pentagon colonel, 5 From Calif. Seized in Iran Plot : Conspired to Send Arms, FBI Charges

WASHINGTON — Six people, including an Army lieutenant colonel assigned to the Pentagon, were arrested for conspiring to ship millions of dollars worth of missiles to Iran in violation of a U.S. ban on such sales, the FBI said today.

Lt. Col. Wayne G. Gillespie, 46, of Alexandria, Va., an artillery expert who works for the Army Materiel Command at the Pentagon, was arrested Wednesday night at his home and charged with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act, the FBI said.

In Los Angeles, an FBI spokesman said Farhin Sanai, 52, was arrested in her mansion in suburban Calabasas. She is the wife of Fadel N. Fadel, 54, a Lebanese national arrested in Tampa, Fla.

Also arrested was George Neranchi of the San Francisco area, and Amir Hosseni Monshizadeh Azar, 38, of Santa Ana, Calif., who claimed to be an official of the Iranian government.

Publisher and Author

Paul Sjeklocha, 47, of San Jose, Calif., also was arrested in Tampa. Also known as Paul Cutter, he is a publisher and author of articles on military science and technology.

Authorities are seeking Charles St. Clair, 50, of Granada Hills, Calif., the FBI spokesman said. Those arrested will be charged with conspiracy to export weapons.

The group sought to buy numerous types of U.S. missiles, including the Sidewinder, TOW, Harpoon and various Sparrow and Phoenix missiles, the FBI said. If convicted, the conspirators face a $10,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

The complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Fla., said the “conspirators intended to purchase 1,140 TOW missiles at a total cost of $9.12 million and that they would provide an aircraft to fly the weapons and parts to Iran.”

An affidavit signed by an FBI agent quoted Hosseni as saying “his country needed weapons that would work as a result of the war they were presently engaged in.”

War With Iraq Since ’80

Iran has been at war with its Persian Gulf neighbor Iraq since September, 1980.

The United States imposed an embargo on spare parts to Iran after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s government took American diplomats hostage in November, 1979.

The affidavit said the conspirators met in California on July 15 and discussed testing the missiles before paying Gillespie for them.

Gillespie, who has been in the Army since he was 17 and attended West Point, told the FBI that he planned to retire this year and go into international arms sales, the affidavit said.

Gillespie is an artillery specialist who served two years of active duty in the Vietnam War.

Speaks Russian Fluently

Sjeklocha told the FBI that he has been dealing in arms with Iran for the last two years and has sold the country enough weapons to make a $6-million-to-$8-million profit. Gillespie told the FBI that Sjeklocha is a college professor fluent in Russian who has lived in Moscow.

An undercover agent attended the July meeting in California at which Hosseni said his country was not worried about the cost of the missiles. According to the affidavit, Hosseni told the agent that since Iranian planes cannot use Arabic airspace, he would arrange for the plane to get a permit to land in Tehran.

Hosseni was described by Sanai as a “high-ranking Iranian governmental official,” the affidavit said.

The affidavit said: “Sjeklocha further stated that he has concluded arms transactions with the South Koreans and is negotiating with the Chinese for arms for Iran.

“Sjeklocha told (the undercover agent) he deals directly with Hussein Zohrei, the Iranian minister of procurement.”

The affidavit indicated that Gillespie was brought into the plot to inspect missiles for the parties, to explain how they worked and why certain types were superior to others.