WILDCARD: Down the rabbit hole
with the man who says he tried to
warn the world about 9/11
A GNN Special Report
By Sander Hicks
as originally published by the Guerilla News Network Sept.
26, 2002. http://www.guerrillanews.com/intelligence/doc749.html]
Part One: A White Knight?
"The question of could [9/11]
have been prevented will haunt us
as long as we exist as a country." - Rep. Nancy
Delmart "Mike" Vreeland
wants to meet me in the parking lot of the Loblaw grocery
store on Lake Shore Drive in Toronto. I arrive as a silver
Lincoln circles the parking garage. I park and the car
silently glides to me. The passenger door opens. Vreeland
is sitting in back, hair cropped short into a Caesar cut,
wearing a tight black ribbed t-shirt and black parachute
pants. He looks like Eminem. He leans forward and says,
"Lock your car. Get in."
As a black storm builds out in the
harbor, we head to a big tourist restaurant on the waterfront
called "Docks." Vreeland buys us two beers each,
we drink and talk. He wonders aloud if anyone is tailing
us. Suddenly everyone around me is middle-aged, dressed
inconspicuously and wearing sunglasses. The storm breaks
and we run inside. The middle-aged men follow us in, still
wearing their sunglasses.
That night the limo takes me, Vreeland,
Vreeland's son, and the son's best friend up north to
a resort lodge. Vreeland feels safer there. He says he's
buying a condo for $600,000, in one lump sum to be wired
over. From where? He won't say. Does it have to do with
his work with former U.S. Treasury operatives, people
who claim to be attempting to recover over $27.6 trillion
lost in 1993 when a secret Israeli/Palestinian peace deal
went awry? (Yes, that's right, $27.6 trillion) Perhaps . . . or perhaps it's just
another Vreelandism: a wild story that dissolves in the
waters of scrutiny.
Vreeland was no ordinary jailbird.
He told Canadian authorities he was a spy for the Office
of Naval Intelligence.
This story begins in December, 2000,
when Vreeland, an American citizen, was arrested in Toronto
and charged by Canadian authorities with fraud, obstructing
a peace officer and making a death threat (really, the
last one he says was for cursing his betrayers while being
arrested). The Canadian charges were soon dropped to speed
his extradition back to the U.S., where he was wanted
in numerous states on charges that include identity and
financial fraud, forgery, and battery to an officer.
Despite his impressive litany of
warrants and heavily tattooed body, Vreeland was no ordinary
jailbird. He told Canadian authorities he was a spy for
the Office of Naval Intelligence, one of the oldest and
most powerful intelligence arms of the U.S. government.
He also claimed if he was extradited to the U.S. he would
be killed. Why? Vreeland claimed to have some very sensitive
While in prison, during the summer
of 2001, Vreeland says he repeatedly attempted to warn
the world about imminent terrorist attacks. Vreeland's
then attorney Rocco Galati, (a respected former Canadian
prosecutor known for his support of progressive causes) made what he called "head-bashing
attempts"(1) to have Vreeland put in touch with the
proper authorities, to pass on "vital information
about national security"(2) to the governments of
Canada and the U.S.
The notes listed a number of potential
terrorist targets including the Sears Towers, World Trade
Center, White House, and Pentagon; as well as the phrase,
"Let one happen. Stop the rest!!!"
Sometime around August 11 or 12,
Vreeland wrote a set of notes. They listed a number of
potential terrorist targets including the Sears Towers,
World Trade Center, White House, and Pentagon. The notes
also included the phrase, "Let one happen. Stop the
rest!!!" [see the notes here] He sealed them in an envelope and handed
them to his Canadian jailers. His lawyers, Galati and
Paul Slansky, another well-known former Canadian prosecutor,
introduced the documents into court that October, arguing
that Vreeland's life would be in danger if he was sent
back to the U.S. The lawyers were harassed with dead cats
hung on their porches, and smashed car windows. Galati
has since bowed out of the case.
News of Vreeland's case spread quickly
when alternative 9/11 journalist Mike Ruppert began sending
back dramatic dispatches from the courtroom in Toronto.
Ruppert called Vreeland a "White Knight Talking Backwards," in articles
published on his site, copvcia.com, and here on GNN.tv.
To Ruppert, Vreeland's story, combined with his lawyers'
testimony, proved that elements within the U.S. government
knew 9/11 was coming and did nothing to stop it.
The story became something of an
Internet phenomenon, with thousands of readers around
the world tracking every dramatic twist and turn. But
just as Vreeland's star began to rise, it came crashing
down. His long, colorful list of outstanding warrants
in the U.S. was released to the public and the international
man of mystery was quickly dismissed as a two-bit con
man who had concocted an elaborate yarn to avoid prosecution.
Canadian authorities dropped their charges against Vreeland
on March 14, 2002, and he was paroled to house arrest
to await an extradition hearing.
The Nation's Corn wrote Vreeland, "was
no spy, he was a flim-flammer," and characterized
Ruppert as little more than a web surfer with a vivid
His case might have slipped off the
radar completely, but on March 30, The Nation's Washington correspondent David
Corn published an article entitled "The 9/11 X-Files." The article lumped
Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, the French book
that claimed a plane didn't hit the Pentagon, and Vreeland
supporter Ruppert into the same 'kook' category. Corn
claimed their 'misguided' efforts to look for a conspiracy
at the top distracted the public from the more important
work of analyzing the Bush Administration's real political
misdeeds. Corn wrote Vreeland, "was no spy, he was
a flim-flammer," and characterized Ruppert as little
more than a web surfer with a vivid imagination: "Ruppert
is no journalist." Ruppert fired back, and hundreds of his supporters
wrote Corn and The Nation in protest. Corn's response was to intensify his attack,
publishing "To Protect And To Spin," a scathing
profile of Ruppert full of personal details: romantic
affairs gone awry among other nadirs.
Vreeland's most vocal critics could
be found on Toronto's alternative radio station CKLN.
DJs Ron Aninich and Greg Duffel interviewed numerous people
associated with Vreeland, including alleged victims of
his scams, and the man himself, in the end, concluding
he was little more than a common criminal. They also built
an exhaustive Vreeland
web site listing interviews, articles and every
court document they could find on his case. They even
composed a Negativland-esque,
anti-Vreeland reworking of the disco hit "In the
Navy." Partly in response to what he felt were brutal
attacks from CKLN, in the spring of 2002, Vreeland developed
his own site, www.ltvreeland.com. He posted information
about his case, court documents and records of financial
transactions involving a former Reagan White House secret
operative named Leo Wanta (more on him later). The site
is about as organized as a shotgun blast and did little
to help his cause.
Then, on May 21, 2002, the plot thickened.
A devoted, lifelong-career FBI agent from Minnesota named
Coleen Rowley publicly accused FBI director
Robert Mueller of hampering crucial investigations into
alleged 9/11 conspirators, charging there was a "delicate
and subtle shading/skewing of facts by you [Mueller] and
others at the highest levels of FBI management."
In July, Arizona-based FBI Special Agent Ken Williams
wrote the now-famous Phoenix Memo accusing the FBI of ignoring
a call to investigate potential terrorists training at
flight schools. In the international press, German, Russian
and Israeli intelligence were quoted as claiming they
had warned the White House that an attack was imminent.
More recently, many family members of 9/11 victims have
joined the call for answers. Kristin Breitweiser lost her husband Ronald
in the World Trade Center. She told Phil Donahue on MSNBC
recently, "At this time of year, everyone is asking
us - what can we do to memorialize, what can we do to
memorialize. And you know what? An independent investigation.
Let's make sure our husbands, our loved ones did not die
Could Vreeland be the one U.S. intelligence
operative who blew the whistle before the 9/11 tragedy?
Or is his story just the Robert Ludlum fantasies of a
low-life military con man?
On September 18, Eleanor Hill, the
staff director of a congressional intelligence inquiry
into 9/11, testified
that there were no less than twelve separate warnings
about terrorists hijacking planes in the past five years,
including, contrary to the Bush Administration's previous
statements, one that specifically involved crashing a
plane into the World Trade Center.
As serious doubts
about Bush's official story become more accepted,
maybe the idea of an American intelligence officer having
foreknowledge of 9-11 is not so far-fetched. Could Delmart
Vreeland, extensive criminal record and all, be the one
U.S. intelligence operative who blew the whistle before
the 9/11 tragedy? Or is his story just the Robert Ludlum
fantasies of a low-life military con man, as so many have
It is a bizarre tale, part Bourne
part Miami Vice,
and part Jerry Springer,
in which facts, disinformation, and delusion all seem
to intersect in the dark underbelly of black ops, geopolitics
and family dysfunction. The story includes alleged ties
to the late-White House lawyer Vince Foster, pardoned
arms dealer Marc Rich, a mysterious international financier
who calls himself "Reagan's junkyard dog," a
restaurateur accused of smuggling cocaine inside live
elephants, the Iraqis, a shady Russian tycoon, and Vreeland's
country-western musician half-brother, who has a seemingly
inexhaustible vendetta to see Vreeland sent to prison.
In the end, this six-month investigation
for GNN confirmed what many already know: Delmart Vreeland
is a liar and an accomplished con man,
adept at spinning tales, and manipulating allegiances
to further his own goals. In other words, he is the perfect
candidate for work in U.S. intelligence.
1) "Diplomat's Death Remains
Unsolved; What Killed Him: A Thief, Natural Causes or
Cloak-and-Dagger?," Kathleen Harris, The Ottawa Sun,
Dec. 9, 2001
Part Two: Dissecting the Notes
Vreeland claims the now infamous
notes were part of a 37-page memo to Admiral Vern Clark, Chief of Naval Operations.
Although they fast developed a reputation as a "warning
letter," Vreeland says this wasn't his intention.
As Vreeland told me in our first interview on April 6,
2002, "These are my own personal notes...The only
way to understand the whole thing is to read the whole
memo. We have not made that public yet. A big YET on that."
I asked Vreeland about the exact
contents and codes of the note:
What were you trying to do in
"I wanted to avert 9/11."
If you had five minutes with President
Bush what would you say?"
"I could not tell you what I would say to him. I
am forbidden from telling you. I am not suspecting him.
I am not making a statement-I am not doing any Bush-bashing."
Five months later, Vreeland, is significantly
less pro-Bush. The experience has changed him, and he
petulantly remarks, "If anyone said they were going
to blow something up in the U.S. I wouldn't do a damn
You have given up?
"Yes. I can hold my punches with George Bush. They
scammed that election- It's a dictatorship. It's illegitimate."
Are you afraid?
"I'm surprised I'm still here. I got too many people
wanting me dead. If I was after me, I would kidnap me,
I would drug me, I would get the info I wanted and then
I would kill me."
If you were after you, do you
think you could get you?
"Absolutely! I can get anyone if I wanted them badly
What information would you shake
out of yourself?
"I'd want to know where the Wanta money is right
now. Who in the Pentagon has done wrong? Who killed who-black
ops-illegal arms trades, where are blueprints, the docs
you brought back from Moscow? Where's Susanna at? Was
it her or Oleg who poisoned Bastien? And did McComb County
give up Bobby Moore intentionally? Who shot Foster?"
When did you leave ONI?
"The opportunity came, I was getting old, I don't
like getting shot, getting stabbed."
"I don't believe Osama had a
fucking thing to do with 9/11. I don't believe he set
it up. I don't believe it was his people."
Vreeland's notes contain the scrawl
"Dr. Haider†> who's his contacts?" According
to the L.A. Times
(3), Dr. Haider is an alias of Amar Makhnulif, a.k.a.
Abu Doha, a.k.a. Rachid Kefflous, a key al Qaeda figure
accused of being part of a plan to blow up the Los Angeles
airport on New Year's Eve 2000. Abu Doha was arrested
in London by British authorities in February of 2001 but
then mysteriously released (4).
In April, Vreeland told me, "I
don't believe Osama had a fucking thing to do with 9/11.
I don't believe he set it up. I don't believe it was his
people." In our interview this September, Vreeland's
beliefs hadn't changed. He asked, "Why would an agent
of the U.S. Government blow up the WTC? You've got Putin
pissed off at Afghanistan, you've got the U.S. training
Then who did pull off the 9/11 attack?
Vreeland believes that documents he viewed during his
trip to Moscow implicated Iraq. He told me, "The
document in Russian talks about blowing up things in the
U.S." Earlier, in an April 17 interview with popular
Yahoo radio host Jeff Rense, Vreeland said that in Moscow
he had read "a letter from Iraq to Moscow detailing
what would happen." Vreeland explains he was assigned
to courier this letter to Canadian intelligence, but he
sensed that something was about to go awry, so he copied
the documents he was given. Rense asked him, "How
specific was that letter?" Vreeland responded evenly,
"Quite specific. It said September, World Trade Center.
It specifically named that target, then it identified
what was to happen after."
"The initial strike or attack,
will be started at the WTC on 9-11-2001, by our brothers
in faith...If everything goes as planned the attack will
work. After Americans, who undoubtedly will think that
Osama is to be blamed and will start a war with his group..."
in my reporting this story, on September 23, 2002, I received
a copy of the original letter in Russian that Vreeland
repeatedly made reference to in April. He had given a
copy to Kellia Ramires of Berkeley, Ca. radio's KPFA that
month and she had it translated by a Russian speaker not
affiliated with anyone in the story. The results were
chilling. It is dated June 9, 2000:
"The initial strike or attack,
will be started at the WTC on 9-11-2001, by our brothers
in faith. 3 Mile Island and Pentagon are as well the goals
that we will not miss at the initial terrorist stage of
the attack. If everything goes as planned the attack will
work. After Americans, who undoubtedly will think that
Osama is to be blamed and will start a war with his group,
there stands the Russian Empire, to gain the first fruit
of war and money promised by the Americans. Finally with
Wildcard, the American intelligence service officer Briland
Delmart Puba and Bastien Marc will have the deal (or "business")
in a way suitable for us, our American official guarantees
it. Bastien will die of natural cause, Lt. Vreeland will
become a wanted criminal, all his navy (or "sea")
records will disappear."
[View Russian document here]
In their on-air interview on June
5, 2002, Ramires asked Vreeland, "Did you communicate
this to Canadian or American intelligence?"
"Yes I did, most definitely.
I told it to their face, my lawyers told them to their
face, they knew what was going on. As far as I know, Corporal
Kispel and his partner informed the United States and
Ottawa immediately, through the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted
Police], and NSIS, and CSIS [Canadian Intelligence organizations]"
Ramires asked, "So we now can
say that we have a document that is date-specific, target-specific
with regards to the World Trade Center. You communicated
this to Canadian intelligence, and Canadian intelligence
communicated this to the American government, is that
what you're saying?"
"Without a doubt. The Canadians
did their job, but I think they were pressed down by the
United States Government."
According to Vreeland, the letter
was signed by the oldest son of Saddam, Uday Hussein,
the bloodthirsty young Iraqi newspaperman rumored to have
killed one of his father's bodyguards. Although his first
name is sometimes spelled "Odai," the Russian
note is signed, "Kuday H." Another translator,
a native-speaking Russian academic and expert on translation
hired by GNN, theorized that the note was orginally written
in mostly British-influenced English and then translated
into Russian by someone who didn't speak either language
well, or was "trying not to appear as if they did."
The word for China is the Russian for "porcelain."
The original English also appears to have included the
Brit terms "holiday" for "vacation"
and "flat" for "apartment." Though,
the American-isms "clueless" and "wildcard"
(Vreeland's codename) were spelled out in English in the
Is this document the smoking gun
that pin-pionts blame for 9-11 on the Iraqis? If so, it
could be devastating to the growing international movement
to avert war with Iraq. Or is the document just more smoke-and-mirrors,
like so much of Vreeland's story?
Vreeland's attorney Paul Slansky
did not lend the document creedence. In a September 25,
2002 conversation he said he, "always a little troubled
by it...who knows?" He reported that when Corporal
Kispal and Sergeant Maybee of the RCMP visited Vreeland
in prison on August 8, the document was not in his possession.
Slanksky, himself, didn't even hear about the document
until April, 2002.
3)The LA Times piece in question
is archived free of charge here.
4) See Abu Doha's UK court documents
here (Shows how the intrepid members of a
group on Google, by working together, can figure out the
truth on international spies). Doha's UK court documents
automatically download in PDF format by clicking here.
Part Three: The World's Best Con Man
It's Saturday morning in "cottage
country," at a lodge north of Toronto. The lake is
as big as the sky and opens up right under my window.
I go down to Vreeland's room, and we talk about his criminal
"If you're the world's best
con man you're not going to work for yourself, are you?,"
he says. "That would be stupid. Who would you want
to work for? Someone who can protect you."
"I needed to have a criminal
record.-It's easy to make someone your friend. I can become
friends with suits, punkers, rastas, anyone."
Vreeland repeatedly claims, "I've
never been legally convicted of anything." The vocal
emphasis is on "legally" by which Vreeland seems
to mean "legitimately." How then does he explain
his long list of outstanding warrants and convictions?
"Well, I've seen other lists, with even more, hundreds
of them, and then I've also seen them disappear. Remember,
the FBI/NSIC fingerprints came back negative." It's
true that when he was arrested in Canada, according to
the arresting officer's notes, the FBI said they had no
fingerprints on Vreeland. And although he is accused of
credit card fraud in Michigan, Vreeland's credit card
report states that he never had a credit card.
Vreeland says his alleged crimes
were just part of his cover, "I played the criminal.
Like taking down [a] drug dealer-we needed information,
I would get arrested and put in the same cell as him.
I needed to have a criminal record.-It's easy to make
someone your friend. I can become friends with suits,
punkers, rastas, anyone."
The Nation's Corn called Vreeland's note "a
hard-to-decipher collection of phrases and names"
that "holds no specific information related to the
9/11 assaults. There is no date mentioned, no obvious
reference to a set of perpetrators."
That's a distortion worthy of the
CIA that Corn has written about (see Corn's book "The Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the Cia's Crusades,"
Simon and Schuster, 1994). The name "bin Laden"
appears at the top of the central paragraph of this note.
It mentions a list of targets: "White House-World
Trade Center-Pentagon-let one happen, stop the rest-prob.
they will call me crazy."
"Yes, it is true." A minute
later, she changed her answer to, "No, the prosecution
now thinks he got the notes to the jailers after 9/11."
According to Greta Knutzen, reporting
from Toronto for FromTheWilderness.com, "Vreeland requested
that his guards seal the notes and register them in his
personal effects, which they did." As of her report
several months ago, "The fact that the notes were
written and sealed a month prior to the violent attacks
of Sept. 11 has not been disputed." However, a phone
call to the Canadian prosecution team resulted in new,
somewhat murky results. When I asked Assistant D.A. Dorette
Hugins to confirm that the prosecution didn't dispute
that the notes was were handed to the jailers in mid-August
2001, she immediately said, that "Yes, it is true."
A minute later, she changed her answer to, "No, the
prosecution now thinks he got the notes to the jailers
after 9/11." Perhaps a forensics test will finally
decide this question. Vreeland claims to have written
the notes with a kind of blue pen that is technically
illegal in Canadian jail. These pens had been handed to
him by his attorneys, but confiscated as "contraband"
in late August. An analysis of the pen ink of the notes
could eventually help determine if they were in fact written
in August, 2001.
In court, D.A. Hugins and lead prosecutor
Kevin Wilson argued that not only were the notes bogus,
but that Vreeland was no spy. On January 10, Vreeland
defense attorney Slansky pulled a dramatic courtroom stunt.
He called a Pentagon operator from a speakerphone in open
court, and asked if there as a listing for a "Delmart
Vreeland." He was given an office number and phone
extension. The prosecution countered that Vreeland is
a computer expert who likely discovered a way to hack
into the Pentagon's network from jail, or had simply called
the Pentagon from a jail phone and conned a military switchboard
operation into assigning him an office and phone extension,
though they offered no proof to support their argument.
Discussing this that morning at the lodge, Vreeland was
incredulous: "You can track an IP [Internet Protocol
number] in a heartbeat. Why haven't I been prosecuted for
this? That's so stupid."
Vreeland and I are sitting out on
the balcony of his hotel room in the crisp Canadian sunshine.
The trip is showing me a side of Vreeland that I hadn't
seen. He has a 17-year old son of whom he is very protective.
For this article, I promise to change his name. Call him
Joey is a punk skater with touches
of raver. His favorite color is fluorescent orange. He
wears black nylon bellbottoms with millions of pockets.
He chain smokes, and talks incessantly about being drunk
and how Dad's connections are going to get him into Harvard
Law School. Vreeland and Joey are endlessly bickering
and scrapping, and then bumming Players Navy Cut cigarettes
off each other with affection. Just as often as smoking
them, Joey will throw the cigarettes at his father in
exasperation. Vreeland claims to never have hit Joey,
but he does often grab him, and is extremely physical
with him, a strange, uncertain mix of roughhousing and
desperate attempts at disciplining an uncontrollable kid.
In the midst of an unsuccessful attempt
to get Joey to respect his authority, Vreeland comments,
"I don't know which is worse, getting shot at or
being a Dad."
He tries to convince my editor to
send $500 so that he can go to Radio Shack, buy parts
and build us a scale model of a missile defense weapon
he says he developed for the Navy's Nuclear Training Command.
Vreeland's code name is "Wildcard."
Vreeland would like people to think that he can transform
into anything and become as powerful as he wills, like
the card in an amateur poker game. The nickname is apt
for another reason. Vreeland's speech patterns are untamed,
and he seems to be in a constant state of chemical imbalance.
He drinks like there's a fire in his brain. He claims
to have been given Clonapin (an antidepressant) for fifteen
years by the Navy. He jumps from topic to topic like he's
on a mix of acid and speed. In the hotel room, on the
phone to New York, he tries to convince my editor to send
$500 so that he can go to Radio Shack, buy parts and build
us a scale model of a missile defense weapon he says he
developed for the Navy's Nuclear Training Command. He
hands me the phone. The first words out of my editor are,
"Dude, what the fuck is he talking about?"
The next day at the lodge, Joey is
still trying to get his dad's attention by trashing hotel
property. He has to be rescued by a nautical patrol while
kayaking with his pal, Jacob. Then, they rent bikes, and
ride them around inside the hotel. Vreeland yells at them.
Joey drinks a beer in the hotel bar with the ID his dad
got him so he could jet-ski. Vreeland announces we will
all be leaving that night, our trip cut short by a day.
Jane Woodbury, Vreeland's mother,
testified during the trial that she remembers Delmart
repeatedly warning her not to fly, especially to New York,
throughout August, 2001. Immediately after the September
11 attacks, she claims she was visited by a U.S. Secret
Service agent named Mitchell Szydlowski, who asked, "Do
you believe Delmart is psychic? Did he ever predict 9/11
to you?" Jane Woodbury said no to both questions.
In Canadian Court, the Secret Service confirmed that the
visit took place. Jane Woodbury's current husband, Tony
Matar, remembers her stating in the fall 2001, that her
son had predicted the attack. Multiple phone calls to
Secret Service agent Mitchell Szydlowski were not returned.
At 3:26 PM Hotel Security calls.
They want both boys off the property by sundown. Joey
tells security he will have them all fired. The plan to
leave that night is cemented. The silver Lincoln arrives
and we all pile in for the trip back to Toronto.
Part Four: Moscow Nights
At this point, Vreeland makes claims
that are his most difficult to substantiate. In fact,
they border on the absurd. Vreeland says he originally
brought into the Navy in 1984 to help develop Star Wars
strategic missile defense technology. Yet, not only did
attend college, his Habeas Corpus application contradicts itself about where he graduated
from high school, if he did at all. When pressed about
his science background, he answers that his reading habits
consisted of "Asimov, physics, whatever." Ruppert,
one of Vreeland's most fervent supporters, says he believes
the Star Wars line "is a cover story."
In 2000, Vreeland claims he was sent
by ONI to Russia to act as a courier for documents related
to said Star Wars technology. But something went wrong
for him in Moscow. Part of this mission was to break into
the apartment of Chalva Tchigirinski, the Russian oil
mogul, but he says he was not warned about the infrared
scanners that scared him off before he got in. "Someone
was trying to set me up."
Vreeland wrote Bastien a letter in
June 2001, but when he was informed Bastien had died six
months earlier from "natural causes," Vreeland
started making noise.
According to his sworn affidavit,
when Vreeland was arrested in Canada on December 6, 2000
one of his moves was to phone his contact in the Canada Security Intelligence Service (CSIS),
Canada's equivalent to the CIA. When the CSIS didn't respond,
his claims about being ONI were laughed off by the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police. But that summer, Vreeland made
news when he was able to shed light on the mysterious
death of a Canadian diplomat in Moscow, Marc Bastien.
Vreeland wrote Bastien a letter in June 2001, but when
he was informed Bastien had died six months earlier, in
December 2000, from "natural causes," Vreeland
started making noise. The official explanation soon changed,
after newspaper reports and analysis of Vreeland's claims
appeared and a few details from the autopsy were released.
According to the Ottawa Sun's Kathleen Harris, a source close
to the investigation states a mysterious woman had been
with Bastien on his last night in Moscow, and a trace
(a powerful drug used to treat schizophrenia) was found
in Bastien's system. Harris herself was skeptical of Vreeland,
though she told me she consistently discovered "nuggets
of truth" in his story.
Vreeland claims Bastien was the Canadian
intelligence contact he met in Moscow. He was able to
prove a certain level of familiarity with him to Canadian
intelligence. "I knew stuff about Bastien that no
one else did, like his grandfather's watch, what was inscribed
on it, it was an inscription in honor of his retirement."
The Ottawa Sun's
Harris reported on Vreeland being right-on about the Bastien
death, which is now commonly believed to be a result of
something other than "natural causes." Bastien's
family is reportedly bewildered, living in limbo where
official answers are painfully lacking.
Today, on Vreeland's web site, he
lists audio files of voicemails left for him at the time
of his arrest leave behind an interesting trail: "Lt.
Commander Tom Welsh from JAG," i.e. the military
court, "Captain McCarthy," and various top brass,
media, and law enforcement personnel. Then there's John
Criminaro, with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Criminaro
"tried for two hours to send that fax." On January
7, 2001, Criminaro called Vreeland several times, but
did not return multiple messages left for him on his voicemail
in Moscow by this reporter. John Criminaro is with the
U.S. Embassy's "Office of Environment, Science and
Part Five: The Man from Michigan
Delmart Vreeland was born March 20,
1966 near Grosse Pointe, Michigan, outside Detroit. He
and his half-brother Terry Weems counted Steve Tocco among
their close family friends. (Tocco is related to Jake
Tocco, the famous Detroit mafia leader.) Vreeland was
not close to his father, Delmart Sr., a chef who was in
prison briefly for embezzling money from the "Big
Boys" restaurants he managed. Delmart Jr's step-dad,
Bob Woodbury, was a Detroit cop who got the 13 year-old
Delmart part-time work for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms, busting "party stores" along Whittier
Avenue who sold liquor to kids. The only problem with
this arrangement was that the ATF required the arrests
go on Delmart's juvenile record.
From there, Delmart Vreeland joined
the Navy. The official Navy records entered into Canadian
Court (and in Vreeland's affidavit filed with his Habeas
Corpus application) claim that Vreeland was admitted on
November 14, 1985 and was discharged only five months
later. On March 7, 1986, it looks like he got his walking
papers, after repeated write-ups for insubordination and
an unwillingness to do push-ups. But the Navy's claim
about a 1986 discharge is suspect for a number of reasons.
In an LA Times
story dated October 2, 1986, "Mike Vreeland"
appears as a friendly witness in a story about a massive
cocaine seizure. Confidential sources within LAPD (contacted
through Mike Ruppert) have confirmed that this was indeed
Delmart "Mike" Vreeland, in training as a special
agent of ONI. The LA Times
states the cocaine raid was headed up by the LAPD's Lt.
J.R. Schiller. Later tainted by scandal, Schiller was
long-rumored to enjoy deep U.S. intelligence connections
Petty Officer Gilford suggested that
perhaps Vreeland was in a "low-key type field"
or got his rank through unusual means. "You're a
fishy guy, sir."
Vreeland and his supporters claim
that there are falsifications in the Navy's file on him.
Perhaps anticipating this, on August 21, 2001, after his
note was sealed and in the hands of his jailers, Vreeland
called the U.S. Navy office of Personnel Service Detachment
in Norfolk, Virginia. He spoke with Petty Officer Terry
Gilford. Through a 3-way connection with his attorneys,
he was able to make an audio recording and transcript
of this conversation. This tape has been copied and submitted
to court as an exhibit.
The Petty Officer cheerfully helped
Vreeland confirm that the records did show him joining
the Navy in 1985, to be kicked out five months later in
1986. How do you explain the records that showed Vreeland's
rank as "Lieutenant," a rank that usually takes
years to obtain? Petty Officer Gilford admitted that something
smelled funny. Gilford suggested that perhaps Vreeland
was in a "low-key type field" or got his rank
through unusual means. "You're a fishy guy, sir,"
said Gilford, who agreed with Vreeland several times throughout
the conversation that the records appeared to have been
tampered with. When Vreeland confirmed Gilford's name,
Gilford said, perhaps half joking, "I don't know
if I wanna tell you my name now."
In court, the Navy submitted records
that showed Vreeland was in the Navy for less than a year.
But this time the D.E.E.R.S record showed that he was
in the Navy's employ until December 9, 2000.
I confirmed this conversation with
Petty Officer Gilford on June 12, 2002. On the phone,
Gilford remembered Lieutenant Vreeland, eleven months
earlier. Although all of Vreeland's records came up blank
on almost all of the Navy's databases, when Gilford checked
Vreeland with the D.E.E.R.S (Defense Enrollment Eligibility
Reporting System) he was able to view a "read only"
record that confirmed Vreeland joined up in November 1985.
But this time the D.E.E.R.S record showed that he was
in the Navy's employ until December 9, 2000. For some reason, someone in the
Navy had changed course and now the record read closer
to what Vreeland originally claimed. I double-checked
this D.E.E.R.S record at the local Navy/Marines recruiting
station, and the exit date of year 2000 was there as well.
All other medical and personnel records
in Vreeland's D.E.E.R.S. record, including his blood type,
were blank. Officer Gilford found the blood type record
especially odd, "It's not just that it's unknown,
it just says 'blank.' That's not unusual for someone who
just joined up, but it's weird for someone who's been
with us for a while, fifteen years...I thought I would
be able to print that, but it wouldn't print."
According to the U.S. Navy's Rockie
Beasley, GS-12 Assistant Officer in Charge of the Personnel
Support Department, at the Norfolk Naval Base, in VA,
it is not easy to modify a D.E.E.R.S record, "You
have to be authorized. You need a background check and
a password." You also need the new, "CAC Card,
Combined Access Card - a new card with a microchip in
it," that plugs into the computer you're working
5) Sources on this include LAPD insiders
as well as Mae Brussell, a pioneering radio journalist,
researcher and historian of Iran/Contra and the JFK Assassination
who died in 1988. On the archive of her weekly radio program
on KAZU, in Pacific Grove, Ca., Brussell discussed Schiller
and the "Western Goals" scandal. Also, Mike
Ruppert, former LAPD narcotics investigator reports to
GNN: "Bud" Schiller was discussed at length
by the L.A. Times throughout the 1980s, not as a narcotics
investigator, but as a high-ranking officer in LAPD's
Public Disorder Intelligence Division (PDID). PDID was
the center of a huge spy scandal that involved the selling
of intelligence records and computers stored in a private
residence that were ultimately traced back to a private
think-tank named Western Goals that had connections to
people like John Singlaub of Iran-Contra fame.
Part Six: The World's Worst Liar?
"Vreeland's an extremely intelligent
man," recalls Assistant District Attorney for McComb
County Eric Kaiser. "He weaves truth and fiction
so well, it's difficult to sort out."
Many people who initially believed
Vreeland's story have had a change of heart. The Internet
is rife with those who took up his cause, but then felt
betrayed by the many holes, inconsistencies and blatant
lies in his story. This reporter has himself been on both
sides of the fence. The rule in journalism (and law enforcement)
is that once a source has lied to you, nothing else that
source says can be credible. So how do you deal with a
guy like Vreeland, a highly intelligent, slick, cunning
and possibly professional spy? As Ruppert said, "Out
of maybe thirty men I have met over the years that have
been connected with covert operations, only two have been
total straight talkers."
Vreeland claims to be the great-grandson
of Charles E. Vreeland, one of the first directors of
ONI. A couple days of research shows his great-grandfather
is actually Charles R. Vreeland, a railroad worker.
Vreeland's own web site proudly displays
a photograph of the U.S.S. Vreeland on the home page,
a battleship named for Charles E. Vreeland, one of the
first directors of ONI. Delmart has claimed on his web
site and in interviews to be the great-grandson of this
Charles E. Vreeland. However, a couple days of research
into Vreeland's heredity shows that his great-grandfather
is actually Charles R. Vreeland, a railroad worker.
Vreelands' actual half-brother Terry
Weems, a country-western guitarist who lives in Alabama,
has given numerous media interviews and popped up on various
web sites, including GNN.tv, to discuss his brother. Weems
seems to possess a feud-level obsession to discredit the
theory that Vreeland has intelligence connections. On
GNN.tv's message boards, Weems logged on to post what
he purported to be a list of Vreeland's outstanding warrants,
and to lash out at readers who were sympathetic to his
case. "He shoves out a lot of B.S. and people like
you swallow it down like your favorite drink," he
wrote. "So go ahead say what you will about me. I
still say in the long run I will be laughing at ALL OF
YOU! - Remember I know him and I have been around him
year in and year out so who knows what? I think I do.
I wish some of you could talk to his therapist. You probably
need to." Vreeland logged on himself, and fired back.
The ensuing flame war prompted GNN's Stephen Marshall
to quip he "hears quiet echoes of some dueling banjos."
Weems remembers Vreeland's early
Naval career involving watching his half-brother, "yelling
at an admiral over the phone and being AWOL. He was arrested
in the credit union. I was there also for that. He was
on crack really bad during that time."
Weems also claims that Vreeland stole
and illegally used his Social Security number, numerous
times. In fact, "Terry Weems" is one of the
aliases listed on the U.S. State Department extradition
document (signed by Colin Powell) and sent to Canadian
authorities. In an interview on Toronto radio station
CKLN, Weems said Delmart is the "luckiest criminal
I've ever known. He's very good at identity theft, and
after a lot of years, he was probably wanted, but he was
able to elude police using a fake ID."
Indeed, according a list of warrants
supplied by Lt. Steve Zavislak of the Troy, Michigan police
department, Delmart's alleged crimes are garish, colorful and wide.
Reportedly, he test-drove a boat in Florida, ran aground
and swam back to shore. He reportedly scammed a furniture
store in Michigan of $40,000 worth of goods using an American
Express card that AmEx later claimed wasn't properly authorized
(AmEx refuses to comment).
Vreeland's official criminal records
say he was not only ripping off Scott Shuptrine Furniture
store on December 21, 1999, he was simultaneously in New
York, where he was arrested for Grand Larceny Auto. Vreeland
claims he was in jail in New York City around this time
from a drunk driving incident on the 17th. He also says
his friend, Josh Emley was approved to use his Amex card
in Michigan. As Greta Knutzen said, who first reported
this for FromTheWilderness.com, "Whatever the truth
is behind this one, 'official' records claim that Vreeland
was in two places at once†a fact that my deductive reasoning
informs me is a problem."
Law enforcement believed Bobby Moore
was smuggling cocaine through the digestive tracts of
Sound strange? You haven't heard
about the Bobby Moore arson case. Bobby Moore was a local
impresario in the McComb County/Grosse Point area: an
outgoing restaurateur who raised elephants and raced speedboats.
McComb County Assistant District Attorney Eric Kaiser
stated in our interview that law enforcement there all
believed that Bobby Moore was smuggling cocaine through
the digestive tracts of his elephants. Moore's friend,
40th District Judge William Crouchman, used to eat and
drink and get into fistfights with less favored attorneys
in Moore's restaurant, Bobby Moore's Steak House.
According to Vreeland, the Coast
Guard sank a boat of Moore's cocaine in the Great Lakes,
and the goods had not been paid for. When the Steak House
burnt to the ground in a suspicious blaze, Moore was charged
with arson, along with Steve Tocco, Delmart Vreeland and
a fourth man. The case was assigned to Judge Crouchman,
and Bobby Moore never did time. After trying to appeal,
the DA was amazed to see Moore get "the sweetest
deal I've ever seen. The Feds took over part of Moore's
marina and he never got prosecuted criminally."
When the case against Moore was dismissed,
Judge Crouchman called Vreeland, "the least credible witness I have ever seen."
Today, DA Kaiser wishes he hadn't used Vreeland as his
star witness against Moore. According to Kaiser, Vreeland
changed his testimony on the stand, and further screwed
up the case by fabricating a letter that pinned Moore
with drug trafficking evidence. But Vreeland is unrepentant.
He is happy with his work on the case, going after Moore,
who he calls the creepy guy who married his step-sister:
"I damaged him. He took an $8 million loss. No more
restaurant, no more drug-dealing. He is watched so closely
The searches used all five of Vreeland's
aliases and each came up empty. Vreeland says he was released
December 21, 1999, "at the Navy's request. They got
me out of there quick."
In interviews, the only conviction
Vreeland will admit to deserving is the December 17, 1999
drunk driving arrest, referenced above. As detailed in
his Canadian affidavit, he had been at a party at the
United Nations with military friends from Naval Intelligence.
After some serious boozing, Vreeland drove a limo the
wrong way through Times Square and collided with another
car. Since an arrest record would probably list all the
passengers, the arrest, the bail and court records of
the incident could help substantiate Vreeland's alleged
Navy connections, if this arrest record still existed.
Searches at the New York City Office
of Court Administration, as well as the Clerk's office
at the New York Criminal Court, came up with zero records
of an arrest, a pending prosecution or a conviction in
NYC, at any time. The searches used all five of Vreeland's
aliases and each came up empty. Vreeland says he was released
December 21, 1999, "at the Navy's request. They got
me out of there quick."
Speaking of quick exits, a search
of Vreeland's arrest records in South Bend, Indiana is
also insightful: on February 7, 2000, Vreeland violently
resisted arrest, after being suspected of stealing a red
Porsche. As the Mishawaka Police Department Records show,
he was charged with Burglary and Battery to a Police Officer
after he punched and kicked an Officer Kasznia. Yet, the
case ended abruptly. The police report ends with, "the
suspect - released without any identification."
Part Seven: ONI & CIA
Martin is a former ONI officer who got busted
with his boss, the National Security Council's Richard
Secord, in the Iran/Contra Scandal. Today, on his website
and in his books, he exposes Pentagon pork-barrel greased
palms and Bush Family connivance. I asked the Vietnam
Vet if he believed Vreeland was former ONI.
"Former ONI? I think he's still
To Martin, the brouhaha about Vreeland's
criminality is just so much noise, it's likely that Vreeland
never technically left ONI. After all, Martin says, ONI
protect their prized "domestic assets."
In Martin's view, ONI's historical
advantage was, "contacts in foreign intelligence
services and in foreign governments that the CIA never
could have hoped to obtain. The CIA can't control any
of its own assets domestically because it's against the
law for it to do so, thus the ONI is obviously in a superior
position. ONI is where the real deep control is. It's
where the real deep secrets are kept."
After Mobster "Lucky" Luciano
was pardoned for his work with ONI, he went back to Italy
and became a kingpin in the heroin trade.
According to "A Tangled Web: A History of CIA Complicity in International
Drug Trafficking ," an independent report
read into the Congressional Record in 1998 by Rep. John
Conyers (D-Mich.), the ONI has been dealing with criminals
and shady characters since the end of World War II. ONI
worked with the U.S. Italian Mafia, including S. C. Luciana
a.k.a. Lucky Luciano to fight the communists in Italy,
gather intelligence for the Allied invasion of Sicily,
and control the ports in the U.S. during wartime. After
Luciano was pardoned in jail for his work with ONI (and
CIA precursor Office of Strategic Services, OSS), he went
back to Italy and became a kingpin in the heroin trade.
Around this time, ONI also worked with the Chinese mafia
in the opiate trade in the "Golden Triangle,"
the heroin-producing zone between Thailand, Burma, Laos,
Vietnam and China's Yunnan Province.
In Al Martin's experience with the
Iran Contra operation "Black Eagle," crooks
and highly intelligent con men were always part of the
team. "Black Eagle" was "narcotics trafficking,
massive fraud and weapons deals" with con man extraordinaire
Lawrence Hamil at the center. "Hamil" was "not
just a simple con man, a government-connected swindler
and money launderer, as people seem to think. He was very
deeply involved in all sorts of political deals at the
Mike Ruppert is a former LAPD narcotics
investigator who has known enough intelligence operatives
to see a pattern. Vreeland fits the profile: intense,
intelligent and slippery. In a recent open letter to his
critics, Ruppert wrote, "Has Vreeland lied to me?
Yes, he's lied to everybody I know who has talked to him
about one thing or another. But so did Chip Tatum, Bo
Gritz, Scott Weekly, Ed Wilson, Scott Barnes and many
others whose cases I have been familiar with."
Part Eight: The Junkyard Dog
In our original April interview,
Vreeland quipped, "I know people who know George
Bush Sr. personally." At the time, this paled amidst
his other outrageous tales. But it turned out to be a
yarn with legs.
"There were certain things in
the note...clues to get people to contact others to contact
me," Vreeland said.
"I mean, like the reference
to the 'M-234 RAGS.' Those weapons were sold to Malaysia.
I wrote that to get Eva Teleki to contact me. She had
been involved in the sale. She contacted Leo Wanta and
said, 'This guy needs our help.'"
Wanta is a former U.S. Dept. of Treasury
operative, and former Somali Ambassador to Switzerland,
among other things. The M-234 Ring Airfoil Grenade is
an attachment for an M-16 machine gun that creates an
anti-riot, crowd-control stun effect. And although Eva
Teleki denies selling anything to Malaysia, she does speak
highly of Vreeland, confirming that he is a former officer
of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Both Teleki and Vreeland
have formal business relationships with Wanta.
"I am of the opinion that my
clients would endorse that you gathered the information
that you have shared with my client while acting in the
capacity of an 'intel op' agent of the U.S. Government."
On February 13, 2002, a former U.S.
Attorney named Tom Henry wrote Vreeland a letter. Henry,
who is Leo Wanta's legal advisor, had put Vreeland through
a series of tests attempting to see if Vreeland could
recognize certain "passwords or security code names."
Vreeland aced it. Henry's letter concluded, "On best
information and belief I am of the opinion that my clients
would endorse that you gathered the information that you
have shared with my client while acting in the capacity
of an 'intel op' agent of the U.S. Government." In
the past, Henry has worked with the Department of Justice
in the Ford Administration before moving on to become
a consultant on business matters in China.
Wanta, who describes himself as Ronald
Reagan's former "taskmaster," has an extensive
resume of his own, which includes work for the CIA, Dept.
of Treasury, and the NSC, as well as deals involving foreign
currencies, arms, and precious metals. Much of Wanta's
background is sketchy. But this much we know: Wanta worked
on the 1988 Bush Presidential campaign and received a
thank you letter from Bush in 1981, when Wanta was working
on getting a job with the White House. According to Claire
Sterling's book "Theives World," and others
contacted by GNN, Wanta destabilized the Russian ruble
at the White House's request in the 80's, hastening the
fall of the crumbling Soviet Union.
Tom Hanneghan, a powerful Los Angeles
Democrat and commodities trader who is critical of Wanta,
gives him due credit, "He worked for the U.S. intelligence
agencies. He helped bring down the Soviet communist government.
He's a brilliant engineer, lots of technical skills. He
did a great job. He probably gathered too much knowledge
for his own sake."
"Reagan had no faith in DC politicians,
he liked his 'junkyard dogs'" . . . In 1988, Wanta
made headlines trying to seal a deal to sell 30,000 automatic
pistols to Manuel Noriega.
Wanta says he was Ronald Reagan's
favorite "junkyard dog." He remembers, "Reagan
had no faith in DC politicians, he liked his 'junkyard
dogs.'" According to Wanta, Reagan praised him for
his ability to get special tasks executed quickly and
without going through normal channels.
In 1988, Wanta made headlines trying
to seal a deal to sell 30,000 automatic pistols to Manuel
Noriega. Wanta explains that this was a part of a scheme
to enable the U.S. to identify every member of the Panamanian
military. Shortly after, Bush invaded on December 20,
1989 , swiftly arresting Noriega, restoring a pro-U.S.
regime in control of the Panama Canal and leaving an estimated
3,000 civilians dead.
Wanta's net worth in 1992 was $432
billion, according to tax documents prepared in anticipation
of Wanta's plans to move back to the U.S., pay Federal
income taxes from offshore business deals, and retire
in 1995. This $432 billion was not exactly all cash, according
to Wanta - a lot of it was tied up in "prime bank
guarantees," a kind of certified deposit that Wanta
would purchase from top "credit-worthy" banks
and trade at a profit, on behalf of the U.S. Treasury
Department, working under the aegis of Aneko Credit PTE,
LTD, in Singapore. Wanta was involved in a complex form
of private banking, comparable to arbitrage but cash-based,
highly-volatile, at extreme velocity, and accumulating
$22 million each day that a prime bank guarantee was purchased
at a par value of $100 million. Wanta planned to retire
in 1995. But it was not to be.
According to reports from Wanta,
Henry, and Vreeland, Wanta traveled to Switzerland with
notorious financier Marc Rich between June 30 and July
In early June of 1993, Leo Wanta
was appointed the Somali ambassador to Canada and Switzerland,
in what he says was an effort to help make Somalia a safe
launching ground for the U.S. military. According to reports
from Wanta, Henry, and Vreeland, Wanta traveled to Switzerland
with notorious financier Marc Rich between June 30 and
July 3, 1993. According to Wanta, on their trip to Switzerland,
Wanta helped to negotiate the financing for "UN Contract
4," a little-known deal which tried to secure various
sources of international capital to buy peace in the Middle
East. Each side of the Rabin/PLO Agreement would get $5
Louis Lanier, publisher of the International
Diplomatic Observer, worked for Al Gore from 1991 through
1993. He corroborated that Wanta was appointed a bona
fide ambassador, and that "UN Contract 4" was
an actual proposal being discussed in international circles
of power in 1993. "There were several packages floating
around at the time-Ted Turner's $1 billion donation to
the UN for example. Ambassador Wanta was floating UN Contract
4 -. I have seen memos from 1993, from Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin to Amb. Wanta, thanking the Amb. for his
According to Wanta, Lanier and others,
the Clinton White House, acting through attorney Vince
Foster, asked that $250 million be placed into the Swiss
account of the Children's Defense Fund, as a charitable
byproduct of the deal. But Contract 4 didn't pan out,
and later that year, the historic Oslo Peace Accord, negotiated
behind closed doors in Norway, was signed in a dramatic
White House ceremony in September 1993.
After receiving a controversial pardon
by President Clinton, it was widely reported that Wanta's
Contract 4 cohort Marc Rich had worked as a spy for Israel.
Articles in the LA Times and the New York Post cited evidence
from the House Oversight Committee that claimed Rich performed
numerous secret missions for the Israeli government, including
helping secure back channel financing for an Israeli-Palestinian
peace deal. Wanta remembers that Rich was also looking
out for number one, "Marc Rich was doing a tremendous
amount of things against what we were doing in Russia
and Switzerland. He was doing deals with Iraqis, Iranians,
Swiss banks." In 2001, Marc Rich was living in exile
in Switzerland, facing American charges for racketeering,
wire fraud, illegally selling oil to the Iranians and
owing $48 million in back taxes. On January 20, 2001,
hours before he would leave office, Clinton pardoned him.
Israel's then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak had called Clinton
the night before asking for the pardon and stating it
was "important - financially."
Back in 1993, in Switzerland, Wanta
says he had orders to arrest Rich, and if that failed,
to assassinate him. According to the story from both Vreeland
and Wanta, the ONI had snipers nearby, when Wanta and
Rich were on a ferry to a casino in France, traveling
across Lake Geneva from Lausanne. The sniper from ONI
was told to stand down, when he couldn't get a clear shot
off. According to their story, that sniper was Delmart
Something went awry that day in Switzerland.
Three weeks later, Vince Foster was found dead in Fort
Marcy Park, just outside DC in Arlington, VA. The death
was swiftly ruled a suicide by the Park Police who had
little experience with suicide investigations. The day
prior to the discovery of Vince Foster's body, FBI director
William Sessions was fired. His temporary replacement,
Floyd Clarke, let the bumbling Park Police run the investigation
of Foster's death, despite the victim being the First
Lady's best friend and confidante. Former FBI's director
William Sessions later stated outright he believes he
was fired to hamper a Foster death investigation. Three
independent criminal evidence experts hired by Strategic
Investor newsletter studied the Foster suicide note and
declared it a forgery.
Wanta himself was arrested by Swiss
authorities and deported on the flimsy pretext of State
of Wisconsin tax evasion charges. According to Wanta's
counsel, Tom Henry, Wanta always followed orders, except
when his superiors told him to do something illegal and
refused to put it in writing. Wanta was extradited without
a warrant and flown from Switzerland in leg, arm and neck
shackles. The Wisconsin prosecutor levied tax evasion
charges against Wanta for 1989 through 1991, although
he had not lived in Wisconsin since 1985. He was convicted
and imprisoned after a swift trial, despite the fact that
the IRS stated he did not owe any federal taxes from the
same period. He remains under house arrest in Wisconsin.
When Wanta's case came before Wisconsin
Court in Madison, there was outright ridicule of him in
the media. In particular, Cliff Miller of the Appleton
Post helped shape the public's perception of Wanta, characterizing
him as a lunatic with delusions of grandeur. But any journalist
with a Lexis/Nexis account could see that Wanta actually
was the "global businessman" he claimed to be.
The older news clip about Noriega and the arms deal were
all part of the public record. But in 1993, consistent
jabs in the Madison newspapers destroyed Wanta in the
court of public opinion. Wanta was not allowed to hire
his own attorney, and his court-appointed one, John Chavez,
didn't believe his story. Leo Wanta's sanity was often
questioned in court, but he was never found incompetent
to stand trial. Wanta's friends relate that the experience
took its toll on him, both mentally and physically.
Wanta claims that when he was arrested,
he was forced to leave behind about $200 billion in Prime
Bank Guarantees, "lawfully earned funds," Wanta
says, that international banks and governments have been
allowed to "use free of charge" since he's been
detained. When you total up the interest and the capital
that can accumulate through smart use of $200 billion,
Wanta says it comes out to about $27.6 trillion (give
or take a billion). After Wanta and his counsel Henry
confirmed to their satisfaction that Vreeland was a U.S.
intel-op, Wanta hired Vreeland to help recover some of
In a late night, 3-way conversation
between this reporter, Vreeland and Wanta, Vreeland blurted
out to Wanta, "Who has controlled me in the last
Wanta gruffly stated, "ONI."
"Where would they get orders
Admonished later by Vreeland for
saying too much about Switzerland, Leo Wanta replied,
"I'm in constant pain, rheumatism, arthritis, I have
not received proper medical care. I'm not afraid anymore."
On the 25th of July, 2002, Leo Wanta
was re-arrested, suspended from house arrest/parole and
detained for 24 hours by the FBI. Tom Henry was detained
in Chicago, en route to visit his client. Both had been
accused of carrying large amounts of cash, plus millions
of dollars in U.S. Treasury notes, but the charges were
dropped. The Chicago police told Henry that they had gotten
the tip-off "anonymously," but as a former U.S.
Attorney, Henry knew the Chicago Police probably had traced
the call. He guessed the area code in two tries, naming
a number that lead back to Iowa. Linda Fanton, a concerned
citizen and diehard Vreeland supporter, had made the calls,
using information provided by Vreeland.
Why did you set up your old allies?
"I switched sides," Vreeland told me in Canada.
Who are you working for right
If you are no longer attempting
to recover the Wanta funds for Wanta, who are you doing
this recovery for?
"Technically, the U.S. Treasury. I have the ability
to recover funds, but not spend them. I can, however,
spend my pay order. One percent of anything I recover."
Part Nine: AWOL in Wonderland
Leutrell Osbourne is an antiterrorism
expert who worked for the CIA for 26 years before quitting
in disgust. A security consultant with ties to the Black
Congressional Caucus, Osbourne was interviewed on national
television the day after 9-11. Provided with updates throughout
my journey down the Vreeland rabbit hole, he was both
skeptical and supportive of Vreeland's claims. He also
had words of warning, "I would back off, and watch
it, watch everything that happens, it's volatile, what
do you got? Who's pulling the strings? I'm not ready to
say yet. But I'm getting closer."
So far, the progressive media has
all but forgotten about Vreeland's story. The Nation, which has seen its circulation
skyrocket since 9/11, is still leading the charge against
the claims of a 9/11 Bush conspiracy. But the American
people have questions. The Atlanta Journal Constitution's
web site polled their users on April 14, 2002, and asked
how many believed "Bush had foreknowledge of 9-11,"
46% was the final number, before the poll was taken down
The September 11 disaster descended
on the American people, killing working Americans, motivating
the rest of the population for war. The attacks also transformed
the lackadaisical and oily Dubya Bush into a hero.
"That doesn't make them above
the law-You can't kill 5,000 people and say, 'Hey hey
you can't touch me, I've got immunity.'"
the recent evidence of ignored warnings indicates something
is rotten. Are interests larger than us using our anger?
Are we getting the full story from the media?
Vreeland told Yahoo radio's Jeff
Rense, "I want the people who did certain things,
and allowed certain things to take place, I want them
to be dealt with, by the law." Rense responded with
sympathy and skepticism, "You may be talking about
the highest levels of American government."
"That doesn't make them above
the law-You can't kill 5,000 people and say, 'Hey hey
you can't touch me, I've got immunity.'"
Rense: "You'd like to think
Mike Ruppert was also present at
this radio interview, and added some big picture analysis
at this point, "None of us are saints, but all of
us have moments in which we try to do the right thing,
and that's when we need to be supported. This is not over
Vreeland's apartment looked like
a cyclone had hit it.
It was ransacked, but without signs of bloodshed.
On August 13, a death certificate
with Vreeland's name and details on it showed up on the
web. Apparently, he shot himself in the back of the head.
The internet is abuzz with the rumor. I call the dead
man. He is unfazed, "We used to do this all the time.
It's a way to let someone know you are after them."
Vreeland had an extradition hearing
on Monday, September 9, 2002, but he did not show up.
He had spent the entire day before with his attorney,
Paul Slansky, who later told the Toronto Sun, Vreeland had been concerned that
certain forces, "were going to shut him up and do
something to him."
The next day a bench warrant was
issued for his arrest. That night, Slansky entered Vreeland's
apartment with the police. It looked like a cyclone had
hit it. It was ransacked, but without signs of bloodshed.
If Vreeland had left town of his own free will, it didn't
show. Slansky stated, "Everything is there, his toothbrush,
his underwear, his shaving gear, everything."
However, sources close to the story
tell GNN that Delmart "Mike" Vreeland still
had his head above water, AWOL and on the run.
founded Soft Skull Press in 1992, and worked there until
2001, most notably on "Fortunate Son," the controversial
biography of George W. Bush. On a leave of absence, he
is working on a biography of Bush White House strategist
Karl Rove. He is the lead singer of White Collar Crime,
a playwright, and a political activist. His home page
lot of people besides the author contributed work, advice
and vitriolic criticism to this article in its emerging
draft stages over the course of this summer. Special thanks
to: Michael Ruppert and Greta Knutzen at FromtheWilderness.com,
Ron Anicich at CKLN Radio, Kellia Ramires at KPFA, and
Linda Fanton. Also, thanks to Tarrah "Torino"
Haines for attending Vreeland's extradition hearing when
Vreeland did not.
Executive Editor, GNN.tv, edited this article.