Thomas Gregory Clines (August 18, 1928 – July 30, 2013) was a

Central Intelligence Agency 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, ...

covert operations officer who was a prominent figure in the Iran-Contra Affair.

Background

Clines served in the 1950–1953

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, and was awarded the Korea Service Medal with four Bronze Stars, and the

Combat Infantryman Badge The Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) is a United States Army military decoration. The badge is awarded to infantrymen and Special Forces soldiers in the rank of colonel and below, who fought in active ground combat while assigned as members of e ...

; his unit also received the Distinguished Unit Citation.THOMAS GREGORY CLINES (Age 84)
Death Notice, ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'', 2 August 2013

CIA career

In the 1950s Clines worked at the CIA's Technical Services Division in Frankfurt. As a CIA agent, between 1961–1962, Clines was involved in covert operations in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. Clines later joined Ted Shackley,

David Atlee Phillips David Atlee Phillips (October 31, 1922 – July 7, 1988) was a Central Intelligence Agency officer of 25 years and a recipient of the Career Intelligence Medal. Phillips rose to become the CIA's chief of operations for the Western hemisphere. In 19 ...

and David Sanchez Morales at JM WAVE, the CIA's operational headquarters in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

for the Cuban Project also known as Operation Mongoose, a project to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro in

. During this period, beginning shortly after the 1961

Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...

, Clines developed a personal friendship with

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

n President Anastasio Somoza Debayle, after his father,

Anastasio Somoza Garcia Anastasio is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name * Anastasio Alfaro (1865–1951), Costa Rican zoologist, geologist and explorer * Anastasio Aquino (1792–1833), Salvadoran indigenou ...

, allowed the CIA to train anti-Cuban rebels in the country. Between 1966–1970, during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, Clines worked as Ted Shackley's deputy in charge of the CIA's secret war in Laos.Joseph J. Trento, ''Prelude to Terror: Edwin P. Wilson and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Networks'' (Carroll and Graf, 2005), p34 Clines left Laos in 1970 and spent a year at the

Naval War College The Naval War College (NWC or NAVWARCOL) is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. The NWC educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associ ...

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

. In 1972, Clines was put in charge of CIA operations in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, and in 1973, he helped

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

overthrow Chile's democratically elected president,

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

. While working on the attempt to undermine the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba, Clines became friends with Rafael Quintero ("Chi Chi"). When he was given responsibility for

in 1978, Thomas Clines recruited Quintero to help the CIA in its efforts against the socialist

Sandinista National Liberation Front The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto Cé ...

(FSLN) that governed

. This included helping Anastasio Somoza Debayle to develop a counter-subversion program in the country.

After the CIA

In 1978, Clines left the CIA and joined several other ex-CIA officials and contract operatives, including Rafael Quintero, Ted Shackley and

Ricardo Chavez Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name *Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, Portugue ...

in establishing API Distributors. In 1979, Clines established International Research and Trade Limited in

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. Later that year, he worked with Hussein Salem to provide

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

with U.S. military hardware. He made "illicit millions" through EATSCO (the Egyptian American Transport and Services Corporation), but in prosecuting Edwin P. Wilson the U.S. government made a plea bargain that enabled him to escape prosecution, though he had to pay an addition $100,000 to settle civil claims.Joseph J. Trento, ''Prelude to Terror: Edwin P. Wilson and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Networks'' (Carroll and Graf, 2005), 170, 261-62, & 267-68. It is the thesis of Trento's book that Clines helped Theodore Shackley run a private intelligence network in the post- Watergate period and participated in plotting to making Wilson appear to be an ex-CIA agent turned rogue. As part of this plot, Clines's involvement in EATSCO was covered up. See Chapter 29 of ''Prelude to Terror.''

Iran-Contra

Clines, as well as

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Secu ...

, Edwin Wilson and

Richard Secord Major General Richard Vernon Secord, Retired (born July 6, 1932), is a United States Air Force officer with a notable career in covert operations. Early in his military service, he was a member of the first U.S. aviation detachment sent to the ...

, were involved in the conspiracy to provide arms to the Contras, and Clines himself as a key playerWalsh Iran / Contra Report - Chapter 11 United States v. Thomas G. Clines, a.k.a. ``C. Tea''
Walsh Chapter 11: United States v. Thomas G. Clines, a.k.a. ``C. Tea'' ] -

Lawrence Walsh Lawrence Edward Walsh (January 8, 1912 – March 19, 2014) was an American lawyer, a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and United States Deputy Attorney General who was appoi ...

's Iran-Contra report, 1993 in the web of business operations founded by Secord and Iranian arms dealer

Albert Hakim Albert A. Hakim (July 16, 1936 - April 25, 2003) was an Iranian-American businessman and a figure in the Iran-Contra affair. Born into a Jewish Iranian family, Hakim attended California Polytechnic Institute for three years, beginning in 1955. Ba ...

known as the "

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterpris ...

Trial

On February 22, 1990, Clines was indicted on four felony counts of underreporting to the IRS his earnings from his business enterprises for the 1985 and 1986 tax years by at least $260,000, and failing to disclose on his 1985 and 1986 tax returns that he had foreign overseas bank accounts. The prosecutors were Stuart E. Abrams, Geoffrey S. Berman and William M. Treanor. On September 18, 1990, Clines was found guilty of all charges. On December 13, 1990, U.S. District Judge Norman P. Ramsey sentenced Clines to 16 months in prison, $40,000 in fines, and Clines was ordered to pay the cost of the prosecution. The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, on February 27, 1992, upheld his convictions, and Clines served his prison sentence. Clines is the only Iran-Contra defendant to have served a prison sentence.

References

External link

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clines, Thomas G. 1928 births 2013 deaths Iran–Contra affair United States Army personnel of the Korean War People of the Central Intelligence Agency CIA personnel of the Vietnam War American people convicted of tax crimes American spies