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Pseudonym: Karokai, Louis

Definition:
Louis N. Karokai was a pseudonym for CIA officer Edwin P. Wilson. A memorandum on Edward K. Moss in May, 1973, stated that Edwin P. Wilson's pseudonym was Louis N. Karokai.
Category:
pseudonym
Status:
Documented
Discussion:
Wilson was convicted of illegally selling explosives to Libya, and served 22 years in prison. His conviction was overturned in 2003, and he was released from prison the following year. Edwin Wilson died on September 10, 2012, aged 84.
Sources:

104-10122-10376: MEMO: EDWARD MOSS' "LIMITED" CONTACT WITH EDWIN WILSON FORMER STAFF AGENT

05/14/73, Memorandum from Jerry G. Brown to Deputy Chief, Security Research Staff: "1. Reference is made to a memorandum, dated 28 February 1968, captioned 'Brazil Fishing Venture and Russian Fishing Vessels', submitted by Edwin P. Wilson (#104 653) (Louis N. Karokai-ps), who at that time was a Staff agent under commercial cover under DOD/DDP. In this memorandum, Wilson outlined his 'limited' contacts with Moss. Wilson stated that he had met Moss in 1966 through Frank O'Connell, Washington representative of the Transport Workers' Union. The memorandum also suggests that one of Wilson's business associates, Richard S. Cobb (#503 714) was also having business contacts with Moss. 2. In referenced memorandum, Wilson stated that 'subsequent investigation surfaced information from Dun and Bradstreet and a verbal report from Dun and Bradstreet recognizing Moss' long standing 'Mafia' connections.' Moss' operation seems to be government contracts for the underworld and probably surfaces Mafia money in legitimate business activities'..."

Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation (Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 1993), p. 357

"(In 1976) some time prior to the Letalier assassination, (Ed) Wilson had gotten another assignment from Khadafy. The Libyan leader wanted one of his principal enemies, hiding in Cairo, assassinated. Wilson decided to dip into the pool of anti-Castro Cubans in Miami trained as experts in the field by the CIA. He called Rafael 'Chi Chi' Quintero, a veteran of a number of JMWAVE's sabotage and assassination missions...and gave Quintero the impression it was an Agency job...Quintero called Tom Clines, his old case officer, at the Agency to check out Wilson's request. Clines gave Wilson a ringing endorsement. Quintero recruited two brothers, Rafael and Raoul Villaverde, who had worked for him in the old days, and all three flew to Geneva to meet Wilson and (Frank) Terpil and get the details for the hit...(when CIA director Stansfield) Turner read about the Justice Dept.'s investigation of Wilson in the Washington Post...he called Clines and (Ted) Shackley into his office and demanded an accounting of their relationship with Wilson. Their explanation didn't satisfy Turner and he reassigned them to what he thought were less sensitive posts. Both Clines and Shackley eventually left the Agency to go to work for one of Edwin Wilson's export companies. Clines eventually became the first participant in the Iran/Contra scandal to go to jail."

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00552R000505280005-8.pdf

9/8/81 CBS Evening News program: Subject: CIA CONTROVERSY. "DAN RATHER: The Central Intelligence Agency, subject to considerable bad publicity in recent years, finds itself embroiled now in another controversy, one that may not be of its making. This one involves a former agent named Edwin Wilson, who has fled this country to avoid an indictment for illegal explosive sales to Libya. And Wilson has been linked to an attempt to kill an enemy of Libya's leader, Colonel Qaddafi, an attempt that involved the hiring of hit men with CIA connections. George Crile has been investigating. GEORGE CRILE: These were the hit men recruited by Ed Wilson. Rafael "Chi-Chi" Quantero (?), recruited by the CIA before the Bay of Pigs and, for several years after, a leader of the infiltration team running terrorist operations to Cuba. Raul Villaverde, an eight year veteran of the CIA's secret war on Cuba, demolitions expert, key member of the infiltration team. His brother, Rafael Villaverde, Bay of Pigs veteran, another of the CIA's longtime infiltration agents..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/us/edwin-p-wilson-cia-operative-with-cloak-and-dagger-life-dies-at-84.html

09/22/12, Edwin P. Wilson's obituary in The New York Times by Douglas Martin: ...."'Being in the C.I.A. was like putting on a magic coat that forever made him invisible and invincible,' Peter Maas wrote in 'Manhunt,' his 1986 book about Mr. Wilson. For Mr. Wilson, who died on Sept. 10 in Seattle at 84, the adventure collapsed with his arrest in 1982 on charges of selling Libya 20 tons of powerful explosives....Over the next two years, he was tried in four federal cases in four different courts, accused of, among other things, smuggling arms and plotting to murder his wife. He was sentenced to a total of 52 years in prison. He served 22 of them, mostly in solitary confinement. Then the dagger of fate took a strange twist. After studying thousands of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Mr. Wilson and his lawyer went back to court and demolished the government’s case. Mr. Wilson’s sole defense was that he had been working for the C.I.A., serving his country, when he sold the explosives to Libya. The prosecution’s case had rested on an affidavit by the C.I.A.’s third-ranking official denying that Mr. Wilson had been working for the agency at the time. An hour after being read the affidavit, a jury found Mr. Wilson guilty. Two decades later, the evidence Mr. Wilson had collected convinced a federal judge in Houston, Lynn H. Hughes, that he had in fact been working for the agency and that the C.I.A. had lied. 'Because the government knowingly used false evidence against him and suppressed favorable evidence, his conviction will be vacated,' Judge Hughes wrote. He added, 'America will not defeat Libyan terrorism by double-crossing a part-time informal government agent.' In 2004, a year after the judge’s ruling, Mr. Wilson was released from Allenwood federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania...He died of complications from heart-valve replacement surgery, his nephew Scott Wilson said..."

Contributors:
Gavin McDonald • Bill Simpich

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