[[Joseph O'Toole]] was a former [[USA|U.S.]] Air Force colonel whose last job was in procurement, including liaison with the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. After his retirement in 1978, he became managing director of the aircraft sales division of [[FXC International]] in Santa Ana, [[California]].[^1] [[FXC International]] was approached by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] to open an aircraft division to broker secret sales of aircraft worldwide on behalf of the [[USA|U.S.]] government. Since [[Israel]] already had relations with [[FXC International]], it was used to "paper" [[USA|American]] equipment in what might have been perceived as illegal sales, allowing the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] to monitor these transactions.[^1] [[Joseph O'Toole|O'Toole]] was involved in negotiations to sell [[Chile|Chilean]] F-5Es to [[Iran]] through [[Singapore]], believing at the time that this sale had [[USA|U.S.]] government authorization, specifically from [[Robert Gates]]. He was asked to act as a broker and buy the planes from [[Chile]] on behalf of [[Israel]], which would put an [[USA|American]] stamp of approval on the deal.[^1] In April 1989, [[Joseph O'Toole|O'Toole]] was involved in a deal to sell three C-130s to [[Iran|Tehran]], working with [[Richard St. Francis]] of [[TransCapital]] and [[Mike Timpani]]. This deal was intended to be a go-between for [[Israel]] and [[Iran]], but it was ultimately cut out. [[Joseph O'Toole|O'Toole]] was later indicted for conspiracy to sell C-130s to [[Iran]] in violation of the [[USA|U.S.]] Arms Export Control Act, though his case was severed from [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] at their request, as he had cooperated with the government in setting up [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]].[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")