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Confounding
those who thought it impossible,
the FBI’s already-tattered credibility
was shredded still further last
week with revelations of deliberately
concealed evidence in the 9.11 investigation,
as well as malfeasance in the probe
of the execution-style slaying in
Florida of SunCruz Casino Czar Gus
Boulis, increasingly the focus of
the investigation into disgraced
Republican lobbyist-cum-bagman
Jack Abramoff.
In
a major development in
the 9.11 investigation which passed
almost-unnoticed, jurors in the
death penalty trial of Zacharias
Moussaoui heard testimony from aviation
officials about a previously-undisclosed
incident...
In February of 2001, almost two
months after the FBI says Mohamed
Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi left Huffman
Aviation in Venice Florida for the
bright lights of Miami, the two
men were still flying a single-engine
plane registered to Venice Florida
flight school Huffman Aviation.
Surprise surprise.
The story offers further confirmation of
allegations in “Welcome
to TERRORLAND"
that the FBI systematically covered
up evidence showing Atta using Huffman
Aviation in Venice as his base of
operations for the entire year before
the 9.11 attack.
If
the FBI’s chronology of events is
a tissue of half-truths, distortions
and outright lies, it is a very
serious matter; the Bureau’s investigation
was exclusively relied
on by both the Congressional Intelligence
Committee 9.11 probe and the 9.11
Commission, neither of which fielded
independent investigators.
Moreover, the incident also contradicts
sworn testimony before the House
Judiciary Committee by Huffman Aviation’s
Rudi Dekkers, who stated emphatically
that Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi
left Huffman for the last
time just after Christmas
in 2000.
The cover-up
lasts until we say different
The Clearwater incident began, jurors
were told, after a police aide and
night watchman noticed Atta and
Marwan Al-Shehhi practicing takeoffs
and landings at night, which is
highly unusual, as the the tiny
Clearwater airstrip is closed after
dark.
A
Clearwater aviation official testified
the airport prohibited take-offs
and landings after sunset. Planes
landing after 9 p.m. were even supposed
to be grounded until the next morning.
The disdain with which the two terrorist
pilots treated American aviation
regulations is already well-known,
because of the now-famous incident
in which Atta and Marwan walked
away from a stalled plane and abandoned
it in the middle of an active runway
at Miami International Airport.
Dan Pursell, a former chief flight
instructor at Huffman Aviation,
testified that a Clearwater police
aide at the tiny Clearwater Airpark
called Huffman Aviation and left
a voice message complaining that
Atta and Marwan were breaking airport
rules by taking off and landing
after dark.
Pursell told the St. Petersburg
Times, which first broke the story,
that when they returned to Venice
the next morning, he and another
flight instructor at Huffman spoke
with Atta and al-Shehhi about the
Clearwater incident.
How really brief
"really brief" can be
"Hey, we got a phone call,
you've been identified in Clearwater,"
Pursell remembers telling Atta and
al-Shehhi. "This is like, the
last straw. If that happens again,
we're going to have to look at this
a little harder."
He
called the exchange "really
brief."

When we phoned Pursell to question
him about why he hadn't brought
to light sooner an incident he must
have known had significance to the
FBI's timeline, we found him to
be a man of few words.
"I
told the FBI all about it at the
time," he told us. "They
knew."
We
asked the obvious question. "So
why did they continue to lie about
how much time Atta spent in Venice?"
Pursell said nothing. So "really
brief" described our exchange
as well.
Could government attorney Carla
J. Martin’s improper tampering with
witnesses, which briefly derailed
the Moussaoui trial, have been designed
to prevent just such disturbing
new disclosures?
The answer, of course, as with so
much else, is: "We may
never know."
A
sordid feat breaks a record in a
state with a sordid past
In
sworn testimony Rudi Dekkers insisted
his relationship with the terrorist
ringleader ended in December, nine
months before the attack.
“On July 1st, 2000,” Dekkers told
a Congressional Committee, “Mohamed
Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi arrived
at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Florida
to inquire about taking flying lessons.
On July 3rd, 2000, Atta and Al-Shehhi
came back to Huffman Aviation to
sign up for lessons.”
“On
December 24th, 2000, Atta and Al-Shehhi
rented a Warrior from Huffman Aviation
for a flight... one to two days
later Atta and Al-Shehhi returned
to Huffman Aviation to make final
payments on their outstanding bills.
Because they were not taking any
more flying lessons, they were asked
to leave the facility due to their
bad attitudes and not being liked
by staff and clients alike. Huffman
never heard about or from them again
until September 11th, 2001.”
Dekkers' testimony, which has clearly
now been rendered "inoperative,"
also appears to open him to accusations
of perjury. Or at least should...
One of the three alleged Mob hit
men on trial for the murder of Florida
Casino Czar Gus Boulis, which has
increasingly become the focus of
the probe into disgraced Republican
lobbyist Jack Abramoff, was an FBI
informant at the time he is alleged
to have been masterminding the murder
plot.
The international heroin trafficking
aspect of the 9.11 investigation
has also gone unreported, except
by the MadCowMorningNews, which
has extensively covered the inconvenient
discovery of 43 pounds of heroin
aboard the Lear jet of the owner
of Huffman Aviation during the same
month Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al
Shehhi arrived to attend his flight
school. 
As
Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi
began flying lessons at Huffman
Aviation, in July of 2000, the school’s
owner suffered a major embarrassment
when his Lear jet was seized by
DEA agents who found 43 pounds of
heroin aboard.
Authorities called it the biggest
seizure of heroin ever in central
Florida, which, given the state’s
sordid past, is no mean feat.
One stop shopping
for all your last-minute criminal
needs
One
of the alleged hit men going on
trial in Florida for the murder
of gambling czar Gus Boulis, killed
gangland-style after getting muscled
out of SunCruz Casinos by Republican
bagman Jack Abramoff, has been an
informant for the FBI for more than
a decade, including at the
time when Boulis was killed.
The Miami Herald, which broke the
story, said that at the same time
New York mobster Anthony Moscatiello
was allegedly plotting the slaying
of gambling tycoon Boulis, he was
spying on fellow gangsters and snitching
to the FBI.
“Big Tony” Moscatiello, whose duties
included ‘cooking’ the books for
Mafia don John Gotti’s Howard Beach
crew, was caught up in a major heroin
prosecution which included then-acting
Mob Boss Gene Gotti, John Gotti’s
brother, as well as assorted other
members of the Gambino Family.
He
became a confidential informant
for the Bureau after federal trafficking
charges against him were mysteriously
dropped in 1989.
The day after police announced arrests
in SunCruz Casino founder Konstantinos
"Gus" Boulis' murder,
Adam Kidan, Jack Abramoff’s titular
“President” of SunCruz, paid Big
Tony a jailhouse visit at Rikers
Island in New York City.
Um...a catering
business at Rikers' Island? A donut
shop in Sing Sing?
Adam Kidan is the only person outside
“Big Tony” Moscatiello's family
and
attorneys allowed in to visit the
alleged mob associate in his first
weeks behind bars. What do you think
they found to talk about?
In
any other organization, this kind
of developing pattern of illegality
might prompt calls for a RICO investigation.
Not of the Gambinos... of the FBI.
'Big Tony' Moscatiello, former advisor
to crime boss John Gotti and star
defendant in the gangland-style
hit on Konstantinos 'Gus' Boulis...was
an informant for the FBI at the
time the crime was committed.
Assuming he's found guilty, we wonder:
did he have to ask his FBI
handler for permission to
do the hit?
Or... was it an assignment?
Stay tuned.
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