[CyberAnt]

I also read somewhere that Ben-Venista was meeting with Bill Clinton on a regular basis since the commission started.

If this is true .. this whole commission was nothing more than a MAKE CLINTON LOOK GOOD AND BUSH LOOK BAD.

This commission is a joke.

[Vigilantcitizen]

I also read somewhere that Ben-Venista was meeting with Bill Clinton on a regular basis since the commission started.

Veniste has been a Clinton a$$ covering specialist for years.

Peripheral Mob figures Nathan Landow, Richard Ben-Veniste, and their associates Terry Lenzner and Paul Begala became part of the secret police that would keep Clinton in office despite multiple revelations of criminal offenses. Ironically, the only member of the Clinton enforcement team who has threatened the use of Mafia methods in public is James Carville. He said on television that Kenneth Starr was just one mistake away from not having any kneecaps. "Kneecapping" is a Mafia specialty. Yet the only link between Carville and the Mafia that we have been able to find so far is his partnership with Paul Begala, who admitted in a recent deposition for the Filegate trial that he was in close and frequent contact with his friend Richard Ben-Veniste, a Mob lawyer and friend of Mobster Alvin Malnik [2]. Richard Ben- Veniste has defended several drug traffickers and money launderers for the Mafia and for the DNC. Ben-Veniste also defended Bill Clinton on the Senate Whitewater panel in 1995.

To: backhoe

Glad you mentioned Ben-Veniste!--I was forgetting how he fit into this. I'm searching now to see if he represented anyone connected with the Medellin Cartel, and I am reminded of Ben-Veniste's relationship with Barry Seal:

"So Seal went over their heads. Again he was rebuffed. Eventually, with help from his lawyer, Richard Ben-Veniste, he went over everybody's heads, to Washington, DC. "I did my part by launching him into the arms of Vice President Bush, who embraced him as an undercover operative," Ben-Veniste later told the Wall Street Journal. Seal appeared before Bush's Vice Presidential Task Force on Drugs in Washington, where he appeared to dazzle them with smuggling lore and how he had made millions in the "trade," as he called it. But what caught the panel's attention was the bombshell he dropped during his closed-door testimony: that the Sandinistas were directly involved in drug trafficking into the United States. According to Seal, the Medellin Cartel had made a deal with the Sandinistas, awarding them hefty cuts of drug profits in exchange for the use of an airfield in Managua as a transshipment point for narcotics.. . .The web of connections that such investigation uncovers seems to be nearly endless. Ben-Veniste, to cite but one example, had another client whose name may ring a bell. It was William Jefferson Clinton. He was governor of the state where Mena is located during the height of the shenanigans that went on there. Then there's Ben-Veniste's close friend and associate Alvin Malnik, a man regarded as Meyer Lansky's "heir apparent." Hopsicker calls him "Alvin of Arabia" because, unlike most Jews, he converted to Islam, took an Arabic name and married his son into the Saudi royal family. Both he and his son have taken up residence in the kingdom, where he acts as an advisor to the royal family. It's an odd little tale, but what does it have to do with Barry Seal? In 1982 Seal began flying weapons to the Contras from Mena, Arkansas which had been paid for with Saudi Royal family money. Coincidence? Perhaps. Small world? Without a doubt."The saga of Barry Seal 6/18/01

That was from a June 2001 article. Note how Ben-Veniste's story about his role in turning Seal into a DEA informant has changed since then--this is from an interview after Ben-Veniste was appointed to the 9-11 Commission:

I did represent Barry Seal, who was convicted. He thereafter, on his own, became a government informant.Exclusive Interview with R. Ben-Veniste, Commissioner on 9/11 4/24/03

More details:

"Major Democratic Party figures doing business with drug traffickers and intelligence agencies is not as surprising as it might sound. Hopsicker also interviewed Iran-Contra insiders who told him that Democratic powerhouse attorney Richard Ben Veniste had - also in 1982 - incorporated a company named Trinity Oil for Barry Seal as a vehicle to launder Seal's enormous cocaine cash flow.": The Democratic Party's Presidential Drug Money Pipeline

"Capital Consultants LLC of Portland has lent at least $6 million -- much of it from union pension funds -- to a Georgia-based auto lender linked to a businessman with reputed ties to organized crime. Alvin Malnik, a Boca Raton, Fla., lawyer and investor, is the beneficiary of two trusts that hold 100 percent of the stock of Title Loans of America, the nation's largest title-lending chain, according to Don Tucker, a Title Loans lobbyist in Florida. . .The New Jersey Casino Control Commission denied Malnik a casino license in 1980, citing, among other things, his long association with mob financier Meyer Lansky. The commission ruled that Malnik was "a person of unsuitable character and unsuitable reputation." And in 1993 the commission disciplined two Atlantic City casinos for allowing Malnik to set foot in them.": Firm Linked To Reputed Mob Figure Got Loans

"Alvin Malnik's son, "Shareef" - formerly known as Mark - was a young - Jewish - married man.* He was also an adviser and confidante to Prince Turki. Malnik controlled the Prince's schedule and contacts.* Prince Turki created a two-story apartment in Malnik's North Miami condominium, the Cricket Club, directly below Alvin's penthouse.*. . .Young Mark took to carrying the Koran around with him.*Then a devastating blow struck the Saudi Prince and his entourage.* Miami police, acting on a complaint that servants were being held as slaves, stormed the Cricket Club sancturary.*But the cops never got a chance to carry out their search.* One of the Princesses' began shouting very unroyal obscenities at them, biting a policewoman deep enough to leave toothmarks for days.*Family bodyguards quickly came to the rescue.* A stand-off ensued, and startled police were forced to retreat.*As suits and counter-suits began to fly between Saudi Prince Turki and an outraged Florida State Attorney, the U.S. State Department rushed in a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia to serve as intermediary.* He secured face-saving diplomatic immunity for the Prince.*Then the Prince's brother-in-law Al-Fassi offered to sell a stolen $1.2 million emerald-and-diamond ring to an undercover FBI agent.* He did not have diplomatic immunity, and was charged with interstate and international transportation of stolen goods, a felony punishable by amaximum of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.*The lucky Sheik had, at least, a well-connected lawyer: Richard Ben-Veniste.* When all this bad news reached the ear of the Saudi King back in Riyadh, he ordered the Prince to end his lolng exile and return home.* Once at home, the Prince's family circle broadened to include their friends formerly named Malnik.*Both father and son were said to have taken Arabic names and converted to Islam.*What pertinance does the story of Attorney Alvin Malnik, heir to Meyer Lansky, converting to Islam and living in Saudi Arabia as an adviser to a member of the Saudi royal family have to do with all this? *In 1982 Barry Seal began flying weapons to the Contras from Mena, Arkansas which had been paid for with Saudi Royal family money. Michael Fugler was Seal's frontman and attorney. Fugler also has insider shares to Khasshogi's GENI being shorted by Amr Elgindy."REUTERS: Saudis Plan to Sue U.S. over Sept. 11

So if Ben-Veniste represented a client tied to the Saudis, wouldn't that give him a conflict of interests in the 9-11 Commission?

BTW if you click on that last link, there's a list of the Malniks' corporate assets--handy.

11 posted on 04/19/2004 3:16:31 PM EDT by Fedora

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Glad you mentioned Ben-Veniste!--I was forgetting how he fit into this. I'm searching now to see if he represented anyone connected with the Medellin Cartel, and I am reminded of Ben-Veniste's relationship with Barry Seal:

"So Seal went over their heads. Again he was rebuffed. Eventually, with help from his lawyer, Richard Ben-Veniste, he went over everybody's heads, to Washington, DC. "I did my part by launching him into the arms of Vice President Bush, who embraced him as an undercover operative," Ben-Veniste later told the Wall Street Journal. Seal appeared before Bush's Vice Presidential Task Force on Drugs in Washington, where he appeared to dazzle them with smuggling lore and how he had made millions in the "trade," as he called it. But what caught the panel's attention was the bombshell he dropped during his closed-door testimony: that the Sandinistas were directly involved in drug trafficking into the United States. According to Seal, the Medellin Cartel had made a deal with the Sandinistas, awarding them hefty cuts of drug profits in exchange for the use of an airfield in Managua as a transshipment point for narcotics.. . .The web of connections that such investigation uncovers seems to be nearly endless. Ben-Veniste, to cite but one example, had another client whose name may ring a bell. It was William Jefferson Clinton. He was governor of the state where Mena is located during the height of the shenanigans that went on there. Then there's Ben-Veniste's close friend and associate Alvin Malnik, a man regarded as Meyer Lansky's "heir apparent." Hopsicker calls him "Alvin of Arabia" because, unlike most Jews, he converted to Islam, took an Arabic name and married his son into the Saudi royal family. Both he and his son have taken up residence in the kingdom, where he acts as an advisor to the royal family. It's an odd little tale, but what does it have to do with Barry Seal? In 1982 Seal began flying weapons to the Contras from Mena, Arkansas which had been paid for with Saudi Royal family money. Coincidence? Perhaps. Small world? Without a doubt."The saga of Barry Seal 6/18/01

That was from a June 2001 article. Note how Ben-Veniste's story about his role in turning Seal into a DEA informant has changed since then--this is from an interview after Ben-Veniste was appointed to the 9-11 Commission:

I did represent Barry Seal, who was convicted. He thereafter, on his own, became a government informant.Exclusive Interview with R. Ben-Veniste, Commissioner on 9/11 4/24/03

More details:

"Major Democratic Party figures doing business with drug traffickers and intelligence agencies is not as surprising as it might sound. Hopsicker also interviewed Iran-Contra insiders who told him that Democratic powerhouse attorney Richard Ben Veniste had - also in 1982 - incorporated a company named Trinity Oil for Barry Seal as a vehicle to launder Seal's enormous cocaine cash flow.": The Democratic Party's Presidential Drug Money Pipeline

"Capital Consultants LLC of Portland has lent at least $6 million -- much of it from union pension funds -- to a Georgia-based auto lender linked to a businessman with reputed ties to organized crime. Alvin Malnik, a Boca Raton, Fla., lawyer and investor, is the beneficiary of two trusts that hold 100 percent of the stock of Title Loans of America, the nation's largest title-lending chain, according to Don Tucker, a Title Loans lobbyist in Florida. . .The New Jersey Casino Control Commission denied Malnik a casino license in 1980, citing, among other things, his long association with mob financier Meyer Lansky. The commission ruled that Malnik was "a person of unsuitable character and unsuitable reputation." And in 1993 the commission disciplined two Atlantic City casinos for allowing Malnik to set foot in them.": Firm Linked To Reputed Mob Figure Got Loans

"Alvin Malnik's son, "Shareef" - formerly known as Mark - was a young - Jewish - married man.* He was also an adviser and confidante to Prince Turki. Malnik controlled the Prince's schedule and contacts.* Prince Turki created a two-story apartment in Malnik's North Miami condominium, the Cricket Club, directly below Alvin's penthouse.*. . .Young Mark took to carrying the Koran around with him.*Then a devastating blow struck the Saudi Prince and his entourage.* Miami police, acting on a complaint that servants were being held as slaves, stormed the Cricket Club sancturary.*But the cops never got a chance to carry out their search.* One of the Princesses' began shouting very unroyal obscenities at them, biting a policewoman deep enough to leave toothmarks for days.*Family bodyguards quickly came to the rescue.* A stand-off ensued, and startled police were forced to retreat.*As suits and counter-suits began to fly between Saudi Prince Turki and an outraged Florida State Attorney, the U.S. State Department rushed in a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia to serve as intermediary.* He secured face-saving diplomatic immunity for the Prince.*Then the Prince's brother-in-law Al-Fassi offered to sell a stolen $1.2 million emerald-and-diamond ring to an undercover FBI agent.* He did not have diplomatic immunity, and was charged with interstate and international transportation of stolen goods, a felony punishable by amaximum of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.*The lucky Sheik had, at least, a well-connected lawyer: Richard Ben-Veniste.* When all this bad news reached the ear of the Saudi King back in Riyadh, he ordered the Prince to end his lolng exile and return home.* Once at home, the Prince's family circle broadened to include their friends formerly named Malnik.*Both father and son were said to have taken Arabic names and converted to Islam.*What pertinance does the story of Attorney Alvin Malnik, heir to Meyer Lansky, converting to Islam and living in Saudi Arabia as an adviser to a member of the Saudi royal family have to do with all this? *In 1982 Barry Seal began flying weapons to the Contras from Mena, Arkansas which had been paid for with Saudi Royal family money. Michael Fugler was Seal's frontman and attorney. Fugler also has insider shares to Khasshogi's GENI being shorted by Amr Elgindy."REUTERS: Saudis Plan to Sue U.S. over Sept. 11

So if Ben-Veniste represented a client tied to the Saudis, wouldn't that give him a conflict of interests in the 9-11 Commission?

BTW if you click on that last link, there's a list of the Malniks' corporate assets--handy.

[lonestar]

Ben-Venista

He has always looked like a mafia godfather to me.

[MplsSteve]

If there's any truth to what you say, it seems as though Ben Veniste has a possible conflict of interest.

If there is in fact no conflict of interest, then Ben Veniste (and Gorelick) need to put themselves in a position where there is not even the slightest appearance of impropriety.

By attending the Fahrenheit 911 premiere (and meeting w/Clinton), Ben Veniste has failed that test.

Why isn't the media reporting this?!