Wilson, 71, serving a total of 52 years on three separate convictions was, according to Adler, convicted on the basis of a perjured affidavit from the CIA to the Department of Justice denying that Wilson had any "direct or indirect" affiliation or association with the Agency during the period of time in which he was selling plastic explosives to Libya's Moammar Qaddaffi and other groups. That the affidavit was perjured was confirmed by the release, under the Freedom of Information Act of an uncontested CIA follow-up memorandum addressed to then Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark Richard entitled, "Duty To Disclose False Testimony."

That document, buttressed by additional papers, located over the last two and half years by Adler, indicates clearly that the Central Intelligence Agency committed perjury when it provided an affidavit from the Agency's then number three man, Executive Director Charles Briggs, to prosecutors trying Wilson's case. That affidavit, according to Adler, emphatically asserted that, "After a particular date in 1971 'Wilson was not asked or requested, directly or indirectly, to perform or provide any services, directly or indirectly for the CIA.'"

Adler's additional research, after traveling repeatedly from Houston to Washington to review close to 300,000 pages of documents, some released under the Freedom of Information Act, uncovered additional memoranda from the Department of Justice (DoJ). These documents indicate clearly that DoJ prosecutors and their supervisors, understood that the CIA memorandum was perjured and then decided to use it anyway.

"There is a handwritten notation," Adler told FTW, "at the top of the [Duty to Disclose] memorandum stating, 'Plain meaning of affidavit,' then there is an arrow off to the side where the writing continues, "the affidavit is inaccurate."

Adler, a retired CIA officer, now an attorney in private practice in Houston, was appointed to represent Wilson by U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Hughes in mid 1997 after Hughes received a copy of the memorandum directly from Wilson. Adler began a search through the FOIA documents stored in the warehouse of attorney Bernard Fensterwald who had been assisting Wilson with his FOIA appeals over a period of years. That cumbersome process, which involved repeated trips between Houston and Washington, turned up additional Justice Department records which, said Adler, "In my opinion, indicate that the prosecutors were aware that the affidavit was false."

One of those documents, a classified memorandum which has subsequently been summarized for public release, is particularly incriminating.

"What that document says," said Adler, "is that right before that document [the perjured CIA affidavit] was put into evidence at Wilson's trial, the CIA's lawyers spoke to the prosecutors from Justice and told them, 'Don't use the affidavit.' The prosecutors in the case said, 'We're going to use it.' [CIA General Counsel Stanley] Sporkin himself said, 'At least take out the word indirectly as far as indirectly provided services,' and the prosecutor [Greenberg] probably said something like, 'Hell No. We're gonna just go ahead and do it.'

"In my opinion the document was used in court even though the DoJ lawyers knew full well that it was a lie."

What makes the case so compelling is the fact that the last piece of evidence the jury asked to be reread to them was the perjured affidavit denying that Wilson had any continuing connections to the Agency. Within minutes of hearing the affidavit reread by the trial judge, the jury emerged with a guilty verdict.

And, since Wilson's questionable operations trace directly back to 1976 when Wilson, Shackley, Albert Hakim, Tom Clines and Richard Secord became involved together, they indicate that retired CIA Associate Deputy Director of Operations (ADDO) Ted Shackley and then CIA Director George Bush are likely guilty of perjury or providing false information to investigators. Since both denied any Agency connection to Wilson they are certainly guilty of obstruction of justice. They both denied repeatedly, and emphatically, to criminal and Congressional investigators in the late seventies and early eighties that Wilson was acting in any official role for the CIA after 1971.

According to Adler, there were seven legal powerhouses involved with the case and they all knew of the perjured CIA memorandum and its use to secure Wilson's conviction. Although FTW is continuing to investigate their exact roles in the case, it is apparent, based upon interviews with Adler, that all knew that a perjured document had been introduced into evidence and that some of them argued for the act and some argued against it. One thing is certain, not one of them came forward and said ANYTHING about the act after Wilson was convicted. Under all states' canon of legal ethics that omission to report the crime is, in itself, is a serious violation. The seven key figures are:

1. Stanley Sporkin - Retired CIA General Counsel and current United States District Court Judge in Washington, D.C. From that position Sporkin rules on some of the most critical cases involving government operations and, of those cases assigned to him, is in a position to block or advance key corruption cases. During the Contra era, as CIA General Counsel, Sporkin routinely communicated with National Security Council staffer Oliver North via e-mail on issues related to the illegal resupply of the Contras. Although Sporkin argued for a change in the CIA memorandum before it was introduced, he said nothing when others involved in the case submitted the perjured memorandum unchanged.
2. Lawrence Barcella - Now a partner in the Washington law firm of Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. Barcella was one of the lead prosecutors in two of the three Wilson cases and was also part of the team connected to the investigation of EATSCO owned by Wilson and four other CIA/military officials including Ted Shackley, Richard Secord, Tom Clines and Eric von Marbod. Although Barcella was not a prosecutor in the case where the perjured affidavit was submitted he was, according to legal and news sources, aware of the perjured memorandum and its subsequent use. FTW expects the motions filed in Wilson's behalf to confirm this. Barcella was also a primary legal counsel for BCCI, a huge international bank connected to bank fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering and illegal intelligence operations. In 1996 Barcella was Bill Clinton's unsuccessful nominee to investigate money laundering for the Department of Justice. Barcella was also a major player in Iran-Contra and very close to key members of the Reagan/Bush foreign policy team.
3. Ted Greenberg - The aggressive lead prosecutor in Wilson's Houston case rose to high positions in the Justice Department before serving, most recently, as the Deputy Independent Counsel investigation former Clinton Labor Secretary, Mike Espy.
4. Carol Bruce - Also worked on the Wilson prosecution team from the position of being an Assistant to Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark Richard. Most recently she served as independent counsel in the investigation of gambling charges connected to former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. She has also participated international investigations of war crimes in Yugoslavia
5. Mark Richard - A supremely powerful and influential Washington powerhouse who served, until very recently as a pillar at "Main" Justice. Richard, who was the DoJ's point man at Waco, has been in charge of the most sensitive components of DoJ including the Office of International Affairs, Internal Security, Terrorism and Violent Crime and the Office of Special Investigations which is charged with tracking Nazi war criminals and their loot. Richard also is referenced in Vol. II of a 1998 CIA Inspector General's report as having participated in the 1981-2 negotiations which permitted the CIA to NOT report drug trafficking. While researching this article, FTW learned that Richard has been transferred very suddenly, according to a DoJ spokesperson, "to another country." Reports indicate the Richard will head the DoJ's Criminal Division in Brussels and specialize in money laundering. DoJ spokespersons refused to discuss any other information concerning Richard. As reported by AP, one document in files indicates that Richard argued for a disclosure to the trial Judge or Wilson's defense counsel that the CIA memo was perjured. That disclosure was never made. Richard, apparently, held his tongue afterward.
6. D. Lowell Jensen - Currently a sitting United States district court judge in Oakland California. Originally a part of the "Meese Mafia" from the DA's office in Alameda County, California, Jensen, who was an Assistant Attorney General to Meese, was one of the pivotal legal players throughout the Iran-Contra scandal. According to a number of scholarly works and hearing records, he intervened personally to stop prosecution of a number of figures heavily involved in drug trafficking and other serious crimes including Honduran strongman Jose Bueso-Rosa. In addition, according to Bill Hamilton, founder of Inslaw, Jensen was one of two or three central players in covering up the Department of Justice's theft of the legendary PROMIS software.
7. Steven Trott - Also an Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan Administration, Steven Trott was also up to his briefcase in Iran-Contra. Not only did Trott, intervene in some major cases connected to drug trafficking in South Florida, he was also charged with personally containing the investigation led by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts into drug trafficking by the CIA and Contra supporters. Trott is now an Associate Justice, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Regular FTW readers who have been following the case of former U.S. Army Special Forces Trooper William Tyree will recall that affidavits and other documents already filed in other court cases indicate that, in the mid seventies, Edwin Wilson orchestrated a series of missions known as Watchtower. Those documents, including the so-called "Cutolo Affidavit" specifically name Wilson as having directed operations in which Special Forces troops placed radio beacons inside Colombia so that CIA cocaine flights could land undetected in Panama.

Reliable CIA sources have told FTW that many of the weapons shipped by Wilson overseas to Libya and other destinations in Central America were the product, in some cases, of burglaries committed at National Guard armories by members of U.S. Army Special Forces. In the 1977-9 time period, Tyree was a member of the 10^th Special Forces Group at Fort Devens, Massachusetts and connected to a series of thefts of military hardware.

In January, 1979, as Wilson's operations were being investigated, Tyree's wife Elaine, also in the Army, was murdered. Tyree, who was framed for the murder, has been serving a life sentence since. He has also filed a number of legal actions in recent years, one of which [see related story this issue] connects back to the Wilson case. Critics of Tyree's case have long contended that Wilson was a rogue operative and that Tyree's claims of government involvement in the Watchtower missions were unfounded. The documents filed by Wilson and his attorney now make the government's position unsustainable across the board as far as Wilson's convictions are concerned and they may well crack open the door to freedom for Bill Tyree.