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The Oklahoma Bombing: Politics of Terror
Alias Abdul Basit Mahmud Abdul Karim, Yousef arrived in the United States carrying an Iraqi passport.
Both Yousef and his partner in the World Trade Center bombing, Ahmed Ajaj, worked for Edwards Pipeline Testing and Technical Welding Laboratories in Houston, whose CEO is Maunal Bhajat, a close associate of Ishan Barbouti — an international Iraqi arms dealer who built Libya's chemical weapons plant at Ràbta. Barbouti's son Haidar (like Hussaini) also lives in Houston. According to Louis Champon, who went into business with Haidar, "Haidar Barbouti is an Iraqi agent."[578]
It was Barbouti who financed Champon's Product Ingredient Technology through his son Haidar. Wackenhut (a company with long-standing ties to the FBI and CIA) provided the security. According to Champon, Barbouti (with perhaps a little help from the secretive and mysterious Wackenhut) secretly drained thousands of gallons of ferrocyanide — a naturally occurring Cherry extract used to make cyanide gas — from Champon's plant.
Barbouti's ability to procure U.S. weapons technology for sale to Libya and Iraq wasn't exactly hindered by U.S. officials. While the Bush administration was publicly decrying Hussein's use of chemical weapons on the Kurds, the potassium ferrocyanide was shipped to Iraq to manufacture chemical weapons for Iraq's army, with the full knowledge and complicity of the Bush administration.
Said Champon, "Not one U.S. agent — not one official, ever questioned Haidar Barbouti — for evasion of taxes, where he got his money from, his involvement… in shipping cyanide outside the P.I.T. plant… nothing. I was told — and this is a quote from U.S. Customs [agent Martin Schram] — "This matter is highly political. Haidar Barbouti cannot be indicted, and if he were, he would never be convicted."[579]
The key that allowed the Iraqi "businessman" (Barbouti doesn't like to be called an arms dealer) to interface with the CIA was one Richard V. Secord, an integral player in the Iran-Contra arms-for-drugs network. Secord, it should be noted, was also a business partner of Vang Pao, the Laotian General who ran a heroin smugging ring out of Long Tien Airbase during the Vietnam War, and Monzer al-Kassar, the Syrian arms and drugs dealer who was involved in the Pan Am 103 bombing — another crime that was successfully covered up by the CIA and the FBI. According to Richard Babayan, a former CIA contract employee, "Barbouti was placed in the hands of Secord by the CIA, and Secord called in Wackenhut to handle security and travel for Barbouti and his export plans."[580]
Mike Johnston, the attorney who sued Barbouti on behalf of TK-7, an Oklahoma City company, ran into the same sort of stonewalling by the Justice Department. As Johnston was told by the federal team investigating this little corner of Iraqgate, "Mr. Johnston, you don't understand, we have to limit the objective of the investigation so we can get on with the business of running the government."
"Going into the investigation… was a disguised whitewash," Johnston later told me, echoing what U.S. Customs agent Martin Schram told Louis Champon.
Former CIA asset Charles Hayes said the CIA-connected Wackenhut was helping Barbouti ship chemicals to Iraq, "Supplying Iraq was originally a good idea," he maintains, "but then it got out of hand."[581]
Said Champon, "I can assure you, that if drums of cyanide left our plant, Dr. Barbouti had his reasons, either to be used against American troops or terrorist acts against the United States at home."[582]
Cyanide is a necessary ingredient in the development of nerve gas. One thousand grams of cyanide later wound up in the World Trade Center bomb, constructed by Iraqi agent Ramzi Yousef.
Yousef's partner, Ahmed Ajaj, a member of the Egyptian-based Al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, lived in Texas. A Texas hamburger stand was reportedly used to relay telephone calls between the World Trade Center bombers as a means of avoiding detection. It was owned by some Palestinian friends of Ajaj, and Yousef and Ajaj used the number for conference calls while Ajaj was in prison.
The records may also indicate a tie between Ajaj and Hussaini's boss, Sam Khalid. Records obtained during TK-7's civil suit against Ishan Barbouti show a phone call to one of Khalid's properties in Houston. The person who made call was Ahmed Ajaj.[583]
Yet Barbouti wasn't just trying to procure material and technology from U.S. companies on behalf of Iraq. Barbouti also built the bunkers used to house Saddam Hussein's Mig jet fighters during Desert Storm. It was during TK-7's suit against Barbouti that the Americans learned of these bunkers. Barbouti's London head of Security, Tony Davisson, decided to sell the Americans the blueprints. It isn't clear whether Davisson had a falling out with Barbouti, or was simply being patriotic. The point may be moot, as Barbouti was apparently dead. The Iraqi arms dealer died (or faked his death) around the same time the Israeli Mossad knocked off his contemporary, Gerald Bull, the developer of the ill-fated Iraqi "Super-Gun."[584]
Davisson called TK-7's attorney, Mike Johnston, who flew to London, where he purchased the plans for $2,700, and promptly turned them over to the CIA. With the plans for Saddam's underground bunkers, the U.S. Airforce was able to practically wipe out Iraq's entire fleet of Mig fighter jets at the start of the war.
This didn't exactly make Saddam happy. In the parlance of the Arab world, this equated to pay-back time. If Hussein thought Barbouti was responsible for the destruction of his air force, he may have insisted the arms dealer cooperate in an act of revenge against the United States.
Yet the destruction of the Hussein's air force wasn't the only motive Iraq had for seeking revenge against the U.S. While Americans were busy tying yellow ribbons on their front porches for our boys in the Gulf, these same brave boys were slaughtering enemy soldiers and helpless civilians by the thousands. As reported by Mike Erlich of the Military Counseling Network at the March-April, 1991 European Parliament hearings on the Gulf War:
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The following information was posted on Free Republic on Oct 11, 2002 by OKCSubmariner.
"... KFORTV investigated whether or not the Iraqi was helped after the bombing by Haidar Barbouti, another Iraqi from Houston, Texas. Haidar Barbouti is the son of Ishan Barbouti who acquired biological, chemical and nuclear weapons technology in the US for Saddam Hussein during the 1980’s. Spy Magazine interviewed two known CIA operatives who claimed Ishan Barbouti was a CIA asset.
There is a prominent attorney in OKC who says he has receipts for purchase of luggage that is believed to have been used to carry a bomb on the Pan Am flight blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. The attorney also says the luggage was purchased by Haidar Barbouti. The attorney was involved in a lawsuit over Ishan Barbouti’s acquisitions in the US for Saddam Hussein. ..."
"... FBI agent Geiger and terrorism advisor Clear also discussed the Iraqis and the Barbouti’s during the taped interview in July 1996. This is important because of the allegations that Ishan Barbouti was a CIA asset who helped Saddam Hussein obtain US technology for weapons of mass destruction. And recall that KFORTV was investigating Ishan’s son, Haidar, for possibly helping the Iraqi who sued KFORTV. It is also important because a prominent OKC attorney has claimed he has receipts to show that Haidar bought the luggage that may have carried the bomb onboard the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie.
One of Ishan Barbouti’s attempted acquisitions was of a company in OKC called TK-7 that produced a rocket fuel booster that also could be used to juice up truck bombs.
According to McVeigh defense attorney Stephen Jones, Terry Nichols went to the Philippines and met with a member of a Middle Eastern terrorist group backed by Bin Laden, the Abu Sayeff terrorists. The Nichol’s meeting was alleged to have occurred at the same time as when Ramsey Youseff was in the Philippines. Youseff is now in prison for being the mastermind of several bombings of US targets."
......
Here is more from the same Free Republic thread.
ABC News: "We Can't Air This - It would topple the government of the United States"
From: John DiNardo jad@locust.etext.org August 11,1997.
From the set of videotapes entitled "GULF WAR CRIMES: The Conspiracy", by Peter Kawaja, (704) 349-4285, Videotape 1 of 6:
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"AN AFFIDAVIT BY FEDERAL AGENTS THEMSELVES, SWORN TO UNDER + THREAT OF THE PENALTY OF PERJURY BEFORE A GRAND JURY .... + HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS FEDERAL AGENTS TESTIFIED TO + BEFORE A GRAND JURY; THEY PROVIDED THEIR OWN EVIDENCE OF + THE [OPERATION] OF THE CYANIDE PLANT AND THE USE OF CYANIDE + ON THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF BOCA RATON, FLORIDA."
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ABC-TELEVISION NETWORK ANNOUNCER:
ABC News Nightline Financial Times investigation continues. Once again -- Ted Koppel.
TED KOPPEL:
The U.S. Government knew who Dr. Ishan Barbouti was. To use the Government's own description:
"He was a linchpin of the Libyan chemical warfare plant at Rabta."
.... His particular passion was companies -- particularly chemical companies -- with dual use technology; those, in other words, that had military as well as civilian application, like the "natural cherry flavoring" plant in Boca Raton, Florida.
Peter Kawaja is a securities specialist. In early 1989, Kawaja was hired to provide armed guards and an elaborate security system for the plant. Among the items he was told to install was a hydrogen- cyanide detection system. Kawaja was also instructed to take armed teams of guards to Barbouti properties in Texas and in Oklahoma.
Kawaja provided bodyguards for Barbouti's partner, Louis Champon, and for Barbouti's college-age son, Haidar. Kawaja claims that, in the spring of 1989, he called the Central Intelligence Agency and told them about [Barbouti's] plant in Boca Raton, Florida.
..... in 1989, the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and U.S. Customs had been told about Dr. Barbouti's activities here in the United States. In point of fact, however, the C.I.A. had been informed much earlier. ..... + + + + + + + + + +
From the free airwaves of WWCR-Radio, 3.215 megahertz, shortwave,
NEWSWATCH MAGAZINE, March 20, 1997, (972) 937-2227
DAVID J. SMITH, EDITOR, NEWSWATCH MAGAZINE: No wonder they [the Government] had to seal those documents [that they had seized from Peter Kawaja]. Federal agents provided their own evidence that Ishan Barbouti had established chemical warfare production capabilities at a facility identified as Product Ingredient Technology [a supposed cherry flavorings plant] in Boca Raton, Florida.
Federal agents also provided their own evidence that Barbouti owned specialty chemical companies and a company in Belgium identified as CROSS LINK. Now, remember, these were federal agents, and this was their own testimony.
Federal agents also provided their own evidence that Ishan Barbouti was supplying military items to Iraq, which was illegal.
All of this and more was sworn to by federal agents in 1990. Yet, all of the evidence that was taken -- under an ILLEGAL seach warrant from Peter Kawaja in his offices -- was sealed and made secret from Americans. And the president and commander- in-chief at that time, George Bush, went ahead with a war against Iraq, knowingly placing sons, daughters, husbands and wives of American citizens in harm's way -- knowing that they would be sprayed with these biological [warfare] agents.
None of this evidence was ever presented to the grand jury in order to indict anyone. It was sealed! Yet, Peter Kawaja -- who was subpoenaed to appear as the star witness for the Government, supposedly against Barbouti and the terrorists -- was not even allowed to answer pertinent questions that the jurors wanted to ask him. And when Peter Kawaja attempted to tell the truth to the jurors, the Assistant United States Attorney, Thomas O'Malley shut down the grand jury and dismissed them, and he dismissed Peter Kawaja, and [he has] now motioned, in a federal court, to drop all of the lawsuits and all of this information.
And, you know, it is so interesting that they transferred all of this information -- all of the documents that were not returned to Peter Kawaja -- to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
I just wonder why there was an explosion at that building! I wonder if it wasn't perpetrated in order to cover up something that was transpiring in the Government of the United States, such that if it was brought to the forefront .... [JD: ... it would have toppled the Government.]
ABC-Television went down to interview Mr. Peter Kawaja. After the interview was over, he asked them when they were going to air it. They said:
"We can't air this. It would topple the Government of the United States."
95 Posted on 10/18/2000 15:42:04 PDT by rubbertramp
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The following was also from the same 4/10/01 thread.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
DALLAS Ihsan Barbouti's former associates said the Iraqi financier used his investment in an apparent effort to export deadly hydrogen cyanide -- and the technology to produce it -- to Middle East countries identified by the U.S. government as supporters of terrorism, The Dallas Morning News reported in a copyright story. A chemical weapons expert said hydrogen cyanide is an odorless, colorless gas easily converted into use as a chemical weapon. Louis Champon, president of the plant, Product Ingredient Technology Inc., in Boca Raton, Fla., said he had no role in the diversion of any toxic material from the facility. He acknowledged, however, that at least five barrels, or 150 gallons, of a cyanide complex were unaccounted for and could have been taken from the site without his knowledge, the newspaper said. Champon said he has filed a lawsuit to sever his business relatonship with the Barbouti family. Barbouti died July 1 in London of pneumonia at age 63, authorities said. Another of Barbouti's former associates, Peter Kawaja, whose company installed a $1 million security system at the plant, said the cyanide was taken from the production facility during ''night trips'' to another site in Florida that he declined to identify. ''Shipments have left the U.S.,'' Kawaja said, ''and technology has left the U.S. We're talking about the research and development of chemical weapons in the United States.'' Kawaja declined to identify the purported final destination of the potentially lethal chemical. Barbouti, who had a doctorate in architecture, has been identified in several criminal court cases in Europe as the architect of Libyan Col. Moammar Gadhafi's chemical weapons plant in Rabta, about 40 miles from Tripoli. |
Champon, who was interviewed by The Morning News Sept. 7 at the office of his attorney, Anthony Pucillo, in West Palm Beach, Fla., said it was his feeling that Barbouti's intention was ''to ship out (the gas) to overseas.'' An executive order by President Ronald Reagan in February 1986, after an outbreak of hostilities between Libya and the United States, made it illegal tosend any U.S.-manufactured goods or technology to Libya. That executive order was extended last year by President Bush. U.S. Customs Service agents last Thursday interviewed Champon at the U.S. Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Customs and the FBI's foreign counterintelligence services have accelerated their investigation of Barbouti's role in the flavoring plant since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2. They also are examining his vast holdings in the United States, including high-tech and real estate interests in Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, Tennessee, New Jersey and New York. Barbouti's American business associates told The Morning News the international broker also acknowledged ongoing contracts with Iraq and Iran. Control of his American holdings has been assumed by his son, Haidar Barbouti, who also was in the financing and operation of the Florida flavoring plant, said Champon and Kawaja. Haidar Barbouti could not be reached for comment at his Manhattan condominium in New York, the newspaper said. The manufacturing facility produced a cherry flavoring -- known in the industry as natural bitter almond oil -- using a process developed by Champon. The flavoring is used in such commercial products as soft drinks, candies, gum and doughnut icing. The process involves the distillation of crushed apricot pits and produces not only bitter almond oil, or concentrate for cherry flavoring, but also sugar and hydrogen cyanide byproducts. Champon said his process neutralizes the hydrogen cyanide gas to a safe liquid form known as ferric ferrocyanide, a common chemical used widely in cleaning solvents. He acknowledged that the ferric ferrocyanide ''easily'' can be reconverted to hydrogen cyanide. One chemist, a senior university researcher who has been a consultant in the analysis, research and development of chemical warfare for the U.S. Army, said the Boca Raton plant was capable of producing ''significant'' quantities of hydrogen cyanide. The chemist, who requested anonymity, said that hydrogen cyanide -- in the hands of terrorists -- offers a potential security threat of ''immense'' proportion.
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121 Posted on 04/10/2001 23:51:23 PDT by Wallaby (wallaby@altavista.net)
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There is further reference to TK-7 Corp. v. Estate of Bartouti 993 F.2d 722, 732 (10th Cir. Court 1993)