Frank Edward Terpil (1939 – March 1, 2016) was a
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
agent born in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York, U.S. in 1939, who was asked to leave the agency for misconduct in 1971. He then "went rogue",
going to work for
Edwin P. Wilson's operations supplying arms, bomb making training, and surveillance equipment to numerous regimes.
Life
He joined the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
at 18 and served for six years. His second assignment was at the Army Security Branch in Arlington, Virginia where he repaired cryptographic equipment.
After serving in Army, Terpil joined the CIA in 1965, working in the Technical Services division, which adapted technology and weaponry for covert work. After departing from the CIA, he supplied
dictator
A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in tim ...
s including
Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...
of Uganda. In 1980, a U.S. court indicted him on charges of large-scale illegal
arms dealing. He skipped
bail
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required.
In some countrie ...
and left the U.S.; in 1981, he was sentenced ''
in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in ab ...
'' to 53 years' imprisonment, with the judge describing his operations as "trade in death and destruction". However, he was never put on the
FBI most wanted list. He moved to Lebanon, offering his services to
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
of the
PLO.
In 1982, journalist
David Fanning and director
Antony Thomas produced ''Frank Terpil: Confessions of a Dangerous Man'', which won the
Emmy Award for best investigative documentary.
When
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, he moved to Cuba, at that time in dispute with the U.S. and subject to an embargo. Terpil worked for the
General Intelligence Directorate, trying to persuade CIA agents to defect, though he was not ideologically aligned with the government. Terpil and fugitive
Robert Vesco
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
joined forces and offered their network of contacts to the Cuban government.
In the mid-1990s, there was a slight improvement in relations between the U.S. and Cuba; Terpil and Vesco were put under house arrest for defrauding Cuba. It was reported that Vesco died in Havana in 2007, but Terpil maintained that Vesco had fled to
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
.
In later years, Terpil posed as Robert Hunter, an Australian retiree, living with a young Cuban wife at the
Habana del Este#Beaches, Playas del Este, outside
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. . In later years, he was concerned that
improved U.S.-Cuba relations might lead to his being deported to the U.S.
In 2015, his health was bad; one leg and part of the other foot were amputated following complications from
diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...
. He is reported to have died of heart failure on 1 March 2016 at the age of 76,
Frank Terpil, CIA operative who defected to Cuba, dies
/ref> three weeks before U.S. president Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
was to make the first visit of a U.S. president to neighboring Cuba in 88 years; it has been suggested that he faked his own death.[
]
See also
* Theodore Shackley
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terpil, Frank
1939 births
2016 deaths
American defectors
American expatriates in Cuba
Arms trafficking
People from Brooklyn
People of the Central Intelligence Agency
United States Army soldiers
Military personnel from New York City