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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3 Num. 50
======================================
("Quid coniuratio est?")
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The Crash of United Flight 553
[Excerpted from *Defrauding America* by Rodney Stich]
A United Boeing 737 crashed into a Chicago residential area
(December 8, 1972) during an approach, killing everyone on board,
including the wife of Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt. She was
reportedly carrying money to silence Watergate witnesses, and
carried papers implicating President Richard Nixon in the
coverup. A Chicago public-interest group, know as the Citizens
Committee [to Clean Up the Courts] {1} believed that Justice
Department personnel played a role in the crash of United flight
553, and that they wanted key individuals on flight 553
exterminated. Twelve of the people who boarded United Flight 553
had something in common relating to questionable Justice
Department and Watergate activities.
There had been a gas pipeline lobbyist meeting as part of the
American Bar Association in Washington, D.C., conducted by Roger
Morea. Among the lobbyists attending were attorneys for the
Northern Natural Gas Company of Omaha; attorneys for Kansas-
Nebraska Natural Gas Company; and [the] president of the Federal
Land Bank in Omaha. The Citizens Committee portrayed these people
as a group determined to blow the lid off the Watergate case.
For many years Chicago resident Lawrence O'Connor boarded flight
553 like clockwork. He had no Watergate connections, but he had
friends in the White House. On this particular Friday, O'Connor
supposedly received a call from someone he knew in the White
House, strongly advising him not to take flight 553. The caller
advised him to go to a special meeting instead of taking that
flight {2}. Whether this was coincidental or to save his life is
unknown to me [i.e. author, Rodney Stich], although the Citizens
Committee considers it significant.
U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, later indicted and sent to
federal prison, and the Justice Department were putting pressure
on Northern Natural Gas. The firm had subsidiaries that the
federal government indicted on federal criminal charges in Omaha,
Chicago, and Hammond, Indiana. (September 7, 1972.) Justice
Department charges included bribery of local officials in
Northwest Indiana and Illinois, to get clearance for installing
the pipeline through their state. {3}.
Allegedly to blackmail the Justice Department and cause them to
drop the charges, the Omaha firm uncovered documents showing that
Mitchell, while attorney general in 1969, dropped antitrust
charges against a competitor of Northern Natural Gas -- El Paso
Natural Gas Company. Just before the crash, Carl Kruger, an
official with Northern Natural Gas Company, had been browbeating
federal officials to drop the criminal charges. {4}.
The Citizens Committee alleged that dropping these charges saved
the utility 300 million dollars. Simultaneously, Mitchell
purchased through a law partner a stock interest in El Paso
Natural Gas Company. Gas and oil interests, including El Paso,
Gulf Resources, and others, contributed heavily to Nixon's spy
fund supervised by Mitchell. The Citizens Committee reported that
Kruger had previously been warned he would never live to reach
Chicago. Kruger carried these revealing documents on United
Flight 553, telling his wife that he had irreplaceable papers of
a sensitive nature in his possession. For months after the crash
Kruger's widow demanded that United Airlines turn his briefcase
over to her.
CBS news reporter Michelle Clark travelled with Mrs. Hunt, doing
an exclusive story on Watergate. Ms. Clark had already gained
considerable insight into the bugging and coverup through her
boyfriend, a CIA operative. Others knew of this exclusive
interview, including the Justice Department.
According to some media articles, Dorothy Hunt conveyed offers of
executive clemency with the financial payoffs to some of the
Watergate defendants. Mrs. Hunt reportedly also sought to leave
the United States with over two million dollars in cash and
negotiables that she obtained from CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect
the President).
Early in December 1972, Dorothy Hunt and her husband threatened
to blow the lid off the White House if Hunt wasn't freed of the
criminal charges and if they both didn't get several million
dollars. {5}. Hunt claimed, according to McCord, to have evidence
necessary to impeach Nixon. McCord said matters were coming to a
head early in December 1972. Dorothy Hunt was unhappy about
bribing defendants and witnesses, and wanted out of the mess.
The Citizens Committee to Clean Up the Courts reported that over
a hundred FBI agents were inexplicably in the area when the plane
crashed, and that the FBI kept a medical team out of the crash
zone. One member of the medical team said he heard someone in the
crashed plane screaming for help. {6}. Witnesses near the airport
reported that the FBI agents were there before the fire
department arrived. Something highly irregular appeared to be
going on, involving the Department of Justice.
In *Secret Agenda*, author Jim Hougan makes reference to this
intrigue and the request to the FBI by Michael Stevens (who
supplied bugging devices to James McCord, allegedly under
authority of the CIA) for protection. Stevens claimed he was to
receive part of the money Mrs. Hunt was carrying, that his life
had been threatened, and that he believed Mrs. Hunt's death had
been a homicide.
-+- More Political Intrigue? -+-
The day after Flight 553 crashed, the White House appointed White
House aide Egil (Bud) Krogh, Jr. to the post of Under-Secretary
of Transportation, which controlled the FAA [Federal Aviation
Administration] role in the investigation. His qualifications?
Krogh was involved in the Ellsberg burglary caper and was part of
the White House Plumbers group. In his new position Krogh had an
important safety role supervising, or muzzling, the NTSB
[National Transportation Safety Board] and the FAA. He could
exert political influence over the NTSB investigation through the
politically appointed NTSB Board members who establish the
official probable cause of the crash.
Further control over the air safety process was demonstrated ten
days later. On December 19, 1972 the White House appointed
Nixon's deputy assistant and secretary to the Cabinet, Alexander
Butterfield, former CIA aviation liaison officer, to head the
FAA. {7}. The officials controlling the FAA, the NTSB, and the
Department of Transportation had political loyalties to the White
House. At the initial NTSB crash investigation hearings (February
1973), White House Appointment Secretary Dwight Chapin reportedly
threatened media people with reprisals if they mentioned
sabotage. These political appointees could influence matters
affecting the nation's air safety.
-+- United's Connections In Government -+-
Five weeks after the crash, Nixon's appointment secretary, Dwight
Chapin, became a top executive with United Air Lines in the
Chicago home office, even though he had no previous business
experience. Before the crash, Herbert Kalmbach, Nixon's personal
attorney, had been an attorney for United Air Lines.
Those federal officials were capable of carrying out reprisals
against the news media through Clay Whitehead, Nixon's
communication czar. The breakup of the networks on antitrust
charges was always lurking in the wings. Threats of IRS
harassment, Justice Department prosecution for vague federal
offenses, fabricated charges, and news handouts, all played a
part in government control of the news media.
-+- Never In Living Memory -+-
Supporting the fact that these irregular actions occurred, NTSB
chairman John Reed testified before the House Government
Activities Subcommittee on January 13, 1973, concerning Justice
Department interference with the NTSB's investigative duties.
Reed testified that he sent a letter to the FBI, claiming that
never had the FBI acted as they had in this crash. Reed said
fifty FBI agents came into the crash zone shortly after the
crash, assuming the duties assigned by law to the NTSB.
The FBI confiscated the Midway Control Tower tape relating to
Flight 553, interfering with the NTSB investigation. The FBI
conducted twenty-six interviews, including the surviving flight
attendants, obstructing the NTSB's safety responsibilities.
At the original NTSB accident hearings, Board members refused to
consider the documentation and testimony provided by the Citizens
Committee relating to suspicious FBI activities. The NTSB
reopened the hearings after the [Citizens] Committee sued the
NTSB (June 13, 14, 1973). Over thirteen hundred pages of
documentation were produced by the group and many witnesses were
brought forward, establishing the obstruction of the accident
investigation by the FBI. The final NTSB report ignored the
[Citizens] Committee's testimony and evidence.
The Citizens Committee alleged that a gang known as the Sarelli
group came into possession of the highly sensitive documents
carried by Mrs. Hunt. This discovery was made after the arrest of
gang members on January 12, 1973, for an unrelated robbery. {8}.
The Nixon Strike Force in Chicago prosecuted the case against the
Sarelli mob. What they didn't know was that their star witness
against the gang was a staff investigator on the Citizens
Committee, Alex Bottos, Jr.
[...]
--------------------------<< Notes >>----------------------------
{1} Citizens Committee to Clean Up the Courts, 9800 South
Oglesby, Chicago, Illinois 60617.
{2} Report by Citizens Committee.
{3} *Chicago Daily News*, September 8, 1972.
{4} *Chicago Tribune*, May 18, 1973.
{5} See Memo of Watergate spy, James McCord, before the Ervin
Committee. (*New York Times*, 5/9/73).
{6} Testimony offered at the NTSB (National Transportation Safety
Board) hearing on June 13 and 14, 1973.
{7} Jack Anderson's column, *Chicago Daily News*, 5/8/73.
{8} U.S. Magistrate Balog's records, 72-41, U.S. Courthouse,
Chicago.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
You may be unable to obtain a copy of Rodney Stich's book,
*Defrauding America*, at your local library or via your local
bookseller. If that is so, call 1-800-247-7389 for info on how to
order the book.
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I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
Brian Francis Redman bigxc@prairienet.org "The Big C"
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Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"
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