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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Man who armed Israel pardoned

Winters smuggled bombers in 1948

By DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press

WASHINGTON – In a gesture of forgiveness for a decades-old offense, President 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 among 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 had found out about his father’s daring missions and imprisonment only after his death in 1984.

“I’m overwhelmed,” Jim Winters said. “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, worked with others to transfer two converted B-17 “Flying Fortresses” to Israel’s defense forces. He 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 Winters’ pardon. “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.”

The three B-17s were the only heavy bombers in the Israeli Air Force. It is reported that counterattacks with the bombers helped turned the war in Israel’s favor. In March 1961, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir issued a letter of commendation to Winters to recognize his contributions to Israel’s survival as an independent state.

Winters was convicted in 1949 for violating the Neutrality Act for conspiring to export aircraft to a foreign country. He was fined $5,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Two others, Herman Greenspun and Al Schwimmer, also were convicted of violating the act, but they did not serve time. President Kennedy pardoned Greenspun in 1961. President Clinton pardoned Schwimmer in 2000.

“Rules are rules, but it’s interesting that my dad was the low man on the totem pole in the operation, but he’s the only one who had to serve time,” said Jim Winters, 44.