Drug smuggling plane's owner turns out to be Tom Delay appointee.

[JohnyCanuck]

Investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker of www.madcowprod.com finds more mysterious connections between drug running aircraft, Republicans, Venice Florida and Huffman Aviation (hijackers' flight school) .

WORLD EXCLUSIVE
APRIL 17 2006--Venice,FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker

One of the two owners of the DC9 (tail number N900SA) busted at an airport in the Yucatan last week after lumbering in from Caracas, Venezuela carrying an astonishing 5.5 TONS of cocaine was appointed in 1993 to the Business Advisory Council of the National Republican Congressional Committee by then-Congressional Majority Leader Tom Delay, The MadCowMorningNews can exclusively report.

The plane's registered owner, “Royal Sons LLC,” a Florida air charter company, was at one time housed in a hanger at the Venice Fl. Airport owned by infamous flight school Huffman Aviation.

Also of major significance is the fact that photos of the DC9, seized last Monday in Ciudad del Carmen, reveal that the plane is painted with the distinctive blue and white color color scheme of official U.S. Government planes.

Moreover, to reinforce the effect, or subterfuge, the plane carries an official-looking Seal painted on its side, which reads: SKY WAY AIRCRAFT, PROTECTION OF AMERICA'S SKIES, around an image of a federal eagle clutching the familiar olive branch in its talons. Many have been fooled into concluding that the plane belongs to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

http://www.madcowprod.com/04172006.html

[LiberalVoice]

1. Isn't it illegal to paint planes to look like official govt ones?

If not, shouldn't it be? :wtf:

[motocicleta]

18. I think most people carrying 5.5 tons of drugs don't worry about the

illegal paint job. Although one might not want to attract any attention by looking like a gov't plane, I suppose.

[leftchick]

28. I just love your photo!

It always makes me want to cry for some reason.

[cantstandbush]

2. Anyone hear this on our beloved MSM? n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

4. You're kidding right? n/t

[bostonbabs]

3. kick

[tridim]

5. Whoa! I'd say this is one of those "things are much worse than we know"

type scandals. We probably only know about a fraction of Delay's crimes. Hopefully they'll all come out as time goes on.

[Richard Steele]

6. This needs some more recommendations, folks!

As we start to see just how deep this
foul, stinking rabit hole goes....

[napi21]

7. Not owned by them anymore. See this info.

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=900SA&cmndfind.x=3&cmndfind.y=12

FAA Registry
N-Number Inquiry Results


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



N900SA has multiple records

Reserved N-Number Type Reservation Hold
Mode S Code 53070275
Reserved Date 04/13/2006
Renewal Date None
Purge Date 04/13/2008
Pending Number Change None
Date Change Authorized None
Reserving Party Name CANCELLED/NOT ASSIGNED
Street None
City None
State FOREIGN
Zip Code None
County
Country NOT FOUND


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deregistered Aircraft 1 of 1

Aircraft Description
Serial Number 45775 Type Registration Corporation
Manufacturer Name DOUGLAS Certificate Issue Date 08/05/2005
Model DC9-15 Mode S Code 53070275
Year Manufacturer 1966 Cancel Date 04/13/2006
Reason for Cancellation Exported Exported To VENEZUELA


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Aircraft Registration prior to Deregistration

Name ROYAL SONS INC
Street 15875 FAIRCHILD DR
City CLEARWATER State FLORIDA Zip Code 33762-3510
County PINELLAS
Country UNITED STATES


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Airworthiness Engine Manufacturer P & W Classification Standard
Engine Model JT8D-1 Category Transport

A/W Date 12/10/1966


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Other Owner Names

None

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[nashville_brook]

10. directly transferred to the drug smugglers it would seem

exported directly to venezuela... ??

[flyarm]

13. can you explain this???

i see cancelation date ..

Cancel Date 04/13/2006

the registration date as: Reserved Date 04/13/2006


purge date : Purge Date 04/13/2008

and:

Aircraft Registration prior to Deregistration

Name ROYAL SONS INC
Street 15875 FAIRCHILD DR
City CLEARWATER State FLORIDA Zip Code 33762-3510
County PINELLAS
Country UNITED STATES

but the only date i see possible for deregistration is April 13th, 2006

so is this showing the deregistration is a cover up????????

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..this admin wouldn't do that now..would they??????????



:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:


fly

[MissWaverly]

17. Wasn't Pinellas one of the big problems with touch screens????

hmmmn!

[flyarm]

20. oh yes.....and we just had a phoney assed audit last week..of them!

i am here in pinellas!!

and it was also in pinellas at john's pass that atta and a couple other hijackers were on Abramoff's casino boat the week before 9/11!

we have lots of crooked rethugs here..in jebland..

fly

[flyarm]

22. k&r..done!

[MissWaverly]

26. Just heard CA Board of Elections is leasing their building

from the wife of a Diebold employee, they will turn because their roots connect them. Joan Quinn, activist lawyer in CA

Heard this on Ed Schultz

Hello, Fly,
Hope you had a nice holiday in Jebland.

:-)

[EVDebs]

36. FL Dept of Corporations records

http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cornamelis.exe

[WhiteTara]

8. someone should contact Keith Olberman

I'm on the fly, but it would be something great for him to sink his teeth into, now that he has Barry being prosecuted.(Surely that won't be a nightly feature for the next two years as it winds its way through the courts.

But I digress, someone please contact Keith and Amy Goodman.

[SupplyConcerns]

38. This is too f*cked up even for him

Yes people, our own government is a major participator in the global drug trade.

[WhiteTara]

39. Let's give it to Amy Goodman

we almost got these f*ckers during the Iran/Contra affair. Maybe we can clean the nest of vipers this time. Although it did cost Martha Honey's partner Danny (I'm sorry, I can't remember his last name) his life.

But here's to it seeing this in print.

[nashville_brook]

9. k 'n r -- great story!

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Oh this is good!

5.5 TONS OF COCAINE + a TOM DELAY AIDE.

This stories got more legs then a spider.

[Tommy_J]

12. K & R

What a coincedence... the repub owner is connected to Delay, Muhamed Atta, the biggest heroin bust in Fl history, and now a 5.5 tons of coke.

[seafan]

14. Question:

In the MadCow article, the name Brent Kovac is mentioned....

The DC9 was purchased several years ago in a partnership between "Royal Sons Motor Yacht Sales, Inc. DBA Royal Sons" and a company owned by Brent Kovac called Skyway Communications Holding Corp, which jointly signed a loan with United Bank and Trust Company in St. Petersburg, FL. for $1.5 million.

And 2 paragraphs later, the name is Brent C. Kovar.

Not that Tom DeLay seemed to mind. He and buddy Brent Kovac's press release deserves special mention.

"Congressman Tom Delay, Majority Leader, has appointed Brent C Kovar to serve as the Honorary Chairman, Business Advisory Council,” read the headline of an August 7, 2003 release from PrimeZone Media newswire and press release service.

We need to nail this down.

[havocmom]

15. K & R

Drugs: traditional way for Republicans in power to get extra cash for illicit activities. Who was it pulling a lot of strings back in the days of Iran/Contra? Oh, yeah, those were some of Poppy's boys.

BFEE marches on along the same ol pathways.

[dogday]

16. It's The Democrats fault , don't ya know?

Every single freaking excuse DeLay has used has been to blame the Dems... How is going to talk his way out of this one???????

[motocicleta]

19. Does anybody know what the "Business Advisory Council"

really is? It reminds me of the phone calls I used to get, because I owned a small business, from DeLay inviting me to join some sort of BS business council which meant I would get the pleasure of donating a bunch of cash to the Repukes so I could eat at a dinner for the damned with DeLay and even the Prez if I paid enough.

Naturally, I always used the opportunity to harangue the poor fool calling me until they hung up, but I was just thinking that this BAC might be no more than a way to get money from business owners. In which case, it would be a funny story, if anyone ever reported on it, but not actually a sign that DeLay is in bed with drug smugglers.

[robinlynne]

21. another anomoli in this story

would be cocaine coming from venezuela. I don't know for sure, but I don't think they have five tons of cocaine in vernezuela. And we know our pres would love to get venezuela in any kind of trouble possible. could that be part of the scheme?

[flyarm]

25. bingo..i see this as a set up against venezuela..but ....

i live in pinellas..and i have heard nothing fo this on our local news..being the aircraft was registered here..to a company here..you would think it would hit one of the news msm..here...zero that i have seen or heard..

i also just checked with boeing..the DC9 is a shorttake off and landing runway aircraft..

the airline in flew with flew md80's which is a bit similar..sort of..but the DC9 is equiped for short take off and landing..which makes sense for the Yucatan landing..

fly

[spanone]

23. The real problem is John Conyers staff babysitting, c'mon.

:sarcasm:

[cassiepriam]

24. What we know is only the tip of the iceberg, I wonder if we will ever

find out what these crooks have really been up to?

[sutz12]

27. But remember it is Clinton's fault

Remember the CIA drug connections in Arkansas during the Clinton governorship. It all started then. :sarcasm:

[Rex]

29. The BFEE is use to drug smuggling, old hands at it by now.

http://www.tarpley.net/bush18.htm

We cannot provide here a complete overview of the Iran-Contra affair. We shall attempt, rather, to give an account of George Bush's decisive, central role in those events, which occurred during his vice-presidency and spilled over into his presidency. The principal elements of scandal in Iran-Contra may be reduced to the following points:

1) the secret arming of the Khomeini regime in Iran by the U.S. government, during an official U.S.-decreed arms embargo against Iran, while the U.S. publicly denounced the recipients of its secret deliveries as terrorists and kidnappers--a policy initiated under the Jimmy Carter presidency and accelerated by the Reagan-Bush administration;

2) the Reagan-Bush administration's secret arming of its `` Contras '' for war against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, while such aid was explicitly prohibited under U.S. law;

3) the use of communist and terrorist enemies--often armed directly by the Anglo-Americans--to justify a police state and covert, oligarchical rule at home;

4) paying for and protecting the gun-running projects with drug- smuggling, embezzlement, theft by diversion from authorized U.S. programs, and the `` silencing '' of both opponents and knowledgeable participants in the schemes; and

5) the continual, routine perjury and deception of the public by government officials pretending to have no knowledge of these activities; and the routine acquiescence in that deception by Congressmen too frightened to oppose it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. Jeeeeeeeezzzz...at this rate none of us will be surprised to learn

that the GOP was behind 9/11.

[flyarm]

31. are you surprised???

not i ..

from a flight crew of one of the airlines involved ny base..

fly

[EVDebs]

35. Gomer Pyle: "Suu-prise Suu-prise Suu-prise, Sgt. Carter" eom

[malaise]

32. Dat's a lot of money

for the court case:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[druidity33]

33. holy shit! n/t

[EVDebs]

34. Other famous plane crashes in TX of interest...OBL's relatives

May 29, 1968
09:49 Mohammed bin Laden
73, father of Osama bin Laden San Antonio, Texas Beech 95-C55
N2090W Crashed while taking off. Fuel starvation. Fuel selector in wrong position. 2 killed.

May 29, 1988
Salem bin Laden
42, brother of Osama bin Laden Near San Antonio, Texas Ultralight Too off and crashed into high power lines and fell 115 feet to the ground. 1 killed

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/

[petgoat]

40. Salem bin Laden had been an investor in W's oil company, Arbusto.

When Salem died his shares went to Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi banker who was a 20% owner in a
little gem called the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Bin Mahfouz was a director,
as was W's TANG buddy James R. Bath. BCCI did a lot of terrorist finance and drug money
laundering, and after it was busted in 1991, bin Mahfouz paid $225 million to make a NY State
indictment go away.

Small world and nice playmates, huh?

[Old and In the Way]

37. Kick for Octafish.....loive to hear your thoughts on this.

[flyarm]

41. ahhh see what ole jebbies been up to!!

jebbie loves to destroy documents and records...

Jeb's Illegally Shredding Casino Records. Hmmm.
Fri Feb 03rd 2006, 09:38 AM ET

snip:
A source inside the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation told Insider magazine that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has ordered the shredding of documents and public records, a clear violation of Florida law.
The department has oversight and approval of state gaming licensees, slot machines, dog and horse tracks, and jai-alai games.

The source, who asked to remain anonymous, said the governor also has brought in personnel from Texas to replace key members of his staff in Tallahassee. The Texans are overseeing the destruction of state documents, according to the source.

A source in the FBI confirmed that public records are being destroyed on orders of Jeb Bush. The source said the governor may have taken that action in response to the continuing criminal probe of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the federal investigation of the 2001 gangland murder in Miami of Gus Boulis, owner of the Sun Cruz casino boat.

http://www.rockrivertimes.com/index.pl?cmd=viewstory&ca...

[file83]

42. I've heard for years that our government was involved with drug...

...trafficking. I used to pass it off as "conspiracy theory", but more and more lately I've been seeing articles like this that are starting to convince me that it's conspiracy "fact". What a great story!

Here are more like it: http://www.narconews.com

This is a great resource for this kind of reporting on our government's involvement in the drug trade:

[petgoat]

45. I understand that Gary Webb's story about CIA involvement in

drug smuggling (the one that brought heavy criticism from WaPo and the NYT for Webb's
paper, the San Jose Mercury, and cost Webb his job) was largely corroborated by the
CIS Inspector General's report that followed.

Look at the fact that Afghanistan had zero opium production in 2000. After the US invasion
in 2001, opium production reached record levels. 85% of the world's opium comes from there
now.

[file83]

46. Then you are in "the know" too. We live in a truly messed up

country, don't we?

Our "leaders" live by the motto of the 3 O's: Oil, Opium, Oppression

[flyarm]

49. gary webb

from my files:

snip:


http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1213-31.htm

Published on Monday, December 13, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
R.I.P. Gary Webb -- Unembedded Reporter
by Jeff Cohen

Gary Webb, a courageous investigative journalist who was the target of one of the most ferocious media attacks on any reporter in recent history, was found dead Friday after an apparent suicide.

In August 1996, Webb wrote one of the first pieces of journalism that reached a massive audience thanks to the Internet: an explosive 20,000 word, three-part series documenting links between cocaine traffickers, the crack epidemic of the 1980s and the CIA-organized right-wing Nicaraguan Contra army of that era. The series sparked major interest in the social justice and African-American communities, leading to street protests, constant discussion on black-oriented talk radio and demands by Congressional Black Caucus members for a federal investigation. But weeks later, Webb suffered a furious backlash at the hands of national media unaccustomed to seeing their role as gatekeepers diminished by the emerging medium known as the WorldWideWeb.

Webb's explosive San Jose Mercury News series documented that funders of the Contras included drug traffickers who played a role in the crack epidemic that hit Los Angeles and other cities. Webb's series focused heavily on Oscar Danilo Blandon, a cocaine importer and federal informant, who once testified in federal court that "whatever we were running in L.A., the profit was going to the Contra revolution." Blandon further testified that Colonel Enrique Bermudez, a CIA asset who led the Contra army against Nicaragua's leftwing Sandinista government, knew the funds were from drug running. (Bermudez was a colonel during the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua.)

Webb reported that U.S. law enforcement agents complained that the CIA had squelched drug probes of Blandon and his partner Norwin Meneses in the name of "national security." Blandon's drugs flowed into L.A. and elsewhere thanks to the legendary "Freeway" Ricky Donnell Ross, a supplier of crack to the Crips and Bloods gangs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


http://www.gnn.tv/videos/video.php?id=30
Gary Webb: In his own words
Sun, 19 Dec 2004 12:15:28 -0800
A tribute to the late reporter
To be an Authentic Journalist in 2004 is to be a soldier at war. When a hero dies in battle first we must drape the coffin, sound the slow, sad bugle song of Taps, and remember this great man who died fighting for all of us. Among the soldiers I have known in my foxhole, there were none finer, more effective in a firefight, than Gary. – Al Giordano

Director’s note: Gary Webb, the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter who broke the story of the CIA’s involvement in the importation of cocaine into the U.S., died on Friday, December 10, reportedly from self-inflicted gunshots to the head.

It was a tragic end to a brilliant, and tragic, career.

This interview was conducted as part of a video course GNN’s Stephen Marshall and I gave at the School of Authentic Journalism’s 2003 seminar in Merída and Isla de las Mujeres, Mexico. Here Webb discusses the media battle that erupted in the aftermath of his groundbreaking 1996 investigation into the CIA’s drug dealing operations during the 1980s to aid the Nicaraguan Contras.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/13/1457240

Monday, December 13th, 2004
Investigative Reporter Gary Webb Who Linked CIA to Crack Sales Found Dead of Apparent Suicide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a series of stories linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles, is dead at age 49. We hear an 1998 interview with Gary Webb on Democracy Now! and we speak with his colleague, veteran investigative journalist Robert Parry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a series of stories linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles, is dead at age 49.
Webb was found Friday morning at his home in Sacramento County, dead of an apparent suicide. Moving-company workers called authorities after discovering a note posted on his front door that read, "Please do not enter. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance." Webb died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Sacramento County coroner's office. He is survived by two sons and a daughter.

Gary Webb's 1996 series in the San Jose Mercury News titled "Dark Alliance" revealed that for the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras.

[Vidar]

43. The return of Hassenfuss?

[flyarm]

47. i have this posted on another thread October 6, 1986: Eugene Hasenfus

i have this posted on another thread..here cross post...fly


. October 6, 1986: Eugene Hasenfus

Eugene Hasenfus, armed only with a pistol, took refuge in a small hut on a jungle hilltop inside Nicaragua. He was soon surrounded by Sandinista soldiers and gave himself up.@

from my files...

http://www.tarpley.net/bush18.htm

snip:

WASHINGTON-- Nicaraguan rebels falsely assumed responsibility for an arms-laden plane downed over Nicaragua in 1986 in an effort to shield then-Vice President George Bush from the controversy that soon blossomed into the Iran-Contra scandal, a senior Contra official said in early May 1989. According to the Contra official, who requested anonymity but has direct knowledge of the events, a Contra spokesman, Bosco Matamoros , was ordered by Adolfo Calero to claim ownership of the downed aircraft, even though the plane belonged to Oliver North's secret Contra supply network.... Calero called (Matamoros) and said, `` Take responsibility for the Hasenfus plane because we need to take the heat off the vice president, '' the Contra source said.... The senior Contra official said that shortly after Calero talked to Matamoros, Matamoros called a reporter for the New York Times and `` leaked '' the bogus claim of responsibility. The Times ran a story about the claim on its front page.@


see this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=952224&mesg

[Beam Me Up]

44. .

[Roland99]

48. Wonder if Sibel Edmonds knowledge extends beyond the Middle East business

dealings?

[seafan]

50. More confirmation from BBC and a Latin American paper:

BBC, 4-12-06:

Three people were arrested.

Mexican officials say that cocaine is increasingly being imported from Colombia via Venezuela, with the US being the ultimate destination.

In this case the army was waiting for the plane as it landed at the airport of Ciudad de Carmen, 880km (550 miles) east of Mexico City, after being tipped off by Venezuelan authorities, said Mexican General Carlos Gaytan.

The co-pilot of the aircraft was arrested. The pilot and co-pilot of another plane, which was believed to be ready to take the cocaine on to the next location, were also detained.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4901828.stm



From Prensa Latina, 4-17-06:

Mexico, Apr 17 (Prensa Latina) Mexico lauded INTERPOL-Venezuela aid in the recent detention in Campeche of a US aircraft that flew in from Caracas with 5.5 tons of cocaine aboard.

According to the report, a second aircraft took off in Toluca to make contact and distribute the merchandise, said Mexican Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar.

Aguilar denied, on behalf of the Federal government, elements suggesting alleged Venezuelan interference in Mexico's election campaign, as Accion Nacional Party member Manuel Espino claims.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={AC2FAEAB-0722-463E-B1E1-FB313A218E01}&language=EN

[Sinti]

51. K&R n/t