Noah Dietrich, chief aide to Howard Hughes, testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations on war contracts

MS SOT Mr. Noah Dietrich, chief aide to Hughes Aircraft Company president Howard Hughes, regarding what he told committee investigator Francis Flanagan: "Mr. Flanagan, I don't quite understand why these particular contracts are being investigated. I believe there are political motives behind this thing. There isn't sufficient involved in here to justify an investigation, there is no fraud or corruption. I know personally, I believe, all of the details of the transactions. It is a tempest in a teapot, and you are going to be disappointed when you get through. The thing will blow up in your face." / CU Dietrich: "I said: 'I think you are shooting at Elliot Roosevelt with a shotgun, and in the process Hughes is being hit.' He said: 'We are not using a shotgun. We are shooting at him with a cannon.'" VO committee chair Sen. Homer Ferguson (R-MI): "Now, you brought this subject." Dietrich: "I dislike bringing this in because I like Mr. Flanagan." Voice of Ferguson: "You made the statement about that, shooting at him with a shotgun or shooting at him with a cannon." / Dietrich: "Well, he may have said 'rifle', at any rate, the .. shooting at him directly." / VO: "shooting at who?" / Dietrich: "at Elliot Roosevelt." / VO Sen. Claude Pepper (D-FL): "Shooting at Elliot Roosevelt with a cannon, or kind of heavy gun." / Dietrich: "He may have said 'rifle', there was a one-bullet article that he was referring to." / VO Ferguson: "At least, it was a heavier load than a shotgun." / Dietrich: "Oh, now you are building that inference into my statement. I didn't say that. What I want to tell you was that that he was trying to convey to me that he was not using a scattergun, he was shooting directly at Elliot Roosevelt as a target."