Recorded September 23, 2007
MP3: Side 1 | Side 2
REALAUDIO
Exploring the economic and political networks that both precipitated and executed the 9/11 attacks, this program highlights the links between Islamist elements involved at the operational level and individuals and institutions that dominate the global geo-political landscape. These networks—belonging to elite industrial, financial and religious institutions, as well as powerful underworld syndicates—cooperate and intersect. The 9/11 attacks are emblematic of the results of this corporate, religious and criminal alliance. The 9/11 attacks further cemented this insidious relationship, advancing the political, economic and social goals of the forces comprising it. Beginning with discussion of the allocation of Iraqi petroleum rights, the broadcast notes that they will be going, in part, to the Hunt Oil Company of Bush associate Ray Hunt. Heir to ultra-rightwing billionaire H.L. Hunt, Ray Hunt sat on George W. Bush’s foreign intelligence advisory board, a position that gave him immediate access to the most sensitive intelligence documents about Iraq and other matters. In addition to the Hunt family, the Bushes count the powerful Bin Laden family among their associates. A dominant element of the Saudi power elite, the Bin Ladens have always disclaimed any involvement with the activities of Osama. Evidence to the contrary has generated litigation against the Saudi Binladin Group, the family’s primary commercial entity. Turning to the subject of Semyon Mogilevich, a powerful Russian organized crime figure, the broadcast notes that, in addition to purchasing and operating the Hungarian arms industry, trafficking in nuclear materials and working with Islamist terrorists, Mogilevich works with the BND, German intelligence. Another luminary to be found in Mogilevich’s corner is William Sessions, former director of the FBI. Bargaining for Mogilevich on pending criminal charges in the U.S., Sessions has offered information on Islamist terrorism in exchange for leniency. Also in Mogilevich’s corner is the lobbying firm of GOP heavyweights Haley Barbour and Lanny Griffith, which has represented and done business with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Bank Al Taqwa and the Russian conglomerate Alfa, itself linked to Islamists, Russian organized crime, the petroleum industry and the Underground Reich. In addition to the Bin Ladens, another powerful Saudi apparently involved with financing Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups is Yassin Qadi, a major funder of the Ptech firm. Deeply involved with Islamist elements in Turkey, Qadi has used those connections to evade sanctions against him. After reviewing the strong relationship between Al Taqwa’s Achmed Huber, the Turkish Islamist party and former Prime Minister Erbakan, the broadcast notes the virulent anti-Semitism freely disseminated by Erbakan and others of his ilk. Far from being a relatively marginal individual, 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta has, as Mr. Emory likes to say, more connections than a switchboard. Listed as president of a Florida company, Atta’s fellow officers include a key Moroccan diplomatic and commercial operative and the Turkish naval attaché in Washington. Another of Atta’s south Florida associates was German national Wolfgang Bohringer, personal pilot for Czech criminal Viktor Kozeny and the son of the head of the German branch of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Concluding with discussion of the collaboration of the German Seventh Day Adventist establishment with the Third Reich, the broadcast underscores the possibility that the collaboration may have extended in to the postwar, underground phase of the Third Reich’s existence, and that this may have figured into the 9/11 operation.
Program Highlights Include: Review of the relationship between the Hunt family and Ali bin Musalim, who managed the Al Qaeda account at bank Al Taqwa; review of the apparent involvement of the Bin Laden family’s SICO firm with the 9/11 attacks; review of the connections between the Muslim Brotherhood’s Bank Al Taqwa, the Republican Party and the Bush administration; review of the Qadi-financed Ptech’s development of threat-assessment software architecture for the Air Force, the FAA and NORAD; review of whistleblower Sibel Edmonds’ allegations of Turkish links to an Islamist terrorist/drug trafficking network.
1. Beginning with an interesting connection between the Bush administration, the powerful Hunt family of Texas and events in the Middle East, the program notes that Hunt Oil and its chief Ray Hunt have reached accommodation with the Iraqi Kurds to develop and market oil from Kurdish territory. In addition to the fact that this fractures the fragile agreement among the various ethnic factions in Iraq to share the oil wealth of that region, it raises interesting questions about the Bush/Hunt relationship. Ray Hunt—head of Hunt Oil and heir to H.L. Hunt—sits on Bush’s foreign intelligence advisory board and was therefore privy to the most intimate intelligence planning and documents. Mr. Emory notes in this context that the al Qaeda’s account at Bank Al Taqwa was managed by Ali bin Musalim, who conspired with the Hunt family to corner the world’s silver market in the 1980’s. (For more about the al Qaeda account at Al Taqwa, the bin Musalim/Hunt connection and the Underground Reich connections of the Hunt family, see FTR#’s 461, 513, 556.) “An article in tomorrow’s Times reports that the long-negotiated compromise which seemed to be leading towards an Iraqi oil law — a key ‘progress’ benchmark — has apparently collapsed. All gone down the drain. The story though connects up with another one we told you about just a couple days ago — the decision of the Kurdistan regional government to sign an oil exploration deal with Dallas-based Hunt Oil, run by Mr. Ray L. Hunt. The Shia and Sunni leaders believe the Kurds are opting for a sort of oil secession that puts them outside the whole concept of a law to share the country’s oil resources. And the Hunt deal is apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back, shall we say. But remember, Hunt, in addition to being the son of legendary Texas John Birch Society extremist H.L. Hunt, is also a pal of the president’s. Indeed, President Bush has twice appointed Hunt to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. So while the president is striving to get the Iraqis to meet these benchmarks one of his own pals — and more importantly, political appointees — is busy helping to tear the whole thing apart.”
(“Oil Buddies” by Josh Marshall; TPM Muckracker; 9/13/2007.)
2. The original New York Times article alluded to the in blog above can be found in its entirety in the “Supplemental” section.
(“Compromise on Oil Law in Iraq Seems to Be Collapsing” by James Glanz; The New York Times; 9/13/2007.)
3. In response to allegations in one of the many lawsuits stemming from 9/11, the Saudi Binladin Group has denied involvement with the attacks and with al Qaeda. (To examine evidentiary tributaries suggesting that SICO–the European holding company for SBG and the Bin Laden family–was complicit with the attacks, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 498, 499.) “The Saudi Binladin Group is not liable for the Sept. 11 attacks, attorneys for the multinational engineering firm wrote that in 1993, the terrorist mastermind was forced out as a shareholder in two companies his family owns. The company filed the defense papers late Friday in U.S. District Court in answer to claims brought by representatives, survivors and insurance carriers of the victims. The plaintiffs, who seek billions of dollars in damages, allege ‘The Saudi Binladin Group is not liable for the Sept. 11 attacks, attorneys for the multinational engineering firm claim, because it made Osama bin Laden surrender his stake in the company 14 years ago. Responding in federal court to lawsuits over the attacks, the lawyers the Saudi Binladin Group, along with numerous banks, charities and individuals worldwide, provided material support and assistance to al-Qaida prior to the attacks. . . .”
(“Binladin Group: Not Liable for 9/11” by Larry Neumeister; San Francisco Chronicle; 9/4/2007; p. A5.)
4. In previous discussion of the work of Daniel Hopsicker, we have examined the association between Eastern European organized figures and the milieu of Mohamed Atta. In particular, Czech Republic organized crime kingpin Viktor Kozeny maintained a close relationship with Wolfgang Bohringer, one of Atta’s German associates. Another denizen of the Czech crime scene is Semyon Mogilevich, associated with Kozeny according to some sources. Mogilevich has, as Mr. Emory likes to say, “more connections than a switchboard.” His association with Islamists and his nuclear trafficking has garnered him some powerful allies in the United States—more about that below. Of considerable interest is the apparent association between Mogilevich and the BND—the German federal intelligence service and the successor organization to the Reinhard Gehlen Nazi spy outfit. (For more about Gehlen, see—among other programs—FTR#558.) Note that the “veterans of the Afghanistan war” mentioned in the article below may refer to Russian veterans, not Islamists as Mr. Emory surmised. Mr. Emory has heard it alleged by knowledgeable sources that Mogilevich does use Islamists as operatives. In two posh villas outside the small town of Ricany, near Prague, one of the most dreaded mob families in the world savagely murders its terrified victims. The mob’s young enforcers, trained by veterans of the Afghanistan war, are infamous for their extreme brutality. Their quarry, usually businessmen who have balked at extortion demands, are repeatedly stabbed and tortured, then mutilated before they are butchered. The carnage is so hideous that it has scared the daylights out of competing crime groups in the area. The torture chambers are run by what international police officials call the Red Mafia, a notorious Russian mob family that in only six years has become a nefarious global crime cartel. Based in Budapest, it has key centers in New York, Pennsylvania, Southern California, and as far away as New Zealand. The enigmatic leader of the Red Mafia is a 52-year-old Ukrainian-born Jew named Semion Mogilevich. He is a shadowy figure known as the ‘Brainy Don’–he holds an economics degree from the University of Lvov–and until now, he has never been exposed by the media. But the Voice has obtained hundreds of pages of classified FBI and Israeli intelligence documents from August 1996, and these documents–as well as recent interviews with a key criminal associate and with dozens of law enforcement sources here and abroad–describe him as someone who has become a grave threat to the stability of Israel and Eastern Europe. . . . Allegations of Mogilevich’s devilish array of criminal activities are extensively detailed in the reports: The FBI and Israeli intelligence assert that he traffics in nuclear materials, drugs, prostitutes, precious gems, and stolen art. His contract hit squads operate in the U.S. and Europe. He controls everything that goes in and out of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, a ‘smugglers’ paradise,’ says Elson. Mogilevich bought a bankrupt airline in a former Central Asian Soviet republic for millions of dollars in cash so he could haul heroin out of the Golden Triangle. Most worrisome to U.S. authorities is Mogilevich’s apparently legal purchase of virtually the entire Hungarian armaments industry, jeopardizing regional security, NATO, and the war against terrorism. In one typical criminal deal, Mogilevich and two Moscow-based gangsters sold $20 million worth of pilfered Warsaw Pact weapons from East Germany, including ground-to-air missiles and 12 armored troop carriers, according to the classified Israeli and FBI documents. The buyer was Iran, says a top-level U.S. Customs official who requested anonymity. . . . To the consternation of international law enforcement officials, Mogilevich began to legally purchase much of Hungary’s arms industry. . . . On April 28, the German national television network ZDF reported that the BND (the German intelligence agency) had entered into a secret contract with Mogilevich to provide information on the Russian mob. The charges were made by several sources, including Pierre Delilez, a highly regarded Belgium police investigator who specializes in Russian Organized Crime. Because of this deal with the BND, police in Belgium, Germany, and Austria have complained that it is now impossible to investigate the ‘Brainy Don.’ . . .”
(“The Most Dangerous Mobster in the World” by Robert I Friedman; Village Voice; 5/20–26/1998.)
5. Among those running interference for Mogilevich are former FBI director William Sessions and the consulting firm of Mississippi governor Haley Barbour. Barbour maintains a number of interesting clients and associates, including elements associated with the Al Taqwa network and the Alfa Group. (For more about these connections, see FTR#’s 438, 573.) “Former Federal Bureau of Investigation director William Sessions once condemned Russia’s rising mafia. ‘We can beat organized crime,’ he told a Moscow security conference in 1997. Today, Mr. Sessions is a lawyer for one of the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted’: Semyon Mogilevich, a Ukraine-born Russian whom the FBI says is one of Russia’s most powerful organized-crime figures. Mr. Sessions is trying to negotiate a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice for his client, who is charged with racketeering and is a key figure in a separate Justice Department probe of energy deals between Russia and Ukraine. . . . In 2004, for instance, a United Kingdom shell company called Foruper Ltd., which had no assets or employees, paid Barbour Griffith $820,000. Foruper was established by an attorney who structured the natural-gas deals being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department. Prosecutors are investigating whether there are ties between the attorney who set up Foruper and Mr. Mogilevich, Mr. Sessions’s client. In its filings, Barbour Griffith said the fees were for ‘promotion of greater cooperation and financial ties between Eastern Europe and the West.’ . . . In 2002 and 2003, a group called ‘Friends of Ukraine’ paid Barbour Griffith $320,000. Tax records show that Friends of Ukraine, which no longer exists, was headquartered at Barbour Griffith’s own office in Washington. The group’s chairman was firm partner Lanny Griffith. Mr. Griffith said in an email that the firm as a policy doesn’t discuss client matters but added that Barbour Griffith ‘has been scrupulous in our compliance’ with laws governing the disclosure of lobbying clients. . . . Mr. Sessions’s client, Mr. Mogilevich, is accused in a 45-count racketeering and money-laundering indictment in Philadelphia of masterminding an elaborate stock fraud using a web of shell companies in Europe. The Justice Department also is investigating whether there are any ties between Mr. Mogilevich and a recent series of billion-dollar natural-gas deals between Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom and Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said. The probe is being led by the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section. According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Sessions recently approached former colleagues at Justice with an unusual offer: Mr. Mogilevich would provide the U.S. with intelligence on Islamist terrorism if prosecutors opened negotiations to resolve his legal problems in the U.S. Federal prosecutors rejected that offer, lawyers and others familiar with the matter said. . . .”
(“How Lobbyists Help Ex-Soviets Woo Washington” by Glenn R. Simpson and Mary Jacoby; The Wall Street Journal; 4/17/007; pp. A1-A16.)
6. Next, the program turns to the subject of Yassin Qadi, a Saudi magnate long known to have funded Islamist terrorism. In addition to having contributed directly to Islamic charities that support Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist organizations, Qadi helped to finance Ptech, a high tech firm that developed the threat-assessment software architecture for—get this—the Air Force, the FAA, NORAD and the Department of Energy (that manages nuclear power plants). In addition to Qadi, Ptech has been financed by and directed by people associated with Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and the elements busted in the 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest raids. (For more about Qadi, Ptech and Operation Green Quest, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 462, 464, 467.) Alarmingly, Qadi also has close connections with the “moderate” Islamist establishment in Turkey. “Yassin Qadi is a well-known multimillionaire, founder of a large supermarket chain here and a close friend of the Turkish premier. ‘I trust him the same way I trust my father,’ Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on national television last year. But the Saudi businessman also is a major financier of Islamic terrorism with close business associates who are members of Al Qaeda, according to the U.S. Treasury and the United Nations Security Council. At Washington’s request, the asset freeze has largely crippled Mr Qadi’s international business empire. But previously undisclosed records show he has managed to free up millions of dollars of holdings in Turkey, in apparent violation of the Security Council sanctions and without incurring punishment by Turkish authorities. The case of Mr. Qadi shows the challenges Washington faces in separating friend from foe in the Islamic world. The records detailing his business activities also suggest how easy it can be to skirt sanctions designed to restrict funding of terrorism, especially for well-connected figures. Mr. Qadi’s friendship with the prime minister also plays into the growing debate in Turkey over the role of Islam in a secular society. Turkey’s Parliament for the first time Tuesday elected a politician with an Islamist background, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, to the presidency. . . .”
(“Well Connected, a Saudi Mogul Skirts Sanctions” by Glenn R. Simpson; The Wall Street Journal; 8/29/2007.)
7. “ . . .Since coming to power in 1972, the Justice and Development Party has run one of the most pro-Western governments to rule Turkey. It has encouraged a Western-style market economy and made painful overhauls in a bid to join the European Union. The party just won an overwhelming new mandate in parliamentary elections. But tensions are likely to persist. U.S. diplomats lodged strong objections last year when the Erdogan government intervened in Turkish courts to try to lift the freeze on Mr. Qadi’s assets, according to U.S. officials. The Turkish government reversed course. . . .” (Idem.)
8. More about Qadi’s Turkish Islamist ties: “ . . . Mr. Qadi, whose business empire is based mostly in Saudi Arabia, is a longtime partner of Turkish businessman Cuneyd Zapsu, as well as other key Justice and Development figures. Over the past year, Turkish media and opposition leaders have disclosed that Turkey’s financial police investigated the activities of Mr. Qadi and alleged Al Qaeda supporters in Turkey. That led them to delve into the relationships of Mr. Qadi and other Saudis with senior Justice and Development figures, including Mr. Erdogan. Among Mr. Qadi’s largest Turkish investments is the discount-supermarket chain BIM, one of Turkey’s biggest companies, with more than 1,500 outlets and annual sales of about $1.5 billion. BIM, which trades on the Istanbul Stock Exchange, is a discounter modeled in part on Wal-Mart and other low-price chains. Mr. Zapsu also was among BIM’s founding partners. Mr. Zapsu, who in 2001 helped Mr. Erdogan found the Justice and Development Party, also supported an Islamic charity Mr. Qadi founded that is at the center of the U.S. and Security Council decision to freeze the Saudi businessman’s assets. A Turkish financial-police report seen by The Wall Street Journal found that in the 1990s, Mr. Zapsu and his mother gave $300,000 to Mr. Qadi’s Muwafaq charity, which U.S. officials labeled a front for Al Qaeda shortly after 9/11. Central Intelligence Agency reports say Muwafaq, now defunct, specialized in purchasing and smuggling arms for Islamic radicals. The U.S. government’s special commission on the Sept. 11, 2001, attack and law-enforcement agencies have cited Saudi-backed Islamic charities as a primary source of funding for Al Qaeda. Mr. Zapsu also has business ties to two Islamic banks funded with Saudi capital — Dallah Al Baraka and Dar Al Mal Al Islam — that were accused of supporting Al Qaeda in civil suits filed by families of Sept. 11 victims in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Both defendants adamantly deny the allegations, and the court dismissed claims against Al Baraka. Mr. Zapsu said in an email that his business and personal relationships with Mr. Qadi were investigated by Turkish police. He said prosecutors decided last year ‘that there was no reason for a court case and no wrongdoing.’ Mr. Zapsu said he sold his interest in BIM in 2003 and no longer is involved with the company. . . .” (Idem.)
9. The program highlights Qadi associate (and Prime Minister Erdogan mentor) Necmettin Erbakan, his Refah party and its relationship to the Muslim Brotherhood. The program highlights Erbakan’s relationship with Al Taqwa’s Ahmed Huber. It was Huber’s relationship with Erbakan that precipitated Huber’s ascension to his position as a director of Al Taqwa! (For more about Huber and Al Taqwa, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 343, 352, 354, 356, 357, 454, 455, 456, 537.) Speaking of the décor of Huber’s residence: “A second photograph, in which Hitler is talking with Himmler, hangs next to those of Necmettin Erbakan and Jean-Marie Le Pen [leader of the fascist National Front]. Erbakan, head of the Turkish Islamist party, Refah, turned to Achmed Huber for an introduction to the chief of the French party of the far right. Exiting from the meeting (which took place in September 1995) Huber’s two friends supposedly stated that they ‘share the same view of the world’ and expressed ‘their common desire to work together to remove the last racist obstacles that still prevent the union of the Islamist movement with the national right of Europe.’ Lastly, above the desk is displayed a poster of the imam Khomeini; the meeting ‘changed my life,’ Huber says, with stars in his eyes. For years, after the Federal Palace in Bern, Ahmed Huber published a European press review for the Iranian leaders, then for the Turkish Refah. Since the former lacked financial means, Huber chose to put his efforts to the service of the latter. An outpost of the Turkish Muslim Brothers, Refah thus became Huber’s principal employer; and it was through the intermediary of the Turkish Islamist party that this former parliamentary correspondent became a shareholder in the bank Al Taqwa.”
(Dollars for Terror; Richard Labeviere; Algora Publishing [SC]; Copyright 2000; ISBN 1–892941-06–6; p. 142.)
10. Former Prime Minister Erbakan is indeed a ripe one. It is not surprising that he is associated with a Muslim Nazi like Ahmed Huber. A sample of Erbakan’s received wisdom: “Who recently said: ‘These Jews started 19 Crusades. The 19th was World War I. Why? Only to build Israel.’ Some holdover Nazi? Hardly. It was former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan of Turkey, a NATO ally. He went on to claim that the Jews — whom he refers to as ‘bacteria’ — controlled China, India and Japan, and ran the United States. . . .”
(“Looking for a Scapegoat” by Victor Davis Hanson; San Francisco Chronicle; 9/13/2007; p. B7.)
11. Returning to the subject of Daniel Hopsicker’s research into the activities of 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta’s activities in South Florida, the program notes that Atta was listed as the president of a company in Orlando! Among his partners in this enterprise were a Moroccan national closely connected to the Moroccan embassy in Washington D.C. “Government records in Florida reveal that Mohamed Atta was the President of a company in Orlando with a business partner whose web of dummy shell companies appear characteristic of the type used in terrorist financing and illicit money laundering, the MadCowMorningNews has learned. One day after the 9/11 Commission Report says the terrorist ringleader finished making withdrawals in Virginia Beach, VA, totaling $18,000 from a SunTrust Bank account, on April 5th, 2001 Hassan Erroudani, an Orlando man with close ties to the Moroccan Embassy in Washington D.C., filed incorporation papers with the state of Florida listing the President of KARAM LLC as ‘Mohamed Atta.’ The document lists an address for ‘President’ Atta in Marseilles, France, which can be traced to a graphic design firm there. (Once again, Amanda Keller’s testimony is vindicated. Atta told her he was French.) Incorporation documents give the names of the KARAM LLC’s officers as Hassan Erroudani, Mohamed Atta, and Jamal Erroudani. Karam LLC was delisted in 2002 by the state of Florida for failing to file an annual report. When the firm filed for reinstatement on January 13, 2003, it once again listed ‘Mohamed Atta’ as a corporate officer. But Atta had now been demoted to Company Secretary. And his address has changed as well. Not to Paradise, or Virgin City, but Orlando, a long way from heaven, according to those who’ve been there. Atta’s current address, if Florida Division of Corporate Records can be believed, is 4124 West Colonial Dr, Orlando, FL., the location of an International House of Pancakes.”
(“Mohamed Atta, Florida Entrepreneur” by Daniel Hopsicker; Mad Cow Morning News; 6/12/2007.)
12. Erroudani’s links to the Moroccan diplomatic establishment are profound. “Hassan Erroudani has close ties with the Moroccan Embassy in Washington D.C. He is also the President of the Moroccan-American Chamber of Commerce. Moreover Florida records show Erroudani is also business partners, in a company called JMH INVESTMENT GROUP, with Mohammed Ariad, the economic counselor of the Moroccan Embassy in Washington D.C. Atta was, of course, in Orlando on numerous occasions. For example, his car, a red 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix two-door coupe, was said to have been seen last in downtown Orlando. Still, the idea that the ‘Mohamed Atta’ who flew Flight 11 into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 had been listed as a corporate officer in a Florida company, without it having become public knowledge by now, seemed a tad unlikely, perhaps even a little far-fetched. At least, it did, until after we spoke with KARAM LLC principal and founder Hassan Erroudani, who we reached by phone at his Orlando home. We hadn’t counted on either Erroudani’s flat refusal to answer any questions about the ‘Mohamed Atta’ listed as an officer in his company, or his tone of evident hostility. Trust us... We had been nothing if not polite, even to the point of suggesting a reason for why the whole thing might be just a big misunderstanding... ‘Was it perhaps just a case of two different men with similar names?’ we asked helpfully. Erroudani’s forceful response: ‘I don’t have anything to say about that.’ And then he hung up. Why would someone do that... unless they possess what is commonly known as guilty knowledge? His behavior seemed both inexplicable and suspicious.” (Idem.)
13. Another of Atta’s compatriots in the Florida company was the Turkish Naval Attache from Washington D.C. As Hopsicker notes, a significant Turkish drug trafficking/Islamist connection was exposed by whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. Taken in combination with Yassin Al Qadi’s Turkish/Islamist ties and the profound links between former Turkish Prime Minister Erbakan’s links to the Al Taqwa network, the Oner/Atta connection augurs poorly for the future. Will the only Muslim country in NATO go Islamist, despite the Turkish military’s avowed secularism? “Among the red flags denoting Hassan Erroudani’s various enterprises which we never got the opportunity to question him about: He ran a wire transfer service called Rapid Cash from out of his home. (Atta and Marwan made frequent use of wire services to get money.) He owned a company, Seawest Car Import/Export, which appears to be in the business of exporting luxury vehicles to the Middle East. One of the corporate officer in Seawest, until recently, was one ‘Murat Oner.’ Lt Cdr Murat Oner is the Turkish Embassy’s Naval Attaché in Washington. (Recall whistleblower Sibel Edmonds long and courageous struggle to tell America what she knows about, among other things, Turkish influence in the international drug trade.) . . .” (Idem.)
14. Concluding with information supplementing Daniel Hopsicker’s information about Atta associate Wolfgang Bohringer, the program highlights the close collaboration between the Seventh Day Adventist Church and Nazi Germany. Bohringer’s father headed the Seventh Day Adventist denomination in Germany, as well as being a key member of the Flying Club of Munich. This information is presented in the context of the well-documented and successful attempts by the Nazis to go underground after their military defeat. Various institutions were used as repositories for clandestine Third Reich operatives, possibly including the Seventh Day Adventist denomination in Germany. (For more about the Nazis’ plans to go underground, see Kurt Reiss’s book The Nazis Go Underground available for download for free on this website. More about these plans is available in FTR#180.) “Nazi Germany was a horrible place for small denominational churches because there was no religious liberty. One small denomination that survived was the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. When Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, the German Seventh-day Adventist denomination (hereafter referred to as Adventists) believed it was time for a strong leader in Germany. Hitler seemed to be the best candidate because of ‘his personal dedication and his abstinence from tea, coffee, alcohol and meat, practices shared by the Adventists, [therefore] he was welcomed as a savior.’[1] I hope to point out, because of the willingness to compromise the decent of the German Adventist denomination from the moral issues listed below, to where they ended at the end of World War II. They ended in compromise, loss of personal integrity, and denominational integrity, splitting of the denomination and were racially damaged as a Christian organization because they were unable to hold fast to the tenets of their beliefs. They tied the denomination to the German State giving up their religious freedom in attempt to survive through compromises. This position of compromise brought shame upon the German denomination as well as the worldwide denomination after the end of World War II. . . .”
(“Seventh Day Adventists” by Corrie Schroder.)
15. “ . . . The Seventh-day Adventists believe in religious liberty, but instead of voicing their outrage over the persecution of the Reformers and the Jews, the Adventist leaders decided to take action against these two groups. The Adventist leaders ‘issued directives to prevent the Reformers from joining the Adventist Church.’[31] And they expelled Adventists who had a Jewish background from the Church.[32] The Adventists were unwilling to even protect their own members if they thought the Nazi government would disapprove. The state was able to control the Church because there was no religious liberty. . . .” (Idem.)
16. “ . . . The Adventists believed that along with their welfare program, their health ideals were leading the way for a new Germany. Adolf Minck, soon to be president of the German Adventist Church, said, ‘We are not unprepared for the new order. After all, we have helped prepare the way for it, and helped to bring it about.’[40] The problem with supporting the Nazi government in their health program was the government’s belief in the principles of Darwinism. The Adventists denominational stance was against Darwin’s principles. The German Adventists sacrificed this principle for the Nazi government. In order to gain favor with the Nazi government, the Adventists changed what was written in their publications and reformed their health message. The Adventists ‘frequently print[ed] negative comments about the Jews.’[41] They also tried to show that even though the Adventists teachings about the Sabbath seemed Jewish, they were not Jewish.[42] The Adventists also believed in the sterilization program. Direct statements and the reprinting of non-Adventist articles showed their support for sterilization.[43] . . .” (Idem.)
17. The Seventh Day Adventist Church in Germany continued to be a repository for unreconstructed Nazis several years after the war. Did this situation persist for a longer period of time? Are there still key Underground Reich operatives in the Seventh Day Adventist Church? Is that the reason underlying the Bohringer/Atta association? “ . . . The survival of the church was what was important to the German Adventist leaders, and in order to survive they needed to compromise. Only in May 1948, did the General Conference take a closer look at the German Adventists’ actions during the Nazi regime. The reason why the General Conference took interest was because of a letter written by Major J.C. Thompson, chief of the Religious Affairs Section of the American Military Government in Berlin.[78] The letter wanted to know why the Adventists had not removed all the Nazis from their leadership positions within the denomination.[79] . . .” (Idem.)
18. 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.” In addition, there will soon be a documentary about Mr. Emory, titled “The Anti-Fascist.” For more about this project, visit TheAntiFascist.com.
[...] FTR #611 [...]
With massive anti-corruption protest growing in Moldova — some are calling it a Moldovan Maidan, although it’s not actually about moving closer to the EU but appears to be more a general protest against endemic corruption following a massive bank scandal — here’s one reason why the world really doesn’t want to actually see a Moldovan Maidan that somehow spirals out of control and results in a destabilized government or turns violent. Granted, there are all sorts of reasons the world shouldn’t want to see Moldova implode, like basic decency, but this is a pretty compelling reason for the world (especially Americans) to help Moldova find a stable path forward:
“The previously unpublicized case is one of at least four attempts in five years in which criminal networks with suspected Russian ties sought to sell radioactive material to extremists through Moldova, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. One investigation uncovered an attempt to sell bomb-grade uranium to a real buyer from the Middle East, the first known case of its kind.”
So in terms of shutting down the nuclear smuggling networks operating in Moldova, it sounds like it’s sort of a good news/bad news situation: The good news is that at least it doesn’t seem like there’s a particularly large number of people involved in these nuclear smuggling networks. The bad news of course being that this appears to be the case because the same smugglers keep getting arrested: