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- Re: [CT] Untangling the Bizarre CIA Links to the Ground Zero Mosque
- Email-ID 373982
- Date 2010-09-13 14:38:35
- From burton@stratfor.com
- To ct@stratfor.com
- The Imam is an operational asset of the FBI.
- Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- From: Sean Noonan
- Sender: ct-bounces@stratfor.com
- Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:22:26 -0500
- To: CT AOR
- ReplyTo: CT AOR
- Subject: [CT] Untangling the Bizarre CIA Links to the Ground Zero Mosque
- [very conspiratorial, but interesting]
- Untangling the Bizarre CIA Links to the Ground Zero Mosque
- New York Observer
- By Mark Ames
- September 10, 2010 | 2:36 p.m
- http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/untangling-new-intrigue-behind-ground-zero-mosque
- So far, the debate over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero has
- unfolded along predictable lines, with the man at the center of the
- project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, drawing attacks from the right painting
- him as a terrorist sympathizer with ties to Hamas and the Muslim
- Brotherhood.
- But meanwhile, links between the group behind the controversial mosque,
- the CIA and U.S. military establishment have gone unacknowledged.
- For instance, one of the earliest backers of the nonprofit group, the
- Cordoba Initiative, that is spearheading the Ground Zero mosque, is a
- 52-year-old Scarsdale, New York, native named R. Leslie Deak. In addition
- to serving on the group's board of advisors since its founding in 2004 by
- Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Deak was its principal funder, donating $98,000 to
- the nonprofit between 2006 and 2008. This figure appears to represent
- organization's total operating budget-though, oddly, the group reported
- receipts of just a third of that total during the same time period.
- Deak describes himself as a "Practicing Muslim with background in
- Christianity and Judaism, [with] in-depth personal and business
- experiences in the Middle East, living and working six months per year in
- Egypt." Born into a Christian home, Deak became an Orthodox Jew and
- married a Jewish woman before converting to Islam when he married his
- current wife, Moshira Soliman, with whom he now lives in Rye.
- Leslie Deak's resume also notes his role as "business consultant" for
- Patriot Defense Group, LLC, a private defense contractor with offices in
- Winter Park, Florida, and in Tucson. The only names listed on the firm's
- website are those of its three "strategic advisers." These include retired
- four-star General Bryan "Doug" Brown, commander of the U.S. Special
- Operations Command until 2007, where he headed "all special operations
- forces, both active duty and reserve, leading the Global War On
- Terrorism," and James Pavitt, former deputy director for operations at the
- Central Intelligence Agency, where he "managed the CIA's globally deployed
- personnel and nearly half of its multi-billion dollar budget" and "served
- as head of America's Clandestine Service, the CIA's operational response
- to the attacks of September 11, 2001."
- Besides Pavitt, Brown and a third advisor, banker Alexander Cappello, the
- Patriot Defense Group is so secretive it doesn't even name its management
- team, instead describing its anonymous CEO as a former Special Forces and
- State Department veteran, the group's managing director as a former CIA
- officer experienced in counter-terrorism in hostile environments and the
- group's corporate intelligence head as a "23-year veteran of the U.S.
- Secret Service who worked on the personal security details of former
- Presidents Bush and Clinton."
- Leslie Deak and Moshira Soliman/ PanachePrive
- Patriot Defense Group's primary business involves leveraging its
- government connections and know-how. The firm is divided into two
- divisions: one that "focuses exclusively on the needs of the U.S. military
- and law enforcement communities as well as the requirements of friendly
- foreign governments," and a corporate division, which "provides business
- intelligence and specialized security services to corporate clients and
- high net-worth family enterprises."
- So, to recap: From 2006 to 2008, R. Leslie Deak worked as a "business
- consultant" to this super-secretive security contractor with ties to the
- CIA and counterterrorism forces, and in those same three years he also
- donated nearly $100,000 in seed money to the foundation now advocating the
- construction of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque.
- Interestingly, during the same three-year period during which the Deak
- Family Foundation was financing the Cordoba Initiative, Deak also donated
- a total of $101,247 to something called the National Defense University
- Foundation. The National Defense University is a network of war and
- strategy colleges and research centers (including the National War
- College) funded by the Pentagon, designed to train specialists in military
- strategy. The organization recently announced a November 5 dinner gala in
- honor of Defense Secretary and former CIA chief Robert Gates. Sponsors
- include Northrup Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and...the Patriot
- Defense Group.
- Deak also sits on the NDUF's board of directors, the chairman of which is
- Mark Treanor, the former general counsel for Wachovia bank from 1998
- through its collapse in 2008 and a major bundler of campaign donations for
- the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008. Wachovia, now owned by Wells Fargo, was
- recently fined $160 million for laundering "at least $110 million" in
- Mexican drug money between 2003 and 2008, while Treanor was Wachovia's
- general counsel, though the figure is likely higher since Wachovia
- admitted it didn't put any controls on at least $420 billion-that's
- billion-in cash moved through its network of Mexico currency exchanges.
- Which leads to another odd coincidence: Laundering money for drug lords is
- what brought down Deak & Co., the company run by Leslie Deak's father,
- Nicholas Deak, years ago. The elder Deak, a former top intelligence
- commander during World War II for the OSS (the forerunner of the CIA), was
- the founder of Deak-Perera, which became for a time one of the world's
- biggest foreign currency and gold dealers. But in 1984, a Presidential
- Commission on Organized Crime accused the firm of acting as a money
- laundering operation for Columbia drug cartels, who reportedly brought
- sacks of cash containing tens of millions of dollars into Deak's Manhattan
- offices. By the end of 1984, Deak & Co. had declared bankruptcy, and a
- year later, Nicholas Deak was murdered in the company's headquarters at 29
- Broadway by a deranged homeless woman.
- After the firm went bankrupt and Leslie Deak was left on his own, the
- corporation was broken up and sold off in pieces. One company that traces
- its beginnings to the defunct Deak empire is Goldline International, a
- business concern well known to fans of Glenn Beck as well as California
- investigators. Goldline is to Glenn Beck what General Electric was to
- Ronald Reagan: The company sponsors Beck's TV and radio shows as well as
- his touring act, and Beck is its public face. The Los Angeles County
- District Attorney's office, along with the Santa Monica City Attorney's
- office, are currently investigating Goldline for defrauding customers by
- railroading gullible customers into buying their most debased products.
- Speaking of Glenn Beck, it has been reported that Saudi Prince Al-Waleed
- bin Talal, the second-largest shareholder in News Corp., the parent
- company Fox News, which airs Beck's program, is also a major funder of
- Imam Rauf's projects, as Jon Stewart viewers heard all about last week.
- Coincidences happen, of course. (For instance, Pamela Geller, the blogger
- who's become the leading voice denouncing the mosque project was once,
- bizarrely enough, associate publisher of The New York Observer.)
- But add to this array of unexpected connections the work of Imam Rauf on
- behalf of the U.S. government-which includes serving as an FBI
- "consultant" and being recruited as a spokesperson by longtime George W.
- Bush confidante Karen Hughes, who headed up the administration's
- propaganda efforts in the Muslim world-and a compelling picture begins to
- emerge. Bush's favorite Imam, with backing from a funder with connections
- to the CIA, the Pentagon and the currency trading company that now
- sponsors rightwing firebrand Glenn Beck, proposes to build a mosque around
- the corner from the site of the most devastating terrorist attack ever
- visited on America. In the name of "[cultivating] understanding among all
- religions and cultures," he puts forth a project that offends a majority
- of Americans and deals a significant setback to the broader acceptance of
- Muslim-Americans. It's a little like Billy "White Shoes" Johnson claiming
- the only reason he moonwalks after scoring a touchdown is to lower
- tensions on the football field and raise the other team's spirits.
- Whether the Cordoba Initiative ever gets its way with the Ground Zero
- Mosque, it may well have a lasting legacy at odds with its stated
- intention: By damaging the very moderates and progressives who actually
- view New York, and the nation as a whole, as a tolerant melting pot, and
- strengthening the position demagogues on both sides, it will almost
- certainly deal a setback to interfaith relations. It will also help to
- hobble the Democratic party. Which just might have been the point all
- along.
- Either that, or it's merely a coincidence that this controversy has
- erupted now, during crucial mid-term elections. In which case we can all
- go back to what we were doing before-either denouncing the Park51 Mosque
- as an affront to Americans, or championing it as a symbol of our
- fundamental rights-playing our accustomed roles in a drama that seems too
- perfect, somehow, to believe.
- --
- Sean Noonan
- Tactical Analyst
- Office: +1 512-279-9479
- Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
- Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
- www.stratfor.com
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