WASHINGTON -- A former aide to ex-CIA agent Edwin Wilson has told federal investigators he kept up regular contact with a top CIA official even after the spy agency learned Wilson was helping Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, it was reported today.
The New York Times and The Washington Post quoted Alvin Askew, a lawyer for Douglas Schlachter, as saying Schlachter told investigators he regularly gave information on Wilson's activities and other intelligence data to Thomas G. Clines, then the CIA's supervisor of clandestine services training, until 1978.
'The CIA knew what he was doing in Libya and approved it,' Askew was quoted as saying.
Askew's comments followed a federal court hearing in which it was revealed that Schlachter has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and a federal munitions-export charge. The charges stem from his role from 1976 to 1978 in helping Wilson and ex-CIA agent Francis Terpil supply explosives and high-technology weapons and support systems and training under a 1976 deal with Libya.
Wilson and Terpil, both fugitives, were indicted in April 1980 and reindicted with Schlacter last August. Schlacter voluntarily returned to the United States from the central African nation of Burundi.
Prosecutor Lawrence Barcella Jr. told U.S. District Court Judge John Pratt Schlachter has signed an agreement to cooperate 'fully, truthfully and completely' with federal investigators. Pratt sealed the plea bargain agreement.
Schlachter faces up to seven years in jail if convicted of the charges. He is due to formally enter his guilty plea Jan. 18.
Askew, of Austin, Tex., said Clines -- who retired from the CIA in 1978 -- gave Schlachter a list the CIA wanted from Libya of data on Soviet military equipment, according to the two newspapers. And Askew said Schlachter claims to have once given Clines a report on a Soviet airplane.
'My client met with Mr. Clines and Mr. Shackley (Clines' former supervisor and associate who retired in 1979) several times. He told them what he was doing in Libya. He told them he was shipping explosives to Libya, that he was involved in trainig Libyans how to make bombs, and that Ed Wilson had recurited former Green Berets to help train the Libyans,' Askew said.
Both the CIA and Askew said Schlachter has never formally been employed by the agency. But Askew said while in Libya Schlachter was convinced he was working under 'deep cover' for the agency.
'He reported to active agents of the CIA and took instructions from them,' said Askew.
The CIA consistently has denied it ever condoned or was connected with Wilson's activities in Libya.
In a statement, the CIA today said: 'The Central Intelligence Agency has continued to search its files for documentary evidence of any official relationship between current or recently retired intelligence officers and Mr. Schlachter. Thus far we have found none. As we have said before, an investigation in 1976 of the entire Wilson-Terpil affair indicated that some employees had provided support to Wilson and Terpil without official agency sanction and action was taken against them.
'The agency is continuing to cooperate fully with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in its broad examination of allegations of illegal and unethical activities of former agency employees. As in the past, all allegations of criminal complicity will be promptly investigated and any evidence discovered will be referred to the federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's office ...'
Two mid-level CIA employees were dismissed in 1977 after an internal inquiry, the Times said. It added that while both Clines and Shackley have denied they knew of or endorsed Wilson's work, they have acknowledged in interviews they remained in touch with Wilson after he left the government in 1976.
