Recorded August 19, 2007
MP3: Side 1 | Side 2
REALAUDIO

Updat­ing the inves­tiga­tive research of Daniel Hop­sicker, this pro­gram cen­ters on sto­ries Daniel has writ­ten about some of the nefar­i­ous con­nec­tions of air pro­pri­etaries involved in the evac­u­a­tion of Saudi nation­als from the United States in the wake of Sep­tem­ber 11, includ­ing mem­bers of the Bin Laden fam­ily and Saudi roy­als. As dis­cussed in FTR#’s 423 and 425, sev­eral mem­bers of the Bin Laden fam­ily that were evac­u­ated on those flights were engaged in activ­i­ties that war­ranted inves­ti­ga­tion. The var­i­ous air pro­pri­etaries involved in the post-9/11 flights had doc­u­mented con­nec­tions to the intel­li­gence com­mu­nity. Of par­tic­u­lar sig­nif­i­cance in this regard is the fact that air­craft belong­ing to some of these com­pa­nies have allegedly been involved in some of the ille­gal ren­di­tions of ter­ror sus­pects. Other com­pa­nies had doc­u­mented links to orga­nized crime and the born-again Chris­t­ian com­mu­nity. Much of the pro­gram is devoted to dis­cus­sion of yet another law­suit brought against Daniel, this one by Makram Chams, alleged to be the owner of a con­ve­nience store in Florida that served as some­thing of an oper­a­tional base for some of the 9/11 hijack­ers. In addi­tion to own­ing a casino boat and 40 gas sta­tions inFlorida, Chams (not your typ­i­cal con­ve­nience store owner) was work­ing as an offi­cial for Titan Cor­po­ra­tion, a pri­vate defense con­trac­tor that was a cen­tral ele­ment in the crim­i­nal activ­i­ties of Cal­i­for­nia Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Randy “Duke” Cun­ning­ham. The dis­cus­sion reviews the remark­able career of Alvin Mal­nik. Mal­nik was heir to the crime syn­di­cate of Meyer Lansky—his fam­ily mar­ried into the Saudi royal fam­ily. Con­vert­ing to Islam, Mal­nik and fam­ily pur­sued their “busi­ness” options with the eco­nomic throw-weight of the house of Saud behind them.

Pro­gram High­lights Include: Dis­cus­sion of the Whitey Bul­ger case—the case of the Boston area mob­ster who com­mit­ted a series of mur­ders over a period of years while serv­ing as an FBI infor­mant; the links between the Whitey Bul­ger case and North­star Avi­a­tion; the role of then U.S. Attor­ney Robert Mueller [now head of the FBI] in the Whitey Bul­ger case; review of the Jack Abramoff case and the mur­der of Bush fam­ily ally Gus Boulis.

1. One of the impor­tant sto­ries ref­er­enced in the pro­gram is an arti­cle about links between the fun­da­men­tal­ist Chris­t­ian milieu and some of the air­lines involved in the post-9/11 evac­u­a­tions of Saudi nation­als.
(“Pirates of the Caribbean: ‘Chris­t­ian Fun­da­men­tal­ists’ and the CIA” by Daniel Hop­sicker; 5/30/2007; avail­able at: http://www.madcowprod.com/05302007.html.)

2. Fur­ther devel­op­ing a major focal point of the pro­gram, the dis­cus­sion sets forth the rela­tion­ship between ele­ments of the CIA and the air pro­pri­etaries involved in those evac­u­a­tions. Some of these air­lines have been involved in some of the con­tro­ver­sial ren­di­tions of ter­ror sus­pects.
(“Sheikhs on a Plane” by Daniel Hop­sicker; 6/28/2007; http://www.madcowprod.com/06282007a.html.)

3. A num­ber of these same air pro­pri­etaries are linked to orga­nized crime. Of par­tic­u­lar note in this con­text is the fact that North­star Avi­a­tion has doc­u­mented links to the New Eng­land Patri­ar­cha crime fam­ily. The Patri­ar­cha fam­ily fea­tured promi­nently in the scan­dal involv­ing the FBI’s use of Boston crime oper­a­tive Whitey Bul­ger as an infor­mant. While on the Bureau’s pay­roll, Bul­ger com­mit­ted a num­ber of mur­ders, with the knowl­edge of the Bureau. Intrigu­ingly, the U.S. Attor­ney in charge of oper­a­tions in Boston at the time was Robert Mueller, now head of the FBI. [For more about Mueller, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 310, 603.]
(“Saudi Flights on Mob and CIA-Linked Char­ters” by Daniel Hop­sicker; 7/12/2007; avail­able at: http://www.madcowprod.com/07122007.html.)

4. A major story referred to tan­gen­tially in the pro­gram con­cerns Mohamed Atta’s posi­tion as an exec­u­tive of a Florida busi­ness that appears to have been an intel­li­gence front.
(“Mohamed Atta, Florida Entre­pre­neur” by Daniel Hop­sicker; 6/12/2007; http://www.madcowprod.com/06122007.html.)

5. Much of the dis­cus­sion cen­tered on a law­suit filed against Daniel by Makram Chams, the alleged owner of a con­ve­nience store. Nom­i­nally owned by a rel­a­tive, that store served as a meet­ing place and money wire cen­ter for Mohamed Atta and some of the 9/11 hijack­ers. Chams also owns a Casino boat and some 40 gas sta­tions in Florida. In addi­tion, Chams appears to be a an exec­u­tive with Titan cor­po­ra­tion, a pri­vate mil­i­tary con­trac­tor that played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the scan­dals sur­round­ing the con­victed Repub­li­can con­gress­man Randy “Duke” Cun­ning­ham. For more about Makram Chams, see FTR#’s 554, 574, 590.

6. Illus­trat­ing the strange polit­i­cal asso­ci­a­tions that char­ac­ter­ize the back­ground of Mohamed Atta and com­pany in Florida, the dis­cus­sion reviews the remark­able career of Alvin Mal­nik. Mal­nik was heir to the crime syn­di­cate of Meyer Lan­sky. His fam­ily mar­ried into the Saudi royal fam­ily. Con­vert­ing to Islam, Mal­nik and fam­ily pur­sued their “busi­ness” options with the eco­nomic throw-weight of the house of Saud behind them. (For more about Mal­nik, see FTR#412.)

7. Two video pro­duc­tions are being gen­er­ated by a cou­ple of doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ers. One is a DVD of a three-lecture series called “The First Refuge of a Scoundrel: The Rela­tion­ship Between Fas­cism and Reli­gion.” To learn more about this, visit The Anti-Fascist YouTube.com page. In addi­tion, there will soon be a doc­u­men­tary about Mr. Emory, titled “The Anti-Fascist.” For more about this project, visit theantifascist.com.