Claim: Documents prove Gunther Russbacher was involved in Iran-Contra

[Chev_Chelios]

If you don't know who Gunther Russbacher is, that's okay. He is the co-founder of a conspiracy theory website called rumor mill news, and has a very elaborate backstory that supposedly doesn't stand up to scrutiny. For starters, he's claimed to have been involved in both Iran-Contra and the October Surprise. So, he's claimed to have had involvement in one conspiracy that did happen and one that didn't happen. I can't quit tell what he's doing nowadays, because the "about us" section of his website mentions the last time he got out of prison (which he's been in multiple times) he couldn't even remember his wife.

I personally think he has issues. There is a Chicago Tribune article about him called, "A PRO CON," but it doesn't come up when I click it's link, and it appears to not have been saved on the web archive. Still, with a title like that, I can't imagine it's a article that speaks highly of him. Now, here's something interesting I found.

Basically, these are supposedly U.S. government documents that are from September 20th, 1985, and May 27th, 1986, that mention him by name, and are being used on this forum post as evidence of his involvement in Iran-Contra. Here are the two documents, with the text from the conspiracy website talking about them listed, here, before the documents...

This 20 September 1985 document describes the arms-for-hostages scheme showing Israeli involvement; identifying Gunther Russbacher and Robert Hunt (2 of Stich’s sources); and names Oliver North.

This 27 May 1986 document from John Poindexter to Bill Casey lists the bank account number of a CIA proprietary, for money for the arms. Also listed are Khashoggi, Gunther Russbacher and Robert Hunt. Vice President Bush apparently received a copy of this document.

And here is the link.

https://www.lawfulpath.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1366&start=40

What to make of all this? Well, from my own research I've found that the signature of John Poindexter is different from how he actually signs his name! Mainly, with how the J in John is stylized and how the P is stylized in his last name. I imagine people can change how they write their signatures between decades, but here's a copy of his signature from 1986, around the time of these documents.


And here's his signature more recently...



I feel like the signature being different makes this bunk. It does make me wonder where these documents supposedly came from, though. Reverse image search on Google just brings up similar looking documents. Reverse image search on Bing just leads back to a article on rumormillsnews about Gunther's supposed credentials. I have just looked at that part of the website, which includes other supposed documents from Oliver North and George H.W. Bush, and from just comparing the document's signatures to those two guy's actual signatures, they're both off!

The Oliver signature looks authentic up until how he writes the R in North, and the sig of H.W. Bush on one doc has him supposedly writing his name as George Bush, when a quick Google search shows some big differences between the supposed signature and how he really has written his signature! Here is a link to that part of the site... https://www.rumormillnews.com/RUSSBACHER_DOCS.htm

The question then becomes, where did these documents supposedly come from? I honestly think they're forgeries. I'm really proud of myself for looking into this claim myself, though I certainly don't mind any input from other users, and I hope whoever reads this liked the little mini-investigation I did!

 

[Mendel]

The first document gives Russbacher's affiluation as OX1, though it's hard to make out. What agency would that be?

 

[Mendel]

There is a Chicago Tribune article about him called, "A PRO CON," but it doesn't come up when I click it's link, and it appears to not have been saved on the web archive.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-03-17-9201240968-story.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2023000.../news/ct-xpm-1992-03-17-9201240968-story.html

Excerpts:

A PRO CON
By Michael Tackett, Chicago Tribune
Mar 17, 1992 at 12:00 am

It has been a long run for Gunther Karl Russbacher, 47, an Austrian citizen-apparently-who has lived a life of intrigue, deception and crime and served little time for it. What sets the balding, steely-eyed Russbacher apart from run-of-the-mill con men is the ease with which he gained access to guarded military facilities and gained the confidence of law enforcement officials.

It finally came crashing down on him last month in a St. Charles County, Mo., courtroom when his probation was revoked and he was sentenced to 21 years in prison for one of the lesser of his masterful cons: stealing money from people while posing as a stockbroker.

He also has posed as an Army captain, an Air Force officer, an Air France pilot and a federal prosecutor. And these are merely the scams that authorities have caught him doing during the last three decades.

In addition to talking his way onto military bases, he apparently has persuaded government workers to give him blank vouchers, then passed himself off as a secret agent with the authority to charter Learjets. He has convinced the FBI he was a valuable informant, and he once faked a heart attack at the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in St. Louis when he feared deportation.

As he was being sentenced, his wife, Raye, insisted that Russbacher is actually a deep-cover CIA operative whom the government is trying to suppress because he piloted a flight that carried George Bush to meet with Iranians in 1980 to delay release of the U.S. hostages in Tehran-the so-called October Surprise.

Investigators say Russbacher is brilliant, cunning, engaging and persistent. They say he is adept at taking public facts and marketing them as original information, which he spins into tales of intrigue and suspense that sound just authoritative enough to be credible. It`s almost uncanny, they say, how he can pick out a topic that interests law enforcement agents, such as organized crime or drug trafficking, and pass himself off as an expert.

[...]

After his Texas prison term, he moved to Missouri and, on Oct. 5, 1986, was charged with stealing by deception, violating his probation. He was sent to a federal prison in Minnesota, according to the FBI.

On his release, he returned to Missouri and opened a firm called National Brokerage Co. in St. Charles. The company`s letterhead listed him as chairman, using the alias Emery Peden, and said he held an MBA degree.

During this period, Russbacher started calling the St. Louis FBI office, telling them he had valuable information.

Russbacher said he would provide information about drug trafficking if the FBI helped him with some immigration problems. The FBI acknowledges paying him as an informant for a short time, but said it did nothing to help him with the INS. Payment stopped when agents determined that his information was useless.

Philip Groenweghe, a St. Charles County assistant state`s attorney, said that in his work as a stockbroker, Russbacher bilked clients out of thousands of dollars for services he never provided. He was found guilty in 1990 and sentenced to 21 years in prison, but he was placed on probation and ordered to pay restitution. The money would come, he told the court, from a $150,000 contract to write a screenplay about his life story.

[...]

On July 30, he drove to the gates of Castle Air Force Base, wearing a Navy captain`s whites, with a military decal on his car. He and his wife were issued keys for VIP quarters.

''He claimed to be a Navy captain,'' said Lt. Todd Vician, a public affairs officer at Castle, but his insignia were on upside-down.

Meanwhile, the FBI`s Scott, with help from Barry and other relatives, had pieced together at least a portion of Russbacher`s remarkable travels.

On July 31, in the VIP room at Castle, Scott arrested Russbacher on charges of impersonating a federal prosecutor. Russbacher was sentenced to 15 to 20 months in federal prison.

After his federal prison term, Russbacher was returned to St. Charles. His probation finally was revoked and he was committed to the Missouri prison system for 21 years.

A CIA connection?

To Raye Russbacher, the fact that her husband was twice admitted to secure military installations merely bolsters her story that he was a deep cover CIA officer whose deeds were so politically combustible that he had to be completely discredited.

''The only way people can dismiss it is to say that we are absolute liars,'' Raye Russbacher said.

Is he CIA?

David Whipple, executive director of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, says: ''It`s not a bad cover, because it`s very difficult to verify. If you say you are CIA and the CIA says nothing, it rather sustains the legend.'' However, he said he didn`t recognize Russbacher`s name.

Harry Reeves of the Naval Investigative Service calls it ''absolutely ludicrous.''

The FBI`s Scott says: ''He`s a con man from the word go.''

Says Groenweghe, the prosecutor: ''I can`t prove or disprove his involvement with the CIA. (But) I would be amazed the CIA would use someone with his record and psychological profile. You can`t believe anything he tells you. He`s a liar.''

Content from External Source

 

[jbryan3]

Gunther passed away years ago, that's why you haven't heard of him anymore. I gre up with his two sons, Gunther and Norman. I don't know how much is true but he absolutely went to prison for the savings and loan scandal which most now understand was part of the drugs for guns Iran Contra Scandal. I remember watching the Ollie North trials with them because they thought their dad would be called to testify.

 

[Bird]

This triggered a memory of seeing or hearing an interview with this guy back in the late 80s or early 90s in which he made some bizarre claims about George HW Bush flying around in a SR-71 Blackbird while Vice President.

It's odd that the first document is written on National Security Agency letterhead. Poindexter was the Deputy National Security Advisor (DNSA) at the time, which is a White House position on the National Security Council. The National Security Agency is part of the Department of Defense, and Poindexter never served at NSA (although he had other roles at DoD). Other memos from Poindexter from his NSC period are written on White House letterhead. Example.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/22118-document-27-white-house-draft-memorandum


If the document is indeed forged, it's possible that the forger confused the two uses of "NSA".

The details of the missile shipment (minus the names) otherwise match the Congressional report (the Google Books source does not support copy/paste so I'm including a screenshot instead).

https://www.google.com/books/editio...EgC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA169&printsec=frontcover

 

[Bird]

Here's a reprint of a mostly sympathetic article from 1992 that references the claim of flying George HW Bush in a SR-71 (allegedly prior to his inauguration as VP, contrary to what I remembered):

https://stlreporter.com/2021/04/01/the-secret-life-of-gunther-russbacher/

As an aviator attached to the Office of Naval Intelligence, Russbacher says he piloted a BAC-111 aircraft — with George Bush on board — to Paris in 1980. Perhaps more importantly, Russbacher claims to have shuttled Bush back to the United States a few hours later in an SR-71 spy plane — and he professes to have proof.

Content from External Source

The proof (alleged video of the cockpit transmitted to a secret NSA satellite system), of course, was never provided. Most of his claims rely on the standard trope that all records related to his claims have been erased or hidden by the government. Now that the history of the SR-71 is public, it's ironic that one of the arguments made in favor of retiring the aircraft was its lack of data transmission capabilities. Not to mention that fact that the USAF would not have been loaning out its most advanced aircraft to a random guy from the ONI, which has no clandestine mission in the first place.

I wonder if this is coming up because of the new Netflix show about Danny Casolaro, a story which intersects with this general area of conspiracy. I haven't watched the show but maybe I will now.

 

[FatPhil]

Here's a reprint of a mostly sympathetic article from 1992 that references the claim of flying George HW Bush in a SR-71 (allegedly prior to his inauguration as VP, contrary to what I remembered):

https://stlreporter.com/2021/04/01/the-secret-life-of-gunther-russbacher/

As an aviator attached to the Office of Naval Intelligence, Russbacher says he piloted a BAC-111 aircraft — with George Bush on board — to Paris in 1980. Perhaps more importantly, Russbacher claims to have shuttled Bush back to the United States a few hours later in an SR-71 spy plane — and he professes to have proof.

Content from External Source

The proof (alleged video of the cockpit transmitted to a secret NSA satellite system), of course, was never provided. Most of his claims rely on the standard trope that all records related to his claims have been erased or hidden by the government. Now that the history of the SR-71 is public, it's ironic that one of the arguments made in favor of retiring the aircraft was its lack of data transmission capabilities. Not to mention that fact that the USAF would not have been loaning out its most advanced aircraft to a random guy from the ONI, which has no clandestine mission in the first place.

I wonder if this is coming up because of the new Netflix show about Danny Casolaro, a story which intersects with this general area of conspiracy. I haven't watched the show but maybe I will now.

Grammar pedant here...
"Flying", which was the word used, would imply a repeated action, "have/had flown" would be a way of implying that it happened but not as a repeated thing.
However, without any actual quotes from people who actually know the facts, we're just floundering.