September
30, 2005-Venice, FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker
The
investigation into the 4-year old murder
of Sun Cruz Casino boat founder Konstantinos
‘Gus’ Boulis in Fort Lauderdale has
begun to reveal hidden connections between
Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s
gargantuan fund-raising machine, essential
to victory in the past two Presidential
elections, and a cast of underworld characters not
previously thought of as exemplifying
what have come to be known as “Republican
family values.”
The
trail of suspicion leads directly to
Abramoff’s doorstep: the three names
already released clearly implicate Adam
Kidan, the Casino line’s erstwhile President,
in the crime, who wrote checks—duh-uh!—for
over $250,000 to one of the indicted
men, Gambino goombah Anthony “Big Tony”'
Moscatiello, 67, of Howard Beach, N.Y,
for no easily discernible reason.
Bush's
Biggest Backer: Chief "Stands with Pair"
Although
lawyers for Abramoff and Kidan, who
face trial Jan. 9 on fraud charges,
have repeatedly said neither man knows
anything about Boulis' murder, since
Kidan was hand-picked by Abramoff to
run the unregulated collection of a
dozen ships operating off the coast
of Florida, Abramoff may even now be
wondering who it might be safe to “roll
on” if and when he’s indicted for murder.
Abramoff, of course, is best known as the target of a federal
investigation in Washington into the
tens of millions in fees he collected
from casino-owning Indian tribes. But
the wreckage from his brief and tumultuous
time as owner of the gambling fleet
threatens to overtake his Washington
legal troubles.
The
breathtaking scope of “Cruisegate”
could make it the biggest American political
scandal since Iran Contra. Should its
tawdry details fully come to light,
it might eclipse even the Watergate
Scandal.
Already,
the dramatis personae includes a familiar
name from previous scandals: Barry Seal,
called “the ghost haunting the Whitewater
investigation” by the Wall Street Journal,
who was himself murdered
on orders, according to his own lawyer's
testimony, of then-Vice President George
Bush.
GOP, Osama agree: Heroin is King
20
years ago Seal helped set in motion,
as we’ll see shortly, the chain of events
leading inexorably towards today's scandal,
which we're dubbing "Cruisegate,"
illustrating the ongoing and even
generational nature of what
sociologists call “state-sponsored
crime.”
Newsday
reported on July 15, 2001, over four
years ago: “As the Florida detectives
follow path after path, the investigation
seems always to lead back to three men:
a former Long Island bagel store owner
whose mother was killed by gangsters
but who strongly denies any involvement,
a Howard Beach caterer reputed to have
organized crime ties and a New Jersey
guy who likes to brag he's mob boss
John Gotti's nephew.”
So
one big question is: why
didn't the indictments come down sooner?
In
any event two of the three men referenced
have now been indicted,
leaving only bagel boy Adam Kidan remaining
so far uncharged in the crime. Here's
a little back-story on the case...
Jack
Abramoff led a group of three men who
formed an ownership group that apparently
made Boulis the proverbial offer he
couldn’t refuse.
They
bought Sun Cruz from him, even though
it wasn't for sale.
One
time-honored way to get rich is to marry
money. Another is to kill someone that
has it. In this case it appears that
Gus Boulis, owner of the lion’s share
of the casino boats in Florida, had
to die first.
The
professional ‘hit’ on Boulis figured
prominently in lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s
rise to power to become the GOP’s chief
money man.
Adding
insult to injury, after wresting control,
SunCruz's new owners refused to pay
Boulis.
Then,
adding injury to insult, several months
after being unceremoniously muscled
out, Boulis, a 51-year-old Greek immigrant
who had founded both Sun Cruz and the
popular Miami Subs chain, was shot to
death at the wheel of his BMW sedan
on Feb. 6, 2001, after leaving his office.
"Everyone needs a few unregulated
sources of income."
Boulis was driving
his BMW down a quiet side street after
an evening meeting at his Fort Lauderdale
office when a car slowed to a stop in
front of him. A second car boxed the
BMW in from behind. Then a dark Mustang
appeared from the opposite direction,
and as the Mustang pulled alongside
its driver pumped three hollow-point
bullets into Boulis’ chest.
Florida
casino gambling insider Robb Tiller,
one of the fathers of the Indian gambling
industry (today another pillar of Abramoff’s
empire) pointedly referred us to the
manner of the Boulis hit, stating, “Boulis
was murdered in the exact same way as
Don Aronow, Bush’s other partner.”
Bush’s
other partner? We didn't
even have to ask it. The question hung
in the air.
“Something
is really going down bad here,” Tiller
continued. “Don Aronow. Gus. Jim Shore…
All tied in to Bush.”
(Jim
Shore was a top executive of the Seminole
Tribe of Florida, the state’s preeminent
casino operators.)
In
our earlier story we asserted the belief that as the scandal
embroiling House Major Domo Tom Delay
and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff
grows hotter, it will yield new revelations
about the 9.11 attack.
What
does a scandal involving Indian casinos,
gambling boat “cruises to nowhere” in
Florida & pay-for-play government
officials have to do with the story
of 19 hijackers planning a mass murder
in supposed isolation?
Hint: Atta wasn't playing blackjack.
One
clue: Ringleader Mohamed Atta made a
still-unexplained visit onboard one
of Abramoff’s casino boats less than
a week before the attack.
A
bigger clue: the man who owned the flight
school favored by Atta and so many other
terrorists had his Lear jet surrounded
by DEA agents brandishing submachine
guns on the runway of Orlando Executive
Airport in July of 2000, the same month
Atta began "training" at his flight
school. They found 43 pounds of heroin
onboard. For flight school owner Wally
Hilliard, it was a 'blemish,' though
not as yet one for which he has been
asked to go to prison.
Several
of the principals in the Boulis hit
also have heroin trafficking backgrounds.
What a surprise. Most of the world's
heroin comes from Afghanistan, which
used to known as OsamaLand.
So
we believe our Abramoff/9.11 prediction
will prove accurate. We suspect this
may be one reason we don't get asked
to appear on Hardball (or
almost anywhere else.) We groused once
about this "invisible" status once to
a lifetime member of our nation's clandestine
forces.
"Look
at it this way," he responded with equanimity.
"At least they let you live."
Its
a better deal than poor Gus Boulis got.
"Look
at it this way..."
We
learned of Barry Seal’s peripheral involvement
in the story while perusing the records
of the three men indicted so far. Amazingly,
Seal, a long-time CIA pilot who government
prosecutors said was at one time the
biggest drug smuggler in American history,
was indirectly responsible for the 1983
federal prosecution for heroin smuggling
of "Big Tony," one of the three men
so far indicted in Boulis’ death.
While
the details are admittedly tangential
to the Boulis assassination, they are
useful in illustrating the “secret history”
of the rise to power of “connected”
individuals friendly to the current
Bush Administration.
"Meat-based life
forms dominate the planet."
Anthony
“Big Tony” Moscatiello was one of eight
Gambino associates, including Gene Gotti,
brother of John Gotti, then head of
the Gambino family, who federal prosecutors
charged with operating “a massive narcotics
importation and distribution ring” that
brought heroin from Southeast Asia to
Florida and New York.
At
his trial the major witness against
him was Alfred Dellentash Jr., a pilot
who flew marijuana from 1980 to 1981
for Gambino captain Salvatore Ruggiero.
Salvatore died young, in a suspicious
Lear jet 'accident' off the coast of
Savannah, GA. in 1982 which the NTSB
found puzzlingly inexplicable.
Upon
his demise, his brother, Angelo Ruggiero,
a close associate of John Gotti, took
over the operation. His sponsor dead,
according to court documents Dellentash
then agreed to cooperate with authorities...
but only after he himself
had been arrested on drug trafficking
charges.
He'd
gone to Barry Seal's hometown of Baton
Rouge, La early in 1983 to purchase
55 kilograms of cocaine, not knowing
that Seal himself at that
time was "rolling" on various and sundry
individuals to wriggle out of the major
drug bust in Miami he'd been caught
in.
Both
Seal and Dellentash were engaged in
what is known in law enforcement circles
as “working off a beef,” which is like
a game of musical chairs where the man
left standing when the music stops (in
this case "Big Tony") does some hard
time.
"A dunsky,
sure... but not no fucking dunsky."
Working
off a beef would have been right up
the busy Dellentash's alley: When not
flying narcotics, he was managing Meat
Loaf's show business career. In fact,
after a falling out, as happens in show
biz, he ended up owning Meat's--
Mr. Loaf's--Connecticut mansion,
Meatloaf Manor.
(Its' all true, except for the
"MeatLoaf Manor" part. We don't
know what he called it, but "home" seems
a little plain for an $8.1 million spread.)
The
men ''reported directly to a man by
name of John Gotti, who was a lieutenant
or a capo in this family,” said the
prosecutor, Robert P. LaRusso.
While
the drug operation was being conducted,
the Gambino family was headed by Paul
Castellano, who was opposed to drug
dealings. ‘This family had a prohibition,''
LaRusso told the court. “'The ultimate
sanction of death would be upon their
members' heads if they dealt in drugs.”
Like
the “problem” of Gus Boulis, this was
a problem easily remedied, and Castellano
was shortly thereafter “sleeping with
the fishes.”
Interestingly,
also arrested in the heroin trafficking
case was a man named Oscar Ansourian,
who was also charged with hiding a cache
of weapons in the basement at his Howard
Beach home which included U.S. Army-issued
rockets and launchers.
“General, meet Guido. Guido, meet Osama.”
“Big
Tony” Moscatiello has one other colorful
distinction worth mentioning...
In
taped conversations introduced at John
Gotti’s various trials which revealed
Gotti's ruthless control over his crew,
Gotti was memorably heard screaming
death threats at an underling for insubordination.
“Big
Tony” was that unfortunate underling.
Gotti:
''Listen, I called your (expletive deleted)
house five times yesterday; now if your
wife thinks you are a (expletive deleted)
dunsky or if she's a (expletive deleted)
dunsky and you're gonna disregard my
(expletive deleted) phone calls, I'll
blow you and that (expletive deleted)
house up.''
Gotti:
''And you get your (expletive deleted)
ass down here and see me tomorrow.''
Moscatiello:
''I'm gonna be there all day tomorrow.''
"The Juice Is Loose... and he's got experience, too."
Clearly,
being called a “f-cking dunsky” had
had a salubrious effect on Moscatiello,
who appears to have vowed to “straighten
up and fly right.”
“Big
Tony,” is not to be confused with another
of the men arrested on murder solicitation
and conspiracy charges in the case,
Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari, 48, of
Miami Beach.
While
there has as yet been no word on whether
the third man indicted, 28-year-old
James “Pudgy” Fiorillo,
is “Big Pudgy” or “Little Pudgy,” we
feel confident Court TV will have the
answer when the case comes to trial.
As
if the case were not already redolent
with unsavory associations, there is
a fourth man referenced in the indictment
named Dwayne Nicholson. Nicholson is
a bouncer at The Living Room, a Miami
Beach night club, which just happens
to be a favorite haunt of the world's
most famous double murderer: Miami resident
O. J. Simpson.
The
big question here is: What are Christian
politicians doing with people who think
changing a company's management is a
matter of--not putting up a new slate
of directors--but calling in "Big Tony?"
Answer:
They're flying around on the company's
Lear jet (if its not engaged in more
'important' pursuits) to the Super Bowl
and the U.S. Open in Pebble Beach.
The
Lord, it seems, helps those who help
themselves.
"Threats
of law suits against journalists
have become the hallmark of the
Bush administration in their not-too-clever
tactic to silence the independent
media in the United States." --Wayne
Madsen