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Serious
Questions for Michael Chertoff; Bernie Kerik’s Not Looking So
Bad Now
- By Allan P. Duncan
- January 30, 2005
www.OpEdNews.com
- President George W. Bush nominated Michael Chertoff to be the
new Secretary of Homeland Security several weeks ago and I have
some serious questions about this nomination.
-
- On September 7, 2004, I published a four part series of
articles titled, New Jersey and Terrorism…Perfect Together,
in which I exposed Chertoff’s link to a New Jersey man who was
accused of having ties to Osama Bin Laden and whose name had also
come up in a federal weapons sting called Operation Diamondback.
-
- Since the story is so complicated, I have tried to distill the
entire article to make it a bit easier to understand since many
people just don’t have the patience to read a 34 page story. I
have also added some new information that was not in the original.
-
- I have been trying to get this story out there for two years
and it is finally spreading on the internet and several mainstream
sources are currently investigating my claims. I have also been
trying to contact Senators and Congressmen since the confirmation
hearings are this week and time is of the essence.
-
- The full article can be read by clicking the link below.
-
-
http://www.opednews.com/duncan_0090304_NJ_terrorism1.htm
-
- In my article, I reported that in 1998, Dr. Magdy Elamir, a
prominent neurologist who lives and practices in North Jersey, was
named in a foreign intelligence report as having had ties for
years to Osama Bin Laden. This document went on to say that Dr.
Elamir owned an HMO in New Jersey that was funded by Bin Laden and
that Dr. Elamir had skimmed money from the HMO to fund terrorist
activities.
-
- In a Dateline NBC story titled
On the trail of arms merchants,
dated August 2, 2002, it states that the
foreign intelligence report was obtained by Congressman Ben
Gillman, when he was Chairman of the House International Relations
Committee:
-
- “Last fall, “Dateline” obtained information about Magdy
Elamir. He’s a prominent doctor, a neurologist with a practice
in Jersey City. Born and educated in Egypt, he moved to this
country about 20 years ago and since then has built a fortune. He
lives in a mansion, is generous to local charities and is an
active supporter of both political parties.
- Should counterterrorism investigators take an
interest in Dr. Elamir? Well, “Dateline” obtained a
document last fall — foreign intelligence report, that makes a
startling allegation about the doctor — that he has had financial
ties with Osama bin Laden for years. The report was given to a
senior member of Congress, Ben Gilman, back in 1998, when he was
Chairman of the House International Relations Committee.
- “We have a former FBI person on our staff and I
asked him to look it over,” says Congressman Gilman. “He thought
it was credible enough to turn it over to the intelligence people.
And we turned it over to the FBI practically immediately.”
- This was in 1998.
- The report alleges that an H.M.O. owned by Dr.
Elamir in New Jersey was “funded by ben [sic] Laden” and that in
turn Dr. Elamir was skimming money from the H.M.O. to fund
“terrorist activities.”
-
- Has the FBI answered those
questions? Not to Congressman Gilman’s satisfaction. But what
“Dateline” found intriguing is that less than a year after the
congressman says the FBI received the report, Dr. Elamir’s HMO
was taken over by the state of New Jersey, which opened a fraud
investigation. Why? Because, according to sources close to the
investigation, more than $15 million is unaccounted for.
Where did the money go? “Dateline” has reviewed documents
that show at least some of it went into hard-to-trace offshore
bank accounts.”
(1)
-
- The date of the 1998 foreign intelligence report is very
important, because an article in The Record, dated December
11, 1998, documents the fact that Michael Chertoff was Dr.
Elamir’s lawyer in the fraudulent HMO case in the same year that
Elamir was named in the foreign intelligence report:
-
- “Elamir, who has been accused by insurance
department officials of
diverting state Medicaid funds to other businesses he owns, did
not
oppose the state's takeover. No criminal charges have been filed
against
him.
But in a hint of the gravity of his legal predicament, he was
represented in court by Michael Chertoff, the former U.S.
attorney in
Newark and counsel to U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's Whitewater
investigation.” (2)
-
- The Record also reported on December 18, 1998 that
Michael Chertoff had access to Dr. Elamir’s financial records for
the fraudulent HMO and presented them personally in court:
- “Chertoff presented a thick document from
Elamir's accountant,
Mohammed Hanafy, offering explanations for the money transfers
from APPP
to other Elamir-controlled corporations.”
-
- Further on the article states:
Keupper says the state is not satisfied with Hanafy's
explanations,
noting that officials have been unable to obtain a full accounting
of
services provided by Elamir's corporations to APPP.”
(3)
-
- Michael Chertoff apparently represented Dr. Elamir in the
fraudulent HMO case from 1998 through December 2000 according to
articles and records I have compiled.
-
- The Dateline NBC story from August 2, 2002 also
revealed that in 1999, Dr. Elamir’s brother in Egypt, Mohamed El
Amir, tried to secure false paperwork for a warehouse full of
weapons in Italy that he wanted to ship:
-
- “Dateline” has found another
reason why federal investigators might want to pay close attention
to Dr. Elamir and his family. It’s something we learned
when we interviewed Randy Glass, the con-man turned undercover
operative who helped the government break up an illegal weapons
ring allegedly tied to terrorist groups. It turns out that one
of the people recorded trying to arrange an arms deal with Randy
Glass was Dr. Elamir’s own brother, Mohamed, an engineer, also a
U.S. citizen now living in Egypt. And just listen to what he
was interested in.
“There was a warehouse full of weapons in Italy that
they needed shipped,” says Glass.
It was the spring of 1999. Mohamed Elamir explains that
he wants false papers that would identify a shipment of weapons —
as vegetables.
Randy Glass: “ But you’re talking about, they’re saying
they wanna ship vegetables, right? Is what they want — is what
they want on the paperwork, correct?”
Mohamed El Amir: “Yep.” (1)
-
- This information now documents the fact that in the Spring of
1999, while Michael Chertoff was representing Dr. Magdy Elamir in
his fraudulent HMO case, that Dr. Elamir’s own brother, Mohamed El
Amir, tried to secure false paperwork for a warehouse full of
weapons. Dateline NBC also revealed that Mohamed El Amir
also had alleged ties to Osama Bin Laden since he was named in the
same foreign intelligence report that Congressman Gilman received
in 1998:
-
- “Did Mohamed give Glass
any indication as to who was going to get these arms?
“Never got a chance to ask him,” says Glass.
Glass says federal agents told him to drop the matter.
So, what happened to the case? “Nothing,” says Glass.
There was no follow-up. “No,” says Glass.
Was this a missed opportunity? “Hundred percent,” says
Glass.
And Randy Glass doesn’t know the half of it, because
that same intelligence report that talks about Dr. Elamir also
names his brother Mohamed as having ties to Osama bin Laden.”
(1)
-
- The Dateline story also revealed that the same
intelligence report stated that Dr. Elamir had financially
supported the Al Salam Mosque in Jersey City, the same city where
Dr. Elamir has his practice:
-
- “Dateline” caught up
with Dr. Elamir recently outside his office. He said he
couldn’t talk about his HMO and the missing money. But he had this
to say about allegations he’s connected to bin Laden and
terrorism.
Dr. Elamir: “That’s preposterous. Never.”
Chris Hansen: “Why would somebody say something like that
about you?”
Dr. Elamir: “I have no idea. I have no idea.”
But the intelligence report suggests one thing that he
doesn’t deny. That he has donated money to the mosque where the
blind sheik once preached, Omar Abdel Rahman, who is now in prison
for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.” (1)
-
- Here’s a bit of history about the
mosque:
-
- “It is nearly a straight shot
from the Jersey City waterfront overlooking the rubble of the twin
towers up to Al Salam, the third-floor mosque here that for more
than a decade has been tainted with suspicions of terrorism.
- First there was the 1990
murder of a militant rabbi, linked to an Al Salam regular.
Then there was the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center,
spurred, prosecutors said, by the incendiary sermons of blind
Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and carried out by his
followers.”
-
- “Al Salam had a tradition of
passionate preaching against the Egyptian government, which is
supported by the United States. Journal Square has a large
Egyptian population, and many worship at Al Salam.
-
- The mosque's most famous
scholar, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, was convicted in 1995 along
with nine followers of conspiring to bomb the United Nations
headquarters in Manhattan and several other buildings, bridges and
tunnels in New York.
-
- Prosecutors also said Abdel
Rahman had galvanized his followers to carry out the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing, which killed six and wounded 1,000.
-
- Three years later, Ramzi
Ahmed Yousef, who prosecutors said masterminded the 1993 bombing,
was also convicted. Abdul Rahman Yasin, another suspect in the
1993 bombing who lived in Jersey City, fled the country.
-
- In 1990, Al Salam regular El
Sayyid Nosair was charged with murdering Rabbi Meir Kahane during
a speech in New York.”
(5)
- Ramzi Yousef, by the way, is the
nephew by marriage of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, acknowledged as the
architect of the 9-11 attacks.
- Michael Chertoff served as
Assistant United States Attorney and then United States Attorney
for New Jersey from 1987 to 1994. He would have been in office
when “In 1990, Al Salam regular
El Sayyid Nosair was charged with murdering Rabbi Meir Kahane
during a speech in New York” and
would also have been in office when “Abdel Rahman had
galvanized his followers to carry out the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing, which killed six and wounded 1,000.” Chertoff was
also in office when “Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, was convicted
in 1995 along with nine followers of conspiring to bomb the United
Nations headquarters in Manhattan and several other buildings,
bridges and tunnels in New York.”
-
- I am sure that Michael Chertoff
must have had a role in investigating these cases and I’m quite
sure he knew quite a bit about the Al Salam Mosque’s members and
supporters. It is certainly ironic that he ended up representing
Dr. Magdy Elamir who financially supported the Al Salam Mosque,
the same mosque that planted the seeds for terrorist attacks
within Michael Chertoff’s own jurisdiction.
- Michael Chertoff was appointed Assistant Attorney General,
under John Ashcroft, in early 2001 and was placed in charge of the
Criminal Division. Since Operation Diamondback was an
active case when he took office, and culminated in arrests in the
Summer of 2001, the case would have fallen under his pervue since
it was handled as a criminal case and not as a counterterrorism
case. This means that one of his former clients, Dr. Magdy Elamir,
along with his brother Mohamed El Amir, were now suspects in a
case under his supervision.
-
- Operation Diamondback ran from the Fall of 1998 through the
Summer of 2001. As I reported above, Michael Chertoff represented
Dr. Elamir in his fraudulent HMO case from sometime in 1998
through December 2000. We also know that Dr. Elamir had been
named in the foreign intelligence report in 1998 as having ties to
Osama Bin Laden for years and that his HMO had been funded by Bin
Laden and that millions of dollars had been siphoned from the HMO
to fund terrorist acts. This means that Michael Chertoff had
access to the financial records of an HMO, which was allegedly a
front for and funded Bin Laden, for at least two years after his
client Dr. Magdy Elamir was named as having ties to Bin Laden.
-
- Neither Dr. Magdy Elamir, nor his brother Mohamed, were ever
arrested by US authorities when Operation Diamondback ended.
Michael Chertoff had represented Dr. Elamir for two of the three
and a half years that the investigation spanned and had also
overseen the case for a number of months after he was appointed
Assistant Attorney General in 2001.
-
- Operation Diamondback dealt with much more than what I have
presented in regards to Dr. Elamir and his brother. The case also
involved other Middle Eastern men operating in Jersey City with
ties to Dr. Elamir and his brother. Three of these men attempted
to secure components for nuclear Dirty Bombs and also wanted to
secure Plutonium. They also tried to buy 500 Stinger Missiles. In
one instance one of the men who was named as a member of the
Pakistani ISI, pointed towards the World Trade Center and stated
“Those towers are coming down.” The conversation was recorded by
the FBI’s Terrorism Task Force and yet nothing was done with the
information as we found out the hard way on 9-11. (1)
-
- The suspects named in Operation Diamondback are now
known to have had ties to AQ Khan’s nuclear weapons network
operating out of Pakistan. This info was not known during the
operation by the ATF and FBI Agents who worked on the case.
Dateline NBC revealed this information on January 14, 2005. ATF
Agent Dick Stoltz who supervised Operation Diamondback had this to
say:
-
- “In the summer of 1999, a group of illegal weapons dealers
were meeting at a warehouse in Florida, their conversations
recorded by federal investigators. One of the men, from Pakistan,
was seeking technology for nuclear weapons. Who did he say he was
working for?
- Dick Stoltz: “Dr. Abdul Khan.”
- Chris Hansen: “A.Q. Khan.”
- Dick Stoltz: “A.Q. Khan.”
- Former federal undercover agent Dick Stoltz was posing as a
black market arms dealer.
- Hansen: “Did you realize what you had at the
time?”
- Stoltz: “No. We didn't.”
- But now he does -- because A.Q. Khan is considered, by
some, to be the most dangerous man in the world. Why? Because Dr.
Khan has peddled nuclear weapons technology to some of the
countries the United States considers most dangerous, and some
accepted his offers.”
-
- Further on:
-
- “Undercover federal agent Dick Stoltz says there's evidence
Khan's operatives were at work here in the U.S., like a man who
asked if Stoltz could supply heavy water, an ingredient used to
make plutonium for nuclear bombs.
-
- Stoltz: “He said that Dr. Khan was handling
the negotiations behind the scene, as far as-- the heavy water.”
(6)
-
- Only two of the men I am referring to were arrested and only
one of them spent time in prison after he had been sentenced to 30
months. Today all of the players involved in Operation Diamondback
are walking the streets of North Jersey even though we now know
they tried to secure Plutonium and components for a nuclear weapon
and were working on behalf of AQ Khan.
-
- When the attacks on 9-11 occurred, Michael Chertoff was placed
in charge of the investigation. On Oct. 25, 2001, CBS
reported that the Feds had launched Operation Green Quest
in an attempt to stop the financing of terrorism. Here’s what Dr.
Magdy Elamir’s former attorney had to say on the subject:
"The lifeblood of terrorism is money, and if we cut the
money we cut the blood supply," said assistant attorney
general Michael Chertoff, the head of the Justice
Department's criminal division. (7)
-
- The next day, on October 26, 2001, Michael Chertoff testified
before Congress and had this to say:
- “As an integral part of this national effort, the
Department of Justice and the FBI have established an interagency
Financial Review Group to coordinate the investigation of the
financial aspects surrounding the terrorist events of September 11th
and beyond. All members of this Committee recognize the
importance of understanding the financial components of terrorist
and criminal organizations. These financial links will be
critical to the larger criminal investigation, while also
providing a trail to the sources of funding for these heinous
crimes. The importance of "following the money," in this
instance, as well as in the investigation of all criminal
enterprises, cannot be overstated.
-
- The members of this Committee are also well aware that
money laundering constitutes a threat to the safety of our
communities, to the integrity of our financial institutions and to
our national security.” (8)
- On March 25, 2002, CNN reported:
-
- “Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff is the
Dick Cheney of the Justice Department. Brainy, intense and well
connected, the former federal prosecutor can usually be found at
Attorney General John Ashcroft's elbow as the department's top
counterterrorism tactician. And last week Chertoff vanished
to an undisclosed location.
-
- With no deputies along and no publicity, Chertoff
was on a stealthy swing through France, Belgium and the
Netherlands. His mission: sell Western European governments on a
new Bush Administration plan to post U.S. Justice Department
prosecutors overseas in unprecedented numbers. "The sinews that
hold a terrorist network together are money, communications and
transportation," Chertoff told TIME before his trip. To help
sever those sinews, Chertoff wants to have American
prosecutors stationed in key capitals, where they can work behind
the scenes with their counterparts to overcome the legal and
cultural obstacles to shipping evidence to the U.S. for use in
court.” (9)
-
- I find it very interesting that Michael Chertoff, the man
tapped to cut off the flow of finances to known terrorists, had in
fact represented a man from 1998-2000 who allegedly had ties to
Osama Bin Laden and may have sent millions of dollars to him.
-
- I also find it interesting, that while Michael Chertoff served
as Assistant United States Attorney and then United States
Attorney for New Jersey from 1987 to 1994, that terrorist acts,
including the first World Trade Center bombing, were perpetrated
under his watch and were fueled from a mosque in Jersey City that
was never shut down and still exists today. Chertoff’s former
client, Dr. Magdy Elamir, is known to have supported the mosque
financially while having suspected ties to Osama Bin Laden. Ramzi
Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 bombing, just happens to be the
nephew of the 9-11 mastermind, Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed.
-
- If you read my entire four part article you will discover a
wealth of information about terrorist activities in the North
Jersey area from before the 1993 bombing through 9-11 with a lot
of evidence that many of the 9-11 hijackers spent time in North
Jersey before the attacks.
-
- Questions for Michael
Chertoff
-
- If I could question Michael Chertoff during his confirmation
hearing set for this Wednesday, I would ask him if he knew of any
of his former clients who may have had ties to terrorists or
terrorist activities.
-
- I’m sure he would say no.
-
- I would then ask him if he had knowledge of any civil case
that he had handled that might have involved an entity that had
been funded by a terrorist or been used to fund terrorism.
-
- I’m sure he would also say no.
-
- I would then ask him if he had ever represented Dr. Magdy
Elamir in a case involving a fraudulent HMO.
-
- At this, he would most likely answer yes, but maybe not though
if he cited attorney client privilege. I’m not a lawyer so I’m not
sure how much he has to say about a case.
-
- If he said no, I would then tell him that I know he had
represented Dr. Magdy Elamir and would spell out my evidence.
-
- I would then ask him if he had knowledge that Dr, Magdy Elamir
had been named in a foreign intelligence report in 1998 as having
had ties for years to Osama Bin Laden.
-
- If he said no I would then ask him if he was aware that the
HMO that his former client Dr. Elamir owned and operated may have
been funded by Osama Bin Laden and that millions of dollars may
have been siphoned from the HMO to finance terrorist activities.
-
- If he said no I would ask him if he had ever had access to the
financial records of the HMO in question.
-
- If he cited attorney client privilege I would then ask him if
he knew what happened to the nearly 6 million dollars that were
made in wire transfers from the HMO’s funds to unknown people.
-
- He would most likely cite attorney client privilege again so
having made several points I would move on to another subject.
-
- I would then ask him if he was aware that his former client
had been named in a weapons sting run by the ATF and FBI while he
was representing his client in his fraudulent HMO case.
-
- If he said no I would then ask him if during his tenure as
Assistant Attorney General was he aware that his former client Dr.
Magdy Elamir had been named as a suspect in a federal weapons
sting investigation that fell under his pervue.
-
- If he said no I would then ask him why he didn’t know this
since he was the head of the Criminal Division and the case would
have fallen under his supervision.
-
- If he said he was aware that his former client had been named
as a suspect while the case was under his supervision I would then
ask him if he took any actions to guarantee that there was no
conflict of interest.
-
- After his answer I would then ask him if he knew why his
former client had never been arrested for operating an HMO that
may have been funded by Osama Bin Laden, for skimming millions
from the HMO that supposedly went to Bin Laden or for having been
a suspect in Operation Diamondback.
-
- If he said he didn’t know I would then make the point that he
should have known since he was the Assistant Attorney General at
the time.
-
- I would also ask him if he was aware of historical terror ties
to the Al Salam Mosque in Jersey City.
-
- I’m sure he would then try to talk up the rest of my time by
telling stories about the mosque so I couldn’t ask him any more
questions but I’d cut him off after a few minutes and ask him if
he was aware that his former client Dr. Magdy Elamir had
financially supported the Al Salam Mosque.
-
- If he said no then I would tell him that he doesn’t seem to
know a lot about what has been happening in his own home state,
especially since one of his own personal clients has been accused
of being up to his neck in terror ties that could jeopardize our
national security.
-
- I would then close by asking Michael Chertoff how he thinks he
can protect our homeland when he failed to shut down terrorism
with roots in New Jersey while he was Assistant United States
Attorney and then United States Attorney for New Jersey from 1987
to 1994, and then failed to cut financial ties to terrorism that
might have involved one of his own former clients after he became
Assistant Attorney General and was put in charge of Operation
Green Quest.
-
- I know that I won’t be able to ask these questions of Chertoff
on Wednesday, but I’m hoping that at least one Senator on the
confirmation committee will have received this information by then
and has the intestinal fortitude to actually pose some of these
questions
-
- In my opinion, Michael Chertoff has no business becoming our
Secretary of Homeland Security until these questions are answered.
If he can’t secure his own backyard…there’s no way possible he can
secure our entire country.
-
- Sources:
- (1) Dateline NBC, On the trail
of arms merchants, August 2,
2002
-
http://www.msnbc.com/news/788686.asp
- (2) The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Judge Orders State to
Take Over Newark-Based Medicaid HMO, By Linda Washburn,
December 11, 1998
- (3) The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Judge Orders
Bond, Freezes Assets of Failing HMO's Owner, By Randy Diamond,
December 18, 1998
- (4) Dateline NBC, Stinger
missile sting operation,
March 18, 2003
-
http://www.msnbc.com/news/887141.asp?cp1=1
- (5) The Seattle Times, New
Jersey mosque's faithful stung by its alleged ties to terrorists,
By William Yardley
-
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134359268_njmosque27.html
- (6) Dateline NBC, The most
dangerous man in the world?,
January 14, 2005
-
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6827441/
-
- (7) CBS News, Feds Launch 'Operation Green Quest',
Oct. 25, 2001
-
-
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/10/25/attack/main315901.shtml
-
- (8) Prepared Testimony of the Honorable Michael Chertoff
Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division United States
Department of Justice, 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, September 26,
2001
-
-
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2001_hr/092601_chertoff.html
- (9) CNN,
Ashcroft's man on a mission, By Elaine Shannon, May 25, 2002
-
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/2002/04/01/mission.html
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