Opinion Editorials, April 2015

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A major rewrite of history is underway as AIPAC trumpets the "acclaimed film 'Above and Beyond'."  The documentary is a tribute to "Jewish American pilots" who flew military missions against Arab armies during the creation of Israel. The heart-tugging film with interviews of the surviving pilots was directed by Nancy Spielberg.  Her brother, acclaimed director Steven Spielberg, was part of an effort to secure a posthumous presidential pardon for another convicted felon, Charles winters, who smuggled surplus B-17 bombers to Palestine for the war.
 
While the Spielbergs and AIPAC would like impressionable Americans to think well of Israel's first smuggling and recruitment effort in America, a less selective and more accurate counter-espionage history tells a different story.
 
According to NCIS files released last year, no American pilot could legally accept such employment from a foreign government. However, purloined chaplain lists of Jewish WWII veterans were acquired by the Jewish Agency smuggling network for recruitment purposes. FBI files released in 2015 after three years of administrative wrangling reveal that the Jewish Agency recruitment and smuggling network which financed aircraft and war surplus smuggling from the U.S. was a serious challenge to rule of law in America.
 
American flight engineer and WWII veteran Al Schwimmer was the Jewish Agency's ringleader for aircraft acquisition and smuggling out of the US. Schwimmer's file reveals the FBI's dawning understanding that Israeli use of Americans as both operatives and to provide cover from the top echelons of the public and private sector would make effective counter-intelligence almost impossible.
 
After conviction for a felony in 1950 Al Schwimmer, at David Ben-Gurion's invitation, went on to run Israel Aircraft Industries (later Israel Aerospace Industries).  According to testimony, IAI ruthlessly recruited American military engineers to advance Israel's development programs. The FBI file reveals missed counter-intelligence opportunities.  Although an American AIA employee physically threatened for insufficient loyalty to Israel tipped off the FBI that another American—Ehud Kadish—was involved in missile development, not until 2008 would the FBI collar "America's second Jonathan Pollard"—brother Ben-Ami Kadish—for missile espionage against America.
 
After IAI, Schwimmer went on to broker arms sales during the Iran-Contra affair.  IAI continues the legacy of impunity of its founder. Although IAI paid hundreds of thousands to NASA engineer Stewart Nozette for classified information, it suffered no U.S. taxpayer-funded aid cuts after Nozette was finally caught in 2009 after an FBI counter-intelligence sting and convicted for espionage.  View declassified files at the Israel Lobby Archive: http://IsraelLobby.org/Schwimmer

FBI espionage and counter-intelligence files on Israel Aerospace Industries founder Adolph "Al" Schwimmer released
 
New release from the Israel Lobby Archive: http://IsraelLobby.org/Schwimmer

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