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Thomas Hale Boggs


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If you were Clark wouldn't you be shocked if someone accused the POTUS (and presumably a friend of yours or at a minimum your political sponsor) of bloody treason (As Twyman put it)?

Not if the "someone" was a local DA that looked like, or was simultaneously being portrayed to look like, a crackpot loose cannon in charge of a runaway train. I would be shocked, however, if it seemed to be a credible U.S. congressman who also happened to have been a member of the famed WC.

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That the wreckage was never found is very telling. Those who think it just a coincidence need to consider how many thousands of such 'coincidences' [all way against the odds] happened related to JFKs assasination and cover-up and vastly weighted toward those who saw/heard/knew or thought along the lines NOT part of the officially-scripted version.

It is interesting to note the case of Steve Fossett who has been missing more than a month in a far less desolate area and technology presumably having advanced in the last 35 years or so. The search for the billionaire has turned up wrecks of planes that have been missing for year some have been missing for longer than Boggs’.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6987855.stm

I have yet to see a credible report that he was going to publiclly question the WCR. I’ve seen reference made to an article in the “L.A. Star” but that paper seems to have gone out of business in the 19th century

Johnson had much to worry about - as did Hoover and they or others took care of one problem in the form of Hale Boggs

Since the FBI director died several months before Boggs I doubt he was involved :) LBJ was a disgraced sickly ex-president whose party was out of power. How much pull do you think he had?

Phil wrote:

In fact, the way the clip is worded, "As fantastic as this rumor sounds, its source is credible. It comes via Representative Hale Boggs", and "Boggs' story", etc. seems to suggest that Boggs not only doesn't disagree but perhaps even endorses Garrison's theory

Boggs was the source of the story that Garrison implicated LBJ there is no indication he gave it credibility why would he tell a LBJ loyalist about it if he did?

Apparently, Ramsey Clark had the same opinion on that since he was clearly bothered by the implication, more so than LBJ even

Edited by Len Colby
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  • 2 years later...

Ken Sobrero, a member of JFK Lancer, asked this question on 28th November:

"Is there anyone who could shed light on the circumstances regarding FBI agents raiding the archives at Tulane University library. Apparently the FBI confiscated all files having to do with Lee Harvey Oswald from the archives of the late congressman Hale Boggs. Former member and outspoken critic of the Warrren Commission."

[...]

This seems to be a very important story. Does anyone else know anything about it?

http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.p...53112&page=

If I remember correctly, it was about 1978. I was a young undergrad hanging around Tulane's special collections mostly working with pre-Columbian Mesoamerica material. At the time Special Collections was on the 4th floor of Tulane's Howard Tilton Library building on Freret Street. The late Congressman Hale Boggs' papers had been donated to the University. One day the Special Collections librarians were shocked to see several feet of the Boggs collection missing from the shelves, apparently having vanished over night. A piece of paper was then found in the otherwise empty shelves stating material had been seized by the F.B.I. It caused quite a stir at the time.

I was far from an insider. From what I heard the Boggs material had yet to be gone over in complete detail, but the missing material seemed to be related to the Jack Kennedy assassination investigations.

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Interesting. That Lancer post correctly calls out the foolish cry: "Someone would have talked," with Craig and Boggs as examples. The list goes on and on, however - with Jack Ruby coming to mind via Dorothy Killgallen.

From Spartacus:

"Boggs had doubts that John F. Kennedy and J. D. Tippit had been killed by Lee Harvey Oswald and that Jack Ruby was not part of any conspiracy." According to Bernard Fensterwald: "Almost from the beginning, Congressman Boggs had been suspicious over the FBI and CIA's reluctance to provide hard information when the Commission's probe turned to certain areas, such as allegations that Oswald may have been an undercover operative of some sort. When the Commission sought to disprove the growing suspicion that Oswald had once worked for the FBI, Boggs was outraged that the only proof of denial that the FBI offered was a brief statement of disclaimer by J. Edgar Hoover. It was Hale Boggs who drew an admission from Allen Dulles that the CIA's record of employing someone like Oswald might be so heavily coded that the verification of his service would be almost impossible for outside investigators to establish."

It has been claimed by John Judge that when Alan Dulles was asked by Hale Boggs about releasing the evidence, he replied, "Go ahead and print it, nobody will read it anyway."

According to one of his friends: "Hale felt very, very torn during his work (on the Commission) ... he wished he had never been on it and wished he'd never signed it (the Warren Report)." Another former aide argued that, "Hale always returned to one thing: Hoover lied his eyes out to the Commission - on Oswald, on Ruby, on their friends, the bullets, the gun, you name it."

Thomas Hale Boggs disappeared while on a campaign flight from Anchorage to Juneau, Alaska, on 16th October, 1972. Also killed in the accident was Nick Begich, a member of the House of Representatives. No bodies were ever found and in 1973 his wife, Lindy Boggs, was elected in her husband's place.

The Los Angeles Star, on November 22, 1973, reported that before his death Boggs claimed he had "startling revelations" on Watergate and the assassination of John F. Kennedy."

A lot of folks talked and a lot of folks died.

I don't ever want to the nonsense, "someone would have talked" again.

Edited by Peter McGuire
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A BIT MORE...b....NEW ORLEANS DOCUMENT click current file on right if you want the pdf...

NEW ORLEANS DOCUMENTDocumented evidence implicates Hoover, Johnson and cronies like Richard n Nixon.nd.com/documenthttp://127.0.0.1:466...516ZAnQmfO4PsHY

below may 1964 dpd basement fritz, belin, mccloy, boggs, curry.......

Edited by Bernice Moore
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Thank you , Bernice for you contribution - great stuff!

Also, FWIW - I believe Nixon got the biggest pass of all that were the Guilty Men.

Nixon's foundation and office can write all the high handed statements they desire,

but it won't stop me from being on the trail of the assassins - and Nixon knew plenty -and covered up more.

Edited by Peter McGuire
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Thank you , Bernice for you contribution - great stuff!

Also, FWIW - I believe Nixon got the biggest pass of all that were the Guilty Men.

Nixon's foundation and office can write all the high handed statements they desire,

but it won't stop me from being on the trail of the assassins - and Nixon knew plenty -and covered up more.

Now that you mention it, he was more than likely the only or one of a very few that nigel did not touch on, perhaps he meant a further episode but then was shut down,it could have been the hit of the series, just about..

Agreed Peter he was dirty and it shows, within the books and research, this link came up it may be of interest, new to me, your very welcome, thanks, take care...b

political figures who died in plane crashes..http://www.washingto...0081005213.html

Edited by Bernice Moore
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A BIT MORE...b....NEW ORLEANS DOCUMENT click current file on right if you want the pdf...

NEW ORLEANS DOCUMENTDocumented evidence implicates Hoover, Johnson and cronies like Richard n Nixon.nd.com/documenthttp://127.0.0.1:466...516ZAnQmfO4PsHY

below may 1964 dpd basement fritz, belin, mccloy, boggs, curry.......

Capt. Fritz must have really been "feeling the heat" in post #37. (lol)

--Thomas

Edited by Thomas Graves
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  • 9 months later...

A BIT MORE...b....NEW ORLEANS DOCUMENT click current file on right if you want the pdf...

NEW ORLEANS DOCUMENTDocumented evidence implicates Hoover, Johnson and cronies like Richard n Nixon.nd.com/documenthttp://127.0.0.1:466...516ZAnQmfO4PsHY

below may 1964 dpd basement fritz, belin, mccloy, boggs, curry.......

Capt. Fritz must have really been "feeling the heat" in post #37. (lol)

--Thomas

I found this very perturbing, and it is not the only source.

http://www.check-six.com/lib/Famous_Missing/Boggs.htm

Son of deceased Representative Nick Begich is interviewed

http://www.freedomwriter.com/issue17/ak1.htm

Begging the question, what was so threatening about finding the small Cessna 310, ostensibly carrying

the bodies of Senator Hale Boggs, (D-LA) Representative Nick Begich (D-AK), pilot Don Jonz

and Russell Brown, aide to Rep. Begich.

The Air Force called off the search on November 25, 1972 after the aircraft was discovered missing

after failing to land in Juneau, from Anchorage, Alaska, where Bogg's was to have aided Representative

Begich in his re-election campaign, on approximately October 17, 1972

In April 1971 Boggs had publicly spoken out against then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, calling on the then

Director to resign, after the Director was discovered to have been "tapping the telephones of members of Congress,"

the passage of time proved Boggs was truthful about what were then allegations against Hoover.

Gerald Ford, (R-MI) called on Boggs to prove the allegations Boggs made against Hoover were truthful.

When Boggs spoke in Congress the third week of April, the article noted that Democrats "present in the House...

applauded Boggs late-afternoon speech, none spoke in his behalf afterward."

Hale's widow Lindy Boggs easily won the late Senator's seat in the Third District of Louisiana, after

it was apparent that the Democrats would have to field a candidate, to replace him.

It is a sad legacy, that it seems the last time the Boggs legacy was a public affair, was when Joan Mellen

author of Jim Garrison - His Life and Times, A Farewell To Justice, reported that papers pertaining to the

JFK Assassination were taken from the Boggs Papers Collection housed at Tulane University in 1995, after

passage of the JFK Records Collection Act three years earlier, by persons alleging they were representatives of

the U.S. government, acting at the behest of Hale Boggs widow, Ms. Lindy Boggs, who knew nothing of the

event, until after it had already taken place.

4/6/1971 AP Boggs Calls For Hoover To Go

4/23/71 AP Boggs Again Calls For Hoover Ouster

10/17/72 AP Boggs Missing on Alaskan Flight

11/25/72 AP Air Force Suspends Search for Boggs, Party

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From what I understand, both Lindy Boggs as well as their daughter, Cokie Roberts, deny that Hale had changed his mind about the WC conclusions. Both also still claim to believe the WC got it right.

Dixie

I read that too, that Cokie was asked about the suspicious death; and she said her father died in an accident and he never said anything about re-opening an investigation.

I have to look up the weather conditions up there that day. Bodies were never found but what about plane parts?

Kathy C

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From what I understand, both Lindy Boggs as well as their daughter, Cokie Roberts, deny that Hale had changed his mind about the WC conclusions. Both also still claim to believe the WC got it right.

Dixie

I read that too, that Cokie was asked about the suspicious death; and she said her father died in an accident and he never said anything about re-opening an investigation.

I have to look up the weather conditions up there that day. Bodies were never found but what about plane parts?

Kathy C

My understanding is that the plane, nor any form of wreckage was ever found. Although I phrased the question rhetorically, my belief is that the reason the plane was never found was because if it had, it would have been found to have been sabotaged, not unlike the circumstances surrounding the crash United Airlines Flight 553 carrying Dorothy Hunt. Of course, officially there was no foul play discovered regarding Flight 553, it is also a fact that former President Nixon was proven to have orchestrated some intrigues regarding the NTSB investigation of that same flight, see Sherman Skolnick.

http://www.spartacus...JFKskolnick.htm

Skolnick also wrote a book entitled The Secret History of Airplane Sabotage.

If the Boggs plane was found, especially being in Alaska, the icy environment could perhaps make it possible the cause of the crash might still be ascertained.

also See

http://www.hackcanad...cy/outline5.txt

Also see John Simkin's post #16 on this thread.

Edited by Robert Howard
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I have heard that Bogg's signature on the WCR was actually forged. May be folklore, but he was not fooled and I think he was about to go public when his plane went missing.

Not for a moment do I believe that his daughter does not know the truth. But to keep her job she whores out her father's memory.

Dawn

Cokie Roberts may be trying to stay alive herself. It's not worth going into JFK research if there's a chance you might die or another family member might be killed.

Kathy C

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Guest Tom Scully

Jim, there is so much seemingly inaccurate information in your post, I don't see how you can defend it. The clout that Neil Bergt had, related to ferrying air cargo to Alaska's North Slope and his "acquisition" of Hercules C-130's seem the least questionable components of the background story.

I just wish you would apply the same rigorous standards you lay out, here.:

Tom, I have not dismissed Bush 41 as a research subject....

....So coming from that kind of background, this is the standard I use.

The case against Bush 41 has been successfully made in other areas. Which is why I said he should be in jail.

And there is no doubt that Bush became part of the cover up when he was CIA Director and then delayed the ARRB when he was President. And I will go further than that. HIs son, Bush 43 ,was reportedly actually helping Epstein in the writing of Legend. He was helping arrange interviews with people in Texas if they resisted Epstein's overtures. Which makes sense since his dad was CIA DIrector around this time. And Legend is a black book.

But as far as the assassination goes, I just don't see the case.

I've shown you how the Bush family ties to Hooker, DeMohrenschildt, the Macomber brothers, the Lindsay brothers, Tom Devine, CIA...etc., are just too numerous and intertwined to be minimized. George Lindsay, brother of the twins John and David, succeed's McCloy buddies Plimpton and Debevoise as managing partner of their law firm. Leon Panetta "serves" as executive assistant to John Lindsay, then as Clinton's COS, then is appointed DCI, and this week, is confirmed by unanimous consensus, all 100 Senate votes, as Secretary of D.O.D.

Neil Bergt owned George Sullivan, mayor of Anchorage immediately before Bush boy, Tony Knowles. Bergt kept Knowles political ascendancy well financed.:

http://www.economist.com/node/3315337

The Alaska Senate race

Independent minds

Alaska is holding its most important election for a generation

Oct 21st 2004 | anchorage and fairbanks |

....The state Senate race is no less unexpected. The Democratic challenger, Tony Knowles, supports John Kerry in a state where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by almost two to one and which George Bush (Mr Knowles's room-mate at Yale) will probably win by about 30 points. Alaska has not sent a Democrat to Washington for a generation, and Mr Knowles has never won a head-to-head fight with a Republican....

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2c8hAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vp4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=6079,4819129&dq=what-will-george-sullivan-be-doing-next+mayor+george+who+sits+on+neil+bergt%27s+aii+board&hl=en

When The Town Went .Huggy .Over Hizzoner .Jr .Alaska Ear .

Anchorage Daily News - Dec 12, 1981

WHAT WILL GEORGE SULLIVAN BE DOING NEXT That question snuck up immediately Bill Tobinwho ... and Fair banks mayor Ha ha Mayor George who sits on Neil Bergt's AII board was all...

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AS&p_theme=as&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F793AA0D7FD7CEA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

Martha Bellisle

Daily News Juneau Bureau

Staff

Date: December 6, 2000

Publication: Anchorage Daily News

They were fraternity brothers at Yale, talk occasionally on the telephone and usually hook up at governors conferences, but the relationship between George W. Bush and Gov. Tony Knowles ends there, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Answering rumors that the Democratic governor was being considered for a Cabinet post in a new Republican Bush administration, deputy chief of staff David Ramseur said, ''To the best of my knowledge, the governor was not offered nor has he....

Anchorage Daily News : Flak over Inlet bridge? Young hasn't...

$2.95 - Anchorage Daily News - Jun 1, 2003

Former Gov Tony Knowles left Alaska on Wednesday for dinner at the White House President Bush was hosting the Yale University Class of 1968 35th Reunion at ..

Neil Bergt background:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yj9PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qwIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6763,1238941&dq=interior+airways+bergt&hl=en

… 1. 1982 .Brash College Dropout Takes Command At Western...

Toledo Blade - Feb 1, 1982

Airways that Mr. Bergt first moved into management, as vice president of oper ations. ... and Interior Airways filed for Chapter 11 protection under the

Alaskan midnight picnic

Pay-Per-View - Christian Science Monitor - Jul 14, 1966

... Bergt family of Fairbanks flies to their picnics Mr Bergt is a pilot and partner in Interior Airways Inc and a plane is always available The four Bergt .

http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aunofficial&biw=811&bih=493&noj=1&tbs=ar%3A1&tbm=nws&source=hp&q=INTERIOR+AIRWAYS+bergt&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

Visitors From the Arctic Thaw Out Alaska's Image

Pay-Per-View - Los Angeles Times - Mar 17, 1970

Neil Bergt, vice president of Interior Airways, to kick off the Alaska Travel and Trade Fair on South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Nlesa, sponsored by the

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40712FE3B5C1B7493C2A81783D85F448785F9

FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Aug. 9, 1970 The Alaskan who built a tiny bush flying service here into the world's largest fleet' of Hercules C-130 aircraft, to serve the North Slopes oil exploration boom, said recently he had filed a petition for reorganization proceedings under Federal law.

James S. Magoffin, chairman of the board of Interior Airways; =said the action was a result bf the delay in the issuance of a construction permit for the. proposed Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the the resulting slowdown iW drilling activity on the North `Slope. s A major . national company has tentatively agreed to finance Interior: Airways during a ' reorganization period, he added. . . ,' , r The concern will continue to service, and the action does not mean that Interior Airways is in liquidation, Mr. Magoffin said.

Though Mr. Magoffin did not name the name the financing campany it is known here that some of the aircraft his line operates, including the "Hercs," were leased from International AeroI,dyne; Inc., a large transport aircraft leasing company. Last May 13, an Aerodyne vice president, DD , was appointed president. and chief executive of Interior Airways, replacing. Mr. Magoffin, who was then named chairman of the board. Mr. Magoffin and his wife, Dorothy, both pilots, began their flying business in the post-..World War II years :here with a couple of single-engined planes. After the Atlantic Richfield Company announced its discovery well on the North Slope in early 1968,.Mr. business, consisting mostly of transporting drilling equipment, and personnel to the North Slope,. mushroomed.. Within a year his corn pany was employing about 350.

Earlier this year Interior's employment had dropped to some 200 people, riding the general economic slump

that the delay in .the pipeline construction permit.

Issuance of permits . for a support road and the pipeline

Has been blocked by two United States district court injunctions granted gin Washington to conservationists and. Alaska native groups .

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aunofficial&noj=1&biw=811&bih=493&tbs=ar%3A1%2Csbd%3A1&tbm=nws&q=%22*In+mtd-1870%2C+Intenor+bled+bankruptcy+papers.+Subsequently+%22&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=m1&aql=&oq=

Phoenix Flights Inc.

Pay-Per-View - Wall Street Journal - Nov 21, 1974

The operator of the giant Herc as a tiny Fairbanks airline, Alaska International Industries Inc., which is headed by two former bush pilots.

"If it weren't for them, life would be much more difficult for all the companies who have to get critical equipment and supplies to the Prudhoe Bay oil field and also isolated drilling rigs working on wildcat wells." With this booming demand, Alaska International's business has soared to the point where the airline Is adding its seventh and eighth Hercs . While it is still tiny by standards, Alaska International's revenue in the first nine months this year was more than triple the $12.8 for all of 1973. The 7er s business outlook wa,-n't so bright.

Smcc Us founding m 19i6 as Interior Amvays, :n fact, its fortunes have been about as bumpy as some of the Alaskan runways.

The rockiest period was four y eurs ago, when it forced into bankruptcy proceedings. Along with many small companies that were up to supply the o:l-pipeline ,urge, Interior stretched its resources to the breaking point.

When the pipeline was postponed by environmental battles m early 1970, Interior was already committed to leasing five Lockheed Hercs.

"We needed $25 million of business a year or else," says a

company . but revenue that year to $9 million ix milLon the poor year, and the company wound up a $! loss. In mtd-1870, Intenor bled bankruptcy papers.

Subsequently reorganized as Alaska Intentatronal, the carrier has begun to -to help ensure that et won t go broke again tl Al.~ka s otl boom collapses. It recently bought a small FarrDanks , and et has expanded into "tramp freighter" around the world.

For example, ris planes were the brat aircraft flying Into Saigon with supplies after the December 19i2 cease-fire, and et has flown more than 2t10 trips for the United Nations, carrying seed grain into droughtstricken Afncan nations There were plenty of other rocky times en the s early . It was founded by James S. Magofhn, now chairman, and lies , both licensed pilots. In the 1940s, the fury airline used a two-passenger, 65horsepower puddle-Iumper to fly trappers, hunters and fishermen into Alaska's back country.

At one point the tiny airline s business was helped considerably by rumors of a gold stake on the Yukon River.

Planeload after planeload of "booze, girls and prospectors" were hauled to the site, one source says, before et was discovered the story was , or rather, Some suspected that Mr. Magoffin spread the rumor to hypo fits business, but he says the villain was a preacher who had flown on one of his flights.

The tiny company s first beg growth came m the early 1950s, when et begun hauling materials for of a US detection system en Alaska.

Annual revenue jumped to around $2 million from $100000.

Not long afterward, an unemployed 21year-old pilot, the

the ink barely dry on his license, arrived in Fairbanks from Anchorage with only the E20 he had won the night before m an Anchorage crap game.

The hired him, and until he drew his first paycheck, Mr. Magoffin put him up in a spare room at home.

The pilot, Neil G. Bergt, later became the airline s president. In the early 1960s, Interior hauled oil geologists around the North Slope of the Brooks Range.

Then en July 1968, word of a major oit discovery at Prudhoe Bay flashed around the world, and Interior began to think it might be handy to have a Lockheed Hercules for hauling things Irks drilling rigs.

Until then, tt had operated only light ,in;,le?and twin-engine airplanes. bit.

Magoffin set out to find ;4 million to buy a Herc.

Seattle was the first stop, but he recalls, "The bank took one look at our financial statement and said it wouldn't jus- :~fy a peanut s4and, let alone a $4 million " For six weeks, the search went ..n "I missed my son s wedding and the of"rang day of duck-hunting season, some- !l;ma I hadn't done since I was six years ~?~~.

the Her<~ was in t t.~:_; .md r off the ground, causing s) of damage. Forhuiately for Inte?r nrr Icr,s was covered by

insurance Rescue on an Ice Cube .Is bn5 picked up after that. Interior wan often called upon to fly unusual mis- .tons.

One such mission called for landing ore an ice floe near

the North Pole with for an Arctic research leant.

On one rf the flights, the Herc bounced on landing and lost both wings. The plane was repaired sufficiently for a flight bar k to Fairbanra, whc?

http://www.maebrussell.com/Bibliography%20Sheets/531s2.html

AIR FLORIDA, WESTERN AIRLINES, NEIL BERGT, ALASKA INTL.

"ARMS SALE EXPOSURES, S.F.C. 1/28/82 How Col. Qaddafi got military hardware in spite of U.S. ban. Pierre Salinger. 20/20 TV, ABC.

"LIBYA GETS GIANT PLANES," San Jose News, 1,29/81

Ali Hijazi, Geneva, int. businessman, Libyan Intelligence.

Alaska International Airways, Miami, Sarkis Soghanalian, to Libya.

Soghanalian said, "Alaska Intl. Airlines wanted to see me."

He was approached, and planes went to Qaddafi.

20/20, ABC, 1/28/82 Ali Hijazi name on 1st deal, when Alaska Airline sold Hercules.

"HIS BRASH NEW STYLE MAY SAVE WESTERN" San Jose Mercury, L.A. Times, 1/31/82

Neil G. Bergt approached Western Airlines, L.A. based, Oct. 1981.

Dec. 1981, Bergt became Chairman, Chief Exec. of Western.

"BERGT'S BIG PLANS FOR WESTERN FOILED BY POSSIBLE TAKEOVER BY AIR FLORIDA" SJM, 1/31/82

June, 1982, Air Florida started to buy Western.

Neil Bergt rushes in to control Western.

Turned Interior Airways to Alaska International Air.

Flew planes, cargo, to Bankgladesh, Pakistan, Botswana, and other remote areas.

Procured his money from London broker. Secured Lockheed "HERCULES". Actions caused "rumors" he was CIA.

Created "holding company", ALASKA INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES.

1979, Hercules sold, via Miami, to Libya. U.S. ban on sale.

Edwin Wilson, Frank Terpil, using CIA, Special fores, to fly these planes for Qaddafi.

Air Florida, Edwin Wilson, CIA headquarters, Fla.

Took "one year leave" April, 1980. On Yacht, S. Africa, back with $50,000,000 to buy WIEN AIR, ALASKA.

London money for 1st air fleet. NUGAN HAND ????

WEIN AIR TO BE DEPOSIT FOR WESTERN.

Where did the cash come from?

Edwin Wilson, Terpil, Vesco, Qaddafi, Nugan Hand.

Meets with Newly Created Corp. EAGLE INTERNATIONAL, that provided the $50,000,000 for Wien, that is to buy Western. Meeting to arrange this took "four hours" with HOUSEHOLD INTERNATIONAL.

"WESTERN AIRLINES, NEW CHAIRMAN CHARGES AFTER PROFITABILITY, BUT HAS SOME SETBACKS", Wall St. Journal, 1/25/82

"Didn't disclose to Western about his inter-locking relationships"

Western losing last few years, but a choice route.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950709&slug=2130258

Sunday, July 9, 1995 -

Trouble At Markair -- Owner Neil Bergt Creates Financial Turbulence: Airline Lands In Bankruptcy Court Again

By Paul J. Lim

ANCHORAGE - It's been more than 11 years since the first MarkAir passenger jet took off from Anchorage International Airport to Fairbanks, but the troubled airline remains in a holding pattern, still unsure of where it's headed.

In part, that's due to the airline's financial problems.

In part, it's due to MarkAir's mercurial owner, Neil Bergt.

Ever since Bergt, 59, converted his airline from a cargo hauler to a passenger carrier in 1984, the airline has demonstrated a propensity to change strategic directions in mid-course, confounding industry observers and frustrating travel agents and passengers....

http://peninsulaclarion.com/stories/062801/ala_062801ala0pm0080001.shtml

Businessman disputes connection to airline accused of fraud

Posted: Thursday, June 28, 2001

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- Businessman Neil Bergt disputed on Wednesday the Justice Department's assertion that he is an owner and operator of Alaska Central Express, a cargo airline he helped found in 1996 that is being accused of illegally keeping $365,000 in Postal Service overpayments.

The airline and its holding company, Western States Investment Group, were named in a lawsuit brought Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage under the federal False Claims Act. The government acted 14 months after a former employee of Bergt, Albert Wilt, sued Bergt, his son Mike and the airline over the alleged overpayments, entitling him to a share of the money if the government wins the case.

Wilt's complaint is under seal in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

In its own complaint, the Justice Department, while not naming either Bergt as defendant, said they ran the company along with Bergt's wife, Anne Butler. The three created the company in 1996 after the demise of Bergt's passenger airline, MarkAir.

In an interview from the offices of Homer Air, where he now works, Bergt told the Anchorage Daily News that he is under orders from the U.S. Department of Transportation to not manage Alaska Central Express, and he has followed that demand. He said his son is in charge.

In his lawsuit, Wilt said that while the cargo line's employees were required by the government to certify that they would not accept directions from Bergt, he and others were intimidated by verbal threats from Bergt into not reporting the alleged overpayments to the Postal Service.

Bergt decried Wilt's statements as an ''allegation from an admitted felon'' who stole from him and the airline.

''The thing was all concocted by a guy who's doing time in a federal prison,'' Bergt said.

Wilt, the former chief financial officer of several Bergt companies, pleaded guilty to embezzling $368,000 from Alaska Central Express and last month began serving a 21-month sentence at a minimum security federal penitentiary in Oregon.

Wilt's attorney said investigators from the Postal Service's inspector general's office corroborated his account of overpayments.....

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6M8yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=y6YEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1483,5824999&dq=bergt+tony-knowles&hl=en

Sewer Lift .Extension Dispute .

Anchorage Daily News - Nov 11, 1986

... Valley where Mayor Tony Knowles citing failing septic systems declared a ... tracts of land Bergt is a political supporter of Mayor Tony Knowles and in ...

http://www.google.com/search?q=bergt+%22tony+knowles%22&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&noj=1&tbs=sbd:1,ar:1&tbm=nws&ei=9VQETsbVHZDQgAeiktXgDQ&start=10&sa=N&biw=811&bih=493

Fund-raiser Slipped Through 3-day Loophole .

Anchorage Daily News - Feb 14, 1986

... veteran Anchorage Mayor Tony Knowles to attend a 1986 fundraising dinner ... The fundraiser was hosted by businessman Neil Bergt office in California ...

Anchorage Daily News : FUNDRAISER NETS $17,000 FOR KNOWLES

$2.95 - Anchorage Daily News - Jan 25, 1986

Mayor Tony Knowles collected nearly $17000 at a Jan 3 political ... millionaire businessmandeveloper Neil Bergt It allowed some contributors who had given ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/21/politics/21ALAS.html?ex=1080104400&en=c504dc06855a497d&ei=5070

The Missing Chapter in the Bush Bio: A Modest Summer in Alaska

Published: October 21, 2000

....What might seem puzzling about Mr. Bush's sojourn in Alaska is that it never comes up. His autobiography does not mention it. Nor do three other biographies of him published recently. Reporters on his campaign plane say they cannot recall his ever mentioning it, and many of his friends say they have never heard him refer to it.

In his book, Mr. Bush recounts the summers he spent delivering mail at a law firm, working for a stockbroker, roughnecking on an offshore oil rig, helping out on a ranch and selling sporting goods. But there is no mention of Alaska.

His experience there has now emerged in part because a leaflet that Republicans have circulated in the state on his behalf referred to him as "a former Alaska resident."

Mr. Bartlett, the Bush spokesman, said he did not know why the summer job had not come up before in interviews with the governor.

"I'm rarely asked about it," Mr. Bartlett said, although he did recall a recent query from an Alaska newspaper, The Juneau Empire, which ran a short account about it in September.

As for why Mr. Bush himself so rarely mentions it, Mr. Bartlett said it was so long ago, so brief and so uneventful that it hardly ever seemed to the governor worth mentioning.

When Mr. Bush arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska International Industries was a fledgling business whose holdings included Alaska International Air, an air cargo company that was loading its giant Lockheed-382 Hercules airplanes, the civilian version of C-130's, with construction equipment and supplies and flying them to pipeline workers 24 hours a day.

"We used to haul the equivalent of the Berlin airlift every week," said Neil G. Bergt, a pilot and entrepreneur who was president of both the parent company and the airline.

People who worked there recall that in addition to its aviation and construction work for the pipeline, the company flew planes that carried food and mining equipment into Zambia and ambulances into Libya.

It also "flew a bunch of F-14 parts into a town in Iran for the shah," said Steve Scott, who worked as a loadmaster. And "we helped build a military base in Oman."

A number of onetime employees say they found themselves doing contract work for the C.I.A.

"I had a big reputation for doing C.I.A. work," Mr. Bergt said. "It wasn't deserved. We did some."

In the summer of 1974, however, during the period Mr. Bush worked at the company, Alaska International Air was too busy flying supplies to the pipeline to take work outside Alaska, Mr. Bergt said. He said Mr. Bush "wouldn't have known" about the connections between Alaska International and the C.I.A., although he "might have heard some talk around the company."

In 1974, Fairbanks was jammed with construction workers. Mr. Bush rented a room with kitchen privileges from Grace Danks, a widow who worked as a waitress and lived in a two-story house in a tidy neighborhood close to downtown.

Sally Smith, a Democrat who is the new mayor of Juneau, was living in Fairbanks that summer and says she went out with Mr. Bush several times. They were introduced, she recalls, by Alex Miller, a Democrat who worked as a Washington lobbyist for Mr. Bergt.

"Alex dedicated his life to trying to find the right person for me," Ms. Smith said. "George was another in a succession of `maybe Sally will like this one.' He told me, `I know he's a Republican, but at least he comes from a political family.' " ...

http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-10-19/news/bush-s-courting-of-saddam/1/

Bush's Courting of Saddam

An '80s business overture that fits a lifetime 'W' pattern of CIA dealings

A A A Comments (0) By Wayne Barrett With Special Reporting by Nathan Deuel Tuesday, Oct 19 2004

....A mysterious Alaska summer

Neil Bergt, The New York Times' "richest man in Alaska" in the '80s, gave W a summer job in 1974, when he was in between years at Harvard Business School. Bergt says he doesn't know why the young Bush—still living, by his own account, the "wild and woolly days"—wanted to come to Fairbanks, where the company was based. But a Houston construction executive contacted him and asked him to hire Bush, who has been described by professors and friends as an out-to-lunch business student. Bush's father was then the chairman of the Republican National Committee, installed by President Nixon, and Bush Sr. would wind up that summer appearing on the White House lawn when Nixon resigned, waved farewell, and climbed aboard the presidential helicopter for the last time. Bergt concedes that the Bush job was "a political hire."

In several wide-ranging interviews, Bergt oscillated between demands that the Voice pay him $250,000 for "the real story" that "only I can tell" about Bush and insisting that there was "no story here" and that Bush spent a quiet summer preparing a business plan for him. Asked why Bush preferred a summer in Alaska to Wall Street or Houston, Bergt suggested that the motive was nefarious, and that a full account could affect the election, adding: "I'm not talking without money."

Bergt's company, Alaska International Air, certainly has a checkered history. In 1979, it sold a coveted military cargo plane, a Hercules C-130, to Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, despite a U.S. ban that specifically barred the delivery of that particular plane. Bergt contends he was tricked by the middleman on the $8.6 million transaction —none other than Sarkis Soghanalian. Soghanalian, who claims to have never done an arms deal that wasn't covertly sanctioned by the CIA, says Bergt, who also has a plethora of CIA ties, was fully aware that Qaddafi was getting the plane and participated "voluntarily."

2 of 3

....While another top AIA executive, Gary White, says he met Soghanalian in Geneva on a couple occasions and even stayed in his Florida mansion, Bergt just had lunch with him in San Diego.

"Gosh, to find out later that he was an arms merchant," Bergt now says. "We had several incidents where we dealt with people and later we'd read about the things they did in Time magazine," which was then exposing CIA covert operations. "We were doing a lot of wild stuff all over the place," recalls Bergt, specifically including the period that W worked there.

Indeed, in September 1975, Bergt says, "I sold a Herc to Idi Amin for $10 million," celebrating decades later that he made the African despot "pay through the nose." Bergt acknowledged that there were "some CIA guys surrounding the deal with Idi," just as he acknowledges that AIA, under its prior incarnation as Interior Airways, was doing CIA-tied business back to 1968–69. "I wasn't a CIA proxy company," says Bergt, referring to airlines that were actually no more than fronts for the agency. "I just wished I was." One of his pilots recalled that Bergt actually bought planes from CIA firms like Southern Air Transport.

The very summer that W worked at the company, it was participating in the most secret and expensive CIA venture ever, the Glomar Explorer. The agency spent a half- billion dollars on what congressional critics called a boondoggle for billionaire Howard Hughes: the construction of a ship the length of three football fields with a giant clawed arm designed to dive 17,000 feet to bring a sunk Soviet sub to the surface. In early August, the Glomar dropped the sub and shattered it on the ocean floor off the Alaskan coast. White remembers doing an airdrop to supply the Glomar, and Bergt says that W "may have made some runs with us"—though he adds that he didn't even know Bush was a pilot.

When the senior Bush was vice president in 1986 and his aides were deeply involved in supplying the Contras in Nicaragua, Bergt's airline, renamed MarkAir, did at least a half-dozen runs to a dirt strip in Honduras hauling aid, some of it in sealed containers, for the rebels. "If it's guns and ammunition, I could care less," Bergt told reporters at the time. Again, Soghanalian and the CIA were also deeply involved in the Contra traffic. The Anchorage Daily News reported that at least two of the flights were not registered with customs, avoiding the requirement of "an export declaration of everything" aboard.

Bergt even offered to regale the Voice with stories of "drug running and Iran-Contra." A day later, he called his own offer "absolute (baloney)," though he insisted that the Anchorage paper already intimated both in connection with his company. He branded the stories, which a Voice search of years of the Anchorage paper's clips could not locate, as "claptrap" and "yellow journalism." Coincidentally, when Bush answered questions about his own alleged cocaine involvement during the 2000 campaign, he implicitly suggested that 1974 might be the last year he did drugs, claiming that he could've filled out a federal questionnaire about illegal drugs going back 15 years prior to his father's presidency.

Bergt recalls the senior Bush calling him after his son's summer there at least once, and says Neil Bush attended a 1988 fundraiser he hosted in his Anchorage home for the Bush presidential campaign. A check of federal election records indicates that Bergt, who's also contributed lesser amounts to W's campaign, raised at least $6,500 for the 1988 campaign. One of Bergt's brothers works for the Federal Aviation Administration and his son-in-law is the Interior Department official in charge of overseeing the Alaska pipeline. There is no indication that political influence was involved with obtaining either job.

A couple of weeks before the 2000 election, the Times first reported about W's Alaska summer, calling it a chapter that "has largely escaped attention," omitted, unlike five other summer jobs, from his autobiography. Bergt said then that his CIA reputation was undeserved, but in fact, even though Bush's summer there precedes by 18 months his father's rise to CIA director, the company has a legion of agency ties. That would become a W pattern....

3 of 3

....Countless news stories and books have documented the myriad of connections between Harken Energy and the Saudi-dominated BCCI, which was also pivotal in financing illegal arms sales to Saddam.

Bush helped arrange a $25 million cash infusion for Harken in 1987 through Arkansas investment banker Jackson Stephens, who'd helped guide BCCI's acquisitions in America, to secure financing for Harken, which had acquired Bush's failed company and made him a six-figure director. Stephens arranged for two BCCI-tied investors to bail the company out: the Union Bank of Switzerland, a BCCI partner in a third bank; and Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, whose Saudi Finance Co. was partly controlled by BCCI shareholders.

When BCCI exploded in scandal in 1991, the senior Bush tried to distance himself from any knowledge of the bank or its principals, even though a top White House aide, Ed Rogers, was put on a $600,000 retainer by one of the bank's founders, Kamel Adham. Bush denied even knowing Adham, who was the head of Saudi intelligence when Bush ran the CIA. But Soghanalian told the Voice that the two "were friends a long time ago," adding that George H.W. Bush "can say whatever he wants." Soghanalian says he "escorted" Adham to a 1976 meeting with Bush at the Waldorf Astoria, where Adham had a whole floor for five days. "This is when they were organizing the BCCI bank stuff," says Soghanalian, refusing to discuss it any further.

When Bush Sr. said, "I don't know anything about this man (Adham) except I've read bad stuff about him," Time reporters Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne wrote in their book, The Outlaw Bank, that they were sure the president had told "a certifiable lie" and got White House reporters to ask the press office about it. They were "incredulous" when the press office confirmed the disavowal. Adham himself said: "It is not possible for the president to say that," insisting that Bush had indicated a day later that he did know Adham but that the newspapers refused to print it. Adham wound up pleading guilty on BCCI charges, as did Mahfouz, who paid $225 million in restitution and penalties.....

....The Harken bailout is the last in a series of business ties between W and his father's onetime agency, though biographers have noted that W's campaigns, like his father's, have attracted ex-CIA types. When Jimmy Carter replaced the senior Bush at the CIA in 1977, the new director, Stansfield Turner, forced hundreds of agents out, and many joined forces with Bush as a kind of out-of-power CIA clique. That group continued to function unofficially for years, even rising to the fore in the Iran-Contra days of the late '80s.

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