Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon
You have probably never heard of Makram Chams. It’s time you met him.
Actually, you can’t physically meet him — he disappeared on September 11, 2001. I bring him to your attention for two reasons:
1. He knew, and apparently aided, Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 terrorists.
2. He owned a casino ship in Florida.
Yes, a casino ship — just like the SunCruz ships owned by Jack Abramoff, the recently-indicted Republican money-man and wheeler-dealer. According to Associated Press, the terrorists took a mysterious trip on a SunCruz ship on September 5, 2001. And that trip is of great interest for three reasons:
1. SunCruz ships were under investigation for involvement in money laundering and other unsavory activities.
2. Al Qaeda operatives made a number of mysterious casino jaunts in that era; few believe that they were hard-core gamblers.
3. Al Qaeda was funded by drug money. Drug money must needs be laundered. Casinos have been known to be used for that purpose. Casino ships are unregulated.
Perhaps we should tentatively add a fourth reason for concern: Intelligence agents who had identified Atta in the United States and who knew of his ties to Osama Bin Laden were told to steer clear of him. They literally covered up his picture on their charts of Al Qaeda agents. (See my latest piece on Able Danger.)
So with that background in mind, let’s learn more about the mysterious Makram Chams (whose first name is sometimes transliterated as Meekram).
My information was kindly provided by the estimable Daniel Hopsicker, of Mad Cow Morning News. I’m trying to double check the Makram Chams story (which is mentioned on one of his documentary videos, but is not on his website) to the limited extent that I can.
Hopsicker learned from eyewitnesses — including a cab driver who drove Atta on a number of occasions, and who told this story to the FBI — that Atta frequently visited Makram Chams, a Lebanese who lived above a convenience store that he owned.
At one point, Chams asked the cab driver to take him to the Orlando Executive Airport. There, Chams picked up an Armani-suited Saudi businessman and his wife, who wore traditional Arab attire. The driver then took this party back to Chams’ apartment. (After 9/11, the FBI reviewed surveillance tapes of this pick-up, which is how they learned of the driver.)
Weeks later, the same driver was asked to take the Saudi’s wife back the airport. But now they were carrying extra luggage — extremely heavy luggage. It was a chest so heavy that two men had to transport it.
An intelligence source contacted by Hopsicker felt certain that this chest contained gold.
Chams was no mere convenience store operator. He co-owned (along with one other investor) a casino ship called Vegas-in-Venice. This ship attracted a fair amount of attention because it had been left illegally in the harbor for over a year.
We have no word as to what happened to this ship, or how Chams paid for it. Was he a front man? Was the ship purchased by SunCruz?
After 9/11, Makram Chams disappeared, and his store remains shuttered.
Such is the gist Hopsicker’s story — or rather, as much of it as he has chosen to relay to me at this time. (His book “Welcome to Terrorland” may contain further details.)
The FBI does not include any mention of Chams in their publicly-released material on Atta. Of course, we now know (from the Able Danger story and other sources) that Atta did far more in this country than the Authorized Version would have us believe.
Casino ship owner Cham and his disturbing dealings with wealthy Saudis find an echo in the career of Jack Abramoff. Not only was he in the same business, he also has a Saudi connection many will consider unsettling.
As Kate Camborat the TPM Cafe notes, Abramoff did PR work for a Saudi billionaire named Saleh Abdullah Kamel, chairman of the General Council for Islamic Banks.
Kamel sure needed a good PR person. According to a number of published accounts report (which I cannot independently confirm), he has another good buddy — a fellow named Osama Bin Laden.
Kamel’s name also appeared in the “Golden Chain,” a roster seized by Bosnian authorities in Sarajevo in March 2002 listing Saudi donors to bin Laden and his associates; and he was named as a defendant in two Sept. 11th related lawsuits: one filed by the victims’ families in 2003 and another filed by Cantor Fitzgerald in September 2004 (Although claims of two plaintiffs from the first suit were dismissed, the same claims from other plaintiffs have yet to be.)
One of Kamel’s companies, Dallah Avco, made extensive payments (according to a Los Angeles Ties story) to al-Bayoumi, the Saudi who paid rent for the 9/11 hijackers lodging in San Diego. (For more, see here.)
Kamel has denied any connection to Al Qaeda.
All of which brings a couple of questions to mind — questions which may or may not be related.
Why did Kamel go to Jack Abramoff for help?
And just who was the wealthy Saudi who showed up at Makram Cham’s humble pad?
Nice piece!!!!
When you say this Chams guy dissapeared on Sept 11th…. did he die on one of the planes? or was he escorted by our govenment after Sept 11?
Isn’t Sibel Edmunds under a gag order because of evidence also linking Turkish drug money?
Isn’t this all just a little to coincidental??
I mean the lead perpatrator for 9/11 was on the SunCruz ship owned by Abromff, the most powerful lobyist for republicans in washington. The republicans don’t want any real investigation into 9/11 and are stonewalling the investigaiton by not providing all related materials "able danger". Bush stonewalled any investigation for 441 days. The republican lawyers are protecting Atta’s identity.
Is there not enough CIRCUMSTANTIAL evidence for any Sherlock Holmes wanna be to say that this administration COULD have been involved directly in 9/11, and that there should be an investigation into these potentially treasoness allegations by people that are not involved.
Problem is, no one is getting on TV and showing all the lines between all the people who are involved.. And, no one will… not while they’re in bed with Shrubman .. /sigh
The media (read: corperate america and global conglomerates) is complicit in all of this. They want their profits up and Republicans are good for that.. free money from the gov, laxed laws, deregulation.. though, now with the gas crunch on, they might start getting pissy and let Shrubman swing.. that’s our only hope (as a nation).. kida sick and sad, isn’t it?
Who is shrubman??
Thanks again for another great guest blog. I’ve been reading all of them, but haven’t commented much– trying to absorb all of the information. I’d guess many other readers are doing the same. Keep it up, please.
I did a search for corporations under Makram Chams, and found the following:
CHAMS INTERNATIONAL CORP., INC. L68968
DELMA, L.C. L95000000137
BLADE RUNNER PETROLEUM, INC. P00000033205
MAKNAB, INC. P97000007715
JACARANDA FUELS, INC. P97000052566
ALPHA 2000 INC. S11877
CHAMS INTERNATIONAL CORP., INC. L68968
DELMA, L.C. L95000000137
CANAPAN ENTERPRISES INC. P93000048292
MAKNAB, INC. P97000007715
All of which were dissolved after 2001, except for one – Blade Runner Pertroleum, where he was removed as a Director in June of 2002 (although they still show him as a director on corporate paperwork as of Janaury 2004). However I would like to note that they haven’t filed their paperwork for 2005 yet.
good job…
bladerunner petroleum…frontin’ or what?!?
ha
Charlie #1
Sibel Edmonds, yes. There is an article about her in Sept. 2005 issue of Vanity Fair. (Just found it, haven’t read it yet). The VF Sept issue more that looks interesting!
VF Sept 2005 contents
—- from content page VF —–
264 AN INCONVENIENT PATRIOT Naturalized American Sibel Edmonds went to work as an F.B.I. translator after 9/11. But she says she was fired for sounding the alarm about a colleague’s suspicious behavior, then silenced by the "state-secrets privilege." As Edmonds prepares a Supreme Court appeal, David Rose reveals why she’s such a threat to the status quo. Photographs by Henry Leutwyler.
———————–
You can download a .pdf here, posted by "Press Cuttings" site.
Also, look at Sibel Edmonds’ official web site, JUST A CITIZEN
Remember the movie Blade Runner. In it everybody on earth had at least one defect. It wasn’t always obvious, but it was there. One cop was gimpy and another was an alcoholic. The CEO of the company who made the ‘robots’ was nearly blind. His designer was short and ill of health. Of course, the ‘robots’ were as perfect as possible except that they went around killing anything that got in their way and they had no personal memories (had to use pictures made up for them). And, Decker, the blade runner, appeared normal, but there were questions about whether he was a ‘robot’ or had some other weird defect. I mean, why would anyone normal remain on THAT Earth? In real life Bushy is alcoholic, may have an aversion to pretzels, but is clearly dyslexic and has trouble with bodily coordination (falling off things all the time). So, where are the nasty robots in real life? Think sociopathic neo-cons; think Ukrainian mafia killers.
It makes me think that what’s happened, in some cases anyway, is that people with weaknesses have been blackmailed and controlled. Maybe that’s a wild goose chase, but that’s the dot-connected image that comes to mind. Gestalt theory and all that…
What comes next?
Violence, I’d guess. We might start seeing some lower-level individuals who are under pressure start to crack and commit suicide or be knocked off.
Are very dangerous people blackmailing the US government with nukes which have been smuggled in to the US? It’s been aledged and there’s hardly any way to know. It would certainly explain why Bush is always "on vacation" out of Washington DC.
Does this mean the people who committed the 9/11 attacks might have been Saudi & Egyptian, but might’ve also been hired mercenaries or might’ve been seriously real, but were controlled by other less committed individuals (perhaps in it for ego-gratifying power and wealth)?
Could it be remnants of the old Soviet Union who are struggling to regain power? Oligarchs? Russian Mafia? Ukrainian-Israeli-Russian-any Mafia? Well, the CIA should know because they’ve been dealing with drugs and gun smuggling for years. If they don’t know what that mafia is up to then probably nobody does.
Maybe the Ukrainian + Russian mafia connection should make us wonder why there was such a stink about their presidential election which was redone. It was Americans who ran the campaign of the guy who eventually won and it was American exit polling which prevented the first results from sticking. Maybe Americans who’ve been blackmailed had to help the RUI mafia take Ukraine, despite fears the Russian government may have had.
There’s a lot of speculation here, but there are a lot of dots which are usually either connected or familiar with one another. Those connections need to be investigated. For example, the Al Qaeda + Kamel + Abramoff + Republican thread is certainly of interest, as the story above indicates.
If this is why the Republicans are in deep doo doo, then all of America is in seriously deep too. It’s not good for anybody.
Bladerunner petroleum was involved directly was it? Oil companies….
It makes me wonder if State Department officials harbored terrorists, and if the terrorists made a deal with the oil companies and so they were intent on forcing 9/11 to happen.
What does it take for the FBI to interrogate Abramoff until he just plain spills everything? Everyone should write to them until they do.
Doug
Doug- you didn’t really catch what frontin’ meant did ya?
a front=not a legitimate business (could be a front for illegal activities such as money laundering)
The Bush’s had an "oil company" that was used as a front back in the days of Iran Contra…but…not many speak of such things these days.
Anyway- see if you can find more on bladerunner- not the movie.
Doubt you can find much on any of the companies.
Here’s what a military forum had to say about Canapan:
Then Canada will take over Japan and rename in ‘Canapan’ and using other specially trained ninja animals we’ll invade the rest of the countries…So soon you’ll all be bowing down to the maple leaf BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
link
makes about as much sense as chalms’ multi faceted business portfolio
#8 – been having similar thoughts. Wondering why there is never a peep from ‘powerful’ dems against the shrub, even now when his public support is dropping so low. Maybe because the dems are also involved in the scummy corruption rampant now? Or, they are being controlled by blackmail after being involved in the child prostitution stuff that came out in the DC paper (all that stuff about bush sr., was it in the moony paper?). Then it hit me, that one explanation that would really explain the current wimpy behaviour of so many in the face of all the corruption going down, is that nukes have already been ‘delivered’ to DC, and they are keeping those who know too much very much in line. Question is, who done it?
After reading the vanity fair piece this month about Sibel Edmonds, it hit me, our govt. is working against us. Won’t ever forget the long senate discussion after 9/11 about stopping overtime for first responders. nurses, policemen and firemen. I think the legislation went through twice and was defeated narrowly. Then dept. of labor made it law, which seemed illegal. Don’t think it has been used, however. This may not seem important…but the idea is to make us feel defeated.
#3 Charlie,
I don’t think anyone’s answered you…"shrubman"=bush
Please, please, please, investigate money laundering!
If Bush and the Republican party are involved in criminal activities, their crime syndicate MUST launder the money they make.
Maybe say, through the Florida Turnpike. Or maybe through rare coins, or real estate, or say, billions of dollars in cold hard cash shipped in crates to Iraq.
#11 — re all the "scandals" and people and events tying together, your mention of Clinton and Marc Rich reminded me: I recall reading somewhere (can’t find it now) that Rich is actually an old family friend of the Bushes, or a "business associate" from maybe CIA day? Something to do with oil contracts between tankers and refineries? So all that hullabaloo from them about the pardon was really just lip service, I think.
Didn’t the *official* 911 Commission conclude that following the source of the funding "wasn’t important"??
Indeed it did, go look.
I wonder why?????????
The reason why is because the "9/11 commission" was a whitewash not unlike the Warren Commission but with even less power. Bush steadfastly opposed letting a 9/11 commission even be formed, only relenting when he was allowed to handpick its members and dictate its scope and focus (narrow, with a predetermined outcome). Even THEN Bush refused to testify in front of it, insisting his "testimony" be behind closed doors, to two selected members, NOT under oath, with his weasel attorney Alberto Gonzales and Dick Cheney present, with no tape recording made and the notes taken were confiscated immediately afterward and destroyed.
Now does that sound like a man who has nothing to hide??
And regarding Atta and the rest of the fake "9/11 hijackers", can we please stop referring to them as the "9/11 hijackers"? Yes, I understand there were actual people named Mohammed Atta and the other eighteen, but no, these people always called the "nineteen hijackers with plastic knives" or the "9/11 hijackers" did not hijack any airliners. Certainly some of the "nineteen" wrongfully accused had just had their passports stolen and were not in any way involved with the C.I.A., and the rest, like Atta, were C.I.A. assets, not to hijack any airplanes but simply to be patsies, set up taking flying lessons (and doing pisspoor at even flying Piper Cubs by the way), some of them even living at Pensacola Naval Air Station! Certainly they’ve all been "disposed of" but hopefully the ones who were simply victims of C.I.A. identity theft are still alive. Even though the story of at least seven accused "9/11 hijackers" was widely reported in foreign news media, the castrated American mainstream media largely ignored it, and even today can be heard to sing the chorus of the "nineteen hijackers" as if it’s never been contradicted by reality! For a couple sources regarding wrongfully-accused "9/11 hijackers", including a BBC article, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/worl...st/1559151.stm
http://www.worldmessenger.20m.com/alive.html
The addresses for the two articles above are in regards to the at least seven wrongfully-acccused "9/11 hijackers" who turned up alive and well days after 9/11 wondering what was going on.
The "official" 9/11 story is an enormous pack of lies, not even remotely true, and that includes the part about there being "nineteen hijackers with plastic knives". Were several people "warned" Atta etc. were in the country? Sure, but Atta was a C.I.A. asset and not used as a "hijacker". Several of the C.I.A. fake "hijackers" lived on Pensacola Naval Air Station! There WERE NO 9/11 "hijackers". If you don’t believe that the "official" story is bunk then watch the video footage of the "collapses" of the Twin Towers adn WTC # 7 and you can plainly see they were controlle ddemolitions. This is the quickest way to show anyone that the "official" 9/11 story is utter bullshit. You can easily see the explosions, also the "squibs" of dust jetting out of windows near the blasts and watch as each building comes down in nine seconds, freefall rate, a feat impossible by the laws of physics UNLESS it was a controlled demolition. See for yourself:
http://www.plaguepuppy.net/publ...update/#videos
http://www.globalresearch.ca.my...opic.php?t=523
http://www.reopen911.org/pictur...os.htm#Painful
http://wtc.macroshaft.org/mov/
http://www.wtc7.net/
http://www.911review.org/Wiki/Sept11Videos.shtml
"Al Qaeda" simply means "the database", as in the database of Islamic fundamentalist extremists the C.I.A. was working with in Afghanistan in the 1980s when the Soviets were in the country. Robin Cook made this public in a speech before (the U.K.) Parliament, a couple weeks before the very physically-fit Robin Cook had a "heart attack" and "fell down a mountain" to die.
Nice work Here! BTW, millionaire true-patriot Jimmy Walter … http://www.reopen911.org …is offering a million FRN’s (dollars) to anyone who can prove that the towers could have collapsed as they did without explosives being used;ie,controlled deomlitions. Good Luck! Esp since the towers fell ,as can be easily measured from the videos taken then,at free-fall speed,ie, about 10 seconds each! 100+floors therefore fell in one-tenth of a second each! This is obviously not possible by gravity alone consdidering all the obstructions each falling floor would encounter.Thus there MUST have been, with mathematical/physics-laws certitude, help via explosives which proves an INSIDE-JOB! PS . In 1996 foprmer CIA Director Bill Colby divlulgfed that there would be terrorism done "..by a gang within the FBI" and they would blame it on the MUslims.." and "..the reason has to do with physics.." In short, the Banksters and their oily govt gangsters (Bush-Harken Oil,Cheney-Haliburton Oil, Rice-Director of Chevron Oil with an oil tanker actually named after her "The Condoseesa", etc.)cannot stop the FREE energy technologies that will make the anachronistic burning of gasoline/oil obsolete EXCEPT by creating a world-wide police-state wherein anyone who tries to get FREE energy tech to the people will be summarily kidnapped and placed in a concentration camp-does Guantanmo , and the recently exposed 4 secret CIA Concentration Camps , now make sense? YUP! In fact, if you rent/library the movie "Chain Reaction" (1996!), you will see that the author knew of this Colby disclosure as the story entails U of Chic scientists perfecting sonoluminescence (a real effect !) and then are on the run from the Feds as "TERRORISTS"! As a sequel , they could be caught and sent to Guantanamo-as this is, according to Colby and friend who divulged this to me in 1996,the main reason for their "terror to dictatorship" plan. Having once taught physics at the University level , I immediately began to investigate the reality of the free energy claim and came upon things such as ‘Cold Fusion" – see http://www.infinite-energy.com , MEG generator – see http://www.chenniere.org , Testatica which has actually been powering for FREE a town , Methernita, in Switzerland since 1975!, and a simple but immediately available device-pending mass production-that would solve all the wolrd’s energy needs .. http://www.josephnewman.com . As to this last device, I have a few feet from me a "newman Demonstration Unit" that gets, invariably , every time , 4 times the power out as in. Power out is in the form of magnetic energy and is verified by measuring the the pull on a bolt by the arbitrarily large magnetic field (H=kNA where N is the #of turns of wire which can be made as large as desired with a constant voltage(battery) and a constant current (and power input is therefore constant showing that the power-out comes from the atoms of the wire-NOT the current input which just aligns the atoms!) . Joe Newman already has perfected his device . Will someone PEASE get this new energy out to the people of the world BEFORE the gree-driven maniacs destroy us all? dave
…cHARLIE said on 8/19/2005 @ 9:04am PT…
"Isn’t Sibel Edmunds under a gag order because of evidence also linking Turkish drug money?"
—
Sibel Edmonds doesn’t just point to Turkish heroin.
Check this article: http://www.villagevoice.com/new...1,53783,6.html
Colobian/Mexican drug ties are mentioned.
…cHARLIE said on 8/19/2005 @ 9:04am PT…
"Isn’t Sibel Edmunds under a gag order because of evidence also linking Turkish drug money?"
—
Sibel Edmonds doesn’t just point to Turkish heroin.
Check this Village Voice articlein which Colobian/Mexican drug ties are mentioned.