Man Acquitted of Stockpiling Missiles in N.M. Sues Halliburton for Selling Them to Him

The Associated Press
Published: Oct 21, 2004

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A Canadian man acquitted last year of illegally stockpiling warheads at his counterterrorism training school is suing the Halliburton Co., claiming the defense company defrauded him by telling him he could legally buy the military explosives.

David Hudak's federal lawsuit, filed Oct. 13 in Albuquerque, also claims that Halliburton, its former Jet Research Center subsidiary and another military contractor, Tennessee-based Accurate Arms Co., sold thousands more of the warheads to others in similar transactions.

The companies should have paid to have the warheads destroyed, as required by their military contracts, the lawsuit contends.

In a statement, Houston-based Halliburton said the 10 years that have passed since the sale of the warheads make the case difficult to investigate.

Accurate Arms bought Jet Research from Halliburton in early 1994, the same day Hudak completed his purchase of nearly 2,500 warheads. Accurate Arms President John Sonday, also named in Hudak's lawsuit, declined to comment.

The warheads were in Hudak's possession at his Roswell counterterrorism training center when it was raided by federal agents on Aug. 16, 2002. Hudak said Halliburton offered him the devices at a deep discount for use in his demolition business.

Hudak spent 17 months in prison while awaiting trial for possessing the military explosives. His businesses failed while he was in jail, his suit says.

"It was illegal for David Hudak to possess illegal warheads, it was even more illegal to sell illegal warheads - to anyone, particularly a foreigner," said Hudak's attorney, Bob Gorence.

AP-ES-10-21-04 2237EDT

Group Buy?


SGtar15

Quoted: ["It was illegal for David Hudak to possess illegal warheads, it was even more illegal to sell illegal warheads - to anyone, particularly a foreigner,"

 


More illegal huh?

Quoted: Group Buy? SGtar15

Those sound cooler then tannerite.

I could have brought several million back with me from Iraq...if only my I had been issued a couple more duffel bags....

[Doper]"I'm gonna sue Dealer McDope for sellin me this blow...!"[/Doper being busted]

What kind of "warheads" were they?

Quoted: What kind of "warheads" were they?

The sour candy treats, maybe.

Quoted: Quoted: ["It was illegal for David Hudak to possess illegal warheads, it was even more illegal to sell illegal warheads - to anyone, particularly a foreigner,"   More illegal huh?

Illegaler.

Missile Man: David Hudak - Threat or hero?
CTV.ca

It's been more than 50 years since word spread of a flying saucer crash near Roswell, New Mexico. Ever since, Roswell has been ground zero for everything alien.

The U.S. Military has long dismissed UFO sightings, saying weather balloons and dummies were all that fell from the New Mexico sky.

By the spring of 1999, Roswell's reputation for mystery and intrigue wasn't isolated to alien and UFO sightings. A secretive counter-terrorism company, called High Energy Access Tools started operating in and around Roswell.

HEAT president, Canadian David Hudak bought a ranch about an hour from Roswell. He told a local real estate agent he liked the property in part, because it looked so much like Afghanistan.

Soon after buying the ranch, roads were carved out into the harsh landscape and bunkers and firing ranges were created for military training.

It was all a bit too frightening for local welder Smiley Singleton, who was hired to work on the ranch.

"I didn't know if it was another terrorist thing, gearing up for another September 11th attack in different form. That's what I was worried about. I didn't know this organization. I didn't know what they were into and I was worried. A lot of us were here."

The training they were doing was also causing concern in the community. The United Arab Emirates reportedly paid $12 million US to receive HEAT's specialized training for 25 members of an elite military squad.

HEAT's increasingly public profile caused more questions to be asked about its operations and soon it wasn't just curious locals doing the asking.

On August 14, 2002, HEAT's Roswell properties were raided by several U.S. government agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.  The ATF claimed to have uncovered a massive cache of weapons, worth an estimated $83 million. They found dozens of Sig Sauer pistols and Remington rifles, but that's not what really concerned the ATF.

There was crate after crate of missiles and warheads - nearly 2,400 of them, which the U.S. officials claimed David Hudak was concealing on his company's property. ATF agents claimed they had rarely seen an arsenal this size.

According to court documents the ATF described those so-called warheads as 'military weapons to be used to defeat light armoured vehicles... designed to be fired from shoulder mounted infantry weapons.'

The ATF also stated that some of those 'warheads were property of the United States,' while others had 'NATO markers.'

At the time of the raid, Hudak's visa had also expired. This made him an illegal alien in Roswell, New Mexico.

Hudak was charged with being 'an alien in possession of a firearm.' At a bail hearing, the ATF claimed that Hudak was 'a flight risk' and a 'danger to the community.' He was denied bail.

Hudak's wife, Leslie heard of the raid while in Vancouver running HEAT's parent company, International Hydro Cut Technologies.

For the past 15 years Hydro Cut has specialized in counter-terrorism products and training. Their biggest claim to fame is what's called a breaching frame.

"It would blow a man-sized entrance into the room. And so it has the element of surprise, which is critical in hostage rescue situations," says his wife.

In 1997 at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru, Hydro Cut frames were used to free 71 hostages taken captive by rebel troops.

Hudak's company has received numerous commendations. They've provided training and equipment for Canadian local police forces, the RCMP, and the Department of National Defence.

By the late 1990s, Hydro Cut's business was growing and HEAT was set-up as a branch office in New Mexico. After September 11, the Hudaks thought the American branch of their counter-terrorism business would be booming.

"We thought HEAT was in the right place at the right time doing the right thing; training and working in the counter-terrorism field, exactly what the U.S. wants to have done right now," says Leslie Hudak.

She says her husband's interest in counter-terrorism comes from his long-standing desire to do good things.

"In high school when most people are trying to figure out what party they're going to, he was dangling from a helicopter rescuing people... Everything he's done has had an element of helping people and trying to make the world a better place, a safer place.

If David Hudak really did have the missiles and warheads the ATF said he did, then it raises a number of troubling questions for Hudak and law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border.

How did Hudak get his hands on this stockpile in the first place? What's more, how, as court documents indicate, was he able to move 2,400 so-called missiles across the U.S. into Canada and back without customs officers ever batting an eye?

There is one person who knows for certain and he's been locked inside a New Mexico jail for the past seven months.

The Torance County Detention Facility just outside Albuquerque, New Mexico has been home for David Hudak since August. The local media have dubbed him 'the missile man'.

Hudak has mostly kept to himself during the months he's spent in prison. Never speaking publicly about the charges against him, until now.

"I'm outraged, humiliated... I'm not a threat to anybody on the legitimate side of the law. That's for sure."

Hudak says that the weapons found on his property by the ATF are not what they seem.

"They are not in fact a warhead, and they certainly are not missiles or missile-assemblies... They are an explosive. They are an energetic material. They were shipped as such, stored as such and had in the past been utilized as such. But they are not warheads. If they were, they would be on the complete SMAW [Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon] assembly in the U.S. government's inventory somewhere. They would not be in a commercial company and reported being used as a demolition product on demolition jobs."

Hudak's lawyers Bob Gorence and Tim Padilla say they have documents to prove that what the ATF found on HEAT's property had been repeatedly classified as explosive charges, not missiles or warheads.

"They were then shipped via a commercial shipper, through the United States, cleared Canada Customs, and again above board... informing Canadian governmental officials at Energy Mines and Resources what exactly was going up there... the shipping documents on the way back, where the process was reversed, again with a bill of Lading from the commercial shipper," says Gorence.

His lawyers says the estimates of their worth have also been over inflated by the ATF. According to the bill of sale, Hudak paid $3,300 for the explosives.

Documents also indicate that in April and July 2002, both the FBI and the ATF had inspected HEAT's property including the bunkers where the explosives were stored.

U.S. prosecutors in court portrayed David Hudak as a national security threat. W-FIVE requested to speak with prosecutors and the ATF in New Mexico and in Washington about the raid and the case they have against Hudak. They declined while the matter is before the courts.

Hank Lavery is a former air force pilot who now runs Security Assistance International in Washington, D.C. He applies for U.S. State Department licenses for companies like HEAT and was working on HEAT's permits at the time of the raid.

Lavery believes Hudak as a Canadian has been unfairly targetted and finds it peculiar that no other company officials from HEAT, all of whom are American, face any charges.

"I just don't see that we have a criminal here. We just have somebody who is gone afoul of the licensing process perhaps, and should be straightened out in a rather routine way rather than held in jail without bond."

But whatever the reason, it doesn't make it any easier for Hudak.

"How this could have happened? It's degrading. It's humiliating, makes you angry. I have to believe in the long term. In the trial, it will all come out. Justice has got to prevail in this thing."

Quoted: Quoted: Group Buy? SGtar15 Those sound cooler then tannerite.

+1

Jet Research produces shaped charges for demolition.

I guess Hydro Cutting wasn't paying very well?

What were the "warheads" they sound like SMAW or LAW rockets or something?

Quoted: Quoted: What kind of "warheads" were they? The sour candy treats, maybe.

DOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!

Quoted: A Canadian man acquitted last year of illegally stockpiling warheads at his counterterrorism training school is suing the Halliburton Co., claiming the defense company defrauded him by telling him he could legally buy the military explosives. Hudak spent 17 months in prison while awaiting trial for possessing the military explosives. His businesses failed while he was in jail, his suit says. our tax dollars at work.

I remember that -- so he beat the rap....

WOW

I suspect the term "WARHEAD" is an ill-informed word used by the news writers because a) they don't understand what the hell they are talking about, b) they didn't care enough to research it and get a little background that would clear it up, and c) WARHEAD sounds cooler and more scary.

They could simply be some form of breaching charges that are perfectly legal if you have the proper licenses and so forth.  To an informed reader I suspect this would not be what they are trying to make it out to be.  

Sounds to me like he was setting up his own version of the movie Swordfish.

Especially the part where he says he is not a threat... to anyone on the right side of the law.

You know, it really sucks that the guy spent over a year in jail and lost his business.  I'm hoping he wasn't really a threat, or he wouldn't have been acquitted.  But wouldn't it make sense to call somebody in the know before buying something "unusual" like explosive warheads?  I mean, a 10 minute phone call would probably tell you if it was cool or not.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: ["It was illegal for David Hudak to possess illegal warheads, it was even more illegal to sell illegal warheads - to anyone, particularly a foreigner,"   More illegal huh? Illegaler.

Mucho More Illegaler.