Posted on 01/21/2002 8:07:02 PM PST by ex-Texan
Did Jailed 'Spy' In Canada Predict The 911 Attacks On America?
By Nick Pron Staff Reporter
While jet fighters drop bombs on Afghanistan in the wake of the World Trade Center tragedy and FBI agents search for the source of anthrax letters, an incredible tale has been unfolding in a Toronto courtroom.
It draws together the threads of a narrative some describe as "stunning and fantastic," while others wonder if it isn't just the ravings of a lunatic.
The man telling the tale in sworn court affidavits is Delmart Edward Vreeland, who faces credit fraud charges in Canada and in the United States, where officials are attempting to extradite him.
The 35-year-old American claims to be a lieutenant in a U.S. Navy intelligence unit - a spy who says he knew in advance about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In his affidavit, he says he tried to warn Canadian intelligence about possible terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, along with targets in Ottawa and Toronto, but was written off as a petty criminal.
So he wrote the warning on a piece of paper, sealed it in an envelope, and handed it to jail guards a month before the attacks. They opened the letter Sept. 14 and immediately forwarded the information to Ottawa.
His lawyers, Rocco Galati and Paul Slansky, are fighting extradition, telling the court he could face treason charges and the death penalty in the U.S.
In the first stage of hearings, federal prosecutor Kevin Wilson yesterday told Mr. Justice Archie Campbell of the Superior Court of Justice that he was skeptical of Vreeland's claims.
"Is his story possible? I can't go so far as to say it's not possible, but it's not plausible," Wilson said.
The prosecutor said he has seen no evidence to back Vreeland's claim that Canadian embassy official Marc Bastien was murdered in Moscow in December. Canadian officials said the 35-year-old computer specialist died of natural causes.
So, who is Delmart Edward Joseph Michael Vreeland II?
According to court documents, Vreeland was 18 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1984.
Two years later, Vreeland says in his affidavit, he joined a special unit investigating drug smuggling into the U.S. by naval personnel. But the navy says Vreeland was "unsatisfactorily discharged" in 1986.
Vreeland also claims he gathered information on a crime family in Detroit and testified against them in 1998.
Late last year, he says, he came to Canada to help smuggle Russian military secrets out of Moscow, including Russia's plan to counter the American 'Star Wars' missile defence system. While in Moscow, Vreeland says, he met Bastien.
Vreeland was arrested by a police fugitive squad nine months ago. While in Toronto (Don) Jail, he met Nestor Fonseca, who was facing drug smuggling charges and extradition to the U.S. The court documents say Fonseca allegedly told Vreeland of his plans to kill a Toronto judge and others. Fonseca was charged with counselling to commit murder.
Galati and Slansky said in the documents that Vreeland should be put into the witness protection program in Canada because he is the main witness against Fonseca.
Galati writes in one document: "Neither myself, nor Mr. Slansky ... have seen anything as incomprehensibly frustrating, inexplicable and irresponsibly absurd. as the RCMP's position that they are not interested in reviewing Mr. Vreeland's information."
It would appear, Galati says in the brief, that the Canadian and American governments have written Vreeland off as a "nut case," which he says is a "patently absurd conclusion."
See also the responses #27 and #28 to the following post by NAFV, and see if anything sounds sort of, ummm, familiar to you:
Bookmarked for the follow-ups....
They've kinda caused a "visibilty" problem with the 9-11 crashes in regard to the importation logistics, haven't they?
With the new measures of travel observation/cross border transport, about the only way the Tonnage of drugs can be continuing to be brought in is by using Military Transport. There's enough "good guys" in the military that it'll get exposed soon, though.
I wonder if any good drug cop has thought to give some military planes/Nat'l Guard type a Drug Dog going over very discretely?
Mr. Winokur .... is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Capricorn Holdings, Inc., (a private investment company) and Managing General Partner of Capricorn Investors, L.P., Capricorn Investors II, L.P. and Capricorn Investors III, L.P., private investment partnerships concentrating on investments in restructure situations, organized by Mr. Winokur in 1987, 1994 and 1999 respectively.Did he form the third partnership in 1999 in anticipation of Enron's collapse? Just some food for thought...
There have indeed. Their bosses quietly take them aside and straighten them out, or they find themselves reassigned to office duties counting paper clips. And those military officers upset at the use of their aircraft or base facilities suffer a similasr fate, and sometimes, a more drastic one.
But it's nothing new, having gone on for the last quarter of the Twentieth Century; the use of military aircraft for the transshipment of narcotics into this country has been going on since 1975 and before. When congress cut off funds for the relocation of our South Vietnamese allies who had been military and intelligence assets, many were rescued from their fate in Vietnam and resettled *privately* using unaccountable and untraceable intelligence community funding; by 1976-78 those funds had to be replenished and so some of those in the intel and military spook community found a way to accomplish that end and line their own pockets. The resulting operation was origionally entitled *Operation Watch Tower*.
It had several aspects, including the original resettlement of the South Viets, particularly Naval intelligence and Naval commandos who became the core of an operational cadre useful to the overall operation, to the actual movement of the narcotics, and short-term secret military missions in other south and central American countries to plant and protect electronic navigational beacons for the aviators.
In addition, a DEA operation under former CIA spook Lucian Conein to establish a DEA execution team known as DEA-SOG [S/pecial O/perations G/roup] to eliminate pesky competition expanded to become an assassination unit considering the removal of balky foreign heads of state as well, which grew to include tasks involving uncooperative US congressmen, journalists and religious reformers.
By the 1980s that single-purpose group had split like an amoeba and the operation continued, though less centralized, to include the use of former military aircraft sold off to commercial interests ostensobly for firefighting, and to include the activities of Special Forces and CIA pilot Barry Seal at Mena, Arkansas and elsewhere.
Possibly. Or were there perhaps lesser holdings that went under circa 1987, 1994 and 1999 or a year or so before, from which some assets from those entities might have been relocated into organizations created for just such warehousing purposes. Somebody with better professional knowledge of financial affairs than youI might find those dates more familiar and meaningful....
I can think of a couple of possible candidates, and I'll run the idea past them.
Thanks. You get a cookie.
-archy-/-
Your motivation/action plan is illogical.
If the letter said anything other than what he said it would, then copies of it would be plastered all over the news. - the fact that it is not reveiled is sufficient proof that it is incriminating.
The report says Bastien had in his system a mix of alcohol and clozapine, a drug for severe cases of schizophrenia. When combined, the substances can cause the central nervous system to shut down. The dangerous mix could have put Bastien into a coma, followed by respiratory failure, the report said.
But the exact cause of death could not be determined. Bastien did not have a prescription for clozapine, and medical records cited in the report show he had no history of psychological illness. Coroner Line Duchesne said investigators in Moscow and Canada believed the drug was slipped into Bastien's drink by an acquaintance at a bar, but no conclusive evidence had been found.
this just struck a nerve after all that has been posted about anthrax causing a quick, mysterious respiratory related death.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.