Natalee Holloway: The Untold Story

In September I pointed out the following: BILLIONAIRE Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has raised his stake in media giant News Corporation to 5.46 per cent of voting shares and backed the leadership of chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch, lifting the company's shares.

Ironically enough, tonight on Subject2Discussion I'll be discussing well-documented connections between a prominent Caribbean crime organization, also linked to the funding of Hezbollah as recently as 2001 - and how it appears a member of said family has been exploiting Fox News, the Natalee Holloway story and America to weaken Dutch control in Aruba by spreading now widely reported rumors and fueling a boycott of the tiny island.

Aruba is a free trade zone with easy access to the US. If successful, the political changes this would likely cause in Aruba could weaken efforts by the United States to combat smuggling, money laundering, drug trafficking and even international terror. Holland has been a strong ally to the US and co-operates with the FBI and DEA in efforts to control this significant problem.

It's possible that, having been duped by a skilled political operator, Fox News has actually been fueling the fires for a boycott which could have significant implications for important United States interests. The lack of serious MSM reporting on the Natalee Holloway story, having dismissed it as another pretty white girl gone missing, has allowed this story to go virtually unreported until now.

Operation Smoke Screen

In 1996, a group of young Lebanese men began appearing regularly at the JR Tobacco warehouse in North Carolina, carrying paper bags filled with enough cash to purchase 299 cartons of cigarettes each (the maximum per person allowable by law). An observant security guard at the warehouse called the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which, together with the FBI, pursued an investigation, that resulted in the July 2000 arrests of the men for their participation in a cigarette smuggling scheme.  Millions of dollars in profits had been “funneled” to finance the Hezbollah in Lebanon. [92]   

This investigation (code-named Operation Smoke Screen) identified nine of the men as members of a Hezbollah cell located in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Some of the nine, led by Mohamad Youssef Hammoud, were further indicted for having provided material support to a terrorist organization, specifically  “currency, financial services, training, false documentation and identification, communications equipment, explosives, and other physical assets to Hezbollah; in order to facilitate its violent attacks.” [93]   They were convicted under a provision of the 2001 Patriot Act, which states that “it is now a crime for anyone subject to U.S. jurisdiction to provide anything of value - including their own efforts or expertise - to organizations designated as ‘foreign terrorist organization.’ It does not matter whether the persons providing such support intend their donations to be used for violent purposes, or whether actual terrorism results. If someone subject to U.S. jurisdiction provides, or even attempts to provide, any material support or resources to Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, the Abu Sayyaf Group or any of the other 34 designated groups, that person can be prosecuted in the U.S. courts.” [94]

The evidence linking Hammoud and another conspirator to Hezbollah included: “Anti-American and anti-Israeli videos found in Mohamad Hammoud’s home; FBI wire taps of Mohamad Hammoud speaking by phone with Sheikh Abbas Harake, Hezbollah’s military commander in Beirut; a letter found in Mohamad Hammoud’s home urging him to donate money to the resistance in Lebanon and suggesting that he had raised money in the past for Hezbollah’s military operations; [and finally] a photo of Mohamad Hammoud as a teenager at a Hezbollah training camp in Lebanon.” [95]

Venezuela Venezuela, and its neighboring island, Aruba, have long had a well established drug trafficking, drug smuggling, and money laundering network, which had been created in the early 70s by the Cosa Nostra’s Cuntrera-Caruana family. [175] In the 1990s, the Aruba-based Mansur family, of Lebanese descent, took over the network, adding cigarette smuggling to their operations. According to U.S. court documents from March 2001,“Much of the proceeds garnered by the Mansur brothers went to Hezbollah.” [176]

Comments

[RealityBased]

Ah, all things Jossy...lol

Every twist and turn in the Holloway case has a Jossy influence and/or some type of association...right down to the missing person.

[iquitos]

Well, lets see where this takes us ... The Mansur role in the Natalee Holloway case is suspect at best. Follow the money.

[hhardyandtiny]

If you wanted to say "pretty white girl gone missing" you could have just said it. There was no need for all that nonsense.

[lawbster]

your israeli source has mixed some fact with a lot of fiction. i'd be more willing to believe this if there was more credible information

[Dr. No]

Dan, an excellent piece of a puzzel, that had been missing.
Thank you.

[micah]

All right then, so where is Natalee?

[lawbster]

also it should be noted that dr. ehrenfeld was sued by khalid bin mahfouz for libel. he won. she decided to countersue in new york.

[George]

your israeli source has mixed some fact with a lot of fiction. i'd be more willing to believe this if there was more credible information

Posted by: lawbster | Nov 22, 2005 9:44:25 AM

:-) http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/NarcsFundedTerrs_Extrems.pdf

[islander]

And how does this tie in with Natalee? Or are we now blaming all the Mansurs, who happen to be Christians and not at all pro Hezbollah. But whatever you want to believe, sensationalism sells......

[George]

Dan, an excellent piece of a puzzel, that had been missing.

Posted by: Dr. No | Nov 22, 2005 9:47:37 AM

:-? http://www.rjames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19781

[Thinking]

Strange....RJAMES is not a creditable source, it's an opon forum. All quacks can post anything they wish there. There are alot of people who believe anything they read...What's that tell you?

One suggestion, get a life outside of the gossip, maybe you would like reading the tabbloid newspapers as well. There is only a slight difference, most know from years of experience the tabloids are just that, opon forums are worse.

[George]

Mansurs, who happen to be Christians and not at all pro Hezbollah.

Posted by: islander | Nov 22, 2005 10:25:48 AM

The Report "A GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF NARCOTICS-FUNDED TERRORIST AND OTHER EXTREMIST GROUPS" Prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under an Interagency Agreement with the Department of Defense misses the issue of Mansur's faith and just tells "According to U.S. court documents from March 2001, Much of the proceeds garnered by the Mansur brothers went to Hezbollah.”

Where does their alleged Christianity ccome from and how does it matter?

[George]

Dan, an excellent piece of a puzzel, that had been missing.

Posted by: Dr. No | Nov 22, 2005 9:47:37 AM

:-? http://www.rjames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19781

Posted by: George | Nov 22, 2005 10:35:40 AM

RJAMES is not a creditable source, it's an opon forum. ...What's that tell you?

Posted by: Thinking | Nov 22, 2005 11:03:39 AM

MY BHS post referred above contains links to US GOVERNTMENT sites. Got it? :-)

[George]

"I know for a fact Dan has had that info since Aug 13....curious that he waited this long to write that entire article. I think he may have given subtle hints about it previously, but I'm glad he finally brought it out in a more cohesive context." - http://p073.ezboard.com/ftheunusualsuspectsfrm7.showMessage?topicID=402.topic

[???]

The Farhad Brothers’ Hizballah-Linked Money-Laundering Operation
In late 2001, two clans, one of them headed by Syrian-Lebanese subject Mohamed Ali
Farhad, who has been detained twice as a suspect in money-laundering investigations, were being investigated for operating a network that involves gun running and drug trafficking operations, as well as sending bank checks for huge amounts of money to Islamic fundamentalist groups, especially Hizballah. For example, Middle Eastern terrorists moved through the Colombia-based network part of the money to finance the attack on New York's World Trade Center on February 26, 1993. Farhad is a shareholder of a Margarita Island casino and owner of the America textiles store. Colonel (ret.) Julio Andrade was quoted as saying that during the Sierra Carlos case, a link was established between the cigarette trade and two Arab clans in Maicao.

Mohamed Ali Farhad ran the operation, which was worth $650 million. Three operations to combat money laundering conducted in 2001 in conjunction with Colombia’s four intelligence services—the DAS and the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) of
the Office of the Prosecutor General—identified a Colombian member of the Cali Cartel (“Oscar Martínez”) as the owner of a ship used to smuggle cocaine into Mexico and bring in weapons for the black market, which is controlled by one of the Arab clans operating in Maicao and Ipiales.

Following the September 11, 2001, attack on New York’s World Trade Center Towers
and Washington’s Pentagon, the U.S. Department of State’s list of international terrorists
included the names of three individuals of Lebanese origin who reportedly live in Maicao but are believed to be hiding elsewhere in La Guajira Department.

According to unidentified sources consulted by El Espectador, at least one of the
financial operations behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing involved one of the clans that operate in Maicao. Between March and October 1993, an individual named “Sinforoso Caballero,” who was arrested in 1997, ran the Border Business Group and Cabadi Investments, which had been reportedly used to move the funds of the two Arab clans that operate in Maicao.

According to El Espectador, Mohamed Ali Farhad has been linked to a money laundering
investigation that involved the Aruba-based Mansur clan of Eric and Alexander Mansur, who controlled cigarette smuggling in the 1990s through the Mansur Free Zone Trading Company N.V., with its main offices in the Netherlands Antilles. The Mansurs inherited a smuggling and drug trafficking empire established in the islands by the Cosa Nostra's Cuntrera-Caruana clan, when it began to work in Venezuela with Cali Cartel organizations.

Until the U.S. indictment of the Mansur brothers for money laundering, Philip Morris’ main distributor in Latin America was the Mansur Free Zone Trading Company, N.V.121 According to a lawsuit filed against Philip Morris in 2000 by the governors of 25 of Colombia’s 32 departments, plus the capital district of Bogotá, the company sold tobacco to smugglers in exchange for narco dollars, in what is commonly referred to as the Black Market Peso Exchange (BMPE). “Instead of repatriating narco dollars from their U.S. sales points, money launderers simply use them to purchase goods, which are then exported to Colombia and other Latin American countries and sold for pesos,” according to the lawsuit. “The pesos then flow into the Colombian bank accounts of the drug barons.”Allegedly, much of the proceeds garnered by the Mansur brothers went to Hizballah.

[ustt]

Holland has been a strong ally to the US and co-operates with the FBI and DEA in efforts to control this significant problem.
(by Dan)

__-

well, all i can say is they have a strange way of showing it.

[annie]

Thanks Dan. I am not sure where you are going with this, but are you thinking that Jossy had something to do with Natalee's disappearance and that she may be in Saudi? Jossy's family seems to always be in the middle of this case. It is curious. It is like the pieces of the puzzle are there, but one key piece still seems to always be missing.

I wonder how much of all of this Beth and Dave know and why Beth had such faith in Jossy?

[knot]

if all of this is true...then aruba is far more corrupt than anyone ever knew...I guess the bottom line is...if everyone would stop usin tobacco products..none of this would be happinin..I'm gonna go have a smoke and think about it...

[Steven]

oh, god, spare me. you are grasping at straws. what's the matter? msnbc not calling you enough for a guest spot?

[COLUMBO]

where is 'Smoking Man?'

[Sgt. York]

RE: "Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal"

DROP THE QUAINT TITULARS FROM THE MIDDLE-AGES

This should read, "Alwaleed bin Talal, the nephew of the dictator of Saudi Arabia."

=================================

[questioner]

Does anyone know what condi rice is doing lately?

[newswatcher]

http://www.rjames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=365&highlight=jossy+mansur

[teresa]

Maybe I am stupid but I don't get it.

[MrsLevy]

It's Mrs. Twaddle in the living room with a poker.

MrsLevy

[007]

what did i told you guys about this manscur family
means darkhands, a cartel.
in aruba everyone know their history and modus operandi,
you guys in the us dont know anything about this jossy, an angel who wants to help beth !
What a joke !!

[teresa]

I have reported a NEW YORKER for filling his trunk up with cigarettes in Virginia. LOL

[lawbster]

if you've got a problem with Al Waleed talk to your ole pal george bush...either one actually, they're all in bed together. if the US had a problem with Rupert joining the group, they would have stopped it.

[Max]

Congratulations! Keep denouncing the crook! Jossy has his own interests at hand and they come before Natalee and her family. Jossy and his papers are demagoguery machinery established to ignite passionate prejudice against his opponents: Holland, the Dutch, MEO, Oduber, Van der Sloot and I guess others. His behavior and intentions are similar to those of Hitler, Stalin and Chávez. He just has different “enemies” and a different populace.

[George]

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006107.php "The Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud gave CAIR $500,000 for its program to put books and tapes about Islam in American libraries. The American Muslim leader W. D. Muhammad has said that when Saudis give money to American Muslims, they say, "We’re gonna give you our money, then we want you to . . . prefer our school of thought." Were these books and tapes approved by Islamic authorities belonging to the Saudi Wahhabi sect?" http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/744

http://www.cairdfw.org/accomplishments.htm CAIR http://www.blackcommentator.com/8_peace_and_justice_pr.html

[k.jeanne]

I doubt this has anything to do with the actual missing of Natalee, but *those* viewing this as a way to exploit and manipulate to their advantage. I just don't think she would have left Carlos and Charlie's with the Kalpoes and Joran if this were an international kidnapping to set the stage for their plan. She would have gone missing without anyone known involved.

[annie]

Yes, I think you are right on here. Jossy has come to represent somebody who is sly and crafty, and has his own agenda. There is good reason to believe that he is driving all this stuff with BHT, slyly fueling all the rumours and keeping Beth on course with the murder and rape stuff. I was thinking Beth was manipulative, but this guy has proved himself a master player, and he does it so cleverly that he even keeps getting asked back on Fox, though practically nothing of what he says is of any value. What a dark dealer!!!

[lotusjanis_33]

What does this have anything to do with Natalee?
Just desperate to inflame against what?????
Beth, the whole family, Jossie?
Oh, pleaseeeee! Ludicrous piece of work, WORK???

[FloridaPatty]

Cigarettes and missing girls. The plot thickens ..or is that smoke?

[Had Enough of Beth]

And Beth so frequently refers to Jossy as her hero, hhmmmmm. This made for reality TV Twitty soap opera has so many twists and turns, please cancel it and no reruns...

[Sly2SmoothieNJs]

You really have some connections Dan, this was a good post.Bravo Zulu : )
S2S

[Shonane]

Maybe relevant, maybe not, but definitely worth adding to the information for consideration.

This case is abnormal in so may ways. Something else is up besides just a disappeared Natalee.

Why would FOX news spend so much money on on site coverage of this case, a single missing girl? And some of the other networks too. There has been much more coverage of this case than on site coverage of the Iraq war during this same time period and our men and women are dying every day over there. So - - - what is going on that these networks would spend this kind of money and devote so much coverage to this? Could it just be a fluke that this level of involvement and coverage has occurred? No - there is something else, some other purpose, and maybe the reporters don't even know why they have been allowed and pressed to continue to cover it to this extent.

What is it?

[Jim Hathorn]

Everyone cared about Natalee until it became clear she is probably not on Aruba. Now, we are drawn to the mystery of the disappearance. The next is anything goes...just say it and watch and see if the comment grows a life of its own. Fox News along with Nancy disgrace have become the Twitty-birds...Conway would turn over in his grave. This kind of nonsense could only flourish in an environment where nothing is sacred and no one cares about news just gossip and getting on TV.

[boywonder]

big deal dan...now if you can finger the the new crime family that replaced the mansurs...you know the ones with PVDS as thier trusted lawyer...the one who sent the mansurs to jail in the us. Get with things man....who is the new crime family and are they related to the casino business?

[islander]

Where does their alleged Christianity ccome from and how does it matter?

Posted by: George | Nov 22, 2005 11:08:57 AM

Their alleged Christianity? I know them very well and they are churchgoing people. It does matter because there are not too many Christians in Lebanon that back Hezbollah, who are all Shiite moslems. But if you don't know anything about that part of the world, it doesn't make sense explaining it to you, now does it?? By the way, most of the Mansur family hasn't even been to Lebanon. Their forefathers left at the end of the nineteenth century, and beginning twentieth century.

[islander]

007

Stop di papia coi kens di hende decente!!!!

[Freebrid]

And what does this have to do with Natalee? all get from this is that Aruba is grand central for traffing whatever anyone wants. Thanks for finally confirming that for everyone.

[Cheri]

I think it is very relevant ...I don't know about the "Hezbollah" ties..but..I feel that Jossy has been in this for himself and his own reasons from the start

he has put out so many red herrings...so many fake clues...false witnesses....

he has stirred Beth up and used her ....I think his main reason is to get rid of the Dutch rule so that he can freely launder money etc....

I also get furious that Greta, Nancy etc never "call him out" on his many ludicrous stories! I think Beth has been badly used by Jossy
and that he has fueled the boycott and caused the bad blood between Natalee's family and the arubans

[CitizenDick]

Would someone please tell us how many bordellos the Mansur family own?

[Arubaanse]

Gosh i love this blog. Everytime I come back I read more bs about aruba and arubans.

[Arubaanse]

I want to wish all Americans on this blog:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

from Aruba.

[ialnder]

Would someone please tell us how many bordellos the Mansur family own?

Posted by: CitizenDick | Nov 23, 2005 9:14:08 PM

None!! This Mansur family attack is all based on "envy" on a small island. It started in political campaigns. If you only knew the family, you wouldn't even ask these questions..It's loosely called "political persecusion" in the US.

[Key West]

This is about Natalee not Jossy .
Happy Thankgiving;^)

[hockeygirl]

I second USTT's comment.

Dan, from your initial Post: "I'll be discussing [a] ...a prominent Caribbean crime organization... exploiting Fox News, the Natalee Holloway story and America to weaken Dutch control in Aruba by spreading now widely reported rumors and fueling a boycott of the tiny island.'

Question: Response I have received directly from the Dutch Ministry of Justice is that Holland cannot legally involve itself in the Holloway investigation because it has no jurisdiction in Aruba to do so, and, in fact, the applicable constitution and/or treaty, prevents Holland from getting so involved. If this is so, how can purported "Dutch control" in or of Aruba, its police or its judiciary logically exist or be further "weakened?"

From your Post: "Aruba is a free trade zone with easy access to the US. If successful, the political changes this would likely cause in Aruba could weaken efforts by the United States to combat smuggling, money laundering, drug trafficking and even international terror. Holland has been a strong ally to the US and co-operates with the FBI and DEA in efforts to control this significant problem."

Question: How can efforts by the US to combat any type of crime, including human sex trafficking, be "weakened" or hampered any further in Aruba or on the globe when the Aruban police won't work with the FBI on this case and the prosecutor won't even contact Natalee's family regarding progress or non-progress of the investigation?! If Aruba were truly concerned about these issues and was actually of any assistance to the US with its "efforts" to combat these crimes, IMO Carlos & Charlies and Aruba would probably not be the departing gates for brothels and harems in the Middle East and/or Asia, and, Aruba would not be so adverse to US involvement in the investigation.

Further, the boycott is directed at ARUBA not Holland. Aruban courts let the three suspects out of jail, not Dutch courts. The disappearance happened in Aruba and not Holland. I venture that had the disappearance occurred in Holland, the FBI, CIA, Interpol and UNESCO, America's DHS/ICE and UN anti-sex trafficking agencies would be working with America's "ally" Holland in investigating the disappearance.

In your words: "Holland has been a strong ally to the US and co-operates with the FBI and DEA in efforts to control this significant problem."

Question: Then why isn't or can't Holland "cooperate" with the United States IN ARUBA in investigating the disappearance of an American citizen IN ARUBA? I think Aruba has taken its marbles and gone home...

[cosmo]

They say when you have a mystery....Look at the unlikely scenarios and pick the most likely one.
I have felt Jossy Mansur has his own agenda as well. He is the mouthpiece for the Mansur clan but not the leader of the brothers.
The Dutch gov't will admit they lost control of Aruba along time ago...the island is under the influence of some powerful families with the Mansurs on that list....there has been a movement for sometime to change complete control of the Aruban island away from the Dutch. There is substantial reward for the successors if Aruba can become just Aruba like Cuba is just Cuba controlled...yes follow the money...Mansurs, Cantera Cauntra mafia who by the way have family members living on the island still despite previous logs the Mansurs inherited their stuff, Hugo Chavez of Venezula who is bodies with Mansurs and Castro...it doesn't take much of an imagination to see the direction such a gov't would take. Now those that ask what does could Natalee disappearing have to do with this...well the best way to have gov't change is scandal, loss of creditbility of current gov't and the economy to go down...this opens the door for these people to take over.