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"Assault weapons and cell phones and planes"
But nothing untoward happened to Wassim Hammoud
until he threatened the life, almost a year later, of a federal agent, which is
apparently where federal authorities draw the line.
The new court documents revealed that Hammoud had
been involved in an even-earlier incident with terror overtones. In 1999 he had
been one of three men stopped attempting to board a Spirit Airline's flight at
Tampa International Airport with more than 11 pounds of ammunition, an assault
weapon, a rifle, ammunition, and what the papers called “other gun-related
equipment.”
Even before 9/11, even in Florida, it was
considered a faux pas to bring your personal armory onto airplanes.

So what happened? Was Hammoud punished for
attempting to board with an arsenal fit for paramilitary bank robbers in Los
Angeles? Not really. Not so anyone could tell, at least.
“It was not clear if the men faced any charges
stemming from that incident,” reported the Sarasota Herald Tribune in a puzzled
tone. Maybe a puzzled tone is the right attitude to have, especially if what
we’re seeing here isn’t just a case of a bunch of bumbling
Dagwood’s walking around with bubblegum stuck to the bottoms of their Florsheim
shoes.
The Big Book of Spooks
Maybe was there some kind of unwritten Big Book
of Rules for Spooks that said it was okay to engage terrorist-related activity
when in Florida.
Maybe the Sunshine State was one of those places
where hoodlums from everywhere under the sun roam at will with no fear of
harassment. What the Mob calls “an open city." A place where anything goes.
An ‘open city’...not for mobsters, . but for spooks. A place where they can feel
free to stash retirement condos, cigarette boats, & Lear jets.
Maybe Florida just naturally attracts the same
clientele as that alien bar in the
original Star Wars.
Another example of terrorist activity being
treated with kid gloves also comes from the Venice-Sarasota area, apparently a
hotbed of both international intrigue and geriatric medicine.
Sam Mahmound Ghalieh was just seventeen when he
began collecting a rap sheet that today runs to 24 pages. His family was from
Lebanon. His father owned Sam’s Wholesale Cars (about which more later). And
Ghalieh, who had already been practicing martial arts for three years, knocked a
fellow student unconscious with facial fractures with several well-placed karate
kicks to the head.
Over the next several years he was charged with a
number of felonies, including carrying a concealed weapon, robbery, aggravated
assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, and possession of cocaine. And all of
this before he got popped in a big bust in October of 1998, where
he was charged with trafficking over 150 kilos of cocaine. 
We wondered: How does a 24-year old kid whose dad
sells used cars put together a deal involving 300 pounds
of cocaine? America must still in some ways be the land of opportunity. Still,
you’ve got to pay the piper… right?
Consider a moment… What do you think a judge in
the 'hanging state' of Florida would give you if you had a rap
sheet as long as your arm and got caught with 300 lbs of cocaine?
You'll
probably never guess what Kid Ghalieh got...
He got probation. Its even easier than home detention.
Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a real law and order
advocate, must be upset. Then again, maybe he’s not.
Our final example from Terrorland concerns Belal
Al-Thabteh, 27, a native of Jordan living in Bradenton (next to Sarasota) and a
part time college student at a local community college. He got caught recently
depositing more than $60,000 in cash within two days at eight separate Manatee
County banks, and then wiring the cash to his native Jordan in amounts under
$10,000, a money laundering practice known as “smurfing.”
This came a week after he had
purchased a new car for $18,000 in cash. Where does a community college student
with no visible means of support and who moved to the U.S. just six years ago
get that kind of cash?
"A Kinder, Gentler Jihad"
Al-Thabteh supporters were at his preliminary
hearing in Tampa's federal courthouse last month. Ahmed Bedier of the Council on
American Islamic Relations in Tampa told reporters he was concerned that the
arrest was a case of racial profiling. "Ever since 9/11, there has been this
paranoia and fear to prevent the next 9/11," said Bedier.
Al-Thabteh’s friends and supporters had also
publicly rooted for him right after 9/11, when several windows were shattered at
a convenience store he managed. Abdul Biuk, assistant principal of the
Islamic Academy of Florida, a private Muslim school in Tampa, pronounced himself
in favor of tolerance and against broken windows of all kinds.
His message sounded kind of...you know.
Groovy.
“Allahu Akhbar” meets “We Shall Overcome.”
Uniting as one group of Americans was his dream,
Biuk said. "With globalization, tribes don't exist anymore. Basically we are one
big group and we live together.” Alas, just a month later Biuk himself felt the
sting of “racial profiling.”

His school, the Islamic Academy of Florida, was
raided by federal agents, who carted out dozens of boxes the
administration trailer. The school had been founded by his boss, Sami Al-Arian,
from Tampa, whom he had known for almost 20 years. Now the federal government
was indicting Al-Arian as the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the
United States.
Buik thought they were just being picky.
"He's been lynched academically. Our feeling is that he has 100 percent
been mistreated."
When people think of Central Florida, they think
vacations & beaches, sunshine & fun, Tomorrowland & Universal Tours. But after
the 9/11 attack, when investigators gathered together the threads in what was
supposed to have been “the largest worldwide criminal probe in history,” the
picture that emerged was too much of a shock to report.
Nestled in with the more traditional Florida
attractions described as being “fun for the whole family” was an ominous new
theme park, which had risen unbidden from the murky Florida swamp.
"Welcome to Terrorland"
Some wag called it “Terrorland.”
The big question is why this dark carnival should
still be right in our midst and open for business.
“There are many rich people who fund what we do,”
Mohamed Atta once boasted, after being stung in an argument with his one-time
American girlfriend about which of their cultures was the most barbaric.
“He said there was someone in Florida—some rich
Arab—who had a lot of money,” Amada Keller recalled. “He asked me, ‘Are you
aware that when we come over here, your people pay to have us set up
businesses?’”
“Eventually, he told me, his people were going to
try to take over this country,” she told us. “He said: ‘I’ve been in this
country many times before. I can come in and go out of America. And no one ever
knows.’”

Atta’s arrogance may be being justified in
Florida today. And if it is, it perhaps owes something to the
stealthy-but-powerful organization which
showed its face briefly recently at the airport in Lynchburg, Virginia.
'Cokeheads for Jesus'
As you recall, a previously-unknown company with
no assets housed inside of Huffman Aviation inexplicably won a big bid from the
city of Lynchburg to run a facility at the Lynchburg Regional Airport over a
much-larger local Lynchburg aviation company which had then cried foul.
Britannia Aviation had no expertise running an
aircraft maintenance hanger facility, but they won a 5-year lease from the city
of Lynchburg anyway. Some wondered whether this strange circumstance owed
anything to the million dollar loan Lynchburg’s most famous resident, the
Rev. Jerry Falwell, had received and then neglected to repay from Huffman
Aviation owner Wally Hilliard, where Britannia Aviation had been hiding
unnoticed.
In the brouhaha which followed it was learned
that Britannia Aviation was a dummy front company which nonetheless had friends
in high places not just in Lynchburg but in Venice as well. Britannia had a
“green light” from the DEA in Venice, authorities there were told,
and local police had been warned to leave them alone.
Earlier this year Britannia folded, and its
five-year lease was assigned to another company in Lynchburg, with one slight
modification which permits the offering of “flight school services.”
The proud new lease-ee is Falwell Aviation.

It is unknown at press time whether Falwell
Aviation at the Lynchburg Airport belongs to Lynchburg televangelist Jerry
Falwell. At least one reporter following the case has been heard muttering that
we might all be better off not knowing.
We can sympathize.
“The 19 hijackers who carried out the worst act
of terror ever to occur on U.S. soil worked with little outside help,” said the
Washington Post in a report on the state of the FBI’s investigation several
months after the attack.
It may not be true. But at least its neat.
NEXT WEEK: AN IDIOT'S GUIDE to "TRAFFICKING
WITH THE TALIBAN"
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