FBI Has New Evidence on DB Cooper Case

PRESIDENT NIXON’S CONNECTION THE DB COOPER CASE AND MURDER

When President Nixon bugged his own Whitehouse in early 1971 he could not have foresaw that a tiny microscopic piece of evidence could finally help unravel the DB Cooper case.  If you need the history of DB Cooper, Wikipedia may be your best source.  He hijacked a plane November 24, 1971 for $200,000 in cash.  It was a big deal.

NAJEEB HALABY

The same day of the hijacking, at 14:40 EST (three hours prior to the hijacking) Najeeb Halaby walked into the Whitehouse to see President Nixon.  In Halaby’s book, Crosswinds: An Airman’s Memoir, he describes the meeting as one that surprised Nixon. In hindsight, we know that Nixon had bugged the Whitehouse.  According to Halaby, Nixon’s secretary scheduled the meeting unbeknownst to Nixon and he was upset Halaby showed up to meet him.

Halaby could not have known that his meeting with Nixon and a microscopic examination, one not capable in 1971, may be the link to solving the DB Cooper case while linking him as a co-conspirator.  

On DB Cooper’s tie was a small particle of very rare titanium.  Titanium was rare in the early ‘70s and mainly used in the aircraft industry. The type found on Cooper’s tie was even rarer.  It was almost pure titanium with no alloy.  This kind of titanium was used mainly for the SSJ (supersonic jet program) in the Boeing 2707.  

Halaby was appointed by President Kennedy to be the second FAA Director between 1961 and 1965.  Halaby was one of the biggest advocates of SSJ technology.  He advocated for Congress to appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize Boeing in the building of the 2707 SSJ.  

Additionally, Halaby was a known parachutist and former Navy Jet pilot who made the first transcontinental jet flight out of Edwards AFB.  Edwards is the testing grounds for experimental aircraft and experimental jumping in the military.  

When Halaby met with Nixon November 24, 1971 he was the CEO of Pan Am.    Pan Am was the purchaser of the first 747.  It was christened over a year earlier with Pat Nixon, the first lady in attendance along with Halaby.  

After Halaby was released (fired) from Pan Am in 1972, he facilitated the sale of 20 Boeing 747s for $23 million each to a foreign country.  He also sold airport security equipment and services to countries trying to meet the newly passed US regulations prevent hijacking.  The new security bill was the result of hijackings by the PLO between September 6-13, 1970.  

The new bill resulted in a four-fold increase in airport security funding.  It required overseas airlines landing in the US to be compliant with current US Airport security standards.  As a result of the legislation hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into the airline industry. Ironically, the date of the bill Nixon introduced was September 11, 1970.  It was the anti-hijackingbill title Skyjacking.  Many people think 911 was due to the EMS moniker, 911.  Was 911 planned for the specific date of 911 in commemoration for Nixon’s skyjacking bill?  

Halaby positioned himself well.  He was an attorney who went on to broker the sales of aircraft, airport security equipment and write and implement airport security policy all over the globe.  

The rarity of the titanium found on the tie limits the amount of people possible that could have been DB Cooper.  Cooper had to have been in an environment where there was this rare type of titanium. The FBI concedes that the rarity of the titanium points to a Boeing employee or contractor.  At the time, Precision Cast Parts and Tektronix of Tigard and Beaverton Oregon were companies that had the rare type of titanium along with the additional radioactive elements found on the tie.  This may well explain the relationship Cooper had with Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.    

This may also be why Cooper was never found.  The rare type of titanium and the radioactive elements on the tie point to a classified program, such as the ones flown out of Edwards AFB where Halaby departed on his first transcontinental jet flight.  If Cooper was working on a classified program, his absence the following Monday after the hijacking could not be reported to any authorities.  His absence from the classified program would have been…classified. 

Narrowing this list of suspects to people Halaby knows or worked with significantly reduces the suspect pool.  Most people have no more than a few hundred “friends” on Facebook.  Now, look at Halaby’s “Facebook” of the day.  Who were his closest confidants?  Do any of them have special forces training?  What about parachuting experience?  These simple parameters limit the number of people that could possibly be DB Cooper to a few people.  

Or is this just a coincidence that someone of Halaby’s background was meeting with Nixon the day of the hijacking.  While CEO of Pan Am, Halaby was opposed to the Concorde, the Anglo-French venture. However, for the previous decade, he was a supporter of the Boeing 2707 SSJ.  

The Boeing 2707 was scrapped after Halaby met with Nixon due to cost overruns and design flaws of the 4400 pound titanium wing support.  

A CASE FOR MURDER – ANOTHER DB COOPER CONNECTION

The morning of October 8, 1971 Nixon met with AG John Mitchell and later, CIA director Helms. Prior to Helms entering the room, someone at the meeting mentions how scared Helms is of Howard Hunt because “he knows where all the bodies are buried”.  This is in apparent reference to Hunt’s long-term relationship with the government.  Hunt was a former CIA operative and at the time of the meeting Hunt was working for Nixon as part of the “Plumbers” (the guys fixing the leaks in the Whitehouse).  

Prior to CIA Director Helms coming into the intelligence committee meeting, Nixon can be heard mentioning the name John Meier who is Howard Hughes right-hand man.  And most people are aware of the connections between Hughes and the CIA, not to mention the $100,000 in cash Hughes gave to Rebozo to give to Nixon as a “campaign contribution”.  

Nixon was a showman, everything he did was for show.  The October 8 meeting was no different.  He makes comments such as “I know about the Iran deal and the Guatemala deal”.  In other words, he didn’t want to say it on tape, but he knew that the CIA assassinated Prime Minister Mossadegh (Iran) and President Arbenz (Guatemala).  He also mentions the Bay of Pigs deal, which later becomes a focus of the Watergate hearings.  

The crux of the meeting surrounds Nixon’s request the intelligence community share information about the Kennedy Administration and how they handled the Bay of Pigs.  And if Nixon had Hunt in his corner already, why was he asking Helms to provide him information about where all the bodies are buried. 

During the meeting Nixon is attempting to sway the intelligence community heads to share the information about the Bay of Pigs.  But Nixon already has Howard Hunt in his employ.  He knows that Helms is afraid of Hunt because he “knows where all the bodies are buried”.  

Obviously, Helms knew Hunt was on Nixon’s team.  And he knew where all the bodies were buried, so the recording of the meeting was for the benefit of all the other attendees; and to get it on tape.  The Nixon tapes were an alibi of sorts for Nixon.  

Why was Nixon meeting with Helms and Mitchell in the first place?  It should be noted that right after the meeting with the POTUS, AG Mitchell flew to Gearhart, Oregon.  It’s a town of 1400 people about 30 miles down-river from where they found the DB Cooper loot on the bank of the Columbia River.  

Three days prior to meeting with AG Mitchell and CIA Director Helms, October 5, 1971 Nixon met with another airline executive, Dudley Swim of National Airlines, Inc.  

It’s not odd that the president would be meeting captains of industry.  But hindsight is again 20/20.  Nixon arranged for Jon Huntsman (the billionaire) to deliver $100,000 in CASH to Swim on February 1, 1972 for his agreeing to be the US Ambassador to Australia. 

Unfortunately, Swim died January 31, 1972 of a heart attack…the day before Huntsman was scheduled to give Swim $100,000 in cash from Nixon.  During the Watergate hearings Huntsman recalled how close he was to being dragged into the Watergate conspiracy.  He resigned just prior to handing the bag over to Swim.  

Huntsman said giving Swim that $100,000 would have wrapped him up in Watergate scandal.  Fortunately for Huntsman, he never delivered the money and was not implicated in the Watergate cover-up.

Two days prior to Swim’s unfortunate heart attack Nixon was at his friend Bebe Rebozo’s compound in Key Biscayne, Fl.  This was a frequent spot for Nixon during his presidency.  There were no bugs placed nor were the phones tapped at Rebozo’s compound.  This was Nixon’s version of the modern day SCIF, or Secure Compartmented Information Facility.  

While in Key Biscayne, Nixon received a call from his brothers Don and Edward.  Nixon rarely received calls from his brothers.  But two days before Dudley Swim died, he was talking with his brothers in Newport Beach, Ca.  They were a 6-hour drive from San Mateo where Swim lived and eventually died from a heart attack.

The odds of these being coincidences are astronomical.  Swim met the President of the United States October 5, 1971 and then died 3 months later, one day prior to receiving $100,000 in cash from the POTUS.    

 Swim’s ambassadorship to Australia was supposedly agreed upon by Nixon in mid-December 1971.  However, the presidential log says Swim is meeting Nixon to discuss the economy and education.  There’s no mention of Swim being the Ambassador to Australia.  

Unfortunately, we will never know if Nixon truly appointed Dudley Swim to be the Ambassador to Australia. We will never know if Najeeb Halaby knew who DB Cooper was.  

An even bigger travesty, we will never be able to use the DNA from the 8 Raleigh filter tip cigarette butts DB Cooper left behind…because the FBI, the premier law enforcement agency in the world……lost them.

The DB Cooper case was closed July 12, 2016.  In 2018 the FBI started a task force that uses CODIS (Combined DNA Indexing System) with private company databases to solve cold cases. The FBI task force is solving decades old cold cases at a pace of about one per week using familial DNA from the private databases.  

Unfortunately the FBI won’t be able to identify DB Cooper using CODIS or the familial DNA to solve this caper because…the cigarette buts are gone.  Not to mention, the FBI closed the DB Cooper case July 12, 2016. 

But at least we know who orchestrated the hit on Dudley Swim.  And it wasn’t Mr. White in the library with a candlestick.  Get a clue, Tricky Dick.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE DB COOPER HIJACKING AND DOROTHY HUNT'S PLANE CRASH

Like the DB Cooper hijacking, the air traffic control tower at Midway Airport near Chicago lost tracking on United Airlines flight 553 when it crashed on approach on December 8, 1972.

In the DB Cooper hijacking Northwest Orient flight 305 was lost 8 miles north of the Columbia River and was not reacquired until it reached Salem, Oregon 40 miles south of the Columbia River.  The loss of the tracking of these aircraft during critical junctures of these flights by the Air Traffic Control Tower should be fully explained and investigated.

Or is it just coincidence that the former director of the FAA, Najeeb Halaby was meeting with President Nixon 3 hours before flight 305 was hijacked.  Nobody even asked.  

REPORTED ON JULY 14, 2019