Fugitive nabbed after 2 years on run
Man claims to have foreseen 9/11
Has more than 22 aliases, police say
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1098568216092&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968705899037MICHELLE SHEPHARD
STAFF REPORTER
He disappeared from a ransacked Toronto apartment two years ago after claiming he was an undercover American naval officer who predicted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But that was just the latest twist in the bizarre story of Delmart Vreeland — a tale that goes back 10 years and winds its way through the United States and Canada.
Vreeland's whereabouts, however, are no longer a mystery. Officers with an Iowa sheriff's department surrounded his car Wednesday as he was driving an Interstate highway from Denver to Minneapolis. The use of a flagged Shell gas card alerted Franklin County authorities, Chief Deputy Ken Lubkeman said in an interview.
Vreeland's story played out for two years like a Hollywood script, and included the requisite dramatic court scene, when a judge allowed Vreeland to call the Pentagon in open court and an officer confirmed that Lieut. D. Vreeland was listed in its phone directory. Vreeland also claimed he knew that Canadian Embassy employee Marc Bastien was murdered before the official cause of death in 2000 was released, which stated Bastien had been poisoned. Vreeland told his Toronto lawyers, Rocco Galati and Paul Slansky, that he had had death threats. Vreeland has maintained for years that he is the victim of a conspiracy of government officials attempting to keep him quiet; but putting together pieces of his past has been difficult. Reached yesterday, Galati said he believes Vreeland is still working as an American agent.
Lubkeman said yesterday they're being cautious with the Vreeland case — taking measures that included having to verify a reporter's identity before giving an interview. "He has lots of stories to tell. He thinks himself very important and he wanted to make sure people in the government were contacted," Lubkeman said.