CIA Agent Edwin P. Wilson Goes Rogue, Maybe
Edwin P. Wilson was a longtime CIA agent who decided to go into business for himself and become a mercenary during the 1970s. Throughout the decade, Wilson was repeatedly tied to shady activities in Africa, including arms dealing and the provision of training to terrorists.
In 1982, Wilson was arrested and charged with illegally selling explosives to Libya. He claimed that he was working with the CIA at the time and had its tacit approval; the government disavowed these claims. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to decades in prison. But in 2003, Wilson’s lawyerseemed to pull documentation from thin air that convinced a federal judge that the CIA had, in fact, lied and that Wilson had been working for the government at the time that he sold the explosives. He was released from prison a year later.
Of course, Wilson is accused of doing a whole bunch of other bad stuff, including plotting to murder his wife and two federal prosecutors—so, ya know, even if he was selling weapons to terrorists “with permission,” he still might not be someone you’d want to have a beer with.
