CIA-RDP96-00792R000500240004-3

Weapon?
Approved For Release 200 1703707 . CIA-F
A Toronto inventor may hold
the key to Entebbe
By David Jones
T
wo books have now been written
on the daring raid which rescued
103 hijack hostages from Entebbe
airport on July 3, 1976. Numerous inter-
views and official explanations have been
given, yet the puzzle remains. How did
the Israeli rescue mission manage to elude
the radar of six nations lying beneath or
alongside its flight path, including that of
Uganda?
The answer to the Entebbe mystery
may lie with a 64-year-old appliance
repairman and heart patient The first
hint of Sid Hurwich's connection with the
raid filtered out last June at a ceremony
in Toronto's Beth Tzedec synagogue.
where Hurwich was presented with the
award of Protectors of the State of Israel
on behalf of the Zionist Organization of
Canada for a secret military device he
had given Israel seven years earlier. Six
weeks later an item appeared in the
Toronto Star linking the Hurwich device
to the raid on Entebbe. The wire services
picked it up and the story took off around
the world.
The most detailed account appeared in
Foreign Report, a confidential diplomatic
journal produced by England's presti-
gious Economist magazine. In an un-
signed article apparently based on Israeli
sources, the publication reports that "all
that could be learned officially was that
[Hurwich's] invention had been used in
the Israeli raid at Entebbe last year." The
article claims the invention "sends out
electronic rays to alter the natural com-
position of the magnetic fields and
centres of gravity of weapons, instrument
dials and mechanical devices ... On the
Hurwich principle there was no reason
why the new beams could not reach and
disable tanks, ground-to-ground missiles
and complete radar systems. The beams
could also be tacked together to form a
screen that would make whole zones safe
from bombs or missiles. The Israelis will
not divulge what tests have been run, or
how the Hurwich ray has been developed."
According to his daughter, Sylvia
Winkler, Hurwich "was around 9. when
he started buying broken bicycles and
putting them together, and when any-
body threw out appliances, he would pick
them up and put them together."
By 1934, with no training beyond high
school, Hurwich had won a reputation as
the first private appliance repairman in
Canada- before that only the manufac-
turers did repairs. By the beginning of the
Second World War he was known as a
---- -- LI. .. ... :
...
POOAS
I've got a secret: Sid Harwich, 64, was given th
tions on metals used in appliances, the
repair business took off. By 1947 he had
built it up into Shock Electric, which
remains one of the largest businesses of
its kind in Toronto. In another building be
started Sidoo Co., devoted to making
electrical parts. When a heart attack in.
1950 just about killed him, he sold the
business and went into a comfortable
retirement at the age of 36.
T
he idea for the Hurwich ray came
to him one evening in 1969 as he
read about a rash of robberies from
bank night-deposit vaults. . "It just clicked
what to do" Hurwich says. "I picked up
the phone to the police-I knew a lot
of the boys-and I'told them I think I
can stop those thieveries in about half
an hour.
Hurwich went to work in his basement
with SSO worth of spare parts, and within
a week had assembled a working model
to test his theory. Inspector Bill Bolton,
then head of the pouce hold-up squad."
assembled police and bank security
officials at Hurwich's home. "All I can
recall," says Bolton "is that it was under
the table-the device, whatever it was-
and there was a bedspread over the table.
He froze my service revolver. You
ved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDR960079200005002400043

40004-3
Protector of the State of Israel award by the Zionist Organization for his "military device."
it up off the table and even on the table
you couldn't pull the trigger."
Hurwich continues: "And then I said
'Now take a look at your watches' I
remember one of them said, "When did
this happen? and I said, 'The minute you
walked through that door. You walked
in there about 25 minutes ago. Now look
at your watches. You're late about 25
minutes"." -
As the security officers filed out of his
home, Hurwich's wife overheard one of
them suggest that the army should be
told about the device. "That was the first
time it ever entered my mind for war or
army purposes or anything like that"
Hurwich says. He went back to work in
his basement. When he felt the device
was ready he contacted a brother living in
Israel. Hurwich has never been to Israel
himself but he felt "they needed it more
than anybody, what with the Arabs say-
ing they'd like to push everyone into the
sea." Hurwich received a visit shortly
afterward from two high-ranking Israeli
officers. After a brief demonstration they
walked out with the working undici and
every plan and design Hurwich had.
Hurwich insists his device is not really
an invention. He says he simply "Look
one of the oldest basic principles of
electricity and put it to a different use."
Which principle he won't say, just as he
refuses to discuss how the device works. It
only works on objects that will carry a
current, he says. It can be aimed and its
range depends on its power source.
"Any magnet will stop a watch." cx-
plains "Dr. Howard White, a Toronto
consulting engineer. "It sounds to me like
a very high-intensity electromagnetic
field that he is able to project, but I don't
know how he is generating it" White
shakes his head skeptically. "From jam-
ming a few guns to jamming electronic
equipment at long range is a very large.
leap. But anything's possible."
H
urwich has never patented his
device-he doesn't believe in pat-
ents. "It's so easy to copy; he says.
"I've copied things from patents. Just
make a minor change where they'd have
a tough time in court proving I'd broken
the patent" Nor has he received any
money for his invention. Oppenheimer
and Co. of New York wrote recently to
"offer any service to assist you in deter-
mining the commercial feasibility of your
work, and exploring avenues to bring your
work to useful commercial purposes."
Hurwich says "at this stage money doesn't
enter my mind. I am not a youngster
and I can't take it with me.4
For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000506240004-3