanes purchased

from private dealers

were tracee to

Rindall dee Ethridge, & Pahn Beach

pilot known is d busy friend of Haiti:

beyond Ethridge, the trail led to Vito de

Filippo, the Cosa Nostra viceroy in Port-

au-Prince.

"Thie T:28 case demonstrites the fal.

lacy of trying to wage undeclared war

in il democracy," sys i distinguished

Wishington observer familiar with Ca-

ribbcan allairs.

"Those aircralt were

smuggled to Haiti baredeck'-that is,

Duvalier necoled an expert air-craft ar-

moer to install gun mounts and can-

110018

and amtomated homb bays

and

rocket struts. It's a tricky job. 'The mol›

found Papa Doc an armorer in Miami

and hired him at $200 per diem, and sent

him secredly to Port-au-Prince via Luca-

jal Beach and Kingston. The trouble

was that this happened to be the best

free-lance armorer between Atlanta and

licy Largo, so naturally he was also the

(:IA's occasional contract armorer-he'd

done quite

i few quiet jobs for the

spooks. liventually Customs heard about

the 1-28 caper. When the armorer cime

back to Miami-job ill done, moncy in

the bank in Nassau-be was arrested and

nicrrogated. Customs was rubbing i

hands

and working up indictment

against a whole line of mobstcrs from

"W York to Faiti-except that it turn

is that their key informant, the sranon

.

could not be produced in court without

the danger of revealing the same sort ol

shady secrets about the CIA. Finally the

government just dropped the casc.

Wherever the military couipment came

from, Papa Doc neered it desperately, for

throughout the '60's Washington's insis

ible government pressed its attack on

the detested dictator.

In 1903 Gen. Leon Cantave,

the

white-haired, widely respected former

chief of stall of Haiti's army and a self.

cxile from Duvalier's dictatorship, wis

secretly offered funds and facilities by a

White House adviser for a commande in-

vision of Haiti across the Dominican

fronticr. The funds subsequently came

Irom the joint CIA-DIA opcrations

group. When money proved insullicient,

General Cantave's lite anti-Duvalier

army was provided with weapons, am-

munition and other war supplies via di-

rect night drops into the Dominican

mountains from an unmarked U.S. Navy

planc, much as U.S. units on the firine

ine would be resupplied

There were,

however, sonne necessi-

tics-training and discipline, for instance

-that coull not lee supplica by direct

airdrop. When Cantarc's campaign failed

for want of such essentials, the CHA-JIA

Bask force begin to train anti-Duvalier

activists directly, fust in a secies camp

scar Fort Holabird, Maryland.

the JFK Special Warfare Center in Fort

Bragg, North Carolina.

In 1964 and 1965 two U.S.-traincd

Haitian commando

organizca

Jike the basic Special Forces "A"

in 19-man units, went ashore in southern

Maili.

The his one was a spearheadl

force, intended to set up a resupply drop

zone and to provide leadership for local

insurgents. Six months later, the second

team--a amaller unit of eight men. four

of them americans-went brietty ashore

on a simpler mission: to check the arri

around Jeremic and find out firsthan

11000.11

1:ll0. is D1 BIDed 0010.

1..d1.

creel and cheneed de are line lad been ins

Durier's butcher-bird milledia, tire 1on.

ton Macoures.

The irise government in Wisring

ton becane convinced that orcrehrowing

Papa Doc and raking charge of Miriri

called for American leaderships. In luils.

when Father Jean-Bagrise Gicolges.

Catholic pricst

who

hird been

Maili's

Miniser of Education, began to mignise

a major commando expedition in limid.

• U.S. Special Forces caprim named Role

ere hi. Brown sucklenly appeared mong

the recruits.

1 Miami journalise with intimate Cil.

comections manged i secret meeting in

his Corel Gables home beeeen the Did.

tinn exile leader and the U.S. ollicer..

this mecting

Captain Brown, i wiry,

commanding figure in his Viet Nam com.

bat fatigues,

squatted on the living roon

rg with a shece of paper and showed

Father Georges how a commando opora-

tion against Duvalier's stronghold should

be planned.

• The captain was

ready

to lead

the

assaule in person, piovided he was given

operational commanel of Father Cierge's

litele 300-an1 army.

Unespececally

the

Haitian leader

ec-

handing command to

unfamiliar American: a few weeks later,

his cntire "invasion force" and all their

arschal were seized by U.S. Customs. AI-

though Father Georges had bech repear.

Florida for similar

violations ot the U.S. Neutrality Ac, but

somchow never indicted, this time lie

was hauled into federal court and given

a prison sentence.

In 1968 another major anti-Duvalier

air-sea

assault,

spearlicaded by

Humphrey, was launched from Florida

by a group of Haitian cxiles. U.S. pilors,

instructors, boatmen and demolition es-

perts hameled all key oucrational assigni

nents. Most of the financing came from

the secret funds of Washington's invis

ible government.

But by far the heaviest toll was paid

by the men-and their wives and children

—who became involied in Washington's

anti-Duvalier campaign.

One of the young Flaitian militants

who parucipated was bernard Sausaucy.

29, a graduate of the Bordentown Mili-

tary Institute, who risked his life repral-

edly to librate his comptry. A recent con-

fidential report of the Organization of

American States on the destruction af

human rights in Haiti lises the name of

Sausarica a dozen times, incinding three

under seven and a pregnit

Every one of these nich, women and

chikiren was put to death by the 'Tonton

Macoutes in retaliation for Bernard San-

surica's enlistment in the Haitian secret

trar.

The women were rapel, time ind

again, mail they shrisked leor dells: it

cilne, in some cases, with the slivering

assault of a sadistic torturer known is

"Ti Fer" (Iron Uncle), who tore his vic-

lims apare with a spiky iron collar al.

tached to his genitals

There are also reports of sall girls

sexually abused and impaled with bastle,

---

## Page 18

14-00000

mood loins shirdered againse the wall

bedure their nothers' eyes.

intr-Dustice campaign, thic

Cil:d. incredibly, often was forced to seand

les helplessly white iss trainees were

ricroline Getro is i slim, sophisticatedl

wise is been familiar wich the Maitian

freedom loght for years: she has given it

1me ded ellord, and Gnally she gase her

"What happened was the Cild picked

my my bance. Mas Arinand, along with

some Melers, tood then all io Marland

'' lee crovederl trucks for training," Miss

"Thes were

soone men from ane liaitin lamilies-

1es cooled obsessedes the boone Alaiti

groupe Tiny god digile wecks special

lovees raining, cording in some selt of

jungle: trining exercise. And they got

anne gral-frcarris, communications and

implibions equipment, whatever they

merleil. They were supposed to begin

agilizing the opposition, serve as il

When the firse scar landed in the

sah of Haiti, Max was second-in- com-

first few days, they

rel into Duvalier's milicia all around

Kircinic, and there were fire lights almost

eely day and they began taking casual.

lasselien or lost,

we don't know; we just

coullet communicate with them.

"le gracnally became obsions that un.

less something was done these boys were

condlierl. And we tried-listen, the CIA

Tally tried-to get some help to the boys

on sonuchow save what was left of them.

And we couldu't do a thing. Washing

sons just shut down on us: it was like

running into a stone will-nothing. All

have since found out. how he died, but-

I don't think I can talk about it. Any-

ClA guys-the people who

renneel and repripped the loys-were ter-

ind sid soncone was

pulling strings behined their backs in de-

sent the expedition. The only thing they

emuld do was chip in, juse like an ollice

collection, and pay for a Requicn Nass,

il inchorial service for the dead. It was

right biere in New York. on J4th Street.

I wcht 100. All the CIA guys and families

and girls of the dead boys were there; the

aisle wis a river of lears."

In all this sad scenc-Washiugton's in-

sisle goverminent praying for the heroic

men it had trained but could not sup

prore-lle' signiticame semence concerns

the "pulling of strings" belind the CIA's

Even in Washington, where the local

industries are lobbying, fixing,

influcnce

perelling and public relations, this must

have been a dillicult feat. Whoever went

1o bat for Duvalier confronted the vast

Washington forcign-alfairs burcaucracy-

the State Department, the intelligence

establishment, the angry Organization of

American States, some of whose mem-

ber states were privately urging the U.S..

to forget about diplomatic niceties and

seuel in the Marines.

Our investigation encountered virtual

consensus that only one statesman of or.

ADET :R0118991°

.....

101207

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prized crime could have soned the

trick: Meyer Lansky, mighty Meyer, capo

ness organizations under his intend.

di capire, boss of losses, the workl's most

In Miami, Lansky money helpedl.eeuy

influential moncy mover and corrupter.

a far-flung outfe known as Intertion!

We know that when Japa Doc's time

Airport Hintel Systones, whose astociales

of troubles began, mysterious go-betwcens

came to include some miuenial Misi

ington figures, mose prominently Ma:

procured him i very infuential Wishing.

well N. Rable, who served is secreeny lo

ron ally-Bobby Cicue laker, who wis

then secretary do the Scare Majority

the Cabinet under President hisenhesir:.

ael hael been right hand min la Vice-

1966 International Airpent Pletel

Syseems developed in missakalole in.

President Lyndon Jolinson. Bolly Baker

hael i rare galaxy of gils: he was an in-

terest in Mariti. Lansky mends bennel is,

waly into another promotion-minded our.

Ruential Ggare anung olecreel ollicials, a

close friend ol 1ob.. and a natural-bors

fit with strong Washingron comersioni

fixer with a quick mind.

-Bobby Giene Biker's Sero-ll Cespera-

Baker was taken to the mountaintop

Lion. Serv-U was basically just a vending

inchine company, lont in the midto's it

and shown the promise ol Haiti by a pair

found itself with some new asseriales.

ol Meyer Litasky's Washington lolbyists:

Sigelbaum-i senior mob moncy

kel Levinson, Ding Cellin and Fonner

nover-and fl Jerinson, Who came lo

Nevada La. Goi. Chilt Jones-all of wham

had, as 7l loy

Linsky and Halt by way of las Vegas

amel Miami. Quicker than gone can siay

10urs of duty in Maii cending sun shrer:

"kerost," Taker Gone Himsell pleased

or other connected with gambling. Aile

into is setup which pitied loim in penny

rally chough, they were all enthusann

tribue on every pound of meat slangh.

Duvalier boosters. Clitt Jones--whore. along

tered and exported from Haili-animal

with Cellini. has been long considered los

nicit, not human lesh. Magically, mcat

U.S. authorities as a front for Lansi!.

exports began to soar.

proved an indefatigable lobbyist fo fairi

Baker's butcher bonus was,

and is manly potential pleasures.

howerer, merely a beachhead for Duva-

lier's and Lansky's combiner forces.

In 1961 Bobby Baker and lew sigel.

Lansky's vision of the Caribbean as a

baun became involvel in helping 1u

lush blue-water empire of gambling, tour-

charter a new bank in Washington. 1lk

ism, covert banking and real-estite ma-

banking venture attracted intlusmial

nipulation came to include Haiti in

people-que of them a poserful ca

gressional activist in Caribbcan trira.

central position by the mid 'GO's. This

statesmanlike concept from the dean of

Becoming insolved with banking wis

U.S. organized crime in turn permeated

gave Baker an idea of another wiy do

help Papa Doc-by giving Mine money

every nook and cramy of the many busi-

The giant international banks began m

---

## Page 19

14-00000

horeogran and loise

junels

inviter-ill it line

when the

•invisible government" was sending men

to their deatios trying to overthrow him.

sudher des area in which Washing.

lows "invisible government"

less mies the assigning or U.S. ambassa.

dors. Hiere: tie Senale

and the While

House "kirchen cabiner" had the deci-

Nor mollidace.

What developed gradually was in mys.

D0D1011S

"the-cagle-has-co-heads

policy

wish marine restles:

Ju caly lil, juse as the ClA began 1o

smol dil ami Durlier recruits to thin at

s80ei 11.5. camps, the White House sent

•i do as 11.5. ambassador do Haiti. The

1ee 691sot Decron I. Timmons Ill. sas

angelle, i man whr seemee

pepared do cresise with lap Doc in any

Noreover, alhough Duvalier could not

gre a pemme out of Washington through

Met. le 1000 the Johnson Noministra.

let-lerican Developmen

Papio Doc dee pick up a S2.6 million loam;

the Miritions diel so hastily. for under the

isregally generous terms ser by the

bank. it wis an outright gil in all bure

The Alliance

for

Progress ilso

smiled on Duvalier and granted him a

si million lunding guarantee for i new

petroleum refinery.

U.S. proble! "'''

18.0001

wll.comtr.adicrory.fom

New York, the ClA

Washington and

JUHI

gurned daily

radio broadcases beamed 1o

Haii Com

ollicially known as the Vanguard Service.

Corporation, urging the people lo over.

throw the

"bloody despot

Duvalier. But

other sources in Washingeon and New

Jork. some

close 1o the White House

kirchen cabiner, began to urge a revi-

val of U.S. tourism in Haiti. Tragicomi

cally. the U.S. Ning-deeply involved le

Duvalier-mas told do prime the pump

for tourism by reactivating Port-u Prince

is in beerse pore for sailors.

As his syndice support solidified.

Japa Do gren Inder. lo prove that he

could ouespook the ClA anywhere. even

on its own home grounds. his secret

ingems in New York inflorarcel the seuslios

0l TRUL one night and sevitched the

recorded tapes being processed for drip-

ment do Stan Iland. What went on the

air a fers days later, instead of the pro-

gramned hall hour anti-Duvalier broad.

song-of praise. for. lipa

The spooks struck back by instigating

investigation of the Haitin

consul general in Miami, Eugene Maxi-

milien, who was suspected of abusing his

dung-free diplomatic privileges in the im-

CHLT.

Trucker

"I'ho are you? Why didn't Neil and Buzz come back;"

prostion of screels d..p..

As the invisible war cominner, me aine

was sle: Ner the lay Humphrey lon

ing raid on Duvalier's palace, the young

U.S. foreign service oilicer suspecie of

being the ClA station chief in lairi.

Thomas H. Carier-pincially accredited

as the third secretary of the U.S. embasss

-was beaten bloody by a Tomon Mi.

coule phug. Duvalier sent him back 1n

Washingron

on a stretcher, along with

an "ipology" for the "incidem."

Odilly enough, while hundreds of pers

de slier in dic

invisible win.

and mil.

inns of dollars wem down the drain. it

remainer i secree. The Hairies. Cob.as

inel

Americans colister los the cill

coull nor reveal their rage i Washing.

son's "double shufle" without comple

mising the imelligence establishmen-

their single source of suppore.

This held true even when the cisil.

ries were Americans. It is largely forgor-

lls mon that the first diplomatic crisis

hereen Mashingdon and the derborn

...Dusalier regime occurred over the 1957

murder of in American citizen. Shibles

Taramas. by the Port-an-Prince'

Duvalier sent the widow $100,000 in cash.

and the matter was considered sellert.

Jun there were no indemnities lase ye:r

when a machine gunner nameel foorld

diee in the course of a termind"

ang said one pies pace, ne

by veteran tropical combat lier Howarl

Divis. who bas Down for the ClA loh in

Cubit and Viet Nam.

worles have been unhinklade. De seedled

line, for one

crule a emerlà, the tradition of silence. it

tradition deeper in the merworld thin

in the imelligence establishmen. Ame

would have Ixen

worthless unless it remance i secret..

"Ever since organived crime became in

invisible empire ol soris," a justice D):-

parencht olicia told Rur,

• "People like

hansky have looked for the perfect seiny

→ completely controlled province. lie

ol intrilers of every sort, free of 11.4.

agents, tax 1o01s undercover invesig

tors, local politicians hustling pigolls-

frce of all the intrusions that make gam

bling, rummentally a dicey proposi.

The U.S. ollicial explaineel that in such

contined serup. gambling could, fon

once. De fiscal "as it should be" in il

professional gambler's dicam-sciemili.

ally, mvisibly, permancudly and br

isels. so is not 10 scare away the sucker

"Supposc." he said, "That this perfect

gambling haven comes with its own fres

my systems; that is a wholly autonomous

trading enclave, i foce port, where money

can do collercel, exchanged, monsteries

or converted into goll.

Cor insance-

once again, without snooping or hassling.

Now suppose that the big lesss solies lois

hoe the strength and paricuce le build

up this perfect property, investing mil

Jions over a long period when the prop.

sition looked like just another rathole-its

Lansky has done in Haiti-suppose this

boss of bosses also has an

exclusive

optinn on thousands of acres of beach.

(continued on page dil

---

## Page 20

14-00000

sand that is losind

become

- calvable as the resole of his scheme? What

sort of winnings would that make? Well,

ou Grand Bahama,

Wallace Groves, a

perly ex-convict whose one stroke of

genius may well have been finding a con-

NOCION 1O

Meyer Lansky, not long ago

bougin 211 square miles of land at the

¡verge price of $2.80 per acre. Not quite

tired: dollars, ch? Now the same land sells

American suckers at prices up

to

550.000 per acre. This sort of option

is known simply as a license to print

Teus has seen hithero unpublished

evidence that this lush Lanskyland in

the breast of Mairi is no mopia

but i

working blueprime. Some of the evidence

was turned up by the U.S. Justice De-

parinent's organized crime strike

force

created by Attorney Gencral Ramsey

Clark during his recent tenure..

On January 8. 1069. it Miami Inter-

national Airpoit, a suike force

under

Justice Depilinicht itorneys

William

larke and Wallace Johnson, seized

chartered Super-Constellation

andl

its

plancload of huge crites consigned to

l'ort-au-Prince. Inside the crates were the

very latest clectronically rigged, practi-

cally

diciection-proof gambling gear, re-

moicly controlled to clicat a tourist out

of il single C-note or his life. savings. It

1ook FIl technicians a month to assem-

be them.

"It was worth the

effort,"

an

experi-

enced investigitor told True in Miami,

"These electromagnetically

controlled

dice and roulette tables are fantastic.

They are not just another gimmick; they

open up in whole new era in which the

house' -the professional

gamblers-will

never have to gamble again.

Teur: obtained offcial FBI color pho-

rograils of the crooked casino equip-

ment, revealing that under the green

felt all the tables contained invisible elec-

tromagnets. These magnets remain inert

is to say, impossible to detect-

until a "juice man"

activates them with

il tiny remote-control device known as a

" Then all it takes is a quick elec-

Ironic signal (transmitted 1o

via a hidden amplifier) for the juice man

les control the roll of any dice of wicel

in the casino. "The pitmen and croupiers

iund other identifable casino employees

can keep their hands in sight with per-

lect innocence; they don't have to do a

A second Haiti-bound plancload of

trick casino furniture was seized at the

sine

airpolt

somewhat

later.

The

crooked tables were connected by federa

investigators to Sid Jacobs, Dino Cellini,

loe Napolitano

and Joseph Krikorian-

all longtime Lansky men.

"Remember that when we grabbed

resc 'juice tables' a million-dollar tour-

up to lure

is campaign was startiho, says a fed-

Imerican suckers to Haiti,

cril investigator,

"Boll Pan American

and Trans Caribbean Airways were cag

"ily promoting travel there. Their leaf

lets ind ads emphasized that in Haiti

the casinos were '

Happy to take care of

inur rambling needs.

It was true-but

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Financial sources with an interest in

certain that the contretemps

of the casino fixtures has not sidetracked

the syndicate's plans for a killing in Hai-

tian real estate. The executive vice-presi-

dent of a Caribbean development cor-

poration based in Montreal is so firmly

convinced of this that he had recently

acquired a chaufleur for his Alfa-Romeo

sports car, along with a shorgun to be

kept under the chaufleur's scit.

"I never dreamed I'd need a body

guard," the executive told Trur recently,

But we are muder increasing blessure

from hoodlums to relinquish our beach.

front lend options near lon-an-Prince

ind on Gonave Island to some very good

people' in Florida. Relinquisit them,

mind you, for token paymem. Of course,

we have stockholders to think of. We

can't sell off land options if we know they

are about to appreciare: and that's what

will happen if i new gambling and lour-

ist boom starts up in fliti.

really feeling the muls pressure to sell

Morcover, as 1970 began, i new figure

appcared in lort-an-Prince. Immaculate

and dapper as ever, Smiling Mikc Mc-

Laney radiated charm and the promise

of casy riches as he made ready to reopen

the International Casino.

In the '50's, when Meyer Lansky ruled

gambling in Cuba, Mike McLaney man-

aged Havana's foremost casino, the glit-

tering Nacional. In the '60's, when Lan-

sky's trail turned to the Bahamas, so did

McLaney's. As Hank Messick, the patient

noted in this connection:

"Where it.

nized crime is concerned, history has i

wily of repeating irself."

It does, indeed. for the '70's open nih

Mike McLanes, still the most cool inui

polished casino manager west of dion

Carlo, preparing to bring lite orphin

Haiti her first real scason of big in.

Will it work? in recent moules, the

Nixon Administration has begun to pris

indictmeus of Haitian ami Durli

militants who, in earlier grams. enjoyi

strong GlA suppore. Washington is sir:

1o have decided lo live sidle lipir 18u.

It is now entircly possible that Hitisi

will blossom into the El Dorado of Cirs

piers, casino operators, hoodlums. rin

makers. promoters, real estate

mokers.

whores envisioned as the cocai

achievement of Meyer Lanskys Carin

bean empire-building. But it will rews."

i land of beggars, blood and bestiali!

for Haitians so long as Papa Doc is alise:

"And maybe that is Mr. Lansky's '''

miscalculation-in actuarial error.

Bernard Sansarica. the sadl-eyerl, sole.

spoken young anti-Duvalier leader whos

entire family has vinished ine the pill.

acc's sorture chambers. "Mister Lalusly

is smart, but he has seen so much killing

he is hard to surprise, no? Maybe we wil

surprise him soon with just one killin:

And when we kill Duvalier, we will lins

sith him every single thing ever concil

by Mr. Lansky and his invisible dowr

---

## Page 21

i pr

JON STERN

and as a paramilitary "adviser." He is

hemisphere. I am totally opposed to

a compulsive warrior, an armed cru-

it, and to the spread of ideological

sader fighting against what Gov. Les-

germs and filth that it brings."

ter Maddox calls "ungodly Common-

Now and again, WerBell's name

ism." WerBell is not alone in this oc-

pops into the neivs, bringing Powder

cupation, but he practices it in a

Springs a certain national

attention.

unique manner. Most soldiers of for- Andrew StrGeorge a noted journal-

tune are nothing else; and they-live

ist-adventurer, a few years ago wrote

from one little war to the next, brawl-

pieces for True and London's Daily

ing and boozing their way through a

Telegraph Magazine on arms brokers

tough and financially unrewarding

and sprinkled them liberally with tales

life.

and pictures of WerBell's exploits.

WerBell, by contrast, is a business-

The first issue of the new muckraking

man who dabbles in military adven-

magazine, Scanlan's, carried an ex-

ture only when and as far as it suits

haustive story on CBS' involvement in

bim. If combat didn't titillate him, he

an abortive invasion of Haiti in 1966.

wouldn't partake of it. His business is

and WerBell was credited with a

supplying weapons, not using them in

major, it uncertain, role in the opera-

anger. He specializes in the weapons

tion. (WerBell was arrested and in

and

techniques of

"counter-insur-

dicted after the fiasco, but charges

gency,

" which may be roughly de-

against him were dropped, while six

fined as the forceful suppression. of

others arrested were brought to trial.

coups d'étal, rebellions and the like.

The way WerBell

operares,

this

Asked by a friend for an explanation,

WerBell replied jauntily, "When vou

means defending established regimes,

work for the company, they take care

some of them dictatorships, against

of you. I'll never heard another word

armed revolt. This political posture

about it." So far he hasn't; he main-

not only does not trouble WerBell, it

tains.)

pleases him. "I have no objection to

Last December, WerBell hit the

dictatorship if it serves the interests of

front page of The Atlanta Constitu-

the country," he says. Particularly if

tion when a shipment of captured

the threat to those interests is from

enemy weapons bound from Vietnam

the left: "Communism has no place in

was detained at Eglin Air Force Base,

the Western hemisphere-or in any

Florida. A national columnist conjec-

48 AUGUST: ATLANTA

tured that WerBell or his friends

meant to distribute the weapons i

right-wing extremist groups in the

U.S. WerBell

angrily denies that.

They were souvenir weapons given to

him by friendly forces in Vietnam, he

said, and they were shipped to the

States for display in military mu-

seums:

Not surprisingly, WerBell has often

been called an operative of the Cen-

tral: Intelligence Agency (CIA):

rcharge that angers him only when it is

Ieveled too vehemently. It is not thai

he has anything against the CIA. He

just doesn't, he says, happen to be

one of its boys. His paramilitary

work, which consists of advising and

sometimes directly assisting foreign

governments, is done in the employ of

what he calls "an independent group

oí well-intentioned, patriotic Aineri-

cans." The Birch Society? The Min-

utemen? A bunch of far-right Texas

millionaries? WerBell won't say, other

than to insist that it is not the CIA.

It hardly matters, for according to

WerBell it is all in the service not

only of freedom and anti-Communism

but of the U.S. government; he does

not supply or advise or fight for re-

gimes not bearing the State Depart-

ment seal of approval. A heavy fer-

centage of his merchandise goes di-

---

## Page 22

14-00000

EXHIBITS

rOWs: THE DRIVEWAY that snakes And there hasn't been a single Ameri-

through the country estate came two

can casualty."

Icen-aged boys. They were clean-cut

and handsomc in the traditional col-

Moments later, as WerBell and I

stood closer than 1 like 1o an operat-

lege fashion, and they looked at home

ing firearm, young Mitch and Geoff

ise the quier, ieaty setting. But one

puniped round after round from the

wore. a camouflage suit and carried a

weapons into the bullet-shattered hulk

large pistol in each hand; the other

of an automobile that serves as the

had an M-3 "grease gun" lucked

under one arm

and

a silencer-

primary target on the WerDell fidug

range. While the boys were loading, I

equipped sniper rifle under the other.

was struck by the incongruity of the

Behind them, propelling himself vig-

orously in a wheelchair, came their

setting. The 60-acre Powder Springs

father, Mitchell Livingston WerBell

estate, designed to fulfill the hunting

and fishing desires of its first owner,

Ill of Pondür Springs, Georgia-sol-.

Talmadge Dobbs of the Life Insurauce

dier of fortune, militant anti-Com-

munist and one of the hation's leading

Company of Georgia, was now being

used for the design

developers of military weapons and

and testing of

accessories.

deadly weapons. Dobbs, I thought,

would spin in his grave.

Mitch IV and Geoff chatted lightly

My little reverie was interrupted by

about the weapons they were-carry-

the BANG of young Mitch firing one

-ing-- Their father, temporarily immo-

pistol, a standard Army 45. The gun

bilized by a fractured heel, punctured

jerked upward, and the noise echocd

the conversation with brief bursts of

information about the sniper rifle, one

across the fields and trectops. He then

picked up a strange, smoothly rectan-

of his most choice products. "This

weapon has killed nineteen hundred

gular handgun, an Ingram Model 1!

equipped with a "flash and muzzle

V.C. [Viet Cong] in six months," he

said proudly. "Those V.C. took only

suppressor," and began firing it. The

one-point-three rounds

muzzle barely moved, and the only

per kill.

sound was a metallic click, followed

Twenty-seven cents apiece they cost

Uncle Sam. That's the greatest cost

by the zing of the bullet and the pop

as it hit the target. The effect was

effectiveness the Army's ever known.

eerie, almost chilling, especially when

LEFT: Mitchell WerBail and son.

Raad (HDO. M.P.

Fort Gordon), Geoff wer Bell and Gordon ingram designer of the Mill

Kenya). John D. Ward.

THERE

-

young Mitch put the gun on full auto-

matic and whipped off 15 clicking

rounds in one second. Geoff provided

the same kind of demonstration with

the grease gun. a standard military

submachine gun and the sniper rifle,

which WerBell calls the XM-21 and

which is also equipped with a sup-

pressor.

On the way back to the house,

WerBell explained why the suppres-

sor, commonly called a silencer, is so

effective a firearm accessory.

hides the muzzle flash and reduces the

firing sound lo just metal on metal.

You can't silence the bolt noise with-

out an elaborate system, and it's not

worth it. You can't hear the bolt noise

anyway in a combat situation, so for

all practical purposes the firing is

soundless. Often, the loudest noise is

when the bullet hits home. If it hits a

human, it makes a peculiar, thunking

sound, like hitting a watermelon."

Mitch WerBell sounds completely

matter-of-fact when he talks about

firearms and death, and with reason.

He has been in the military hardware

business for years, and he has either

heard or produced-or both-the

thunking watermelon sound many

times-in Latin America and South-

east Asia, in the U.S. armed forces

---

## Page 23

1-00000

rectly to the U.S. government, which

forces; and, occasionally, his personal

poses are almost as varied as the

distributes it to its own forces that

services.

These

services

preseng

weapons themselves: from mowing

need silent or exotic weapons. The

WerBell at his most shadowy. Serving

down a line of combat troops to si-

balance is sold to friendly govern-

as a combatant in the armed forces of

lently picking off a lone V.C. to cut-

ments, either directly or through the

a foreign nation is against U.S. law,

ting short a would-be assassin to turn-

good

offices of the "independent

and WerBell is understandably reluc-

ing the tables on the bad guys by as-

group." He says he does not sell to in-

tant to admit having done so. He de-

sassinating them.

dividuals, not even if they're certified

scribes himself in such terms as "par-

The headquarters for this work, the

anti-Communists.

amilitary"

and "adviser,"

but ac-

former Dobbs estate, is on Highway

WerBell takes pains to point out

quaintances suspect he has been in

360 just outside of Powder Springs in

that he is no ordinary arms broker.

the thick of the fighting a number of

a remote section of Cobb County. Ac-

That is, he is not one of those shad-

times. He may even have zapped an

tually, corporate headquarters is in

owy figures who sell weapons to both

insurgent or two.

Washington, D.C, in a firm called

sides at exerbitant prices or who take

For one thing,

he loves a fight.

Environmentai Industries, Inc? a

possession of contraband shipments

"Mitch is ufraid of nothing," says a

neat euphemism for a dompany dedi

on the high seas. "We do represent

long-time Atlanta friend. "I remem-

cated to killing people. Environmental

certain producers other than our-

ber he used to get into fights in bars.

Industries, WerBell says. is bank--

selves, and we can get a tank or a de-

One time he got into a hassle at the

rolled by some of the East's most

stroyer or an airplane for customers

railroad station. He was seeing some

prominent investment houses; he is its.

who want them. But we've never been

friends off, after having a few drinks,

director of international operations...

in the surplus business, and we've

and he decided he didn't want the

He is also president of a subsidiary

never supplied both sides. We've always

train to leave just then. He wound up

called Military Arniaments Company.

adhered to a basic policy: There is only

getting arrested, and the list of

Inc., and because he is in_Powder

one friend of the U.S. in a given area,

charges, resisting arrest and all that,

Springs, Military Armaments is there

and we deal only with that friend."

kept stressing 'profanity' at the tag

What does WerBell peddle? A

end of each charge. He was a wild

100. (Behind Environmental Indus-

tries,

WerBell_ says,

"a third

range of firearms from machine guns

one, all right."

shadow, of which E.I. is a subsidiary"

to desk-sized cannons, from the

The WerBell of today still likes his

another tantalizing hint of the

meanest-looking weapons to innocent-

whiskey and savors a good round of

CIA.)

looking swagger sticks that fire a bul-

counter-insurgency, but the urge to

Military Armaments may well be a

let or even a small rocket; an array of

fight for the hell of it is waning. He is,

unique American enterprise. Nobody

techniques "systems," he calls them

after all, primarily a businessman, a

else, WerBell says, is in the business

-that will help an American soldier

designer, developer, and peddler of

of designing special purpose weapons

or a foreign army hold off insurgent. special

purpose weapons. The pur- / continued on page 58

ALCUST: ATIENTA 19

}

---

## Page 24

Contempora colors the fall fashion scene with beautiful subtlety, in grey

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Phipps Piaza, Peachtree Road between Wieuca and Lenox Roads, Atlanta.

58 ATOAST: ATLANTA

WerBell from page 49

on such a scale. A good deal of its de-

signing and manufacturing is done

under federal license. Silencers. for

example, are outlawed by the Na-

tional

Firearms Act,

along

with

sawed-off shotguns, submachine guns,

and other vestiges of Prohibition Era

gangland wars.

To manufacture his

suppressors, WerBell must pay a spe-

cial tar of $500 a year, collected by

the U.S. Treasury Department. The

T-men also check periodically to see

that his awesome collection of fire-

arms—over 200 individual pieces-is

properly registered. Apparently the

market for suppressors is not very

large, because according to WerBell,

his firm is the only one authorized to

manufacture them.

WerBell will not discuss the sales

or profits of Military Armaments ex-

cept to say that, after two years of ex-

tensive research and development (re-

sulting in "a tax loss of a half million

dollars"), the company is now doing

very well. It has about 12 employees,

including four machinists who work

under the direction of Gordog/In-

grayathe mustached, sport sinfi

wearing vice-president of Engineering

who has charge of the design opera-

tion. Ingram's name is on the Model

11 submachine gun that young Mitch

demonstrated for me on the firing

range. Ingram works in a well-

equipped machine shop-lab attached

to the main house on the estate, which

WerBell likes to call "the farm."

WerBell's office is next door to the

shop. Its walls are so loaded with

weapons, it is a-wonder they do nor

collapse. There are knives and spear

guns and pistols and rifles and ma-

chine guns, dozens and dozens oi

them, some purchased, some won in

combat, some presented by the appre-

ciative recipients of WerBell's

counter-insurgency techniques.

WerBell,

who has a sense of

humor, calls his enterprise a "cottage

industry" and likens himself to "a

country doctor. . . . I can fall out of

the living area upstairs right down to

the office." Upstairs is the domain of

his German-born wife Hildegard, a

pleasant, gray-haired woman who has

borne WerBell six children and put

up with his rather unusual way of life.

(When he left for the Far East in

1968, he said he'd be gone for a year

or more, and he was.) WerBell's only

upstairs

sanctuary

is the

"arms

room," a small room containing a

wide assortment of weapons, some,

---

## Page 25

14-00000

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3500 Peachtree Road

10 t0 6 and Thursday nights/ Our relephone is 261-2670

Traveled with any

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lately?

i

If not, shouldn't you start

now? That tinny stuff some

luggage makers use for

hardware can hurt your

image. And it won't stand

3

up to stress in the long run,

the way top brass does. You

see, proper hardware-

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-should be made of solid forged brass. Never inferior metals

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MARK CROSS/ The place for luggage

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them valuable antiques. There is r

Nongolian heheading sword, a pair of

1,000-ycar-old Japanese short swords

with laminated sicel blades, and a

Chinese-nade Mauser carbine "worth

from three to five thousand dollars."

Mitchell WerBell is a short, wiry

man of 52, quick with a quip and

quite sensible until he begins talking

about Communism or other social is-

süis. lie iras the face and büdeing ef is

Prussian officer, an image he culti-

vated by wearing a mustache and oc-

casionally a monocle. (Actually, some

people think he looks like comedian

Jerry Colonna with his musiache, i

comparison he definitely would not

find flattering. No matter. Both mus-

tache and inonocle are gone now, lost

to his effort to promote a "lower pro-

file" for himself.) He often dresses

around the office in military clothing

of indeterminate origin, and he en-

bellishes the image by talking in

slightly clipped sentences peppered

with military phrases. There is noth-

ing phony in this. WerBell has a

strong attachment to weapons and to

warfare, and he has been around

them so long that the ideas and styles

they foster are an ingrained part of

his personality.

He comes by both his militarism

and his anti-Communism honestly.

His father was an officer in the Rus-

sian Imperial army, even though ne

was born in the United States. "It was

a tricky situation," says Mitch. "He

was a citizen of both the U.S. and

Russia. In those days you could do

that." The elder WerBell fought

against the Bolsheviks, but before the'

collapse of the czarist regime he

wisely secured an appointment as liai-

son officer between the Russian and

American

forces-stationed in the

U.S. He lived in this country for the

rest of his life, putting his early medi-

cal training to use in cancer research

while living the good life. "My father

was a man of means," Mitch says. "He

traveled a lot, did a lot of big game

hunting, things like that."

Father came by that honestly too.

For generations, the WerBells have

been men of means. Mitch traces the

family to 13th-century France, where

the name was spelled "Vertbelle." At

least one branch of the family emi-

grated to Russia, where the French

name became Russianized, with the

final "e" dropped

and the "

changed to "W." It is impossible to

know just how strongly Mitch was in-(5

fluenced by his father's battle against

---

## Page 26

14-00000

the boishcairs, but certainly the influ-

. ence

was considerable;

the White

Russiars and thoir descendants have

long been among the uncompromising

anti-Communists.

Another legacy fron father is

Mitch's barcly disguised aristocratic

sympathies. He has been quoted as

saying, "Communism is a substitution

of a peasant dictatorship over the ar-

istocraryl prefer the aristocracy.

He scoffs at such statements as "I kid

about being a constitutional monarch-

ist, bui only if I'm the monarch", yet

ic is without question an clitist. Nol

surprisingly, his elite is comprised of

superpatriois and military men, who

would be given powerful roles in any

nation's affairs.

Mitchell MerBell was born in

Pennsylvania, shortly after his Rus-

sian-American father and his

Scottish-bern mother arrived in the

U.S. at the end of World War I. His

parents traveled a good deal, here and

abroad, and Mitch traveled

with

them, picking up his education as he

went. He got a degree in journalism

from the University of Pennsylvania

in World War II, he joined the OSS, a

sort of Cloal-and-dagger Green Beret

operation. He served with an OSS

unit behind Japanese lines in China,

rising to the rank of captain and at-

quiring a taste for guerilla-type war-

fare he would never lose.

WerBell came to Atlanta shortly

after the war and went to work for

Rich's advertising department. It was

a small department in those days, and

WerBell proved himself a capable ad

man. Soon he was head of the depart-

ment, and soon after that he went on

his own. He formed Mitchell WerBell

Advertising, which later became

WerBell, Seklemian and North. Vet-

eran Atlanta advertising men recall

WerBell as being aggressive and im-

aginative, a good addition to the busi-

ness. "He did some first-rate work,"

says one, "and he handled some big

accounts, Barwick Mills, for in-

stance."

In the mid-fifties, WerBell pulled

out of his agency (there are dark sto-

ries about how he was done in by as-

sociates), and the agency collapsed

not long afterward. He then formed

his own

public relations firm, and

here the story line gets fuzzy-be-

cause it begins to involve interna-

tional military intrigue. "T'd already

been drifting into international p.r.,

WerBell says, "using my family back-

ground. I had temendous contacts in

I. Miller. The shoe with the glorious past

now leads you to an exciting fashion future.

at the I. Miller Salon, Phipps Plaza,

3500 Peachtrce Rd., N. E., Atlanta.

ALCUST: ATLANTA

63

r.

---

## Page 27

14-0000.

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17)

---

## Page 28

14-00000

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Europe, and I moved into the Far

East, too." How much of this moving

in was military, WerBell won't say,

but his business look on more and

more of what he calls a "geopolitical"

flavor. Before long, he was dabbling

in Latin American dictatorships. "Be-

fore Fidel look over in Cuba, we w'cre

working closely with Batista." He

adds with a grin, "Our function was

is hip Batisin in power, although the

U.S. government was looking favora-

bly on Fidel at that point."

From all this, even WerBell doesn't

know exactly how, came a passionate

concern about Communism. "I de-

cided to devote whatever time I could

to anti-Communist activities,"

he

says. "At first it was sort of a hobby,

but shen it became my main drive in

life. What I'm doing now"—here he

gestures at the arsenal of his office

walls-"affords me a damned good

living. But the living is not why I do

it"

In 1948, while anti-Communismi

was still a hobby, albeit a paying

hobby, WerBell purchased the Dobbs

estate. He installed rudimentary de-

sign facilities and began experiment-

ing

with

weapons

of

counter-

insurgency, weapons he believed had

the best chance of preventing Coni-

munist takeovers in the small, under-

devcloped nations of Asia and Latin

America. "I realized that in counter-

insurgency, the primary problem was

a lack of depth in weaponry. People

say, Win the hearts of the enemy,

and you'll win the fight.' That's a lot

of bull. The best way to get their

hearts, if they're the enemy, is to

shoot 'em and cut the hearts out."

While he experimented with weap

ons quietly, to avoid problems with

the federals WerBell proceeded with

his personal brand of geopolitics. He

made himself

available to anti-

Communist regimes that wanted help

in fighting off one band of insurgents

or another. In the process, he became

friendly

with

a number of Latin

America's political strongmen. They

were delighted to discover a norie-

americano who felt as they did about

the need for stable, anti-Communist

regimes, especially their regimes, and

who had both the savy and the guts

to help preserve them. WerBell, oper-

ating out of Powder Springs, lashioned

a nice little career for himself as a

paramilitary adviser. He seldom

passed an opportunity to plug the

weapons he was developing back

home in the shop. His first major par-

---

## Page 29

14-00000

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66

ACCUST: ATLANTA

amilitary operation was in the Donin

ican Republic, during the 1965 revolt.

He was, of course, on the side of the

govermnent, which was fending off al-

legedly Communist insurgents; the

United States was on iis side 10o.

WerBell wound up in the midsi of the

fighting. He was the second Domini-

can government man to reach the

Ozama River, scenc of the major bat-

tle. Ellsworth Bunker, tien U.S. an-

bassador

1o ine Organization

oi

American States, becaine highly exer-

cised over W'erBell's activitics and his

hawkish view's on the contlict (W'er-

Bell opposed a cessation of hostilities

and establishment of a coalition gov-

ernment). Bunker considered trying

to loss WerBell out of the DomRep,

as old Caribbean hands cali the coun-

•try, but nothing came of it. WerBeli's

"independent

group"-CIA, Texas

millionaires or whatever-saw to that..

WciBell was already active in the

anti-Castro

movement,

and

he

brought to it a sense of dash and dis-

cipline that the raglag,

bickering

bunch of Cuban exiles had seldom

seen. Perhaps his major anti-Castro

exploit was a spcedboat foray into

Camarioca, on Cuba's southern coast.

The mission was to drop a swimmer,

apparently i spy, offshore, and to

pick up the family of an exile leader.

The boat, flying the Confederate flag

on the radio antenna, foundered in

high seas, and the raiding party was

captured. The Cubans, the story goes,

did not know what to make of the

brash WerBell, and he and his pals

wound up stealing a Castro boat and

spiriting some 16 anti-Castroites out

of the country before they themselves

returned to the U.S.

In the late '60s, WerBell turned his

attention to Southeast Asia. He is, of

course, a superhawk on Vietnam, and

would be happy if the U.S. were also

fighting Communism in all its neigh-

boring countries. He was in Thailand

"working closely with the Supreme

Command," for months, promoting

the sales of his weapons and systems.

"I showed them things like surveil-

lance equipment and night vision

equipment, stuff that lets you surprise

the bell out of the bastards" (the

enemy). Did he do any fighting him-

self? WerBell chuckles.

"I ain't sup

posed to be shooting the stuff, just

demonstrating how to shoot it."

Three years ago, WerBell's weap-

ons

business

became

promising

enough for him to go into it fuil time.

He organized a firm called Sionics

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14-00000

rior'" Studies in Operational Negation

of Insurgency and Counter-

Subversion"), lied in with Environ-

menial Industries, and began in carn-

est 10 deraiop a line of military hard-

ware. Sons Mich IV and Geoff be-

came integral parts of the firm. Mitch

N' Was already a bona fide counter-

irsurgent. As a 15-j'car-old, he had

spent considerable time with Dad in

the Dominican Republic, specializing

in underwater probing for safe land-

ing sites. coff, two years younger,

barely missed out on a Cuban foray;

his father took him to Miami a few

years ago, but the plans fell through.

Under the company reorganization

that look place in May, both of the

boys have responsible positions:

Mitch IV, now 21, is a vice-president

in charge of sales for Military Arma-

ments, the successor to. Sionics; Geoff,

18, is assistant director of Interna-

tional Operations. Each of them also

allends college-Mitch IV, Georgia

State University, and Geoff, Kenne-

sal Junior College-and they drive

off to night classes after a day in the

lab or on the firing range. (WerBcll

suspects one of Geoff's teachers is a

Communist because he has been say-

ing soine favorable things about stu-

dent protesters. Generally, however,

the old man is pleased that the boys

are getting a college education. It will

better equip them for the job of run-

ning Military Armaments later.)

One day I sat in WerBell's office as

Geoff displayed a number of Military

Armaments'

most unusual weapons.

(Mitch IV was in Washington, dis-

playing some of the same to Pentagon

officials.) Geoff brought out

"the

Stinger,

" a cigar-shaped tube three

inches long, weighing two-and-one-

half ounces, that fires a .22 cartridge.

Nothing visible suggests a gun, and

the bullet, on its way out, dislodges a

thin plug that disguises the hole at the

end of the tiny barrel. WerBell com-

mends the Stinger to secret agents

who get caught with the goods and

must take "the last resort," that is,

shoot themselves.

In the same exotic category is the

swagger stick, bound in leather, with

silver studs. By pushing between two

studs, one can fire a .22 or, with a

special model, a small rocket. The

bodyguard of Dominican strongman

General. Antonio Imbert used the

rocket model to blast would-be assas-

sins a few years ago. Then there is a

small, brass-fitted cannon. It makes a

handsome knicknack for a soldier-

anotheu

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---

## Page 31

14-00000

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politician's desk. li fires, with

O!

WerBell, in fact, stays as aloo! fron:

simple finger novement, a bullet that

the local community as possible. His

will quiet an unruly visitor. More tri

house is so well-stocked, it is praci-

ditionally military is WerBell's "spe-

cally self-sufficient save dur occasional

cial long-range knocker outer,

trips to the grocery and liquor stores.

redesigned Remingion nine-millimeter

("The only disadvantage of living out

rifle that "will plug 'em in the eye it

here," he says, "is that you have in

200 meters."

drive into Fulton County 10 get wiis-

The bulk of WerBell's business is

ley:") There has been, from time io

sound suppressors and Ingram

time, anti-WerBell feeling in Powder

Model submachine guns. Suppressors

Springs. Hildegard WerBell helps

can be used on large as weil as smaii

noid it down by regular attendance al

iscapons, and in fact have been used

the McEachern Memorial Methodist

Church. As for the resi of the feeling.

can machine guns mounted on Ameri-

WerBell declares,

"The hell with it.

can helicopters in Vicinem. The Als-

Who cares? I tell 'em I'm prepared to

tralian Army Journal ran a story call-

purchase their property if they don't

ing the Sionics suppressor "superior

like the area."

te anything previously used ...

WerBell also sees little of his old

[with

it) it is now possible for the

advertising buddies around Atlanta.

sniper to fire frons relatively shori

"We jusi don't have much in common

ranges, especially when using sub-

any more," he explains, in a resound-

sonic projectiles."

ing understatement. He does not suf-

WerBell is so enthusiastic about the

fer froin loneliness, however. There is

Ingram

Model submachine

a steady stream of visitors and cus-

(there are to models, taking differ-

tomers, foreigners as well as Ameri-

ent sized cartridges) that he predicts

they will eventually make "obsolete

cans.

A few weeks ago WerBell's

son-in-law, an Air Force lieutenant

every

individual

weapon

in the

colonel, flew in from Ohio, mainly 1o

world." The U.S. Army, he says, is

see what was new around the shop; he

now looking carefully at the Ingram

hadn't been by in several months. he

models with an eye toward making

said,

"and things change awfully

them standard equipment for Ameri-

quickly around here." The day I was

can soldiers; if that happens, the li- there,

the colonel and WerBell

nancial success of Military Arma-

swapped ideas on ridding the State

ments will presumably be assured.

Department of no-win policy malers

According to data published by the

and on bringing the enemy to its

firm, the. Ingram models are shorter,

knees, or its grave, in Vietnam.

lighter and capable of delivering more

WerBell recalls with relish one par-

firepower than anything on the mar-

ticular visitor. He came from the State

ket. They are also, WerBell says,

Department a few years back, and ac-

ideal for secret agents; they fit snugly

cording to WerBell, he said, "The

into a dispatch case (Military Arma-

functions of the foreign policies of the

ments makes the case, too), complete

United States are the business of the

with suppressor and six magazines.

State Department in Washington, not

Does WerBell feel a twinge of con-

of Mitchell WerBell in

Powder

science about providing the world

Springs, Georgia." WerBell's reply?

with such deadly and efficient weap

"You can't print it. It was all in An-

ons? No. "I see no reason to be con- glo-Saxon words." But that was the

cerned," he says.

"We're supplying a

old, swashbuckling

WerBell. The

certain product that is unfortunaiely a

new, low profile WerBell says with a

part of the civilized world. As long as

grin, "My present policy is that 1

people exist, there's going to be an

agree with that theory completely. Pe-

arms business. I don't see much dif-

ference between our supplying arms

If actions to the contrary speak too

to combatants and a surgical supply

loudly, they, like WerBell's weapons,

house supplying gauze to bind up the

can always be suppressed by the man

wounds inflicted." There is his anti-

himself. Meanwhile, Mitch and his

Communist argument, too. WerBell is

"independent group" march on.

fighting the Communist menace; it is

a fight that must be won and weapons

are needed to win it.

Contrary

to cynical opinion,

Powder Springs was not named in

honor of WerBell and his enterprise.

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