-Caveat Lector-
Venice Terrorist Flight School Linked To CIA
Wednesday, 27 February 2002, 1:05 pm
Article: Daniel Hopsicker
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0202/S00132.htm
Venice Terrorist Flight School Linked To CIA
Firm has 'green light' from local DEA
Sitting in front of Rudi's hangar: a commuter plane belonging to
(take your pick) Florida Air, Express Air, or Sunrise Airlines
by Daniel Hopsicker
February 25--Venice, Florida
(originally published at The Mad Cow Morning News)
New evidence linking the owner of the Venice Florida flight school
which trained Mohamed Atta to the Central Intelligence Agency
surfaced earlier this month.
The new evidence adds to existing indications that Mohamed Atta
and his terrorist cadre's flight training in this country was part of a
so-far unacknowledged U.S. government intelligence operation
which had ultimately tragic consequences for thousands of civilians
on September 11th.
Far from merely being negligent or asleep at the switch�the thrust
so far of allegations expected to be aired at joint Senate and
House Select Committee hearings next month�the accumulating
evidence suggests the CIA was not just aware of the thousands of
Arab student pilots who began pouring into this country several
years ago to attend flight training, but was running the operation,
for still-unexplained reasons.
During a controversy over the awarding of a bid for an aviation
maintenance facility in Lynchburg, Virginia, what had begun as a
purely local spat took on national importance when it unearthed
connections between Rudi Dekkers�the Dutch national whose
Huffman Aviation trained both of the pilots at the controls of the
airliners which crashed into the World Trade Center�and the CIA.
"Good-by Magic Dutch Boy; Hello Jerry Falwell"
The CIA's links to Dekkers surfaced when an unknown company
called Britannia Aviation was mysteriously awarded a five-year
contract to run a large regional maintenance facility at the
Lynchburg Virginia Regional Airport.
At the time of the award virtually nothing was known about
Britannia except that the company worked out of a hangar at Rudi
Dekker�s Huffman Aviation at the Venice, Florida airport.
But when Britannia was chosen over a respected and successful
Lynchburg company boasting a multi-million dollar balance sheet
and more than 40 employees, aviation executives there began
voicing concerns to reporters at the local newspaper...
"There was some sentiment that there might be something
suspicious about Britannia Aviation," stated business reporter Chris
Flores of the Lynchburg News-Advance. "There was a clear feeling
that nobody knew who these guys were, or where they were
coming from."
The suspicion deepened when it was discovered that Britannia
Aviation is a company with virtually no assets, employees, or
corporate history. Moreover, the company did not even possess
the necessary FAA license to perform the aircraft maintenance
services for which it had just been contracted by the city of
Lynchburg.
At a Lynchburg City Council hearing on the dispute there were
vocal objections from observers baffled as to why a company with
virtually no qualifications was being awarded a contract to take
over a large regional maintenance facility designed for major
carriers like Delta and USAir Express.
"It was as if someone with a learner�s permit from the DMV got
picked to drive Richard Petty�s car at Daytona," explained one local
aviation executive and NASCAR fan.
"It made absolutely no business sense that anyone could see."
"Be True to Your School."
When Britannia Aviation�s financial statements were released after
prodding by the local aviation community they revealed Britannia to
be a "company" worth less than $750.
Paul Marten, a British aircraft mechanic who was the Britannia
executive in attendance, rose to say it wasn't true. Britannia�s
assets, he was sure, amounted to more than $750, though how
much more was a question he left unanswered.
A Lynchburg city official attempted to wave aside objections that
Britannia was insolvent with a joke. "At least they have more on
their balance sheet than Enron," said Lynchburg City Councilman
Robert Garber.
Trying to save further embarrassment, Britannia executive Marten
reassured those in attendance that at Huffman�s hangar at the
Venice Airport they had for some time been successfully providing
aviation maintenance services for Caribe Air, a Caribbean carrier.
And that is how the world learned that under Rudi Dekker�s FAA
license Paul Marten's little dummy front company worked for a
notorious CIA proprietary air carrier which, even by the standards
of a CIA proprietary, has had a particularly checkered past.
Caribe Air's history includes 'blemishes' like having its aircraft seized
by federal officials at the infamous Mena Arkansas airport a decade
ago, after the company was accused by government prosecutors
of having used as many as 20 planes to ship drugs worth billions of
dollars into this country.
"What a coincidence, eh?"
Ironically, the company also made headlines a dozen years ago in a
scandal in which one of the principals, Angolan rebel Jonas Savimbi,
was reportedly killed just this past weekend.
A Caribe Air C130 had been shot down over Angola with the loss of
everyone aboard, including a US Congressman�s nephew. The plane
was on a mission for the Angolan government, it was discovered,
laden with a cargo of whiskey and cigarettes.
Observers at the time had noted wryly that, while the CIA had for
years been covertly supporting the other side in the Angolan
conflict, Jonas Savimbi�s UNITA rebels, it now appeared to be
playing both ends against the middle.
At least when it came to planeloads of swag.
Though the Congressman with a dead nephew was not amused,
the matter was quickly dropped.
Curiously enough, Caribe Air is today controlled by an offshore bank
located on the Caribbean island of Dominica, Banc Caribe, a private
bank that may be being investigated currently by authorities
pursuing the names involved in Enron's secret offshore
partnerships, many of which have the name "Caribe" in their title.
When four offshore bankers were arrested by United States law
enforcement agencies in November and charged with money
laundering, Banc Caribe Ltd., of Dominica was named in one of the
affidavits filed.
This is no doubt merely the sheerest of coincidences.
When details of the Lynchburg controversy first reached Venice
aviation executives they professed amazement. "No one here had
ever heard of Britannia Aviation before," one told us. "And this is a
very small airport."
After our inquiry he called a DEA source of his at the airport, this
aviation executive told us, to ask what he knew about Britannia
Aviation.
"This guy got all excited as soon as I asked," this executive stated.
"He immediately wanted to know why I was so interested in
Britannia. Finally he reluctantly told me that Britannia had a 'green
light' from the DEA at the Venice Airport, whatever that means. He
also said the local Venice Police Department (which has mounted
round-the-clock patrols at the Airport since Sept.11) had been
warned to leave them alone."
Paul Martens had no comment on the report when we dropped in
on him at his office in a Huffman Aviation hangar at the Venice
Airport. He was just an honest British businessman, he told us. He
had ties to Lynchburg Virginia. He had met his wife there, while she
was a student at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.
Her father was a pastor for the Reverend Falwell.
"Jerry Falwell got bailed out in the early '90's by a Lynchburg
businessman whose son is married to Billy Graham's daughter," a
Lynchburg observer told us. "Since then he runs a missionary
service called World Help, which flies all over the world."
Many of the flight trainers who had trained the Arab terrorist pilots
had also flown missions out of the Venice and Sarasota Florida
Airports for such Christian missionary services as televangelist Pat
Robertson's Operation Blessing.
It was "Islamic fundamentalist" Osama bin laden who cloaked his
covert activities under the cover of religious charities. Were we
now discovering that our own government intelligence agencies
used the same ruse?
What was going on here?
Christian-linked or not, why did a transparent dummy front
company like Paul Marten's Britannia Aviation have a 'green light'
from the DEA?
A green light for what?
- Daniel Hopsicker is the author of Barry & 'the boys: The CIA, the
Mob and America's Secret History. Email the author at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Copyright (c) Scoop Media
------------------------
"In little more than a year we have gone from enjoying peace and the most prosperous
economy in our
history, to a nation plunged into war, recession and fear. This is a nation being
transformed before
our very eyes."
http://www.truthout.com
Steve Wingate, Webmaster
ANOMALOUS IMAGES AND UFO FILES
http://www.anomalous-images.com
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
