Nugan Hand is a good example of a unique type of covert operation: an independent group of people with ties to the CIA are in business for themselves, but at the same time carry out tasks for the CIA. The group is in a position to do the agency special favors, such as laundering money or providing covet for secret operations. The agency, in turn, will use its influence to throw business the company's way or to offer the company protection from criminal investigation" (Mother Jones, August/September 1987) http://boodleboys.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html .
Before releasing it to the public, the Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking, an investigation commissioned by the Australian government, deleted ten pages on Nugan Hand's Thailand activities from its report.
In 1983 the Australian Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking released a report on Nugan Hand's activities to Parliament which named Shackley, Secord, Clines, Quintero, and Wilson as people whose background "is relevant to a proper understanding of the activities of the Nugan Hand group and the peopl[e] associated with that group."
The investigations also detailed Nugan Hand's involvement in the sale of an electronic spy ship to Iran and arms shipments to South African- backed forces in Angola which were being sup-ported by the CIA. These operations were run by Edwin Wilson, a career CIA officer who in 1983 began serving a 52-year prison sentence for sell-ing tons of weapons and training expertise to Libya. Wilson claims he was set up to cheat him out of his fair share of the profits of the Secret Team's covert operations.
In light of the scandal, Kwitny concludes that "the license to commit crimes in the name of national security has been granted too often and too lightly" He asks some very relevant questions the American people should also ponder: When agents of the U.S. steal, when they get involved in drug deals, how far should the patriotic cloak granted by national policy stretch to. cover them? Does it cover an agent who lines his pockets in side deals while working in the name of national security? (Mother Jones, August/September 1987).
From Stich's material on the five-named:
Key CIA names associated with Nugan Hand start with Edwin Wilson, imprisoned later for selling plastic explosives to Libya‘s Muammar Qaddafi. Wilson was a CIA officer from the mid fifties to 1971, before he went covert through a cover known as the Navy Task Force 157.
According to the Australian Task Force Report, Wilson led the US Navy's Secret Task Force 157 into working with Nugan Hand Bank, in cooperation with CIA agents, to supply arms to Africa, including 3,000 weapons and 10 million rounds of ammunition. These were shipped from a U.S. Company in the United States to Task Force 157. It appeared that a spy ship might have been sold to Iran at about the same time. It was estimated that over 100 proprietary companies might have been tied to the Nugan Hand CIA operation.
Other CIA personnel included Theodore Shackley, second in command of all CIA covert activities. He was once the station chief in Laos during the Vietnam War and held key posts in Agency operations in Saigon before becoming the number two man at CIA headquarters in Langley.
Shackley had been involved in the covert actions against Cuba’s Fidel Castro. They ranged from trying to hire the Mafia to assassinate the Cuban dictator to such extremes as plans to feed him altered chemicals that could cause his beard to fall out. Theodore Shackley had a reputation within the spy agency as a ruthless man who would go to extremes to accomplish his goals. While stationed in Saigon as CIA Chief, a Special Forces unit asked their CIA liaison officer what they should do with a double agent they discovered. Shackley ordered him killed, as he had done to an estimated 250 political prisoners in Laos. According to the Australian Report, Shackley was a key figure in the Nugan Hand operations.
Another figure Major General Richard Secord, later of Iran-Contra fame, having just left his post as Secretary to Casper Weinberger, introduced Houghton to Shackley and Clines. Houghton ran Nugan Hand operations in Saudi Arabia, collecting large deposits in cash that were converted to traveller’s checks and taken out of the country. The Australian Report estimated it at approximately $10 million dollars. Some checks were later tied to the London Bank purchase.
Australia’s complaints that the U.S. Intelligence community refused to cooperate in their investigation fell on deaf ears. The Report also said the CIA lied repeatedly to them. Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, former Deputy Director of CIA, stated on at least two occasions that any additional investigation by Australia would result in exposure of “a range of dirty tricks against foreign governments.”
Source: Rodney Stich ‘Those Ugly Americans’ (defraudingamerica link)