The Black Carbon Operation
The Abdel Kader Helmy Case
DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Washington, DC, September 19, 1989
Subject: Assessment on the Activities of Abdel Kader Helmy*, et. al. and the Egyptian/Iraqi Condor Missile Program.
U.S. ATTORNEY, EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
U.S. Courthouse, Sacramento, CA.
This office became aware of the activities of Dr. Abdel Kader Helmy and his associates in June 1986. Acting at the request of the U.S. Customs Service, DIA assisted U.S. investigators with technical and intelligence expertise in the area of missile technology and proliferation to the Middle East. As a result of the review of the documents provided to this office, DIA offers the following pertaining to the activities of Dr. Helmy's group.
The list of items/materials being sought by Dr. Helmy is entirely consistent with items neces- sary to support the manufacture of a ballistic missile. Specifically the chemicals, when combined into one list, are most likely to be found in a facility which manufactures composite solid propellant motors. The carbon based blocks and cones were most probably for use on the nose of the missile warhead. The carbon phenolic tape has numerous uses including the thermal wrap of rocket motor casings production. A review of the materials and the technical manuals which Dr. Helmy was obtaining can result in only one opinion, that Dr. Helmy was procuring materials to support the production of a ballistic missile.
The Egyptian Ministry of Defense, working with financiers from Iraq, have contracted with the Argentines to produce a ballistic missile capable of carrying a warhead of 500 kilograms up to 1,000 kilometers in range. This missile is most commonly referred to as the "Condor" missile. The Condor missile meets the minimum criteria set forth in the Category 1 of the Missile Technology Control-Regime (MTCR). The Condor program has been closely monitored by the seven member nations of the MTCR (United States, Federal Republic of Germany, France, Canada, Great Britain, Italy and Japan) who are responsible for monitoring world wide missile proliferation activities.l
This specific missile would represent a significant improvement over currently assessed missile capabilities of Egypt. DIA believes Dr. Helmy was procuring these materials for the Condor missile.
The Condor missile program has been ongoing since at least 1984. The progress has been slow due in part to the lack of indigenous technology and the need to covertly acquire the technology/materials used in production of ballistic missiles abroad. The activities of Dr. Helmy are consistent with observed activities, sponsored by Egypt and Iraq, to facilitate the production of the Condor missile. Without the activities of Dr. Helmy and his co-conspirators in procuring restricted technology, completion of the Condor missile program is doubtful. Dr. Helmy's apparent willingness to provide critical materials necessary for the production of the Condor missile was important to the long term goals of establishing an indigenous ballistic missile production capability in Argentina, Egypt and Iraq.
DIA believes that the introduction of a ballistic missile, capable of carrying conventional, chemical, or nuclear warheads, into either Egypt or Iraq would increase regional tensions and add further fuel to the regional arms race. Israel and Iran, the perceived adversaries of Egypt2 and Iraq, would most surely respond to these acquisitions in an escalating posture, by considering preemptive strikes, starting or accelerating anti-ballistic missile programs or acquiring an equal or greater number of ballistic missiles. The potential regional destabilization which might have been caused by Dr. Helmy's activities would be damaging to U.S. interests and peace efforts in the region.3
MICHAEL R. HIGGINS
Man Guilty in Smuggling Missile Parts to Egypt
June 10, 1989
SACRAMENTO — In a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, an Egyptian-born rocket scientist pleaded guilty Friday to attempting to smuggle out highly sophisticated missile components to the military of his native country.
As Abdelkader Helmy switched his plea to guilty to a single charge in a multicount indictment, U.S. District Judge Raul A. Ramirez noted that Helmy may be required to testify against unspecified officials of the Egyptian government.
During questioning of Helmy, the jurist told him, without elaboration, "You could be called on to testify against agents and high-ranking authorities of the Egyptian government." Helmy said he understood this.
In exchange for dropping all but the one charge to which he pleaded guilty, Helmy, a former rocket propulsion scientist employed by Aerojet Solid Propulsion Co. near Sacramento, agreed to "fully cooperate" with federal agents investigating other defendants, including two Egyptian nationals.
The slightly built, bearded and balding scientist stood stiffly at attention during the hourlong session and answered the judge's questions in a soft, heavily accented voice. At one point, he said that if the plea agreement were to turn sour on him, he would have no option but "to trust my God."
Helmy, 41, a naturalized American citizen, pleaded guilty to attempting to export without a license from the State Department about 430 pounds of a carbon phenolic fabric, a high-tech material used for ballistic missile nose cones, rocket nozzles and radar-evading aircraft.
The maximum sentence for the offense is 10 years in prison and a $1-million fine. Under the plea agreement, which is subject to approval by Ramirez, U.S. Atty. David F. Levy recommended that Helmy be sentenced to serve almost five years in prison and be fined up to $358,690.
Federal authorities have identified Helmy as the key American figure in an alleged illegal operation to smuggle missile system components and technical data out of the United States to Egypt, an American ally in the Middle East.
Helmy, who lives in the Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills, allegedly was sent $1 million from a Swiss bank account between December, 1982, and March, 1988. Customs agents subsequently seized $810,000 from his bank accounts, which officials said would be forfeited to the federal government under the plea arrangement.
Also charged in what the government contends was an elaborate illegal export and money-laundering scheme are James Huffman, 47, of Lexington, Ohio, a defense aerospace company marketing representative; Hussam Yusef, an Egyptian colonel and diplomat based in Austria, and Faud Algamal, who entered the United States as an Egyptian diplomat.
Federal authorities said Helmy had been under close surveillance before the seizure at Baltimore-Washington airport last June 24 of a shipment of the carbon fabric as it was about to be loaded aboard an Egyptian military C-130 cargo plane.
The indictment also charged that in March, 1988, the defendants actually smuggled out of the country the fabric and two technical manuals that dealt with the use of carbon materials.
Huffman, free on $250,000 bond, is scheduled to be tried Aug. 8. Levy noted that efforts have been under way to extradite Yusef and Algamal, who are believed to be in Egypt. However, besides being difficult to pursue, both could invoke diplomatic immunity from prosecution in the United States.
Guilty Plea in Missile Parts Smuggling Case
June 24, 1989
SACRAMENTO — A former executive of an aerospace defense company Friday pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in a scheme to smuggle components of a sophisticated U.S. missile system to Egypt.
James Huffman, 47, of Lexington, Ohio, Midwest marketing representative for Teledyne, McCormick, Selph until his arrest last June, entered the plea to a charge of conspiring to export restricted munitions.
In a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, other charges in a 12-count indictment were dropped. Huffman, who faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 27.
Guilty Plea
A co-conspirator in the case, rocket scientist Abdelkader Helmy, a native of Egypt who is a naturalized American citizen, pleaded guilty in a plea bargain June 9 to a single count of attempting to smuggle the highly secret missile components to Egypt a year ago aboard an Egyptian military cargo plane.
Missile components in the case, prosecutors said, included such high-tech items as a heat-resistant carbon fabric with low radar detectability that is used in rocket nose cones and super-secret stealth aircraft, a synthetic rubber used in rocket fuels and two swept-back parabolic UHF antennas.
Actual shipment was thwarted by U.S. Customs Service agents, federal authorities have said. Two Egyptians, Col. Hussam Al-Din Khairat and Fuad Algamal, were also indicted but claimed diplomatic immunity and have left the country.
Federal prosecutors charged that Huffman was in charge of procuring components of the missile system for export and Helmy, a former Aerojet Solid Propulsion Co. research engineer, was the "technical expert."
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"Condor-2" or (Badr 2000) Ballistic Missile
Who is Hossam Khairat?
Hossam Khairat joined the Military Technical College in 1961. He received a bachelor's degree in missile engineering design with very high grades in 1967. He joined the artillery corps, which developed ballistic and anti-tank weapons within his specialties, to increase the range, accuracy and load, as well as anti-tank missiles, and other projects to develop sophisticated munitions and to develop aircraft-fortified barns to withstand hostile missile strikes that generate high atmospheric pressure.
As well as other projects classified as "highly confidential", in the areas of development of equipment, weapons and ammunition, increasing their destructive capacity, prolonging the life of the guns and overcoming the shortage of raw materials and materials imported from abroad by substituting very cheap local materials.
His graduation in the year of the 1967 defeat had a significant impact on the development of his thinking; in search of ways to restore Sinai militarily, to deter the Israeli enemy and to overcome its air superiority that the United States insure for Israel.
To achieve this goal, Hossam Khairat presented dozens of research papers before the October 1973 war. He did not hesitate to meet all the officials in order to present his projects and ideas which he believed in their effectiveness, including a plan to build a deterrent missile force, that he presented to the director of the Office of President Sadat, Ashraf Marwan, in December 1972. He also met for the same purpose, both Kamal Hassan Ali, Mashaher Ahmed Ismail, and the Minister of Defense Abdul-Ghani Al-Jamsi, some of whom encouraged him, others did not give him any attention.
On the civil level, in December 1972, Hossam Khairat presented a plan for concealing and disguising the strategic objectives in Egypt to the Engineer Saed Mor'i of the People's Assembly and the Secretary General of the Socialist Union at the time. During the pre-October War he designed and tested missiles, with officers from the Technical College and Saqr Factory, for the first time in Egypt, they were successfully tested in December 1972.
After the October 1973 war, Hossam Khairat first met with Abdul Halim Abu-Ghazaleh when he was head of the Artillery Corps. He discovered the importance of Hossam Khairat's ideas on a strategic ballistic missile project. Which went with accordance to Abu Ghazaleh's thoughts on achieving an Egyptian missile deterrent against Israeli nuclear and air deterrence, and encouraged him to continue his research in this field telling him this is the only hope for Egypt to achieve strategic deterrence against Israel under the Israeli nuclear monopoly, Guaranteed by the United States for Israel, to obtain the latest armed fighters of the US Air Force itself.
However, the appointment of Abu Ghazaleh as a military attaché in the United States for four years (1975-1978) put a distance between the two, the period that Hossam Khairat used to get a master's degree (1980) and a doctorate from the Military Art College, For the development of equipment and weapons of strategic importance to the armed forces; and because of the confidentiality of the doctoral thesis it was attended only by the team of Abdul-Rabi Hafez, then Chief of Staff, and a specialized group of officers of the armed forces, In 1978 Hossam Khairat received the first rank of scientific research at the level of the armed forces.
When Abu Ghazaleh returned to Egypt in 1978, he was appointed Director of Military Intelligence and then Chief of Staff in 1979. He appointed Hossam Khairat as head of the Research and Projects Branch of the Ministry of Defense in 1981 and until 1989 under the personal supervision of Marshal Abu Ghazala. During this period, Hossam Khairat completed more than 20 projects to develop weapons, ammunition, equipment and shields for armored tanks and armored vehicles, and were actually implemented in armed forces units.
In the same period, the Al-Ahram newspaper, under direction of Abu Ghazaleh published on Friday, 24 December 1982, the following headings: "An Egyptian discovery that revolutionizes technology in the military industries, which increases the capabilities of some weapons, Comprehensive production of the new development saves hundreds of millions of pounds, through serious teamwork, "by author Mohamed Abdel Moneim, in which he mentioned the name of Hossam Khairat and his image. The story of a young officer in the armed forces and his colleagues presented global innovations, development of equipment and weapons .. And saves the state hundreds Millions of pounds, "as he described the details of the projects carried out by Hossam Khairat in the field of development of missiles, weapons and ammunition.
I think, for my part, that publishing this was a serious security mistake because it drew the attention of the Israeli and American intelligence agencies to the gravity of Hossam Khairat on the security of Israel and America's interests in the region. Since then, the eyes of the Israeli intelligence services have focused on him. The idea was to motivate young people to work sincerely for the homeland, and in response to the spread of corruption in the civil sector at the time, which was reflected in the large number of corruption cases before the courts.
The story of Hossam Khairat with the " Condor-2 " missile
When Hossam Khairat attended a training course for rocket propulsion in Austria, arranged by Engineer Syed Yunus, chairman of the plant 18 Al-Harbi, a missile fuel plant in Abu Zaabal, the training course was also attended by his old friend at the Military Technical College Engineer Abdul Qader Helmi.
Hossam Khairat, came to know_ through Engineer Syed Yunus_ a German scientist, who briefed him on a missile system developed by Italy with Argentina. The German scientist agreed to be the link between Egypt and Argentina in the joint development of the Condor-2 ballistic missile.
In order to confirm all the information related to this project, Hossam Khairat visited the headquarters of the relevant companies in Germany, Italy, Argentina, Brazil and then France, where he met with Abu Ghazaleh during the official visit to Paris, and the latter was convinced of the idea of the project, "Cooperation to develop a long-range Egyptian ballistic missile (1,000 km and above), locally manufactured missiles and building Egyptian scientific cadres that will form the basis for future missile manufacturing and development," with a multinational _French, German, Italian And Argentinian_ company (IFAT).
Al-Mashir Abu-Ghazaleh succeeded in persuading former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to participate with Egypt in financing this project, and that Iraq will obtain the same plant and technology that Egypt will receive, and in the same time as Egypt. Indeed, shipments of aircraft and ships transported parts of the factories to Egypt and Iraq at the same time.
In order to ascertain the seriousness of the Egyptian project, the Iraqi side demanded to see the contract document signed between Egypt and the foreign contracting company. This was achieved by the visit of the Iraqi Minister of Industrialization Rashid Amer to Cairo. Iraq also requested that a meeting be held between Hossam Khairat and Iraqi missile expert Amer Saadi, who handed him more than 80 technical questions about the project, which Hossam Khaira answered; Saddam Hussein agreed in 1984 to participate in the project and fund it. Since the Condor-2 missile development project is mainly shared by Germany and Argentina, Egypt has contracted with the German company IFat in Salzburg to produce the missile engine.
Hossam Khairat was appointed project manager with eight Egyptian engineers. The project was based in Monte Carlo, southern France, in 1984, with branch offices in Argentina (engine development), Monte Carlo (for the development of the steering and manufacturing system), Italy (Engine components), and in Germany (Missile fuel mixers).The Egyptian engineers were distributed among these offices, and the code name of Hossam Khairat, was "d. Ahmed Youssef".
In 1986, during the work of Hossam Kheirat in France, and after the German experts were informed of the actual experience and capabilities of the missile development and manufacture, they offered him a friendly million dollars a year in order to work for them; he refused and learned that he might be held in France to work in forced labor. He contacted Mahsir Abu Ghazala to inform him about the story, the latter asked Hossam Khairat to negotiate with them to address the Egyptian army in writing for this offer, which they did, and Hossam Khairat got a million dollars, and donated it to the Research Center of the armament organzation, and completed the work as an officer in the Egyptian army.
Problems encountered by the project
The Condor-2 missile project was exposed to numerous security and technical problems. The most serious of these was Mossad attempts to assassinate scientists and blow up the project equipment during its transfer to Egypt, especially after the Al-Ahram investigation, mentioned above on December 24, 1982, the role played by Hossam Khairat in the missile projects in Egypt, although he was working under the cover of a diplomat named d. Yusuf, but the Mossad was able to monitor his location in Salzburg and the foreign figures that deal with the project, and in 1987 they blew up a car belonging to one of the foreign project managers in Nice.. The KIDON unit of the Mossad, charged with abducting or killing anti-Israel figures, tracked the movement of Hossam Kheirat in Europe (Austria, France and Germany) with the aim of kidnapping him. Hossam Khairat's son (Khaled) discovered that a car was watching the house around the clock. The project management center was moved to Salzburg, Austria, in August 1987.
The Mossad also assassinated a German scientist who collaborated with Hossam Khairat in the project. The Egyptian commercial attache in Switzerland in August 1987, Alaa Nazmi, was also assassinated in the garage of his house. Unknown men seized his briefcase. The Egyptian ambassador to Austria was also subjected to an assassination attempt that smashed her face with a bomb planted in her mobile phone. .. The Egyptian security services responded blood for blood, before a truce was held in 2002; to prevent the explosion of an international scandal arranged by Egypt for four of the top commanders of the US military.
At the technical level, in the context of the development of the project, there was an urgent need to purchase materials only available in the United States, such as carbon fiber ribbons for the manufacture of Nozzles, which are saturated with resins and are kept in refrigerators, these were produced by Fiberite company for the the ballistic missile (Arian).
Hossam Khairat has been looking for help in the United States to obtain this material, and found only his old friend at the Military Technical College, d. Engineer Abdelkader Helmy, who worked for the NASA space agency, to rely on to provide these materials.
Abdelkader Helmy's story with the Condor-2 project
He graduated from the Military Technical College in 1970 and was one of the first to graduate, with honors in the Department of Chemical Engineering, specializing in missile propulsion systems.
Due to his superior skills and abilities he was sent to the Russian Science Academy where he was awarded the Master's and Doctoral degrees in the development of missile propulsion systems and ballistic missile components, at a time when Egypt lacked long-range ballistic missiles, and the maximum range of Scud-B missiles was in the 300 km range.
To take advantage of Abdul Qader Hilmi's experience, he was exempted from military service and attached to the military factory for three years before being assigned to work as a missile expert in Canada in the late 1970s. At the time, Marshal Abu Ghazaleh was the director of military intelligence. After six months of work at Teledyne Corporation, a company specializing in the production of missile propulsion systems for the US Department of Defense, Hilmi moved to California.
By using the solid fuel for the space shuttle "Discovery" instead of liquid fuel, Abdulkader Helmy, with his skill and ability, he could modify the flaw in the missile propulsion system so as not to explode like the "Challenger" in 1982; Which drew the attention of scientists and intelligence agencies to him. after this achievement he obtained a security clearance of level (A) that allowed him to enter the databases and laboratories for testing jet propulsion throughout the United States without any restrictions, with a secret security statement from the US government at this level (A), Scientists are allowed access to highly secret American defense programs without restrictions. This statement is not owned by the American president, but he uses his constitutional, rather than structural right to view high-secret projects.
Hilmi also participated in the manufacture and development of Fuel-Air Explosive Bomb (FAE bomb) fuel bombs, belonging to the Concussion Bombs family, the so-called Volume Detonating Weapons (VDW). It is at a tactical nuclear bomb level without radiation effect. The impact of the bomb with a warhead of a thousand pounds can cause total destruction and anhilation in the vicinity of 50 meters, and partial destruction in the vicinity of 850 meters, it can be affected by increasing the size of the bomb, it depends for its impact on the resulting high pressure wave that may reach more than 30 air pressure, and when the ratio of fuel to oxygen is appropriate, it is enough to generate a spark to raise the temperature by a certain percentage, or to raise the pressure in a sudden way, which ignites the mixture and the occurrence of an explosion spread from the ignition point to the maximum edge of the cloud in no more than a few parts of a million parts of a second, leading to the destruction of humans and destruction of installations, shelters and fortifications.
America used this weapon in the Vietnam War and opened holes in Iraqi minefields in southern Iraq on February 24, 1991 in the war to liberate Kuwait. Ethylene oxide gases and propylene oxide were used in the 1000-pound Lu-95 bombs, Of these bombs there is the new generation Lu-96, where the cloud is detonated at a certain height from the earth's surface, followed by another explosion offset by the response wave from the surface of the earth, which increases the size of destruction and anhilation.
Because this type of bomb has the same impact as a tactical nuclear weapon, Marshal Abu Ghazaleh was keen to supply the warhead of the Condor-2 with this kind of FAE bomb; to act as a deterrent to Israeli nuclear weapons, especially if all surrounding Arab states of Israel, and in the Arab depth, get the Condor-2 missiles armed with these types of bombs.
Abdelkader Helmi was able to leak the documents of this type of bombs to Egypt, and later CIA reports showed that he was continuously supplying the latest and latest research of this type of bombs to Egypt, in the form of high secret documents and designs, until March 7, 1986, at the same time when Hossam Khairat ran a complex intelligence-technical network in several European countries and Latin America to provide logistical support to the Condor-2 project through multinational companies unrelated to any Egyptian or Arab name, from his office in (Nice), and then (Salzburg) thereafter; to provide factory parts, equipment, materials and tools required for Egyptian and Iraqi manufacturers.
At this stage in 1986, the manufacturing stages of the Condor-2 missile had reached a peak and were halted when the project needed highly sensitive software and materials to guide the missiles and control and maintain their direction and trajectory when flying in the air or in space. For this, Abdulkader Helmi welcomed Hossam Khairat demands, and recruited a US scientist, James Hoffman, who facilitated the entry to an Advanced Command Center in Huntsville, USA, attached to the Advanced Strategic Command, he was responsible for developing Patriot anti-missile and aircraft systems guidance software. The Center collaborated with another technology firm, Coleman, managed by another programming scientist (Keith Smith), who was also recruited in late 1986 for the project, and through him it was possible to obtain a complete and updated version of the programs of the American ballistic missile system and its countermeasures, the outcome of the development of fifty years of the entire American Star Wars program.
In cooperation with the Department of Technical Intelligence of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service; a reverse engineering of the tracking and guidance programs of the Patriot system allowed to discover that the Patriot system is able to track the Condor-2 missile and intercept it in the atmosphere.
To solve this problem, Abdelkader Helmi discovered research at another US Air Force command center to manufacture a black carbon material that, when used in the Condor-2 missile, could conceal any radar footprint and turn it into a ghost flying in space. It can not be detected, (stealth theory); it reduces friction of the missile's head with the air by 20%; thus raising its range to about 1350 km.
And then began a feverish process to get this material and shipping it to research and development laboratories in Egypt, and with it a kind of treated paint, which is coating the body of the missile outside. The quantities that Abdelkader Helmi was able to get through by buying, or other methods, exceeded 8 tons of these raw materials that were shipped in diplomatic boxes in cooperation with the procurement office of the Egyptian Embassy in Washington.
Mubarak and Abu-Ghazaleh provided a security cover for the shipment of secret materials from the US
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