***Edwin P. Wilson, Fallguy for Reagan Regime (Important Story)

[BurtWorm]

His exoneration, coming after he spent 20 years in prison, was cited in an earlier thread today:

http://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=104&topic_id=612356&mesg_id=612356



Here's some background:

http://forejustice.org/wc/edwin_wilson.htm

Ex-CIA Agent Framed by the CIA and Federal Prosecutors


By Hans Sherrer

Justice Denied Magazine, Vol. 2, Issue 1

The strange case of former CIA agent Edwin Wilson provides a rare proof of the legal and moral corruption pervasive throughout the U.S. Department of Justice and the shortage of compassion endemic in the federal judiciary.

In 1983, Mr. Wilson was convicted of what was up to that time the United States' largest illegal arms trading case. He was convicted of selling 22 tons of C-4 explosives to Libya, and he has spent the last 17 years in federal prisons. Currently confined in Pennsylvania, Wilson is awaiting a decision by Texas Federal Judge Lynn Hughes on two motions. One is to vacate his conviction, and the other is a contempt motion.

The two motions relate to the submission by federal prosecutors during Mr. Wilson's trial of what the government now admits was a false affidavit. The false affidavit was made by the CIA's third highest-ranking official during the latter part of Wilson's trial at the request of federal prosecutors. Edwin Wilson left the CIA in 1971, and the affidavit stated that except for one instance after he left, Wilson "was not asked or requested, directly or indirectly, to perform or provide any services, directly or indirectly, for the CIA."

During his trial, Edwin Wilson used the "CIA Defense" that he had an ongoing relationship with the CIA, and the agency knew about and approved of his arms trading as a way for him to cultivate and maintain information contacts valuable to the agency. The affidavit by the CIA's Executive Director undermined Mr. Wilson's defense, and the jury relied on it to convict him.

Wilson used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents years after his conviction that prove what he knew all along: the affidavit was false and the prosecutors concealed that information from Wilson, his lawyers, as well as from the trial and appellate judges....

[BurtWorm]

1. Disinformation (disinfo.com) Background on the Wilson case

http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id334/pg1/


ed wilson got shafted
by Preston Peet ([e-mail]) - October 18, 2000

In 1977, Edwin P. Wilson sold Libyan dictator Moammar Quaddaffi, 42 000 pounds (20 tons) of C-4, one of the most powerful explosives around, and perfect for terror operations Libya was on the US list of nations sponsoring terrorists, and was therefore off limits to this kind of business. After a worldwide, 5-year operation to bring Wilson to "justice," prosecutors and investigators for the US government finally got him, and put him in prison for fifty-two years. They committed perjury to do it.
The US Department of Justice announced on April 14th, 2000 that it is going to open an investigation into federal prosecutors' misconduct in obtaining a conviction (February 5th, 1983) of Wilson for selling the C-4 to Quaddaffi. The disclosure came about as a response to Wilson's filing a motion to hold seventeen current and former CIA and 'Department of Justice' ('DoJ') officials in contempt of court for not informing his defense that the prosecution was knowingly using a false document in prosecuting Wilson.

"The allegations of this case have been referred to (the 'Office of Professional Responsibility'), which will conduct a thorough investigation," says a footnote at the end of the eight page motion filed by the government. The 'San Francisco Examiner' reported (April 14th, 2000) that 'DoJ' spokesperson Myron Marlin says that the 'DoJ' will not actually investigate the prosecutors' criminal use of false information during the trial until Wilson's appeal over his conviction is "settled."

Mike Ruppert, former LA Detective, and now an independent investigator of CIA wrongdoing (particularly drug trafficking), reported on the government's use of a false document in convicting Wilson in his newsletter 'From The Wilderness' (Nov./Dec.1999, and Jan. 2000). Through extensive interviews with some of those involved, and by studying all of the more than nine hundred documents filed by Wilson's court-appointed attorney David Adler, Ruppert has put the whole sordid story out for all to see.....

[BurtWorm]

2. Wilson on the Iran-Contra Pardons: "If I'm guilty, they're guilty!"

"If I got 52 years for what I shipped, Ollie North ought to get 300 years."

http://www.dcia.com/solitary.html