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CNN Live Sunday

Authorities Investigate David Hudak

Aired August 18, 2002 - 18:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Though it may not be illegal to own the weapons, officials say the way David Hudak went about getting them is. They say he used the school as a front to get the explosives and avoid proper licensing. Reporter Ted Chernecki of Vancouver's Global Television has more on Hudak and his business ventures.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED CHERNECKI, GLOBAL TELEVISION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A powerful explosion in the deserts of New Mexico. That in itself wasn't enough to tweak the interests of the FBI, because for all intents and purposes, this was simply a training exercise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not training terrorists. Actually, it's the opposite of that. We are assisting in training counterterrorists, anti-terrorists, those kinds of things.

CHERNECKI: And instructors here say these Arab-looking students are from the United Arab Emirates, American allies in the fight against terrorism. So why, then, did the FBI sweep into this training camp and arrest the president of the training company, who is a Canadian resident and who works out of this modest office on Vancouver's North Shore?

(on camera): Do you know if they kept him in custody, or did they released him, do you know?

LESLIE HUDAK, DAVID HUDAK'S WIFE: No, he just was arrested yesterday.

CHERNECKI (voice-over): Leslie Hudak is the wife of David Hudak. She's also an officer with his company, International Hydro Cut Technology. But that company name doesn't easily identify what it does.

HUDAK: We train special forces. We train law enforcement personnel.

CHERNECKI (on camera): Oh, OK.

HUDAK: Post-9/11, it's a very -- a growing business.

CHERNECKI (voice-over): Two-and-a-half 2 years ago, the North Vancouver company imported a large supply of high-powered weapons into the port of Vancouver. Then on December 13, 2000, it shipped the load by truck to a training base in Roswell, New Mexico. HUDAK: Anything that we've purchased is perfectly legal and all dealt with through the correct authorities.

CHERNECKI: But very recently, something went wrong with a contract the company had with the United Arab Emirates. David Hudak had three of his employees fired for improper conduct. That, says the Canadian's wife, is what's really behind this week's raid by the FBI.

HUDAK: It's all stemming from a disgruntled employee for our U.S. company, and just a bunch of false and misleading accusations.

CHERNECKI: When the FBI looked closer at the training camp last week, it found more than 2,300 so-called bunker busters, explosives so powerful it wouldn't touch them. Instead, the military's been called in to deal with it. Firearms experts also said the live warheads were mislabeled as dynamite.

The North Vancouver company insists it has nothing to hide. Everything, it says, is well documented with the U.S. State Department. But until the accusations are investigated, Canadian David Hudak remains behind bars.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Our thanks to Ted Chernecki of Vancouver's Global Television for that report.

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