GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp.

GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp. (abbreviated GMT) was a Washington arms-trading company, with offices at 1919 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 300, that Barbara Studley created after moving to the capital as a radio broadcaster; John Singlaub signed its correspondence as "Consultant." It handled a 1985 shipment of Soviet-bloc arms to the Contras, proposed a conduit for such weapons to Oliver North and William J. Casey, and is named in the 1987 deposition record of the congressional Iran-Contra committees.¹²

Formation

The Hartford Courant wrote in 1992 that Studley, a former conservative radio talk-show host, created GeoMiliTech "to break into the arms business."¹ Daniel O. Graham, a retired Army lieutenant general and head of the High Frontier campaign, testified on May 26, 1987 that he met Studley around 1977 when she was a broadcaster in Miami and invited him onto her radio talk show, that she later came to Washington (committee counsel dated her arrival to about June 1984), and that all he knew of GeoMiliTech was that she ran it and that it was "an international trading firm in high-tech items."² Graham said he took no part in forming the firm, received no money from it and held no title in it.²

The Delaware Division of Corporations lists GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp. under file number 2015058, with a formation date of August 15, 1983 and Corporation Guarantee and Trust Company in Wilmington as registered agent.³ Christopher Byron wrote in 1991 that court records show the company was incorporated in July 1983.⁴ Mark Phythian gives August 15, 1983 as the date on which an ostensibly private company was formed in Delaware to sell or exchange weapons.⁵ The United States attorney's office in Miami described Studley in 1995 as an acquaintance of Louis Petrillo from her days as a conservative radio talk-show host in Miami in the 1970s.⁶

Officers and advisers

Studley was president of the company.⁷ Byron wrote that GeoMiliTech's "board of advisers" in the mid-1980s included Singlaub and Graham, whom he described as onetime deputy director of the CIA and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Graham testified in 1987 that he was never an adviser or director of the company and had no function with it.²⁴ Byron named retired Lt. Gen. Robert Schweitzer as executive vice president, and John E. Carbaugh Jr., a member of the 1980 transition team and a former staff aide to Senator Jesse Helms, as a consultant whom a company brochure described as possessing "direct contact to the political and military structure of foreign governments."⁴

Byron reported a July 29, 1984 memorandum from Carbaugh to Studley about a cannon-shell export order from South Korea; in Byron's account a South Korean official seemed to suspect the shipment was bound for Iran, and the memorandum suggested the company's representative in Israel could approach the South Koreans directly.⁴ Byron also cited a court-appointed investigator working on Arif Durrani's case who had found what appeared to be internal 1984 company documents and telex traffic showing negotiations with South Korean military officials in July 1984 for 6,000 tons of explosives and 300,000 M107/155mm cannon shells and projectiles, and a further telex about F-4 Phantom parts, one of them a QK410B oscillator assembly that the investigator said is a component of certain Raytheon-made Hawk missile systems.⁴

The June to July 1985 shipment

The Hartford Courant reported that Singlaub and Studley arranged a private shipment of Soviet-bloc rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers to the contras in the summer of 1985, which it put at $5 million.¹ Studley's memorandum to North dated October 30, 1985 refers to a shipment that left on June 20, 1985.⁸ Graham's questioner stated that the Studley and Werner Glatt arms transaction was consummated in May 1985 with delivery in July, and Graham agreed that it was early in 1985.² The congressional report states that a purchase Singlaub arranged for Adolfo Calero and the FDN through a European arms dealer arrived in Central America on July 8, 1985, and the Washington Post reported in 1987 that Singlaub helped the contras buy $5.3 million of East Bloc weapons shipped through Honduras.⁹¹⁰ Singlaub testified in 1987 that the delivery went from Poland to Honduras and that Swiss banks handled the transfers.¹

The Barcella opinion

The Courant reported that the shipment was cleared by a legal opinion from E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr., then an assistant United States attorney in Washington. Barcella said that someone in government came to him, that he contacted the State Department's Office of Munitions Control and the Justice Department's office of internal security, that "I orally passed that back to the person that had made the request of me," and, asked why the person came to him, that there was "a very logical reason that is none of your business." The United States attorney, Joseph diGenova, said he never authorized any such opinion.¹ In a deposition taken by the New Haven lawyer William M. Bloss in 1991, Studley said the shipment was "approved in writing by the justice department before we shipped it" and "Larry Barcella signed it"; her lawyer, Frank Koszorus Jr., said he was "not at all certain that she was ever issued a written opinion."¹ Studley was not called to testify before the congressional committees.¹

Werner Glatt and the Graham deposition

Graham testified that he recommended Werner Glatt, whom he called a combination of a sheep farmer and arms trader with farms in Virginia and Scotland, to Studley as an honest broker; he said that he had talked briefly with Colonel Norman Blaylock about Glatt, that he knew not all arms dealers were honest, and that he did not want to see "Jack and Barbara Studley squander other people's money." He said he gave Glatt's name to Studley only and never to Singlaub, arranged a lunch for Studley and Glatt at a Washington hotel (he thought the Carlton), stayed about ten minutes, and was never in the same room with Glatt and Singlaub.² Graham added that he had told Casey at Langley in late 1983 or 1984, in a meeting on the Strategic Defense Initiative, that Casey would be better off dealing with Glatt than with most arms dealers.²

Graham testified that Studley told him after the delivery that people who were not part of the deal showed up when the ship arrived; the questioner asked "This would be Mario Dellamico?" and the transcript records Graham answering "Okay," and then saying he did not know their names. Graham said that this sounded strange enough that he told her to inform Casey and arranged a meeting among himself, Studley and Casey at Langley toward the end of 1985 (counsel suggested December 20, 1985), at which Studley left documents including the bill of lading; Casey said he would look into it and admitted no connection to anyone she named.² Singlaub testified in 1987 that he, not Graham, set up the December 1985 meeting between Casey and Studley.¹

The October 30, 1985 memorandum, Ron Martin and Mario Dellamico

Graham Exhibit 1 is a memorandum from Studley to North dated October 30, 1985, which opens with a telephone call received at 4:00 a.m. on October 29 from her source, identified only as "W." It states that "W" was questioned about a shipment that went out on June 20, 1985 and denied that his ship was intended for the contras; that a man named Mario Dellamico, described as working for the arms dealer Ron Martin, had walked in two weeks earlier asking for help in selling Martin's company's arms to the contras and was told absolutely not because it would be against "their law"; that Dellamico then handed over a copy of GeoMiliTech's packing list showing the receipt of the shipment, an itemized inventory, the ship's name and date of departure, and the signature of its representative; that "W" said to tell North the ship was the first of five he was expecting, and that the ship later sailed; and that "Martin's company still has copies of our documents." It asks North to stop Martin and Dellamico and closes: "General John K. Singlaub has been advised of this information."⁸

Graham said he had heard Martin's name in connection with "the discrepancies or problems involved in the landing of that cargo," that friends in Miami told him Martin was an arms dealer, and that he had not heard of threats made against Singlaub by Dellamico on Martin's behalf. Asked whether Martin or Dellamico had a relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency, he answered that he had heard "nothing but speculation."² The Independent Counsel's report describes Ron Martin as a Miami-based dealer accused of consorting with drug-runners; the congressional report quotes North that Martin was "setting up [a] munitions 'supermarket'" in Central America and that Casey told North there should be no further transactions with the broker until the source of the money for the stockpile was resolved.⁹¹¹

The Singlaub-Studley conduit memorandum

A memorandum prepared by Studley and found in North's safe proposed a "conduit" for a "continuous flow of Soviet weapons and technology" in support of "Freedom Fighters" in Nicaragua, Angola, Cambodia, Ethiopia and elsewhere, through a three-way trade that would let the United States dispense arms without "the consent or awareness of the Department of State or Congress." The congressional report calls it the Singlaub-Studley plan, states that Singlaub presented it to North and Casey in 1985, and records North acknowledging receipt and dismissing it; George Shultz called it "a piece of junk."¹² Graham testified that he had never seen the document and had never discussed the concept with Studley or Singlaub.²

Torpedo sale, 1985 to 1987

The congressional report states that during the summer of 1985 Singlaub worked without success through GeoMiliTech Consultants, "owned by Barbara Studley," on diverting part of a $75 million proposed sale of torpedoes to a buyer the report calls "Country 3." The majority says the Singlaub-Studley plan was not implemented; the minority views respond that the first diverted funds, from Israeli arms sales to Iran, arrived before the plan was tabled in December 1985.¹³¹⁴

Benjamin Weiser reported in the Washington Post in March 1987 that Singlaub had a specific deal in mind in the case of Taiwan: a Washington-based consulting company, for which he served as an unpaid adviser, was trying to broker the sale of 40 American-built MK 37 torpedoes from Israel to Taiwan at a price Israel set at $72 million to $75 million, with about $10 million above that price to go to the contras after the broker's commission. Sources familiar with the deal told the Post that Israel had authorized the broker and notified the United States government; Israeli sources said the United States government would not allow the sale. The article does not name the company. The report's torpedo sale and the Post's concern the same subject and price range and GeoMiliTech listed Singlaub as an adviser in 1987; the report does not name Taiwan as Country 3 and the Post does not name the company, so the accounts are joined only by that match.¹⁵

The 1986 quotation and the Casey letter

Graham Exhibit 2 contains a letter on GeoMiliTech letterhead, addressed "Dear Bill" to Casey and signed by Singlaub as "Major General, U.S. Army (RET)" and "Consultant," which committee counsel dated to August 1986. It encloses a list "Quoted 28 July 1986" including SA-7 sets, 60 12.7mm machine guns at 9,380 each, 20 twin-mount 14.5mm machine guns at 34,000 each, 300 RPK rifles, 60mm and 82mm mortars, RPG-7 launchers and 10,000 AKMS rifles at 185 each, and the list is marked "NO EUC REQUIRED." The letter says the items were developed in conjunction with a member of the NSC aware of the needs of the United Nicaraguan Opposition, that congressional funds would not be available until after September, and that a Swiss bank would lend for six to twelve months against a letter of credit from Casey's bank.¹⁶ Graham said he had no knowledge of the matter and had not discussed it with Casey.²

Robert Schweitzer and 1986-1987 contracts

Committee counsel stated in the Graham deposition that Lieutenant General Robert Schweitzer was hired by GeoMiliTech in late August or early September 1986, was interviewed by Singlaub, met North with Singlaub on or about December 2, 1986 on company matters, and left in early 1987; Graham said he had no role in the hiring and that Studley had come to have little confidence in Schweitzer's advice. Counsel also asked Graham about efforts by Ray Cline in 1987 to obtain CIA contracts for the company, which Graham said he knew nothing of.² Charles Allen, who became National Intelligence Officer for Counterterrorism in October 1986, was asked whether he discussed with Schweitzer his employment with "Geomilitech Consultants Corporation" or Schweitzer's efforts to obtain covert procurement contracts for it; he answered no to both.¹⁷

Graham Exhibit 3 holds Studley's papers on the Pia Vesta, a vessel loaded with arms and seized at the Panama Canal in 1986, including notes of conversations with Dan Cummings and David Duncan; the notes state that Duncan had been to the White House and met a person named Vince at the NSC, and that General Manuel Noriega had agreed to release the shipment.¹⁸ A letter to the House committee's assistant counsel Kenneth Ballen dated April 28, 1987, from the Washington firm of Finley, Kumble on the "Barbara F. Studley/GMT" matter, refers to a telephone conference between Ballen and Paul L. Perito and encloses Studley's memorandum on North.¹⁹ The Courant reported that Barcella left the United States attorney's office in June 1986 and went into private practice in Washington initially at the same firm where Koszorus worked.¹ The April 28, 1987 letter on the Finley Kumble letterhead closes with Koszorus's name above the enclosure notation.²⁰

The Miami bank transfers, 1986 and 1987

The Miami Herald reported in June 1987 that Louis Petrillo, president of Bayshore Bank of Florida, had resigned, that the bank was being sold, and that he had transferred a total of $2 million of bank funds on behalf of GeoMiliTech during 1986. The debts were unsecured, were supposed to be repaid within weeks, and remained outstanding; the newspaper said the sum was nearly all of the bank's net worth that year, that federal authorities including Iran-Contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh had begun investigating, and that the company acknowledged helping arrange arms supplies for the rebels. Studley told the newspaper the case involved private banking matters and refused to discuss details; Petrillo said he had no knowledge of any arms deals and left because the bank was changing hands.²¹

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's news release of August 7, 1987 states that Bayshore Bank of Florida, with total assets of $40.4 million, was closed that day by Florida State Comptroller Gerald Lewis, that the FDIC was named receiver, and that its insured deposits were transferred to Eagle National Bank of Miami.²² Petrillo pleaded guilty in September 1994 to misapplication of funds and bank fraud and in March 1995 was sentenced to one year in prison, five years' probation and $2 million in restitution; American Banker reported that he had issued letters of credit of more than $2 million in 1986 and 1987 to GeoMiliTech without his bank's knowledge, that he asserted in court that he acted in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency, and that the United States attorney's office in Miami said the claims were "discounted in court."⁶ Frank Bovenkerk and Michael Levi write that the $2 million covered two bad checks written by Studley and that she tried and failed to sell about 20 percent of the company's stock to raise it.²³

Durrani-case depositions, 1991

In its September 9, 1991 objection to Arif Durrani's second request for documents, the United States Attorney's Office in Bridgeport stated that defense counsel had taken the depositions of Studley and Singlaub in Washington in August 1991 and that "Neither witness had any knowledge of Arif Durrani or his claims."²⁴ Byron wrote that Studley denied in the August 1991 deposition that she knew Durrani and that she had shipped weapons to Iran, and that prosecutor Holly Fitzsimmons said she had seen nothing to indicate Studley was not telling the truth.⁴ Byron also reported that an unnamed former top official of GeoMiliTech said the company had tried to export arms to Iran with the help of Israel's then defense minister Ariel Sharon; Studley's lawyer Koszorus denied that Studley or the company had any involvement with Iran, and the company was still doing business in 1991 but was not listed in the Washington telephone directory.⁴

Claims from Ari Ben-Menashe

Ari Ben-Menashe writes that a 1985 contra deal brokered through GeoMiliTech was itemized at $3,242,000 paid to the Ora Group, against $5 million that he says the company's books showed received from the American side, a difference of about $1.76 million.²⁵