FTR #517 Update on 9/11 and Related Matters

Recorded July 2, 2005
REALAUDIO

The broadcast begins with three stories underscoring the continued vulnerability of this country to devastating terrorist incidents. Failure by both public and private sectors to guarantee the integrity of terrorism insurance has left US business highly vulnerable to the economic effects of a major terrorist incident. Businesses are not insured at all against domestic terrorism. The milk industry in the US is highly vulnerable to a bio-terrorist attack. The broadcast highlights the failure of the US to develop a viable radiation-detection system at ports of entry into the country. After updating the case of accused terrorist-financier Yassin al-Qadi, the program focuses on Prince Bandar, Saudi ambassador to the United States and a close associate of the Bush family for decades. In particular, the program highlights Bandar’s resignation and his long-standing participation with members of the Bush family in various covert operations. For more about the elder George Bush’s pivotal role directing the machinations constituting both the Iran-Contra and Iraqgate scandals, see—among other programs—FTR#384. In evaluating Prince Bandar and his involvement in covert operations, the central role of former CIA director George H.W. Bush in those operations is important to bear in mind.

Program Highlights Include: Bandar’s pivotal role in generating funds for the Nicaraguan Contras; Bandar’s efforts at facilitating US military and economic assistance to Saddam Hussein in Iraq; Bandar’s work on behalf of the Afghan mujahideen and the genesis of Osama bin Laden as warrior; the elder George Bush’s role directing the anti-Soviet Afghan mujahideen.

1. Examining potential economic impact of future terrorist incidents, the broadcast notes that neither the private sector nor the U.S. government has adequately provided for a sufficient amount of terrorism insurance for business. This failure threatens the possibility of economic collapse in the event of another devastating terrorist incident. Note that terrorism insurance does not cover attacks by domestic terrorists. Should the next attack be perpetrated in part or in whole by domestic neo-Nazis or Islamists, businesses damaged in the attack would not be covered!! Recall in that regard the neo-Nazi links to the events of 9/11. For more about this subject, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 352, 443, 456; 457, 474.) “Future terrorist attacks could disrupt the US economy because the system of terrorism insurance in its present state would not offer businesses adequate financial protection, a new study, by the RAND Corporation indicates. Terrorism insurance does not protect businesses against attacks by domestic terrorists, nor does it cover attacks involving chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, the report points out. Also, many businesses have neglected to buy terrorism insurance because the cost has soared since the attacks of September 11.”
(“Insurance ‘Gives Too Little Cover for Terror.’” By Ellen Kelleher; Financial Times; 6/21/05; p. 8.)

2. “RAND analysts recommend that Congress consider proposals that would help lower the cost of terrorism insurance to encourage more businesses to buy it. They also believe Congress should expand the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), which provides a federal backstop to cover insurers' losses in case of a terrorist attack.” (Idem.)

3. “Peter Chalk of RAND said: ‘Protecting businesses against the economic impact of a terrorist attack should be part of a robust homeland security effort.’ TRIA's fate still hangs in the balance in Washington as Congress has yet to decide whether to extend it. It is set to expire by the end of the year.” (Idem.)

4. “Insurers, some of whom funded the RAND study, are lobbying the government aggressively amid fears that its passage could be derailed. The Treasury is expected to release a long-awaited analysis on TRIA's effectiveness by the end of the month. Some Republicans oppose its passage as they think terrorism insurance should be left to the markets.” (Idem.)

5. “Under the act, the Treasury Department is obliged to cap insurers' liability and reimburse them for some losses. The bill specifies that the government must pay all insured losses greater than $12.5bn (€9.4bn, £6.5bn) in the aftermath of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack on Americans. In exchange, the government forced insurers to stop stripping terrorism coverage from their policies.” (Idem.)

6. “The RAND report urges the US government and insurers to consider programs that would cover terrorism by national groups as well as chemical, nuclear, and biological attacks. Analysts at the prominent think tank also believe state governors should form a national board to assess the performance of TRIA.” (Idem.)

7. Another scenario involving an economically and demographically devastating terrorist attack involves the vulnerability of the nation’s milk supply to an attack by botolinum toxin. A government study underscored the threat posed by such an attack: “About a third of an ounce of botulinum toxin poured into a milk truck en route from a dairy farm to a processing plant could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in economic losses, according to a scientific analysis published Tuesday despite efforts by federal officials to keep the details secret.”
(“Study Shows How Terrorists Could Use Milk to Kill” [Wire Services]; Los Angeles Times; 6/29/2005; p. 1.)

8. “The study by Lawrence M. Wein and Yifan Liu of Stanford University discusses such questions as how terrorists could release the toxin and what effective amounts might be. Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said in an accompanying editorial that a terrorist would not learn anything useful from the article about the minimum amount of toxin to use. ‘And we can detect no other information in this article important for a terrorist that is not already immediately available to anyone who has access to information from the World Wide Web.’” (Idem.)

9. “In fact, he said, publication of the article by the academy could be valuable for biodefense. The analysis, posted Tuesday on the website of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, seeks to quantify security weaknesses in the nation's milk supply chain and makes recommendations for closing those gaps. Although some of the suggested changes are underway, federal officials thought the material had enough potential for misuse to warrant a last-minute effort to halt publication. That effort, which delayed the report’s unveiling by a month but ultimately failed to keep it from becoming public, proved to be as contentious as the publication itself and assured the report’s place in the scientific canon as one of the first test cases of how to balance scientific freedom and national security in the post-9/11 era.” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)

10. “Wein, whose previous research had forecast the likely effects of terrorist attacks involving anthrax and smallpox, said he was surprised by the government’s push to block publication.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

11. “As long ago as last fall, Wein said, he had briefed high-ranking officials of the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, along with dairy industry representatives, on his work. ‘It was clear the dairy people were nervous about this paper coming out,’ Wein said. But when federal officials did not follow up, he said, he assumed they had concluded that everything in the article was already publicly available and easily obtained through an Internet search.” (Idem.)

12. “Bill Hall, a spokesman for HHS, said Tuesday that his department still opposed publication but was not in a position to block release of the data, which were not classified. ‘We respect the academy's position but we don't agree with it,’ Hall said. The ‘consequences could be dire and it will be HHS, and not the academy, that will have to deal with it.’” (Idem.)

13. “The report describes the milk supply chain from cow to consumer. It describes points where a toxin could be introduced, such as a holding tank at a farm, a truck transporting milk to the processing plant or a raw milk holding tank at the plant. The analysis by Wein and Liu considered what might happen if terrorists poured into a milk tanker truck a couple of gallons of concentrated sludge containing botulinum toxin, a potent bacterial nerve poison now popular in low doses as a wrinkle eraser.” (Idem.)

14. “Because milk from many sources is combined in huge tanks, the toxin would get widely distributed and within days be consumed by about 568,000 people, the report concludes.” (Idem.)

15. As terrifying as the first two articles are, they are no more frightening than the following story, documenting the failure to adequately guard the nation’s borders against the importation of a nuclear device. “The federal government's efforts to prevent terrorists from smuggling a nuclear weapon into the United States are so poorly managed and reliant on ineffective equipment that the nation remains extremely vulnerable to a catastrophic attack, scientists and a government auditor warned a House committee on Tuesday.”
(“U.S. Borders Vulnerable, Witnesses Say” by Eric Lipton; New York Times; 6/22/05; p. 1.)

16. “The assessment, coming nearly four years after the September 2001 attacks and after the investment of about $800 million by the United States government, prompted expressions of frustration and disappointment from lawmakers. ‘If we go ahead and spend the money and don't succeed, I don't understand that,’ said Representative Steve Pearce, Republican of New Mexico. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]” (Idem.)

17. “Four federal departments -- Homeland Security, Defense, Energy and State -- are involved in a global campaign to try to prevent the illicit acquisition, movement and use of radioactive materials, which includes efforts to prevent theft of nuclear materials from former Soviet stockpiles and inspecting cargo containers on arrival from around the world. Dirty bombs, crude devices that widely spread low levels of radiation, are relatively easy to detect. But highly enriched uranium, a crucial ingredient in a nuclear bomb, could easily be shielded with less than a quarter-inch of lead, making it ‘very likely to escape detection by passive radiation monitors’ now installed at ports and border stations, Benn Tannenbaum, a physicist and senior program associate at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, testified at Tuesday’s hearing.” (Idem.)

18. “The monitors are unable to distinguish between naturally occurring radiation from everyday items like ceramic tile and dangerous material like enriched uranium. It has been, let me say, a bad few years,’ Dr. Tannenbaum said. Customs officials also at times allow trucks to pass through the monitors too quickly, said Gene Aloise, an official from the Government Accountability Office. And because the devices sound so many false alarms, Mr. Aloise said, their sensitivity has been turned down, making them less effective still.” (Idem.)

19. “Nationally, less than a quarter of the radiation detection devices needed to check all goods crossing the borders have been installed, federal officials said. In New York, for example, none of the cargo that moves through the largest ship terminal or goods leaving the port by rail or barge are inspected for radiation, Bethann Rooney, manager of security for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, testified. The problems extend beyond the borders, witnesses said. About half of the monitors given to one former Soviet state were never installed or put into use. A monitor that the State Department gave to Bulgaria was set up on an unused road. And sea spray and winds at some ports overseas may have compromised the detection equipment, Mr. Aloise said.” (Idem.)

20. “Richard L. Wagner Jr., a physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and chairman of the Defense Department task force on preventing a clandestine nuclear attack, agreed that the radiation detection systems installed across the United States were ‘quite limited in their capabilities and, in general, are insufficient to the task.’ But the situation, Dr. Wagner said, is not surprising given the rapid start up of the effort. ‘There will be false starts and there will be money wasted,’ he said. Representative Jim Langevin, Democrat of Rhode Island, asked how Homeland Security should apportion $125 million in the coming fiscal year between buying more of the same radiation monitor technology and supporting research into better technology. Two witnesses called for putting the detection equipment on ships, so threats could be identified before reaching the United States.” (Idem.)

21. “Members of Congress have also recently questioned a proposal by the Bush administration to spend $227 million in the coming year to create a Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, skeptical that it will do more than add a new layer of bureaucracy. ‘I am not too hopeful about this situation,’ Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said.” (Idem.)

22. Next, the program highlights the Swiss investigative authorities’ decision to pursue an investigation of Yassin al-Qadi, a wealthy Saudi who has allegedly financed both al-Qaeda and Hamas. (For more about al-Qadi’s alleged terror financing activities, including his involvement with the financing of Ptech, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 462, 464, 467. Ptech developed the threat-assessment software for the FAA, Air Force and NORAD.) It remains to be seen if the Swiss investigation of Bank al-Taqwa is re-opened. “The U.S. government's campaign against alleged terror financiers has won a potentially important victory with a decision by Swiss prosecutors to pursue a formal criminal case against a prominent Saudi businessman long accused of providing support to Al Qaeda and other terror groups. The businessman, Yassin al-Qadi, was first named by the U.S. Treasury Department as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ in October 2001 as part of a major campaign by the Bush administration to demonstrate it was cracking down on terror financiers in the aftermath of September 11. The U.S. action prompted a number of governments, including the Swiss, to freeze millions of dollars of Qadi's assets.”
(“Anti-Terror Victory?” By Michaal Isikoff and Mark Hosenball; Newsweek; 6/22/05; p. 1.)

23. “But his case also has raised serious questions about the strength of the U.S. government’s evidence--little of which has ever been made public—regarding the murky world of terror-finance networks. Qadi, a top target of U.S. investigators, has repeatedly denied all accusations of terror ties. And more than three and a half years after he was first designated by Treasury, no criminal charges have been brought against him—either in the United States or anywhere else throughout the world where he does business.” (Idem.)

24. “That now may change. Earlier this month, in a move long sought by Washington, Swiss deputy federal prosecutor Claude Nicati asked a Swiss federal criminal tribunal to assign a juge d'instruction (investigative magistrate) to prepare a possible criminal case against Qadi. Swiss criminal investigations proceed in three stages. In the first stage, prosecutors and police work together to gather the evidence for a criminal prosecution. In the second stage, an investigating magistrate sifts through evidence gathered by prosecutors, interrogates witnesses and decides (much as an American grand jury is supposed to decide) whether there is enough evidence to send the case for trial. In the third stage, the investigating magistrate would send the case to criminal-court judges-in Qadi's case, federal judges based in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona—who would try it and determine whether the defendants were guilty of any crime. The Qadi case is the first terrorism-finance case that Swiss prosecutors have moved to the second investigative stage since 9/11.” (Idem.)

25. “According to Qadi's lawyer, Nicati's four-page letter to the federal tribunal focuses in particular on a series of transactions between February and August 1998 in which one of Qadi's companies, Caravan Development, transferred $1.25 million to a firm owned by another Saudi businessman, Wael Julaidan Julaidan, a reputed one-time associate of Osama bin Laden during the guerrilla war against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, was placed on both the United Nations and U.S. terror financier lists in September 2002.” (Idem.)

26. “The money transfers were supposed to build dormitory housing for an Islamic school in Yemen – the sort of religious and charitable activities that both Qadi and Julaidan have long contended they have openly supported. But the Swiss letter alleges the funds ‘end up in the hands of Al Qaeda.’ According to an excerpt of the letter read to NEWSWEEK by one of Qadi’s lawyers.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

27. “But the Qadi lawyer, Saad Djebbar, vigorously disputed the Swiss accusations and predicted his client will be fully vindicated. He calls for the case against Qadi a ‘financial Guantanamo’ that was ginned up by Swiss prosecutors on the basis of notoriously spotty and inaccurate intelligence provided by American officials as part of their post-9/11 crackdown. ‘This is the Kafka school of jurisprudence’, Saad Djebbar, a London-based lawyer who works with Qadi's legal team led by the well known British firm of Carter-Ruck. ‘The intelligence [regarding Qadi] is no better than the intelligence [the U.S. government] provided about Iraq.’” (Idem.)

28. “Djebbar acknowledged that Qadi himself personally confirmed the money transfers to the Julaidan-connected company during an interview with Nicati, the Swiss prosecutor, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July 2003—a session he said that was arranged and facilitated by Qadi's lawyers. But, he added that,' Qadi adamantly denied during that same interview that he ever intended or knew that any of the funds would be diverted to Al Qaeda.” (Idem.)

29. “‘I never gave one million—not even one cent to Al Qaeda,’ Qadi told the prosecutor, according to an excerpt from his questioning read to a reporter by Djebbar. ‘Not only Al Qaeda, not to any terrorist group. I always in my life was against any terrorist act. It is against our religion, our belief, our community. Nobody in Saudi Arabia can believe I would have ever thought about supporting such groups.’” (Idem.)

30. “Djebbar said that Swiss prosecutors mistakenly thought that the Julaidan company that received the money transfers from Qadi's company (which is based in Turkey) was connected to Mamdouh Mahmoud Salim, a notorious financial manager for Al Qaeda who has been indicted in the United States on charges connected to the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Salim, who is being held in a federal detention center in New York, is also accused of attempting to a prison guard by stabbing him in the eye with a comb in 2001. But Djebbar said that Salim was no longer affiliated with the company that received the money from Qadi at the time of the money transfers. Djebbar also noted that the Swiss action comes shortly after a Turkish prosecutor dropped a separate investigation into Qadi companies in that country after concluding that there was no evidence linking his firms to terror financing.” (Idem.)

31. “Mark Wiedmer, a spokesman for the Swiss prosecutor's office, said that the investigation referred to the federal tribunal was one of three major terrorism investigations that Swiss federal prosecutors had recently been preparing for possible transmission to the federal criminal court, a new Swiss tribunal set up after 9/11 to handle complicated cases, including terrorism investigations. One case, which Wiedmer said that federal magistrates were already examining, involved the arrests of nine Muslim immigrants to Switzerland following sophisticated attacks on Western residential compounds in Riyadh in May 2003. According to a copy of the criminal referral in that case obtained by NEWSWEEK, Swiss police opened the case after receiving information indicating that 36 Swiss cell-phone numbers were recorded in the memory of a cell phone used by one of the members of the terrorist cell that carried out the Riyadh attacks.” (Idem.)

32. Much of the discussion centers on Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the United States and an intimate of the Bush family. For whatever reason, Bandar has resigned his position as Saudi ambassador. Whether or not Bandar’s departure has something to do with any of the ongoing investigations into terror financing and involvement of prominent Saudis in the underwriting of al-Qaeda is a matter for speculation. Bandar has been in charge of numerous accounts held by the Saudis at the Riggs Bank, currently under investigation for the funding of various covert operations. (For more about Riggs Bank and its link to the Saudis, see FTR#’s 431, 438, 442, 447, 495.) “Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US for more than two decades, has resigned his position. According to people close to the Saudi government. Prince Bandar, the longest serving ambassador to Washington, has decided to quit. However, he will remain formally in his role as ambassador until an announcement from the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The announcement could take months.”
(“Saudi Ambassador to U.S. Resigns” by Stephen Fidler and Guy Dinmore, Financial Times; 6/28/05; p. 1; accessed at: http://www.ft.com.)

33. “The Saudi embassy in Washington said that a statement on Sunday, in which it said that Prince Bandar remained ambassador to the US, still stood. ‘Prince Bandar is currently on vacation and is expected to return to his office at the end of August,’ the statement said. But one Saudi government adviser said: ‘He is determined to go. But as there is no formal decree relieving him of his duties, he by default and by name remains ambassador.’ Another said that Prince Bandar, 56, had already moved his belongings out of the Washington residence, though this could not be confirmed.” (Idem.)

34. “Several reasons are cited for his expected departure, including poor health, which has encouraged him to spend more and more time away from Washington in recent years. But he is also said to have lost influence in Riyadh as the ailing King Fahd weakens and his expected successor, Crown Prince Abdullah, gathers more of the reins of power. ‘It's a question of how seriously he is taken in Riyadh and how much confidence they have in him,’ said an adviser. Prince Sultan, Prince Bandar's father, is expected to assume the title of Crown Prince when Abdullah becomes king.”(Idem.)

35. “Prince Bandar's high profile had also become a source of increasing controversy within the US, and there were questions about whether this was helping Saudi efforts to improve relations with Washington. These sources said that Prince Bandar was not expected to return to Riyadh in a senior policy role.” (Idem.)

36. “There was no word on who would be his likely successor. According to the Saudi government. Prince Bandar did not attend a meeting in Riyadh last week between Crown Prince Abdullah and Condoleezza Rice, the White House national security adviser, who was on a tour of the Middle East. The Saudi embassy in Washington was represented by Prince Salman bin Sultan, Prince Bandar's half-brother, and a possible successor. Prince Bandar, a former Saudi air force pilot who trained in England, was appointed ambassador to the U.S. in 1983.” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)

37. Prince Bandar is a long-time participant with the Bushes in the world of covert operations. He worked with the elder George Bush on generating support for the Nicaraguan contras. “. . . The Saudis had no particular interest in Nicaragua; they didn’t even have diplomatic relations with this small country half a world away. But at the time, congressional opposition to the administration's policy was so strong that on December 8, 1982, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to prohibit the use of U.S. funds to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.”
(House of Bush/House of Saud; by Craig Unger; Scribner [HC]; Copyright 2004 by Craig Unger; ISBN 0-7432-5337-X; p. 63.)

38. “However, even the Boland Amendment, as the bill was known, was not an insurmountable obstacle to a National Security Council that was prone to macho covert operations, bravado, and cowboy-style adventurism. It considered a variety of options to fund the contras, including obtaining funds from other countries and skimming profits from arms deals with Iran. Finally, in the spring of 1984, National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane raised the possibility of approaching Prince Bandar for the money. If the Saudis were to accede to the request, clearly they would gain favor from the Reagan administration. On June 22,1984, Bandar and McFarlane agreed that the Saudis would give $1 million a month to the contras.” (Ibid. pp. 63-64.)

39. “But the gambit was like playing political Russian roulette and had to be approved by the White House before it could proceed. What would happen if Congress found out? On June 25, 1984, a special meeting of the National Security Planning Group was called to discuss the issue. The highest officials in the country were present—Ronald Reagan, George Bush, George Shultz, Caspar Weinberger, William Casey, and Robert McFarlane, among others. According to minutes taken at the meeting, James Baker, ever the vigilant attorney, argued that actively soliciting money from third countries—such as Saudi Arabia—could be an impeachable offense.” (Ibid.; p. 64.)

40. “But Vice President Bush took issue with that position and said there was nothing wrong with encouraging third parties to help the anti-Sandinistas so long as there was no explicit quid pro quo. ‘The only problem that might come up is if the United States were to promise these third parties something in return so that some people could interpret this as some kind of exchange,’ he said. Bush, after all, had been director of the CIA. The way to do it, he seemed to be saying, was for the United States to let the Saudis finance the contras. Afterward, the United States could then reward the Saudis for their loyalty, but the two events would have to happen without being explicitly tied to each other.” (Idem.)

41. The Saudis obtained U.S. Stinger missiles as partial payment for their financing of the contras. “And so, Bandar deposited $8 million in a Swiss bank. Over time, the amount given by the Saudis to the contras reached $32 million. No explicit promises had been made to the Saudis, so the administration could assert there was no quid pro quo, and therefore no impeachable offense had taken place. And yet the Saudis did not go away empty-handed. After all, tens of millions of dollars had changed hands. At the time, King Fahd and Bandar wanted several hundred Stinger missiles from the United States, which had put restrictions on the sale of such weapons. To help the Saudis out, President Reagan invoked emergency measures to bypass Congress and four hundred Stingers were secretly flown to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis had received their payoff. To put it baldly: in exchange for doing something that had been explicitly prohibited by the House of Representatives by a vote of 411 to 0, Saudi Arabia received lethal, state-of-the-art American weaponry it would not have been allowed under normal conditions. The Saudis had come a long, long way from their first few airplane deals with James Bath. But in many ways their dealings with the House of Bush had just begun.” (Ibid.; pp. 64-65.)

42. Bandar and the Saudis also joined with the Reagan-Bush administration in order to support Saddam Hussein. “The Reagan-Bush administration and the Saudis were not just helping the contras. Early on, the administration also used Prince Bandar as an intermediary to meet Saddam Hussein, and soon Bandar told the United States that Iraq was ready to accept American aid. Even though Congress would never have approved arms transfers to Iraq, the Reagan administration secretly began allowing Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Egypt to transfer U.S. weapons, including howitzers, helicopters, and bombs, to Iraq. These shipments may have been in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 65.)

43. By far the most important of the Bush/Bandar joint efforts in the area of covert operations concerns the support for the Afghan mujahideen, then fighting the Soviets. It was this conflict that saw the genesis of Osama bin Laden as a warrior, and the formation of the financial support structure he parlayed into al-Qaeda. “ . . . By this time, Prince Bandar had become King Fahd's trusted point man in Washington. When William Casey approached Bandar about Saudi Arabia's funding an escalation of anti-Soviet forces, the two men flew to Jeddah with Bandar serving as Casey's translator for the meeting with Fahd. Casey met a receptive audience. This campaign was uniquely appealing to the Saudis. Not only would it enable them to cement their ties to the United States, it would also help the royal family deal with domestic unrest. And so, the House of Saud eagerly joined in, matching ‘America dollar for dollar, supporting the mujahideen,’ as Prince Turki, longtime head of Saudi intelligence, puts it.” ( Ibid. p. 98.)

44. “In the U.S. Congress, the Afghan rebels were championed by Democratic congressman Charlie Wilson, the colorful six-foot-seven-inch, skirt-chasing, cocaine-snorting Texan whose role in America's biggest covert operation was celebrated in George Crile's book Charlie Wilson's War. At dinner parties in Houston and in Washington, Wilson would bring together the likes of Henry Kissinger, White House chief of staff James Baker, and Prince Bandar along with a glittering assortment of senators, astronauts, diplomats, Texas oil barons, and military men in celebration of the mujahideen.”(Ibid.; pp. 98-99.)

45. “ ‘Allah will not be pleased if the king abandons his freedom fighters,’ Wilson teased Bandar. To which Bandar replied, ‘Allah will soon be smiling, Charlie. You will see.’ For his part, Wilson played an important role in seeing to it that Congress provided the $3 billion in covert aid for the mujahideen.” (Ibid.; p. 99.)

46. “The Saudis were a key part of the equation. Thousands of young warriors calling themselves Afghan Arabs streamed out of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, and all over the Middle East to aid the mujahideen. Neither the United States nor the Saudis seemed to mind that the crusading young Muslims could not have cared less about helping America win the Cold War. They were motivated by religious fervor and passion. This was a people's war, a noble crusade against an infidel superpower that had invaded Muslim lands, a fight to avenge the martyrdom of their Afghan brothers being crushed by Moscow. It was a time to demonstrate faith and courage. For many Muslims, the liberation of Afghanistan became a very personal jihad.” (Idem)

47. “In sharp contrast to the Mecca Affair, the Afghanistan War was a mission that could be embraced by the gamut of Saudi society, from the wealthy merchant families and the House of Saud to the militant clerics and the fundamentalist masses. For the royal family, the war was not just part of the cornerstone of the burgeoning Saudi alliance with the United States, but served other purposes as well. Contributing to the war effort placated the militant clerics and helped accommodate the growing unrest and the more radical elements of society. In the wake of the Iranian revolution, there was a new determination on the part of Saudi Muslims to outdo their Iranian counterparts, to create a ‘new Islamic man.’” (Idem)

48. “Instead of focusing their anger at the House of Saud or the United States, the militants could now zero in on the atheistic Soviets. A missionary zeal spread through every layer of society. ‘There was a sense that every penny you sent in made a difference,’ says Armond Habiby, an American lawyer who has practiced in Saudi Arabia for many years. ‘It was a very noble movement. The poor gave away prayer rugs, embroidered tablecloths. It established a monumental footprint that went across all levels of society.’” (Ibid.; pp. 99-100.)

49. “As the war got under way, with the United States, the Saudis, and the Pakistanis secretly supporting the Afghan rebels, the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) hoped that Prince Turki bin Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence and a member of the House of Saud, would bring an actual member of the royal family to the front to demonstrate the commitment of the House of Saud to the jihad. But no Saudi prince wanted to or needed to brave the Afghan mountains. Osama bin Laden, a protégé of Prince Turki's, was the next best thing. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 100.)

50. The elder George Bush oversaw the MAK covert operations. (MAK were the mujahideen.) “ . . . More to the point, now, in the Afghanistan War, Vice President Bush’s interests and Osama bin Laden’s converged. In using bin Laden’s Arab Afghans as proxy warriors against the Soviets. Bush advocated a policy that was fully in line with American interests at that time. But he did not consider the long-term implications of supporting a network of Islamic fundamentalist rebels. Specifically, as vice president in the mid-eighties, Bush supported aiding the mujahideen in Afghanistan through the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK) or Services Offices, which sent money and fighters to the Afghan resistance in Peshawar. ‘Bush was in charge of the covert operations that supported the MAK,’ says John Loftus, a Justice Department official in the eighties. ‘They were essentially hiring a terrorist to fight terrorism.’” (Ibid.; pp. 101-102.)

51. Long a beneficiary of Bush family political power and an intimate in Bush-driven covert operations, Bandar was relishing the 2000 return to power of his associates: “Even before the Supreme Court decision awarded the presidency to the Republicans, the Bush team began behaving as if it had won. The election took place exactly ten years after the buildup of American troops in Saudi Arabia for the Gulf War, and to mark both that occasion and the impending Bush restoration, former president Bush and James Baker had proposed a hunting trip in Spain and England. The original guest list included the usual suspects from the Gulf War—the senior Bush; James Baker; Dick Cheney; General Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of U.S. forces during the war; former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft; and, of course. Prince Bandar, whose enormous estate in Wychwood, England, had been an ancient royal hunting ground used by Norman and Plantagenet kings.”(Ibid.; p. 217.)

52. “The relationship between Baker and the elder Bush had been frayed as a result of the failed reelection campaign of 1992, but the two long-time friends had patched things up as the presidency of George W. Bush became increasingly probable. When he arrived in Austin, Texas, on Election Day, Baker went to Dick and Lynne Cheney's hotel suite to listen to the results. However, by the next morning, Wednesday, November 8, Al Gore was contesting the Florida vote, so Baker was enlisted to lead the legal battle to win the presidency for Bush. As a result, both he and Cheney skipped the European hunting trip.” (Idem)

53. “But the lavish gathering went on as planned. On Thursday, November 9, a private chartered plane from Evansville, Indiana, picked up former president Bush in Washington en route to Madrid, where the hunting trip was to begin. Already on board was a contingent from Indiana. One member was Bobby Knight, the highly successful but extraordinarily temperamental basketball coach who had just been fired from Indiana University. Other hunters on the trip were powerful coal industry executives from the Midwest—Irl Engelhardt, the chairman and CEO of St. Louis's Peabody Energy, the world's largest coal company; and Steven Chancellor, Daniel Hermann, and Eugene Aimone, three top executives of Black Beauty Coal, a Peabody subsidiary headquartered in Evansville, Indiana.” (Ibid.; pp. 217-218.)

54. “During the campaign. Bush had proposed caps on the carbon dioxide emissions that scientists believe cause global warming, a regulatory measure that coal executives had not welcomed. But among them, the coal executives had contributed more than $700,000 to Bush and the Republicans. They still had high hopes of participating in energy policy in a Bush administration and loosening the regulatory reins around the industry. Even though the recount battle was just getting under way in Florida, the Bush family was back in action, mixing private pleasure and public policy.” (Ibid.; p. 218.)

55. “Once in Spain, Bush, Knight, and the executives were joined by Norman Schwarzkopf and proceeded to a private estate in Pinos Altos, about sixty kilometers from Madrid, to shoot red-legged partridges, the fastest game birds in the world. Bush impressed the hunting party as a fine wing shot and a gentleman—the seventy-six-year-old former president was not above offering to clean mud off the boots of his fellow hunters. Throughout the trip, Bush kept in touch with the election developments via e-mail. By Saturday, November 11, a machine recount had shrunk his son's lead in Florida to a minuscule 327 votes. ‘I kind of wish I was in the U.S. so I could help prevent the Democrats from working their mischief,’ he told another hunter in his party.” (Idem.)

56. “On Tuesday, November 14, Bush and Schwarzkopf arrived in England, where Brent Scowcroft joined them and they continued their game hunting on Bandar's estate. They kept a close eye on the zigs and zags of the recount battle. As a power play to demonstrate his confidence to the media, the Democratic Party, and the American populace, George W Bush announced the members of his White House transition team even before the Florida vote-count battle was over.” (Idem)

57. “Bandar eagerly anticipated seeing the Bush family back in Washington. Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld were men Bandar already knew quite well. Others who would have access to a new President Bush—his father, James Baker, Brent Scowcroft—were also old friends.” (Ibid.; pp. 218-219.)

58. “Moreover, a Bush restoration would also strengthen Bandar's position in Saudi Arabia. During the twelve years of the Reagan-Bush era, Bandar had enjoyed unique powers—partly because of his close relationship to Bush, partly because he always had King Fahd's ear. But during the Clinton era. Bandar had lost clout. Never an insider in the Clinton White House, he had disliked what he called the ‘weak-dicked’ foreign policy team of the Clinton administration. Bandar had also lost ground in Riyadh because Crown Prince Abdullah, who had effectively replaced the ailing King Fahd, had never been particularly fond of Bandar. But now, on his estate in England, Bandar was once again wired into the real powers that be, and assuming that Bush won, he would be back in a position that no other prominent foreign official could come close to.” (Ibid.; p. 219.)

FTR #516 Interview with Daniel Hopsicker About the Venice, FL Cover-up

Recorded June 26, 2005
REALAUDIO

Updating the heroic 9/11 research done by Daniel Hopsicker, the program sets forth details of a low-level cover-up operation in Florida, as well as evidentiary tributaries connecting GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the SunCruz casino boats in Florida, the gangland murder of Gus Boulis (SunCruz’s previous owner), and a visit to a SunCruz ship made by Mohamed Atta and other 9/11 hijackers. Hopsicker’s ground-breaking research into the Florida activities of Atta and other 9/11 hijackers is at variance with the official version of events. Recently, a man claiming that eyewitnesses had mistaken him for Atta has come forward, in order to impugn information from Daniel’s book. The “second Mohamed” looks nothing like Mohamed Atta and is seven inches taller. Articles with information differing with the FBI’s version of events have been deleted from the Lexis-Nexis database relied on by journalists and investigators. Both the Congressional and “independent” Kean Commission relied on the FBI as its sole investigative resource. One of Atta’s German associates has filed a nuisance lawsuit against Daniel, in what is probably another attempt at undermining Daniel’s work. An associate of the elder George Bush, the late Gus Boulis’ gangland style slaying was similar to that of another Bush associate—the late Don Aronow. The visit by Atta and company to a SunCruz gambling ship just before 9/11 also suggests that Atta’s Florida activities were conducted in conjunction with a criminal milieu.

Program Highlights Include: Refutation of the “second Mohamed’s” claim that Amanda Keller deliberately confused him with Atta when talking with journalists; attempts by other German associates of Atta at discrediting Hopsicker’s work; GOP lobbyist (and SunCruz vice-president) Jack Abramoff’s links to the Christian right; checks written by Abramoff’s partner to a mob enforcer in the run-up to Gus Boulis’ murder; Boulis’ fears for his life, expressed before his murder; fears of others around Boulis that they might be killed.

1. One of the central elements of discussion concerns a low-level disinformation operation apparently directed against Daniel Hopsicker’s investigations into the milieu of Mohamed Atta and the mysterious flight schools in the Venice, Florida area. (For more about this, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 482, 483, 484.) One element of this apparent disinformation effort is an attempt by a French-Arab man named Mohamed Arajaki to pass himself off as the “Mohamed” that Amanda Keller knew in Florida. (Ms. Keller is Mohamed Atta’s former girlfriend.) In addition to the obvious fact that this “second Mohamed” looks nothing like Atta, Mr. Arajaki is 6’ 2” tall—Atta is 5’ 7” tall. Be sure to consult the pictures of Arajaki in Daniel’s article. “More than three years after the 9/11 attack, intrigue continues to swirl concerning knowledge of the terrorist hijackers movements, activities, and associates while in the U.S. preparing the assault. A mysterious French-Arab man resurfaced last week who authorities had dubbed the ‘5th terrorist pilot’ and a ‘Second’ Mohamed in Venice, FL. In an email, he alleged that a number of eyewitnesses, including the girl who had lived with him, had all mistaken him . . . for Mohamed Atta.”
(“‘Disappearing’ the News: The ‘Second’ Mohamed in Venice” by Daniel Hopsicker; Mad Cow Morning News; 5/3/2005; p. 1.)

2. In addition to the sudden appearance of the second Mohamed, newspaper articles about Atta’s activities in Venice are being removed from the Lexis-Nexis database used by journalists world-wide. The articles in question contradict the “official” version of Atta and company’s activities in Florida. “It was HE they’d known in Venice, not the terrorist ringleader, he asserted. And he suggested the confusion might owe something to their common name, ‘Mohamed.’ Before dismissing the claims of this supposed ‘Second Mohamed,’ we must first consider a curious story from the Sarasota Herald Tribune, which seems to back him up. It was while reviewing his allegations that we discovered that crucial early news reports filed in Venice during the week after the attack in the local Sarasota Herald Tribune have been removed from the newspaper database Lexis-Nexis, relied on by journalists and investigators worldwide.” (Idem.)

3. Another element of the apparent attempt at suppressing inconvenient truths about Atta’s activities in Florida is a lawsuit filed against Daniel Hopsicker by Stephen Verhaaren, one of Atta’s numerous German associates in Florida. Verhaaren claims he did not know Atta. Significantly, others of Atta’s European associates have also contacted Hopsicker to deny having associated with Atta in Florida. (For more about Atta’s German associates, see—among other programs—FTR#477.) “Missing are stories reporting that Mohamed Atta was living across from the Venice Airport at the Sandpiper Apartments during the spring of 2001, with Amanda Keller, a pink-haired American stripper. Also at this time, as if the air was not already filled with enough intrigue for several spy novels, two more alleged European associates of Atta chose this precise moment to step forward and deny having associated with the terrorist ringleader, including a German pilot named Stephan Verhaaren, who recently filed a lawsuit against us in Katherine Harris’s hometown of Sarasota, Florida. There’s nothing like having a home court advantage.” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)

4. “So . . . if the September 11th attack is a dead issue, as some allege, why the conspicuous flurry of activity? Perhaps it’s a signal that there remains something of major value still hidden and waiting to be found beneath the garbled official account of the chronology and movements of terrorist ringleader Mohamed Ata.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

5. Articles about Atta and company’s activities in Florida have been deleted from the Lexis-Nexis database. “The series of events which led to the discovery of ‘disappeared’ news about Atta in Venice began with notice that we were being sued—again—this time by Stephen Verhaaren, who according to Amanda Keller was one of a handful of Atta’s European associates in Florida. Mr. Verhaaren, apparently, begs to differ. One clear message seems to be that the Mad Cow Morning News will need to place the budget line for ‘Defense attorney’ under ‘re-occurring expenses.’ (See related story on how to get our new video free as a premium for a contribution to our free press fund.)” (Idem.)

6. “Today the missing stories can only be found in one place we’re aware of: the microfiche record kept of the paper-as-printed in the Sarasota Library. What this means is that—unless you already knew about them—these stories effectively no longer exist. Just to make sure they never go away, we are making them available here. Both contain mostly unremarkable interviews with numerous local eyewitnesses whose paths crossed with those of the terrorists. Their testimony matter-of-factly contradicts the FBI’s official account, which states Atta moved to Venice soon after arriving in the U.S., and left for good in December of 2000.” (Idem.)

7. “ ‘FBI Links Third Terrorist to Venice’ was the headline of the first, on Sept. 16, written by Herald Tribune staff writers Robert Eckhart and Michael Werner, in which law enforcement officials matter-of-factly confirm to reporters that before moving to Venice, Mohamed Atta lived 30 miles to the south in rural Charlotte County. ‘Atta lived for several months in rural Charlotte County before moving to Venice Sheriff Bill Clement said at a news conference Thursday. Clement said the Sheriff’s Office had forwarded several tips to the FBI about Atta, who used an alias in Charlotte County.’” (Ibid.; pp. 2-3.)

8. “Atta had gone to flight school at the Charlotte Airport, local authorities discovered, when a local business owner took advantage of one of Atta’s few slip-ups. . . The terrorist ringleader had inadvertently forwarded a five-page screed which included the picture of a dead Middle Eastern child to an aviation business at the Charlotte Airport. The horrified owner immediately passed it on to the County Sheriff. So local law enforcement got it before the FBI. Then the well-meaning Sheriff released it to the media, much to the subsequent displeasure of the FBI. He must have thought he still lived in a country where there is something called the ‘people’s right to know.’” (Ibid.; p. 3.)

9. Hopsicker notes that the FBI account, at variance with verifiable facts about Atta’s Florida activities, is the sole investigative source relied on by both the Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee and the so-called “independent” Kean Commission. “This information contradicts the FBI’s account. But it also throws into question the entire chronology of the crime, from Atta’s arrival in the U.S. to his subsequent movements, which is disturbing because the FBI’s investigation was the sole investigative source relied on by both the Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee inquiry and the later ‘independent’ 9/11 Commission. Both ‘investigations’ knew only what the FBI told them . . . a truly chilling prospect.” (Idem.)

10. “The second account was published two days later with the headline: ‘Fourth Terrorist Suspect May Have Ties to Venice.’ It too quoted credible witnesses whose testimony is almost laughably at odds with the FBI’s version of events. Reporter Earle Kimel noted the discrepancies: ‘Huffman flight instructors have said they believe Atta left the area shortly after receiving his pilot’s certification,’ he reported. However, Atta may have been in Venice as recently as April. Charles Grapentine, the manager of Sandpiper Apartments on Airport Avenue in Venice, said he remembers seeing Atta at the complex for about three weeks in April. He said Atta was living in the apartment of Amanda Keller.’” (Idem.)

11. “Here’s a taste of what they are trying to hide. If these witnesses testified before cameras in front of something like Sam Erwin’s Watergate Committee, we would live in a better world than we are apparently allowed. For example, the apartment manager’s wife Paula Grapentine, told the Charlotte Sun that Atta had had ‘a lot of visitors.’ That could have opened what legendary Sen. William Fulbright used to call, ‘an endless can of worms.’ And the owner of the Sandpiper Apartments, Vicky Keyser, told authorities the students smoked a strange tobacco, which smelled like marijuana. This is far from only reference we will hear concerning the terrorist hijackers and drugs.” (Idem.)

12. “And here’s an interesting find: One week after the attack, Brian Ross of NBC News reported a curious discovery with possible significance to the story of Mohamed Atta’s supposed German associates: ‘And yet more evidence of the overseas money trail had been found at a flying school in Punta Gorda. The owner says FBI agents seized records relating to at least 12 foreign students whose tuition was paid with foreign wire transfers. They were very interested in the German transfers, and they were very interested in the Middle Eastern transfers,’ Byers told Ross. But. . . .the FBI says the hijackers received ‘no outside help.’ So why were they interested in ‘the German transfers?’ We’ll have to remember to ask German pilot Stephan Verhaaren when we dispose him during our lawsuit.” (Ibid.; p. 4.)

13. “Any ordinary mortal who starts talking about things like ‘A Second Oswald’ is labeled a conspiracy theorist. But somehow when the FBI conjures up a ‘Second Mohamed’ no one even blinked. The sole surviving report mentioning Atta at the Sandpiper in the Lexis-Nexis newspaper database is a Sept. 23, 2001 article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, in which authorities take plans to refute the earlier reports. Ironically this only serves to call attention to the fact that the earlier stories are no longer there.” (Idem.)

14. “Under the headline ‘Fifth Pilot Trainee Vanishes’ on September 23, 2001 the Sarasota Herald-Tribune pair reversed itself, and now reported authorities were saying Amanda Keller had not lived with Mohamed Atta, but with another Mohamed. ‘He told the people he lived with in Venice earlier this year that he was moving to Paris,’ read the report. ‘The man, known as Mohamed, stayed at Amanda Keller’s unit in the Sandpiper Apartment complex on Airport Avenue in April.’” (Idem.)

15. “This ‘Second Mohamed,’ who had until then completely escaped mention was a man about whom authorities otherwise knew little. . . . ‘Investigators have identified a fifth man of Middle Eastern descent who trained to fly in Venice, but they don’t know if he was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks because they can’t find him.’” (Idem.)

16. “While they may not have known if he was involved with the 9/11 attack, authorities were completely sure about one thing . . . The numerous eyewitnesses told police, reporters and the FBI that terrorist ringleader Atta had been living at the Sandpiper Apartments during the Spring of 2001 had not in fact seen the terrorist ringleader. . . They had seen this man. He was the ‘second´ Mohamed. No sniggering was apparently allowed. According to statements the FBI made to Amanda Keller while questioning her, ‘Mohamed Arajaki’ was an alias of Atta’s. And the FBI Terrorist List—mistakenly released to the public a month after the attack by the Finnish Government, to the Bureau’s consternation—also listed ‘Mohamed Arajaki’ as one of Atta’s numerous aliases.” (Idem.)

17. Incredibly, the “second Mohamed” claims Amanda Keller simply fabricated her story about associating with Atta in order to gain publicity. In fact, she was frightened and actually shunned publicity, until Daniel Hopsicker tracked her down! “But Amanda Keller was far from alone in identifying Mohamed Atta as the man she had lived with for several months. In the days after the attack every one of the local newspapers in the area—the Sarasota-Herald Tribune, Chrlotte Sun, and Venice Gondolier—ran eyewitness accounts of Atta at the Sandpiper, across the street from the Venice Airport. ‘Charles Grapentine, the manager of Sandpiper Apartments on Airport Avenue in Venice, said he remembers seeing Atta at the complex for about three weeks in April. He said Atta was living in the apartment of Amanda Keller. In a telephone interview late Friday, Keller said she met Atta through a friend and let him stay in the apartment with her and her then-boyfriend, Garrett Metts, because she felt sorry for him. She said authorities told her not to say anything at all about Atta,’ the paper reported. ‘I can’t really discuss anything,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid I’ll get in trouble.’” (Ibid.; pp. 4-5.)

18. “Another story just three days after the attack reported: ‘Flight School May Have Charged Suspected Terrorists Extra Rent.’ The local Venice Gondolier reported Huffman Aviation rented an apartment for $550 a month at the Sandpiper, and then turned around and sublet it to students at an outrageously high markup. Rudi Dekkers had been gouging the terrorists. We couldn’t muster any indignation over it.” (Ibid.; p. 5.)

19. “The secret history of 9/11 contains items like the one from the Charlotte Sun stating Amanda had been introduced in Key West to two men from Germany who said they were Mohamed’s friends. ‘FBI agents seized records from a financially troubled flight school at the Charlotte County Airport, Professional Aviation, that recruited students from Tunisia and went out of business in the spring of 2001, after tipsters said they saw Atta there late last year or early this year,’ the Charlotte Sun-Herald reported. The FBI in Tampa would neither confirm nor deny that any agents were interviewing people in the North Port area,’ Charlotte Sun reporter Elaine Allen-Emrich wrote. Asked for more information about Atta’s wild weekend, an FBI spokesperson identified only as Pam stated ‘We recommend that you check in with CNN for current information. Any press statements can be found on televised stations like CNN.’” (Idem.)

20. “Yet ‘Mohamed Arajaki’s’ email naively assumes he has only Amanda Keller to ‘discredit’ to make the story go away. ‘The only common points between Atta and myself are that I am from an Arabic background, I was in Venice at the wrong time at the wrong school . . . (And) I forgot, my family name starts with an ‘A’ as well,’ the email stated. ‘It is true that she met a certain Mohamed but it was not Mohamed Atta, but myself. The only person to blame is Amanda as she knew she was lying. Do a little bit of investigation and you will find things about Mohamed Arakji, because I am the Mohamed she knew, not the other one.’” (Idem.)

21. Note also, that the second Mohamed claims Keller fabricated her Atta story in order to sell it to Hopsicker. But Hopsicker paid her nothing, and she actually was afraid for her safety. “Upset about what he termed ‘the enormous lies you have been publishing about Amanda and Mohamed Atta,’ he wrote, ‘Unfortunately for you and myself, we had to deal with this serial liar psycho.’ She took facts and turned them to sell a story. I hope it did not cost you too much to buy nothing but lies.’ In point of fact, we paid Amanda nothing. We’d been puzzled about why her story hadn’t already been told in the tabloids. . . ‘Terrorist’s Girlfriend Bares All’ would sell a lot of papers in the check-out line.” (Idem.)

22. “Amanda Keller never went looking for publicity. We went looking for her. We didn’t feel like ‘checking with CNN.’ The accusation that Keller was a gold-digger looking for a payday in the deaths of 3000 people is a lie. As if anticipating it might not fly, the email offered a second explanation for how a half dozen ordinary citizens had mistaken him for Mohamed Atta. . . . ‘Also you must know that it is very easy to mistake one Arab guy for another.’ We were glad we hadn’t said that.” (Ibid.; p. 6.)

23. “ ‘Amanda mentions transvestites in Key West, my friend got grabbed by a group of them in the street, as it was funny, I took a picture as well,’ stated the email. We dug out Amanda’s comments about the trip to Key West: ‘So we went by Diva’s (in Key West) and it was the first time I ever saw a drag queen,’ she told us. ‘And I was standing there talking to them, so they had their pictures taken with a drag queen. Peter, Mohamed and Stephen were all standing next to the drag queen, who stuffed his hand down all their pants in the pictures, and Peter and Stephan both laughed it off, but Mohamed got really angry,’ said Amanda.” (Idem.)

24. “Somewhere there are photographs of terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta being groped by a drag queen in Key West. The truth is always stranger than fiction. Still, given the numerous reports of Atta’s un-Islamic proclivities, it’s not at all unbelievable. Mr. ‘Mohamed Arajaki’ sent along several photos of himself . . . Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. We never believed any credible witness would mistake terrorist ringleader Atta for anyone else, and seeing this man’s photo only reinforced the conviction. . . Could you mistake this man for Mohamed Atta? We couldn’t either.” (Idem.)

25. Turning to another of Daniel Hopsicker’s ground-breaking stories, the program highlights the links between GOP lobbyist and king-maker jack Abramoff and a casino boat operation in Florida. In addition to the fact that the previous owner of the casino boat operation was murdered in February of 2001, the broadcast notes that almost six months to the day later (September 5th of 2001), Mohamed Atta and some associates apparently visited one of the SunCruz ships. “The Mad Cow Morning News has learned exclusive new details about the gangland-style hit in Florida of Gus Boulis, whose murder figures prominently in lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s rise to power. The ‘secret world’ of Jack Abramoff being probed by investigators today has definite connections and unmistakable links to the one inhabited during their final year in the U.S. by Mohamed Atta and the other hijackers. So as the scandal embroiling House Major Domo Tom Delay and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff grows hotter, there may be new revelations about the 9/11 attack”
(“The Secret World of Jack Abramoff: Terrorists, Torpedoes, & Republican ‘Muscle’” by Daniel Hopsicker; Mad Cow Morning News; 6/21/2005; p. 1.)

26. The purpose of Atta’s apparent visit to the SunCruz casino boat is unclear. It may have been to obtain or launder funds. “One of the most amazing things about this most amazing scandal—hundreds of millions in slush funds beats Oval Office blowjobs by a mile—is that some of the same names in the Abramoff scandal also surface in connection with Mohamed Atta’s. Less than a week before the 9/11 attack, for example, Atta and several other hijackers made a still-unexplained visit onboard one of Abramoff’s casino boats. What were they doing there? No one knows. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]” (Idem.)

27. “There remains a strong suspicion that Atta’s terrorist cadre-supposedly unknown and friendless and burrowing into the woodwork—was able to call on the assistance, when necessary, of a friendly global network. Could it be that this network is the same one being probed so gingerly today by investigators looking into Jack Abramoff? What could a scandal involving Indian casinos and gambling boat ‘cruises to nowhere’ & pay-for-play government officials have to do with the story of 19 hijackers planning a mass murder in supposed isolation in Florida? Let’s take a look. While Abramoff’s Indian gaming troubles may be getting the most publicity, his other major ‘area of concern’ is where the real scandal resides. Involvement with Mob-run casino boats may turn out to be a faux pas, even for Republicans. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

28. “ . . . What the Abramoff scandal is about at the core can be simply stated as: Vegas without rules. And what the politicians are arguing over is the biggest slush fund in the history of the world. Democrats don’t want to eliminate it. They just want in on the action. Who owns Florida’s gambling boats? No one is certain. There is virtually no state or federal oversight. No one licenses the operators. No one ensures that the games aren’t rigged. No one ensures that the boats aren’t used to launder money. No one investigates whether organized crime is involved.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)

29. “And while ex-felons can’t vote in Florida-as many became aware during the memorable presidential election in 2000-this disadvantage is more than offset, for some, by the fact that an ex-felon can run a gambling boat in the state with no fear at all of flunking the background check. The reason? There is none. This situation clearly suits some people just fine. . . While Governor Jeb Bush may be minutely concerned with what happened to Terry Schiavo fifteen years ago, on this issue of real interest—massive corruption—he phones in his regrets. Just why might that be? . . .” (Idem.)

30. “ ‘There is a weird report just a day or two after 9/11 that someone reported to the FBI that three of four of the hijackers were seen gambling on a SunCruz boat,’ wrote a source in Miami. ‘The FBI interviewed everyone who might have seen them, that very day by all reports.’ Sure enough. We found an Associated Press story on Sept. 26, 2001 headlined ‘SunCruz Casinos Turns Over Documents in Terrorist Probe.’” (Ibid.; pp. 3-4.)

31. “ ‘SunCruz Casinos has turned over photographs and other documents to FBI investigators after employees said they recognized some of the men suspected in the terrorist attacks as customers. . . . Names on the passenger list from a Sept. 5 cruise matched those of some of the hijackers. . . . Two or three men linked to the Sept. 11 hijackings may have been customers on a ship that sailed from Madeira Beach on Florida’s Gulf Coast.’” (Ibid.; p. 4.)

32. In addition to their visit to the SunCruz casino boat, Atta and other hijackers also visited Las Vegas. Were they laundering money during these visits? (Another possibility concerns the possibility that neo-fascist elements involved with anthrax were active in the Henderson, Nevada area. Henderson is outside of Las Vegas. For more about the anthrax connection, see FTR#419.) “Less than a week before the 9/11 attack, Atta and several other hijackers were aboard one of Abramoff’s casino boats. What no one seems able to answer is this: What possible thrill could gambling offer men getting ready to die in less than a week? To this date, their Sept. 5 visit to a gambling vessel overrun with retirees remains unexplained. The gambling motif in the terrorist’s timeline doesn’t end there. The hijackers had no apparent reason to visit Las Vegas. . . so why did they?” (Idem.)

33. “On June 28 at Boston’s Logan Airport, Mohamed Atta boarded a United Airlines flight and flew first class nonstop to San Francisco. He bypassed the bohemian North Beach district, and didn’t take the cruise to Alcatraz. . . . Atta headed for Vegas. On Aug. 10, Hani Hanjour and Nawaf Alhazmi used first-class tickets for a United flight from Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles Airport near Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles International Airport, then on to Las Vegas. The story of the terrorists’ Las Vegas connection may never be known, admitted the Las Vegas FBI.” (Idem.)

34. “ ‘Islamic fundamentalist’ Atta may have felt right at home in the world of fast cash and unlicensed gambling boat ‘cruises to nowhere’ of Republican lobbyist (and observant Jew) Jack Abramoff. He would almost certainly have been comfortable with the ‘gangland-style hit straight out of Goodfellas’ that cemented Abramoff’s prominent position in that industry. At the time of the Sept. 11 attack one of Abramoff’s chief claims to fame was as the proud owner of the SunCruz line: a dozen unlicensed gambling boats plying the waters off the Florida coast in a fashion which in any other state would have been considered criminal.” (Idem.)

35. “How did Jack Abramoff get lucky enough to be the guy passing out all that long green? Where did Jack Abramoff get his ‘juice?’ Short answer: Not everyone is savvy to opportunities presented by riders in obscure legislation. Not so the connected, the covert, the—dare we say ‘blessed?’ ‘Elite deviance’ is a sociological term for a condition in a society in which the elite in the society come to believe that the rules no longer apply to them. Casino boats turned out to be a elite deviant’s dream. One time-honored way to get rich is to marry money. Another is to kill someone that has it . . . In Abramoff’s case, it appears that Gus Boulis, the owner of the lion’s share of the casino boats in Florida, had to die first.” (Idem.)

36. The three-man consortium of which Abramoff was part secured SunCruz from Gus Boulis, who was murdered gangland-style. There is more about Boulis’ murder below. “Three men formed an ownership group that apparently made Boulis the proverbial offer he couldn’t refuse. They bought SunCruz from him, even though it wasn’t for sale. When Greek tycoon Gus Boulis was gunned down in his BMW on February 6, 2001 Fort Launderdale police investigators immediately began scrutinizing SunCruz Casinos. Suspicion focused on the recent sale of the fleet. Boulis and one of the three men had been carrying on a very public feud. ‘We certainly aren’t lacking in suspects,’ said a homicide detective drolly.” (Ibid.; pp. 4-5.)

37. “Less than two months later, SunCruz announced plans to move a 150-foot, $10-million floating casino to the Northern Marianas. Almost every article we’d read cites Abramoff & Delay’s interest in the Marianas being sweat-shop related. Meaning they’re in favor of them. Their primary focus wasn’t sweatshops. It was gambling.” (Ibid.; p. 5.)

38. “ ‘Read about SunCruz and it sounds like a South Florida version of ‘The Sopranos,’ reported the South Florida Business Journal. ‘Feds go after owner Gus Boulis. Former Miami Subs kingpin forced to sell. New SunCruz chairman says Boulis threatened him. Boulis whacked.’ As if to confirm the account, other newspaper reports mentioned a climate of fear after the Boulis murder. ‘The shooting death. . . cast a pall of fear over the people who knew him, with some of his closest associates admitting concern at being connected with a man targeted by a hit man,’ the local Sun-Sentinel reported the day after the hit.” (Idem.)

39. Note that people familiar with details about the SunCruz case declined to discuss it, out of fear. In FTR#’s 482, 483, 484, we noted that the same climate of fear surrounded many who had known details of the bogus flight schools used by Atta and company to infiltrate the United States. “ ‘There are a lot of people who aren’t talking for reasons of personal safety,’ said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Mike Reed. Another associate declined to discus anything about Boulis with the paper. . . ‘I’ve got my family to worry about,’ he said, on condition of anonymity. Even a cursory look at the executive management of the cruise-to-nowhere company that Boulis founded turns up violent thugs and organized crime figures. But that’s pretty typical of South Florida. . . What is unusual are that in with SunCruz’s mobbed-up crew are prominent Republican Party members with long-standing, deep ties to the religious right.” (Idem.)

40. In addition to Abramoff’s ties to the GOP, he has strong ties to the Christian right. Abramoff’s links to both organized-crime related elements and to the Christian right is reminiscent of Jerry Falwell’s financial links to Wally Hilliard, who co-owned Huffman Aviation with Ruki Dekkers. (For more about the Falwell/Hilliard relationship, see FTR#’s 482, 483, 484.) “Two SunCruz executives, Jack Abramoff and Ben Waldman, are walking examples of the strange alliance between the family-values party and the gambling industry. Both men have strong ties to Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, which is adamantly opposed to gambling; Waldman was Robertson’s top aide in the televangelist’s run for the presidency. Abramoff, who perhaps wisely only took the title of vice president (less heat) has been connected to the Christian right since a student at Brandeis University, where as head of the College Republicans he enlisted Top Christian Ralph Reed as his top deputy. The two have remained close friends ever since.” (Idem.)

41. The program notes that Abramoff’s partner in the SunCruz operation was no stranger to the world of gangland violence. His mother was murdered in a gangland-style hit. A former boyfriend of Madonna’s was convicted in that case. “A man named Adam Kidan became SunCruz’s new chairman. Kidan’s mother had been murdered in a gangland-style hit in New York. Madonna’s one-time boyfriend and South Beach restaurateur Chris Paciello, was eventually convicted in the case. Today he is in Federal Witness Protection, and word is there are several movies about him in development. Just another American success story.” (Idem.)

42. “The Seminole Tribe of Florida led the way in parlaying mom-and-pop bingo parlors into today’s $19 billion a year Indian casino industry. Along with legendary chief James Billie (Wrestles with Alligators), Rob Tiller was seminal figure in this growth. Tiller is also a South Florida aviation insider and former business partner of terror flight school owner and secretive financier Wally Hilliard. He even met Atta and Marwan one day after a meeting with Hilliard, he says, with whom he was working on an airline start-up called Havana Air. Small world.” (Ibid.; p. 6.)

43. Boulis feared for his life in the run-up to his murder. “A week before Gus Boulis was murdered, Tiller was called to take a meeting with him. Tiller says Boulis was scared. Boulis hadn’t wanted to sell. Now he was worried he’d be whacked. ‘He called me to a meeting at the Ocean Reef Club. Very Snooty. You can’t even land there without permission. I flew my airplane down to meet him,’ Tiller recalled. ‘He said, ‘I want out. People think I make a lot more money than I really do. I don’t need the headache anymore. I want to sell my casino boats to the Seminoles.’” (Idem.)

44. Boulis’s submarine sandwhich shops were apparently fronts for money-laundering. “What was Tiller’s response? ‘I said, ‘Gus, you’re sure rocking a lot of people’s boats here.’ A couple days later, I hear he’s been blown apart dead. See, Gus wanted to muscle his way into the casino business in a real bad way. His Miami Subs were everywhere. He was using them to launder money, big-time, for somebody.’ Who might that be? Even asking the question brings a shiver. At the time Boulis was murdered, suspicion focused on company chairman Adam Kidan, also an active Republican and campaign contributor. He had been in Israel at the time of the murder. His alibi held.” (Idem.)

45. Before Boulis’ murder, Abramoff’s partner Adam Kidan had written $30,000 in checks to a Mob enforcer who had worked for John Gotti. “But then news surfaced that just before Boulis’s death Kidan had written at least $30,000 in checks to a reputed Mob enforcer named Anthony Moscatiello, a one-time associate of crime boss John Gotti. Moscatiello is apparently what is known in criminal parlance as a ‘torpedo.’ (We’re not quite sure what that means, but it doesn’t sound good.) This is a paper trail some U.S. Attorney (in Manhattan, perhaps) would describe as ‘to die for.’ But things work differently in South Florida. To date no one has been charged in the murder of Gus Boulis.” (Idem.)

46. “The official back-story on Boulis is he left his native Greece as a teenager and came to North America, bought a Toronto sandwich shop and turned it into a successful company with franchises all across Canada. After his Canadian success, he moved to Florida in the early 1980’s (to retire to the Keys, he said). But Florida’s money-making opportunities overrode his desire for shuffleboard, and soon he was building another successful fast-food chain, Miami Subs, and then building and deploying the crown jewels in his empire, his SunCruz Casino fleet.” (Idem.)

47. “What explained Boulis’ success in a restaurant business where failure is far more common? The question strikes some as naïve. ‘Miami Subs was the first take out place ever to serve Dom Perignon through the takeout window,’ snickered Tiller. ‘Word was he had made his money in Canada in the sub business. But I learned later it was nothing but a Laundromat.’ We were once more back in the precincts of money laundering, which seems more and more like one of Florida’s major industries. We pictured dollar bills drying in the sun all over the state, after being washed through the Everglades.” (Ibid.; p. 7.)

48. Boulis’ murder was reminiscent of the gangland-style murder of Don Aronow. Like Aronow, Boulis was an associate of the elder George Bush (according to Rob Tiller). (For more about Aronow, see FTR#512.) “No doubt this is all just freak coincidence. Still, even with our suspicious minds, when we learned who Tiller thought was responsible for Boulis’ death, we were shocked. Tiller referred us to the manner of the Boulis hit. . . A man in a BMW was driving down a quiet side street after an evening meeting at his Fort Launderdale office when a car slowed to a stop in front of him. A second car boxed the BMW in from behind, then a dark Mustang appeared from the opposite direction. The Mustang’s driver pulled alongside and pumped three hollow-point bullets into the BMW driver’s chest. ‘Boulis was murdered in the exact same way as Don Aronow, Bush’s other partner,’ he stated. Bush’s other partner? The question hung in the air. Something is really going down bad here,’ Tiller stated. ‘Don Aronow. Gus. Jim Shore . . . All tied in to Bush.’” (Idem.)

49. As noted in FTR#512, the world of terrorism and Al Qaeda significantly overlaps that of organized crime.“When NBC’s Dateline did a story recently about sources of terrorist funding right here in the U.S., they made bold to announce ‘the emerging threat of a new alliance between al Qaeda and common criminals.’ But it was hardly time to stop the presses. . . .” (Idem.)

50. At the beginning of the program, Daniel informed the audience about a death threat that had allegedly been made by Sam Koutchesfahani against Joe Chicchese, a former business associate. (Koutchesfahani is discussed in FTR#507.) More can be found about this in a Mad Cow Morning News article published after this program was recorded.

FTR #515 Update on the GOP/Islamist Connection

Recorded June 12, 2005
REALAUDIO
NB: This stream contains both FTR #s 514 and 515 in sequence. Each is a 30 minute broadcast.

Beginning with news of GOP bigwig Grover Norquist’s marriage to an observant Palestinian Muslim woman, the program brings up to date ongoing discussion of the strong connections between George Bush’s GOP and the very Islamist forces he professes to be fighting. Norquist and Karl Rove were instrumental in setting up the Islamic Institute—a point of intersection between the GOP and the Muslim Brotherhood’s terrorist organizations Al Qaeda and Hamas. Norquist’s bride worked for his Islamic Institute and now works for the U.S. Agency for International Development, a governmental department that often works with the intelligence community. This program also entertains the [unconfirmed possibility] that Norquist has converted to Islam. Legal investigation into the GOP/Islamist connection began with the case of Sami al-Arian, the North American leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot. A close associate of George Bush’s, al-Arian had Norquist as his lobbyist. This broadcast examines the fact that the present legal case against al-Arian is weak because of the expiration of the statute of limitations on the acts in which he is known to have participated. The authorities can only charge him with conspiracy, and his primary co-conspirators are not in the country. The program concludes with discussion of Paul Wolfowitz’s romance with an Arab woman from Saudi Arabia.

Program Highlights Include: Review of the connections between the investigation into Sami al-Arian and the targets of the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002; review of the links between al-Arian and the Al Taqwa milieu; the role of Wolfowitz’s new paramour in administering funds for Iraqi reconstruction.

1. Point man in the GOP’s Muslim outreach program, Grover Norquist’s recruits into the GOP include many Islamofascists connected to terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as the al-Taqwa milieu of Youssef Nada. Norquist has apparently married a Palestinian Muslim woman and may have converted to Islam himself! (For more about Norquist’s links to Islamists, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 415, 425, 435, 454, 455, 462, 467, 514.) “Is Grover Norquist an Islamist? Paul Sperry, author of the new book, Infiltration, in an interview calls Grover Norquist ‘an agent of influence for Islamists in Washington.’ When asked by FrontPageMag.com why a Republican anti-tax lobbyist should so passionately promote Islamist causes, Sperry implied that Norquist has converted to Islam: ‘He's marrying a Muslim, and when I asked Norquist if he himself has converted to Islam, he brushed the question off as too personal.’ As Lawrence Auster comments on this exchange, ‘Clearly, if Norquist hadn't converted to Islam, or weren't in the process of doing so, he would simply have answered no.’”
(“Is Grover Norquist an Islamist?;” by Daniel Pipes; Weblog [of Daniel Pipes]; 4/14/2005.)

2. “Indeed, Norquist married Samah Alrayyes, a Palestinian Muslim, on April 2, 2005, and Islamic law limits a Muslim woman to marrying a man who is Muslim. This is not an abstract dictum but a very serious imperative, with many ‘honor’ killings having resulted from a woman ignoring her family's wishes.” (Idem.)

3. Note that Norquist’s new wife worked for his Islamic Institute and now works for the Agency for International Development, a branch of the government that frequently works with intelligence agencies. Is she another part of the Underground Reich/Islamofascist Fifth Column that exists in this country? “Alrayyes has radical Islamic credentials of her own; she served as communications director at the Islamic Free Market Institute, the Islamist organization Norquist helped found. Now, she is employed as a public affairs officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development, and so it appears that yet another Islamist finds employment in a branch of the U.S. Government.” (Idem.)

4. “Norquist has for some years now been promoting Islamist organizations, including even the Council on American-Islamic Relations; for example, he spoke at CAIR's conference, ‘A Better America in a Better World’ on October 5, 2004. Frank Gaffney has researched Norquist's ties to Islamists in his exhaustive, careful, and convincing study, ‘Agent of Influence’ and concludes that Norquist is enabling ‘a political influence operation to advance the causes of radical Islamists, and targeted most particularly at the Bush Administration.’ But if Norquist is indeed a convert to Islam, it could be that he is not just enabling the Islamist causes but is himself an Islamist. (April 14, 2005)” (Idem.)

5. Among the Islamists that have wormed their way into the GOP’s ethnic outreach organization is Sami al-Arian. (The investigation into Sami al-Arian led to the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002. For more about the targets of the raids, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 382, 415, 423, 425, 432, 433, 435, 454, 455, 456, 473, 514.) Al-Arian’s trial is underway, with the lapse of time threatening the integrity of the case. Although al-Arian’s monitored communications revealed his strong operational links to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood), the statute of limitations has expired on possible indictments. Only charges of conspiracy could be brought at this time, and the figures with whom he conspired are out of the U.S. “Three co-defendants of accused terrorist leader Sami al-Arian, a former Florida university professor on trial here, staunchly deny any connection to the Palestinian terrorist group at the heart of the case, their lawyers said in court Tuesday. . . . There is a vast discrepancy between the gravity and detail in the charges against al-Arian, and those against the other three on trial, whom the prosecution calls rank-and-file members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization, which sponsors suicide attacks on Israelis, according to court documents.”
(“Co-Defendants in Fla. Deny Ties to Conspiracy” by John Mintz; The Washington Post; 6/8/2005; p. 1.)

6. “Some defense attorneys said outside the courtroom in recent days that the three defendants—Ballut, former university student Sameeh Taha Hammoudeh and Illinois charity manager Hatim Maji Fariz—were swept into the case because of prosecutors’ need to build a criminal case of conspiracy—in this case, conspiracy to kill and maim hundreds of Israelis since the 1980’s. Legal experts said that the U.S. government had little choice but to craft a conspiracy case. The vast bulk of their evidence, derived from years of secret wiretaps and monitoring of faxes, centers on the early to mid-1990s, before al-Arian’s offices and home were searched and he became more circumspect over the telephone.” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)

7. Again, with the statute of limitations having expired, the only charge that could be leveled against al-Arian is conspiracy. As mentioned above, the figures with whom he conspired are not available to stand trial with him. That, coupled with the “accidental” destruction of documents discussed below may threaten the integrity of the government’s case. Bear in mind that al-Arian was an associate of Bush and was of great assistance in helping Bush carry Florida. “But the statute of limitations allows the prosecution to charge someone for crimes going back only five years—unless the charge is conspiracy, in which case the government can bring in allegations going back decades, as it has done in this trial. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] The problem for the prosecution, defense attorneys said, is that those secretly monitored wiretaps and faxes show al-Arian discussing intimate details of PIJ’s operations not with his three co-defendants but with five other men.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

8. “All of those five men were top PIJ leaders with al-Arian for years, U.S. prosecutors said, and all of them have been charged with him with conspiracy to murder—but they are overseas and will not be tried in this case. Defense attorneys and criminal lawyers who have observed the case said the government was in a jam—how could it put on a trial for criminal conspiracy and have only one conspirator at the defense table?” (Idem.)

9. “The three defendants on trial with al-Arian are basically stage props,’ said Steve Crawford, a former federal prosecutor who has followed the case and who recently represented Hammoudeh’s wife on an unrelated fraud charge. ‘The government didn’t have enough of the big guns [from PIJ] here to give a visual showing of a conspiracy, so they sweep in the poor mopes at the bottom.’” (Ibid.; p. 3.)

10. Note that there is abundant evidence against al-Arian and company, but the statute of limitations has expired. In that context, recall John Loftus’ frustration at the failure of the FBI and related agencies to pursue the al-Arian milieu and the Saudi/Muslim Brotherhood backed 555 Grove Street nexus. (There is good discussion of this in FTR#’s 473, 514.) “Defense lawyers and prosecutors declined to comment. U.S. District Judge James Moody has barred them from speaking about the case outside the courtroom. The five overseas defendants who are not on trial now were caught in hundreds of phone calls and faxes discussing the key strategic issues then facing PIJ—deep internal struggles, the disappearances of millions of dollars, how to placate its angry financial backers in the Iranian government, and whether to merge with the Islamic Resistance Movement, a competing militant Palestinian group.” (Idem.)

11. “The five are Ramadan Shallah, who worked at an al-Arian think tank at the University of South Florida and who now runs PIJ from Syria; Abd al Aziz Awda, PIJ’s original spiritual leader; al-Arian’s brother-in-law, Mazen al-Najjar; leading Muslim scholar Bashir Nafi; and Muhammed Tasir al-Khatib, the group’s alleged treasurer. . . .” (Idem.)

12. The program reviews information from FTR#464 about al-Arian’s relationship to George W. Bush. “On March 12, 2000, Bush and his wife, Laura, met with more Muslim leaders at a local mosque in Tampa, Florida. Among them was Sami Al-Arian, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian who was an associate professor of engineering at the University of South Florida. . . . But Al-Arian had unusual credentials for a Bush campaigner. Since 1995, as the founder and chairman of the board of World and Islam Enterprise (WISE), a Muslim think tank, Al-Arian had been under investigation by the FBI for his associations with Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian terrorist group. Al-Arian brought in Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, the number-two leader in Islamic Jihad, to be the director of WISE. A strong advocate of suicide bombings against Israel, Shallah was allegedly responsible for killing scores of Israelis in such attacks.”
(House of Bush/House of Saud; by Craig Unger; Scribner [HC]; Copyright 2004 by Craig Unger; ISBN 0-7432-5337-X; pp. 206-207.)

13. More about al-Arian’s associates: “Al-Arian also brought to Tampa as a guest speaker for WISE none other than Hassan Turabi, the powerful Islamic ruler of Sudan who had welcomed Osama bin Laden and helped nurture al Qaeda in the early nineties. . . .Nor were those Al-Arian’s only ties to terrorists. According to American Jihad by Steven Emerson, in May 1998 a WISE board member named Tarik Hamdi personally traveled to Afghanistan to deliver a satellite telephone and battery to Osama bin Laden. In addition, Newsweek reported that Al-Arian had ties to the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Among his claims to fame, the magazine said, Al-Arian had ‘made many phone calls to two New York-area Arabs who figured in the World Trade Center bombing investigation.’” (Ibid.; p. 207.)

14. “There were also Al-Arian’s own statements. In 1998, he appeared as a guest speaker before the American Muslim Council. According to conservative author Kenneth Timmerman, Al-Arian referred to Jews as ‘monkeys and pigs’ and added, ‘Jihad is our path. Victory to Islam. Death to Israel. Revolution! Revolution! Until victory! Rolling, rolling to Jerusalem!’ That speech was part of a dossier compiled on al-Arian by federal agents who have had him under surveillance for many years because of suspected ties to terrorist organizations. In videotape in that file, al-Arian was more explicit. When he appeared at a fund-raising event, Timmerman says, he ‘begged for $500 to kill a Jew.’” (Idem.)


15. “Al-Arian would be arrested in Florida in February 2003 on dozens of charges, among them conspiracy to finance terrorist attacks that killed more than one hundred people—including two Americans. The indictment alleged that ‘he directed the audit of all moneys and property of the PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] throughout the world and was the leader of the PIJ in the United States.’ The charges refer to the Islamic Jihad as ‘a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in acts of violence including murder, extortion, money laundering, fraud, and misuse of visas, and operated worldwide including in the Middle District of Florida.’ Al-Arian was still facing prosecution in December 2003.” (Ibid.; p. 208.)

16. Next, the program reviews information about how the investigation into al-Arian led to the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002. Those raids stemmed from investigations into the overlapping SAAR network and Safa Group. (This information is also reprised from FTR#464.) “The raid on al-Arian led to the Safa Group. The FBI found letters documenting Safa entities’ financial support of al-Arian to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a year. In a September 7, 1993, letter, Safa Group leaders told one al-Arian-led group: ‘We consider you a part of us and an extension of us and we as a part of you,’ adding that their financial donation of tens of thousands of dollars was ‘for you as a group, regardless of the party or façade you use the donation for.’” (Blood from Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror; by Douglas Farah; Broadway Books [HC] {subsidiary of Random House}; Copyright 2004 by Douglas Farah; ISBN 0-7679-15262-3; p. 159.)

17. Note that among the GOP bigwigs extending their welcome to al-Arian was Karl Rove. “But the al-Arian and Safa Group investigations languished. In the 2000 elections al-Arian supported George W. Bush, urging Muslims to vote Republican as the best hope of ending discrimination against Arab-Americans. Al-Arian and his family were photographed with a beaming Bush and his wife, Laura, during a Florida campaign stop. Al-Arian liked to boast that he had delivered ‘considerably more’ than the 537 votes that gave Bush his victory in Florida and allowed him to capture the White House. On June 20, 2001, al-Arian was invited to the White House as part of a large delegation of Muslims to be briefed by presidential adviser Karl Rove.” (Idem.)

18. Bush associate Talat Othman, a director of Norquist’s Islamic Institute, went to bat on behalf of the targets of the Operation Green Quest raids of 2002. “In 2002, during the presidency of George W. Bush, Othman again won access to the White House and met with Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill to discuss U.S. government raids on Muslim charities that were allegedly funding terror.”
(House of Bush/House of Saud; by Craig Unger; Scribner [HC]; Copyright 2004 by Craig Unger; ISBN 0-7432-5337-X; p. 125.)

19. Is it a “coincidence” that federal employees in Tampa “accidentally” destroyed key paperwork in the al-Arian case?! “ . . . In December 2003, clerks at a federal courthouse in Tampa accidentally destroyed search warrants in the Al-Arian case. The documents contained affidavits from federal agents that supported 1995 searches of Al-Arian’s home and offices and were among thousands of documents shredded sometime between 1998 and 2002. As this book went to press, there were serious questions as to whether the destruction of the documents might affect his prosecution.” (Ibid.; p. 208.)

20. The program notes the significant overlaps between the SAAR network, the Safa Trust and the Al Taqwa network. (For more about the Al Taqwa/SAAR/Safa Trust link, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 382, 415, 423, 425, 432, 433, 435, 454, 455. For more about the Norquist links to the targets of Operation Green Quest, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 415, 425, 435, 454, 455, 462, 467, 514.) Again, the discovery of these links stemmed from the investigation into al-Arian. “ . . . Operation Green Quest was launched in October 2001 as part of the Customs Service initiative to track bin Laden’s financial empire. In a small, windowless conference room Green Quest agents charted the Byzantine relationships among the more than one hundred Safa network entities, a spiderweb of overlapping names and organizations. Green Quest investigators also charted the relationship among the Safa network entities and the Muslim Brotherhood through the Al Taqwa Management empire of Yousef Nada. U.S. officials said they had tracked about $20 million from Safa entities flowing through Nada’s Bank al Taqwa, but said the total could be much higher.”
(Blood from Stones; pp. 154-155.)

21. More about the links between Al Taqwa, Safa, SAAR and the al-Arian/Norquist/Bush milieu: “The ties between Nada and Safa leaders were many and long-standing, as were their ties to other Brotherhood leaders. Two members of the Safa Group helped set up Bank al Taqwa in the Bahamas and several Safa leaders loaned Nada money. In 1976, two other men who later became prominent in the Safa Group founded Nada International, a Brotherhood bank in Liechtenstein. For a time, Sulaiman Abdul al Rajhi, the SAAR Foundation founder, worked for Nada at that bank. Nada International was designated a terrorist financier by the Treasury Department after 9/11. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 155.)

22. The broadcast concludes with discussion of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz’s romance with a Tunisian woman who was raised in Saudi Arabia. Employed by the World Bank, Ms. Riza has been significantly involved with Iraqi reconstruction—a major source of corporate and governmental corruption. (It should be noted that there is no indication that Ms. Riza is an Islamist.) It is interesting to note the neo-Nazi right and elements of the left have focused on Wolfowitz as the embodiment of the “Zionist Conspiracy” that the neo-Cons have allegedly perpetrated in Washington. Wolfowitz’s romance with Riza is an amusing negation of those charges. Wolfowitz is—in Mr. Emory’s considered opinion—a dog of the first order. He is not, however, part of some non-existent “Zionist” conspiracy. “Social Washington has been buzzing for months about the discreet romance between Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Shaha Riza, an Arab feminist and a communications adviser at the World Bank. Now that he’s been nominated to head the bank and their relationship has become public, some of Riza’s neighbors have become irked enough to dish.”
(“What Will the Neighbors Say? Wolfowitz Romance Stirs Gossip” by Richard Leiby; The Washington Post; 3/22/2005; P. C03.)

23. “This being Washington, there’s a political undercurrent to the gossip: Turns out that some Iraq war foes in the diplomat-heavy neighborhood south of American University don’t seem to appreciate that Wolfowitz regularly spends the night at Riza’s home. Two residents told us that Wolfowitz’s guards wait in a car outside until he departs early in the morning.” (Idem.)

24. “ ‘They kind of picked the wrong place, if they want to be private about it. I don’t know if it could be more public if it were on 16th and K streets,’ said one neighbor, who declined to be identified, citing a desire to maintain cordial relations with Riza. ‘It’s an international neighborhood and he’s the icon for a fabulously expensive tragic war. It’s the one thing we talk about now.’ . . .” (Idem.)

25. “ . . . Riza, an Oxford-educated British citizen, was born in Tunisia and grew up in Saudi Arabia. She’s known for her expertise on women’s rights and has been listed on the bank’s Web site as a media contact for Iraq reconstruction issues.” (Idem.)

FTR #514 Interview with John Loftus about the Muslim Brotherhood

Recorded June 12, 2005
REALAUDIO
[NB: This stream contains both FTR #s 514 and 515 in sequence. Each is a 30 minute broadcast.]

Highlighting and clarifying the subject of the Islamofascist Muslim Brotherhood, this program presents an interview with the heroic John Loftus, whose work has graced these pages extensively over the years. After discussing the fascist origins of the group and its alliance with the Third Reich during World War II, Loftus traces the Brotherhood’s postwar sponsorship by both British intelligence and the CIA. In addition to setting forth the CIA’s role in relocating many of the Brotherhood from Egypt to Saudi Arabia in the 1950’s, Loftus traces the evolution of the Brotherhood into the MAK—the name given the anti-Soviet Brotherhood elements active in Afghanistan in the 1980’s. After the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan, the MAK evolved into al Qaeda. Mr. Loftus traces the evolution of this Islamic fascist organization from World War II right on up through its alliances with GOP heavyweights Grover Norquist and Karl Rove.

Program Highlights Include: Discussion of GOP kingmaker Grover Norquist’s lobbying efforts on behalf of people associated with the Brotherhood such as Sami al-Arian and Abdurahman Alamoudi; the failure of the US to provide documents to the Swiss about Bank al-Taqwa; the Bank al-Taqwa’s deep links to the Brotherhood and veterans of that organization’s alliance with the Nazis in World War II; Loftus’ role in generating the 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest raids.

1. In a return visit to the “For The Record” broadcast, John Loftus gives an overview on the Muslim Brotherhood. Specifically, John discusses its fascist origins and allegiances during World War II, its co-option by British Intelligence after the war and its eventual sponsorship by elements of the CIA. The Brotherhood spawned first the Afghan mujahadin and eventually Al Qaeda. Hamas is an off-shoot of the Brotherhood, as is Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Brotherhood elements figure prominently in both the first World Trade Center attack and then 9/11. Much of the discussion can be found in the description for FTR#473. For more background on the Brotherhood and its links to international fascism through the decades, as well as its links to the GOP and the events of 9/11, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 343, 354, 416, 454, 455, 456, 462, 464, 515.)

2. John relates his primary role in the investigation of Sami al-Arian. That inquiry led directly to the 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest raids that targeted Muslim Brotherhood elements operating within a para-military, financial and political milieu heavily intersecting the interests around George W. Bush. Because word had been handed down to keep their hands off the Saudis, intelligence and law enforcement elements had handled the 555 Grove Street milieu with kid gloves. That changed when John Loftus filed his lawsuit. As related in FTR#454, after the raids of 3/20/2002, many of the Green Quest investigators were targeted by elements of the FBI and CIA.

3. A major element of discussion turns on Grover Norquist and his lobbying efforts on behalf of many of the people and interests targeted by the 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest raids. (Much of the information from this part of the program may be found in FTR#435, as well as FTR#454. An update on Norquist and the GOP/Islamist connection is presented in FTR#515.) John relates that the Norquist/Rove/Islamist axis helped to block investigation of the terrorist money trails, as well as seeing to it that only the most extremist Muslim elements had access to the President in the aftermath of 9/11.

4. A stunning disclosure concerned the suspension of the Swiss investigation into Bank al-Taqwa. (For more on this subject, see FTR#513.) John notes that the US authorities refused to provide information requested by the Swiss! Characterizing the al-Taqwa cast as “World War II-era Nazis” who were funding Islamist terrorist groups around the world, John highlights the connections between al Taqwa, clients of Grover Norquist and international terrorism. Combined with the untimely death of key witness Ali bin Mussalim and failure of both the Saudis and al-Taqwa’s Bahamas branch to provide key information to the Swiss, the US refusal to disclose key documents has served to exonerate Nada and Himmat, to a considerable extent.

FTR #513 Keep Following the Money

Recorded June 5, 2005
REALAUDIO

Focusing on the suspension of the Swiss investigation into Bank al-Taqwa, the program notes the circumstances leading to that dismissal: failure of the US, Saudi and Bahamian authorities to provide key documents undermined the investigation. The untimely death of key witness Ali bin Musalim didn’t help either. Beyond al-Taqwa, the broadcast sets forth analysis on the past present and future of al-Taqwa’s parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. (For more on al-Taqwa, the Muslim Brothrhood and related topics, see--among other programs-- FTR#’s 343, 354, 416, 454, 455, 456, 462, 464, 473, 514, 515.) Rumored to be on the verge of breakup, the Brotherhood might go underground, if international pressure grows too great. The Brotherhood has been making a bid for legitimacy lately. Some within the Bush administration and related think tanks feel we should be courting the Brotherhood, which has been able to present a janus-faced organization to the world. While engaging in real democratic activity where feasible, the organization also is the foundation of Islamist terrorism and Islamic fascism over the decades. One should never overlook the fact that the Brotherhood and Bank al-Taqwa are deeply connected to the Norquist/Rove/Islamist milieu within George W. Bush’s GOP.

Program Highlights Include: Bin Musalim’s apparent involvement in the Hunt family’s attempts at cornering the silver market in the early 1980’s; the Saudi collaboration with the Hunt silver scheme; the World War II-era origins of the Iraqi Islamic Party (the Iraqi branch of the Brotherhood); the German Muslim Brotherhood’s pivotal role in the organization’s world-wide operations; the role of German Brotherhood (IGD) alumni in the founding of Bank al-Taqwa; the IGD considered as an operational and historical paradigm for the Brotherhood’s globalized operations.

1. One of the most important developments in the cover-up of the 9/11 investigative trail is the suspension of the Swiss investigation into Youssef Nada and the Bank al-Taqwa. (For more about Bank al-Taqwa and its connections to the Third Reich, elements of the US intelligence community and the GOP, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 343, 354, 416, 454, 455, 456, 462, 464, 473, 514, 515.) “Swiss prosecutors suspended one of the most celebrated investigations into alleged terrorist financing, saying there is insufficient evidence to bring the case to trial. Although the investigation wasn’t dropped and the suspects’ names weren’t cleared, it is a partial vindication for Youssef Nada and Ghaleb Himmat, who were accused by Washington of using Nada Management Organization and their Bank al-Taqwa to support al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S., the two men and three of their associates were placed on a terrorist-financing list that was adopted by the United Nations, effectively freezing their assets and making it impossible for them to travel. Those restrictions remain in place. . . .”
(“Swiss Won’t Bring Big Teror-Finance Case to Trial” by Ian Johnson; The Wall Street Journal; 6/2/2005; P. A11.)

2. “ . . . Mr. Himmat said in a phone interview that prosecutors ‘have seen there is nothing at all. Now we have to keep struggling to clear our names for our children’s sake.’ Swiss prosecutors, who led the international investigation, said the decision isn’t a defeat. Prosecutor spokesman Hansjurg Mark Wiedmer said the charges weren’t dropped because ‘there are very serious doubts in our office about the people being investigated. But there was not enough to bring them to trial.’” (Idem.)

3. The investigation was hampered by the failure of the Bahamas Bank al-Taqwa to cooperate with this investigation. The Saudis also withheld critical evidence. As we shall see in FTR#514, the U.S. authorities also withheld critical information deemed essential to the al-Taqwa investigation. “Mr. Wiedmer said financial authorities in the Bahamas, where Bank al-Taqwa was registered, refused to answer numerous requests for help. In addition, the bank’s books were stashed at an undisclosed private address in Saudi Arabia, he said, and without them, prosecutors were stymied. He said Messrs. Nada and Himmat weren’t obliged to hand over the books. ‘This was the essential gap in the chain of evidence,’ Mr. Wiedmer said. Officials in the Bahamas attorney general’s office didn’t return phone calls requesting comment. . . .” (Idem.)

4. Note the George Wolfe letter about Mr. bin Mussalim. The late Mr. bin Mussalim’s untimely death also helped de-rail the Swiss investigation. Mr. bin Mussalim’s demise is covered below. “ . . . Washington appears to have made extensive efforts to provide Swiss investigators with U.S. government information about the alleged terrorist connections of Nada and Al Taqwa. In a Feb. 4, 2002, letter to Swiss authorities, George Wolfe, U.S. Treasury deputy general counsel, said that U.S. government information indicated that Al Taqwa had ‘long been thought to be involved in financing radical groups’ like Hamas and several North African Islamist factions. According to the letter, as of ‘late September 2001’—after 9/11—‘bin Laden and his Al Qaeda organization received financial assistance’ from Nada and a now-deceased Saudi associate, Ali bin Mussalim. The letter claimed that since the 1980’s, Nada and Mussalim ‘following the pullout of the Soviet Army from Afghanistan, [had] been providing direct investment services for Al Qaeda, investing funds for bin Laden, and making cash deliveries on request to the Al Qaeda organization.’”
(“Probe Closed” by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball; Newsweek; 6/3/2005; p. 1 [of 3].)

5. Again, note the significance of the Wolfe letter about bin Mussalim: According to the letter, as of October 2000, Bank Al Taqwa, a Nada entity with an offshore banking license from the government of the Bahamas, ‘appeared to be providing a clandestine line of credit for a close associate of Osama bin Laden. This bin Laden lieutenant had a line of credit with a Middle East financial institution that drew on an identical account number at Bank Al Taqwa.’ The letter also noted that Nada had ‘personal ties’ with Saddam Hussein and that one of his fellow Al Taqwa directors, retired Swiss journalist Ahmed Huber, had ‘extreme anti-Israel views,’ had admitted meeting Bin Laden followers in Beirut, and had defended the 9/11 attackers.’” (Idem.)

6. Mr. bin Mussalim was found dead, a month after the Wolfe letter became public! A forthcoming book by Guillaume Dasquie (the co-author, along with Jean Charles Brisard, of Forbidden Truth) charges that bin Mussalim had a Saudi passport. “A Swiss-based businessman accused by the US Treasury of providing financial help to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda carried a Saudi diplomatic passport, according to copies of documents contained in a book published on Thursday in Paris. The documents include a letter from the US Treasury to the Swiss authorities, which says that al-Qaeda and its leader received financial assistance from the businessman Ali bin Mussalim ‘as of late September 2001’. They also include a copy of Mr. bin Mussalim's diplomatic passport. The disclosures, contained in Al-Qaeda Will Conquer (Al-Qa'ida Vaincra), by the author Guillaume Dasquie, will be uncomfortable reading for the Saudi government, which has disputed any suggestions of official complicity in the attacks of September 11 2001.”
(“Swiss-Based al-Qaeda Suspect Had Saudi Passport” by Stephen Fidler; Financial Times; 4/27/2005; p. 1.)

7. Could Mr. bin Mussalim’s death been the result of foul play? “The January 2002 letter from George Wolfe, then the US Treasury's deputy general counsel, says Mr. bin Mussalim ‘has been providing indirect investment services for al-Qaeda, investing funds for bin Laden, and making cash deliveries on request to the al-Qaeda organization.’ The letter links him to the now defunct Bank al-Taqwa and its founder, Youssef Nada. Both have been named by the US and United Nations as providers of terrorist finance. The existence of the letter has been previously reported by some news organizations, but Mr. bin Mussalim's diplomatic status was not emphasized. According to the book, Mr. bin Mussalim was found dead in his residence in Lausanne last June, a month after reports of the US Treasury letter first emerged. . . . [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]” (Idem.)

8. An intriguing aspect of the late, unfortunate Mr. bin Mussalim’s career concerns his illegal activities in the U.S. Those activities involved collaboration in the attempted cornering of the silver market. Principal figures in that were the Saudis and Nelson Bunker Hunt, son and heir to the late H.L. Hunt. Bunker Hunt has been a prominent far-right activist for many years, most recently recognized for his role in Oliver North’s off-the-shelf operation to support the Contra guerillas in Nicaragua. “ . . . Mr. bin Mussalim’s role in controversial financial dealings goes back to the early 1980s, when US prosecutors accused him and others of attempts to corner the silver market. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

9. More about the Hunt/Saudi collaboration in the attempted cornering of the silver market:“ . . . DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources in Washington learn that before he left, Abdullah met the heads of the Dallas-based Hung Private Equity Group to discuss private investments in the company. More than 20 years ago, Abdullah and other Saudi princes were heavily invested with the group and suffered major losses when the price of silver collapsed. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] His conference with Hunt’s directors aimed at displacing some of these bad memories with advantageous Saudi investments in the United States. . . .”
(DEBKA-Net-Weekly Issue #204, 5/6/2005.)

10. Nada is a cousin of Arafat, who is a nephew of the Grand Mufti. In FTR#416, we looked at Nada’s role in the escape of the Grand Mufti from Germany to Palestine. “ . . . Nada, a cousin of Arafat and friend of Saddam Hussein, proudly identifies himself as the Brotherhood’s foreign minister. . . .”
(“A Serious Setback for Terror Finance Prosecutions” By Douglas Farah; 6/01/05.)

11. There had been reports of the Brotherhood fragmenting and going underground, in light of the heat applied internationally on its organizations. How the suspension of the investigation into Bank al-Taqwa will affect this remains to be seen. “On the face of it, a little-noticed report in a London-based Arabic-language newspaper last week seemed to signal a major victory in the Bush administration's international campaign to crack down on alleged financiers of Islamic terrorism. According to the Nov. 11 edition of Al-Sharq-al-Awsat, the Muslim Brotherhood Organization, an international fundamentalist movement that spawned many of the world's key Islamic extremist and terrorist groups—including Al Qaeda—recently held a secret conference at which its leaders discussed whether to dissolve their organization in the wake of Washington's moves to crack down on some of its leading members and corporate organizations.
(“The End of the Muslim Brotherhood?” By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball [Newsweek]; MSNBC.Com; 11/24/2004; p. 1.)

12. “But like other developments in what the administration calls the global war on terror, the alleged move by the Brotherhood to abolish itself may have less substance than meets the eye. Indeed, it may even mean that efforts by the U.S. and its allies to move against financiers of Islamic terror groups will become more difficult. U.S. intelligence and diplomatic sources point out that some Arab nations banned the Brotherhood years ago. Notable among those countries is Syria, where former president Hafez Assad's brutal crackdown against the Brotherhood in the early 1980s left thousands of militants dead. Instead of driving the brotherhood out of business in Syria, however, the crackdown there forced some of its leading members into exile in countries like Germany, where Syrian Brotherhood expatriates ultimately helped to recruit to the cause of Islamic jihad a group of Hamburg polytechnic students who later became 9/11 hijackers. Other Brotherhood activists in Syria simply went underground for years, only to resurface later inside Syria with new organizational names, under which the current Syrian government of the current Syrian president, Bashar Assad, son of Hafez, allows them to operate under the watchful eye of security agencies. . . .” (Idem.)

13. Note that some American analysts and diplomats believe the U.S. should be courting the Brotherhood as a strategic ally. “ . . .Peace in our time! . . .” “. . . Some federal agents worry that the Muslim Brotherhood has dangerous links to terrorism. But some U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials believe its influence offers an opportunity for political engagement that could help isolate violent jihadists. ‘It is the preeminent movement in the Muslim world,’ said Graham E. Fuller, a former CIA official specializing in the Middle East. ‘It’s something we can work with.’ Demonizing the Brotherhood ‘would be foolhardy in the extreme’ he warned.”
(“In Search of Friends Among the Foes: U.S. Hopes to Work with Diverse Group” by John Mintz and Douglas Farah; The Washington Post; 9/11/2004; p. A01.)

14. “The Brotherhood's history and the challenges it poses to U.S. officials illustrate the complexity of the political front in the campaign against terrorism three years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. FBI agents and financial investigators probe the group for terrorist ties and legal violations, while diplomats simultaneously discuss strategies for co-opting at least its moderate wings. In both sectors of the U.S. government, the Brotherhood often remains a mystery. The Brotherhood—of al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun, as it is know in Arabic—is a sprawling and secretive society with followers in more than 70 countries. It is dedicated to creating an Islamic civilization that harks back to the caliphates of the 6th and 7th centuries, one that would segregate women from public life and scorn nonbelievers.” (Idem.)

15. Note the role of Saudi oil billions in helping to establish the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. (Nada and Himmat sired six children in the U.S. between 1979 and 1984. For more about this see FTR#455.)“In some nations—Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Sudan—the Brotherhood has fomented Islamic revolution. In the Palestinian territories, the Brotherhood created the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, which has become known for its suicide bombings of Israelis. Yet is also a sophisticated and diverse organization that appeals to many Muslims worldwide and sometimes advocates peaceful persuasion, not violent revolt. Some of its supporters went on to help found al Qaeda, while others launched one of the largest college student groups in the United States. For decades the Brotherhood enjoyed the support of the government of Saudi Arabia and its oil billions, which helped the group expand in the United States. . . .” (Ibid.; pp.1-2)

16. The U.S. recently detained, and then released, the head of the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood. Note that his party was formed in 1944 at the direction of the Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, a loyal ally of Nazi Germany. This party—like the rest of the Brotherhood at this time—was undoubtedly allied with the Nazis at an underground level. “U.S. troops detained the head of Iraq’s largest Sunni Muslim political party on Monday, according to party officials, police and the man’s wife. South of the capital, two suicide bombers attacked a crowd of policemen in Hillah, killing 20 and wounding nearly 100 . . . . The arrests came on the second day of Operation Lightning, a massive Iraqi-led anti-insurgent offensive in Baghdad that Abdul-Hamid’s party opposes, believing security forces will trample on innocent people’s rights.”
(“Iraqi Muslim Leader Detained; 20 Killed” [AP]; p. 1.)

17. “Abdul-Hamid was taken from his home in the western Baghdad suburb of Khadra at about 6 a.m., along with his three sons and four guards, said party-secretary-general Ayad al-Samarei. Al Samarei accused American soldiers of raiding Abdul Hamid’s home and confiscating various items, including a computer. U.S. military officials could not immediately confirm the detentions. Iraqi officials were also reluctant to talk about the issue. . . .” (Idem.)

18. “The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) will not adopt violence as an approach to resist the U.S.-Anglo occupation of Iraq, the party’s Secretary General Dr. Mohsen Abdul Hamid said Wednesday, April 23. Speaking to IslamOnline.net, Abdul Hamid rejected any kind of cooperation with an occupation-installed government. ‘It’s abundantly clear that we reject the presence of the U.S. occupation in Iraq, but we will not use violence in resisting it,’ he said. ‘Armed confrontation is useless and we will resist (the occupation) peacefully. The party and other Iraqi religious and national factions are on board when it comes to this, no doubt.’”
(Article excerpted from IslamOnline.net; 4/23/2005p. 3.)

19. Note again the World War II origins and affiliations of Mr. Hamid’s Brotherhood offshoot. “ ‘The parties in Iraq are a dime a dozen . . . Anybody can stroll five persons together and form a party,’ Abdul Hamid said, referring to the anarchy and free-for-all looting that swept Iraq. ‘But the IIP (Iraq’s Muslim Brotherhood) is a time-honored party that dates back to 1944, when Imam Hassan al-Banna (the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928) dispatched his close ally Dr. Hussein Kamal Eddin. But the then government did not allow us to name the party after the Muslim Brotherhood and we instead established the society of Islamic brotherhood, which played a pivotal role in whipping up religious zeal in Iraq at that point in time,’ he added [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] . . . .” (Ibid.; pp. 3-4.)

20. Its janus-faced stance on violent jihad has given the Islamo-fascist Brotherhood considerable operational latitude. It can credibly present itself as “pro-democratic” and actively pursue military jihad selectively around the world. The following article sets forth the evolution of the Brotherhood in Europe. Much of its success is rooted in maintaining extremist goals and methods while maintaining credible, established social and cultural status. Recall as you read this that Saudi petro-dollars have established the Brotherhood in a big way right here in the USA! “Since its founding in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood (Hizb al-lkhwarTal-Muslimun) has profoundly influenced the political life of the Middle East. Its motto is telling: ‘Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.’ While the Brotherhood's radical ideas have shaped the beliefs of generations of Islamists, over the past two decades, it has lost some of its power and appeal in the Middle East, crushed by harsh repression from local regimes and snubbed by the younger generations of Islamists who often prefer more radical organizations.”
(“The Muslim Brotherhood’s Conquest of Europe” by Lorenzo Vidino, Middle East Quarterly; Winter 2005; p. 1.)

21. “But the Middle East is only one part of the Muslim world. Europe has become an incubator for Islamist thought and political development. Since the early 1960s, Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers have moved to Europe and slowly but steadily established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities, and Islamic organizations. Unlike the larger Islamic community, the Muslim Brotherhood's ultimate goal may not be simply ‘to help Muslims be the best citizens they can be,’ but rather to extend Islamic law throughout Europe and the United States.” (Idem.)

22. “Four decades of teaching and cultivation have paid off. The student refugees who migrated from the Middle East forty years ago and their descendants now lead organizations that represent the local Muslim communities in their engagement with Europe's political elite. Funded by generous contributors from the Persian Gulf, they preside over a centralized network that spans nearly every European country. These organizations represent themselves as mainstream, even as they continue to embrace the Brotherhood's radical views and maintain links to terrorists. With moderate rhetoric and well-spoken German, Dutch, and French, they have gained acceptance among European governments and media alike. Politicians across the political spectrum rush to engage them whenever an issue involving Muslims arises or, more parochially, when they seek the vote of the burgeoning Muslim community.” (Idem.)

23. “But, speaking Arabic or Turkish before their fellows Muslims, they drop their facade and embrace radicalism. While their representatives speak about interfaith dialogue and integration on television their mosques preach hate and warn worshippers about the evils of Western society. While they publicly condemn the murder of commuters in Madrid and school children in Russia, they continue to raise money for Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Europeans, eager to create a dialogue with their increasingly disaffected Muslim minority, overlook this duplicity. The case is particularly visible in Germany, which retains a place of key importance in Europe, not only because of its location at the heart of Europe, but also because it played host to the first major wave of Muslim Brotherhood immigrants and is host to the best-organized Brotherhood presence. The German government's reaction is also instructive if only to show the dangers of accepting Muslim Brotherhood rhetoric at face value, without looking at the broader scope of its activities.” (Idem.)

24. “The situation in Germany is particularly telling. More than anywhere else in Europe, the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany has gained significant power and political acceptance. Islamist organizations in other European countries now consciously follow the model pioneered by their German peers. During the 1950s and 1960s, thousands of Muslim students left the Middle East to study at German universities, drawn not only by the German institutions' technical reputations but also by a desire to escape repressive regimes. Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser's regime was especially vigorous in its attempts to root out the Islamist opposition. Beginning in 1954, several members of the Muslim Brotherhood fled Egypt to escape arrest or assassination. West Germany provided a welcome refuge. Bonn's motivations were not simply altruistic. As terrorism expert Khalid Duran explained in his studies on jihadism in Europe, the West German government had decided to cut diplomatic relations with countries that recognized East Germany. When Egypt and Syria established diplomatic relations with the communist government, Bonn decided to welcome Syrian and Egyptian political refugees. Often, these dissidents were Islamists. Many members of the Muslim Brotherhood were already familiar with Germany. Several had cooperated with the Nazis before and during World War 11. Some had even, reportedly, fought in the infamous Bosnian Handschar division of the Schutzstaffel (SS).” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

25. “One of the Muslim Brotherhood's first pioneers in Germany was Said Ramadan, the personal secretary [and son-in-law] of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. Ramadan, an Egyptian who had led the Muslim Brotherhood's irregulars in Palestine in 1948, moved to Geneva in 1958 and attended law school in Cologne. In Germany, he founded what has become one of Germany's three main Muslim organizations, the Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland (Islamic Society of Germany, IGD) over which he presided from 1958 to 1968. Ramadan also co-founded the Muslim World League, a well-funded organization that the Saudi establishment uses to spread its radical interpretation of Islam throughout the world. The U.S. government closely monitors the activities of the Muslim World League, which it accuses of financing terrorism.” (Idem.)

26. Note the March 20, 2002 Operation Green Quest raids in the context of what has been set forth so far. “In March 2002, a U.S. Treasury Department-led task force raided the group's Northern Virginia offices looking for documents tying the group to AI-Qaeda, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In January 2004, the Senate Finance Committee asked the Internal Revenue Service for its records on the Muslim World League ‘as part of an investigation into possible links between nongovernmental organizations and terrorist financing networks.’ This privileged relationship with the oil-rich kingdom granted Ramadan an influx of money, which he used to fund the powerful Islamic Center of Geneva and to bankroll several financial and religious activities. Hani Ramadan, Sa'id's son, currently runs the Islamic Center. Among its other board members is Sa'id's other son, Tariq Ramadan, who recently made headlines in the United States when the Department of Homeland Security revoked his visa to teach at Notre Dame University. Sa'id Ramadan's case is not isolated.” (Idem.)

27. Note the pivotal role of members of the IGD (the German Muslim Brotherhood) in the founding and operation of the Bank al-Taqwa: “Following Ramadan's ten-year presidency of the IGD, Pakistani national Fazal Yazdani briefly led the IGD before Ghaleb Himmat, a Syrian with Italian citizenship, took the helm. During his long stewardship (1973-2002), Himmat shuttled between Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the United States. Intelligence agencies around the world have long scrutinized Himmat's terrorist connections. He is one of the founders of the Bank al-Taqwa, a powerful conglomerate dubbed by Italian intelligence, ‘Bank of the Muslim Brotherhood,’ which has financed terrorist groups since the mid-1990s if not earlier. Himmat helped Youssef Nada, one of the Muslim Brotherhood's financial masterminds, run Al-Taqwa and a web of companies headquartered in locations such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Bahamas, Which maintain few regulations on monetary origin or destination. Both Himmat and Nada reportedly funneled large sums to groups such as Hamas and the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front and set up a secret credit line for a top associate of Osama bin Laden.” (Ibid.; pp. 2-3.)

28. “In November 2001, the U.S. Treasury Department designated both Himmat and Nada as terrorism financiers. According to Italian intelligence, the AI-Taqwa network also financed several Islamic centers throughout Europe and many Islamist publications, including RisalatuI lkhwan, the official magazine of the Muslim Brotherhood. After the U.S. Treasury Department designation, Himmat resigned from the IGD's presidency. His successor was Ibrahim el-Zayat, a 36-year-old of Egyptian descent and the charismatic leader of numerous student organizations.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)

29. Noting the prominence in the IGD in the Brotherhood and the founding of al-Taqwa, the program goes on to highlight the profound influence on the IGD of the original Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. “The fact that IGD leaders Ramadan and Himmat are among the most prominent Muslim Brotherhood members of the last half-century suggests the links between the IGD and the Ikhwan. Moreover, reports issued by internal intelligence agencies from various German states openly call the IGD an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. In particular, according to one intelligence report, the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood has dominated the IGD since its early days.” (Idem.)

30. Note said Ramadan. His activities recruiting assassins inside the United States is discussed in FTR#381. “The Muslim Brotherhood—led by Ramadan and Himmat—sponsored the construction of the imposing Islamic Center of Munich in 1960, aided by large donations from Middle Eastern rulers such as King Fahd of Saudi Arabia who, according to a 1967 Sueddeutsche Zeitung article, donated 80,000 marks. The Ministry of Interior of Nordrhein-Westfalen states that the Islamic Center of Munich has been one of the European headquarters for the Brotherhood since its foundation. The center publishes a magazine, Al-lslam, whose efforts (according to an Italian intelligence dossier), are financed by the Bank al-Taqwa. According to the interior minister of Baden-Wurtemberg, Al-lslam shows explicitly how the German Brothers reject the concept of a secular state. Its February 2002 issue, for example, states, ‘In the long run, Muslims cannot be satisfied with the acceptance of German family, estate, and trial law. ... Muslims should aim at an agreement between the Muslims and the German state with the goal of a separate jurisdiction for Muslims.’” (Idem.)

31. “The IGD, of which the Islamic Center of Munich is one of the most important members, represents the main offshoot of the Egyptian Brotherhood in Germany. But the IGD is also the quintessential example of how the Muslim Brotherhood has gained power in Europe. The IGD has grown significantly over the years, and it now incorporates dozens of Islamic organizations throughout the country. Islamic centers from more than thirty German cities have joined its umbrella. Today, the IGD's real strength lies in its cooperation with and sponsorship of many Islamic youth and student organizations across Germany.” (Idem.)

32. Note the IGD milieu’s connections to the WAMY. This organization has many tributaries, including several running in the direction of the GOP’s Islamist component, as well as the al-Taqwa milieu and Al Qaeda. “This focus on youth organizations came after Zayat's succession. He understood the importance of focusing on the next generation of German Muslims and launched recruitment drives to get young Muslims involved in Islamic organizations. But a Meckenheim police report on the sharply dressed Zayat also reveals alarming connections. German authorities openly say he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. They also link him to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi nongovernmental organization that seeks to spread Wahhabism, the radical and intolerant Saudi interpretation of Islam, throughout the world with its literature and schools. WAMY, which falls under the umbrella of the Muslim World League, has the stated goal of ‘arming the Muslim youth with full confidence in the supremacy of the Islamic system over other systems.’ It is the largest Muslim youth organization in the world and can boast unparalleled resources. In 1991 WAMY published a book called Tawjihat Islamiya (Islamic Views) that stated, ‘Teach our children to love taking revenge on the Jews and the oppressors, and teach them that our youngsters will liberate Palestine and AI-Quds [Jerusalem] when they go back to Islam and make jihad for the sake of Allah.’ The sentiments in Tawjihat Islamiya are the rule rather than the exception. Many other WAMY publications are filled with strong anti-Semitic and anti-Christian rhetoric.” (Ibid.; pp. 3-4.)