Pres. Bush pardons man who smuggled B-17s to Israel.

[gary1954]

I never heard that the Israelis operated A-20s...any pics out there?

As far as my records show, the organizers of the IADF tried to smuggle four A-20s out of the U.S. in 1948 but they were intercepted and seized in Florida. All four A-20s had come out of the RFC lot at Altus and had been owned first by Joe Zeppa and registered as N5066N through N5069N. They went through a couple of owners until purchased by one Leonard Burns of San Francisco, who it turns out was an alias and probably one of the Israeli purchasing agents. The four were seized at Miami in August 1948 and, after normal legal proceedings, were sold at a Marshal's sale on April 4, 1949. The current A-20 held by MARC was one of the four (then it was civil registered as N5066N).

Libyan dictator Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi obtained 3 Hurcules aircraft basically the same way.
Each filed a flight plan for a "legit" flight to South America on a cargo flight, to import goods from Souht America to the US, and made left turn out across the Atlantic, never to be seen again. Phony companies, by front men of Qadhafi.
The C-130 is interesting in many ways, and one intersting thing in particular, is that the Herc is the only cargo aircraft of it's size that is capable of landing, and taking off from an Aircraft Carrier.

[AviaS199]

Fighters Over Israel by Lon Nordeen is a good read btw

Agreed. Also recommended: No Margin For Error, by Ehud Yonay; On Eagles Wings by Ezer Weizman; and I Am My Brother's Keeper, by Jeffrey and Craig Weiss.