---
alias:
- Al Schwimmer
- Adolph Schwimmer
- Adolph W. Schwimmer
- Adolph William Schwimmer
- A. W. Schwimmer
- Adolf Schwimmer
- Adolf (Al) Schwimmer
born: 1917-06-11
category: Intelligence & Government
created: 2026-10-01
died: 2011-06-11
location: Tel Aviv, Israel
relations:
- end: 1948
  fn: 2
  role: aircraft procurement, funded through Nahum Bernstein
  start: 1947-09
  type: contractor_to
  with: '[[Jewish Agency for Israel]]'
- fn: 6
  role: volunteer
  start: 1947
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Haganah]]'
- end: 1950
  fn: 2
  role: subject, Neutrality Act and export control investigation, Los Angeles
  start: 1948
  type: subject_of
  with: '[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'
- end: 1950-02
  fn: 4
  reverse: true
  role: defendant, United States v. Schwimmer et al., S.D. Cal. Docket No. 20,636
  start: 1949-04
  type: prosecuted
  with: '[[Department of Justice]]'
- fn: 3
  role: founder of Bedek, its precursor
  type: founded
  with: '[[Israel Aircraft Industries]]'
- fn: 3
  role: founder and chief executive
  type: head_of
  with: '[[Israel Aircraft Industries]]'
- fn: 5
  role: special adviser to the prime minister
  start: 1984-09
  type: reported_to
  with: '[[Shimon Peres]]'
- fn: 13
  role: business associate in the Iran arms channel
  start: 1985
  type: partner_of
  with: '[[Yaacov Nimrodi]]'
- end: 1986-01
  fn: 5
  role: Israeli intermediary in the 1985 TOW and HAWK sales
  start: 1985-01
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Iran-Contra Affair]]'
- fn: 13
  role: deposited about $1 million in the Lake Resources account for HAWK flights
  start: 1985-11
  type: funded
  with: '[[The Enterprise (Iran-Contra)]]'
summary: American flight engineer convicted in 1950 of smuggling aircraft to Israel
  for the Jewish Agency, founder of Israel Aircraft Industries, Peres adviser and
  Israeli intermediary in the 1985 Iran arms sales, pardoned in 2001.
tags:
- Person
- AlSchwimmer
- Israel
- IsraelAircraftIndustries
- ArmsDealer
- NeutralityAct
- JewishAgency
- IranContra
- ShimonPeres
- LakeResources
- PresidentialPardon
updated: 2026-10-01
---

Adolph W. "Al" Schwimmer (June 11, 1917 to June 11, 2011) was a flight engineer for the Air Transport Command in the Second World War and for TWA afterward.[^1] From September 1947 he bought surplus American aircraft for the Jewish Agency and flew them through [Panama](/places/panama/) and Czechoslovakia to the forces that became the Israeli Air Force. He was convicted in [Los Angeles](/places/los-angeles/) in 1950 of conspiring to violate the Neutrality Act and export controls, moved to [Israel](/places/israel/), and built the aircraft maintenance company Bedek into Israel Aircraft Industries.[^2][^3][^4] From September 1984 he was a special adviser to Prime Minister [Shimon Peres](/people/shimon-peres/), and in 1985 he and [Yaacov Nimrodi](/people/yaacov-nimrodi/) were the private Israeli arms dealers through whom American missiles were first shipped to [Iran](/places/iran/) in the [Iran-Contra Affair](/events/iran-contra-affair/).[^5] [Bill Clinton](/people/bill-clinton/) pardoned him on January 20, 2001.[^4]

The Jewish Journal called him "a New York native" and reported that he died at Tel Hashomer hospital on his 94th birthday; the newsletter of the American Veterans of Israel called him "a native of Bridgeport."[^1][^6] In September 1947 he lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut.[^2]

### The Jewish Agency's aircraft, 1947 to 1948

Schwimmer gave the FBI his own account in 1949. About September 15, 1947, just back at his Bridgeport home from a transatlantic flight, he received a call from Albert Miller, who met him near Grand Central Station in New York, said he was a representative of the Jewish Agency who lived in [Palestine](/places/palestine/), and said he wanted to start "a nucleus airline" for transport to Palestine. Miller sent him to Los Angeles to look at Constellation aircraft. Schwimmer bought three Constellations from the War Assets Administration for $15,000 each and received $125,000 in all to recondition them, all of it banked in his name. He told the agents he wished "to go on record as being quite aware of the fact that it was illegal to take certain types of planes out of the [United States](/places/united-states/) without proper [State Department](/organizations/state-department/) clearance," and that he believed the trust placed in him was owed to "his Jewish lineage and his sympathy with the Jewish cause in Palestine."[^2] The [Lockheed](/organizations/lockheed-aircraft-company/) work was done at Burbank under the name of the Schwimmer Aviation Company.[^2]

The money came through Nahum Bernstein, a New York lawyer and veteran of the [Office of Strategic Services](/organizations/office-of-strategic-services/) who was counsel to the Jewish Agency and secretary of Americans for Haganah. Bernstein later testified that he met Schwimmer in November 1947, that the Jewish Agency's checks were deposited in his law firm's special account at the Chase National Bank at 20 Pine Street, and that Schwimmer opened an account to receive the funds at the [Bank of America](/organizations/bank-of-america/) in Hollywood. Another Jewish Agency official told Bernstein that $750,000 was available for the purchases.[^7] The newsletter of the American Veterans of Israel records that Schwimmer volunteered for the Haganah in 1947.[^6]

The FBI's Los Angeles office divided the case into four phases. In March 1948 a C-46 sold as scrap to a school district near Bakersfield was dismantled and its engines taken to the Schwimmer company in Burbank; one of the company's associates told a woman who arranged the purchase, when she asked what she would get out of it, "You're working for the cause." Five C-46s that Schwimmer had bought cleared customs on April 13 and 14, 1948, the last days before Presidential Proclamation 2776 barred the export of aircraft at midnight on April 14; they flew to Panama, then Žatec in Czechoslovakia, and Palestine. One crashed on takeoff at [Mexico City](/places/mexico-city/), killing both pilots. Forty-two Pratt and Whitney R2800-10W combat engines bought in Honolulu by Herman Greenspun and William Sosnow were declared to customs as an exportable civilian type for shipment by Service Airways to Lineas Aereas de Panama, and were seized; on April 14 Schwimmer asked an official of Pacific Airmotive for help with the export and admitted that the engines were the combat type. In May 1948 a box of C-46 radio parts was seized at the airport as a mechanic's personal baggage; a second set was picked up at midnight for cash, and Schwimmer handed the parts to the installers in Panama. In June 1948 about thirty-eight mechanics flew east on the last Constellation on the understanding that they would work on commercial aircraft in [Rome](/places/rome/). Customs impounded the two remaining Constellations in the East, and the State Department took the passports of the men who had not yet left. Schwimmer's foreman gave the FBI a signed statement on August 7, 1948 that Schwimmer and his representatives had asked him on July 21 to sign a statement contradicting what he had told customs, and that he had signed it under duress.[^2]

A report of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations of October 18, 1948, on a reserve lieutenant colonel recruited to ferry B-17 bombers, records that Schwimmer's associate Leo Gardner told the officer he had been assured by the State Department that there would be no trouble for the men who ferried the aircraft.[^8]

By Schwimmer's account the operation brought about thirty aircraft to Israel through [Italy](/places/italy/) or [South America](/places/south-america/) and Czechoslovakia, through dummy airline companies that were supposed to fly charters, and recruited crews, mostly Second World War veterans. By May 1948 he was sleeping somewhere different each night. "My philosophy was that we couldn't outsmart them, but if we moved fast, we'd be ahead of them all the time," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2001. He served in Israel's air force during the war.[^3]

### Indictment and trial, 1949 to 1950

On April 6, 1949 a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned two indictments. The first charged Schwimmer, Rey Selk, J. Leonard, Abe Levin, Greenspun, Sam Lewis, Sosnow, Leo Gardner and the corporation Service Airways of New York with conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act and export control laws, under Title 22, sections 452 and 453, Title 50, section 701, and Proclamation 2776. The second charged Schwimmer, Selk, Lewis and Elynor Rudnick with conspiracy to defraud the government.[^2] A month later Schwimmer and two co-defendants just back from Israel surrendered, with the support of ten Jewish organizations including Hadassah and the American Jewish Congress, which said the defendants were "accused of aiding victims of aggression."[^9] Bond, first set at $10,000, was reduced to $1,000.[^2]

The trial, *United States v. Schwimmer et al.*, was held before Judge Pierson M. Hall; the defense attorneys were Isaac Pacht and William Strong. On January 15, 16 and 17, 1950 Bernstein testified for the defense that the Jewish Agency had financed the purchases under his direction and that the defendants were its agents; the defense told the court that "the setting up of the plan, the purchase of the planes, the Panamanian situation" and "everything" had been under his supervision. An FBI agent testified in rebuttal that on January 13, 1948 Bernstein had told the bureau he had never met Schwimmer. Schwimmer, Gardner, Selk and Service Airways were convicted and fined $10,000 each; Greenspun, Sosnow and Lewis were acquitted.[^7] The Executive Grant of Clemency of 2001 identifies the conviction as one in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California on Docket No. 20,636, for violation of sections 88 (1946 edition) and 371 of Title 18, section 452 of Title 22, section 701 of Title 50, and Proclamation No. 2776 of March 26, 1948, and records that on February 20, 1950 Schwimmer was sentenced to a fine of $10,000 "and to imprisonment until said fine was paid or otherwise discharged pursuant to the law."[^4]

The assistant United States attorney, Herschel E. Champlin, told the FBI that had the government known of Bernstein's role he would have been indicted with the others; Champlin then declined to prosecute him in Los Angeles because he had committed no overt act there, and referred the matter to the Justice Department. Champlin also told the bureau that the department had "worked out a formula" for the main defendants, indicted in several districts, "so that they would not be sentenced more than once." The FBI's New York office had an espionage case pending on Bernstein; a headquarters memorandum of July 1950 states that the former Israeli military attaché in Washington, Ephraim Ben-Arzi, had named him in a military attaché report of January 27, 1949 as one of four persons who would control Israeli intelligence operations in the United States. In July 1950, sentencing Greenspun, Sosnow and Abraham Leven in the Miami phase of the case, Hall said that "the Government cannot permit individuals or private groups to conduct their private wars," and of Greenspun: "I think Greenspun was the leader, but I cannot bring myself to send him to prison because I believe that there are other persons more culpable than he in the background but they are not in the jurisdiction of this court." Champlin told the bureau he believed Hall had in mind such persons as Bernstein.[^7]

Schwimmer said the Jewish Agency paid his fine and court costs.[^3] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency later wrote that the case "ultimately cost him his U.S. citizenship"; the American Veterans of Israel wrote that he was "deprived of his civil rights, including the right to vote or claim government benefits."[^6][^9] President [John F. Kennedy](/people/john-f-kennedy/) pardoned Greenspun, later publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, on October 18, 1961; Greenspun's warrant records a separate indictment, No. 21266-CD, and a fine imposed on July 17, 1950.[^3][^10]

### Bedek and Israel Aircraft Industries

In the early 1950s Schwimmer was running an aircraft maintenance company in Burbank when [David Ben-Gurion](/people/david-ben-gurion/) asked him to establish an aircraft company in Israel for commercial and military work.[^1] He founded Bedek, the precursor of Israel Aircraft Industries, and headed the company for nearly twenty-five years.[^3] A former employee who worked on Israel's missile program at the company's Or Yehuda facility from August 1968 to March 1969 told the FBI in June 1970 that the president of IAI was "Al Schwimmer, who actually has dual citizenship (Israel and U.S. of America), and who maintains a residence in the U.S." The source said the program was modifying French missiles, seventeen of a projected fifty-seven delivered, for a range of 500 miles, with the [Weizmann Institute](/organizations/weizmann-institute-of-science/), the Technion, Elta, Motorola Israel and American Electronics Laboratories taking part, and that he had heard of a reactor at [Dimona](/places/dimona/). The Albuquerque office captioned its memorandum "Electronics Firm in Pennsylvania Allegedly Owned by the Israeli Government."[^11] In July 1987 the FBI's Honolulu office, in a neutrality investigation concerning the Philippines that followed [Ferdinand Marcos](/people/ferdinand-marcos/)'s attempt to leave Honolulu by private plane in January 1987, listed "Al Schwimmer, 69, Chairman, Israel Aircraft Industries" among fourteen international arms suppliers profiled in wire reports, with [Adnan Khashoggi](/people/adnan-khashoggi/), Sarkis Soghanalian, Sherwood International, Federal Ordnance Corporation, Stanford Technology, Civilian Materiel Assistance and the Virginia farm known as "Black Eagle," and asked headquarters to run traces through [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) liaison.[^12] The Jewish Journal dated his retirement to 1988, when the company was valued at $1 billion; the American Veterans of Israel dated it to 1980.[^1][^6] He received the Israel Prize in 2006.[^1]

### Adviser to Shimon Peres

The [Tower Commission](/organizations/tower-commission/) described Schwimmer as "a long-time arms merchant and, since September 1984, Special Advisor to Prime Minister Peres."[^5] He took the post, for one shekel a year, as adviser for technology and industry, and in that capacity met President [Ronald Reagan](/people/ronald-reagan/) and Vice President George H. W. Bush.[^1][^3] Michael Ledeen told the Tower board that Schwimmer was one of Peres's "close friends."[^5] [Richard Secord](/people/richard-secord/), asked in the 1987 hearings what Schwimmer's relationship to the Israeli government was, answered that he was "a long-time friend of the prime minister but I don't believe he had a formal position," and agreed that he was an arms dealer.[^13]

In December 1986 Israeli officials gave the Israeli press their own account of the affair. Yoel Marcus of Haaretz, in a reconstruction based on Israeli sources, wrote that in March 1985 Peres told his "informal adviser and old friend" Schwimmer that the Americans had asked for help in freeing their hostages, particularly the CIA station chief in Beirut, [William Buckley](/people/william-buckley/); that Schwimmer suggested using Nimrodi; and that it was Schwimmer "who came up with the idea of 'arms for Buckley.'" Marcus also wrote that if Israel were pushed further, "I won't be surprised if officials here use" the "bullets in the gun" it still held. Thomas L. Friedman of the [New York Times](/organizations/new-york-times/) reported that the account contained factual errors and conflicted with the American version; Ledeen called it "total nonsense."[^14]

### The Iranian channel, 1985

In a series of meetings beginning in January 1985, Nimrodi, [Manucher Ghorbanifar](/people/manucher-ghorbanifar/), [Amiram Nir](/people/amiram-nir/) and Schwimmer discussed obtaining the release of American hostages in [Lebanon](/places/lebanon/) and a dialogue with Iran.[^5] The congressional committees found that Adnan Khashoggi put Ghorbanifar and [Cyrus Hashemi](/people/cyrus-hashemi/), a naturalized American indicted in 1984 for arms export violations, in touch with "an Israeli group: Al Schwimmer, an adviser to then Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and Ya'accov Nimrodi," and that members of the Israeli team met Hashemi and Ghorbanifar in [London](/places/london/), [Geneva](/places/geneva/) and Israel in early spring. Khashoggi's former employee Roy Furmark placed the introduction in June.[^15] Khashoggi said in 1987 that he had asked Peres to have the [Mossad](/organizations/mossad/) check Ghorbanifar and that "48 hours later, Schwimmer was at my door with Nimrodi"; at a later meeting in Hamburg, he said, [David Kimche](/people/david-kimche/) came with Schwimmer, Nimrodi "and another guy from Mossad," and in the first week of July "Schwimmer and Kimche flew over to see McFarlane."[^16] Ledeen recalled Schwimmer reporting that he had met Ghorbanifar "through Schwimmer's friend, Khashoggi."[^5] The committees' minority report cited Schwimmer's reported statement to Ledeen that he had just been introduced to Ghorbanifar, "even though Ghorbanifar had been meeting with them since January."[^15]

On July 7, 1985 Kimche, Nimrodi, Schwimmer, Ghorbanifar and Khashoggi met in Geneva, and on July 8 they met Ghorbanifar's Iranian contact in Hamburg. On July 11, at Kimche's direction, Schwimmer met Ledeen in Washington and told him that Ghorbanifar thought the hostages could be freed and that selling [TOW missiles](/concepts/tow-missile/) to Iran would improve relations; Ledeen said it was the first time he had heard of Ghorbanifar.[^17] On July 13 [Robert McFarlane](/people/robert-mcfarlane/) received a request from Peres carried by an "emissary," Schwimmer, through Ledeen.[^5] At a meeting in Israel at the end of July with Ghorbanifar, Kimche, Schwimmer and Nimrodi, Ledeen said, the subject of weapons and hostages was raised for the first time.[^18] On August 20, Israel, "working through Nimrodi, Schwimmer and Ghorbanifar," shipped 96 TOW missiles to Iran.[^17] After a second shipment of 408, the Reverend Benjamin Weir was released on September 15, and Schwimmer asked Ghorbanifar why Buckley had not been; Ghorbanifar answered that Buckley was too ill to move.[^18] Buckley had died in June.[^15]

[Oliver North](/people/oliver-north/)'s calendar shows a meeting with Schwimmer at 11:30 a.m. on September 26. On October 6 North asked the CIA to put Ghorbanifar and Nimrodi under surveillance during their visit, and on October 8 Ledeen, North, Nimrodi, Schwimmer and Ghorbanifar, using the alias Nicholas Kralis, met in the Old Executive Office Building.[^5] Ledeen told the Tower board that Ghorbanifar had urged in one of their meetings that the arms and hostage matters, "which engaged Schwimmer and Nimrodi particularly," be dropped. Ledeen said that in October he asked Schwimmer to open an account for expenses; Schwimmer opened one at [Credit Suisse](/organizations/credit-suisse/) and gave him the number, which Ledeen passed to North.[^5] After the sales became public Credit Suisse wrote to Ledeen that the account had never been used.[^17] On October 27 Nimrodi, Schwimmer, Ledeen, Ghorbanifar and several Iranians met in Geneva, where the Iranians asked for HAWK missiles.[^18]

### The HAWK shipment, November 1985

On November 18 North called Schwimmer, who said the first shipment of 100 missiles had been "approved" in [Tel Aviv](/places/tel-aviv/) and was to be followed by the release of five "boxes," the code word for the hostages. North wrote in his notebook: "Schwimmer to P/U [pick up] HAWKs in U.S."[^15] On November 20 the Lake Resources account at Credit Suisse in Geneva, a Panamanian company controlled by Secord that North called "our Swiss Co[mpany]," received $1 million.[^15] Secord testified: "Mr. Schwimmer quickly deposited in our account, Lake Resources account, the million dollars and said to go ahead and lease the airplanes."[^13]

On November 22 North called Schwimmer and authorized an aircraft carrying 80 HAWKs to take off for a transit country that had not given landing permission; three and a half hours later he called again, and the aircraft was recalled and unloaded. Schwimmer abandoned his plan to fly the missiles on from the transit country in two DC-8s from a European company and, by his account, told North that the Americans would have to handle the flight logistics.[^18] North wrote to [John Poindexter](/people/john-poindexter/) at 7:00 p.m.: "Unbelievable as it may seem, I have just talked to Schwimmer, in TA [Tel Aviv,] who advises that they have released their DC-8s in spite of my call to DK [David Kimche] instructing that they be put on hold until we could iron out the clearance problem.... Schwimmer released them to save $ and now does not think that they can be re-chartered before Monday." Within minutes North reported that Secord would have one of "our LAKE Resources A/C," then waiting to carry ammunition to the [Contras](/organizations/contras/), repainted overnight to take its place.[^15] Secord, whom North had sent to Lisbon, testified that he had never dealt with Schwimmer before and spoke with him "dozens of times" on an unsecured telephone.[^13] The CIA's airline proprietary flew the cargo. Its manager reported that Schwimmer proposed flying an American-registered plane into Iran with a false registration painted on its tail, or in formation with another plane to hide it from radar operators, and that Schwimmer "must be crazy"; the proposals were rejected.[^15] Stephen Engelberg of the New York Times reported that by American accounts Schwimmer had erred in letting the plane take off before landing rights in Portugal were secured, and that Israeli officials said North had failed to obtain them.[^19]

Eighteen HAWKs reached Tehran. Secord testified that Schwimmer, at his home in Israel, told him that Ghorbanifar's contact in the Iranian prime minister's office "was literally screaming" about the missiles.[^13] According to Secord, Schwimmer and Nimrodi had promised Ghorbanifar missiles that could shoot down high-flying Soviet reconnaissance aircraft and Iraqi bombers; the I-HAWKs, like all HAWKs, could not.[^15] North wrote to Poindexter on December 4 that "Schwimmer and Ledeen were unfamiliar with the operational parameters of the HAWK" and had agreed to ship 120 missiles "totally inadequate to meet the rqmts established by the Iranians."[^5]

### The money

Iran paid $24.72 million for the 80 HAWKs, about $300,000 a missile. On November 22 Ghorbanifar transferred $18 million and $6 million to the account of an Israeli intermediary, whom the committees did not name, who transferred $1 million to Lake Resources "on North's demand" and paid the Israeli Ministry of Defense $11.2 million for the HAWKs at $140,000 each, keeping $11.8 million more than he had paid out. According to the Israeli Financial Chronology, $6 million of it was held in trust for Ghorbanifar and $5.8 million was for shipping and other expenses, and Ledeen and North agreed that it stay in the intermediary's account. On November 27 the ministry returned $8.17 million to the intermediary, who sent Ghorbanifar $18.6 million; at the end of November the Israelis held more than $5 million in residuals.[^15]

The Israelis had paid the Enterprise $1 million to deliver 120 HAWKs; when only 18 were delivered, at a cost of about $200,000, $800,000 remained, and "with the Israelis' permission to use this money as the United States wished, North directed Secord to spend the $800,000 on Contra support."[^15] Secord testified that North told him he had discussed the use of the money with the Israelis "but not as to destination of the funds. So Mr. Schwimmer made a contribution." Questioned by Senator William Cohen, Secord agreed that the $800,000 was Schwimmer's money, that North told him to keep it, that Nir confirmed this a month later, and that Israel would make no claim on it if it were turned over to the Treasury.[^13] The Washington Times reported the testimony as $800,000 "paid into Gen. Secord's Swiss bank account by Israeli arms dealer Al Schwimmer."[^20] In late November 1985, the committees found, Secord learned in Israel that proceeds of the earlier TOW sales had been used by Nimrodi and Schwimmer "for purposes other than purchasing the HAWKs." Asked what profits Schwimmer had made, Secord said he had no knowledge.[^13][^15]

### London and removal, December 1985 to January 1986

Secord, Ghorbanifar, Kimche, Schwimmer and Nimrodi met in Paris about December 1, and the group then moved to London.[^18] On December 8 McFarlane met Ghorbanifar at Nimrodi's London home with North, Secord, Kimche, Schwimmer and an Israeli defense official present.[^17] Secord testified that, out of McFarlane's hearing, a dispute broke out among the Israelis over who was in control, Schwimmer or an official of the Ministry of Defense, and that it ended "with Schwimmer asserting that he was in control."[^13] McFarlane told the Tower board he had seen reports that the West End apartment was Schwimmer's but did not know it firsthand.[^5] North wrote: "The Israeli contact, Schwimmer, has arranged deliveries of items which were not requested by Gorbanifahr for the Iranian military. Further, the terms which he negotiated are disadvantageous to the IDF and our ability to replenish the Israelis.... Despite admonishments to the contrary, Schwimmer had already arranged for the 3,300 TOWs as part of the next steps."[^5] By mid-December Poindexter had told North to keep the initiative moving, which included substituting a new team, led by North and Nir, for Ledeen, Schwimmer and Nimrodi.[^15]

On January 15, 1986 North reported to Poindexter Nir's view that Ghorbanifar "probably lied to Schwimmer and that Schwimmer probably lied to Nir re how much there was available."[^5] North's notes of a call with Nir that day refer to a 25 percent cut for "other Iranians" and a 15 percent cut to "accountant," which the committees identified as the code name for Schwimmer, and to "7500 each to Copp. 5300 each to DOD." The committees read North's message of that day as an effort to have more of the residual profit flow to the American side "rather than to Schwimmer and Nimrodi." On January 16 North proposed that Nir deal directly with Ghorbanifar, with Schwimmer and the Iranian officials "cut-out" from the expected profits.[^15] Asked later about his role, Schwimmer said only: "We used the connections we had, which were perhaps better than the United States had, to try to get the hostages out."[^3]

### Inquiries

On January 14, 1987 [Lee Hamilton](/people/lee-hamilton/), chairman of the House select committee, asked the acting director of central intelligence, [Robert Gates](/people/robert-gates/), for all CIA material on arms transactions with Iran, Israel, Ghorbanifar, Khashoggi, Nimrodi, Schwimmer or Nir and on efforts to free the hostages.[^21] On May 22, 1987 FBI headquarters sent its New York office, under the Iran-Contra case name FRONT DOOR, five subpoenas for Israeli officials and businessmen who had been "instrumental, in various degrees, in assisting the United States in selling arms to Iran"; the names are withheld in the copy released in the FBI's file on Schwimmer. The airtel states that the Israeli government had been "steadfast in its refusal" to make them available, that they had been entered in the Treasury Enforcement Communication System, and that the Immigration and Naturalization Service would stop them on arrival and notify the bureau and the independent counsel.[^22] Israel's insistence on diplomatic protocols prevented testimony by Schwimmer, Kimche, Nimrodi and Nir, though it provided written chronologies, which the committees used under a specific agreement with the Israeli government.[^15][^23] North told McFarlane, according to McFarlane's grand jury testimony, that he suspected "Mr. Schwimmer and Michael" had an agreement to share some of the gain from the sales; Ledeen denied profiting, and the independent counsel, [Lawrence Walsh](/people/lawrence-walsh/), found no evidence that he had, adding that "Israel never gave OIC access to financial accounts or records."[^17] Schwimmer was never charged in the United States or Israel.[^3]

### Pardon

Schwimmer never applied for a pardon. The son of his co-defendant, Brian Greenspun, submitted the petition, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Greenspun asked Clinton for the pardon over the preceding Thanksgiving weekend.[^3][^6] "You've got to say 'I recognize I was guilty and I did wrong,'" Schwimmer said of the application process. "I wasn't ready to say all that."[^9] His name was on the master warrant of January 20, 2001 that also pardoned Marc Rich. Before the [Senate Judiciary Committee](/organizations/senate-judiciary-committee/) on February 14, 2001, the pardon attorney, Roger C. Adams, testified that for some persons on the warrant his office had received "either no documents at all or very sketchy information from the [White House](/places/white-house/) Counsel in the last hours before the pardons were granted," that individual warrants for nine persons were still being prepared, and that "in one case (that of Adolph Schwimmer), the conviction of which we have knowledge is more than 50 years old."[^24] The individual warrant, dated January 20, 2001 and signed by Adams at the President's direction, grants Adolph W. Schwimmer "a full and unconditional pardon"; Adams's memorandum to the department's public affairs office records it as granted "after completion of sentence." The Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, which obtained the warrant under the [Freedom of Information Act](/events/freedom-of-information-act/), reported that most records of the clemency applications had been transferred to the National Archives.[^4][^25]

On June 27, 2008 Schwimmer wrote to President [George W. Bush](/people/george-w-bush/) and Attorney General Michael Mukasey in support of a posthumous pardon for Charles Winters, who had supplied B-17s to Israel and served a prison sentence; others "including myself" convicted of similar crimes, he wrote, "were treated more leniently by the justice system, as we were assessed fines and did not serve any jail time."[^26] Brian Greenspun wrote in the same campaign that Schwimmer was "the man who led the operation in which Mr. Winters participated."[^27] Bush granted the Winters pardon at the end of his term.[^25]

In his eighties Schwimmer worked for an Israeli constitution with civil marriage and equal standing for all branches of Judaism.[^1]

[^1]: Tom Tugend, "Al Schwimmer, Israel Air Force pioneer, dies at 94," *Jewish Journal* (Los Angeles), June 12, 2011, https://jewishjournal.com/news/93036/.
[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles report L.A. 2-86, September 19, 1949 (Neutrality Act and export control investigation; Schwimmer's statement; "Vineland School District," "Forty-two Aircraft Engine," "Aircraft Radio Parts" and "Two Constellation" phases; indictments), FBI file 97-HQ-2912, serial 603, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer.
[^3]: JTA Staff, "Pardoned American served Israel in 1948," Jewish Telegraphic Agency, February 28, 2001, https://www.jta.org/archive/pardoned-american-served-israel-in-1948.
[^4]: Executive Grant of Clemency, Adolph W. Schwimmer, signed by Roger C. Adams, Pardon Attorney, January 20, 2001, and Pardon Attorney memorandum to the Director, Office of Public Affairs, same date, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and published by the Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/01202001_Schwimmer_Pardon.pdf.
[^5]: *The Tower Commission Report: The Full Text of the President's Special Review Board* (New York: Bantam Books and Times Books, 1987), pp. 24 to 25, 30 to 31, 121 to 122, 125 to 127, 154 to 155, 163 to 165, 189 to 190, 194 to 195, 232 to 233 (page breaks as printed in the scanned text), https://archive.org/details/towercommission00unit.
[^6]: "Al Schwimmer Pardoned by Clinton," *The AVI Newsletter* (American Veterans of Israel), Spring 2001, p. 9, https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~sklausne/Newslettersp01_9.html.
[^7]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file 65-HQ-59184 (Nahum Bernstein, "Espionage, IS"), serials including New York report of June 13, 1950; Los Angeles report LA 65-5048 of July 28, 1950 by SA Philip J. Reilly ("Neutrality Act, Conspiracy"), summarizing the trial transcript of United States v. Schwimmer et al., vols. XXVIII to XXX; and headquarters memorandum of July 1950, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer.
[^8]: Headquarters, United States Air Force, Office of Special Investigations, Report of Investigation, District Office, Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base, October 18, 1948 (subject a reserve lieutenant colonel; character "Subversive Activity"), p. 3, forwarded by the State Department Division of Security, November 23, 1948, Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/10181948_Zatec.pdf.
[^9]: Julie Wiener, "From the Archive: The idealistic outlaw who built the Israel Air Force," Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 17, 2015, https://www.jta.org/2015/05/17/culture/from-the-archive-the-american-jewish-outlaw-who-built-the-israel-air-force.
[^10]: Pardon warrant, Herman Greenspun, signed by President John F. Kennedy, October 18, 1961, Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/10181961_Greenspun.pdf.
[^11]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albuquerque letterhead memorandum, "Electronics Firm in Pennsylvania Allegedly Owned by the Israeli Government," June 23, 1970 (classified Secret), FBI file 105-HQ-205824, serial 2, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer.
[^12]: SAC Honolulu (2-35) to Acting Director, FBI (attention Terrorism Section), "Neutrality Matter, Philippines," July 1987, FBI file 2-HQ-2840, serial 157X, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer.
[^13]: *Joint Hearings Before the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran and the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition: Testimony of Richard V. Secord*, 100th Cong., 1st sess., Hearings 100-1, May 5 to 8, 1987 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1987), pp. 80 to 84, 90 to 92, 96, 145, 313 to 314, https://archive.org/details/Iran-ContraReport.
[^14]: Thomas L. Friedman, "Israelis' Account on Arms: How U.S. Set Up the Deals," *The New York Times*, December 11, 1986, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00965R000403730010-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000403730010-7.
[^15]: *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair*, H. Rept. 100-433, S. Rept. 100-216, November 1987, pp. 164, 166, 169, 171 nn. 16 and 18, 177, 179, 182, 187, 191 n. 147, 194, 200, 207 to 208, 280, and minority report p. 527, https://archive.org/details/Iran-ContraReport.
[^16]: Arnaud de Borchgrave, interview with Adnan Khashoggi, "Khashoggi says he warned against arms for hostages," *The Washington Times*, March 19, 1987, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00965R000201460002-0, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000201460002-0.
[^17]: Lawrence E. Walsh, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. 1, ch. 1, "Robert C. McFarlane," text and nn. 74, 82, 86 to 88, 98, 103, 130 and 177, https://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm.
[^18]: *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair*, Appendix C, "Chronology of Events," entries of circa July 29, September 15, October 8, October 27, November 22, circa December 1 and December 7, 1985, https://archive.org/details/Iran-ContraReport.
[^19]: Stephen Engelberg, "North Implicated in Contra Supply Through Portugal," *The New York Times*, January 10, 1987, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00965R000201820031-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000201820031-8.
[^20]: Mary Belcher, "Secord says North told Reagan about diversion," *The Washington Times*, May 7, 1987, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00965R000100450003-2, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000100450003-2.
[^21]: Lee H. Hamilton, Chairman, House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, to Robert M. Gates, Acting Director of Central Intelligence, January 14, 1987, CIA Reading Room document 0001296190, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001296190.
[^22]: Director, FBI, to ADIC New York, airtel, "FRONT DOOR; Major Case 90; Ethics in Government Act 1978," May 22, 1987, FBI file 211-HQ-26, serials 796 and 1048, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer.
[^23]: "Examining the loose ends in the Iran-Contra affair," *U.S. News & World Report*, October 26, 1987, p. 22, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP89T00142R000700920014-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89t00142r000700920014-7.
[^24]: *President Clinton's Eleventh Hour Pardons: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate*, 107th Cong., 1st sess., S. Hrg. 107-194, February 14, 2001, statement of Roger C. Adams, Pardon Attorney, pp. 27 to 28, https://archive.org/details/gov.gpo.fdsys.CHRG-107shrg76344.
[^25]: "Presidential Pardons: Greenspun, Schwimmer and Winters," Israel Lobby Archive, Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/.
[^26]: Al Schwimmer to President George W. Bush and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, June 27, 2008, Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/06272008_Al_Schwimmer.pdf.
[^27]: Brian Greenspun to President George W. Bush and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, July 4, 2008, Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/07042008_Brian_Greenspun.pdf.