William Nelson
William Nelson was the CIA's deputy director of operations from 1973 to 1976, overseeing all covert operations worldwide, and later became vice president for security at Fluor Corporation where he met with Ronald Lister during the early 1980s.
William Earl Nelson served as a Central Intelligence Agency officer from 1948, operating under military and State Department covers, primarily in the Far East. Japanese newspapers exposed his intelligence identity after discovering he was asking travelers to the Soviet Union to collect soil samples near Russian missile bases.1
As deputy director of operations (the head of all CIA covert operations worldwide) Nelson oversaw the agency's controversial destabilization program in Chile, which culminated in the overthrow and murder of Chile's elected president Salvador Allende. He later commanded Operation Feature, a covert plan to install a pro-American government in Angola following the former Portuguese colony's independence in 1975. Nelson was named as a defendant in a civil suit filed by the widow of an American mercenary the CIA recruited for the Angolan operation; the widow alleged the CIA misled her husband about the hopelessness of his mission and then smeared his reputation after he was killed. The suit was eventually dismissed.1
Nelson was a protégé of former CIA director William Colby.1
Fluor Corporation and Ronald Lister
After leaving the CIA, Nelson became vice president for security and administration at Fluor Corporation, a position he held from 1977 to 1985. A Fluor spokeswoman initially denied Nelson's employment there until journalist Nick Schou presented documentary evidence.1
During 1982 and 1983, Ronald Lister was meeting with Nelson at Fluor Corporation's headquarters - described by Lister's former office director Chris Moore as "Ron's big CIA contact." Former CIA officer John Vandewerker confirmed that Nelson and Lister knew each other.1
Nelson's name appeared at the top of a handwritten list of seven names that Lister prepared for his 1985 grand jury appearance. Lister told police the names "came up in his business" and described them as "business people." The list also included Roberto D'Aubuisson and Ray Prendes, the former head of the Salvadoran Christian Democratic party, which received substantial CIA financial assistance during the 1980s.1
Arms Trafficking Connections
Nelson's Operation Feature in Angola bore many similarities to the Contra program, particularly in how weapons reached CIA proxy armies. In both operations, arms and equipment were laundered through neighboring countries friendly to the United States to disguise their origins and preserve CIA deniability. Zaire and South Africa fronted shipments for Angola; Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador fronted arms shipments for the Contras. In both cases the CIA turned to China for additional weaponry and missiles.1
A flow chart seized from Lister's home during a 1986 narcotics raid contained boxes labeled "Swiss Bank," "U.S. State Department," "H.K.," "X Country," and "Factory USA," which U.S. Customs Service analysis indicated diagrammed a scheme to illegally divert American-made weapons using fraudulent end-user certificates.1
Death
Nelson died of respiratory failure in an Orange County convalescent hospital in April 1995 at the age of seventy-four.1
Sources
- Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it" ↩
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