Florida Plant Reported Used to Export Cyanide
09/18/1990
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DALLAS (AP) The Iraqi architect of a Libyan chemical weapons complex invested $5 million in a Florida cherry flavoring plant in an apparent bid to export cyanide to the Middle East, a newspaper reported in Sunday's editions.
Two former associates said deceased financier Dr. Ihsan Barbouti used the Boca Raton plant to establish a front through which he could export deadly hydrogen cyanide and the technology to produce it in quantity, The Dallas Morning News reported.
The former associates said Barbouti sought to export the poison to Middle East countries identified by the U.S. government as supporters of terrorism. Barbouti acknowledged contracts with Iraq and Iran, they said.
Barbouti has been identified in Western news reports as the architect of Libyan Col. Moammar Gadhafi's chemical weapons plant in Rabta. He died July 1 in London on lung and heart complications, according to his death certificate. He was 63.
A federal lawsuit filed in Oklahoma City in 1989 claims that Barbouti schemed to take over TK-7 Corp., an Oklahoma City fuel additive manufacturer, so he could have a licensed source of chemicals for diversion the Rabta plant. The 1 lawsuit, filed by TK-7 president Moshe Tal, is still pending.
The president of the Florida flavoring plant said he had no role in the diversion of any toxic material, but acknowledged that at least 150 gallons of a cyanide compound was unaccounted for. The cyanide was a byproduct of a process used to extract bitter almond oil, a concentrate for cherry flavoring, from apricot pits.
The cyanide could have been taken from Product Ingredient Technology Inc. without his knowledge, Louis S. Champon said.
"My feeling is that it was his intention to ship out (cyanide) to overseas," Champon said.
Peter Kawaja, whose company installed a $1 million security system at the plant, said the cyanide was removed during "night trips" to another site in Florida he declined to identify.
"Shipments have left the U.S. and technology has left the U.S.," said Kawaja. "We're talking about the research and development of chemical weapons in the United States."
Kawaja declined to identify the final destination of the potentially lethal chemical.
The newspaper said U.S. Customs and the FBI have accelerated their investigation of Barbouti's role in the flavoring plant since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait last month. They are examining his vast holdings in Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Tennessee, New Jersey and New York.
The federal agencies declined comment.
"If there's an ongoing investigation, we're not going to comment on it. Those are attorney general's guidelines ... I'm not confirming that there is an investigation. I don't know if there is or there isn't," FBI spokesman Jeffrey W. Maynard told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The Central Intelligence Agency also refused to discuss the investigation.
"We decline to comment at this time. I would say, though, that if there is any indication or intelligence of hostile activities we would bring that to the attention of the appropriate law enforcement authorities," CIA spokesman Peter Earnest told the AP.
Customs Service spokesman Cliff Stallings in Miami said Saturday that he had been in Washington last week and was unaware of the case.
"You can quote me saying if it's under investigation, then we won't talk about it," he said.
Barbouti's holdings are 1 controlled by his son, Haidar Barbouti, who lives in New York City. The younger Barbouti has been president and director of 20 to 30 of his father's companies.
There was no answer at Barbouti's Manhattan residence or at the Barbouti holding company, IBI Industries Inc., Saturday.
Champon said he has filed a lawsuit to sever his business ties with the Barbouti family. Champon said he and Barbouti often quarreled about disposal of the waste cyanide and that Barbouti's funding "stopped when we flatly refused to send out any cyanide complex."
"Dr. Barbouti many, many times mentioned that he wanted this cyanide ... shipped to Germany," Champon said of the cyanide waste from the plant.
And according to Kawaja and Champon, the Barboutis asked the plant's architect to computerize the blueprints of the operation without Champon's knowledge.
"They were trying to steal the plans," Champon said.
And Al Hussaini appears to have been protected for a time in Houston after the OKC bombing by CIA asset, Heider Barbouti, whose father Ishan assisted President GHW Bush transfer technology for weapons of mass destruction (biological, chemical and nuclear) to Sadam Hussein and Iraq before the Gulf War