Government Witness Charges Vets Bartered Dope for Guns

A government witness testified yesterday at the Gainesville Eight conspiracy trial that the defendants traded dope for weapons. William W. Lemmer said that the weapons were to be used by VVAW fire-teams during last summer's Republican National Convention in Miami.

He also testified that defendant Scott Camil offered to work for the CIA as an undercover agent in return for $14,000. He said that Camil made the offer last summer when he discovered that Lemmer was an FBI agent.

Lemmer said that Camil had discussed with him the training of political assassination squads early last year at a series of VVAW national steering committee meetings.

Lemmer said that VVAW trained fire-teams to simultaneously bomb 150 Miami area police stations in order to divert police attention from the GOP convention in Miami Beach. Other "diversion tactics" included shooting down power lines around the city.

He testified that Camil was equippint the fire-teams with M-1 carbines, grenades and home-made chemical bombs with fiberglass shrapnel.

Former Coordinators

Lemmer will continue his testimony this morning when the court reconvenes.

Lemmer and Camil were regional coordinators of the VVAW who worked together closely on the VVAW national steering committee in early 1972.

Lemmer originally joined the VVAW in Atlanta, Ga. on April 2, 1971 while he was still in the army, stationed at Fort Bennington, Ga.

Lemmer first met Camil in Kansas City, Mo. in November 1971 at a VVAW national steering committee meeting. In Kansas City, Lemmer said, Camil "made reference to organization and his organization's set-up ... he said he was training political assassination squads." Camil called his training project "Phoenix II" and had "no specific targets," Lemmer testified.

Lemmer explained that the project was named after an effort by the "CIA and other para-military organizations" to rid South Vietnam of suspected communist cadres several years ago.

Camil described his training base as a Florida farm during VVAW meetings in Colorado in February 1972, Lemmer said.

The defense objected to Lemmer's unexpected charges that drugs had been used in financing the training program. Defense lawyers said that the testimony is inflamatory and immaterial to the case. One defense attorney asked for a mistrial on these grounds.

Lemmer was named regional coordinator for the VVAW in Oklahoma and Arkansas in April, 1972.

He came to Gainesville for four days of planning meetings on May 26, 1972. Lemmer testified that Camil discussed "contingency plans" to be used in the event of mass arrests in Miami Beach. Lemmer quoted Camil as saying, "If the situation [in Miami Beach] gets out of hand, our people should have adequate defenses... In the event of a crackdown, we might, first of all, hit police stations simultaneously with automatic weapon and grenade attacks."

Lemmer testified that Camil called the M-1 carbine "an ideal weapon for urban guerilla warfare" and showed Lemmer home-made chemical bombs, "anti-personnel devices" that spewed fiberglass shrapnel, and $2.60 wrist-rocket slingshots