Bush Has Lost the Last Shreds of My Respect

[Mike Ellis]

This chaps my hide royally. American supporters of Israel, both Jewish and Christian, have ignored American law for decades and illegally provided our military technology and secrets to her, resulting in their further leakage to China and other nations. They provided aircraft, avionics, heavy weapons, nuclear material and technology, missile technology, the list is endless. And the few who are caught, are invariably portrayed as heros by the Israelis and the Jewish lobby here in the USA. It is infuriating that when one of them is justly punished for their crime, yes CRIME, they are later pardoned! Grrrrrr

Note the materiel that this particular pardoned crook provided to Israel - B17 bombers. There is a carefully nurtured image of Israel as the valiant underdog fighting against fearful odds - but in truth they have always had a significant technological edge over their Arab foes, as in their War of Independence when they had front-line fighter aircraft (P-51s, Spitfires) and highly proficient WWII Jewish fighter pilots from USA / Europe to fly them. As with many things involving the Middle East, popular conceptions are far off the mark.

Note also the language of the headline. He didn't illegally transfer weapons to a foreign nation. He "helped Israel in wartime".

I wonder how the press would portray it if people all over the world "defied weapons embargoes to supply the newly established Palestinian nation with critical supplies to defend itself against Israel"? Would the perps be branded as heros, or villains? Gee, I wonder.

Bush pardons man who helped Israel during wartime - Yahoo! News

Bush pardons man who helped Israel during wartime

WASHINGTON – In a gesture of forgiveness for a decades-old offense, President George W. Bush on Tuesday granted a pardon posthumously to a man who broke the law to supply aircraft to Jews fighting in Israel's 1948 war of independence.

Charles Winters, a Miami businessman considered a hero in Israel, was listed in a batch of 19 pardons and one commutation that Bush issued before leaving for Camp David to spend the holidays. No high-profile lawbreakers were on the list.

Winters' son, Jim, had found out about his father's daring missions and imprisonment only after his death in 1984.

"I'm overwhelmed," Jim Winters, a Miami maker of artistic neon signs, said in a telephone interview. "It happened 16 years before I was born. He went to jail and he didn't want his kids to know. He was old-school and proud."

Members of the Jewish community, who adorned his father's funeral with blue and white flowers symbolic of the Israeli flag, filled in details about his father's past. His obituary in The Miami Herald read, "Charles Winters, 71, aided birth of Israel."

In the summer of 1948, Winters, a Protestant from Boston who exported produce, worked with others to transfer two converted B-17 "Flying Fortresses" to Israel's defense forces. He personally flew one of the aircraft from Miami to Czechoslovakia, where that plane and a third B-17 were retrofitted for use as bombers.

"He and other volunteers from around the world defied weapons embargoes to supply the newly established Israel with critical supplies to defend itself against mounting attacks from all sides," New York Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Gary Ackerman, Jose Serrano and Brian Higgins said in a Dec. 15 letter urging Bush to pardon Charlie Winters. "Without the actions of individuals like Mr. Winters, this fledgling democracy in the Middle East almost certainly would not have survived as the surrounding nations closed in on Israel's borders."

(snip)