Khalid bin Mahfouz Last Updated: May 18, 2010
Since the early 1980s, Saudi billionaire Mahfouz has provided major funding for Bill Clinton as well as George Bush Sr and Jr.
At the same time,
Mahfouz�s companies and charities funneled tens of $ millions to Al Qaeda and
other terror groups. As a Principal in the global bank fraud called BCCI, he paid a $225 million fine to settle
criminal charges in 1992. His name appears on the seized �Golden Chain�
document, introduced by US Attorneys as a list of Al-Qaeda's main supporters.
In
1978, George W. Bush�s Air National Guard co-grounded buddy, James Bath (age 27), became Mahfouz�s
financial representative in the United States. Bath also represented Salem Bin Laden, one of Osama's brothers, in
the purchase of Houston's Gulf Airport. When Salem died, the airport went to
Mahfouz.
In 1981 Bath also fronted at least three companies with "Skyway." in
their names. Each one linked directly to Mahfouz, BCCI, and the CIA, or all three. He registered
in the Cayman Islands under the name I.C. Inc, the same shell-entity Oliver North
used as clearinghouse for the BCCI and CIA
Iran/Contra transactions. "Skyway Aircraft"'s listed address was a hangar at the
Frorida flight school attended by two 9/11 hijackers.
During the 1980s,
Mahfouz' BCCI Ponzi scheme stole at least
$12 billion in what Manhattan D.A. Robert
Morgenthau called the �largest bank fraud in world financial history.�
Before it collapsed, BCCI laundered money
for drug lords, dictators, terrorists, the CIA and the secret, illegal Iran-Contra
operation.
In 1987, when George W. Bush�s oil
company Harken Energy was floundering,
Mahfouz' arranged a $25 million dollar bailout, brokered by Arkansas billionaire Jackson Stephens. Soon after, covering all his
bets, Stephens became then Governor Bill
Clinton's biggest contributor.
From the beginning, the well-connected BCCI sidestepped US stockholder suits and SEC
charges. US Congressional hearings and criminal indictments didn't come until twelve
years later
Stephens, Mahfouz, other Middle East bankers and former top US
officials were the original named defendants. Stephens and his companies were
represented by the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas. Newly made partner Hillary Rodham
Clinton was among the lawyers of record.
Mahfouz was also Director of the Bin
Laden family-run Banque Al Saoudi. In 1988, it too collapsed from insider looting of
depositors' funds. The bank eventually reorganized as a holding group with stock in
an aircraft company named Skyway International Holdings, in partnership with
Iran/Contra arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. Its sister-corp, Skyway Communications
Holdings, was run by Florida hucksters Brent and Glenn Kovar, who openly boasted
about their CIA protection.
The Kovars ran a shellgame in which investors
reportedly lost $40 million�including a Kuwait royal and head of Kuwait�s
National Guard (Al-Ali A-Sabah). One of Skyway Communications' planes turned up in
Mexico, via Venezuela, with 5.5 tons of coke aboard (no arrests). A Skyway
International plane was seized outside of Paris, also from Venezuela, also carrying
tons of cocaine. Also on board was a group of Saudi royals. Also no arrests.
Skyway's public facade was publicly praised by powerful GOP figures
including Jeb Bush and Tom Delay. The
defense conglomerate Titan Corp issued a press release about some pending venture
with Skyway, which never happened.
Most ominously, Skyway's few planes were
housed at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Florida. Huffman, which also housed the CIA's
Brittania Aviation, is where 911 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi took
their flight training.
In 1991, Mahfouz was the principal
founder of "Muwafaq,"or �Blessed Relief," a major terror-front charity, as was
Mohammed Al-Amoudi, his long-time business partner. Abdurahman Alamoudi, (here identified as a
brother of Mohammed),was a regular White House guest of both Bill Clinton and George W Bush, until.
convicted of terror funding in 2003. He is serving a 23 year prison sentence.
The CEO of Muwafaq was Yassin
Al-Qadi, (Abdurahman's business partner), also later charged with terror funding
and a fugitive since 2001. The US Treasury Department charged that Muwafaq and Al
Qadi funneled $3 million to Osama Bin Laden through Mahfouz's Saudi National
Commercial Bank.
During the previous six years, an Al Qadi/Alamoudi
software company, named Ptech, had somehow been given control of top-secret IT
programs for the US Departments of Defense, Energy, Commerce, State, Justice,
Transportation and the White House itself. Ptech had developed the FAA�s National
Airspace System, in operation on September 11, 2001.
Ptech's chief scientist,
Felix Rausch, was formerly the White House
Deputy IT Chief, and Sr IT Chief of INTERPOL Ptech's program was based on a
modification of PROMIS software, the precursor of Artificial
Intelligence.
PROMIS had been stolen from its creators by Edwin Meese, AG under Ronald Reagan.
With his business cohorts and rogue intelligence officials Meese had a
stealth �backdoor� feature installed, providing untraceable, remote access and
control. It was then covertly sold and installed in hundreds of global enterprises
and government security systems, one of the first being Mahfouz' BCCI.
In June 2002, whistleblower
Indira Singh and a Boston TV reporter Joe Bergantino alerted the FBI about Al Qadi
and the others' role at Ptech, but the agency turned a blind eye. In fact, the
FBI�s own anti-terror funding chief (Robert
Wright), reported enough evidence to arrest al Qadi four years earlier, but was
blocked and demoted for continuing his probe.
In December 2002, Operation
Greenquest�an extensive domestic terror financing investigation led by U.S.
Customs�finally raided Ptech�s offices. Just hours after the raid, a National
Security Agency official assured the public that Ptech�s software was
�completely safe.� During a turf battle shortly after the raids, the FBI took
over all terror financing investigations from the Department of Homeland
Security�s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In May 2003, Operation
Greenquest was dissolved.
Mahfouz goes to extraordinary lengths to retaliate
against his detractors, most often suing in British courts, where libel laws favor
the plaintiff.. Several book and newspaper publishers have retracted their reports
and apologized, rather than endure years of litigation against their opponent�s
limitless resources. Both New Zealand�s Scoop and former CIA director James
Woolsey have retracted comments linking Mahfouz to Osama bin Laden.
Terror researcher Jean-Charles Brisard
claims that Bin Mahfouz controls a quarter of Bahraini based Investcorp,,founded by
Ahmed Zaki Yamani, who appears on the same �Golden Chain� list as Mahfouz.
Brisard claimed that Mahfouz controls the stock through Investcorp director Abdullah Taha Bakhsh. (In 2005, Investcorp
bought a company, CCC Information Services,
owned by Bush family business cohorts Purnendu Chatterjee and Herbert �Pug�
Winokur. Mahfouz also won a libel case in the UK over Brisard�s 2001 book
�Forbidden Truth".
One well known terror researcher, Dr Rachel Ehrenfeld, refused to participate in
the UK suit Mahfouz brought against her, resulting in a foregone verdict and fine.
Instead she sought reversal in New York State Court of Appeals,, based on the US
Constitution�s First Amendment. She lost in December 2007, the Appeals court
stating it had no jurisdiction, because Mahfouz hadn�t tried to enforce the
British court order in the US.
As a result of Dr Ehrenfeld's action, New
York and other States have passed laws that libel cases must be judged by US
standards only. Congress, as of December '08, was considering a similar
mandate.
Mahfouz didn't attempt to enforce the British court fine. He died in
early 2009, and his sons,
Sultan and Abdulrahman, have taken over the family business.
According to Craig Unger, author of House of Bush, House of Saud, the
family has long been investors in The Carlyle Group, a private equity
firm with strong Bush family and Saudi ties where George H.W. Bush was a
senior advisor until October 2003.
The Mahfouz family has a website, www.binmahfouz.info, which
lauds his benevolence and trumpets his legal actions. It does not however include
any �search� features.
Categories
Sources
- �The World's Billionaires: Sins of the Father?� Forbes, Nathan Vardi, 03.18.02, www.forbes.com/global/2002/0318/047.html
- Houston Chronicle, June 4, 1992,bout their �Feds investigate entrepreneur allegedly tied to Saudis,� JERRY URBAN
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, �Conspiracy Theories: The Saudi Connection�: www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/saudi.html
- The Record, New Jersey. �N.J. investigates company over alleged terror ties,�
- Thursday, December 30, 2004, ALEX NUSSBAUM, www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyJmZnYm VsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2NjMyNjU0
- www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/25/feature3.shtml
- www.nationalreview.com/mowbray/mowbray122002.asp
- www.binmahfouz.info/pdf/nimir2002.pdf
-
www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=khalid_bin_mahfouz
(WSJ March 2003) - dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2004/03/12/unger_2/index1.html
- query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E4DD133FF930A25753C1A967 9C8B63
- www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/saudi.html